In recent years the concern about the future of the European Union and itssupposed lack of democracy, efficiency and legitimacy has increased. Thisconcern has resulted in extensive debates and the establishment of a conventionwith the task to create a draft treaty for a European Constitution.The aim of this essay is to study how the three theoretical concepts,democracy, efficiency and legitimacy, have been described and used in the debateabout the future of the European Union. My main interest is to see how theseconcepts are described in a debate regarding a political system that goes beyondthe borders of the nation-state. I have made a comparative textual analysis of thedebates taken place in Sweden and Spain during a period of over two years. Ihave, for instance, found out that openness and clearness have a prominentposition as democratic values together with equality and justice (in Spain) and theinstitution of accountability (in Sweden).

The study is based on a new approach on how Swedish healthcare is supposed to be controlled and organized. There is a renowned administration problem within Swedish healthcare, which seems to be an obstacle to exploit the resources to the fullest. The latest venture within the healthcare system is patient involvement, where the patients become co-producers of their own care, which aims to both improve and make healthcare more efficient. A few wards in Sweden have implemented this new approach whereupon the study intends to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency in some of these.The study is restricted to three wards, whereof two of these are inpatient wards and the other one is an outpatient ward, within the medical clinic in Jönköping County Council, which has implemented the patient involvement approach in their daily work. The methodology for this study is qualitative in its nature where a time study of personnel time allocation and supplementary interviews with managing nurses on the wards have been conducted.

At the Division of Electricity at UppsalaUniversitythere are ongoing researches, including a research concerning turbo generators.Turbo generators produce a large share of electricity in the world; however they are costly mainly due to the fact that the cooling and ventilation that are needed to eliminate the excess heat from the generators are expensive. Turbo generators work with high efficiency and in this project, the main task is to simulate a generator while taking into account that the generator must be designed against self-oscillation, centrifugal force, exhaustion and heat. The turbo generator must be simulated without being too expensive and complicated.In this project, the dimensions of the turbo generator depend on the efficiency of it, and where the losses are in the generator. Furthermore, the optimum values need to be chosen with the help of the ACE simulation program. The report begins with an introduction describing the project followed by a task description that is dealing with the project.

The study is based on a new approach on how Swedish healthcare is supposed to be controlled and organized. There is a renowned administration problem within Swedish healthcare, which seems to be an obstacle to exploit the resources to the fullest. The latest venture within the healthcare system is patient involvement, where the patients become co-producers of their own care, which aims to both improve and make healthcare more efficient. A few wards in Sweden have implemented this new approach whereupon the study intends to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency in some of these.The study is restricted to three wards, whereof two of these are inpatient wards and the other one is an outpatient ward, within the medical clinic in Jönköping County Council, which has implemented the patient involvement approach in their daily work. The methodology for this study is qualitative in its nature where a time study of personnel time allocation and supplementary interviews with managing nurses on the wards have been conducted.

To meet the needs and demands of the costumer, accurate information about how much is available in stock is necessary. When the information in the system does not match the physical inventory, inventory inaccuracy occurs. Inventory inaccuracy is common among companies and may contribute to increased labor cost, excess inventory, production disruptions, waste of time, late deliveries, poor service and lost customers.The purpose of this study is to identify contributing factors to inventory inaccuracy for business with outdoor storage. The study also aims to investigate how efficiency factors can reduce the inventory inaccuracy for business with outdoor storage.A case study was conducted to answer the purpose. A company in the steel industry was chosen to examine inventory inaccuracy on business with outdoor storage.

In Sweden over 10.000 patients annually, mostly children, undergo tonsillar surgery. The most common surgical method is total removal of the tonsil, tonsillectomy (TE). During the last decade partial tonsil resection, tonsillotomy (TT), has been reintroduced and is associated with lower primary morbidity and less postoperative pain. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if and to what extent 4-5 year old children?s voice function are affected by tonsillar hypertrophy compared to controls and to study the effects of the two surgical techniques on vocal function.

Increased competition in the IT industry has sparked a need for developing faster innovation processes with more predictable output. One of the biggest issues when it comes to achieving a faster flow through the innovation process lies in managing its high degree of variation. Proposing a solution to this problem, Lean Software Development (LSD), was developed to provide a framework for how IT companies should organize its software development process to achieve increased speed and quality. This study examines to which extent LSD, as a set of values, principles, methods and tools, can be used to improve flow efficiency in the innovation process. A case study of a multinational IT company was made by conducting ten semi-structured interviews with current employees.

