When studying the voting behaviour of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) concerning the Services Directive within the EU, what patterns can be observed? With a starting point in previous findings about voting behaviour, this study analyses the results of the given Roll-call votes in the European Parliament in regards to the Services Directive. Here I focus on the division of votes within and between the member states and the parliamentary political groups; with the aim to identify patterns that might show clash of opinion concerning this issue. I found that ideology seems to play a role in the MEPs voting behaviour. Parties on the far left reach the highest level of cohesion and together with the party on the far right, they voted against the Directive, but due to different reasons.

Den här rapporten ämnar besvara frågan om hur man bör utforma ett användargränssnitt för en mobil applikation så att antalet knapptryckningar, speciellt textinmatning, på den mobila enheten minimeras. Med mobil applikation menas i detta fall ett program avsett att köras på en mobiltelefon med en numerisk knappuppsättning. Applikationen i fråga är en resesökningsfunktion ämnad för lokal busstrafik; för testsyften används hållplatser inom Jönköpings län.Ett designkoncept utformades baserat på ett menysystem bestående av alfabetsgrupper för inmatning av namn på orter och hållplatser. Utifrån detta utvecklades en prototyp i Java Micro Edition som sedan kunde utvärderas och modifieras efter ett mindre användartest.Prototypen testades på tre personer efter en metodik som utformats på mjukvaruföretaget Apple. Resultatet visade en allvarlig brist, som lyckligtvis är enkel att korrigera.

Vägar och järnvägar är viktiga transportsystem som har stort påverkan på vårt vardagliga liv. Att fortsätta utvecklingen för att skapa större förståelse för hur dessa konstruktioner påverkas av nedbrytning är viktigt för att inte skapa långlivade konstruktioner som inte uppfyller morgondagens förändrade krav. Hos konstruktioner som består av ballastmaterial beskrivs nedbrytning orsakad av yttre laster främst som förändringar på jordmassans egenskaper. Ett steg i riktningen för att bättre förstå nedbrytning är att beskriva de kornformsförändringar som uppkommer. Ett antal beskrivande storheter för kornform presenteras: soliditetcirkularitet, aspect ratio, roundness och .

Since the abrupt ending of the Cold Wars the international system of politics has been dominated by the unipolar United States. Leading scholars within structural realism sees this stage as just a temporary condition for various reasons. They also target China as aspirant to embody the role of a balancer against USA and pole in a bi- or multipolar system. Some even argue they are destined for superpower.With the help of realisms definition of power I estimate U.S., China's and India's capabilities and judge their potential superpower. I then go on to connect structural realism and role theory to estimate their different statuses in the system.

This paper evaluates the prospects for utilizing aquaculture effluents as a nutrient source in organic hydroponic, as is the case in aquaponics. The development of organic hydroponics is dependent on replacing synthetic fertilizers with organically derived nutrients, such as those found in aquaculture effluents. Also, in hydroponic cultivation the establishment of a plant pathogen suppressive micro flora is part of the plant protection strategy. Therefore, both nutritional and microbial qualities of aquaculture water and organic hydroponic nutri-ent solution were analyzed and compared. Results showed both aquaculture water and or-ganic hydroponic solution to be deficient in a number of essential elements, although or-ganic hydroponic solution was closer to recommendations.

Objektet för min studie är Pow-Wow, en grupp som arbetar mot rasism och mobbning på en svensk grundskola. Syftet med uppsatsen är att genom en kvalitativ undersökning titta närmare på hur Pow-Wow, har startats, genomförts och utvecklats. Utgångspunkten är att liknande grupper som arbetar mot rasism är sällsynta i svenska skolor. Därför är det speciellt intressant att titta närmare på hur det kommer sig att Pow-Wow startades på skolan och varför verksamheten har kunnat överleva så länge. För att kunna besvara dessa frågor har jag intervjuat skolans nuvarande rektor, skolans före detta rektor, de två lärare som arbetar med Pow-Wow och en elev som var med under Pow-Wows första år.

AbstractOil rich states all over the world share a common feature. They are less likely than other states, depending on other resources, to be ruled democratically. In this essay Saudi Arabia has been studied with the purpose of trying to find which mechanisms that lie behind why oil rich states do not have institutions or institutional change that promotes democracy.Saudi Arabia has the world's largest known reservoir of oil. The oil brings huge revenue each year to the Saudi Arabian government. Why have Saudi Arabia not developed democratically when their economic growth suggests that to be a natural step? Under the framework of historical institutionalism and path dependency theory, I have used process tracing trying to track the mechanisms behind Saudi Arabia's authoritarian rule down.

