The Swedish retail business has been characterized by a small number of ruling distributors. These distributors have been affected negatively by the internationalization which has made it possible for international distributors to establish their stores in the Swedish market. These international distributors are focused on low price stores. Their establishment on the Swedish market has led to a decrease in market shares for the Swedish distributors, which has damaged their profitability. Another change that has affected the Swedish distributors is that the behavior and needs of the customers has changed.

Cross-suckling, i.e. when an offspring nurses a female other than their own mother, occurs in pig production systems where sows are group housed during lactation. As production systems where several sows and their litters are housed together during lactation are getting more common, the need of knowledge regarding cross-suckling increases. The overall aims with this thesis was to investigate how sow behaviour and productivity are associated with the occurrence of cross-suckling, and to investigate consistency in sow nursing behaviour related to cross-suckling. The study included information about the first 4 parities of 40 LxY sows kept in outdoor and indoor production environments. Sows were single housed the first 2 weeks after farrowing and group housed (4 or 5 sows per group) from 2 weeks after farrowing until weaning, 7 weeks after farrowing.

When the independent upper secondary schools were started in 1992, it meant a change in the competitive relationship for the local upper secondary schools. A reduced number of students during some years ahead, while the number of independent upper secondary schools increase will probably result in tougher competition between upper secondary schools.The purpose of this study is to review and compare financial and performance management between a public and an independent upper secondary school. The dissertation will focus on the now existing competitive relationship between the two types of upper secondary schools.The theory underlying the study is Porter's model - five competitive forces. The model is applied to the local upper secondary school and used to identify competitive factors affecting upper secondary schools. The study is using a qualitative approach with five interviews at two upper secondary schools, one independent and one public, located in the same town.The comparison of financial and operational management of upper secondary schools indicate that the differences are not as great as we first imagined, but that there still are some differences.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to describe various methods of treatment and effects of treatment of ADHD, and to investigate wheater there is an association between adults with ADHD and obesity. Method:  Literature review. Twelve quantitative scientific articles were found in the data bases PubMed, Cinahl and MedLine.  Result: ADHD is a cognitive impairment that can lead to serious complications such as obesity. Studies show that drug treatments of adults with ADHD have positive effects in terms of reduced symptoms, increased efficiency and improved quality of life, but drugs can also cause side effects in form of loss of appetite and insomnia. For adults with ADHD and obesity drugs that affect metabolism have a significant impact on patients ability to lose weight.

The Swedish Transport Agency has for a long time collected data on a monthly basis for different variables that are used to make predictions, short projections as well as longer projections. They have used SAS for producing statistical models in air transport. The model with the largest value of coefficient of determination is the method that has been used for a long time. The Swedish Transport Agency felt it was time for an evaluation of their models and methods of how projections is estimated, they would also explore the possibilities to use different, completely new models for forecasting air travel. This Bachelor thesis examines how the Holt-Winters method does compare with SARIMA, error terms such as RMSE, MAPE, R2, AIC and BIC  will be compared between the methods. The results which have been produced showing that there may be a risk that the Holt-Winters models adepts a bit too well in a few variables in which Holt-Winters method has been adapted.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge around the location?s importance when rent setting office premises. Furthermore, I want to get broader knowledge about the real estate market as a whole when since it is of current interest.Method: The study is performed with the aid of qualitative interviews on persons with experience of office premises in Stockholm city. Theoretical dates mainly have been gathered via literature and the Internet. Then I have put together the interviews in order so that I finally can analyze empiric with theory.Result & conclusions: The results that have been achieved with this essay are how the concept location has been used within the real estate sector, also how important long-term thinking is when letting of premises, not only office premises.Suggestions for future research: Future studies can increase my study with more interviews, with for example real-estate owners.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate whether exhibitions and silent pedagogy can be used to develop more inspiring environments in the public library. Silent pedagogy is a term from the field of museum education describing the silent communication with visitors that takes place in exhibitions through introduction and orientation, layout and installation, as well as signage. In the 1980s, articles in a Swedish library magazine discussed the pedagogical importance of library exhibits and how they make the patrons aware of the library?s resources. This led us to museum education and a desire to investigate whether its theories were transferrable to the library context.

