I denna uppsats undersöks ett projekt gällande byggnation av ny teknik till järnvägen mellan Stockholm och Köpenhamn där Sverige och Danmark möts. Syftet är att undersöka vilka kulturella skillnader som existerar i projektet samt hur arbetet koordineras och hur gruppen kommunicerar. En fallstudie har gjorts över en gemensam projektgrupp som arbetar med att implementera ett nytt signalsystem över Öresund. Intervjuer har genomförts med nyckelpersoner inom projektet från tre involverade organisationer vilka kunnat ge sin syn på hur arbetet i projektet gått till och hur de upplevt kulturella skillnader mellan nationaliteterna. Det teoretiska ramverk som används behandlar interkulturell projektledning, där kulturella skillnader mellan länderna förklaras. Även koordinering och kommunikation inom multikulturella grupper som arbetar på distans genom virtuella team behandlas, vilket leder fram till den analys som används i uppsatsen. Resultat som kunnat observeras i fallstudien är att det existerar vissa skillnader som stämmer överens med den teori som använts. Dessa skillnader innefattar bland annat att beslutsfattande och förhandling skiljer länderna åt, vilket är bra för speciellt svenska medarbetare att vara medvetna om när de ska arbeta tillsammans med danskar. Även det strukturella ramverk, det vill säga den politiska beslutsfattning som sker i de involverade länderna, spelar en roll när projekt har en multikulturell dimension att ta hänsyn till.

Den här uppsatsen undersöker jobbskatteavdragets effekt på pendlingen från Sverige till Danmark. Detta görs genom att mäta nettopendlingen året innan samt efter reformens införande år 2007. Nettopendlingen för en kommun ges av skillnaden mellan antalet som pendlar ut från kommunen och antalet som pendlar till en kommunen. Vi är endast intresserade av pendling mellan länderna så vi tittar därmed inte på inrikes pendling. Efter detta steg så summerar vi nettopendlingen för kommunens alla pendlingsvägar till det motsatta landet till ett enda tal som då mäter nettopendlingen från en kommun till det andra landet. Uppsatsens hypotes är att nettopendlingen från Sverige till Danmark år 2007 skulle minska, relativt från Sverige till Danmark år 2006. Uppsatsens frågeställning är; Minskar införandet av det svenska jobbskatteavdraget år 2007 nettopendlingen från Sverige till Danmark? Jobbskatteavdraget är en skattereduktion som enligt teorin ska öka arbetsutbudet genom att minska reservationslönen. Nettopendling från Sverige till Danmark ska enligt teorin minska, och nettopendlingen Danmark till Sverige istället öka, om reservationslönen i Sverige går ned. Om vi observerar en minskning i nettopendlingen från Sverige till Danmark så indikerar det således även att en minskning i reservationslönen skett i Sverige. Detta indikerar möjligtvis en ökning i arbetsutbudet, allt annat lika. Resultatet gick emot hypotesen och visade istället en ökning i nettopendling för Sverige år 2007. Uppsatsens placeboestimat blev dock signifikant så vi kan inte urskilja om uppsatsens empiriska modell verkligen fångat upp effekten av jobbskatteavdraget eller inte.

