The northern province of Sweden has in both literature and film been depictured as something foreign and mythical, unlike the rest of the country. It has been my purpose to show in this essay that the systematic categorization of Norrland and its literature reveals multiple criteria known to define the colonial era. By reading the novel Stallo by author Stefan Spjut with postcolonial structures in mind I aim to show how the author uses Swedish mythology and through the presence of The Other criticizes colonial structures in place to this day. By examining the gothic atmosphere I intend to indicate how the trolls in the novel figures as both a horror element as well as a representation of nature itself. It is my belief that the author by further reinforcing the mythological in relation to Norrland addresses the problem at hand.

Background: The international accounting standard regarding goodwill gives opportunities to several accounting procedure choices, as goodwill is a complex, intangible asset. The valuation of goodwill affects equity/asset ratio and income statement, which gives that the stakeholders? impression of the group?s financial statement is affected by the valuation of this asset. It has been pointed out that difficult economic times bring impairment loss to the fore. During financial crisis, equity/asset ratio may be significant as the economy of the groups is expected to be strained.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to explain the appearance of the possible relationship between a group?s impairment loss for goodwill and their equity/asset ratio, during financial straits.

The task given to us was to develop an industrial wheel with new thinking in terms of fresh design and construction, with the ability to brake. While the produced wheels of today only own the property of total braking, a wish was made to integrate the ability of directional locking.The time spent working with the project has been filled with multiple sketches of ideas and function analysis.Choices of material and ways of construction have been verified by calculations, tests and prototype building. The goal of this thesis has been to develop a unique caster with well thought-out design that would be adaptable to different areas of applications.The result was a hubless wheel with the ability of directional locking before total braking.A prototype of the wheel has been made to show the design and functions..

The world is changing and the business context is no exception. One of the clearest tendencies is a tougher business climate with harder competition due to increased international trade and the expansion of the e-business. At the same time the customers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. The last decades have also meant that tougher and more frequent demands are being aimed at the businesses from a wider variety of stakeholders; demands regarding how environmental issues, social responsibilities and business ethics should be dealt with. All of the above have driven companies towards implementation of different management systems to be able to cope with the demands as well as to ensure that these issues are being dealt with in an efficient and effective manner.

This thesis studies the relationship between risk and the first day returns of Initial Public Offerings (IPO) by assessing the risk of each issuing company with a risk model that combine financial key ratios of importance. The study is based on 92 IPO?s that were made on the Stockholm OMX stock exchange during the period of 1997-2009. The point of departure was to investigate if the uncertainty created by the asymmetric information between investors and the issuing firm could be captured by predicting the possibility of failure in the future. This has been studied by applying Skogsvik?s probability of failure model on the 92 issuing firms.

In this essay we have approached the problem with retailer brands that copy marketing leaders to get consumers attention in the storeshelf. We have sought to explore how much a designed package would change the consumers opinion of a brand and if this effect is different depending on if the brand is a retailer brand or a market leader. Also we sought to find if this effect would be greater with a salient color on the package. We made a quantitative study and with regression analysis we found that a designed package did have effect on the consumers opinion of the brand, and that the design with the salient color made the biggest effect..

Gravitational lenses are unlike ordinary optical lenses, a phenomenon corrupting our optical view of the cosmos. When we look out intospace we see celestial bodies lying with astronomical distance from Earth. There is no guarantee that what we see out there in space is actually there where we are observing it, and it may be that we see multiple images of the same star! Studies have shown that thenumber of distorted images of an n-mass (n > 1) plane lens can not exceed 5(n -1) for lighter lenses or 5n for more massive lens. This mathematical thesis covers gravitational lensing and their properties that distort light rays coming towards us from distant celestial bodies. In addition of gravitational lensing, its properties and the proof of the maximum number of distorted images, a bigger part of this work even cover two very interesting mathematical tools - the so-called Schwarz function and Bezout theorem..

My work has been to create a magazine for iPad to explore this format, whichthere are mixed feelings about. Instead of seeing the digital format as an enemy ofthe printed magazine, I have chosen to see it as an opportunity.I have given myself the task of designing a magazine that can justify the useof the digital magazine. I have looked at the identity of the magazine, but mainlyexplored the format and its prerequisites.I was triggered to do the project when I saw people who are just making a pdfof the printed magazine and publish it digitally. I have during my work discoveredhow near or far away you can be from the printed magazine.The format of the iPad has multiple aspects to look upon; one that turned outto be clear in my project was navigation. Working with a spread has its problemsand opportunities; the same applies to an article that is larger than a screen.

The Sub-Saharan countries have for a long time struggled with poverty and conflicts which might have proven hostile for investors. The analysis aims to see if there is a significant correlation between foreign direct investments (FDI) and economic growth and which cultural and institutional factors seem to be significant in this correlation. Considered are also other variables and their influence that might explain what motivates and gives incentives for foreign direct investments (FDI) and are used in the construction of a regression analysis. This to see whether there is an effect on the economic growth in relations to FDI. The results show that FDI is of significance to the economic growth in the region and the study shows that corruption seems to be the most significant institutional factor in the correlation with effect on economic growth and the ability to attract FDI..

