Study objects: JM, Folkhem and ABB.Purpose: The purpose with this study are to examine how the supplier relations are in the construction branch and compare that result with how the supplier relations are for ABB a production company.Theoretical: The theoretical chapter illustrates important and relevant parts of supplier relations, purchasing and supplier strategies to give good overview. The theoretical review will combine information from different fields to consent with the research problem.Method: A case study has been made on three different companies, one of the companies was active in the production industry the other two were active in the construction industry. Data was mainly collected through semi structured interviews on each of the three companies.Conclusions: The size of the company decided which point of view the company had on purchasing, traditional or modern view. All three companies had a centralized purchasing organization but the construction firms were more decentralized than the production company. The reason was that the construction firms were dependent with more flexibility when every construction project is unique..

Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

The concept of the photographic truth has had a special status for almost 200 years. Yet with the emerge of digital technology and especially digital photography there has been a loss of the particular connection photography has had in reference to reality. The aim of this study is to see in what ways digitalization has affected the credibility of photography from the perspective of professionals in the field of photography. The digital technology that has enabled the large-scale manipulation of photographies is not, however, the main reason for the decreased credibility of photography. The ongoing discussion about the available possibilities concerning digital imagery and manipulation has had a far more powerful effect on the concept of the photographic truth.

Part of the great acclaim for Anne Rice?s Interview with the Vampire (1976) is due to the wayshe renews the vampire story by reinforcing the traditional erotic dimension and, as a result ofthis, the way she examines the theme of homosexuality already present in Bram Stoker?sDracula (1897). However, this essay shows that Rice?s novel stands in much closer relation toVladimir Nabokov?s Lolita (1955) than to Dracula and that pedophilia, not homosexuality, isthe facet of sexuality which here first and foremost comes into focus. Through a comparisonbetween Interview with the Vampire and Lolita emerges a surprising coherence on the levelsof plot and characterization, which in itself is of importance for our understanding of Rice?snovel as well as Lolita, but it is also interesting to note to what degree these two novels sharea world of concepts and ideas common to actual pedophiles.

The purpose of this study is to find out teachers view on manipulatives as a way to concretize a certain mathematical content and to highlight knowledge and experiences within the range of using manipulatives to concretize. By answering the questions below different approaches a teacher may have towards the manipulatives and how that may impact on student?s learning will also be discussed in comparison to mainly traditional and socially constructive theories of learning.What is the teachers view on manipulatives as a way to concretize?What purpose do they have when using manipulatives?According to the teachers, what does it mean to concretize a certain mathematical content?According to the teachers, what connection is there between manipulatives and concretizing?Through interviews and observations conclusions can be made that the teachers are in general positive towards using manipulatives as a way to concretize a certain mathematical content although the definition of what a manipulative is differ somewhat between the teachers. The teachers working with manipulatives do it in a well thought out fashion but more research is needed to furthermore define the purpose of using manipulatives. Few countries spend so much time concretizing and working with manipulatives as Sweden do, but still Sweden score below the OECD-average on the mathematical PISA-tests.

At this point seamen have a lot of tasks of administrative character, beyond the traditional tasks aboard a ship. Due to the new conventions that are formed by IMO, more requirements are added which often lead to time consuming administrative tasks and documentation that should be spent on activities which are contributing to the ships safety. The issue has been observed by IMO that has through BIMCO done a study with the aim to identify and reduce administrative burdens at sea.The primary aim of this study is to find out if safety officers aboard Swedish ferries consider that SOLAS Chapter III, 8.3 och 19.5 regulations are administrative burdens, restricted to muster lists and documentation of training aboard the ship.The secondary questions to the study are if it is possible to remove, combine or change the documents and how much time can be saved by doing this. The question about timesaving could not be answered, because the values were scattered and could not be used for further investigation. The observed values were accumulated by a survey and the result indicated that safety officers did not experience the two regulations as administrative burdens.

