The purpose of this Masters Thesis is to explore the impact of spare time reading fiction on the identity of teenage boys, and what it really means to them. To investigate this, we have focused our investigation on how teenage boys relate to and what they search for in their reading. The data collection is based on 8 interviews with boys in the age between 14 and 15 and on literature on the subject. The theoretical framework focuses on the reading theories of Joseph A. Appleyard, the transactional theory of Louise M.

This paper aims at assessing the relationship between female and male part-time employment and the business cycle in Sweden during the years 1987?2005 using quarterly time-series data and two alternative indicators of the business cycle. It further aims at determining whether the share of women working part-time has changed over time. Key results include that the relationship between the business cycle and female part-time employment is found to be significant and countercyclical. No significant effect is however found for men.

This paper is finishing part of the two-year master programme in Industrial Engineering and Management.Initially there was an inquiry of studying the queue-times that Fläkt Woods uses when they break down internal working orders. These times were assumed to be too generalised and does not apply to the actual value of the queue-times which generates incorrect data and delivery delays. During the work of this paper it has been established that it is not the queue-times that is the biggest problem. The problem is the shop floor control and the lack of manufacturing the right products at the right time. Therefore an analysis of the production planning process was made to bring forward the real problems.

This essay in Art History treats the former Central Post Office in Gothenburg, Sweden, and its recent transformation into a luxury hotel. The magnificent original building in neo-classical style, inaugurated in 1925, has been supplemented by a twelve stories high tower in postmodern style containing hotel rooms and suites, creating a complex architecture. The approach of this essay is that of ?lived architecture?, that is, how people experience and act in relation to the building. It is argued that the history of the building is rewritten in the marketing of the hotel and the management?s concept of creating a comfortable ?mini-world?for its guests.

In recent decades, demands has emerged that the companies shall take a greater social responsibility for the impact that they have on their environment and that this impact shall be reported, which is known as Sustainability Reporting. The Sustainability Report is based on a number of general principles that ensure the content and the quality of the Sustainability Report. One of these principles is the principle of completeness. In the research, this principle seems to have been interpreted in terms of number of reported aspects and indicators, which can be a limited view where only the existence of the aspects and indicators is observed. By including the degree of the reporting in terms of full, partial and no reporting as well as a comparison between the real and the alleged reporting, our intention is to extend the principle of completeness and to develop a tool that we also apply through an empirical survey in a particular area.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine if users of digital music games may acquire skills from the games that may be of use in learning to play a real instrument, that is a non-digitally simulated instrument like an acoustic piano. We have used Gee?s theory regarding a possible interconnection between different semiotic domains, and how this connection may enable a transfer of skills between related domains. In this thesis we examine possible skill transfer between the domains ?digital games? and ?non-digital instruments?. To examine our question formulation we chose to conduct a pilot study from which we collected both quantitative and qualitative data.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether some periods of declines in Swedish real credit can be explained by a credit crunch. Is it further possible, with these results, to do any conclusions about the banks behaviour in the on going financial crisis that has shadowed the country since 2007/2008? Method: A credit crunch is here defined as a period of supply-side restrictions on loans which doesn?t reflect the ongoing interest rates. By estimating a supply and demand function with a disequilibrium model the excess demand- and supply for credit due to different periods can be calculated. Conclusion: A credit crunch has been present during a period after the banking crisis of early 1990?s.

This Master Thesis within Marketing and Strategy investigates the values customers perceive within the Real Estate market in the inner City of Stockholm. The dependent variable is customer satisfaction, and it could be explained by 1) the feeling of light and uniqueness of the apartment, 2) that the apartment is of a satisfying size, 3) the address of the apartment, 4) and the economics, the common areas of the building, and the bidding process. The feeling of light and uniqueness, combined with the number of square meters, and the monthly fee of the apartment, are also identified as the price driven functions of this market. A quantitative method is used to investigate the market, where 107 apartment buyers completed a survey..

