Germany has experienced low birth rates ever since the 1970s when they fell below the replacement levels of 2,1 children per woman. Since then, their birth rate has been around 1,5 children per woman, which has caused an overall aging population. The consequences of the declining birth rates is that the previous generations are becoming larger than the younger generations. This demographic shift raises concern about how its potential implications might affect different aspects of the country and its economy overall. The aim of this paper is to try to discern the dynamic between the share of the labor force in relation to total population, with the share of pensioners in relation to the total population.

Since several rules of law have a consideration of age, the Swedish labor law collides in many ways with the prohibition of age discrimination. The employment directives of EU were implemented in the member countries after the shift of the millennium. Sweden was the last member to introduce age as a ground of discrimination in its legislation. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the Swedish regulations, regarding age discrimination and its application, is compatible with the EU.  The aim is also to investigate what is required to exclude the prohibition of age discrimination. The labor law provisions concerning the retirement age given in 32 a and 33 §§ LAS, priority rules according to 22 § LAS and the collectively agreed holiday benefit, which is regulated according to a worker's age, is to be investigated to see if they actually qualify for the exclusion of the prohibition against age discrimination. Furthermore, the paper intends to describe if the Swedish legislation has taken account of the research available on the subject of "age" and ?age discrimination?.

Syftet med studien var att beskriva ambulanspersonalens självskattning/upplevelse av smärta i rygg, leder och muskler samt sömn, vila och återhämtning. Ytterligare ett syfte var att undersöka om det finns några skillnader i nämnda besvär relaterat till kön och yrkeskategori. Data samlades in med enkäter och personal vid fyra ambulansstationer i Mellansverige deltog i studien. Sammanlagt delades 110 enkäter ut och 89 enkäter besvarades (svarsfrekvens 81 %). Resultatet avseende själskattad smärta visade att 53 personer (59,6 %) uppgav att de hade haft ländryggsbesvär de senaste 12 månaderna.

The Smart Grid technology has during the last decade been established as a way to create a greater flexibility on the electricity grid that will be needed as the development moves towards an increased share of renewable primary energy sources in the electricity production. One part of the Smart Grid technology is the ability to shift loads in time, to adapt to either price or emissions, known as Demand Response. This project, which was conducted at KTH in collaboration with the consulting corporation Capgemini, examines the economic, environmental and social aspects of the Demand Response technology. In the project, three household products are used in a model that derives the potential savings in costs and emissions of CO2e. The results show that the actual savings measured in SEK are small, but that the savings measured in percent can be as high as 20 percent. Reduction of CO2e emissions is slightly lower.

Internet and social networks have become important features in today?s society. We spend numerous hours on browsing and communicating through these platforms. This development has also led to a shift of power from businesses to consumers. Today?s consumers have more control of if, when and what messages they are exposed to.

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

The aim of this study is to describe how the cooperation between franchisee and franchisor evolves over time. The parties? work responsibilities are explored as an ingredient of the cooperation. Creation of relational aspects is also studied, as well as how adaptation of the concept is handled throughout the partnership. This study takes on an abductive approach and is based on interviews with franchisees of one franchise system, performed at different stages of the respective cooperations.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the significance of organizing social- cooperative in relation to individual empowerment; and how this empowerment can be used to better the situation of others. Young surfers is a social- cooperativ that is run by cooperators with experience of substance abuse and criminality. The social- cooperativ is built on the premise that the cooperators are to set up and run a screen-printing shop where they will print t-shirts and sweatshirts. The purpose of this business is that the cooperators are given the opportunity to work and that youths with social problems such as substance abuse and criminality are given the opportunity to work-train. My study is comprised of a series of interviews and observations that I have conducted in relation to the cooperators of Young Surfers.

