The aim of this study is to investigate differences that exist in Estonia and Russia with regard to civil society, democracy and corruption and try to find out what can be possible causes to the vast differences in these two countries. Many political scientists claim that civil society plays a key role in democratic transitions. This paper takes its point of departure in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia and Russia became independent. Since then Estonia has had a flourishing economy which attract many foreign investments, with Sweden as the greatest investor. The country has also managed well to adjust quickly from totalitarianism to democracy.

Begreppet likhet har en central roll inom kognitionsvetenskapen och är betydelsefullt för beskrivningar av flertalet kognitiva processer. I denna rapport behandlas kontexters påverkan på utfallen av likhetsjämförelser. Det har tidigare visats att hänsyn till relationslikheter i likhetsjämförelser har ett samband med tillämpandet av den kognitiva process som på engelska kallas för structural alignment. Det har dessutom visats att den utsträckning i vilken structural alignment tillämpas beror av kontextfaktorer såsom hur de objekt som jämförs presenteras. Sambandet mellan kontext och hänsyn till relationslikheter vid likhetsjämförelser behandlas i denna rapport.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how social workers experience and understand subjects such as racism, discrimination, and similar attitudes that can exist in institutions of social work. We also want to bring to light how ?race?/ethnicity, gender and class are related to uneven access to Swedish welfare. Our main questions aim to examine how structural and institutional racism forms social workers daily practices and how this in turn affects ?immigrant? women.

The thesis aims to examine the occurrence of Earnings Management (EM) preceding Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) on the Swedish capital market. EM refers to activities and adjustments carried out by managers. The underlying purpose of these actions is to adjust net income. The procedure is typically done by borrowing income from future periods. Evidence of EM around SEOs has been documented on capital markets around the world, and the effects on firms' post-offering performance are severe.

As of today, securitization is an established product on the capital market. The first transaction was made in the US in the 1970s. Since then the product has been developed and today there are several different structures of the product. Internationally securitization has been used for two reasons. Originally securitization was used to gain capital relief, but since capital requirements such as Basel II were implemented, the usage of securitization changed to more of a funding source.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: My study aims to analyse, using Pierre Bourdieu´s theory, whether the social background plays a significant part in the attitudes and use of Apples mp3-player iPod. The study also aims to determine whether it is possible to group the focus groups used in my study and iPod into Bourdieu´s model.Material/Method: The reference material used in this paper is mainly gathered from books concerning Pierre Bourdieu´s theories. I have also had four focus groups of two different characters, to study their attitudes towards Apples mp3-player iPod. I have then applied the results of the focus groups to Bourdieu´s theories and models concerning habitus, social fields, capital and lifestyles, and studied whether there are any divergences in attitudes between the groups.Main results: My findings are that the focus groups as well as iPod can be put into Bourdieu´s model. According to the responses from the people in the focus groups, the attitude and usage of iPod do not mirror people?s social class or background, which goes against Bourdieu´s? theory.

Venture capital investerar via fonder i nya, små och medelstora onoterade företag under en tidsbestämd period. Genom ett aktivt ägarengagemang tillför de kompetens, nätverk, ägarstyrning och kreditabilitet. Därigenom skapar de tillväxt inom portföljbolaget samt förutsättningar för en positiv avkastning via exit. Inom dagens svenska ekonomi har det blivit allt vanligare att innovativa unga företag med utvecklingspotential finansieras via venture capital. I december 2008 visade Konjunkturinstitutet en rapport om konjunkturläget som skvallrade om fördjupad internationell finanskris med svagare BNP-tillväxt, ökad arbetslöshet och bekräftade att Sverige nu gick in i en lågkonjunktur.

Entreprenörer på den svenska riskapitamarknaden har länge hävdat att det är problem för företag i tidig fas att locka till sig kapital från investerare. Detta brukar benämnas the eguity gap. På senare tid har problemet också försökt förklaras utifrån brister hos efterfrågan av kapitalet, dvs entreprenörerna. Med detta menas då att entreprenörerna och deras projekt inte är investment ready. Vi har haft för avsikt att utreda vad investerarna anser om den svenska riskkapitalmarknaden för sådinvesteringar och vilka de vanligaste bristerna i de investeringsförslag, som inkommer till Venture Capital-företag och Affärsänglar, är.