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det finns någon mätbar korrelation mellan kiselalgskomplexet Fragilaria capucinas storlek och halten av fosfor i det vattendrag där de lever. Om ett samband finns kan detta efter ytterligare studier komma att bli användbart inom miljöövervakningen då bland annat vattendragens eutrofieringsgrad ska undersökas. Studien baseras på arkiverade kiselalgspreparat som finns på Institutionen för vatten och miljö (IVM). Arton prover med varierande fosforhalter valdes ut, och tjugo F. capucina räknades i varje prov.

In this report a model was constructed in order to determine how a number of covariates influence the gross domestic product, GDP. The covariates were chosen depending on their expected influence on GDP, for example education and life expectancy. The data used in this report are collected from the World Bank. The model to describe GDP has been calculated using multiple line arregression. In order to reach a reliable final model the number of covariates has been gradually decreased to eliminate insignificant covariates.

Sammanfattning Titel: Lågkonjunktur ? En studie i vilka skillnader som finns för variationen i antal anställda inom IT- respektive industribranschen Författare: Emilio Nilsson, Oscar Kacprzak Handledare: Emil Numminen Institution: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola Kurs: Kandidatarbete i Företagsekonomi Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och analysera för hur företagets ekonomiska data för den relativt unga IT-sektorn förklarar antal anställda gentemot hur företagets ekonomiska data förklarar nyckeltalet för en äldre mer erfaren bransch som industrisektorn. Metod: Vi har samlat ihop kvartalsrapporter från 1999 års första kvartal till 2009 års första kvartal för totalt 10 stycken företag som vi bedömt lämpliga för studien, 5 företag från IT-branschen samt 5 företag från industribranschen. Vi har därefter fört regressionsanalyser med antal anställda som Y-variabel och totala intäkter, aktienivå, rörelsekostnader samt rörelseresultat som X-variabler för att finna korrelationen däremellan. Slutsats: De framkomna resultaten från regressionsanalyserna pekar på att det finns skillnader branscherna emellan.

AbstractTitle: Corporate Social Responsibility within the banking-sector ? A case study of the CSR-strategies of Nordea.Seminar date: 130108State University: Mälardalen University ? Västerås Institution: School of Sustainable Development of Society and TechnologyLevel: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration ? FÖA300Authors: Samir Ghaddab, Josefine Jonsson, Sam LindforsExaminor: Cecilia Lindh Thillenius Supervisor: Magnus LinderströmPages: 35 Attachments: 1 Key words: CSR, bank, sustainability, communication, awarenessResearch questions:- What is the nature of CSR-related work in Nordea, and how do they practice CSR? - How can Nordea raise awareness about CSR among employees and other stakeholders?Purpose: The purpose with this thesis was to get an increased understanding about how Nordea interprets CSR and how they work with CSR. Finally with relevant theories in mind, this thesis presents suggestions on possible changes and opportunities within Nordea?s CSR-activities and how they can co-operate with NGO?s like CSR Sweden.Methodology: A qualitative study with deductive methods. A case study has been done with semi-structured interviews at a company and a nonprofit organization.Conclusion: The reality in which Nordea operates conforms to the theories presented in the thesis when we look at the driving forces behind working with CSR and the demands on the company that stakeholders have.

På bara några decennier har kravet på utbildning vuxit markant och därmed också antalet universitetsstuderande. Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka huruvida det lönar sig att vidareutbilda sig på universitetsnivå och i vilken utsträckning det finns skillnader för män respektive kvinnor inom en mans och en kvinnodominerad utbildning. Fyra regressioner har genomförts. Därefter har en jämförelse skett mellan de olika livsinkomsternas nuvärden. Livsinkomsten har räknats fram genom att subtrahera nuvärdet av alternativkostnaderna från nuvärdet av livsinkomsterna.

Syftet med denna studie var att beräkna preliminär prevalens för sjukdomen multipel skleros (MS) i Värmland, med prevalensdag 21 december 2002, och jämföra den med andra prevalensstudier i Sverige. Utifrån patientjournaler vid länets sjukvårdsinrättningar noterades basala och medicinska data på ett registreringsformulär. För klassificering av MS har Poser ?s kriterielista tillämpats och granskningen av journaler har utförts av specialist neurologer. Prevalensen för definite/probable MS i Värmland, baserad på siffror som var insamlade augusti 2004, var 151/105 (95% CI 136-165), för kvinnor var prevalensen 211/105 (95% CI 187-235) och för män 89/105 (95% CI 73-105), vilket innebär att MS var 2,37 gånger vanligare för kvinnor.