Rail Transport has held an important place in the European economy. Several problems plague rail freight. We frequently hear about train disruptions, whether it is due to a signal failure or an infrastructure breakdown, most of which have caused significant issues for both passengers and cargo. One of the primary reasons disruptions have such a significant impact on the railway system is limited redirections for trains. Taking this into account, we investigate the resilience of rail systems for international freight in the Öresund region. The Öresund area divides Denmark and Sweden via a small strait fixed link consisting of a bridge, a tunnel, and the artificial island of Peberholm. To avoid impeding freight traffic in the case of the Öresund bridge, we investigate two alternative fixed links where traffic may be routed if the bridge closes. The first proposal is LC Link (Europaspåret), which will connect Landskrona (Sweden) and Copenhagen (Denmark) with double track. Another alternative for the second fixed link is the HH rail connection between Helsingborg (Sweden) and Helsingör (Denmark) across the Öresund region. After the Fehmarn Belt link between Germany and Denmark, the infrastructure in the Öresund region should be strong enough to accommodate increased freight train capacity. Several methods have been used to assess the system’s robustness and resilience in terms of capacity. This master’s thesis employs both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods. For the investigation, we employ Planimate simulation software and simulation models based on potential scenarios. A timetable for 2040 is developed based on the current number of trains passing through Öresund. The capacity constraints were selected depending on the resistance offered by the other routes. According to the research findings, more significant capacity limitations would eventually increase freight train queuing. The results from the simulation indicate that the LC link is the most robust and resilient option for the second fixed connection over the Öresund bridge. The data also indicate that when additional capacity restraints are applied, more crowding is seen for the HH connection, better suited for passenger traffic. The research also offers insight into the meso - models for modelling freight traffic. / Järnvägstransporter har en viktig plats i den europeiska ekonomin. Det finns dock flera problem kopplade till godstrafiken på järnväg. Vi hör ofta om tågstörningar, oavsett om det beror på ett signalfel eller ett infrastrukturfel, många av dem har orsakat betydande störningar för både passagerare och gods. En av de främsta anledningarna till att störningar har en så betydande inverkan på järnvägssystemet är de begränsade omledningsmöjligheterna för tåg. Med hänsyn till detta undersöker vi tågsystemets redundans för internationella godståg i Öresundsregionen. Öresundsregionen delar Danmark och Sverige genom ett litet sund med en fast förbindelse bestående av en bro, en tunnel och den konstgjorda ön Peberholm. För att undvika att hindra godstrafiken över Öresundsbron vid händelse av ett avbrott, undersöker vi två alternativa fasta förbindelser där trafik kan ledas om. Det första förslaget är Europaspåret som binder samman Landskrona (Sverige) och Köpenhamn (Danmark) med ett dubbelspår. Det andra alternativet för den andra fasta länken är HH-järnvägsförbindelsen mellan Helsingborg (Sverige) och Helsingör (Danmark) över Öresundsregionen. Efter att Fehmarn Bält-förbindelsen mellan Tyskland och Danmark är färdigställd bör infrastrukturen i Öresundsregionen vara tillräcklig för att klara en ökad godstågskapacitet. Flera metoder har använts för att bedöma systemets robusthet och motståndskraft vad gäller kapacitet. Denna masteruppsats använder både kvalitativa och kvantitativa utvärderingsmetoder. För utredningen använder vi Planimates simuleringsprogram och simuleringsmodeller baserade på potentiella scenarier. En tidtabell för 2040 tas fram utifrån antalet tåg som passerar Öresund idag och har därefter räknats upp. Kapacitetsbegränsningarna valdes beroende på det uppskattade motståndet genom de olika alternativen. Enligt forskningsresultaten skulle mer betydande kapacitetsbegränsningar på sikt minska kapaciteten för godståg att passera. Resultaten från simuleringen tyder på att Europaspåret är det mest robusta och motståndskraftiga alternativet för den andra fasta förbindelsen över Öresundsbron. Uppgifterna indikerar också att när ytterligare kapacitetsbegränsningar tillämpas resulterar det i mer trängsel för HH-förbindelsen, som är bättre lämpad för passagerartrafik. Forskningen ger också insikt i meso-modeller för modellering av godstrafik.

Arbetet med att minska sjöfartens miljöpåverkan är något som är högaktuellt och under ständig utveckling. Vid en omdirigering där delar av sjötrafiken från Stora Bält förflyttas till Flintrännan, skulle miljöbelastningen minska regionalt och öka lokalt. Syftet med denna uppsats var att ta reda på hur bränsleförbrukningen förändrades för den del av sjötrafiken som förflyttades till Flintrännan. Genom detta kunde man också se en tendens till hur sjöfartens bidrag till luftföroreningar i Malmö stad kan förväntas förändras. Slutsatserna var att referensfartygen nästan halverade bränsleförbrukningen när dom valde den kortare rutten via Flintrännan framför Stora Bält. Det framkom att sjöfartens totala bidrag till CO2 utsläppen förväntas minska med 60-190 000 ton. Resultatet uppnåddes genom en insamling av trafikflödesdata samt bränsleberäkningar på tre referensfartyg. / Efforts to reduce shipping's environmental impact are something that is highly topical and constantly evolving. At a redirection where parts of the sea traffic from Stora Bält moved to Flintrännan, environmental impact would decrease regionally and increase locally. The purpose of this paper was to find out how the bunker consumption changed for the part of the sea traffic that were moved to Flintrännan. This could also indicate a tendency to change the contribution of shipping to air pollution in Malmö city. The conclusions were that the reference vessels almost halved the bunker consumption when they chose the shorter route via Flintrännan. It was found that shipping's total net contribution to CO2 emissions is expected to decrease by 60-190 000 tons. The result was achieved through a collection of traffic flow data and fuel calculations on three reference vessels.

