Sambandet mellan patienters förväntningar inför axeloperation och i vilken utsträckning dessa påverkar den upplevda nöjdheten är inte entydigt. Positiva förväntningar är viktiga samtidigt som orealistiskt höga förväntningar kan ge lägre patientnöjdhet. Uppföljning utifrån individens upplevelse är viktig för att följa resultat och öka patientnöjdheten i en personcentrerad vård. Syftet med denna studie var att redogöra för en grupp axelopererade patienters mål inför operation, måluppfyllelse efter ett år och undersöka eventuella samband mellan olika förväntningar och grad av måluppfyllelse. Syftet var också att beskriva upplevd livskvalitet före och ett år efter operation, korrelera skattad livskvalitet och måluppfyllelse efter ett år samt undersöka eventuella skillnader i skattade värden beroende på bakgrundsfaktorer. Metoden var en  korrelerande prospektiv registerbaserad studie. Huvudresultatet visade hög grad av patientnöjdhet både för skattad livskvalitet och uppfyllelse av personligt mål, sambandet mellan dessa värden var starkt. Smärtfrihet var den vanligaste förhoppningen. Signifikant samband mellan olika förväntningar och uppnått mål sågs i grupperna ¨återgå till arbete¨ och ¨smärtfri nattetid¨. Kvinnor skattade signifikant lägre värden än män före operation men ingen signifikant skillnad kan ses vid ettårsuppföljningen. Slutsatsen var att undersökningsgruppen inför operation hade höga förväntningar och att dessa i stor utsträckning uppnåtts. Likaså sågs tydlig ökning i skattad livskvalitet. Minskad smärta/smärtfrihet var tydligt den viktigaste förväntan inför operation. Denna utvärdering av patientens upplevelse av måluppfyllelse och livskvalitet kan ge återkoppling i arbetet för att stärka och utveckla en personcentrerad vård. / The correlation between the expectations before shoulder surgery and to which extent they affect patient satisfaction is not unambiguous. Positive expectations are important whilst unrealistic expectations could lead to reduced patient satisfaction. Follow up based on the experiences of the individual is important to follow results and increase patient satisfaction in a person centred care. The aim of this study was to narrate the preoperative goals and the fulfilment of these goals after one year for a group of patients who had undergone shoulder surgery and to investigate the eventual relationship between different expectations and degree of goal fulfilment. The aim was also to describe the perceived life quality before and one year after surgery, to correlate perceived life quality and goal fulfilment after one year and to examine eventual differences in assessed values due to demographic factors. The method was a correlative prospective register based study. The main result showed high degree of patient satisfaction for both assessed life quality and fulfilment of personal expectations, the correlation between these values where strong. Relief of pain was the most common expectation. Significant correlation between expectations and goal assessment where seen in the groups ¨return to work¨ and ¨relief of nocturnal pain¨. Women assessed significant lower values than men before operation but no significant differences where seen at the follow-up after one year. The conclusion was that the study population had high preoperative expectations and that these where fulfilled to a great extent. An explicit increase in perceived life quality was also seen. Relief or reduction of pain was clearly the most important expectation before surgery. This evaluation of patients’ sense of goal fulfilment and perceived life quality might give feed back in the work to strengthen and generate a person centred approach.

The aim of this study is to identify the best practices in traditional and electronic banking operations strategy in Jordan as a case study of developing economies over the period 1999 to 2008. During this period numerous changes faced banks in Jordan: new banking law was launched, the banks were directed towards complying with the Basel Accord II, and the banks adopted more e-banking channels. Only the practices of all local banks were investigated due to their superior performance. A number of questionnaires were used to collect the data from different individuals in these banks. Further, annual reports were analysed and websites were reviewed. Two data-analysis approaches were used to identify the key strategies of traditional and electronic banking in Jordan: competitive position analysis and cluster analysis. Analysis revealed eight best practices of traditional banking and four best practices of electronic banking were adopted. Best practices are presented as prediction models. These models combine actions with capabilities and performance. The traditional banking predication models are: branches urban accessibility, branches sites accessibility (percentage of sites covered), branches sites accessibility (number of branches sites covered), account transaction time, new credit product flexibility, account customer waiting time, account transaction cost, loan approval costs, and branches layout quality. The e-banking prediction models are: Internet banking transaction time, telephone banking volume flexibility, ATM suburban accessibility, and ATM sites accessibility. This research revealed that; financial performance achieved by e-banking strategy patterns is significantly lower than traditional banking. Also customers satisfaction, retention, and deposit market of e-banking are significantly lower than traditional banking, which indicates that the best operational practices in Jordan are still more traditional oriented despite the significant direction of banks in Jordan toward adopting e-banking channel.

