Making accurate predictions of private consumption expenditures is a difficult task. This thesis examines if consumer confidence can be used to forecast consumption. Using regression analysis, the link between consumer confidence and private consumption expenditures is analyzed for Sweden between the years 1994 and 2005. Two different models are estimated. In the first model consumption is regressed only on consumer confidence, while model two is extended to contain more variables.

SammanfattningSyfte: Syftet är att undersöka hur svenska artistiska elitgymnaster presterar i skolan. Frågeställningar vi använt är: Skiljer sig studieresultaten utifrån antalet träningstimmar? Finns det någon skillnad mellan motivationen till gymnastiken i jämförelse till skolan?Metod: De som deltog i undersökningen var elitgymnaster inom artistisk gymnastik, totalt 33 stycken, 18 tjejer och 15 killar. 33 av 36st svarade på enkäten- det blir ett bortfall på 8,3 procent. Elitgymnasterna kommer ifrån olika kommuner i Sverige och ifrån flera olika gymnastikföreningar.

How can you do a right measurement of culture as well as with other social sectors and with what can culture contribute when it comes to a town´s development? We found out that in Linköping the regional federation Ostsam recently (2005) started mapping the region's creative centers in order to look into the spreading of the culture in the county, and then use the uniqueness of the culture as an advantage in society- planning contexts. The reason was that both municipal - and State directions detected that the culture has a broader importance when it comes to building up society and infrastructure than earlier considered. This is called Cultural planning and is the foundation- method that Östsam used when working with their new projekt The creative sector. The outcome of the Östsam study resulted in an exciting study basis to work further on with and to examine through own demarcations and directions.This research manages the matter of the creative sector as an extension to the cultural sector.

The three post-communist states - Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine ? have gone different ways in terms of freedom and democracy since the breakdown of the Soviet Union 1991. During these years, the state and the civil society have been fundamental actors in the struggle against, and even for, authoritarianism.A strong state with great capacity in Belarus has undermined the chances for the civil society to fulfil its task as a watchdog of the state and link between the citizens and the government.Failed authoritarianism in Moldova has led to a situation where both the state and the civil society are weak. The major problem is lack of organization and cohesion; both the state and the civil society have often been divided by ethnical differences and are therefore not strong enough to promote democracy.In Ukraine, the dominance of a strong state ended in 2004 when the Orange Revolution took place, sometimes called a ?peak of democracy? where popular mobilization and protests succeeded in it's opposition against the state.

In 2008 Fox first aired its hit show Sons of Anarchy, a drama series about a Californian motorcycle club. The main thrust is about the club?s vice-president and his struggle to find his place in a life of violence. According to creator Kurt Sutter the series is partly based on Shakespeare?s 16th century drama Hamlet - Prince of Denmark, which causes the show to often be referred to as ?Hamlet on Harleys?.Focusing on the first two seasons of the series, this essay looks into the relationship between the two works of art.

This examination work aims to describe how a supply chain around the biggest pellets factory in Sweden will be configured in a logistic perspective. The plant and associated infrastructure are in the building phase and will have production start on the 2 November 2009. The key question that is set in this examination work is to recognize the logistic processes which are essential for an effective flow of materials and information that link the source of supply with the ultimate customer. In order to get the answer, a flowcharting of these supply chain processes is required for understanding the pipeline activities such as input and storage of raw material, the production system and the output of pellets to the customers. The basis for this supply chain map is a model-based representation of these logistic processes and activities that are involved around the pellets factory.

Body esteem is the affective aspect of body image, which is shaped by social experience. Compared with men, women have a more negative body image, which is more frequently correlated with depression and dysfunctional thoughts, especially in the case of eating disorders. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in body esteem and its subcategories, and to find out whether there exists a stronger link between negative body esteem and higher levels of dysfunctional thoughts in women. The relationship between body esteem, dysfunctional thoughts and mental illness was examined. Participants were 73 college students doing social sciences and sports training educations.

The aimof this study is to contribute furthermore to understand the complexity of theprocess of learning to read and write in an inclusive environment. It focus on the syllableinstead of the phoneme as a unit in this process which is not the most common way ofdoing it. The report is based on a qualitative analysis of this task in pre-school and gradeone at a primary school in a small municipality.In the result, I have found, that the very structured working process and the diagnosticapproach helps the teachers to understand on what level pupils are at. The pupils whostart working this way in pre-school, feel safe knowing what is expecting from them andthey also learn from each other. All pupils in grade one have, before w 45 in autumnterm, very good letter knowledge and have learnt how to read words with two syllableswith a consonant-wovel-structure.

