The capacity to process and to remember information is a basic condition for language ability and for coming reading ability. Reading ability is strongly connected to phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity. In what way hearing impairment in children affects development of cognitive skills and later on reading ability is an area that has attracted minor attention for research.The aim with this study was to investigate changes in cognitive skills and reading ability in children with mild or moderate hearing impairment after one year of progress and furthermore if any connections between any increases of the abilities were to be found. Comparisons were made with results from age adequate normal hearing children. Moreover prosodic ability on word-level was tested this year.

AbstractIn this bachelor thesis I discuss and analyse the current situation of the Venezuelan democracy. By using a theoretical framework based on the theory of horizontal accountability, I focus on the interaction between different institutions and branches within the state of Venezuela. The analysis focuses on the strenghts and flaws of the newly accepted constitution, and to what extent the institutions of checks and balances remain true to the laws and the constitution of 1999. My conclusions are that in terms of vertical accountability, the Chávez-regime acknowledges a wide popular support for their governmental actions. In contrast, the incumbent administration shows almost no respect for horizontal accountability.

This paper is about the construction of a ?Swedish? identity in the novel Montecore: en unik tiger by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (translated in English to Montecore: the silence of the tiger). In the paper I start by, after a short introduction, introducing the theoretical background against which the novel will be analyzed. The main focus is postcolonial theories with Edward Saids work about making ?the Other? as a base.

Intelligent IT-based solutions, often called Smart Grids, are considered to be the future balancers of renewable energy sources. One area within the Smart Grid concept is called demand response, which is focused on making customers more consumption flexible by making them more active in their consumption. In this thesis the aim is to analyze a business model by investigating the income potential for a demand response solution as well as its market potential. This has been done through literature studies, interviews and development of a computational model.The use of 5000 households with flexible consumption can provide a cost reduction of 17.2% or 2.4 million SEK for a balance responsible party during an average year. If the solution is used to make strategic bids on the regulation markets the study indicates that the largest potential for revenues lies within this strategy.

Due to recent legal enactments regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the car industry is facing higher demands. An effective way of reducing these emissions is to minimize the weight of the vehicle. This thesis constitutes a feasibility study on whether or not it is applicable for the car industry to utilize an inner floor structure comprising composite materials. The principal was the projectSåNätt, in which the main participant was Volvo Cars Corp. In consultation with a reference group, consisting of delegates from the industry and KTH, a specification of requirements was produced.

This thesis examines the reasons behind the Swedish migration policy reform which led to a replacement of the Aliens Appeal Board by the Migration Court. This introduced a two-party procedure, oral hearings and enhanced transparency. It was designed to guarantee the rule of law and to thwart political arbitrariness.The transfer of power from representative institutions to judiciaries is referred to as judicialization, and the Migration Courts may be considered a typical example of this phenomenon. However, this can be questioned. The straggling nature of the term implies everything and anything unless cautiously defined.

The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of the Iranian regime. My theory is that the Iranian regime is a semi-dictatorship, based on the soul fact that semi-competetive elections take place. The main question this thesis tries to answer is what characterizes the political construction of the Iranian regime and by what means does it implement its political goals. In trying to answer this question the case of Iran is applied to four specific typologies being, semi-dictatorship, military rule, single party rule and personal rule. The aim has not been to categorically analyze if the Iranian regime matches one typology or the other perfectly, as this is seldom the case when it comes to typologies.After analysis of the four typologies, the conclusion is that the Iranian regime utilizes semi-competitive elections to give a guise of democracy, as is in line with a semi-dictatorship.

Citizenship is fundamental for participation in a democracy. It gives us rights but also responsibilities in the state that we are citizens of. Citizenship provides us with the opportunity to vote in order to influence who should govern us. However, not all living in a state are citizens. Some individuals are not included in the political life of the state.In recent years, there has been a rise of nationalist political parties in Europe.

Introduction: We are facing an aging population, which means that the incidence of age related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, are expected to increase. In the current situation there is no cure for the disease, whereupon it is important to develop preventive strategies. Objective: To examine the association between Alzheimer's disease and physical activity. Method: A systematic literature search was done to identify the current state of knowledge from the year 2006 onwards. The reason for this limitation was that the SBU commissioned a systematic literature review in 2006, where the relationship between physical activity and Alzheimer's disease could not be determined.

