The purposes of this thesis is study the European Court of Justice from a non legal perspective and investigate the courts possibility to advance its own preferred goals rather that of the member states in cases of non-compliance. Drawing on general principal-agent theory I construct a model from which I derive certain hypothesis mainly about under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be more sensitive to member states preferences and under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be less sensitive. These hypotheses are then tested empirically against all cases of non-compliance initiated by the European Commission against member states between 1953-2000. The results from the study are rather positive. The most important result is that when the threat of sanctions against the Court increases so does the Courts sensitiveness to member states preferences and when it decreases so does the Courts sensitiveness..

Larvae of Lepidopteran Manduca sexta and Spodoptera littoralis are pests of economical importance in several horticultural and agricultural crops. Knowledge of insect feeding preferences and behavior is crucial in order to find economically and ecologically sustainable solutions to the problems caused by these herbivores. The aim of this thesis was to study the behavior and the induced feeding preferences in larvae of M. sexta and S. littoralis when reared on certain host plants. The hypothesis was that larvae of M. sexta would have an innate preference for plants of the Solanaceae family and therefore discriminate the previously experienced nonhost when faced with the choice between a true host and the previous food source.

Objective: In recent years there has been an increasing interest within the clinical (medical) science in measuring people?s health. When estimating quality of life, present practise is to use the EQ-5D questionnaire and an index which weighs the different questions. The question is what happens if the individuals estimate there own health, would it differ from the public preferences? The aim is to make a new prediction model based on the opinion of patients and compare it to the present model based on public preferences.Method: A sample of 362 patients with unstable coronary artery disease from the Frisc II trial, valued their quality of life in the acute phase and after 3, 6 and 12 months.

This study aims to investigate the origin and the development of a certain type of decision phenomena, namely political decision chains. A political decision chain is defined as a seemingly rational decision being made, that is reverted through a new decision and this for other reasons than the original decision being regarded as having fulfilled its intended purpose. The essay attempts to explain the occurrence of these decision chains through a case study in order to thoroughly examine the complexities that surround political decisions overall. The essay concludes that uncontrollable factors and chance to a large extent affect the origin of these chains, allowing actors to change the political agenda according to their preferences. The relative weighting of these factors that is made by the actors, which exist within the decision chain, makes them underestimate the relative power of other actors that may have different preferences.

Internship is a new form of interaction between the academic world and the market and a phenomena increasingly popular among elite universities in Europe. The educational system has traditionally kept an academic approach where the institutions for higher education have acted isolated without extensive influence from the market. Today pressure from the market has led to intensified interaction between the universities and companies among many European elite universities. We have carried out a situational analysis concerning interaction between the academic institutions and companies in Europe. More specifically, we looked at the potential for Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) to strengthen its position on the educational market by adjusting its strategies and implement internships as a part of the education.

Objective: In recent years there has been an increasing interest within the clinical (medical) science in measuring people?s health. When estimating quality of life, present practise is to use the EQ-5D questionnaire and an index which weighs the different questions. The question is what happens if the individuals estimate there own health, would it differ from the public preferences? The aim is to make a new prediction model based on the opinion of patients and compare it to the present model based on public preferences.Method: A sample of 362 patients with unstable coronary artery disease from the Frisc II trial, valued their quality of life in the acute phase and after 3, 6 and 12 months.

In this thesis I investigate aesthetic preference for picture books among children aged 3?6 as well as criteria for preference among parents. Through my design project: illustration of a picture book, I aim to put my research on preference in the context of illustration and design. By using the design project as an applied method for research I have sought to answer how one as an illustrator can apply knowledge regarding preferences of the target groups when illustrating for picture books. I have primarily based my research within the field of cognitive developmental psychology, with primary focus on stage theory, and the field of literature.

SNA Europe?s handsaw concept is called ?Bahco Handsaw System? and is constituted by a saw handle with the possibility to switch between different saw blades. The sales of ?Bahco Handsaw System? products have not achieved the desired results probably due to the high price. Developing a more cost efficient handle, enabling a lower consumer price of the product, is assumed to increase the sales volume.

