The concept of function represents a major part of mathematics and becomes more significant in school during high school. Throughout history, it has been a difficult concept to define and may create challenges for contemporary students. This literature study aims to identify students' difficulties with the concept of function, as well as to account for how the definition of a function has evolved historically. The literature study has been conducted through database searches in ERIC, Education Research Complete and MathSciNet via EBSCOhost, as well as through chain searching. The study results in identifying that students' difficulties with the concept of function primarily include the graphical and algebraic forms of representation.

Cytokiner eller interleukiner är signalpeptider med låg molekylär vikt som reglerar många viktiga funktioner. De kan delas in i två grupper beroende på deras effekt på celler. Interleukin 4 (IL-4) till exempel kan tillhöra gruppen tillväxtfaktorer medan interleukin 6 (IL-6) kan tillhöra gruppen aktiverings- eller differentieringsfaktorer. IgM-receptorn eller B-cellsreceptorn, BCR, finns på Bceller och är membranbundna immunoglobuliner (mIg) som har två huvuduppgifter; att förmedla signaler som styr B-cellens utveckling samt att binda in antigen som sedan ska presenteras för T-celler. I studien aktiverades B-celler med antikropp mot IgM (anti-IgM) samt rekombinant IL-4.

?CSR and political consumption ? a study of Nike?s and Puma?s CSR-reports?The purpose of this dissertation is to examine if political consumption has influenced multinational corporations to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility reports and policies more, than a company who has not been a target for political consumption.This dissertation is a content analysis of Nike?s and Puma?s first (Nike 2001, Puma 2001) and latest (Nike 2007/09, Puma 2007/08) CSR- reports. Archie Carroll?s model of Corporate Social Responsibility is used as theoretical framework in this study. The model is used to focus on four areas within CSR; economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic.

De stora läkemedelsbolagen har sedan mitten på 1990-talet fått en ökad press på att optimera sina försörjningskedjor på grund av att patent på olika mediciner gått ut. När patentet gått ut kan generiska konkurrenter börja sälja liknande mediciner, de kan sälja dem till lägre pris eftersom de inte har forsknings och utvecklingskostnader att täcka. AstraZeneca tog i slutet av 1990-talet beslutet att implementera en ny strategi för deras försörjningskedja i deras produktion. Detta gjordes för att sänka deras produktionskostnader för att kunna konkurrera mot generiska konkurrenter. En konsultfirma togs in och Demand Driven Supply (DDS) implementerades.

Branding is becoming increasingly important to companies within the B2B-sector and they put a lot of effort and capital to develop and strengthen their brands. One way of working with brands is through ingredient branding. An ingredient brand is an alliance between two brands where the ingredient brand is applied on a host brand and works as an ingredient on the product. The purpose of ingredient branding is to create competiveness, differentiation and to create quality associations. Ingredient brands can be divided into emotional and functional categories.

As a company it is required to work with strategies to minimize costs such as packaging and logistic costs. The increased market of industrial produced wooden buildings results that the time and the cost which the packaging of prefabricated building elements consume, is experienced to be in greater need of development than before and demands a better solution. The aim with this dissertation was to discover how the development of the handling of the packaging can improve the packaging process. The goal was to present improvement proposals for a simplified and thereby a more efficient production in time and cost perspective.The packaging process which includes packaging, handling, storage and transport were studied. Interviews were made with participants from the market for manufacturers of wooden houses and a case study was made at the company A-hus.

Svenska filmbranschen styrs av ett filmavtal mellan staten och olika aktörer i branschen. Detta avtal skall förnyas under år 2013. Staten har i en avsiktsförklaring för det nya avtalet uttryckt en vilja till en förändring kring villkoren för att få statligt stöd för filmproduktion i Sverige. En så kallad teknikneutralitet skall införas som innebär att filmproduktioner inte längre på förhand behöver ha säkrat en biografdistribution för att få statligt ekonomiskt stöd. Detta skulle kunna innebära en förändring för den svenska filmens distribution i Sverige som i nuläget består av tämligen fast ordning på visningsfönster, där just biografdistributionen har en särställning.Vår forskning behandlar svenska filmproducenters, distributörers och biografägares tankar och åsikter kring distribution av svensk långfilm i Sverige.

