During our teacher training, focusing on history and Swedish at further education level, we have noticed a discrepancy in the way history is portrayed in further education and higher education literature. Accounts of historical ideas, events and developments have often wrongly been depicted as non-gender specific, that is, of equal relevance to both men and women. To what extent is it made clear in further education textbooks that Rousseau’s treatise on education was exclusively aimed at the male gender, and how are the gender-specific aspects of his ideas described? What role and space are set aside for women in the accounts of the struggle for the universal right to vote in Sweden at the turn of the century in 1900, and how is the unions’ initial exclusion of female workers portrayed? Focusing on the above historical events and developments, this study aimes to examine whether or not gender-specific issues are described as gender neutral in a selection of history textbooks for further education published in Sweden between 1982 and 2003.

This thesis seeks to predict the results of the presidential election in the United States, with a specific interest in swing states. I construct a methodology to predict the difference between the state and national two-party vote share for all 50 states plus D.C. using economic variables such as the change in the unemployment rate, the growth of real per capita Gross Domestic Product, Gallup poll ratings, and the ideology of the candidate. The methodology presented also allows the number of swing states to adjust between election years by giving each state its own coefficient on the difference between the state and national change in the unemployment rate. The resulting State-National Gap Model is then used to predict the two-party vote share for the Democrats using regression analysis with panel data for the elections from 1992-2008. My model is tested against the 2012 election and successfully predicts 49 out of 50 states as well as D.C.

This thesis examines the influence of religion on party realignment in the United States focusing on Catholic voting behavior. A statistical analysis utilizing bivariate analysis and logistical regressions examines if religion and party realignment is an ecumenical trend expanding beyond Evangelicals to Catholics. It measures scientifically the party trends of the Catholic voter. With data pooled from the National Election Studies from 1960 to 2004, it tests the hypothesis that church attending Catholics are realigning over time into the Republican Party both in vote choice and party identification, because of their pro-life position on abortion. The analysis shows that church attending Catholics have dealigned from the Democratic Party over time because of their pro-life position on abortion. The thesis is a model for examining the religion and party realignment question for other traditional Democratic religious denominations such as African-American Evangelicals and Jews.

I examine the relationship between the electoral security of congressmen, measured as vote margins in the previous election, and the support Members of Congress offer to their party. I develop a theory that predicts safe members will be more willing to support than vulnerable members and leaders demand more loyalty from safe members than vulnerable. This arrangement is rational and beneficial for leaders and both types of members. Using an OLS regression, I find basic support for my theory.

In 2004, the clothing retailer Urban Outfitters sold a t-shirt with the slogan, “Voting is for Old People”. Did Urban Outfitters step over the line, or were they a reflection of the sate of our democracy and the demographics of current voters? Many organizations have developed to combat the problem of low youth voter turnout and disengagement. One of the most well-known organizations is Rock the Vote. In its 18 year existence, has youth turnout increased? Have their efforts been futile or on the other side, have they been successful in paving the way for the youth to demand attention from the government and be heard? The purpose of this research is to measure the effects of the efforts targeted toward youth voters over the past 18 years, in terms of voter turnout using American National Election Studies Data. The results show that voting is not just for old people.

A relatively well established literature already proffers explanations for the persistence of Euroskeptic Radical Right Parties (ERRPs) in Western Europe and for their emergence in the new democracies of the East. The purpose of this study is not to replicate those existing studies; instead, the argument advanced here is that there may be an important intervening factor as yet unexplored in the extant literature. Drawing upon aggregate survey data from select Western European EU member states and a focused case study of Slovakia, this paper seeks to assess the impact of information, in this case information about the European Union, on voting for ERRPs. The argument presented here is that EU information mitigates the support for ERRPs, more so in the East than in the West.

