This thesis examines the effects of the Swedish school reforms that took place in the early 1990?s. Theories such as Principal-Agent, Stewardship and Lipsky?s street-level bureaucracy are discussed as well as New Public Management (NPM). These reforms were heavily influenced by NPM, causing an increased level of street-level bureaucracy, and according to Principal-Agent theory some outcomes could have been predicted.

Purpose: The purposes of the current study were to investigate whether there were any differences in the perceptual ability between professional and non-professional ice-hockey players and whether professional players are better at distinguishing, paying attention to and concentrating on what is important during intense physical activity. Method: Twenty male ice-hockey players (10 from both the Swedish first and third divisions) participated in the study. Wingate test were used for physiological measurements while three psychological tests were presented in front of the participants. Stroop, Flanker and Fast counting tests were used to measure perceptual and coping abilities during intense physical activity and the differences between the two groups. Results: Fast counting and Flanker word 2 tests showed a significant difference between the two groups, whereby the professional groups was faster and more accurate than the non-professional group in answering.

In order to maintain a high safety level at a nuclear power plant it is important not only to measure the reliability of the components and systems of the plant, but also to investigate how the plant responds to human actions. One of the most hazardous situations in managing a power plant is fire occurring in critical areas. This study concerns the prospect of the local fire brigade to suppress a fire that has started in one of the most critical rooms for maintaining high reactor safety. The model created gives an indication on the possibilities of succeeding in suppressing a fire. In order to get a more reliable fire fighting the following advice are given:- Let the fire brigade go rounds in the plant together with the personnel, during which recommended fire suppressing methods are determined to avoid long preparation time in an actual situation.- Prepare rooms with two subsystems to make them partly with no voltage.- Give the fire brigade better feedback from actual events on nuclear power plants.- Education and training in suppressing fires in electrical equipment.The probabilistic safety assessment strives to be as realistic as possible.

 Problem   Are there any abnormal changes in the parent company's share price at the news of a spin?off.ObjectiveThe main purpose of the study is to investigate how the news of a spin-off affects the parent company's share price. In other words if the news of the Spin-off gives an abnormal return on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the specific period of 1998?2008. In addressing this, the paper will also investigate the following sub sections: are there any differences in the abnormal returns in various sectors and what the reasons to perform a spin?off in the Swedish market are.MethodAn event study in which market data is used to measure specific events? impact on the value of the company and on the effects on the stock market.

This study aims to measure the effect of accounting conservatism and to identify thebusiness activities causing firms to undervalue owners? equity. To estimateaccounting conservatism, we have followed the hypothesis that no firm over time cangenerate a return greater than its cost of equity, i.e. CAPM. Thus, if a firm in factgenerates an excess return over time, we assume that the excess return is an estimateof accounting conservatism within that firm.The hypothesis originates from the corporate valuation model ?Economic ValueAdded®? which tries to adjust for accounting bias.

The aim of this study was to examine the readability of news articles published in the Swedish national newspaper Dagens Nyheter during the years 1999 - 2013. Our hypothesis was that the written language in newspapers is simpler today than it was 15 years ago. To measure the possible change of the written language in a quantitative study we chose to use a method to calculate the readability of 30 news articles, two from each year. We could not see any development of the language level so we chose to do a complementary qualitative study of the layout and presentation of the news articles. This secondary study showed a significant change in how news is presented throughout the years.

Problem: In society of today corporate competence is an important factor for survivor and development. IT is developing rapidly and can not be ignored by companies. Then need for people with IT-competence is conquent increasing. A survey of corporate IT-competence is therefore of interest for companies as well as for local authorities. To determine the IT competence within an organisation, this competence has to be measurable.

This thesis deals with one of the main questions within information science: The question about controlled and uncontrolled vocabulary and which of the two that are most effective when it comes to retrieve relevant information from electronic databases. The method used here is literature studies. I have described and examined five empirical studies which has been done in purpose to compare the effectiveness in retrieval with controlled and uncontrolled vocabulary, in the way they are used in retrieval of information in databases. The studies I have examined have also used recall and precision as a value to measure the effectiveness of retrieval. The studies which I have chosen is also limited to deal only with studies that have been done in bibliographic databases.

Today?s system to measure the volume in a tank consists of a vertically placed sensor. When a vehicle is tilted the level of the fluid might change and if the volume is calculated based only on the information from the sensor it could result in a incorrect value.This thesis exams a new method to calculate the volume in tanks by using sensor fusion to crosscheck the i formation from the level sensors when the vehicle is tilted. The information is then used to see if it is possible to identify the grade of tilt by the change of fluid level. If the grade of tilt can be measured then the volume can be calculated in a more accurate way.

In this multistudy the aim was to measure the effect of mindfulness and yoga in negative stress. Is it possible for yoga and mindfulness to increase awareness and acceptance to inner and outher circumstances? Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has shown good results in how to cope with negative stress and how to stay calm in a stressful envirorment. The qualitative study where Visby Yoga Center and Stockholm Yoga Shakti attended in a survey. Correlation showed no relationship between stress and mindfulness and no significant value, n=20, Cohens d=0,16.

To find useful methods of reading instructions for pupils with Cerebral palsy is a complex but at the same time very challenging work. The main focus of this research lies in studying the pupils work focusing on special adaptation of educational materials and means of assistance for pupils with Cerebral palsy. In trying to get a complete picture of the work with the reading instruction I don?t think that it can be described only by studying the work, it also demands an inside look at the job the working group performs. My overarching purpose of this research is to try out measures to further develop the work with reading instruction for pupils with Cerebral palsy.

The purpose with this bachelor thesis is to identify risks and insufficiencies concerning the production at WilloMaskin AB. The project is limited to only 4 machines, where theories as ?OEE? (overall equipment efficacy) should be illuminated and analyzed. The theory of ?Single Minute Exchange of Die? is also presented.The method used in this project is mostly based on qualitative studies but also quantitative studies are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a deeper understanding about the acceptance of wind power. Our basic assumption is that local conditions are important and can explain how the acceptance of change at different stages of establishment. The main purpose is to see if there are differences in the acceptance of wind power in different stages, and examine the factors that influence acceptance. That includes how people in three different areas of study estimates that they value their environment and how it is affected by wind turbines. The project was conducted interdisciplinary geo-targeted and consists of three parts.

Kitron had wishes to be able to test and measure how disturbance affects their vehicle electronic units before they have been verified by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden in Borås. This work started with the writing of a demand specification together with Kitron for a product PSQS, Power Supply Quality Simulator, which can generate some test pulses according to a standard for electronic units to Volvos vehicles. A design proposal was developed with the help the demand specification and was verified with the help of simulations. All electric schematics was designed with the guide of the design proposal. The pulses realized in the works of this thesis are those which Kitron experienced that they have a need to test in their own premises and which are possible to generate with the means available.

According to many scholars America's soft power is in decline, a power resource whose importance has been increasing in world politics. This makes it interesting to examine if there is a difference between how Democratic and Republican administrations wield their soft power.This thesis is a hypothesis-testing study and the purpose is to test the hypothesis that Democratic administrations, to a greater extent than Republican, can create, utilize and defend soft power. My thesis is based on Joseph Nye's theory of soft power and the focus of this study is the aspects of the foreign policy resources. In order to measure this concept I have made my own operationalization where five different indicators serve as my guidance. I use the method of least likely-cases to select and motivate the administrations being tested, which gives me a comparative study of the Democratic administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton and the Republican administration of George H.