Background: A large number of companies works as a link between manufacturers and final users. These companies buys and stores goods to be able to deliver when a need comes up later in the chain. The storage could have a negative effect on profitability and therefore places great demands on the management control systems. ABC as a method has been used with some success in manufacturing for over ten years. In wholesale companies the method is not frequently used.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourse on political exclusion in the official report Demokratiutredningen. It has been my ambition to relate the analysis of the report to a critical academic discourse on political exclusion and thereby make visible hidden norms and structures which functions to exclude certain individuals and groups from political participation.My paper point out that the report establishes a strong link between democracy and participation and that it, therefore, makes a strong case for a process of democratic inclusion. Though, in my study I suggest that that there is an unawareness of the importance of norms, hegemonic conceptions and structures and that inclusion, therefore, is unlikely to take place. Furthermore, I criticize the focus on deliberative democracy in the report. With insights offered by Mouffe in her argumentation on the necessity to acknowledge the dimension of antagonism present in all societies I underline that the focus on this democratic model is problematic.My conclusion is that the analysis presented in the report is insufficient if we want to create a democratic system characterized by equality..

A great deal of the nature experience we get today is from travelling along our roads, which to a large extent go through the forest landscape. This makes the forest along our roads interesting to look at from a nature experience perspective. The main idea of this work is to increase the awareness of how we are affected by the forest when we travel through it and find out how the forest should be adapted to the road environment to create a pleasant nature experience as well as increase traffic safety. 0.9 % of Sweden's total forest area (equivalent to 200 000 hectares) is in close proximity to roads. Additionally, in Sweden 440 million hours are spent behind the wheel of which a great deal probably is spent on roads surrounded by forest in some form.

This thesis is about how students see their education, creativity and future based on our understanding of the concept of entrepreneurial learning. The aim is to highlight if and how this relatively new concept in the school world is rooted in pupils everyday lives. To get answers to our questions, we talked to students about their thoughts and reflections on their schooling, but also their views on how they think their future will look like. We have also examined what students associate to the concept of creativity by letting the pupils make a mind map during the interview sessions. Research and theories are talking about how to conduct school education, but despite all this knowledge the results in today´s schools drops.

Propose/Aim: The aim of this thesis is to examine the professional role of the Community Manager working for gaming companies. The thesis will examine which background and previous experience a Community Manager should have and the tasks included in the assignment to see how this new role can contribute to the development of gaming companies.Material/Method: The method used in this study is of a qualitative character. The data has been gathered through e-mail interviews with five people working as Community Managers in the gaming business and in addition, through a textual analysis of five job advertisements. The results were analyzed on the basis of carefully selected theories in the field of strategic communication.Main results: The main result of this study is that the Community Manager's most important task is to act as a link between the players and the game developers by communicating with both sides. The Community Manager can receive important feedback from the players which can contribute to the game development. .

This thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Burseryds Bruk AB.Burseryds Bruk is a company that manufactures steel strapping. The thesis isabout developing a concept of protection that should be used to protect theoperators from the rotating parts of the machinery lines. The aim of the projectwas to improve work safety for operators working at the machines by producing aconcept for a protective device. The project's first part was based on ergonomic data collection methods tounderstand the operations performed on the machine and the hazard occurringduring the process. The methods used to collect data were, interviews,observations and questionnaires with the operators of the company. This was thenused to make the ergonomic analyzes hierarchical task analysis and link analysis. The data collected from the company's operators was used create 10 conceptswhich were then evaluated.

This study examines the link between the individual and social network, what social forces and social mechanisms involved in the interaction between individuals and groups and how we can explain and consider this relationship with the aim of understanding this connection. Through qualitative interviews, based on interviews of six active members in the organization Young KRIS (Young Criminal?s Return in the Society) examines the active social processes that the young members undergo, and motivates those who have been outside the expected conformed and regular society, to be included in the regular community and how this can be explained. The study shows that the organization through high availability, openness, knowledge of the needs of young people, good treatment, range of meaningful activities, has created a great venue for the young to develop and thus regain their place in the society..