This thesis investigates what effects control enhancing mechanisms that are associated with vote differentiation have on dividend payout policy among Swedish listed firms. The data collected for this study is for the period 2005-2007 and the sample consists of 109 companies where 61 of these have shares that are vote differentiated, and the remaining 48 companies have the one share –one vote structure. The variables in the regressions are dividend payout ratio, a dummy for vote differentiation, growth in earnings, size, Tobin’s Q and ownership structure. Three separate hypotheses are applied for reaching a scientific answer to the thesis question. The results indicate that dividend payout policy is significantly negatively affected by the presence of vote differentiation and that vote concentration among the five largest shareholders is generally higher in such firms. The results do also indicate that dividend payout is determined by firm size, growth and investment performance which are in line with earlier studies. From the results, parallels have been drawn between investment performance, ownership concentration, vote differentiation and dividend payout policy. Firms that have vote differentiated shares tend to overinvest instead of paying out dividends when this presumably would be a more appropriate decision considering the aspect of efficiency. As a final conclusion based on the findings, the thesis confirms the argument on that vote differentiating among shares should be reconsidered for better reforms.

The exhausting fossil fuels have stimulated heating researches on alternative renewable energy, as well as energy friendly studies. In a country like Taiwan, with high density on population and buildings, fresh cold air are supplied by either fan-coil units or air-condition units. However, with the lack of intelligent control and poor justification on thermal comfort, these machines failed to provide optimal thermal comfort, a situation that always leads to "excessive control" and energy waste as a consequence. Optimal thermal comfort is pursued by using PMV fuzzy control theory, along with thermal comfort monitoring system derived from LabView icon-control software. Thermal Comfort indices such as Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percent of Dissatisfied (PPD) according to the ISO 7730 are used as indicators of thermal comfort.Sensors, conscious of variations in humidity and temperatures, can figure out PMV and PPD via LabView Online Real Time calculation, and then we can control the environment comfort around PMV=1 next by using fuzzy control theory as well as energy efficient equipment such as AC stepless fans and AC stepless heaters. Many comfort simulation cases, comfort simulation with random humidity and temperatures, and a 12-hour automatic control, were presented as three testing items to check whether PMV FUZZY algorithm is competitive in fixing the environment thermal comfort around PMV=1. The confirmation of this question can be proved by this empirical study.

English Abstract The essay argues the transformation from business marketing strategies to political ones. It accumulates the empirical data interviewed from the Tai-nan city councilwomen, discusses the advantages and the disadvantages from the interviewers, and provides the modes of position marketing. The essay argues that the politicians should adopt the ¡¥material principle¡¦, ¡¥macro-behavior principle¡¦, and ¡¥productive behavior principle¡¦ as their marketing segmentation systems to get the best investment return rate. The politicians should make self- positioning after adopting the marketing segmentation principles,. The politicians should be aware of the related opponents, make sure the fatal factors of the image positioning, accumulate the images of the politicians from the representative voters according to ¡¥decisive factor¡¦ from the marketing, and analyze the positions of the politicians in the voters. The candidates should thereby discuss the best compositions of the voters¡¦ decisive factors with their staffs and examine the correspondence between the market segmentation and the competitive position of the politicians to accomplish the market positioning.

Les acteurs virtuels autonomes sont des agents évoluant dans des environnements dynamiques et continus. Ils doivent prendre des décisions afin de s'y adapter en temps réel. Il leur faut donc disposer de modèles décisionnels performants. Les modèles décisionnels orientés comportement sont particulièrement adaptés à ces problèmes. Ils sont fondés sur l'hypothèse qu'une décision peut être répartie entre différentes entités (ou comportements). L'une des difficultés de cette approche est de dégager une décision globale à partir des suggestions des comportements. Dans ce cadre, le vote présente de nombreux avantages. Cependant, dans la littérature, il ne permet pas de sélectionner des actions continues et utilise des pondérations qui biaisent la sélection. Notre contribution consiste en une modification de la méthode de coordination par vote. Notre proposition permet de sélectionner les décisions dans un espace continu, d'utiliser des comportements de granularité fine et met en oeuvre une procédure de vote différente. Nous avons appliqué le modèle décisionnel à la navigation réactive autonome en environnement virtuel. Les essais réalisés prouvent l'intérêt du modèle et n'utilisent aucune pondération. Les résultats en environnement statique montrent que le modèle est capable d'atteindre son objectif en respectant des contraintes et en persistant dans ses choix. Les résultats en environnement dynamique décroissent lorsque le nombre d'agents est supérieur à vingt. De par le caractère ouvert du problème traité, ce travail fait l'objet de plusieurs perspectives applicatives (simulation de groupes d'agents) et théoriques (liaison avec un module de niveau d'abstraction supérieur).