This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family.

Diabetes mellitus typ 1 är en kronisk sjukdom och en av de vanligaste barnsjukdomarna som påverkar det endokrina- och metaboliska systemet. I dagsläget beräknas 497 100 barn i världen ha sjukdomen. När ett barn diagnostiseras får föräldrarna ett stort ansvar då sjukdomen kan vara livshotande om inte behandlingen sköts på rätt sätt. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att beskriva föräldrars upplevelser när deras barn diagnostiseras med diabetes mellitus typ 1. En Transitionsteori användes för att strukturera föräldrars upplevelser i tre faser.

In Sweden we have the highest rate of nontraditional students among Europe. Coincidently, we also have the highest rates of drop outs among OECD. In this particular field, drop out from higher education, there is a need fore more qualitative studies that can support the "statistics". Studies about experiences of drop outs are significant for society, university and individual. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how nontraditional student experiences drop out from higher education.

Based on an analytical overview of post-Communist civil society development in Russia, the present thesis attempts a critical discussion of general civil society theory from the perspective of its relevance for the case study in question. The text consists of three closely interconnected, mutually reinforcing parts. In the first part, major issues of current civil society research are being thematically presented and discussed. The second part concerns itself with the case study as such. It is divided into two parts, one dealing with the relations between state and civil society in Russia, the other with civil society and the individual.

The main purpose of this Masters thesis is to contribute to the understanding of high school teachers information seeking behaviour in the Transition from university studies to occupational practice. The theoretical framework encompasses theories of professional socialization, the sociology of knowledge, of professions, and of library and information science. The empirical material has been collected through interviews with six recently qualified high school teachers in different subjects. The interviews have been analysed on two different levels; first on a descriptive level and then on a theoretical level. The major findings are that the academic context limited the student teachers information seeking and they did not have the opportunity to choose cognitive authorities on their own initiative.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the situation for youths leaving foster care and entering adult life. The study examines the services provided by the social service in the Stockholm area when a youth is leaving foster care, and if a recent change in the legislation has had any impact on the operating procedures of the social service. The study includes interviews with youths who recently left foster care, as well as information collected from social service offices through a survey, supplemented by interviews with practicing social workers. All the assembled data have been analyzed using Ecological Systems theory with focus on the child perspective and the term significant others. The study shows that the respondent youth have trouble identifying the formal ending with social services, as well as the support they received or were offered.

The interest in the significance of public health for economic growth has increasedsteadily in recent years and a clarification of this connection may be of importance forthe status of public health. Aim: The aim of this literature based study is to describewhat previous research has shown in terms of the connection between public health andeconomic growth, focusing on high-income countries. Method: The study is based ontwelve scholarly articles retrieved from four scholarly databases. Result: The resultclarify that there is a positive long-term correlation between good public health andeconomic growth in high-income countries. Good health has a positive effect onproductivity, which leads to increased economic growth.

This paper aims to analyze how preservation of and access to old and rare book collections are organized in public libraries in Serbia. The paper is based on an analysis of documents, a survey and qualitative interviews with librarians in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Serbia is a country that has experienced violent historical periods with far-reaching consequences for its old and rare book collections. The interpretative background refers to documents about cultural policy in Europe and in Serbia. Serbia is a country in Transition which aims to join the European Union.

The objective of this study is to examine the sustainability of recovering industrial wasteheat from several heat sources in a foundry constructed in a plant belonging to ITT Waterand Wastewater in Emmaboda, Sweden. A triple bottom line perspective will be appliedto achieve this objective. The triple bottom line approach takes into account ecologicaland social performance in addition to financial performance. The technology forrecovering the waste heat is a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) which is aconstruction consisting of 140 vertical boreholes, 150 meters deep with an internal spaceof four meters.The calculated amount of energy for storage is approximately 3800 MWh annually. Ofthis amount 2500 MWh are expected to be utilized, while storage losses accounts for theremaining part.

