Today, we live in a consumption society. We buy products to soothe our needs and desires. Thru material things we can express our own personal identity and shopping is seen more as a pleasure than a need to survive. With the background media- and communication studies, the reason of this study was to explore how blogs as a social medium can influence the consumption ideal in society. With dialogical analysis and semiotic analysis we wanted to see if we could find a specific consumption culture in the content of six blogs we did our studies on. We found that the blogs showed us that there is normal to have everyday luxury and spoil oneself with expensive things.

The thesis was done in collaboration with EAB situated in Smålandsstenar. In the initial discussion faze on doing a thesis with them there was a need to analyze and ensure the strength of an existing product, cantilever racks. This included performing FEM calculations on a model and comparing the results with physical tests.EAB has two models of cantilever racks, a light duty and a heavy duty. Within the heavy duty model series there are five product variants that differ in both size and load capacity. We will be working with the product variant with a load capacity of 1000 kg/arm which is the variant that is in the middle of the series.When we started work on the thesis we did a literature study and couldn?t find any well defined methodology that integrates both product development and computer aided design analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how masculinity and femininity are constructed in the magazine Veckorevyn, through a critical discourse analysis of 18 articles from six issues in 2011. This is done by using a variety of theories and previous research results, which is gender theory, the theory of late-modern society and media theory. The analysis shows that Veckorevyn depicts virility and feminine differently. Furthermore, pointing the results from the analysis that a change of manhood and womanhood takes place in the social practice. The selection of articles from the magazine also shows that Veckorevyn seems to promote gender equality. .

Agricultural drainage is widely used to manage the amount of water in the ground in order to improve conditions for cultivation. However the effects of drainage companies on water regimes are considerable leading to runoff changes such as altered stream flows, peak flows and water levels. In a greater extent this could imply an increased risk for floods along affected watercourses. This study analyzes the extension of agricultural drainage within the drainage basin of Trosaån in Sweden by ArcGIS mapping. In a statistical analysis, historical variation in streamflow in relation to mean precipitation and mean temperature are investigated for the study area.

A frequently asked question in real estate marketing is at what time of the year it is optimal to invest or sell. The aim of the project was to answer this question and to generate a prediction model over real estate located in the centre of Stockholm that takes seasons into account. With acquired sales statistics in Stockholm between 2010 and 2013 it was possible to perform a linear least square regression, also known as Ordinary Least Square (OLS), with describing qualities and season of sale as parameters. Statistical problems such as Multicollinearity and Heteroskedasticity have been taken into account when deriving the model. The result was a highly accurate prediction model indicating the profitability of investing in real estate during the summer and selling during the autumn..

Capital structure is without doubt one of the most frequently studied and controversial areas of modern financial theory, and will certainly continue to receive considerable attention from researchers worldwide. There is still no universal explanation of how an optimal capital structure would be designed for maximum appreciation, despite the development of several theories focusing on the subject. Equity and debt are the two main financing options that in combination explain the business's capital structure. The results of several research studies conducted in the subject has many times pointed out that there are specific factors that are directly related to the company's capital structure, and that there are clear sectoral differences in corporate debt. A study of the capital structure is considered important and interesting to implement due to the reasons above and the purpose of this study is to analyze and try to explain the similarities and differences between different industries in terms of how growth, profitability and size affect the debt level.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine high school students? understandings and experiences of gender equality and to critically study the formulations and the basis of the project from Save the Children Sweden which are the basis for this master thesis. By using critical discourse analysis and gender theories the formulations and basis of the project and the interviews has been analyzed. The analysis of the project showed neglect for intersectional perspectives and taken for granted hidden opinions about masculinities and femininities. The interviews have been conducted with four high school students, and the students felt that they attend schools which are equal between genders.

This study has examined how teachers in Swedish upper secondary schools work to foster a critical perspective through the education in the subject of Swedish. The study is based on qualitative interviews conducted with three teachers, who have given their views on the role of source criticism and critical analysis of literature in the subject of Swedish. Furthermore, they have described how they incorporate these views into their own teaching.The study has shown that the teachers find that source criticism and literary analysis are interconnected, since both depend on a general critical approach, which they both help foster. The main question the study examined was how Swedish education could help foster a critical perspective. The interviewed teachers' ways of working point out a way: teacher C has integrated source criticism and referencing into most of their education, which makes them central to the education in Swedish.