This thesis aims to analyse the problems concerning the reorganization of the Swedish consulary system, which took place right after the Swedish entry in the European Union in 1995. This thesis shows the underlying debate in the Parliament before the changes. It also discusses which factors caused the reorganisation. My work focuses on the Swedish consulary representation in Spain which exist of an embassy in Madrid and 20 underlying honorary consulates. The consulates are not foreign authorities but are still handeling a lot of cases as an govenmental authority.

This paper intends to provide a better understanding of how to rebuild a crisis affected area and how to plan for the inhabitants of a wounded city. It will also examine the landscape architect's tasks in this work to provide a planning perspective. The discussion of reconstruction is significant because the insight and knowledge in the subject is needed in order to help nations after a disaster. Bosnia-Herzegovina's capital Sarajevo is a city recovering from a civil war where the city's situation was complicated by an ethnic conflict that has been segregating it. The restoration of the city's structure can free people from their tragedy and make them live again.

It generally takes 10 to 12 years for a new drug to hit the market. The pharmaceutical industry invests huge sums in these early stages of research and development. In spite of the rapidly rising research and development expenditures fewer and fewer blockbuster drugs are being developed. Longer lead times and aggressive generic post-patent competition have narrowed the timeframe for the pharmaceutical companies to profit on their investments.In the face of these threats the pharmaceutical industry has developed a battery of strategies to prolong market exclusivity and to maximize return on investment. These emerging strategies are commonly known as Life cycle management (LCM), which actually is more of a concept than a method.

PR appears to be an indistinct division and a complicated resource for companies to value. The current circumstances are negative to the credibility and reliability of PR. This study emphasizes how an application of return on investment contributes to a more strategic use of PR and increases the status and credibility for the division.We experience that measuring the economic value of PR is of great importance and of current interest with few prior studies made. The purpose of this study is to find out how a PR-agency and one of its clients relates to and works with evaluation of PR-activities and to which extent the economic contribution of the activity is measured.The foundation which the theoretical reference grounds on is theories of Delusions of PR and the use of benefit-cost analyzes, Stages and Levels for Evaluating Public Relations Programs, Marketing Return on Investment and PR Return on Investment. The theoretical reference serves as a base during the analyze of the study.The conclusion, based on the empirical body of information, is that an application of return on investment could contribute with a higher status and credibility for the PR-division.

This paper has it?s background in Physical Activity on Prescription, a projectwhich the Swedish sports movement is part of. The study refers to a limiteddivision of sports for adults, namely a phenomenon here by referred to as dropin-activity. This form of physical activity is characterized by an understandingthat the participant often lack experience and that it is possible to pay for eachoccasion. The purpose of the study was thus to take a closer look on organized,non-profit sports clubs which offer this type of exercise for adults.

The public sector is a major purchaser of goods and services. By setting requirements for environmental and social considerations in public procurement, an authority has the possibility to use consumer power to influence the actors in a market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate public procurement of textile products in a municipality, in order to gain knowledge about factors that may be important for the use of environmental and social criteria. Håkan Hydén´s (professor in sociology of law) norm model was used as the basis of the analysis, where the conduct was investigated along three dimensions of the norm ? willingness, knowledge and system conditions ? in order to identify underlying factors that can influence the process.The results ? analyzed by using interviews and documents ? show that the procurer's willingness, motivation and knowledge are important factors in this context, as well as the political priority of the municipality.

Livsformerna på jorden delas systematiskt in i de tre domänerna bakterier, arkéer och eukaryoter. Arkéer är de mikroorganismer som lever i extrema miljöer såsom hetvattenkällor, sjöar med hög salthalt och i miljöer med extrema pH-värden. De kan existera i miljöer där inga andra organismer överlever men förekommer även rikligt överallt runtomkring oss, exempelvis i människans mage och som normalflora i munnen.Vissa bakterier och arkéer har genen för enzymet ammoniak monooxygenas (AMO). Detta enzym spelar en viktig roll vid rening av avloppsvatten genom att oxidera ammonium till nitrit.Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att detektera arkéer i prover av aktivt slam vilket gjordes genom att optimera en Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) baserad metod. Först pelleterades slamproverna via centrifugering för att kunna preparera DNA.

During the 90?s, several reforms took place in order to change the educational system. The reforms intended to increase the freedom of choice and to facilitate the start-up process for driving independent schools. A broad alliance of political parties from left to right supported these reforms. Twenty years later, the independent schools constitute a substantial part of schools in Sweden.