The Öresund Region is a historical cross border region working over the national borders of Sweden and Denmark. The regional administration, the Öresund Committee, is the only political forum that encompasses the whole region and serves its interests collectively. Not only is it cooperating with the national governments but also has a close relationship with the Nordic Council and especially with the European Union. According to a method developed by Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks and Arjan H. Schakel, it is possible to retrieve a Regional Authority Index which mirrors the formal authority of a region. The method is evaluated in accordance to the complications of the Öresund Region’s dual nationality and finds that the Öresund Committee has a rather concealed role with greater indirect impact than it is given credit for. However, in terms of formal authority, the Öresund Committee has a weak position and shares no rule with higher political entities, such as the Danish, Swedish and European central administrations.

This thesis consists of three main parts. The first and most important part, in terms of effort and time spent, is devoted to the estimation of the importance of accessibility for production at the firm or plant level using three different econometric estimation approaches. The results could have implications for the calculation of "wider" economic benefits of transport infrastructure, stemming from agglomeration externalities (e.g., scale economies). There are both methodological and result-wise conclusions that can be drawn from this research: methodologically, first, using unbalanced firm-level data requires the use of proxy variables to account for (initial) firm-specific unobserved productivity effects, and non-random exit from the dataset. Second, there are unsolved theoretical problems when applying an essentially aggregate approach to productivity analysis on disaggregate data, viz., relating to the existence of aggregate production functions, and to the aggregation of productivity from a disaggregate level to a more aggregate level in a spatial framework. Result-wise, clear productivity differences are presented, when comparing firms in the same time period but in different locations with different accessibility. However, it is not possible in this dataset to detect increased productivity for representative firms stemming from the opening of the Öresund link. It is therefore discussed whether the reason for this result could be the inappropriateness of output measures in a competitive business environment, where a large portion of the benefits are gradually transferred to consumers and thus remain unmeasured. Other, more comprehensive structural approaches to econometrics, including the demand side of the economy, are also recommended. The second part of the thesis treats an unjustly neglected area of transport research: the validation of transport demand models. These transport models are for example used to calculate the new traffic patterns and changes in accessibility from a transport infrastructure investment like the Öresund fixed link, around which most of this thesis orbits. The third and last part, written with two co-authors, deals with the "vulnerability" of the road network, in terms of effects on the travel time delays of the users when a link is disrupted. The calculated indices of importance and exposure could also be seen as extreme forms of accessibility, especially when there is no alternative route besides the one that is cut-off. / QC 20110513

This study aims to contribute to the research field in the cross-border region of Oresund, between Helsingborg and Helsingor. The study aims to research politicians’ views on the cooperation between the two cities and to answer how politicians in Helsingborg and Helsingor view cross-border cooperation in the region based on driving forces, visions, and obstacles. The purpose is also to see if there are any differences between the politicians' views, in each city, on the cooperation and if the cross-border cooperation is being driven by instrumental ideas or value-based ideas.The study does this by qualitative interviews with politicians on each side of the border in the two cities. The interviews and the analysis of the material are based on the three carrying concepts: driving forces, visions, and obstacles. The analysis is being done with the help of the theory based on instrumental driving forces and value-based ideas.From the analysis, the conclusion is that the driving forces behind this cooperation is connected to the geographical proximity between the countries. The vision is based on the goal of becoming a strong seamless-region and that there are obstacles such as taxes. The study concludes that the cooperation is mostly driven by instrumental ideas but that some of these driving forces have their origin in some type of value-based idea. The conclusion is also that the politicians in the two cities view the cooperation in a mostly similar way.