The xenophobic attitudes in Europe are stronger than even. Never before have the member states had as many right-wing parties in action. The aim with this report is therefore to consider whether the Schengen cooperation has had an influence on the development of xenophobia in the member states of EU. The Schengen cooperation became a part of the European Union in 1997, with the aim to abolish the internal border controls for citizens and strengthen the external boarders towards non-members. The intention is furthermore to investigate whether the distance to Schengen ?s external boarder has an impact on the xenophobic attitudes.Three countries are compared: Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Our understanding is that responsibility is shifting from the community towards the individual within the field of social work. This resulted in our essay, which aims to study how the representatives within social service assistance and churches in Helsingborg work with personal power. Our aim is also to illustrate how these representatives view the boundaries of responsibility between the individual and the community. Our questions are: How do the representatives work with personal power from a micro and macro perspective? How do the representatives look upon their position as representatives? What do the representatives consider as responsibility of the individual respective the community? And; Are there preventing factors from individual responsibility? We obtained our empirical material from a qualitative method consisting of interviews.

This essay aims to analyse the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, formally called MiFID, andwhether it improves the situation of the investor, the customer, on the market for securities. MiFID isa directive from the European Union and was implemented by the member states in 2007. Besideshaving the objective to harmonise the European financial market, the directive aims to increasecompetition and efficiency among the markets in the member states.After our initial reasearch in the area we choosed to do a textual analysis and divide the content ofMiFID into three main areas: trading venues, transparency and investor protection. These areas aresubsequently analysed in relation to the investor?s situation on the market for financial securities andthe overall question at issue is whether MiFID improves the situation of the investor.

The freedom of establishment is a fundamental right on the internal market which enables companies to take up and pursue activity in other member states, ?host states?, in a non discriminatory way. In situations where a company wishes to use the right to establish in a host state, complications will be discovered since the member states are applying different principles for deciding the nationality of a company. Since the Treaty of the Function of the European Union recognize both principles, and both of the legal areas company law and European international private law lack harmonization regarding companies wishing to perform such a transaction, the situation today brings the possibility that such a company could be covered by the legal system of several member states, or maybe no legal system at all.The Court of Justice of the European Union has through case law contributed to make the scope of the freedom of establishment a little bit clearer but there are still difficulties regarding situations when a company wishes to transfer its seat to another member state with a change of nationality. Today?s measures, for example the SE-company, is not enough to satisfy the companies wishing to transfer their seat to another member state.

The goal of this Master thesis has on the one hand been to create a simulation environment for robots, where not only the simulations in this work can be performed, but also similar robot simulations, and on the other hand to study regulators that can increase the possibilities of rejecting disturbances on an industrial robot. The robot model used has three degrees of freedom, corresponding to the three main links on ABB:s IRB7600. The simulation environment is created using Matlab, Simulink, and Robotics Toolbox. It is constructed in a general way and can be used for simulations of other robot objects created in Robotics Toolbox. A gain scheduling is added to the LQ-regulator, where the feedback matrix is varied depending on the arm position in the workspace.

This study focuses on nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe. Anchored in theories that this region historically has been characterized by a nationalism that is based on the ethnic group rather than on liberal or civic concepts, it is the purpose of this study to explore whether these theories still apply in recent times when the region has been liberalized, for example manifested in the entry to the European Union. The research question has been tested through analysis of the constitutions of a number of Central and Eastern European countries in order to investigate what type of nationalism that the states have codified in their basic political documents. The results show that some of the states give expression to the historical ethnic nationalism in their constitutions, which indicates that the theories still are relevant..

The function of traditional leaders in the modern states of Africa has been under debate for decades. The dominant research discourse suggests that these institutions should be integrated into the state in order to minimize the amount of parallel political spheres, since the latters are considered to affect state legitimacy negatively. But are the states in a situation where they need to compete with the traditional institutions in order to gain more legitimacy? If so, is the struggle for legitimacy a zero-sum game where there can only be one winner? Or is it possible for these institutions to co-exist or even benefit from each other? The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to research if, and to what extent, African citizens? confidence in traditional institutions has an effect on state legitimacy. This has been done by statistically analyzing the data from the latest completed round of the Afrobarometer survey, a study that has been conducted in 20 different countries across West- and Northeast Africa.

In today?s society it is not uncommon for people to move across borders. We are more likely to work and study in other countries, initiate cross-border relationships, acquire property in other states and change our residence. Therefore it is not uncommon for a per-son to leave inheritance in several states. The laws of succession differ between countries which creates an uncertainty among the devisors when planning their successions.