At this point seamen have a lot of tasks of administrative character, beyond the traditional tasks aboard a ship. Due to the new conventions that are formed by IMO, more requirements are added which often lead to time consuming administrative tasks and documentation that should be spent on activities which are contributing to the ships safety. The issue has been observed by IMO that has through BIMCO done a study with the aim to identify and reduce administrative burdens at sea.The primary aim of this study is to find out if safety officers aboard Swedish ferries consider that SOLAS Chapter III, 8.3 och 19.5 regulations are administrative burdens, restricted to muster lists and documentation of training aboard the ship.The secondary questions to the study are if it is possible to remove, combine or change the documents and how much time can be saved by doing this. The question about timesaving could not be answered, because the values were scattered and could not be used for further investigation. The observed values were accumulated by a survey and the result indicated that safety officers did not experience the two regulations as administrative burdens.

The county of Dalarna is at present carrying through a process of digitalization where traditional x-ray film is being replaced with digital detectors. Earlier used methods for dose optimization turned out not being sufficient. This report presents a method to harmonize dose levels between x- ray sites equipped with Fujifilm imaging plate systems. An exposure index, S, related to the dose level of the examination is computed to every x-ray image. S turned out to be inversely proportional to the detector dose used at the examination.

The aim of this paper is to look into the occurrence of home schooling by choice in Sweden. It examines the subject of home education in order to provide an informative overview. It also looks into the legal aspects of the matter to see whether freedom of choice is an issue here when it comes to choosing a certain type of teaching for children of compulsory school age. A further purpose is to provide a comparison of home education in Sweden and in other countries such as the United States, England and Norway.In order to do this we have carried out a secondary analysis of previous research and have also interviewed teachers as well as people with experience of home educating their own children. To accomplish this, we had to look to England for literature and home educating families as home education is a much more common practise in England.The result of this paper strongly indicates that home schooling is not only a legally viable option to traditional schooling, both in Sweden and the other countries concerned, but that it is also a trend that is expected to increase.

The purpose of this work is to explore how to work with early reading and writing and find out what really comes first of the two. The work also involves the best known literacy learning methods and deals with methods to work around reading and writing. I have read previous research on the subject and watched a movie from our AV-central on children?s early language development. It includes an interview with two professors of education, Mats Myrberg and Mats Ekholm where they talk about the pros and cons of early learning literacy. My research is based on literary sources and interviews with educators who work with reading and writing in the early years. The results showed that even if a teacher tries to work with early writing skills we still remain in the traditional school, beginning with learning how to read.

Finnish-born writer Susanna Alakoski?s novel Svinalängorna became a big success after being published in Sweden in April 2006. Though the novel has many themes in common with earlier literature written by and about Finnish immigrants in Sweden, little attention has been brought to this fact by reviewers and journalists. This essay examines connections between Alakoski?s novel and Finnish migrant literature in Sweden, mainly from the 1970s, and how these connections have been recognised by reviewers in Sweden and Finland.

Finnish-born writer Susanna Alakoski?s novel Svinalängorna became a big success after being published in Sweden in April 2006. Though the novel has many themes in common with earlier literature written by and about Finnish immigrants in Sweden, little attention has been brought to this fact by reviewers and journalists. This essay examines connections between Alakoski?s novel and Finnish migrant literature in Sweden, mainly from the 1970s, and how these connections have been recognised by reviewers in Sweden and Finland.

The purpose of this study is to analyze picture books from a gender perspective. The books are found in a book box that the libraries send out to preschools. This study is based on the following questions:How are boys and girls portrayed in picture books?Do the picture books encourage or discourage the principles of equality found in the Curriculum for the Pre-School and the equality work conducted in the preschools?I performed a qualitative text and picture analysis of 12 picture books. I used Maria Nikolajeva and Kajsa Wahlströms schedule of typical masculine and feminine qualities and activities when analysing the picture books.

The integration of the Internet in our society has shaped alot of the things we do in our lives. The Web allows us to achieve certain things directly through our computers, such as reading the paper and paying our bills. But this integration has also lead to another interesting change. Activists have begun to unload their operations onto the Net instead of holding on to the more traditional demonstrations performed in squares. This study aims to look into the world of cyberactivism and examine how cyberactivists experience the way activism has changed as a result of using the Internet.

In the west part of Trelleborg, on previous farmland a new society is under construction. It is situated right next to the ocean and close to the European freeway. Eight types of villages, all with different kind of architecture will be built in the area, one of them is Torns Village built by Skanska and Ikea. A concept called BoKlok. This specific village consists of twelve houses and five apartment buildings. They are all somewhat classical in their appearance with wooden panel, but at the same time they have a modern touch.