A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

This Bachelor thesis examines the possibility of replacing an outdated, analog video recording system to a digital counterpart. It is key that the video and audio signals remain synchronized, generator locked and time stamped. It is up to nine different video sources and a number of audio sources to be recorded and treated in such a manner which enables synchronized playback. The  different video sources do not always follow a universal standard, and differ from format as well as resolution. This thesis aims to compare a number of state of the art commercial of the shelf solutions with proprietary hardware.

This thesis intends to analyse conditions for a successful implementation of consociational democracy, as a democratic model in Afghanistan. The lack of critical reviews regarding the democratisation-process in Afghanistan initiated the purpose of this study.Lijpharts democracy model was used as the basis in the comparative study. Along with empirical evidence regarding how the complex process of democracy in Afghanistan is progressing, the study investigated whether the identified conditions occurred or not.The choice of which democracy model to use can be crucial for the democratic possibilities to even survive and become established in conflict-affected communities. The principle of consociational democracy is that it is an empirically based normative model that aims to organise the state in a way that works against the risks of majority domination and oppression against the minority.The empirical case study revealed that a majority of the conditions were not met, which then can counteract the possibilities for consociational democracy in Afghanistan. The study has critically examined the prospects for the success of consociational democracy in Afghanistan, and it can be assessed that there is a limited probability for a successful applying of this model..

The focus of this thesis is upon how conceptions of globalization is created by the labour-organizations Lands-organisationen (LO) and Svenskt Näringsliv. It is possible to discern two arguments for globalization in the texts, economy and democracy, and it is around these that the discourses of globalization are being constructed. Economy turns into a basic logic in the discourses of globalization. How to perceive the role of economy, as positive or negative, differs. Still, there is an agreement of the influence of economy.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how the image of the gambler is described by studying a report published by Folkhälsoinstituet [FHI] and a number of chosen articles from the Swedish Evening Press. Discourse theory has been used both as theory, together with social constructionism, and as a research method. The main conclusions of the study are that three different discourses can be identified: the normal gambler, the professional gambler and the problem gambler. The image of the problem gambler is described as a deviant and problematic minority characterized by loss of control, irrational thoughts and dissociative behaviour. The construction of the problem gambler fills three possible purposes for the state: As a solvable problem to handle criticism against negative consequences of gambling, as an argument to avoid competition on the market and as an individual characterized by loss of control in order to legitimize and make the construction of the normal gambler possible..

Nature conservation agreement (NCA) is a way to voluntarily protect and manage nature for limited time-periods. The agreement is settled between the government and a landowner. All public authorities can represent the government but it is only the Swedish Forest Administration who does that regularly (because it is the only authority with economic resources for that purpose). Therefore, NCAs are almost only used to protect forested nature. The government agencies have experienced NCAs for about ten years and it is now time to examine how they are applied in the forests. This study is based on a computerized questionnaire to the persons responsible for the LEKO-projekt.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the development of libraries on Tjörn, an island on the Swedish west coast. I have divided the thesis in two parts, one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1873 to 1952 in the municipality of Stenkyrka and one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1976 and 1985 in the municipality of Tjörn. The study is mainly based on written materials and a theoretic model will also be used in which I apply three factors, society, the libraries economy and individual actors on the library activity. The libraries in Stenkyrka during the early period were dependent of public grant from the state for their survival and the libraries were undeveloped. The society around them was poor and hardly any money or assistants came from the municipality.

At the Division of Electricity at Uppsala University there is an experimental rig forhydroelectric generators. The experimental rig?s vital part is a 12-pole synchronousmachine, whose electrical characterizing parameters (resistances, inductances andtime constants) are unknown. The aim of this thesis is to characterize the machine inits current state by perform a Standstill Frequency Response (SSFR) test. From theanalysis of the measurement data, which is a part of the test, a set of basic parametershave been received.

Canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a disease with high morbidity and mortality and with a high prevalence in certain breeds. Predominatly large breeds are affected, such as Great danes, Newfoundlands, Deerhounds and Dobermanns. One exception is Cocker spaniels, where both American and English Cocker spaniels are affected in a quite high frequency. Cardiomyopathy is characterised as a disease that affects the myocardium and gives an impaired heart function. To diagnose DCM following criteria have to be observed: 1. Dilation of the left ventricle. 2. Reduced systolic heart function. 3. Increased sphericity of the left ventricle. To be certain of the diagnosis, alternative reasons for the symptoms such as lung- and heart diseases with other etiologies have to be excluded Two different types of DCM have been found upon histological examination.

Labour and its conditions is a subject constantly in focus. Therefore this study aims to shed some light on different factors which constitutes the basis for the definition of optimal labour conditions, as well as creating a need for change of labour conditions. In this case these factors are changes in society and cultures. The study describes how different levels of society - government, employer and employee ? are affected by, or wishes to affect the labor conditions in terms of location, working hours and leisure.

In this essay we aimed to find how economic scarcity among children and youth presents itself in school, according to how school staff experience it. We have conducted interviews with student welfare staff to hear their experiences of this subject and how the schools try to help these pupils. We have used interpretative phenomenology as a base for our work. We have also used some of this traditions most important notions along with notions of Erving Goffman and Sara Ahmed during our processing off the material.  With help from these, we report our most interesting results. We have seen that a lack of resources exists among youth today and that everyone not has easy access to things many of us might take for granted.

The voltage regulation in Fortum Distributions medium voltage network in Stockholm does not work satisfactory. This results in too high distribution voltages with many customer complaints as a consequence. The reason is the model responsible for compensating for voltage drops in the distribution network. Despite several adjustments Fortum has not been able to find the source of the high voltages and has therefore appointed an investigation in the form of a thesis work.The aim of this investigation is to locate the error and to produce a proposal regarding the solution of this error using the existing system, common industrial knowledge, state of the art research and the option to use voltage readings from the different substations.The conclusion of this master thesis is that the largest contribution to the high voltage levels is made by the large compensation for distribution loses. Furthermore an additional error in the model has been found.

A group of scientist, called the council of democracy in Sweden made a predictionabout members of political parties, in 2013 members should not exist. In this essaythat statement going to be questioned. It shows that most of the political parties losesmembers in Sweden. The only differences from year 2000 and now is that in 14 yearsthe parties has lost 65000 members, between 1991-1999 it was about 220000members. Something has changed.

It is estimated that approximately 10 000 people are living in Sweden after having been rejected residence permit or asylum, meaning that they have to hide from the authorities while facing a risk of being deported by means of violence as they do not wish to leave voluntarily.For their existence, a vast number of people employed by the public administration can be expected to contribute to the wellbeing of the hidden people through their professions as bureaucrats.The bureaucrats can thereby be expected to be torn between different sets of value systems, roles and obligations towards the state and towards the hidden people.In this master thesis, I examine how five bureaucrats motivate their acting for the sake of the hidden people in terms of legitimacy, legality and morality in their administration, towards their ethic responsibilities and towards society as a whole.The results show that the bureaucrats see themselves as saviours of ethical values in an illegitimate administration where economic efficacy and arbitrary decision-making constantly transgresses The Human Rights, ratified by the Swedish Parliament..

In 2010 Swedish political parties used commercials broadcasted on TV for the first time in order to gain votes in a general election. In connection with the election the parties were criticized for not succeeding to formulate a story to the voters that conveyed how they wanted to change Sweden. In this paper I use central concepts from rhetoric, storytelling, postmodernism and psychology to formulate three demands each on the narrator, the story and its reception. Using the resulting image of what distinguishes a good narrator, a good story and a good reception as a starting point, I investigate to what extent the critique was justified. My findings indicate that the degree to which the commercials fulfill these demands vary greatly.