The luxury market has steadily grown from the industrial revolution and onwards. Changes in society, trends and the increased living standards has enabled more people to consume luxury goods.The world is going through a major economic crisis at the moment. Studies shows that companies that have focused on added value rather than lowering prices has survived past financial crisis. It is also obvious that companies act very different during times of crisis. Adding to the problem is trends that point to a more careful consumption and environmental awareness.

This study aims to examine attitudes and conceptions of staff who work with mentally disabled persons, concerning normalization and gender. Six qualitative interviews with such professionals were performed and subsequently analyzed. Since the method of this study is qualitative, no claim of generalizability is made. The interview material has been categorized into themes by means of coding. The result of the study is presented according to those themes.

This thesis has the purpose of developing a normative theoretical framework based on different political philosophers and scientists view on deliberative democratic theory, discourse ethics and a modified norm of citizenship. This framework is supposed to contain the ideal communicative situation for people seeking asylum. Hence, the thesis argues that political influence is best practised through communicative rights, and that people seeking asylum are in title to such rights. We conclude that the standards needed to be met in order to reach the ideal are: translators, translated information, arenas for- or channels of communication, language education, and deliberative education. Once the framework is established we focus our interest on the Swedish state.

The Methodology used to gather empirical materials for this thesis has been different types of interviews. The interviews have been mainly unstructured personal interviews directly with our respondents, due to limiting factors some of the interviews have been carried out via phone or email. The theoretical framework consists of literature from well-recognised authors and is divided into four different parts: Insourcing & Outsourcing, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management, China & Intercultural understanding. The empirical foundation has been gathered from a great variety of different sources in an attempt to cover the many complex angels in which this subject can be looked upon. Chinese students, managers in international companies with experience from China, Chinese employees in Swedish companies and different people with good knowledge of different areas of China are all among our respondents. In our conclusion we have reached the three following conclusions for why one should start a “bridge building” enterprise in between qualified Chinese human capital and Swedish structure capital: 1. To fill future shortage of qualified human capital in Sweden. 2.

With this thesis I wanted to find out how a teacher-team in Stockholm reason about and whether they have specific expectations of male teachers in the early school years. Interviews with five teachers from pre-school to grade 3 and in after-school have shown that specific expectations of male teachers is something obvious. Are male teachers expected to enter into the role of male role models to contribute with masculinity and a male perspective? However, the informants are not able to define how a male role model is or should act. Men and women are often defined as two separate, and often as opposite, groups.

Through the rulings RÅ 2010 ref. 11, HFD 2011 ref. 75 and HFD 2011 not 88 the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court have extended the concept of same or similar activities which can be found in section 57, clause 4 of the Swedish Income Tax Act. Through the ruling the Court has partly clarified the application area of the regulation but question marks still remains.In the statutory text there is no definition of what shall be regarded as same or similar activity and the preparatory work does not give any further direction on how the concept should be interpreted. Ever since the amendment in 1995 the general view has been that activities can be transferred between different companies without affecting the waiting period in the company of origin.

Concurrently with higher demands on comparability between companies, all Swedish listed parent companies are guilty to apply international accounting standards, IFRS/IAS, no later than January 1, 2005. In this thesis IFRS 7 Financial instruments: Disclosures, that treats information about financial instruments, is investigated. IFRS 7 aims to establish a good international standard for disclosures about financial instruments. The purpose of this thesis is to study differences in the interpretation of IFRS 7 Financial instruments: Disclosures between Swedish life insurance companies, problems ? if any ? that associate with the recommendation, the recommendation?s effect on accounting and the attitudes towards IFRS amongst the Swedish life insurance companies.

The essence of literature ? it?s voice, it?s meaning? has always been scrutinized of interest to readers and theorists. The language in itself has the power to revolt against and undermine current and dominant hierarchies. This language can also be of a passive nature, accepting existing norms and dichotomies. This paper has the ambition to examine the language, the voice, of Clarice Lispector in her novel A Hora da Estrela (The Hour of the Star).The theoretical horizon from which I will read The Hour of the Star is that of Hélène Cixous, which can be expressed through the term écriture féminine.

