Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether abnormal stock returns could be identified as a result of a layoff announcement during weak economy.Method: An event study methodology.Theory: Efficient market hypothesis, signal theory.Empirical results: Quantitative data from observations of stock prices in thirty two companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, in the period 2008 -2012.Conclusion: The results indicate that the market reaction was negative because there were negative abnormal returns on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2008-2012 in connection with the layoff announcements. The market reaction was milder when staff reductions were carried out as a result of a restructuring and stronger when staff reductions were carried out as part of a cost reduction program.The layoff announcements elicited different market reactions depending on the company's industry affiliation. The most negative reaction was in the Healthcare industry. Negative abnormal returns were lower in industries Industrials, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods. There were no abnormal returns for shares of companies in the industry Financials.

The purpose of this thesis is to make a comparative literary study of ten laboratory experiments with different kind of sources for query expansion terms. The experiments are grouped according to categories of term sources, which are: search results, collection dependent knowledge structures, collection independent knowledge structures and one that combines the two last mentioned sources into one. To enable a comparison all other variables were held as constant as possible. There is the improvement measured in mean average precision, which is used to measure the various sources potential. The result from the study shows a strong connection between the kind of source for the expansion term and improvement of the result.

This dissertation is performed at the request of Lagafors AB who develops and manufactures stationery and mobile hygiene solutions for companies in the food- processing industry. The objective of this dissertation is to develop and construct a new, cost efficient cleaning station based on an innovative technology.The technique is based on serially connected dosing pumps which allow the customer to work with concentrated detergents. This leads to serious reduction in the clients use expenses. Two units have been developed with this technique, one that is stationary and one that is mobile.The dissertation has led to good results which resulted in the sale of the first stationary unit of the Lagafors CPU before the end of this dissertation. .

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a special unit for patients who is in the need for emergency life-sustaining measures and every patient has complex medical- technical equipment. The experiences of a critical illness and the needs of critical care are experienced in different ways. The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences from patients in the ICU and how this experience has an influence on the patients. The method was a study of literature with a qualitative inception based on eight scientific articles and the analysis of content has been inspired by Graneheim and Lundman (2003). The result of the study is presented by four categories: to loose the ability to make themselves understood, to be forced to adjust to the environment of caring, to have the lack of connection with reality and to be in an intensive care environment, The results showed that patients in the ICU are affected by the attitude from the staff, the equipment around them as well as the sounds and lights in the environment there.

Forest enterprises have always searched for ways to improve efficiency. For the past few years there has been an emphasis on stock-keeping levels. Increased demand for fresh round timber and the need to decrease the amount of tied-up capital has made the forest industry reduce its inventory levels. This has brought on a higher demand on the timber supply from the forest management districts concerning both delivery in time and assortment output. As a result, the flow of timber has fluctuated a lot with serious consequence for the timber supply during 1994.

We investigated a retirement home, where we looked at whether there are differences, disagreements or conflicts between teams who work day and night shifts. Our purpose was to examine the Heads of Unit and the employees perspectives on their perceived work situation, cooperation difficulties and why they emerged. We chose the general systems theory as our theoretical basis, which gave us the opportunity to highlight different parts that can affect the working climate and the cooperation of the working groups. The study also highlights the importance of structure, common goals, reporting and dialogue meetings. To understand the perceived work situation, we used methodological triangulation, using quantitative and qualitative methods (surveys, semi-structured interviews).

The aim of this study is to examine how the public responds to the journalists? use of subjectivity in the reporting of broadcasting news. The investigation is a qualitative study based on nine interviews with respondents in ages of 21 to 25 from different parts of Sweden. After showing five examples of news reporting with a subjective approach, the respondents gave their look on the use of subjectivity. The theoretical frame of the investigation is founded on the theory of framing (de Vreese, 2005; Entman, 1993) and the discussion concerning the terms objectivity and subjectivity (e.g.

In theory, the management control of maintenance functions is described as problematic due to the nature of the work performed in the unit. The purpose of this thesis is to examine these predicted problems in practice. Further,the thesis aims at identifying how these control problems may affect the relationships between the maintenance department and its internal customers. A case study has been conducted in one of Sweden?s largest industrial companies to investigate the said control problems in practice.

