The study of formal power series is an area of interest that spans many areas of mathematics. We begin by looking at single-variable formal power series with coefficients from a field. By restricting to those series which are invertible with respect to formal composition we form a group. Our focus on this group focuses on the classification of elements having finite order. The notion of a semi-cyclic group comes up in this context, leading to several interesting results about torsion subgroups of the group. We then expand our focus to the composition of multivariate formal power series, looking at similar questions about classifying elements of finite order. We end by defining a natural automorphism on this group induced by a group action of the symmetric group.

We investigate weighted finite automata over strings and strong bimonoids. Such algebraic structures satisfy the same laws as semirings except that no distributivity laws need to hold. We define two different behaviors and prove precise characterizations for them if the underlying strong bimonoid satisfies local finiteness conditions. Moreover, we show that in this case the given weighted automata can be determinized.

<p>In order to have some say and to scrutinise the government all member states of the EU today has established an institution within their national parliaments, the Committee of European Affairs. This institution, however, has very different rights and regulations depending on the country it is established in. This study uses two rather similar countries, Sweden and Denmark, and investigates what differences and similarities the two committees show.</p><p>By constructing a comparative case study of four units of analysis, the governments and committees of European Affairs in Sweden and Denmark, the formal and informal power relationship between government and committee in each country were studied in order to determine similarities and differences and whether the committee had an impact on the governments’ EU policies. Further they were compared, assessing whether the Danish Committee of European Affairs was more powerful than its Swedish counterpart because of its legal basis in an EU document.</p><p>The theoretical framework was built on empirical institutionalism and Lukes’ first and second dimension of power. The similarities and differences were accounted for and compared. In conclusion, the Danish Committee of European Affairs has more formal power than its Swedish counterpart but regarding informal power the Swedish Committee of European Affairs has a slight advantage. Both committees have an impact on the way their government handle negotiations with the EU.</p><p>Keywords: formal power, informal power, the Committee of European Affairs, Sweden, Denmark</p>

Previous research has suggested that individuals differ in their accuracy of perceptions of the social environment, and some research suggests that powerful individuals in particular tend to be lazy, disinterested observers of the social world. A handful of field studies and lab experiments linking power with individuals’ perceptions of others’ social networks have generally supported this view. However, recent theory addressing the psychological consequences of power for the power-holder claim that in certain circumstances and for some kinds of social information, power is linked to increased accuracy of social information. This dissertation tests this idea by drawing on social network theory and the situated focus theory of power. I examine the relationship between individuals’ formal power and their perceptual accuracy of social network relationships. I propose that individuals’ perceptual accuracy is affected by 1) their formal power in the organization 2) the type of relationship being perceived (expressive/instrumental, positive/negative), and 3) the dependence relationship with the target of perception (whether the perceiver is dependent on the perceived to get their work done). Predictions were tested using cognitive social network data collected from a call center within a division of a large corporation in the US. Results showed that formal power was linked to increased accuracy for some relationship content (particularly negative expressive relationships), and managers tend to be more accurate when perceiving their own incoming relationships than non-managers.

This thesis is a case study of the Swedish Rehabilitation Reform of 1992. Vocational rehabilitation is described as an organizational activity which takes place in the interaction between social policy regulations and organizational execution. The analytical point of departure is made up of two complementary theoretical perspectives (Chapter 3): New institutional theory and the concept of 'negotiated order'. New institutional theory can aid inter-organizational analysis as it assumes that organizations are not only influenced, but also permeated by institutional and technical frameworks. The 'negotiated order' perspective can provide an understanding of actors' motives when they work together. This perspective also acknowledges that actors are able to exercise 'episodic power', and that this differs from 'formal power'. The first empirical study (Chapter 4) analyses the political motives behind the Rehabilitation Reform of 1992. It shows that at the time of the Rehabilitation Reform economical and political interests were pushing for a tighter regulations in Swedish social policy. The following three empirical studies focus on the 'organizational field' in which rehabilitation is practised. This field consists of the social insurance office, employment agencies, primary health care centres and occupational health service centres. Chapter 5 deals with the regulations and environmental factors influencing the various organizations and their representatives. It points to five external forces that influence the performance of the four type of actors. The social insurance office is influenced by a judicial social insurance logic, the employment agencies by a holistic labour market policy logic, and the physicians in primary health care centres and in occupational health centres by a 'holistic' medical frame of reference, which contrasts with that often found in other medical sub-specialities. Finally, employers are influenced first, by a logic of profit which has a technical and institutional dimension and second, by an institutional welfare state logic. Chapter six shows that the largest 'domain conflict' in the initial phase of the rehabilitation trajectory has to do with defining 'capacity to work'. Domain conflicts are seen as resulting from different institutional logics, implying different views on illness and capacity to work. Numerous and frequent personal interaction make it possible for physicians and rehabilitation officials to avoid conflict. The operative phase is associated with two major domain conflicts. The first is related to negotiations between the social insurance office and the employers about transferring employees to other duties. Both sides avoid exercising power that may damage clients and future trust. Episodic power resources are used to exercise the strategy of 'the golden middle path'. The other domain conflict is related to the judgement of work capacity. The labour market officials' view of work capacity differs from that of the officials at the social insurance office. Chapter seven compares cooperative rehabilitation projects with regular rehabilitation activity. The results show that actors in cooperative projects break the sequential work order used in regular rehabilitation activity and thereby projects quickly collect comprehensive information about individuals. Cooperative projects can also achieve flexible solutions tailored to an individual clients needs. Further, cooperative projects allow time for unconventional initiatives, which regular activity do not. The process of 'returning to work' poses a challenge both kinds of work organizations. Individuals who are disabled in some way are required to meet the same labour market demands as healthy and well educated are expected to meet. Finally, regular rehabilitation work tends uses standardize clients while cooperative projects tend to treat them as individuals. / digitalisering@umu

Der Inhalt dieser Arbeit sind jedoch nicht Quantencomputer im Allgemeinen, sondern hauptsächlich Quantenautomaten. Dies führt zu den Begriffen der „endlichen Quantenautomaten“ und der „quantenregulären“ oder „quantenerkennbaren Sprachen“, die Hauptgegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit sind.

