The purpose of this Master's thesis is to elucidate the phenomenon of storytelling and its methodology in the context of public library story-time for pre-school children. It also strives to give an insight into the functions of story-time both with regard to the storyteller and the participating children. The study is based on qualitative methods in the form of a literature analysis, observations and interviews. The interviews were undertaken with two storytellers from the same library who work with children up to three years old and children aged between four and six years. The result of the study suggests that storytelling is more appropriate than reading aloud in situations when large groups of children are involved.

In support to a decision to be made by the Swedish central competent authority on a minimal amount of straw for conventional growing-finishing pigs, a study using 168 pigs provided 7 different amounts of straw (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 200 or 300 grams/pig/day) was performed. The straw was provided either once or four times per day. Detailed behaviour observations were made using focal animal sampling and continuous recording for one hour between 9 and 10 am and again between 3 and 4 pm. The data analysis is presented in three ways: broken stick model, polynomial trend line and logarithmic trend line. No method was suitable on its own but the use of all the methods simultaneously was found to portray the data in the best way.No significant differences were found when comparing pens provided with straw once or four times per day.

Svenskarna är med en elförbrukning av cirka 15000 kWh per person de fjärde största elför-brukarna i världen. Det beror främst på det kalla klimatet, men även stora industrier med hög elförbrukning bidrar till konsumtionen. Högskolan Väst förbrukar årligen 3 miljoner kWh. Med stigande elpriser och ett ökat fokus på miljöpåverkan önskar skolan att sänka sin förbrukning.Examensarbetet har utförts på uppdrag av kWh kontroll och NEA gruppen. Mätningar har utförts på matande ledning till skolans alla huskroppar samt dess ventilation.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a correlation between the actuarial assumptions, of listed groups in Large Cap on the Nasdaq Stockholm, equity ratio and their pensionplans funding status.Method: The study is based on a quantitative research method, where the analysis of annual reports takes place. The quantitative research method has enabled the paper to perform related analyzes and comparisons of means between groups, for listed companies equity ratio and pension obligation, and the relation to its actuarial assumptions. Correlation measurements are made using a non-parametric method, Spearman's rho, then further tested using one-sided hypotheses t-test.Theory: The backbone of the thesis is presented using two theories, earnings management and the principal-agent theory. These theories are intertwined with the previous researches, which also dealt with the essay topic of earnings management in previous years and in other countries.Empirical: Correlation analyzes between the studied actuarial assumptions and corporate groups solidity and pension financial status is presentedusing tables and charts. These are further analyzed using hypothesis tests and scatterplots.Conclusion: All tests resulted in very weak correlation between the different variables and can there for not be classified as significant.

SammanfattningSyfteSyftet med studien är att undersöka hur behovsanställda ungdomar upplever sina anställningsvillkor och hur deras livssituation blir påverkad i restaurangbranschen.MetodVi har valt en kvalitativ metod för att studera hur individen upplever sina anställningsvillkor och hur det påverkar livssituationen. I den kvalitativa metoden valde vi att använda oss av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer.ResultatI vårt resultat kan vi se att våra respondenter hade en negativ upplevelse av samtliga sex teman; anställningskontrakten, arbetstider, framtidsutsikter, aktiviteter & relationer, hälsa och ekonomi. Behovsanställda saknar anställningsvillkor och har ofta inga skriftligt anställningskontrakt. Denna anställningsform har inga fasta arbetstider och upplevs av samtliga respondenter som otrygg. Genom denna otrygga anställningsform blir hälsan, aktiviteter och relationer påverkad negativt med stress och inställda planer.

The consumption levels in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway have been rising fo r the last decade. Even after the financial crisis of 2008, consumption levels continued their upward trend, regardless of the recession. The explanation seems to be, at least partly, that households tends to increase their debt ratio in order to continue the same standard of living as before in terms of consumption. It is clear, based of our results, that there is a connection between increased consumption and debt ratio for households. And the consequences of allowing loans to finance a sustained or increasing consumption may ultimately be difficult to manage.

My curiosity concerning what pupils read and write during leisure time led me to gather information using a quantative method. The study's aim is to investigate which reading and writing habits they have during their time outside school. A comparison was done of pupils at school year level 3 and level 4 in two different schools with the intention of investigating the influence of social background on reading and writing habits. 137 pupils filled in survey forms and thereafter the MYSTAT statistic program was used to process the information. The results point towards that the pupils read story books both more often and for a longer time than any other type of literature and that they read them often or very seldom.

Year 1996 a new law was introduced in Sweden, the law of corporate restructuring, what purpose was to help companies in financial distress. Now, nine years later the procedure hasn?t been successful. This is what this thesis is trying to find out.This thesis main question is: What distinguishes the companies that have filed for a corporate restructuring, according to the financial position?The purpose of this thesis is to find out if key ratios can be used to distinguish the companies that filed for corporate restructuring.

