This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.

The notion of door policy has received little academic investigation. In the media this phenomenon has however received much attention and has been connected to allegations of discrimination. The authors of this thesis take another view in trying to identify the mechanisms behind door policy from an economic perspective.Based on case studies in nightclubs in Stockholm the authors conclude that there are two types of door policy: including and excluding. While including door policy aims to comply with regulations and commonly is part of a cost-leadership or focus strategy, excluding door policy is primarily a tool for attracting and selecting a certain audience in line with a product differentiation strategy. It thrives on the principles of exclusivity and reciprocity.Forming the identity of a club, audience is of great importance and excluding door policy is found to be an important tool in creating the correct composition of audience, which ultimately aims to increase profitability..

Vehicle simulators are becoming more common in vehicle industries. Company earns lot of money on simulations instead of real tests. Real tests are necessary but not made so extensively as before.In this thesis the building of an vehice simulator will be described and a comparison between three different cruise controls. The three cruise controls are PI-regulator, a regulator who regulates after positions in the terrain and a MPC-regulator. The reason for choosing this three is to see the difference between simple regulation and more complex regulation with respect to fuel consumption, travel time and complexity.The vehicle simulator is made in Matlab/Simulink, Visual Studio and Open Scene Graph.

Uppsatsen diskuterar huruvida en ökad reglering av fastighetsmäklarbranschen kan hämma och skada effektiviteten på mäklarmarknaden. För att ge en bredare kontext som kan belysa frågeställningen har en översiktlig jämförelse gjorts mellan Sverige och England..

What drove me to write this paper is the will to  examine if there is a philosophically and scientifically viable  alternative foundation for an objective morality other than what we like to refer to as "God". The  American philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris presents in his book The Moral Landscape a thesis for an objective morality based on science in which he states that  science can determine human values. The purpose of this paper is to perform a theoretical trial of The Moral Landscape, examining Harris' thesis and it's relations to the philosophical obstacles that stands in its way, these being mainly the famous philosophical principle "Hume's Law" and G.E. Moore's "Naturalistic Fallacy and Open Question Argument" and thus will serve as my main theoretical foundation. The results of my study was not conclusive since Harris in fact doesn't succeed in bridging the gap between facts and values on a scientific ground.

Background: The education for becoming a registered nurse in Sweden includes compulsory time for clinical practice. The clinical education means an essential part in the students? personal development. According to regulation for nurses, a registered nurse has the responsibility to supervise nurse students during their clinical placement.Aim:. The aim of the examination was to describe nurse students´ experiences of supervision during clinical education.Method: The study was an empirical examination based on interviews with seven nurse students.Results: The result showed that nurse students wanted to be seen and treated as colleagues, but not used as labour.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

A buyer of a new car is often offered a various selection of warranties. A warranty can e.g. exist in the form of an extended new car warranty. However, some manufacturers demand that the car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the validity of an extended warranty. In the thesis I analyse whether such a contractual term is incompatible with today?s legislation and I argue for when such a term is to be seen as unfair.

Konsten att berätta historier med bilder och illustrationer är något som har funnits i flera tusen år. Detta kandidatarbete undersöker ämnet illustrerad narrativ och redogör olika aspekter och principer som är avgörande för att man ska kunna förmedla ett budskap med hjälp av illustrationer. Idag förknippas illustrerad narrativ framför allt med serietidningar, bilderböcker och grafiska romaner som berättar en narration i form av en serie av bilder. Under den teoretiska delen av arbetet har jag först gått igenom illustrerat narrativs historia och sedan redovisat principer för det moderna illustrerat narrativet. Jag har också forskat kring bildens kommunikativa värde och samspelet mellan bild och text.

This study reflects on the swedish model and the models future. The swedish modelmeans that legisilation acts with the collective agreements . The wage issue is notregulated by law instead it is managed by the social partners in the form of collectiveagreements. In 2008, a report was presented by the Commission on a joint regulation ofthe minimum wage for all EU countries. The issue has become increasinglycontroversial and was especially disccused for the election of candidates to theEuropean Parlament last spring.

Hydroware Elevation Technology AB sells control and regulation equipment for hydraulic elevators. The company now wants to investigate the possibility of changing their present softstarters to frequency inverters to supply power to their pump engines. They also want to investigate the possibility of future use in so called ?intelligent? houses.The purpose of this report is to investigate these possibilities..

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis in social work has been to examine whether society's perception of poverty and poor people has changed over the more than 160 years have passed since the first national Poor regulation was enacted in Sweden. With a social constructionist approach and inspired by the critical discourse analysis we have conducted two studies to find answers to what differences and similarities between the concepts of scanty care (1847) and standards of living (2002). A study based on previous research was conducted to examine how society's perception of poverty has changed and designed in a historical perspective. We also conducted a textual analysis of relevant legal texts and legislative history to show how these texts reflect the society's official view of poverty based interventions targeted to poor people.The two sub-studies show that the concepts at different times in history has been crucial for the community support poor people were entitled to. Our overall conclusion is that despite today's advanced social policy there are many obvious similarities between the concepts of scanty care and standards of living.

The need for a more efficient electrical grid has made the smart grid concept popular in recent years. The aims of this study are to identify the conditions in Sweden for implementing a smart grid and to analyse the opinions of stakeholders. One finding is that the large capacity of Sweden?s existing electrical grid decreases the immediate need for smart grid solutions. However, the rapid increase in wind power might push the development of a smart grid in the coming years.

The purpose of this Master`s thesis is to examine if the pur-chase of media in public libraries reflects the library's role in society. Two questions have been posed: ? What view of public library's role in society is reflected in the purchase of media? ? What principles guide the selection of media in public li-braries in Sweden? In order to investigate these questions, we used a question-naire that we sent out to a sample of 120 public libraries in Sweden. The analysis is based on a theory of three ap-proaches to the role of the library developed by Douglas Raber. The three approaches are the conservative approach, the populist approach and the social approach.

The intrest and development of bioenergy and energy from renewable sources in Sweden has increased rapidly over the last few years. There are a whole lot of alternatives for those who would like to venture and invest in renewable energy production. Production of renewable energy opens up many opportunities for forestry and farming to venture a new branch of production, on basis of the primary production. Several of the new energy sources grows on farmland or in the forest. The opportunities exist in the primary products, as well as in refining and reselling, in the value chain of energy. The starting-point is the Farmer as an energyproducer. This master thesis studies the nature of farmer-own firms, who has invested in production of renewable energy.