Background: Pressure ulcers have during a long time ages caused great suffering for the patients. The factors affecting the occurrence of pressure ulcers can be both internal and external, such as immobility and malnutrition. Nurses´ role is to assess risks and thus pay attention to prevent and treat pressure ulcers. The nurse may use various assessment tools to highlight and document patients at risk for developing pressure ulcers. Aim: This study was to describe health professionals´ thoughts and actions about the pressure ulcers.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine how managers in public libraries are managing financial cuts. Questions posed are: What strategies are used by the library manager to handle the cuts and how are the strategies being worked out? What are the consequences of the cuts? How do the managers use their library plans in the work with the cuts and how do the plans change as a consequence of the cuts? Library managers in eleven communities are interviewed about their financial cuts in 2003 and/or 2004. The result shows that cuts are made in different ways. The study analysed the managers statements with a model about strategies created by Oulton.

An efficient market implies that the use of fundamental analysis should not result in excess return, and that any return exceeding the market average can be explained by compensation for risk, accord-ing to The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The focus of this study is to test whether the suc-cessful investment strategy developed by Piotroski (2000) generates excess return on American data, after risk adjustment by using Fama & French?s (1993) 3-factor and Carhart?s (1997) 4-factor CAPM. Initially we form stock portfolios based on companies characterized by high book-to-market values, additionally, we divide them into different performance classes by ranking them with Piotroski?s (2000) measure of financial performance, F_SCORE.

Abstract: Title: Communication of and around internal performance reports - A study in seven manufacturing companies based in Blekinge. Authors: Marcus Harrysson and Mikael Johansson. Supervisors: Lars Svensson and Carina Svensson, Blekinge Institute of Technology Department: Department of Business Administration. Course: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 10 credits Purpose: Our purpose with the bachelor thesis was to investigate if there is a connection between communication of and around internal performance reports and profitability in companies. Method: Our investigation has been made at seven companies in the county of Blekinge by making personal interviews with people in both production and business departments at each of the companies. Result: We have come to the conclusion that there is a connection between communication of and around internal performance reports and profitability. Sammanfattning Titel: Kommunikation av och runt interna ekonomiska rapporter ? En studie i sju tillverkande Blekingeföretag. Författare: Marcus Harrysson och Mikael Johansson. Handledare: Lars Svensson och Carina Svensson, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola. Institution: Institutionen för Ekonomi och Management Kurs: Kandidatarbete i företagsekonomi, 10 poäng Syfte: Syftet med kandidatuppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan kommunikation av och runt interna ekonomiska rapporter och lönsamhet. Metod: Vår undersökning har gjorts i sju stycken Blekingeföretag genom personliga intervjuer med representanter för både ekonomi- och produktionsavdelningen på varje företag. Slutsats: Av vår undersökning drar vi slutsatsen att det finns ett samband mellan kommunikation av och runt interna ekonomiska rapporter och lönsamhet i företag..

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the parent training The Incredible Years in clinical settings. The study included 33 families in clinical practice. There were two parts to the study; a main part with a before and after measurement, and a follow-up study on 12 children one year later. On baseline the children (3-9 years) as a group were on the borderline clinical range, (M = 61.8), with 70 % of the children in the borderline or clinical range. The childrens emotional and behavioral problems were measured with Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).

The purpose of this study has been to examine how female probation officers construct the concept of women who commit crime. This have been done by examining how the probation officers describe the phenomenon from their own point of view, how they perceive society's view of the phenomenon, how they describe the women's self-images and how their own perceptions affect the treatment of these women. To fulfill this aim the study is based on qualitative interviews with five female probation officers. We analyzed their statements by using Gender theory, Goffmans stigma term and Beckers deviant term. The result of this study shows that women who commit crime are described more as victims than offenders and that they are constructed as deviant in two ways; both in relation to the law but also in relation to their gender.

The basis of road investments is to minimize the transportation cost. The forest industry wants roundwood to be available during the whole year. One way of determine which road to invest in is to do a cost/benefit calculation. SCA Forest lacks a uniform approach to determine the utility of a road investment. The goal of this report is to describe how the organization works today and find areas of improvement. The data collection was done through interviews.

The aim of the study was to examine prerequisites for the changes that are taking place within working with Intimate Partner Violence in Västra Hisingen (a municipal district in Gothenburg, Sweden). My research questions concerned incentives for the new features, their practical consequences and prerequisites for implementation. The study has been performed by three focus group interviews with different parts of the organization represented. The work material has then been analyzed using Implementation Theory, Human Service Organization Theory and theories on breaking up. The study showed that all respondents were motivated to perform the changes, but also that there were significant differences between the groups? conceptions of what implementation demands, and of the organizational support today.