This thesis studies whether private equity owned firms within the Swedish welfare sector distinguish themselves in terms of tax planning and short-termism from a control group consisting of other privately owned welfare firms. For the first time, the comparison is made on the entire welfare sector, between 14 matched pairs within education, health care and elderly care. We use financial metrics associated with tax planning and short-termism in sign tests to examine whether the private equity owned firms differ from our control group. The financial metrics tested are actual and paid tax rates, level of interest, book-tax gap, investments, personnel expenses per employee, and cash earnings. We find that the private equity owned firms in terms of tax planning only differ in the level of interest, while no notable differences are found in terms of short-termism..

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.

The study is about the collaboration between assistance administrators and unit managers. The aim of the study was to understand the assistance administrators and unit managers interpretation of the concept of collaboration, as well as their experience of collaboration in the practical work in elderly care in the common work around care recipients in the evaluation and execution of home help services. The analyse of the interview material was conducted by using collaboration and New Public Management (NPM). We used the qualitative method in our study with semi-structured questions. The interviews were transcribed, coded and thematised based on our questions. When interpreting the interviews we used the hermeneutic circle in which we analyzed the study's various parts and then attached them to the collaboration, NPM and also to earlier research and to each other. The conclusions that emerged raises the important factors for collaboration and could be linked to collaboration, NPM and previous research.

This thesis describes the redesign ofequipment designed for drying bags thatis used in Fresenius Kabis´manufacturing of their nutritionmedicine in Uppsala. The need of thistask arise during the start of thedevelopment of a new packaging line werethis equipment were meant to be used. Anevaluation of the bagdryers capacity andcapability was necessary.The work started with gathering ofinformation from suppliers of the usedcomponents and from the responsibleengineers for this equipment. Aneducation to learn how the equipmentworked and how to operate it were taken.That was followed by the creation of astudy plan were the tests were plannedto test different parameters effect onthe drying result and to see if thebagdryer managed to handle the bags ofthe correct format in the pace that theequipment should be designed for.The test results detected a need ofdesigning a unit with a function thatholds the bags in place while passingthrough the dryer in order to attainhigh quality results. The results werelater used for optimization of thedesign.

Talking about sexuality -Medical staffs´ experiences of conversations about sexuality with patients at a cardiology unit The background of this essay is the taboo to talk about sexuality among people who suffer from some kind of illness. When a person gets ill and need medical attention, his or her life changes dramatically. The patients get treatment for their symptoms. The illness and treatment have often an influence on the patient?s sexuality.

The aim of my study is to investigate how last year students in upper secondary schoolunderstand certain mathematical concepts, in particular the unit circle and its trigonometry.I have used intentional analysis to interpret student?s actions when they solve certain tasks onthe basis of a cognitive, situated and cultural context.Interviews with four university teachers in mathematics about the unit circle, trigonometry,and mathematical understanding, serve both as background for the study and as basis for adiscussion, where I relate students understanding to what the teachers want new students toknow about these concepts when they begin university studies in mathematics.The students were arranged in three groups with three students in each group. Each group waspresented with two tasks, one in which they were asked to calculate the cosine values for onepointed, one blunt and one straight angle, each located in a separate triangle. They were alsoasked to decide whether the points (0,71; 0,71) and d (1 2 , 3 2 ) are located on the unit circleor not.My conclusion is that students mainly have an operational conception of the unit circle andtrigonometry. The lack of structural conceptions result in difficulties in seeing connectionsbetween the concepts in unfamiliar situations.

The aim of this bachelor´s thesis ist to analyze the idea progress in the party programs in the swedish Centre-party during the time 1910-1959. The progress in the party program is compared with the evolution of society during the same period.The bachelor´s aim is also to analyze how each new program is described in newspapers, two newspapers were chosen to make the comparison; Arbetet (a social-democratic newspaper), and Skånska Dagbladet (a centre-party newspaper). The result shows that the party in the beginning was conservative and against both capitalism and socialism. The start of the party was a reaction against the new electionsystem which was introduced in Sweden in 1909.The party took a clear standpoint for the Swedish farmers, but after 1933, they were standing for the whole countryside. In the 1940´s and the 1950´s the party became more like a social liberal party rather than an agrarian party only for the farmers.The party programs are not given much space in the two newspapers.