Lately information- and communication technology (ICT) has been seen as an important tool to vitalize democracy. What kind of democracy it generates is however debateable. The objective with this thesis is therefore to examine what democratic ideal that dominates the use of ICT in Region Skåne and Västra Götalandsregionen and what kind of citizenship it brings. The two case studies were chosen because the Swedish regional level is facing a reorganization with democratic ambitions which in relation to ICT is fairly unexplored. To fulfil the objective there are two perspectives; e-democracy and e-administration, which are defined and integrated with democratic theory including Premfors´ "Fast, Strong and Thin" democratic ideals and Marshall´s three citizenship rights.

Approximately 60 million cubic meters of round wood are transported every year with trucks in Sweden and stand for 15 % of all truck transportation in the country. The big amount that is transported results in many haulage companies works in different parts of the country with different conditions to get a good flow on their transports. Today the transport pricing is very general and the payment consists of the unit round wood they are transporting and the distance of the transport. The purpose of this study were, from the freighter and the haulage company?s perspective, try to find ways to change the today applied transport pricing to more differentiated and compare them to historic payment of transportation.

Alternative splicing is a process that partly rejects the common definition of a gene ? that one gene codes for one specific protein. By variable combination of coding Regions (exons) and exclusion of non-coding Regions (introns), formation of several different mRNA-transcripts, and consequently several different proteins, can derive from the same gene. Alternative splicing is an important condition for the development of complex life forms, but it is also a highly sensitive process and inaccurate splicing is the cause of approximately 15 % of mutations that cause genetic diseases. This article presents four genes, BRCA1, BRCA2, ER? and ER?, and inaccurate splicing of these genes increases the risk of developing cancer, particularly breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

This study examines how upper secondary school teachers in Västerbotten and Österbotten plan to teach about the Finnish War 1808-09. The study includes written interviews with nine teachers in Västerbotten and eight teachers in Österbotten, who have answered questions concerning school policy documents, content and didactic methods. The purpose has been to examine whether there is a difference in historical culture in how the war is treated in the two Regions. Historical culture is here meant within the prospective history lesson, where the pupils encounter history within certain boundaries.The result of the interview study shows that there are differences in structure concerning the school policy documents, but that these differences on the whole are compensated by the widespread interest in the Finnish War by the teachers in both Regions. The differences in historical culture can be found within the construction of the content when it comes to the aftermaths of the war as well as the purpose of the teaching.

New method for measuring road quality- A statisticalstudy of the relationship between road quality andsocioeconomic development A new tool with implications for road maintenance has the potential to yield statistical data for road quality in a large number of Regions. This thesis investigates the possibility to develop a method, from this data, for evaluating the effects of road quality on socioeconomic development.The thesis is essentially divided into two parts. Part one looks to qualitatively establish the link between socioeconomic development and road quality and the second part focuses on how to develop a method for evaluating the effects of road quality on socioeconomic development. A method was devised using categorical data and a multinomial regression model. This method provides a comprehensive overview of the complex relationship between a variety of different variables.

This thesis project focuses on the need for better tools for analyzing competition for forest fuels in Sweden, in particular how policy measures may influence the market and involved actors in different Regions of Sweden. Raw materials from the forest have for long constituted important inputs in the Swedish forest industry. Today some of these raw materials are increasingly used as inputs also in bioenergy production, largely driven by bioenergy promoting policies, and there are signs of increased competition for forest fuels which may have various and uncertain effects on the industries in question. The thesis project explores the possibilities to adapt previously used forest sector equilibrium models into a new model suitable for analysis of Swedish forest fuel markets, called the Swedish Forest Sector Trade Model (SFSTM). The approach takes into account regional differences in supply and demand for 23 types of products produced and/or used by eight types of producers, plus consumers, in five different Regions (four Swedish and one international).

The demand for renewable energy is increasing in Sweden. This consequently increases the pressure for and willingness to pay for forest fuels. One method to extract forest fuel from suitable commercial thinnings is the "long top method? (LT-method). With this method saw logs and non-delimbed tops are recovered, i.e.

In 2009, the Swedish Basketball Federation started a Region U15 development project in order to change the structure of the regional organization to get into a more transparent and similar operations throughout the country. My purpose is to study the attitudes to the change among the region leaders in the regional operations and evaluate the change from an organizational perspective. The study is primarily based on the following questions: What are the experiences of the change process among the region leaders in the regional organization? How involved have region leaders been in the changing process? Which are the positive and negative aspects with the regional operation today? What can be done further to develop the regional operation and to what extent do the organizational change follow general organizational theories? In my study, a qualitative method was used in terms of interviews with 8 regional leaders to understand their attitude to the project and the changing process. To analyze the results of the region leaders ?responses, a transcription have been made.