This study was made to compare and distinguish any differences in olfactory recognition and host plant adaptation between two strains of cotton leaf worm, Spodoptera littoralis. The populations used were established in Egypt and Benin, Africa. The documentation consisted of information about (1) each of the strains development through the larval stage up to pupation on diets of cotton, clover and cowpea. (2) Their oviposition preferences as adults between cotton, clover, cowpea, maize and cabbage. (3) Electroantennographic recordings to quantify any possible responses to plant volatiles. Throughout the diet experiments the larvae from the Benin strain showed significantly a better development between artificial, clover, cowpea and cotton respectively, while the Egypt strain had significance between artificial, cotton and cowpea/clover as diet. Also noted was how the strains substantial development of weight differentiated if fed the cotton diet, followed by the cowpea diet showing that the Benin strain would develop a higher body mass on a cotton diet as well as on a cowpea diet. This trend was however switched once the pupal stage was reached, where the Egyptian strain contained a significantly greater body mass than the Benin strain on the artificial and the Benin strain a greater on cowpea, which suggests that in the end, the Benin strain develops significantly better on cowpea while the Egypt strain develops better on an artificial diet. During the oviposition experiment that both stains showed a clear difference in hierarchy of host plants considered suitable for oviposition, where the Egyptian strain is significantly more attracted to clover than the Benin strain. Also showed with electroantennographic recordings and significant values was the higher sensitivity the Egypt strain had towards (E)2-hexenal, (E/Z)-b-ocimene, (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, Nonanal, (-)-linalool and ?-myrcene when compared to the responses from the Benin strain..

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a L2 learner could correct or imitate structures of the language that they could not produce in written production defined by processability theori levels.The Informants had Arabic as their mother tongue. The study showed that the ability of correction developed slower than the capacity for imitation and the ability to written production. The ability of the correction developed by the duration of the stay. The result was a confirmation of theory formation in processability theory. Corrective elicitering could be developed into a useful diagnostic tool in the classroom and thus provide an education that followed a natural learning order according to processability theory by Pienemann.Keywords: processability theori, imitation, correction, written production.

Huvudsyftet med denna undersökning har varit att undersöka och jämföra lärares och elevers uppfattningar av lärares arbete med elevinflytande i engelska A-undervisningen på gymnasiet. Det andra syftet har varit att beskriva hur den nya ämnesplanen för engelska (Gy 2011) förändrats vis-a-vis ämnesplanen och kursplanerna för engelska (Gy 2000) och vad dessa förändringar kan få för effekt på lärares fortsatta arbete med elevinflytande i engelskundervisningen. Undersökningen genomfördes med utgångspunkt i följande huvudfrågeställningar: (1) hur förhåller sig lärare respektive elever till begreppet elevinflytande samt (2) vilka förändringar återfinns i de nya styrdokumenten för engelskundervisningen i Gy 2011 och hur kan det påverka lärares arbete med elevinflytande?Metoderna som tillämpats i undersökningen har varit kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjuer med lärare och elever, en enkätundersökning som riktades till elever och en jämförande textanalys av ämnesplanen för engelska Gy 2011 och Gy 2000. Dessa tre metoder valdes med utgångspunkten att kunna triangulera och på så vis jämföra det insamlade datamaterialet.

This thesis presents an adaptive tuning system that can be described as a dynamic Just Intonation tuning system, being compatible with equally tempered instruments. The tuning system is called Hermode Tuning (HMT) and the tuning used as comparison for evaluation is the standardized western tuning, the equal tempered tuning. This study investigates preferences for these two musical tuning systems, depending on whether the tunings are presented on a piano or with woodwind instruments. A listening test was done with students at the Falun Conservatory of Music, including both a vertical listening (intervalls) and a horizontal listening (cadenses and musical compositions) of Hermode tuned musical material. Overall the results showed no significant preferences for either tuning system irrespectively of what instrument it was presented with.

During the 1960´s and 1970´s the number of grey seals in the Baltic Sea was decreasing rapidly, mostly due to hunting and toxic substances like DDT and PCB. When hunting became less intense and toxic substances decreased in the environment the grey seal population started to increase. Today grey seals are found common in the Baltic Sea and have started to become a big treat and a problem to the fishing industry. The grey seal destroys and enters fishing traps and consumes large quantities of the fish that have been caught.The knowledge of the grey seal, like abundance and food preferences, is today limited. It is also important to define the position of the grey seal in the ecosystem in the Baltic Sea and to be able to predict changes that could occur if the population would rapidly decrease or increase.

Few would disagree that the media landscape has undergone significant changes the last decade. From bulky computers and plain mobile phones to portable High-Definition computers and multi-functional smartphones. Other media, such as newspapers and music, have evolved and prospered in a digitalized environment. The constant urge to digitalize aspects and functions of our daily lives seems almost instinctive. Television has taken further steps into this environment as it is now accepted and featured via the Internet.

Our governing documents give teachers guidelines as to how to carry out their task in the classroom. To guide a learner requires knowledge, not only about the policy of our governing documents but also skills to see the connection between the teacher's task and its practical implementation. By studying learners' experiences of teaching contexts, I have been able to evaluate how the teaching methods live up to the intentions of the national governing documents in Sweden.My study is based partly on a survey that I completed and partly on the theory of Dialogicity. Here I saw clear connections between my informants' experiences of verbal exercises in the teaching and the theoretical background I have chosen for my study, Dialogicity. I have presented and analyzed the verbal exercises in four differentiated contexts.