This paper describes a factor analysis applied at the data of the European Union structural indicators. These are the official indicators for wealth and economic development in the European Union with main use to evaluate the outcomes of the year 2000 Lisbon goals for making the European Union the world?s strongest economy by 2010. The purpose of the data is to serve for comparing and ?learning by doing?-policies, but have, due to size and format, so far been hard to use for a good compare between member countries.

The senior essay examines the geographical imaginations, notions of Self and community that were mobilized in the media and by the government in conjunction with an event, namely, the space voyage of Christer Fuglesang ? the first Swedish astronaut in space on December ___ 2006. The study is a critical investigation of media discourses, representations of space, and geographical imaginations that were triggered by the event. The specific issues addressed by this study are (a) which representations of Sweden were mobilized in narrating the event? (b) In what ways has Fuglesang´s space voyage influenced the image of Sweden? (c) How was the event rallied vis-à-vis discourses of entrepreneurial culture and neoliberal growth by the government? (d) Which themes and clichés were mustered in the media dramaturgy of the event? (e) Which topics were excluded in media narratives and representation of the event? (f) Have familiar geographical imaginations, notions of Self and community been reconfigured? If so, how?The present study analyzes narratives of the event in the two largest newspapers in Sweden - Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, as well the two biggest TV-channels ? Swedish Television and TV4.

Time studies in dairy production are an essential tool when deciding about level of mechanisation and automatisation both in investment situation and improving efficiency in existing operations. In previous investigations such studies have been carried out during normal barn conditions during winter. Since there is a compulsory to have dairy cows grazing 3 to 5 months during summer time in Sweden time studies during this season is important to have a full picture of needed working time. During grazing season time studies was carried out at 14 dairy farms representing herd sizes from 66 to 450 dairy cows of which 6 farms with AMS. 8 farms were the same as studied during winter season.

So- called ?Network Based Defense? (NBD) was introduced in Sweden in connection with the transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1999. NBD is based on the U.S. variant Network Centric Warfare (NCW), which in turn is derived from research on the concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). In Sweden the concept was introduced and included not only the Armed Forces but was intended to also support the Swedish civilian agencies in order to create networks and hence share the available information and thus more effective crisis management and to provide more "bang for the buck." In developing the concept of NBD the Swedish Armed Forces used both economic and human resources, in the form of research, new technologies, new organization and new methods.Between year 2004 and 2006 the Armed Forces once again entered the process of reorganization.

Bachelor thesis in business administration with emphasis in accounting and auditing. Spring term 2011, Mälardalens Högskola.Authors:Jim Hansson, Filip Sahl and Pererik Sewerin.Advisor:Lennart Bogg.Key words:Abolition of mandatory auditing, optional audit, auditor, audit.Title:The role of audit in a credit review - impact from the creditor's perspectiveBackground:As of November 1st2010, auditing became optional for micro companies in Sweden. This leads to an opportunity for about 70 % of the joint-stock companies to choose whether or not to keep their auditors. Creditors are affected by this as they may receive a less trustworthy base to make a good credit review if many companies choose to proceed their accountings without the control of an auditor. Creditors have the option to require that companies are to be reviewed by auditors, while authorized accounting consultants may be a possible substitute as a quality control for the accountings.Purpose:The purpose of this thesis is to examine what impact optional audit has had in credit processes so far and look into alternative forms of reviews for businesses.Problem definition:? Does auditing simplify for the creditors in a credit review? ? Is there some kind of accounting that could be a substitute for the audit?Method:The study is qualitative in character through six interviews.

This master thesis has been written in collaboration with Science Park Jönköping and is based on a problem related to corporate innovation. Science Park Jönköping believes that there is an untapped potential in existing industry in the form of ideas that are never commercialized. These theories are also supported in the research in which other authors have perceived that the ideas and inventions which do not belong to the core business risk ending up in drawers. If more of these ideas could be spin-offs or other forms of enterprise instead of staying in the drawers it would lead to growth, both for companies and for the society in large.The purpose of the thesis work is to, based on the case Science Park Jönköping, analyze how science parks and incubators can support the commercialization of ideas that derive from industry, who otherwise had been left lying. The work began with a mapping of the Science Park Jönköping operations and the skills they possess, and then other initiatives that aim to commercialize more ideas from companies were examined.

Introduction and research question:  This study investigates the widely discussed notion ?Corporate Social Responsibility? and its practice in the tourism industry. In the contemporary society more companies are realizing the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its potential as a means of differentiation.  The author?s interest in this particular phenomenon was awakened after reading about the business case of Scandic Hotels. This is a company that nowadays is referred to as ?Scandinavia?s leading hotel chain?.

AbstractThe market?s demand to purchase more cost effective products is continuously increasing. The producers are forced to become more efficient and flexible with resources to produce high quality products at a low cost in order to maintain or increase market shares. With this in mind Isaberg Rapid AB is requesting a project to increase efficiency in the assembly cell of hammertackers. The company has found in Kaizen-events that there is a potential of efficiency improvements in the assembly group that has not been achieved.The objective with this paper is to identify the major factors that influence the efficiency in the assembly cell for hammertackers.