I transportbranschen finns behov av ett gemensamt och standardiserat mått för mätning av effektivitet och trots avancerade IT-system och moderna verktyg råder det idag avsaknad av detta. Transportföretagen behöver inte bara ta fram egna, interna mått utan också accepterade och vedertagna mått som kan användas för att kommunicera med kunder, myndigheter och andra externa intressenter..

Through the growing use and availability of information technology the dependency of Internet is today increasing. Internet makes ways for a more mobile business communication that cost less. One of the latest applications of Internet technology are intranet and extranet. I have asked myself the question how intranet and extranet can affect companies efficiency and competitive advantage. In order to answer this question I performed a case study at Ericsson and ABB.

The singing-voice ? Differences and similarities between male and female singing-voices in a pedagogical perspectiveThe primary purpose of the present study is to create a basis for a deeper understanding of the male singing-voice. Within the above purpose the present study also aims at comparing differences and similarities between the male and the female singing-voice, and examining possible pedagogical differences in teaching male and female singing students.The study is partly a literature study where existing studies in the field of the singing-voice are examined, in which the male singing-voice is described in relation to the female one. The study also comprises an interview study where four professional singing-teachers, two male and two female, are being interviewed according to an interview guide (see appendix A) focusing on pedagogical aspects of the male and the female singing-voice.The results of the study show that the anatomical functions of the singing-voice are the same whether you are male or female. This also holds true for the basic singing-technique which is the same for both sexes.

The aim of this paper is to investigate to what degree the groups in our inquiry work independently. It is a qualitative research, which points to a well?functioning unit, that by definition is not self-governing, but has many traits of self- government. We have reached to the conclusion, that complete self?government does not have to be the best solution, if you want both quality and efficiency.

The use of thin and attractive models to promote companies' products is widespread among marketers. This is true even for companies whose products have little or no association with beauty or body weight. As the proportion of overweight people continues to grow in many developed countries the ideals used by marketers to attract customers strays further away from the actual attributes of the customers themselves. What is little understood is what effect overweight has on the efficiency of the product promoter. Some limited research has studied how the efficiency of the product promoters in printed advertisements is affected by the existence of congruence between the product promoter and the product itself.

The project was performed at SiemensIndustry Drive Technologies with theobjective to provide actual values forthe energy savings potential withinSiemens scope of practice.In Sweden the electrical drives standfor about 30 % of the total electricityconsumption and about 60 % of theelectricity consumption within theindustry. During the pre-study phaseelectrical drives with pump applicationswere identified as large energy users.Because of this a case study at one ofSiemens customers, Stora Enso Fors wasperformed. The system that was evaluatedduring the case study was a throttledsystem with a centrifugal pump forpumping pulp.The results yielded that a saving ofover 50 % could be achieved by replacingthe throttle valve with a variable speeddrive, a frequency converter. Thepayback period was two years and twomonths and the present value for thetotal life cycle cost of the variablespeed system was 662.566 SEK lower thanfor the throttled system. As aconsequence, Stora Enso Fors is advisedto invest in a frequency converter forregulation of the system.The general conclusion is that a focuson system efficiency is the mostimportant factor in energy efficiencyprojects and that the system regulationmethod has a large impact on the overallsystem losses and hence its efficiency.Energy efficiency potential forthrottled systems with centrifugal pumpsis large and significant economicalsavings can be made through investmentswith short payback time..

Storm water is defined as runoff from precipitation such as rain or snow. It is collected in sewage disposal systems and since it mainly originates from urban areas it can contain high levels of heavy metals, nutrients and oil etc. Polluted storm water is currently treated by different methods such as wet ponds, constructed wetlands and filter strips. This study investigates these methods, which in earlier studies have shown to give varying results regarding their treatment efficiency.This thesis has been written on commission of SWECO VIAK and was aimed at studying those parameters that may affect the treatment efficiency of nutrients and heavy metals in storm water treatment facilities (STF:s). Through literature studies the dominating treatment processes in ponds and wetlands were examined.

Efficiency has become an important objective for many providers of welfare services. Among Swedish schools, both private and public, increased administrative demands seemingly influence operations, and affect teachers negatively through perceived stress. Simultaneously, Swedish students scored an all-time low in the latest PISA survey, and are now performing below the OECD-average in science, mathematics and reading. A central administrative task in the Swedish elementary school is the parent-teacher conference, which is an important activity in supporting the development of the student's knowledge and social skills. Lean is a well-established operations framework, which has proven successful in order to improve process efficiency.