The Napoleonic invasion of Iberia shattered the Spanish empire in 1808. The French emperor occupied Spain and forced Ferdinand VII to abdicate the throne. Once the war against the French began, most vassals also rejected the Spanish imperial government in Madrid that had recognized the change of dynasty. The implosion of the Crown severely tested the hierarchical, centralized, and interdependent nature of the empire. Historians of the Spanish Bourbon empire have rightly argued that the invasion catalyzed the emergence of the new nations from 1810 onward. Many of them, however, have failed to notice the concurrent and extraordinary efforts to reconstitute the empire--a critical history that contextualizes the decisions Spanish Americans faced in this tumultuous period. / History

Inledning Revisorns oberoende är och har varit en omdiskuterad fråga under en lång tid. I Sverige ska en revisor, enligt lag, bekräfta sitt oberoende inför varje nytt uppdrag eller i ett befintligt uppdrag när anledning föreligger, vilket görs med hjälp av analysmodellen. Istället för revisorns uppfattning om sitt oberoende förklarar denna studie hur klienter uppfattar revisorns oberoende med utgångspunkt i analysmodellen. Studien blir unik, dels i och med att klientens uppfattningar är det centrala och dels att studien fokuserar på privata företag. Syfte Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån analysmodellen förklara hur klienter uppfattar revisorns oberoende. Metod Eftersom studien utgår ifrån en deduktiv ansats innebär det att hypoteser har formulerats utifrån tidigare forskning och befintlig teori. En tvärsnittsdesign har använts, då datainsamling har gjorts vid en bestämd tidpunkt. Huvudsakligen har kvantitativ data legat till grund för studien i form av telefonenkäter. Studien har dock kompletterats med kvalitativ data i form av intervjuer med revisorer som har fått ge sin syn på de resultat som framkommit från telefonenkäterna. Slutsats Studiens resultat indikerar att klienter inte uppfattar hotet mot revisorns oberoende som ett problem. Dock har klientens storlek och revisorns ämbetstid signifikanta samband med klientens uppfattning om hotet mot revisorns oberoende. De intervjuade revisorerna förstod våra resultat och tyckte att de stämde väl överens med deras uppfattning om hur det ser ut i praktiken. / Prelude Auditor independence is and has been a contentious issue for a long time. InSweden an auditor shall, by law, confirm its independence before any newassignment or in an existing one when needed, which is done by using thethreats recognized by IESBA. Instead of the auditor’s perception of itsindependence this study explains how clients’ perceive auditor independence onthe basis of the threats recognized by IESBA. This study is unique partlybecause of that the client’s perspective is central and partly because of its focuson private firms. Purpose The purpose of this study is that on the basis of the threats recognized by IESBAexplain how clients’ perceive auditor independence. Method Since the study is based on a deductive method this means that hypotheses havebeen formulated on the basis of previous research and existing theory. A crosssectionaldesign was used, because our data collection was made at a given time.Mainly quantitative data, by telephone surveys, has been the basis for the study.However, the study has been supplemented with qualitative data throughinterviews with auditors, who have been given their views on the resultsobtained from the telephone surveys. Conclusion The results of the study indicates that clients’ don’t perceive the threat againstauditor independence as a problem. However, the size of a client and auditortenure have a significant relation with the client’s perception of the threatagainst auditor independence. The interviewed auditors understood our resultsand said they agreed well with their idea of what it looks like in practice.

Idag satsas allt mer på stödboenden i olika former och man föredrar placeringar i närmiljö. Föreliggande studie syftar till att undersöka ungdomars livssituation minst ett år efter avslutad placering på Kollbo, ett stödboende tillhörande Ungdoms- och familjeenheten i Örebro kommun. Syftet är vidare att undersöka vilka komponenter i verksamheten ungdomarna har uppfattat som positiva respektive negativa, samt att se hur deras uppfattningar överensstämmer med personalgruppens. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och bygger på intervjuer med ungdomar samt ordinarie anställda på Kollbo. Intervjuguiderna har utformats utifrån studiens syfte, verksamhetsbeskrivning samt tidigare forskning. Av resultatet framkommer att de komponenter ungdomarna menar har haft en positiv inverkan är personalens generella stöd och tillgänglighet och särskilt kontaktpersonen har haft stor betydelse. De är positiva till de regler som fanns och menade att personalgruppen var sammansvetsad och konsekvent. Flera respondenter upplever att Kollbos personal genom sitt stöd har haft del i att deras relationer med familjen förbättrats. Den komponent som framför allt uppfattades ha en negativ påverkan var tillämpningen av avvisning som konsekvens för regelbrott. Detta var även den komponent om vilken uppfattningarna i ungdoms- respektive personalgrupp skilde sig åt i störst utsträckning. Resultatet visar att ungdomarna, med ett undantag, idag är nöjda med sin livssituation. Majoriteten menar att placeringen har gjort en avgörande skillnad för deras nuvarande situation. / Today there is an increased use of supportive residential homes of different types and placements close to home are preferred. The purpose of this study is to examine the present situation of youths at least one year after completing their placement at Kollbo, a supportive residential home within the social welfare service of Örebro municipality. The purpose is also to examine which components have been regarded as positive respectively negative by the youths and how their views agree with the staff’s. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on interviews with youths and the regular staff at Kollbo. The interview guides have been formulated on the basis of the study’s aim, the statement of activity and previous research. The results of the study show that the components that have been positively regarded by the youths are the general support and availability provided by the staff and especially their contact person have had a special meaning to them. They are also in favour of the rules and have experienced the staff as united and consistent. Several respondents’ experience is that the staff at Kollbo has had an active part in helping to improve the youths’ family relations by their support. The component regarded as having the most negative influence was the use of refuse of entry as a consequence of breaking the rules. This was also the component were the staff’s and youths’ opinions differed the most. The result further shows that the youths, with the exception of one person, are pleased with their present life situation. The majority believes that the placement has made a significant difference for their present situation.