The purpose of this study is to compare social media's role in the proactive crisis communication planning in two administrations, two companies and two non-profit organizations. A qualitative comparative study method has been used and people familiar with social media and crisis communications work from each business has been interviewed. The interviews have been transcribed and analyzed to discover the opinions and reasoning about how businesses work with proactive crisis communication and the role they give social media. The interviews were analyzed based on selected theories and previous research in strategic crisis communications, where issues management and crisis communication plans have a significant role. Also research on the pros and cons of social media and crisis communications channels have been used.

AbstractOur purpose for making this study is to study the implementation, the use of and the effects of Lean within our case objects.  We chose to make this thesis by case studies. The three themes mentioned above is also the main research questions that we aim to find an answer to by this study. We have chosen to do a cross section analysis where we conducted structured interviews to find answers to these questions. The theoretical reference frame consists partly of traditional theoreticians within Lean but also more recent research within the subject as well as theory specifically for Lean within the Health Care sector.The result of this study shows in all our case studies that the Management has been supporting the implementation, but that the implementation process proceeds faster if also the professionals are involved in the process.  To succeed with the implementation there is a great need for good reasons and strives that can benefit the professionals. By the use of Lean our case studies have evaluated its processes, with the main intentions being to reduce waste activities and to create flows with ?pull systems?.

IRB 340, Flexpicker is an industrial robot used for sorting, packaging and the handling of details up to two kg. The Flexpicker is a delta robot, meaning that it with three arms controls a triangular plate, swivel, in a work area shaped like a cylinder. Joints using plain bearings connect the arms.The plain bearing in use today consists of a plastic ring which slides against a hard anodized joint ball. Despite the fact that the plastic contain friction-lowering additives, the bearing needs to be lubricated to prevent noise. Because the robot is used in food and drug handling environments, where the demands on hygiene are set very high, the robot is often washed.

This thesis examines the everyday resistance, and its interaction with cultural hybridity, of the Saami population in the administrative unit of Torne lappmark during the period 1639?1732. To do this, the thesis uses theoretical concept of everday resistance as it has been described by JamesC. Scott and the theories of cultural hybridity as they have been described by Peter Burke. Primary source material used in this thesis consists of the court records from Torne lappmark, specifically from the courts at Jukkasjärvi and Enontekis.The results of this thesis present a picture of the everyday resistance in early modern Torne lappmark.

In many biomedical contexts, e. g. when evaluating hearing disorders, the data obtained can be described as pairs (x1, y1), ?, (xn, yn) where x is a quantitative variable and y a 0/1 variable whose probability of taking the value 1 is a monotonic function of x. One way of analysing such data is to perform probit regression; thereby two parameters, b0 (= the constant) and b1 (= the slope) are estimated; the interest centres around m = -b0/b1, i.

Komponentavskrivning blev aktuellt i samband med att EU valde att följa de standarder som IASB utfärdade. Efter införandet av K3-regelverk för svenska företag kom det att bli ännu mer aktuellt med komponentavskrivning i Sverige.Då tidigare forskning har riktat kritik mot komponentavskrivning, fann vi det intressant att undersöka vilka svårigheter som kan finnas med komponentavskrivning i ett petrokemiskt företag utifrån två olika perspektiv. Med detta som grund valde vi att undersöka vilka svårigheter som fanns utifrån ett redovisningsperspektiv och ett operativt perspektiv samt att undersöka hur interaktionen går till mellan dessa två perspektiv.Den teoretiska referensramen i arbetet innefattar svensk praxis, IAS 16, K3-regelverk, komponentavskrivning, kritik mot komponentavskrivning, redovisningsfunktionen och operativa verksamheten. Empirin utgörs av intervjuer som är utförda hos det petrokemiska företaget Borealis där vi har undersökt vilka svårigheter som finns med komponentavskrivning i redovisningsfunktionen samt den operativa verksamheten. Vi har även undersökt hur interaktionen gällande komponentavskrivning ser ut mellan redovisningsfunktionen och den operativa verksamheten.

Det är viktigt med ett effektivt samarbete och en välfungerande kommunikation i dynamiska miljöer, till exempel vid släckningsarbetet av en brand. Bristande kommunikation i en sådan miljö skulle kunna få förödande konsekvenser.Denna uppsats bygger på material från studien ?Bridging Cultural Barriers to Collaborative Decision Making in On-Site Operations Coordination Centers?, där 32 svenskar samarbetade i olika lagkonstellationer med att släcka simulerade eldar i mikrovärlden C3Fire.Kommunikationsteorier visar på att personer samtalar med varandra efter en viss struktur; deras yttranden tenderar att komma i par, så kallade närhetspar. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka närhetspar i beställningssekvenser, i form av en beställning av vatten och/eller bränsle följd av en bekräftelse. Till sin hjälp hade försöksdeltagarna en datorskärm med en karta samt tillgång till ett e-postverktyg för att kommunicera inom laget.