Pharmaceuticals are environmental pollutants that are a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and very little is known about their ecological consequences. In this study growth, survival and behaviour (sociability, activity and boldness) of perch fry (Perca fluviatilis) were examined in order to study the possible effects of exposure to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug, Oxazepam, during embryonic development. The study tested following hypotheses: (1) perch growth is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; (2) early perch survival is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; and (3) boldness and activity increases while sociability decreases in perch fry exposed during embryonic development. Embryos of naturally spawned perch were exposed to water with two different concentrations of Oxazepam. The embryos were exposed during different parts (24-hour periods) of the embryonic development, because embryos may be more vulnerable at certain times during embryonic development and/or because the exposure at different times can produce different effects.

This Master?s thesis is a comparative study of information retrieval results between three distinct search strategies in simulated automatic query expansion in a bibliographic database. Our purpose is to investigate which of the search strategies score the most effective precision and to what extent the same relevant documents are retrieved (overlapped). A thesaurus attached to the database is used to select appropriate descriptors for the baseline query formulations which subsequently are expanded with hierarchical relations. The search strategies are s1: A baseline query with two or three descriptors, s2: The baseline descriptors combined with at least one Narrower Term, s3: The baseline descriptors combined with Narrower Term and at least one Broader Term.

The general pension supplement introduced in 1960 which introduced the public pension funds in Sweden. In the late 1990s the Swedish pension system was reformed and established the current structure. Today, funds are one of the most common forms of savings in Sweden and mutual funds are the most common type.The purpose of this study is to analyze the risk-adjusted returns for the AP funds in the period 2003-2009. Study was based on five funds that are most similar and have the same mission. These funds are AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4 and AP7.The method used in this study is mainly based on a survey of the figures and measurable units of statistical methods that have been carried out by a quantitative approach.

Title: A study about needs, goals and motivational factorsCourse/Subject: Business Administration concentration Leadership, 15 hpAuthors: Ulrika HerolfTutor: Anders BillströmKeywords: Needs, Goals, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational FactorsBackground and problem Motivation is a large subject and in my investigation on the matter I found that needs, goals, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors frequently occurred. By that I got interested in research if any of these four key terms was more central for an individual?s motivation within a working team or if all four was as equally central.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which motivational factors that is important to an individual?s motivation. I will do this by investigate the terms needs, goals, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. I want to investigate this by interviewing a number of employees within a working team, including a manager.  My hope is that my thesis will interest managers in working teams, future managers and co-workers that want to learn more about motivation.Problem statement: What factors are important to individual motivation in a working team?   Methodology: I conducted a qualitative study where I gathered data from five persons.

The purpose of this paper is to study what the press in Sweden wrote about counterfeiting from 1944 to 1950. By studying how the newspapers wrote about the crime of counterfeiting, the paper aims to give a glimpse of how counterfeiters worked and got their notes in circulation. The analysis is based on a theoretical perspective of a "we" and "they" in which Sweden is compared to the opposite abroad. The paper examines how the security of Swedish banknotes is discussed in Swedish news articles and how they describe counterfeiters and passers. The paper examines forty one newspaper clippings from the period 1944-1950 from twenty five different newspapers from different parts of the country.

AbstractTitle: Accounting firms´ view on the (new law) in joint-stock companiesCourse: Business Administration, Financial Accounting in Corporations and Groups, Ad-vanced Course, 15 ECTSAuthors: Mikaela Uveby, Shadi Nourbehesht, Almira DizdarevicAdvisor: Kent TrosanderProblem: During the last few years, more importance and emphasis has been put on auditors and accounting in general due to a number of company and business scandals on both national and international levels. The United States as well as the EU consid-ered it a necessity to make regulations stricter when it comes to auditing and ac-counts in order to increase the public trust to accounting. At January 1st, 2007, Sweden also changed its law concerning accounting firm challenges. The new law states that as soon as someone of the auditor?s co-workers assists a client with some part of the basic bookkeeping, the main bookkeeping or the drawing-up of the an-nual account, the challenge situation becomes a fact.Purpose: The purpose of the essay is to examine and inquire into how the renewed law con-cerning accounting firm challenges, that was established and put to action at Janu-ary 1st, 2007, has affected accounting firms.Method: The writers have chosen to complete qualitative interviews in order to get a deeper insight to and an understanding of the topic.Conclusion: One year after the renewal of the law, the writers have reached the conclusion of that the new law has not had a great impact on the accounting firms.

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine query expansion. Query expansion is the process of adding new terms to a query to improve the retrieval effectiveness. In this study the baseline query was expanded in five different modes. The first expansion strategy was formulated by the inflected terms as the system does not allow truncation, I have inflected the terms, e. g.