I ett samhälle där tiden blir en allt mer avgörande faktor ökar konsumenternas efterfrågan på tidsbesparande konsumtion. E-handel erbjuder konsumenter besparandet av tid och bekvämlighet genom att det är möjligt att göra inköp, när som helst och var som helst. När företag väljer att tillämpa e-handel innebär det att de inte längre kan möta kunden öga mot öga. Vid hemparty, som är en form av direkthandel, sker försäljningen i direktkontakt med kunden. Försäljningen äger rum i kundens hem tillsammans med dennes vänner och bekanta.

On the 8th of May 2007 a local power-sharing goverment consisting of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was formed in Northern Ireland. The aim of this dissertation is to explore why the DUP, who in the past have opposed all forms of power-sharing decided to form a goverment and take active part in a power-sharing agreement. The study is based on a consociational theoretical framework developed by Arend Lijphart and further developed in a Northern Irish context by John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary. Using this theory the study seeks to understand the broad conditions surrounding the DUP's power-sharing. After a description of consociational theory and the road leading up to the Belfast Agreement,three possible explanations for power-sharing, based onconsociational theory are discussed.

Researchers in the field of political corruption generally expect voters in democratic states to lose trust in corrupted politicians. However, there are cases where corrupted politicians maintain their popularity, a phenomenon studied in this thesis. Focus lies on three cases of political corruption: the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been the subject of several judicial investigations and court cases; the impeached former president of Lithuania, Rolandas Paksas; and the German Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) involvement in a party funding scandal. The cases are chosen based on the method of agreement. Berlusconi, Paksas and CDU have all, in spite of their corrupt behaviour, kept or regained popular support among a large group of their country's citizens.

Earlier research has shown that generational differences between younger-supervisors and older-workers may cause tensions that lead to team ineffectiveness. There is however still a lack of research in this area. This thesis presents possible tensions that might occur between a younger supervisor and an older worker due to their age and generational affiliation, and how these tensions affect the team dynamics. The empirical data collection was limited to the boundaries of the dental care industry where these generational/age differences between younger supervisor and older worker are common. The thesis looks at the tensions from a qualitative perspective and data was collected in the form of in-depth interviews with selected dentists and nurses.

Sahlgrenska Academyat University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: The relation between alcohol and abdominal obesityAuthor: Anna Eriksson och Karin EdenholmSupervisor: Fredrik BertzExaminer: Ingrid LarssonProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: May 30, 2013Background: Abdominal obesity is a part of the metabolic syndrome, which has a worldwideprevalence of 20-25 %. The problem with abdominal obesity is the accumulation of visceraladipose tissue, which is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Alcohol haseffects on metabolism, and can also lead to an increase in total energy intake; these twofactors can lead to an increase in accumulation of visceral fat. Besides this there are studiesthat show that a moderate alcohol intake could be good for your health. The context gets morecomplicated since different studies have shown contradictory results concerning theassociation between alcohol, different types of alcoholic beverages and measurements ofabdominal fat.Objective: The objective of this article review is to assess the evidence of whether alcoholintake is associated with accumulation of visceral adipose tissue, using the measurementswaist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR).Search strategy: The databases used in the literature study were PubMed and Scopus.

Construction projects are generally designed as a general contract or a complete contract. In a general contract the commercial contract that is being used is AB 04 and related advice and instructions, AMA AF 07. In AB 04 there is an insurance requirement that stipulates that the contractor shall take all risks and liability insurance for the contract where the client must be co-insured.Construction law is almost exclusively regulated by the various standard contracts, one of those is AB 04. The Construction Contracts Committe is an organization that has published the standard contracts in this area of law and also the advice and instructions to help the parties to understand the agreements. The insurance requirement occurs in an area of law that is complex and the meaning of the concept is not entirely clear, nor which of the parties? interests and responsibilities that are covered by the types of insurances that are provided by the insurance requirement.