During 2004 to 2008, The United States Marine Corps (USMC) executed counterinsurgency operations in Anbar Province with the purpose to stabilize one of the most violent areas in Iraq. The Marine Corps successfully managed to suppress the insurgency as violence dropped dramatically in late 2007. What did the marines do in order to suppress the insurgency? Why did violence drop in the province? The Marine Corps approach and procedures have been examined earlier through theories of organizational learning and adaptation. However, there is an absence of studies aiming to analyse the Marine Corps? counterinsurgency approach through the analytical lens of counterinsurgency theory.

Birch is the dominant deciduous tree species in Sweden but only 16 % is found in pure birch stands. The majority of the birch (51 %) is to be found in conifer dominated stands. Swedish forest land comprises approximately of 23 % mixed stands and one problem is that for mixed stands there are few management recommendations. The underlying aim of this thesis was to study the management of mixed forest stands of spruce and birch to achieve good timber quality of birch. The study was based on a literature study and measurement in a field experiment launched in 1998 by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

Unlike previous research, this thesis considers the possibility of regarding the morning prayers in Swedish schools as preaching, rather than teaching. 28 morning prayers, delivered in the church of S:t Johannes in the city of Malmö during 1939-1954 by the religious teacher Astri Heimer (1889-1986), constitutes the material for analysis. The purpose of this thesis is to examine if Heimer's morning prayers may be regarded as preaching, and to discuss the significance of this, in particular considering her role as leader of morning prayers.The examination is conducted in three steps. The first step investigates how morning prayers in general ought to be understood - as teaching or preaching? This is done by describing and comparing the literary genres of religious teaching and preaching, looking into the rules and principles which define the field of application.

Börshandlade fonder (ETF:er) blir alltmer populära som spar- och investeringsalternativ. Antalet ETF:er och variationen av dessa ökar stadigt. Denna studie ser på ETF:er likställda aktier (ur ett värdepappersperspektiv) och syftar till att applicera momentumstrategier på den amerikanska ETF-marknaden, likt Jegadeesh och Titman (1993), för att testa sambandet mellan ETF:ers kapitalvärde och riskjusterad överavkastning, estimerat genom Jensens alfa. Med utgångspunkt från Banz (1981) som visar på samband mellan investeringar i småbolagsaktier och högre riskjusterad avkastning (än motsvarande investeringar i stora bolags aktier). Testet har baserats på portföljer sammansatta på momentum- och contrarianstrategier för att utröna om en ETFs storlek på kapitalvärde är avgörande för en ETFs avkastning.

AbstractIn my study I have investigated how a constructed outdoor green environment can beused, managed and how it works. The study also investigates the concept of socialsustainability, where, for example, civil dialogue is a method to promote this. Thisinvestigation mainly gives account for the inhabitants viewpoint but also a gardenersperspective. The study focuses on the planning process of the study object, what theoutcome has been and how the users of the green environment, think about the result. Inthe process there has been a strong concern of involving the residents and others usingthe area.

In 1994 a new Forestry Act was accepted in Sweden. One of the aims of the law is to raise consideration forpreservation of biodiversity. Since the new law got accepted and some time has passed, there now lie someinterest in examining whether the law has been effective towards its purpose. Methods suitable for analysishave been examined during this study. The content of this pilot study is based around five parameters whichcan be used to validate the effects of the new law.

Media has in the last year been dominated by news about the current financial crisis around the world. For the banking system in Sweden the crisis began to show in the beginning of 2008 and there where a lot of speculations about how serious the crisis would be and it?s consequences. In several aspects, the banks' situation in the current crisis, are linked to the banking crisis in the 1990s. Although these crises have had different break-out reasons, there are several parallels between these crises to be drawn.

Today, activities funded with public funds needs to present relevant and reliable information which shows the results obtained. Requirements increase in welfare activities to be run based on scientific, empirical knowledge. This applies particularly to social work. The social work is, however, poorly researched in areas such as knowledge of interventions in the content, context and effects. One way to evidence-base social work can be to conduct regular and qualified assessments.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how Bahamas, a magazine belonging to the antideutsche current in German left-wing politics, acted during a two year period between the summer 2001 and 2003. When explaining the anti-deutsche phenomena and the editors? politics it is common to take the currents own history-writing as a fact, thus presenting the development of the current as a reaction to outside factors and impulses outside. In this thesis it is stressed that the editors are far from only passively reacting, rather the opposite is true. I claim that the editors have a fixed ideology that they strive to implant in to certain parts of the radical left.

During the last decades major changes has occurred at the financial markets, meaning an increasing supply and a greater variation of financial instruments. The saving habits of the Swedish people have gone from traditional bank deposits to investments in equities, funds and bonds. All this together with the great rise in the stock market at the late 90?s has brought words like risk and return up-to-date, and is the background to the development of a new law concerning financial advising which come into force the 1th of July 2004. The contents of the thesis can be described as three bricks, representing the survey questions.

The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze why individuals develop and manage to leave drug abuse. The material consists of interviews with eight individuals who have gone through a life of addiction and managed to change their lifestyle. We contacted the participants through the organization called KRIS (Criminals Redress with Society). The results indicate that the participants have had a troublesome upbringing and been labeled by society as outsiders which have led them into addiction. The results also show that they have all gone through a social conversion from the life as an addict to become sober.

The purpose of this study was to highlight the type of actions that can facilitate people with Asperger syndrome to get and keep a job in the regular labour market. Four interviews were done with people who have been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and who got a job in the regular labour market. The study shows that efforts from society and friends at work have played a role when they had got their jobs and when they managed to keep it. The study shows that these efforts have strengthened their self-image and confidence. The study also shows that adaptations in the work, the ability to control over social contacts and the importance of having a job may have contributed to the respondents stayed in the workplace.

AbstractElderly people are going to be a growing number in Europe. Between one third are going to be 60 years or older at 2025. For Sweden the situation is going to be similar. A reduced muscle function could lead to complications for the individual to perform daily tasks and will lead to a higher rate for falling and getting bone fractures. The positive sides are that for men and women there are a possibility for maintaining physical function and strength even in older years.

The purpose for this study is to look at the Pink Caravans, which is a Swedish travel company that started in the beginning of the seventies. The company today has a unique profile within the travel industry which made us curious about how they have managed to keep their distinctiveness over such a long period of time. We have chosen to focus on how they work with the market in this ever changing world, including aspects regarding for example the customer being more demanding today than before. We have also looked at a potential future for the company considering new trends popping up like the environmental issues. The study is based on a qualitative approach and a case study research regarding the Pink Caravans.

I vår produktion har vi tagit fram ett system för order- och lagerhantering, med vikt på realtidsuppdateringar, åt en extern mottagare där infrastrukturen inte hängt med i företagets utveckling. Vi valde detta projekt i syfte att bredda våra kunskaper inom både programmering och projekthantering. Denna slutreflektion tar upp den förundersökning vi gjorde för att kunna besluta om vilka verktyg vi använde i utvecklingen, den tar även upp vårt sätt att hantera och planera projektet. Under projektet har vi arbetat med en egenutformad arbetsprocess vilken även beskrivs här. --- Our production has been to design a system for ordering and supply management with emphasis on realtime updates to an external recipient, where the infrastructure has not kept pace with the development of the company.