The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of capital structure in Swedish small and medium sized firms. The study includes 24.859 Swedish firms which are further analyzed with regards to their financial characteristics. These characteristics consist of short term debt, long term debt and total leverage. The study compares the relationship between these characteristics and six independent variables.The result shows that profitability is the greatest determinant for capital structure in Swedish small and medium sized firms with regards to total leverage. When profitability increases the total leverage of the firm decreases.

Looking at the debate on nuclear power in Sweden, the issue of risk is central to understanding the difficulties in resolving differences between proponents and opponents. I sought to answer the research question: "how is the concept of risk constructed in the nuclear power debate in Sweden?" Four main aspects of risk construction were defined and investigated to identify differences between sides in the debate. Through a qualitative study of the debate and its actors I found clear differences in respect to all four aspects of risk construction. First, the perception of nuclear power as a "normal risk" is common among nuclear opponents in contrast to a largely probabilistic view among proponents.

The Swedish energy companies have several different systems for data collection of the energy consumption of their clients. Often computerized remote meter readers are put in practice in order to register the energy consumption of large companies. The majority of household clients, however, are read off by the assistance of manual methods. Household power consumption is read off once a year. As a result, these clients are not debited for their actual consumption; their invoices during the year are the result of estimations. At times when the electricity supply system is highly loaded, electricity is more expensive.

This report summarize a simple and efficient way to convert 2D into 3D designs. It explains the benefits of a 3D design compared with 2D, and how those benefits may be used.It will also give the reader a presentation of the company Clean Air Technologies, which for the most part constructs cleaning facilities for power plants. How to create 3D-libraries for some of those facilities will be introduced in this composition.The collaboration with Clean Air Technologies has resulted in several 3D animated movies and rendered images. This has increased the quality of the companies offer presentations, which has made it easier for the prospective customer to get an improved overall image of the power plant design..

In 2002 the local council of Lund, Sweden, decides to implement the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. A number of actors, such as the state, the civil society, the political society and the bureaucracy, participate in the political process with different authority and points of departure. This thesis studies the actors´ interactions from an inside perspective by applying concepts such as political power, democracy and implementation. The methodological departure is action research from within, a local NGO, the local board of Save the Children Sweden. The results of the study indicate that governance and steering of the implementation process at the communal level is weak.

The social elite on Öland and in Möre in the south east of Sweden during the Iron Age is described on the basis of the archaelogical record, such as graves, settlements and traces of pre-Christian central places. The material is discussed to see if traces of an elite are to be found. The power configuration between Öland and Möre is also discussed.

The ongoing change that characterizes the landscape as a result of the development of the society as a wholeis the basis for this thesis. Even though the Scanian landscape still is dominated by arable land, other valuessuch as biological diversity, cultural heritage and economical aspects, has all been ascribed the landscape asmore and more important factors and in some respects, compete with the farming industry about the right tothe landscape. Our demand of more and more space, will of course also affect the landscape. Huge amountof land are used to build external malls and single-family houses, which gives rise to an increasing need foran extended transport system that also is land consuming.It all comes down to: how the municipalities deal with non built areas - the green structure. Do themunicipalities have separate programs describing their vision and objectives concerning the green structure?Literature studies, an inventory made of the municipality programs in the west and south west of Scaniaand interviews with employees at the municipalities clarifies the use of the green structure concept, both intheory and in practice.The green structure concept seems to be derived from the environmental debate.

The hydropower from Nissan River is of national interest and produces annually 230 GWh from the twelve power stations in the main flow. For modified waters a consideration between the power production and the biological values has to be made. This reports serves as a pre-study for Nissans Vattenråd. It tries to evaluate some of the biological values in the Nissan basin and map the power production in the area. And the size and value of lost power production from new fishways for the twelve stations in the main flow.The investment of new fishways is calculated using simplified templates with values from the business.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how the gender structure appears in detective novels and in the society during the 1960s and 2000s. We have a pre-understanding that the gender structure is more distinct in the earlier books and we will investigate this by looking at the two aspects occupation and family role. We find this to be an important question to notice because society today isnt equal between the sexes. Our study is based on a theory of Yvonne Hirdmans, she claims that the man is the dominant part and the woman is in an inferior position. We apply a stereotype model she has conceived and we try to categorize the characters in the books we have analysed into this model.

The aim of this study was to find out if hypertext structure has any relevance for the efficiency of information retrieval. An experiment, in which three variants of hypertext structure were compared, was carried out in the autumn of 1998. Three websites with different structures were constructed for this purpose: a sequential version, a hierarchical version and a webcluster version. 44 subjects, all students at the University of Lund, were randomly divided into three groups. Subjects were requiered to answer a number of questions using one of the three versions.

This paper is a morphological structure-analysis of icelandic tales to determine their common and distinguishable components in relation to one another and to the russian folktale with Vladimir Propp?s book Morphology of the Folktale (1968) as theoretical basis. The paper looks at the Poetic Edda and Njals saga and the functions of the actions for each other and for the story as a whole. Although the icelandic tales shows great similarities with the russian folktale in general, it also shows deviations. The functions have sometimes appeared on inverted positions, and in a full third of the stories the evil has won over the good in a crucial struggle, but has in 90 % of these stories still been punished before the end.

The European Union has been working to promote equality between women and men for a long time. Despite this, Sweden still have a gender segregated labor market where men generally has the leading positions. According to European law the member states shall promote gender equality and to take all appropriate measures. Statutory gender quotas for company boards is one such measure that some of the European member states have implemented in national law. The Swedish law has no provisions governing gender quotas and therefore the purpose of this study is to explain how gender quotas for company boards relate to current law, both of European law and national legislation.

The essay begins by asserting that the theoretical approaches of men?s violence against women are just as important to study as its extent. The purpose is therefore to analyse and compare two theoretical approaches which is done by a comparative text analysis of two texts written on the subject. The essay attempts to answer two questions; what the theoretical approaches are and how they can be understood in light of feminist theory.Previous research on men?s violence against women discuss especially three theoretical aspects.

When contemplating entering an alliance the rationale behind the decision should differ depending on the size of the companies involved as well as on other important factors. The important factors influencing the decision are related to the resource pooling potential of the alliance, the Power structure along with the business network the companies are a part of. The analysis has shown proof of a need for cooperation if one wish to succeed in the telecommunication industry and it has also determined which resources that are deemed to be most important to get in touch with, for our study object, to facilitate its access to the market. Those resources are defined as a direct channel to the customer, funds/capital and the access to relevant business networks. To get in touch with these lacking resources, three alternative approaches has been proposed; all of them involving a strategic alliance decision.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the legal protection against sexual harassment at work functions, and where to draw the line. The study is limited to focus on the sexual harassment directed at women from men, because it usually occurs that way even though only a few report the incidents. The results are discussed from a gender perspective on how the distribution of power is between men and women as a way to explain sexual harassment.Sexual harassment is currently protected by the discrimination law and the EU principle of equal treatment for men and women. For a behavior to be considered as sexual harassment it has to be unwanted by the receiving party and the person practicing the harassments must be aware that the behavior is perceived as offensive. The behavior shall be of a sexual nature and contribute to a disadvantage for the victim in the form of a violation of that persons integrity.It is the victim that determines whether the behavior is perceived as sexual harassment or not, what one person believes is a friendly behavior may be perceived as offensive by another.