Many of the schools premises are neglected and the physical environment has not been prioritised. Instead the focus is set on scientific learning methods and pedagogic. The need for an environmental shift has not got an essential place in the governing documents for schools, although the focus on school premises should be suited to the purpose of the activity and for the pupils needs. Today the interest and the need of research within the physical environment is evermore increasing. The Swedish Work Environment Authority, present in their activityplan for 2006, that the schools premises and equipment is not adjusting to today?s activity and it is in bad condition that can lead to work-related injuries.The purpose of this essay is to bring to light a different pedagogic train of thought around the surrounding environments importance, for students learning and to compare these with our study of a selection of classrooms and what the teachers to these classrooms consider about the environments importance.

Since 1995 the musical Kristina från Duvemåla has been performed on many national theatre stages in Sweden and is still obtaining success and fame. It is based on novels by the famous Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg, Utvandrarna (1949), Invandrarna (1952), Nybyggarna (1956) and Sista brevet till Sverige (1959) that revolve around a Swedish family emigrating to the United Stated during the 19th century. This thesis investigates both the novels and the musical adaptation in a comparative way. Theory of adaptation and intermediality is used to analyse differences and similiarities of the stories used in the novels and the musical. It can be assumed that major changes were implemented in the adaptation of the main characters, specifically Kristina.

This study explores the shift in football recruitment from traditional scouting to data-driven methods, focusing on Sweden. It investigates how football organizations can enhance competency for effective data-driven recruitment. Through qualitative interviews with elite Swedish football organizations, the study emphasizes the need for competence development for proficient data-driven recruitment. To address the enhancement of personnel competency in the recruitment process, this study poses the research question: "How can football organizations effectively promote competence development to optimize their utilization of data-driven recruitment?" The results highlight the importance of targeted education, combining expertise in data-driven recruitment with a broad skill set.

The aim for this master thesis is to create an understanding of the intersubjective processes of how individuals are experimenting with their identities in social media and the consequences for the identity and embodiment. The thesis is completed with the help of discourse analysis and a starting point in four complementary theories. Central to the implementation of the analysis is the concept of diffraction. Therefore the thesis is, which is reflected in the choice of theoretical approaches and methods, critical to many aspects of classical philosophy of science and method. The empirical material is based on interviews.

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

AbstractThis thesis analyzes the Russian Foreign Policy Doctrine from a broad theoretical perspective, with the aim of describing and explaining the doctrine using a number of theoretical approaches. Russia's foreign policy has undergone substantial changes since Vladimir Putin became president in the year 2000, involving a radical shift in foreign policy objectives and thereby moving away from the more confrontational and distrusting policies which characterized the Boris Jeltsin regime. Putins doctrine, based on pragmatism and seeking partnership and collaboration with the West, can be described as a near revolutionary re-orientation of Russia's foreign policy guidelines, meaning a transformation of the country's self image which implies a rejection of great power status and a search for a new role in the international community.Our thesis has examined explanatory variables such as the domestic political situation in Russia, the contemporary international system and President Vladimir Putins system of beliefs in order to describe and explain the doctrine. Our results show that the doctrine is largely a product of Putins personality, values and beliefs, but also to a large extent a consequence of necessities, namely the poor Russian economy and the fact that the country no longer can withstand an all out conflict with the West involving an excessive arms race.Keywords: Vladimir Putin, pragmatism, realism, domestic politics, radical change..

Habitat selection of migratory brown trout at the upper reaches of River Vindelälven, wasstudied in September during the pre-spawning period. The fish migrate from down- orupriver lakes for spawning in the river and data was collected by habitat mapping andradio-telemetry. Habitat selection of fish was analysed with preference curves andstatistical modelling, using the physical variables; depth, stream velocity and streambedsubstrate. Preference curves were derived by comparing fish habitat use with their nearbyavailable environment while the statistical modelling aimed to answer three main questions.1) Do the trout have a specific preference of depth, water velocity and streambed substrate?2) Is there any difference in habitat selection between sexes? 3) Is there a shift in habitatselection over time? The preference curves indicated that trout favored water depths of 1-2m, velocity compositions characterized as glides (c.