The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the libraries in the town of Värnamo, between the years 1908 and 1960, when a new modern public library was inaugurated. The method I have used is, to a great extent, examining and analysing source material from the archive of the municipality in Värnamo and the popular movement in Jönköping. As a background to my study I describe the development of the Swedish society, from the end of the nineteenth-, until the middle of the twentieth century. I also describe the local development of Värnamo, during the same period. Furthermore I also give a general description of the progress of the libraries in Sweden during the same time.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine if users of digital music games may acquire skills from the games that may be of use in learning to play a real instrument, that is a non-digitally simulated instrument like an acoustic piano. We have used Gee?s theory regarding a possible interconnection between different semiotic domains, and how this connection may enable a transfer of skills between related domains. In this thesis we examine possible skill transfer between the domains ?digital games? and ?non-digital instruments?. To examine our question formulation we chose to conduct a pilot study from which we collected both quantitative and qualitative data.

The background to the study is that within the next ten years about 50 new multi-purposeindoor arenas will be built. These are used for various events such as sports, concerts, etc. In order to achieve a high level of security in the case of danger alarm signals and alarmmessages must be heard well by the visitors. ÅF-Ingemansson wanted to show builders the importance of good speech perception and that it is not observed in arenas today. They conducted technical tests on two large multi purpose indoor arenas to develop parameters that affect speech perception in the arena.To get a subjective view of how these arenas are experienced a survey was created.

Shock absorber units play a key role in establishing the driving dynamics and performance of automobiles. Öhlins Racing has manufactured high-tech automotive shock absorbers for over 30 years. Öhlins Racing?s advanced technology has contributed to over 200 world championships in automobile racing. Öhlin?s manufacturing process has long utilized automated fluid filling equipment during the final shock absorber unit assembly stage. The filling process consists of vacuum pumping the shock absorber unit and subsequent transfer of fluid. Vacuum pumping is necessary to remove residual air from the shock absorber unit prior to initiating the liquid filling stage. The presence of undesirable gases drastically compromises the performance of a shock absorber. The filling degree, defined as the final ratio of air to oil, is determined by the specific filling protocol as well as the specific equipment utilized.The current investigation aims to develop a viable technique to accurately determine residual air content in shock absorber units. If the filling degree can be appropriately quantified for a specific manufacturing process, then the air/oil ratio may be quantitatively related to shock absorber performance. The utilized measurement method must be completely integrated into the manufacturing process to guarantee shock absorber performance specifications according to the manufacturer?s standards. By utilizing the measurement method developed in this work, the manufacturing process, manufacturing equipment and product specifications can all be tailored to provide improved filling conditions.The developed measurement method provides accurate quantification of the filling degree under a wide range of processing conditions. The method establishes the relative quantity of air in the shock absorber unit by performing in-situ compressibility tests. The fill ratio can be controlled and varied by manipulating the vacuum pressure exerted during the filling process. Performance tests, however, indicate no correlation between filling degree and unit performance..

Abstract   Cinematic time is the most complex of all: it is composed of public time (clock), personal time (experienced) and in addition, it can run backwards, be contingent, stored and (re)created. The present study examines some aspects of cinematic time, with special reference to the instant, the moment and the present. The strictly defined instant or moment does not exist. It is a passage between the past and the future and it is impossible to record on film or a photograph. One example is the moment of death, which is an abstraction with zero duration.

This paper investigates the compensation for risk in the context of the Swedish stock market with a special focus on downside risk. Using daily market data collected from the A-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange between the years 1983 and 2005 the purpose is to answer the question whether Swedish investors are compensated for holding stocks with high downside risk, measured as downside beta. Using panel data analysis it is shown, in accordance with most previous evidence in international research, firstly that stocks with high beta values on average experience higher returns than stocks with low beta values, and secondly that stocks with high downside beta values experience higher returns than stocks with high beta values in general. On the other hand, cross-sectional regression methodology using a bivariate regression approach shows that downside beta does not explain excess returns very well. Instead, regression analysis suggest that high upside beta does a much better job in explaining excess return over this time period compared to downside beta.

The work describes the development of an adjustment algorithm that will replace today?s manual adjustment of Lead- and Lag-filters at ABB Robotics industrial robots. The adjustment is mainly for the filter parameters in the control system.Three different algorithms have been created to replace the manual adjustment. One of them is based on the criterion from the manual adjustment and another one on optimization of the sensitivity function. The last one is a combination of the two.The report describe the development of the algorithms and how they behave during simulations and tests on real robots.