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In the first chapter, I examine an incomplete markets economy in a politico-economic general equilibrium setting in which the median voter chooses the inflation rate. I use an environment where individuals face an uninsurable idiosyncratic labor productivity shock, and money is the only asset. Being an effective tax on savings, inflation acts as a redistribution mechanism transferring resources from the rich to the poor. I show that the median voter chooses a positive inflation rate as the politico-economic equilibrium outcome. In the second chapter, I analyze how forming a monetary union affects consumption and earnings inequalities through monetary policy changes implied by adopting a common currency. I use a two country open-economy, overlapping-generations model with heterogenous individuals to investigate these effects. In the model, inflation tax is the only redistributive tool and consumption and earnings inequalities are decreasing functions of inflation. When forming a monetary union, countries face a trade-off between the undesirable distributional effects of losing their monetary autonomy and benefits from the elimination of trade frictions. Findings suggest that when countries choose to do so, the country with higher initial inflation will definitely experience a fall in its inflation, hence an increase in its inequalities. In the country with lower initial inflation, however, inflation and inequalities might go in either direction depending on the degree of heterogeneity and the trade dependency between the countries. As the inflationary effect of uniting its monetary policy with a high inflation country can dominate the reducing effect of vanished trade frictions on inflation, this country might have an increase in its inflation, and a decrease in its inequalities. Finally, in the third chapter, I compare the indirect measure of inflation expectations derived by Ireland (1996b) to the direct measures obtained from expectations surveys in two case studies: the US and Turkey. Our results show that the inflation bounds calculated for US data are more volatile than survey results, and are too narrow to contain them due to low standard errors in consumption growth series stemming from high persistence. For the Turkish case, on the other hand, out of three different surveys on inflation expectations in Turkey compared with the bounds computed using Turkish data, expectations obtained by the Consumer Tendency Survey fall within these bounds throughout the whole sample period. Moreover we show that, as Fisher's theory suggests, real interest rates are extremely volatile in Turkey and movements in nominal interest rates cannot be directly used as an indicator of changes in inflation expectations. / text

Revisionsplikten har under en längre tid varit ett väldiskuterat ämne i Europa där störst fokus har legat på huruvida revisionen ska vara frivillig eller inte. Idag har det gått mer än två år sedan lagen om avskaffad revisionsplikt trädde i kraft vilket gör det möjligt att studera avskaffandets effekter ur olika perspektiv som till exempel de små aktiebolagens perspektiv, skatteverkets perspektiv och kreditgivarnas perspektiv. Fokus för denna studie är revisorernas perspektiv och hur de har påverkats av lagändringen. Syftet med vårt examensarbete är att beskriva och analysera revisorers förväntningar kring avskaffandet av revisionsplikten för att sedan kunna jämföra hur dessa förväntningar stämmer överens med utfallet efter att lagen trätt i kraft. Syftet med uppsatsen är även att beskriva och analysera vilka faktorer som påverkar effekterna av utfallet. För att nå fram till ett resultat har en abduktiv ansats med en kvalitativ metod använts för denna studie. Studien utgår ifrån befintlig teori och vetenskapliga studier. Teorier som har använts är agentteorin, professionsteorin, komfortteorin, legitimitetsteorin och den institutionella teorin samt förväntningsgapet. Det empiriska materialet grundar sig på åtta intervjuer med revisorer från olika revisionsbyråer i Kristianstadsområdet med omnejd. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats utifrån en jämförelse mellan förväntningar och utfall av revisionspliktens avskaffande. Analysen påvisade att påverkansfaktorn byråstorlek hade den största påverkan på förväntningarna i förhållande till utfallet samt att endast en del av förväntningar stämde överens med det faktiska utfallet. / Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze auditors' expectations about the elimination of the audit requirement and then be able to compare how these expectations are consistent with the results after the law came into force. The purpose of this paper is also to describe and analyze the factors that influence the effects of outcome Methodology In order to reach a result, an abductive approach with a qualitative method have been used in this study Theoretical framework The study is based on existing theories and scientific studies. Theories that have been used are the agency theory, professional theory, comfort theory, legitimacy theory and institutional theory together with the expectation gap Empirical analysis The empirical material is based on eight interviews with auditors from various auditing firms in the Kristianstad area and vicinity. The empirical data were analyzed by means of a comparison between expectations and outcomes of the audit elimination Conclusion The analysis showed that the influencing factor firm size had the greatest impact on the expectations in relation to the outcome and that only some of the expectations were in line with the actual outcome

Undersökningens syfte är att få djupare förståelse och insikt i vilken uppgift musik- och kulturskolan har i samhället. Utifrån detta syfte är avsikten att få en inblick i vilka arbetsmetoder som används för att rekrytera, behålla och utveckla elever samt att få kunskap om olika faktorer som påverkar kursutbud och utveckling av skolan. Jag har i min undersökning gjort kvalitativa intervjuer med sex skolledare från olika musik- och kulturskolor i Sverige. Studien utgår från olika teorier om musik- och kulturskolans utveckling och förändring samt teorier om förändringar i skola och samhälle.    I resultatet visas att det finns flera olika förväntningar på musik- och kulturskolan vilka skiftar från skola till skola och från kommun till kommun. På några av de i studien medverkande skolorna finns det en tydlig politisk styrning, medan andra skolor nästan helt saknar en sådan styrning. De faktorer som mest framträdande påverkar musik- och kulturskolan är enligt min undersökning följande: vilka lärare som är anställda på skolan, vilka traditioner som ska upprätthållas, hur musik- och kulturskolan samarbetar med grundskolan och olika kulturella aktörer i kommunen, budget, elevtryck, hur rekryteringen ser ut och till viss del terminsavgiftens storlek.     Musik- och kulturskolans roll har förändrats under årens lopp, vilket bland annat innebär att de traditionella genrerna i större utsträckning har fått ge plats åt populärmusiken i undervisningen. Populärmusikens ökade plats i både samhället och musik- och kulturskolan har också inneburit att bland annat blåsinstrument har sjunkit mycket i popularitet.     En slutsats är att det är önskvärt att lärare inom musik- och kulturskolan både har spetskompetens samt en stor bredd, såväl genremässigt som musikaliskt, för att kunna följa eleven länge och erbjuda bästa möjliga undervisning. / The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding and insight into the role of the Community School of Music and Art in society. According to this view, the intention is to gain an insight into the working methods that are used to recruit, retain and develop students, as well as to acquire knowledge of the various factors affecting the rate of supply and development of the school. This examination contains qualitative interviews with six headmasters from different community schools of music and art in Sweden. The study is based on different theories of changes and developments within the community school of music and art. The study is also based on theories concerning cultural changes and changes in  society.     The result shows there are different expectations on community schools of music and art which vary from school to school and from municipality to municipality. Some of the schools participating in the study had an obvious political governance, while other schools almost entirely lacked such control. The factors that most affected the community schools of music and art in my survey were: the teachers that were employed at the school, which traditions were to be upheld, how the community school of music and art collaborated with schools and various cultural actors in the municipality, budget, the student population, how the school worked with recruitment and, to a certain extent, the tuition fee.     The role of the community school of music and art has changed over the years. This change has affected the traditional genres to a large extent and has created more space for popular music in the classroom. While popular music has emerged in both society and in the community school of music and art, the popularity of wind instruments has decreased greatly.     One conclusion from this examination is that it is desirable that the teachers of the community school of music and art both demonstrate excellence and a wide range, both from a genre and musical standpoint in order to guide and teach the student, and offer the best possible education.