En revisor kan inta två roller som granskare och som rådgivare. Den huvudsakliga revisorsrollen ses ofta som en extern granskare av sina klienters verksamheter och den som lämnar en slutgiltig bedömning av företaget. Därutöver finns ytterligare en roll då revisorn är engagerad i klientföretaget och bistår med tilläggstjänster i form av rådgivning gällande verksamhetens redovisning och bokföring. För att revisorn ska fylla sin funktion i samhället är dess oberoende och förtroende två viktiga grundstenar för professionen och revisionsbyråns storlek anses ha en viss inverkan på detta. En revisors två roller kan beskrivas som en balansgång mellan dennes granskningsroll respektive rådgivningsroll med en tyngdpunkt som utgörs av kärnan för revisorsprofessionen samt dess grund. Rollerna kan styras av olika faktorer och vi har valt att undersöka vad detta kan leda till för differenser utifrån professionella och sociala normer. Vår studie syftar till att belysa revisorer utifrån två perspektiv och beskriva förhållandet mellan dess två roller, som ekonomisk granskare samt som rådgivare, och studera deras agerande i varierande situationer för att få en uppfattning om det kan uppstå skiljaktigheter i handlingar och resonemang som kan förklaras med hjälp av normdifferenser. Den empiriska undersökningen har påvisat att det egentligen inte finns några större nämnvärda skiljaktigheter mellan rollerna som är över vårt medelvärde. För att ändå undersöka vårt resultat har vi använt de skiljaktigheter som påfunnits för att analysera vad de kan bero på. Vi fann att revisorn i rollen som granskare följer sina professionella normer i större utsträckning än i rollen rådgivare. I rollen som rådgivare tycks de sociala normer spela en viktigare roll än vad de gör i rollen som granskare. / An auditor can play a dual role as a reviewer and as an advisor. The primary auditor role is often seen as an external reviewer of their clients' businesses and providing a definitive assessment of the company. In addition, there is a second role when the auditor is engaged in the client´s business and provides additional services in the form of consulting regarding business accounting and bookkeeping. Independence, impartiality and trust is an important foundation of the profession and for the auditor´s function in society. The auditing firm's size is considered to have some impact on this foundation. An auditor's two roles can be described as a balancing act between its role as an advisory role with an emphasis that is the core of the auditor profession and its foundation. The roles can be controlled by different factors and we have chosen to investigate what this might lead to differences on the basis of professional and social norms. Our study aims to highlight auditors from two perspectives, and describe the relationship between its two roles, as reviewer and as an advisor, and study their behavior in various situations to get an idea if there might be differences in the actions and reasoning can be explained by using standardized differences The empirical study has shown that there really are no major significant differences between the roles that are over our established average. In order to nevertheless examine our results, we used the minor differences that were found to analyze what they can depend on. We found that the auditor in the role of reviewers follow their professional standards to a greater extent than in the role of advisor. The social norms seem to play a more important role as advisors than they do as a reviewer.

With the wave of crises in the early 2000 notably Enron, auditor independence was put in the spotlight which has continually threatened the integrity of the entire auditing profession. Connected to these accounting scandals, it could be realized that most of the auditors involved in the audits of these corporations had long standing relationship with these clients. In other words, the auditors had extended audit tenures. This puts the issue of audit tenure into the open that is as to how long should auditors serve a client? The general purpose of this study is to examine whether extended audit tenures can lead to the emergence of threats to auditor independence which may impair the auditor independence. Our study is quantitative, using a self-administered web-survey to collect our data. The study provides results from a cross sectional design to examine the impact of extended audit tenures on auditor independence. This impact is compared across short and extended (long) tenures on the basis of the threats to auditor independence. Using paired samples t-test in SPSS for our sample of authorized or approved Swedish auditors; we find that extended audit tenures impact self-interest, self-review and intimidation threats that affects auditor independence. Our findings did not reveal any relationship between the advocacy and familiarity threats and the impact extended audit tenures have on them, hence we rejected the hypotheses relating to these threats. However, though the relationship was still not strong, the results for self-interest, self-review and intimidation threats proved significant and this prompted us to accept the respective hypotheses. In conclusion, our results show that there is an association of auditor independence to extended audit tenures.