Title: The impact of service quality on customer loyalty - when a service changes from being free to become surcharged Authors: Carl Johan Olsson, Marcus Johansson and Victor Carlsson Supervisor: Hans LundbergCourse: Bachelor thesis in business administration, 15 Credits (15 ECTS) Keywords: Service quality, customer loyalty, price movementPurposeThe purpose of this essay is to increase the understanding if the perceived quality by the service users correlates with a future loyalty to a service when it cease from being free, to become charged.? Does the perceived quality of a service by the service users affect a future loyalty to a service, when it cease from being free, to become charged?MethodIn this essay we have chosen to implement a quantitative research method based on a survey. This choice was made in order to reach a sufficient large amount of service users and empirical data to answer our problem.ConclusionsAccording to the theory, customer satisfaction can be expressed through a comparison between customer?s expectations and the experience of using a service, and there are also positive correlations between service quality and customer satisfaction. Additionally, loyalty is based on service quality and customer satisfaction.

SAMMANFATTNINGSyfte: Syftet med denna studie var att på ett sjukhus i Mellansverige undersöka hur tillfredställda patienterna var med information om läkemedelsbiverkningar Syftet var även att undersöka grad av oro över eventuella biverkningar och jämföra om det fanns någon könskillnad gällande detta.Metod: Studiens design var en kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie med deskriptiv och jämförande statistik. Data samlades in genom en Studiespecifik enkät. Antalet svarande var 29 inneliggande patienter under 10 veckor som uppfyllde inklusionskriterierna.Resultat: Resultatet visade att hälften av deltagarna inte hade fått information om läkemedelsbiverkningar och att 78 % uppgav sig vilja ha mer information. Nio av tio deltagare instämde till att vara oroliga över eventuella biverkningar och 64 % uppgav att de var osäkra eller inte visste vart de skulle vända sig vid frågor om biverkningar. Trots detta var drygt hälften av deltagarna delvis eller helt nöjda med den information de fått.

Uppsatsen handlar om enpersonshushållen, deras utveckling och vilka samband denna utveckling har med andra variabler för samhällsutvecklingen. Syftet är att öka kunskapen kring hushållsutvecklingen för att ge underlag för en bättre planering av samhället. Uppsatsen bygger på bearbetning och analys av allmänt tillgängliga registerdata från webbdatabaser. I uppsatsen uppmärksammas teorierna om andra demografiska Transitionen och det konstateras att Sverige ligger, tillsammans med övriga nordiska länder, tidigt i denna utveckling. För Sveriges har dock utvecklingen bromsats upp och de för Transitionen karaktäristiska variablerna har de senaste åren i huvudsak inte förändrat sig.

Determination of serum thymidine kinase 1 (TK-1) activity is used as a tumour marker in both human and veterinary medicine. TK-1 is an intracellular enzyme involved in a salvage pathway of DNA synthesis. The expression of TK-1 is cell cycle dependent and the activity increases markedly after the G1 to S Transition in the cell cycle and then declines rapidly in G2. The pronounced proliferative activity in tumour cells result in a higher TK-1 enzyme activity within the cell. The fact that the increased TK-1 activity can be measured in serum makes TK-1 a useful marker in diagnostics of neoplastic diseases and it provides information regarding prognosis and treatment effectiveness. In human medicine a radioactive based test is used to determine the TK-1 serum activity.

The aim of this essay is to examine three separate Swedish public libraries and their respective websites on the grounds of the usability sciences. I firstly had to summarize the main properties of the usability-field in order to gain an extended knowledge of its purposes and possible usage for today?s library systems. I was then able to apply the extended knowledge in the examination of the three library websites and the purpose of determining whether or not they were designed according to the standards set by the usability-sciences.Usability is a rather new science that deals with the dissection and examination of computer-based systems, in order to find the key components that make systems user-friendlier. With user needs being the main focus of its research, usability tries to meet all the different needs of the modern user and construct systems that are less system-centered and more user-centered.

The aim of the study is to examine how the executive leadership and the decision-making process are shaped by the leadership environment in a Transition democracy as Venezuela. The questions I intend to answer are: What kind of leadership environment surrounds the leadership and what kind of consequences does it have on the leadership and the decision-making process in Venezuela? To answer my questions I will use the literature: Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies (Elgie, Robert 1995, London: Macmillian), together with the method ?The cultural determinist school of history? by Tomas Spencer, later reproduced by Kellerman. The leadership environment provides unique opportunities for a leader to gain control over the decision-making process. Institutional structures and the needs of the society are major parts in determining how the political leadership is exercised.