Den här undersökningen syftar till att få en djupare förståelse för hur musik- och kulturskolans verksamhet kan se ut i framtiden. Jag vill få en inblick i vilka faktorer som påverkar utvecklingen av den kommunala musik- och kulturskolan, samt hur musik- och kulturskolan väljer att förhålla sig till dessa faktorer. För att undersöka detta har jag använt mig av kvalitativ intervju som forskningsmetod för att därigenom få fram fyra instrumentallärares och tre musikledares tankar och erfarenheter.Resultatet visar på flera faktorer som påverkar förväntningarna på den kommunala musik- och kulturskolan varav de mest framträdande är media, musikaliska trender, sociala faktorer och elevernas förväntningar på undervisningen. Dessa faktorer påverkar musik- och kulturskolan både som organisation och verksamhet, men också själva undervisningen. Bland annat visar undersökningen att musik- och kulturskolan behöver förhålla sig till att dagens elever har nya uppfattningar om vad det innebär att musicera och att lära sig spela ett instrument. Många lärare beskriver att elever sällan förstår att de måste öva på sina instrument för att lära sig spela. Resultatet visar också att musik- och kulturskolans ledning idag jobbar mer för att skapa en utåtriktad verksamhet, vilket man också sannolikt kommer att behöva göra i framtiden.En slutsats i undersökningen är att musik- och kulturskolans verksamhet idag behöver ha en bred och mångfasetterad verksamhet vad gäller både instrument, repertoar och undervisning för att möta dagens elever. En annan slutas är att grundambitionen att bilda folket i musik, har ändrats till att ge alla barn en möjlighet att utvecklas med musik. / This study aims for a deeper understanding in how the community school of music and art will develop in the future. I would like to decide which factors influence the development of the community school of music and art, and how the school chooses to approach these factors. Four instrumental teachers and three music leaders have been interviewed.The results indicate factors that influence the expectations of the community school of music and art, of which the most prominent are media, musical trends, social factors and the student’s expectations on the education. These factors exert influence on the community school of music and art, both as an organization and as a productive activity, as well as the education. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the community school of music and art must approach students with new views, on what it means to play and learn an instrument. The teachers point out that the students seldom understand that it is necessary to practice to learn how to play their instruments. The result also shows that management at3the community school of music and art is working to create a more expansive business, which will continue into the future.One conclusion of the study, is that the community school of music and art of today, needs to have a wide productive activity in regard to meeting the students’ need concerning instruments, repertoires and education. Another conclusion is that the basic ambition to educate people in music, has given way to provide all children a possibility to develop through music.