The aim of this comparative study is to analyse the French and the Polish regional governance in order to see if there are any differences in their regional ruling systems. Further more I will study their different possibilities in taking part in the European Union regional political market. The shape of the regional systems will be explored both organisationally (study of the institutional entities of the regional construction) and functionally (study of the competencies of the regional body etcetera) to focus on its cause on the regional development. My over all focus will be to find out whether regional rule means differently in the countries France and Poland.Several questions are dealt with and the two main ones are as follows; How do the different structures of the form of government in France and Poland influence the governance on the regional level? Do Poland, as a new member state of the European Union, have what it takes to face the challenges of the new membership; or are there a complex of problems arising from the admittance that prevent its Regions from fully taking part in the European regional political market?Some of my conclusions are as follows;There are major differences between the two countries when it comes to their regional ruling systems leading to different abilities in taking part in the European regional political market.

After the storm Gudrun in 2005, the Swedish Transport Administration started clear-cutting of railroad corridors to reduce the risk of trees falling down on the tracks. Simultaneously, train accidents with moose and roe deer have become more frequent and the costs for consequent delays and repairs of engines are of growing concern. There is reason to assume that tree-clearance of railroad corridors may have contributed to an increase in number of accidents with moose and roe deer because the cleared areas provide attractive forage and thus may attract wildlife. The objective of my study was to investigate how clearing of trees affected the number of accidents with moose and roe deer. I compared deer-train collision frequencies before and after clearance of the selected railroads and compared these with uncleared control railroads in a BACI (before-after control-impact) approach.

The aim of this study is to examine the market reaction when information about a company?s foreign direct investment is announced and how that affects the shareholder?s value. Also of interest is whether the market reacts differently depending on which country the investment is established in and which mode of entry is used. This will be achieved by using an event study approach. The selection that was used consisted of 206 companies registered on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic homepage, which had during a time period stretching from 1999 to 2009 established a foreign direct investment in the Regions BRIC, Europe or the USA using the mode of organic growth, joint venture or acquisition.

In Sweden there are about 4 million hectares of bare peat (mire). This land has great potential to be transformed into productive forest land, provided drainage is carried out and, in some cases, even fertilization with ashes. Drainage of mires is necessary because the high groundwater table prevents trees from growing due to reduced oxygen availability. Some of the key nutrients that trees need to grow appear in too small quantities in mires, especially potassium (K) and phosphorus (P). Ash from the combustion of biomass contains these elements and is therefore suitable as a fertilizer.

For many providers of ERP-system, Poland is one of the most valuable markets in Central andEastern Europe. The Polish market for ERP-systems is still a growing market, especially; wecan see the low utilization of ERP-systems among small and medium-sized enterprises. Thisis due to several factors, primarily the cost of implementing the system and the necessary infrastructure.Subsequently due to the lack of knowledge, where there is no sufficientknowledge of the benefits arising from the use of an ERP-system in their business, and thereis a fear within the companies that its business would start stagnating.This paper investigates the implementation process of a Polish consulting company whichworks towards small and medium-sized businesses. The key success factors will be studied inthe implementation of ERP-systems, and the instance factors of the interrelationship betweenthe consultant and client from a consultant perspective. The review of the literature has beenidentified and discussed in relevance to the empirical study.

This essay is about the planning of Stockholm's border Regions (areas on the outskirts of the city) during the first seven years of the 21st century. It describes how planning decisions are made in reality, in respect to a 'green' perspective. By describing what a "markanvisning" is (the right to negotiate with the city about a certain piece of land) and by discussing examples of what has happened with a hundred applications for markanvisning, this essay shows how Stockholm's border Regions are planned. In the majority of cases it is the initiative of the future developers that begin the planning and construction processes. Research shows that the application to get a markanvisning in Stockholm does not follow a clear, structured system. However, the existing system in Stockholm does work and it seems like almost all the employees within the municipality, the politicians, and the future proprietors are happy with the current situation. Interviews have been held with key individuals involved in the planning process.

The proportion of women entrepreneurs in Sweden is, as in many countries, smaller than the proportion of men entrepreneurs. Sweden has therefore created political measures with the ambition to increase women entrepreneurship. However, knowledge about the determinants of women entrepreneurship is needed in order to enable the promotion of it and, at the same time one can question the treatment of women entrepreneurs as a homogenous group. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the determinants of women entrepreneurship and whether these determinants fluctuate regionally. If this proves to be the case, a more spatial/individual approach should be used, when creating measures to promote entrepreneurship.