Berstel and Reutenauer stated the iteration theorem for recognizable formal power series on trees over fields and vector spaces. The key idea of its proof is the existence of pseudo-regular matrices in matrix-products. This theorem is generalized to integral domains and modules over integral domains in this thesis. It only requires the reader to have basic knowledge in linear algebra. Concepts from the advanced linear algebra and abstract algebra are introduced in the preliminary chapter.:1. Introduction 2. Preliminaries 3. Long products of matrices 4. Formal power series on trees 5. The generalized iteration theorem 6. Conclusion

Magistro baigiamajame darbe siekta įvertinti verslo įmonių vadovų naudojamas galias, kaip darbuotojų motyvacijos veiksnį, teoriniu bei empiriniu aspektais. Teorinėje darbo dalyje atskleistos galių bei motyvacijos sampratos ir esmė, išanalizuoti motyvaciją sąlygojantys veiksniai, išskirtos svarbiausios vadovų galios bei jų poveikis darbuotojų motyvacijai. Praktinėje darbo dalyje, remiantis kiekybiniais ir kokybiniais metodais, pateikiami vadovų galių naudojimo motyvuojant darbuotojus tyrimo rezultatai. Juose atsispindi, kaip verslo įmonių vadovai naudoja savo formalią, atsilyginimo, baudimo, ekspertinę ir patrauklumo galias motyvuoti darbuotojus dirbti. Atlikus tyrimą nustatyta, kad vadovų naudojamos galios, ypač formali, baudimo ir ekspertinė skatina darbuotojų motyvaciją. Išnagrinėjus teorinius ir praktinius vadovų galių naudojimo motyvuojant darbuotojus aspektus, pateikiamos baigiamojo darbo išvados ir rekomendacijos. / In this master thesis it was striven to assess powers used by business companies’ managers as the factor for employees’ motivation in the theoretical and empirical aspects. Conceptions and essence of powers and motivations have been revealed, factors predetermining motivation have been analysed and the most significant powers of managers and their impact on employees’ motivation have been emphasized in the theoretical chapter. In the practical chapter of the thesis, referring to quantitative and qualitative methods, the research results related to the use of managers’ powers when motivating their employees have been provided. They reflect how business companies’ managers use their formal, remuneration, punishment, expert and attraction powers in order to motivate their employees for work. After having completed the research it was established that powers used by managers and especially formal, punishment and expert ones encourage motivation of the employees. Having analysed theoretical and practical aspects related to the use of managers’ powers in motivation of their employees, conclusions and recommendations have been provided in the thesis.

For decades, business press and researchers have observed and investigated the premiums/discounts on closed end investment companies. Proposed explanations for the phenomenon have been poor performance, high expenses (due to agency relationships), inefficient internal capital markets and excess volatility in the returns of the shares of the closed-end investment companies. Some, but not conclusive, empirical evidence support these theories. Most empirical evidence is based on American data. This study uses British and Swedish data on closed end investment companies. Some, but not conclusive, empirical evidence support these theories. Most empirical evidence is based on American data. This study uses British and Swedish data on closed end investment companies from 1972 – 2004 to investigate the premiums/discounts. Three areas of explanations are examined: performance, agency costs and diversification. In contrast to previous studies this study uses detailed data on quoted and unquoted securities respectively to investigate the relationship between performance and premiums/discounts. Evidence is found for a relationship between the performance on unquoted securities and premiums/discounts, but not for quoted securities. Indications that measurement biases in unquoted securities are properly priced are also found. The agency problem is analyzed in two ways, formal and controlling power, to investigate if actions taken by the company substantiating agency behavior have additional effects on prices. Such actions are measured as large investments in other portfolio companies (controlling power).  The empirical evidence suggests that the existence of formal power creates additional discounts. The marginal effect on discounts is even deeper when proposed agency actions are identified. Diversification is argued to decrease the value of a portfolio of securities when heterogeneous beliefs are present. This study provides evidence that portfolio diversification deepens discounts. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007

In order to have some say and to scrutinise the government all member states of the EU today has established an institution within their national parliaments, the Committee of European Affairs. This institution, however, has very different rights and regulations depending on the country it is established in. This study uses two rather similar countries, Sweden and Denmark, and investigates what differences and similarities the two committees show. By constructing a comparative case study of four units of analysis, the governments and committees of European Affairs in Sweden and Denmark, the formal and informal power relationship between government and committee in each country were studied in order to determine similarities and differences and whether the committee had an impact on the governments’ EU policies. Further they were compared, assessing whether the Danish Committee of European Affairs was more powerful than its Swedish counterpart because of its legal basis in an EU document. The theoretical framework was built on empirical institutionalism and Lukes’ first and second dimension of power. The similarities and differences were accounted for and compared. In conclusion, the Danish Committee of European Affairs has more formal power than its Swedish counterpart but regarding informal power the Swedish Committee of European Affairs has a slight advantage. Both committees have an impact on the way their government handle negotiations with the EU. Keywords: formal power, informal power, the Committee of European Affairs, Sweden, Denmark