Abstract AimThe purpose of this study has been to investigate the possible differences in grades and attitudes towards further studies that can be explained by the student?s level of physical activity. The questions we wanted answers to were:- Does students in more sports-oriented programs have better grades than students in more theoretical programs?- Is there a relationship between physical activity and study-results?- Are there any differences in attitudes towards further studies for students at the different programs?- Which other variables could be affecting the students grades?Method The extent of this study has included 3 municipal schools and 6 classes (2 from each school) ? in all 119 students and 6 teachers. 3 different social sciences programs have participated ? two sports-oriented and one without any sports-oriented concentration .

The purpose of this essay is to investigate and assess, with Clausewitz?s theory as thebackground, how different military theorists interpret and relate to the nature of war.This essay illustrates the state of research into Clausewitz?s philosophical influences.Clausewitz?s theory of the nature of war is subjected to a qualitative text analysis that is followedby a critique of other military theorists interpretations of his theory. Subsequently a descriptive,comparative qualitative text analysis is performed where the factors identified by Clausewitz asbeing part of the nature of war (?rational thought?, ?passion? and ?chance?) are used as a meansto interpret and assess how other military theorists relate to Clausewitz theory. This essay ismainly founded on analysis of the works of Jomini, Delbrück, Fuller, Liddell Hart, Handel,Roxborough, van Creveld and Keegan.

The purpose of this report is to study the risk of dust explosions at the candy manufacturing plant Leaf Sverige in Gävle, Sweden. The risk analysis was conducted with a preliminary hazard analysis, PHA and event trees. The analysis focuses only on the risk posed to employees and material damages at the plant. No third person injuries have been considered. Another purpose of this report is to study risk awareness and risk communication concerning dust explosions.

This study concerns how Muslims are portrayed in a choice of twelve news articles from Swedish dailies and tabloid newspapers on the aftermath of the film Innocence of Muslims published on YouTube. All articles are distributed in the newspapers Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet in the period of September 11th, 2012 until September 30th, 2012.For this study, a qualitative text analysis has been embraced and focus has been on van Dijk?s Critical discourse analysis to the texts, with additional features from semiotics applied on the images.The theories consist of Critical discourse analysis, hegemony, ideology and power, postcolonialism and stereotyping.In the qualitative content analysis, concrete examples from the articles are retrieved and commented. These have been divided into various themes, which are trends that the authors have been able to distinguish in the analysis.The result shows that Muslims in the analyzed newspapers are portrayed as the others, unimportant and extremely religious, in a negative manner rather than a positive. Moreover the press has tendencies to generalize Muslims as a group.

There are some students who leave their studies. How can this be explained? Are present day high school students satisfied with their choice of school or the courses they have chosen? How did they decide what to study in upper secondary school? The main focus of this study is to examine the factors that influence the decision making of young people when it comes to choosing schools, their educational ambitions, and finally their focus on grades in Upper secondary school.   The study is based on the quantitative method, extracting its results through a poll conducted at an upper secondary school. The target audience of this poll was students that are completing their second year.  A statistical analysis of the results was carried out and the results were then presented by relevant diagrams.

Author Cocitation Analysis (ACA), multidimensional scaling (MDS) and Social Network Analysis (SNA), has been used to analyze and visualize the invisible college of the journal European Union Politics. The concept invisible college was first introduced in the fifteenth century, through the creation of the ?the Royal Society of London?, and it was reintroduced in the 1960:ies and the 1970:ies by scholars such as Price and Crane. It is said to have been interpreted in as many ways as there are authors who have used it. Here it has been used synonymously with the term citation network.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how young adults withunilateral cleft lip and palate assess their own speech and communication,and to let speech and language pathologists make a perceptual analysis ofthese individuals? speech at the age of 19 years. An additional aim was toexamine the relationship between these two different ways of evaluation.Data was collected through perceptual analysis from audio recordings and byusing a self-report questionnaire based on the ICF-structure (InternationalClassification of Function, disability and health). Altogether, 33 peopleparticipated. One third of the participants had no speech deficiencies.