This study is concerned with the region of Öresund and the aspects of work commuting in particular. The purpose is to investigate attitudes and opinions towards the region among work commuters and then apply them to various theories relevant for the questioning, such as globalization, regionalization, ethnicity, nationalism, culture and identity. To investigate the attitudes towards the region we have done a number of interviews with commuters, using qualitative and semi-structured questions. The analysis is divided into three different parts; In Body and in Mind, Us and Them, the Future; and consists of a discussion of our informants’ answers related to the theoretical aspects of the earlier mentioned theories. Our results show that our informants feel a geographical connection to the region but that more common cultural references are needed to be able to speak of a mental connection within the region of Öresund.

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Can Danish experience explain why Sverigedemokraterna had a higher support among voters in Skåne, than among other Swedish voters?</p><p>Essay in Political Science, C-level</p><p>Author: Jenny Wood</p><p>Tutor: Gregg Bucken-Knapp</p><p>Autumn 2006/ Spring 2007</p><p>The key question of this essay concerns the outcome of Sweden’s latest election. When all the votes where counted, the county of Skåne showed an exceptionally high support for the right wing nationalist party Sverigedemokraterna. Why then, did Sverigedemokraterna have a higher support among voters in Skåne (as part of the larger and transnational Öresund region), than among other Swedish voters? My hypothesis is the following: the regional interaction within Öresund has not only had positive effects concerning the values that the people of Skåne hold. In other words, Danish experience has changed the way in which the people of Skåne view immigrants and radical right wing parties.</p><p>Before I go on any further I will explain what is meant by the Öresund region. This region encompasses both parts of Sweden and Denmark (most notably Skåne and Själland), and the interaction between the two countries have increased considerably since a physical bridge between the two border regions was opened in July 2000.</p><p>Now, let us go on to the purpose of this essay, which is to answer the key question, and also to determine if the regional cooperation in the Öresund region has led to changes in the way the people of Skåne view right wing nationalist parties. Therefore, I explored the effects of the interaction between the Swedish region Skåne and the Danish region Själland, in order to discern if the Danes negative views towards immigrants and their strong feelings of nationalism, have effected Swedes and their values. In other words, was it possible that the Danish hostility towards immigrants and their unproblematic view of right wing nationalist parties, had been transmitted to the people of Skåne? Last but not least, it has also been the purpose of this essay to prove that traditional variables, concerning the question of why people vote for right wing nationalist parties, do no longer explain this phenomenon. By traditional variables I mean unemployment and a high density of immigrants of the population in a specific area.</p><p>In order to research the above mentioned issues, I have gone through letters to the editor, sent to the newspaper Sydsvenskan, and analysed the material using qualitative text analysis. I have also studied literature within the field of cross-border studies.</p><p>After ten weeks of research, I came to the conclusion that the traditional variables do not explain why Sverigedemokraterna received such a high proportion of the votes in Skåne. However, this essay also sheds light on the possibility of Danish experience as a plausible variable when it comes to explaining the outcome of the last election, but based on my limited study I can neither confirm nor dismiss the hypothesis. However, my study does provide some evidence that supports the hypothesis. In order to draw any conclusions however, it would have to be broadened in itself and replicated in other sections of Sweden or nationally.</p><p>The results of my study might leave the key question unanswered, but in itself can be viewed as an important step towards obtaining a clearer overview of what has driven the increased vote share for Sverigedemokraterna.</p>

This study presents an exploration of several machine learning and image processing theories, as well as a literature review of several previous works on concrete crack detection systems. Through the literature review a system is selected and implemented with the Öresund bridge photograph collection. The selected system is a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) using cropped (256x256x) images for input. The CNN has a total of 13 layers that were implemented as described in the paper. All parts of the implementation such as cropping, code, and testing are described in detail. This study found a final accuracy rate of 77% for the trained net. This is combined with a sliding window technique for handling larger images. An exploration of reasons for this accuracy rate is done at the end of the paper.