This thesis examines the subject of change in public administration from an instrumental and an institutional structure perspective. The purpose of the thesis is to examine whether institutional structures affect the development of instrumental structures and if it in turn is possible to affect institutional structures by changing the instrumental structures. This case study is primarily based on a series of deep interviews with senior administrators and politicians within two new administrations in the municipality Karlstad, both which have been created by merging several smaller administrations, but also thorough analysis of several official document such as protocols from the municipal council meetings, Tja?nsterskrivelser and internal PMs.   The result of the analysis indicates that both institutional structures and the forming instrumental structures affect each other and  that their ability to affect each other depends on the dominance over the organization each structure has.  In my specific research case we can see that the institutional structure of the city-technical and housing administration has affected the outcome but the institutional structure of the cultural and tourism administration hasn?t.  While the structural change of the city-technical and housing administration hasn?t effected the institutional structure but the structural change of the cultural and tourism administration has affected the institutional structure of this specific administration..

In this essay I examine the causal relationship between confidence in institutions and growth in Sweden 1989-2002. By examining the causal relationship between these two variables, valuable indicators of the causal relationship between trust and growth can be obtained. The institutions which are used in this essay are chosen according to the theory on institutions for public administration building trust and social capital. The chosen institutions are primary schooling, the police and medical service. A Granger causality model is used to measure the causal relation and the results from the tests show that there is no causal relationship between growth and confidence in institutions.

This report describes the master thesis project ?Weight Optimization of a Composite Chassis for a Multimodal Lightweight Vehicle? which is a part of the Master program in Naval Architecture and a part of a research project at the Centre for Naval Architecture, KTH. Demands on smart and energy efficient transport solutions are continuously increasing. In the Stockholm region the citizens are expected to increase with 25% and the road vehicles with 80% until 2030, putting high demands on the traffic system. Using a small multimodal vehicle deals with this problem and uses both the land and waterways for transportation.

The bachelor's thesis is to examine the explanatory factors affecting the choice of capital structure in real estate companies. The analysis is based on data collected from the main financial reporting from 2007; all listed real estate companies listed on Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish stock market. Based on previous research and theories, we have defined five independent variables that are linked to the debt ratio, which are: profitability, growth, firm size, cost of debt and operational risk. The statistical tests have resulted in that we can say with certainty that profitable firms tend to have a lower debt to equity ratio. We can also say with certainty that property companies with high interest costs have a high level of indebtedness..

AbstractConcrete foundation slabs are usually exposed to unilateral drying during the curing process. The unilateral drying causes an axial shrinkage and a concave curvature of the construction. The curvature results from the fact that the upper part of the slab is drying and shrinking faster than the lower part. This is called gradient shrinkage.A problem occurs when the slab is considered fully restrained by adjoining structural parts. The deformations caused by axial contraction due to the constant part of the shrinkage and the curvature caused by gradient shrinkage of the slab are then prevented by the fact that the slab is fully restrained.

In this paper the effect of capital structure on profitability has been investigated among Swedish companies. The essay intends to examine how the relationship between debt and profitability appear among Swedish companies and if the relationship differs between industries. The purpose is to find out how debt affects the profitability of Swedish companies.A quantitative approach has been applied. The selection was made among companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, which resulted in a sample of 207 companies. Several regression analyzes has been formed, based on the independent variable debt-ratio and the dependent variables profit margin, pre-tax profit margin, operating margin, return on assets and return on equity.

The thesis of this Masterpaper has been to analyse what tendencies there might be to distinguish structural alterations in the publishing business today and how they can be understood analytically. The following questions have helped form the principal opinions found in this essay: - What tendencies according to the alterations in publishing business is Piratförlaget representing? -What tendencies according to the alterations in publishing are the literary agents representing? What tendencies regarding the alterations in publishing are the electronic publishing and other techniques related to the publishing business representing? Participants, familiar with the publishing industry in various ways, have been interviewed. The main theory is based on facts from sociology of literature, although Faheys and Randalls Key Scenario, with its driving forces, also provided a great deal of help. In addition, to structure the dynamical publishing business, Peter Senges The Systems Iceberg Model was useful.