This dissertation presents a new measure of U.S. inflation persistence from the point of view of a professional forecaster. In chapter 2 I explore two different measures that give insight into the views of professional forecasters and link their views with U.S. inflation data. One of these measures, given by the persistence implied by forecast revisions, appears to have similarities with actual inflation persistence over the 1981–2008 sample period. Chapter 3 explores forecast revisions in a more general setting allowing forecasters to have their own views on inflation persistence as well as a unique information set. This chapter builds a measure of perceived inflation persistence via the implied autocorrelation function that follows from the estimates obtained using a forecaster-specific state-space model. When compared to the autocorrelation function for actual inflation, forecasters tend to react less to shocks that hit inflation than the actual inflation data would suggest. This could be due to increased credibility of the Federal Reserve, but it could also be a result of a bias in the underlying inflation forecasts. Chapter 4 focuses on this issue and finds that the reluctance of forecasters to make revisions to their previously announced forecasts causes their estimates of perceived inflation persistence to be understated as their announced inflation forecasts differ from their true inflation expectations. This chapter also presents a method to undo this bias by retrieving their true inflation expectations series. / Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-21 15:39:23.616

The lack of service delivery by South African municipalities has received much attention in recent years. In South Africa, service quality within local government is perceived as being generally poor. According to the South African Constitution, the mandate of a municipality is to ensure service deliveries through satisfying citizens‟ basic needs. Therefore, an understanding of customers‟ expectations and perceptions is vital for any service organisation’s success. The research undertaken in this study was deemed necessary, given that service delivery by South African municipalities is widely considered to be lacking in various areas. The research was conducted against the backdrop of the White Paper on Local Government that calls for the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner. The primary objective of the study was to provide a view on the community’s expectations and perceptions of the service quality delivery by the Emfuleni Local Municipality in order to identify any potential service quality gaps. The study follows a descriptive research design approach. The literature review comprised published research relating to service quality and service quality models. The literature review provides information on service quality from the perspective of general service industries, as well as an overview of the current South African local spheres of government. The outcomes of the literature review served to provide the theoretical framework for the empirical study. A questionnaire survey was utilised to gather the required data for the empirical portion of this study. Residents of the Emfuleni Local Municipality formed the sampling frame of this study. The questionnaire included the SERVQUAL measuring scale. Self-administered questionnaires using the mall-intercept survey method were employed as the data collection method. In accordance with the delineated scope of the study, this study was confined to the Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark pay points of the Emfuleni Local Municipality. The study is cross-sectional in nature (data were collected in December 2010) and, as such, the results are representative of that point in time. The findings indicate that customers of the Emfuleni Local Municipality have negative perceptions of the quality of services delivered by the municipality. A statistical and practical significant difference was computed between expectations and perceptions on all of the service quality dimensions concerning service-quality delivery by the Emfuleni Local Municipality, thereby indicating service quality gaps that need to be addressed. The recommendations provided in this study focus on suggesting possible ways in which municipalities in South Africa in general, and in the Emfuleni Local Municipality in particular, may improve their service-quality delivery in order to decrease the gaps between expectations and perceptions, and doing so, increase customer satisfaction. Recommendations for closing these gaps include increasing marketing research, upgrading and maintaining the physical facilities, improving collaboration, co-ordination and co-operation between departments, keeping up-dated records, improving communication programmes, and implementing management and leadership training for management team. In addition, it is recommended that municipalities recruit qualified personnel who are willing to help, and that they engage in on-going staff training and motivation initiatives. / MCom, Business Management, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

Accountability is a major issue in education and in Texas, the TAAS test is used to indicate performance of students, teachers, campuses, and districts. The stakes are high for students, as performance on this test has determined whether they progress to another grade and whether they will receive a diploma. Most research studies focus on relationships between the teacher and individual students or groups of students, but not classrooms. Expectations and high stakes testing are central within the educational process, and their relationship on student achievement should be investigated, especially since no studies on teacher attitudes toward the TAAS test have been found. This correlational study measured teacher attitudes toward the TAAS and teacher expectations for students through data collected from a survey. Student achievement information was collected from averaged Texas Learning Index scores for students by classroom over a two year period. The sample consisted of 22 4th, 8th, and 10th grade reading and/or math teachers who had taught in the same Texas mid-sized, rural school district for at least two years. Frequency, percent, mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze the responses on the survey. A median score distinguished between high/low expectations and between positive/negative attitudes toward the TAAS. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient identified relationships, with levels of significance determined at the .05 level. From this study, it appears that no relationship exists among teacher expectations for students, teacher attitudes toward the TAAS, and student achievement. It appears that teachers support the TAAS and see a relationship between the test and improved student performance, and view the TAAS as nondiscriminatory for race and socioeconomic status. While teacher expectation levels are not the same for all students, most teachers feel responsible for insuring that students learn while they are in the teachers' classrooms, and communicate, via word or action, the expectation that their students can learn at or above grade level.