Kitron had wishes to be able to test and measure how disturbance affects their vehicle electronic units before they have been verified by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden in Borås. This work started with the writing of a demand specification together with Kitron for a product PSQS, Power Supply Quality Simulator, which can generate some test pulses according to a standard for electronic units to Volvos vehicles. A design proposal was developed with the help the demand specification and was verified with the help of simulations. All electric schematics was designed with the guide of the design proposal. The pulses realized in the works of this thesis are those which Kitron experienced that they have a need to test in their own premises and which are possible to generate with the means available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate produced laser data from the new national height model's airborne laser scanning in Sweden, what quality it has and whether it can be used for forest management planning. From airborne laser scanning one can obtain information on forest variables such as tree species, height, diameter and basal area. Norra skogsägarna is the principal employer of this project and they wanted know to the quality of the laser data which needs to cope with their standards. If the laser data the quality required it can replace some of the operations performed by field planners. To examine the quality of the produced laser data a control tax assessment has been performed in 30 forest departments. This was done in an objective manner.

This paper aims to investigate the terms and conditions of a lesbian gaze and a lesbian spectatorship from a feminist and queer theoretical point of view. The empirical material consists of three paintings by the American artist Romaine Brooks (1874-1970).  Brooks was based in Paris in the early 20th century where she was surrounded by a group of intellectual and usually cross-dressing lesbians. The women within this context are the ones depicted in Brooks? paintings and this makes her one of the first artists in modernity to openly portray lesbian and cross-dressing women.

The background to this final thesis is that our mandator, A-hus, was interested to examine which roof system that would be most appropriate to their types of houses. To investigate this, we first conducted an evaluation of the most commonly used roof systems in Sweden today: decking, board, roof cloth and prefabricated roof cassettes.To gather information about the different systems we have conducted interviews with several professionals within the construction industry, done an extensive literature study, and gathered information from the Internet.Based on the evaluation of roof systems and the literature, we analyzed advantages and disadvantages of the roof systems from three main perspectives: system characteristics, economics and other characteristics. We found these perspectives to be the most relevant when selecting a roof system.The main perspectives comprise three categories which are graded. These grades are then added together for a score for each main perspective and a total score for the three main perspectives. Then we compared the systems and, based on the scores, suggested one roof system as the most suitable for A-hus.Our result suggests that the prefabricated roof cassettes probably is the best solution for A-hus, but only if it is possible to standardize the cassettes and still maintain the flexibility to match A-hus? house types.

Aim: A business ratio is a measuring instrument that companies use in their financial report to show profit and progress. As it is today, there are no standards to follow that shows which business ratio to present in a companies annual report. Our aim with this report is to see if there are any trends in the use of business ratios by looking into how thirty growth companies are applying them.Method: To see what business ratios are used in practice, we have collected information from the thirty companies? annual reports. With help from the literature, we have created an understanding about the most frequently used business ratios.

Starting in January 2007, capital adequacy of internationally active banks will be regulated by the new Basel Capital Accord, International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards ? a revised framework, [Basel II]. The framework introduces for the first time minimum capital requirements for operational risk and encourages market discipline of capital adequacy by initiating requirements for public disclosure of quantitative and qualitative information on operational risk exposure. This thesis examines the nature, definition, management and public disclosure of operational risk in Scandinavian banks based on regulations and recommendations presented in Basel II. We find that the models currently available for addition of operational risk to the capital requirement do not reflect actual operational risk exposure of banks.

ABB and Prevas have initiated a collaboration to sell a system to optimize steel industry furnaces, called FOCS. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate possibilities for integrating Prevas FOCS and ABB 800xA.The result of the investigation is used for an implementation of a prototype of the integrated system. The study shows a general method that can be used when implementing two software systems. The prototype of the integrated systems is made with usability principles in mind. This is a very important aspect in order to create a good working environment for the operators of a steel plant.