During most of the 1960s, the CSN was both an advocate of provincial autonomy and a defender of federalism. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, a majority of its leaders and militants came to favour separatism. Many of them saw independence as a precondition for the creation of a socialist Quebec. In 1972, the CSN rejected capitalism, endorsed socialism, and envisaged an internal referendum on the independence issue. The internal debate, however, took place only after the Parti quebecois was elected to power in 1976. Fearing internal divisions and disaffiliations, the CSN did not endorse separatism. Being disappointed with the Parti quebecois' governmental record, the CSN was content to give a critical support to a yes vote in the referendum in 1980.

A substantial amount of prior research has focused on the relation between Central Bank Independence (CBI) and inflation control. However, this research is mainly theoretical or conducted using cross-country statistical regressions and correlations in the developed world. Little attention has been given to understanding this relation in emerging nations or the influence of interest groups on CBI and inflation in a specific context. This thesis addresses both gaps by conducting an in-depth observation and analysis of this relation in a single country (Lebanon) and the influence of the banking sector on both CBI and inflation during a period of high inflation. This empirical evidence in the case of Lebanon shows that Central Bank Independence from the government – even though abundant and complete – was not enough to control inflation. The influence of the banking sector on both CBI and inflation was more important. This work makes a contribution to knowledge through highlighting the importance of national contexts when evaluating the CBI-inflation relation. Furthermore, this research extends our understanding of the literature and its gaps, and presents a new way to conduct in-depth studies in the field. Finally, it provides practical insights that are of importance to central bankers, especially in emerging nations.

Teismų ir teisėjų principas yra gana senas ir nemažai autorių nagrinėtas, bet ši tema yra aktuali ir šiandien, kadangi teisėjų vykdomam teisingumui neretai bandoma daryti įtaką, o taip pat nereti drausminių bylų iškėlimai rodo, kad vidinis teisėjų nepriklausomumas yra ne iki galo išgrynintas iki tobulos formos. Darbe analizuojamos Konstitucijos nuostatos, kurios reglamentuoja teismų ir teisėjų nepriklausomumą bei Konstitucinio Teismo nutarimai, liečiantys teismų ir teisėjų nepriklausomumo principą. Kadangi teismų ir teisėjų nepriklausomumo principas yra vienas iš esminių konstitucinės teisės principų, todėl jis yra įtvirtintas ne viename tarptautiniame dokumente. Darbe taip pat analizuojamos tarptautinių dokumentų nuostatos reglamentuojančios teismų ir teisėjų nepriklausomumą ir jos lyginamos su Lietuvos konstitucinėje teisėje įtvirtintomis nuostatomis. Be to, darbe remiamasi sociologinių tyrimų duomenimis norint išsiaiškinti visuomenės pasitikėjimo teismais lygį. Darbe iškelta hipotezė, kad teisėjų ir teismų nepriklausomumo lygis įtakoja visuomenės pasitikėjimą teismais pasitvirtina, kadangi kuo didesnis teismų ir teisėjų nepriklausomumo lygis, tuo bus didesnis visuomenės pasitikėjimas teismais ir teisėjais. Pirmoje darbo dalyje nagrinėjamas valdžių padalijimo principas, teisminės valdžios santykis su kitomis valdžiomis (įstatymų leidžiamąja ir vykdomąja) bei išskiriami teisminės valdžios požymiai. Antroje darbo dalyje analizuojama istorinė tesimų ir teisėjų nepriklausomumo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The principle of court and judges is quite old and it has been studied by many authors but this topic is current nowadays as well. The justice supported by judges is often being tried to be influenced as well as frequent disciplinary proceedings show that inner independence of judges is not purified to a perfect form. The provisions of the Constitution which govern the independence of courts and judges are analyzed in the study together with Constitutional Court rulings that are connected with the principle of the independence or courts and judges. As the independence principle of courts and judges is the basic one in the constitutional law it is fortifies in many international documents. The provisions of international documents that regulate the independence of courts and judges are discussed in the study. They are compared to the provisions that are fortified in the Constitution of Lithuania. Besides, the data of sociological researches is used in the study in order to see the level of the trust of the public in courts. The hypothesis is raised in the study that the level of independence of courts and judges influence the public trust in the courts ad judges was confirmed. The higher level of the independence of courts and judges appears the bigger trust of public in courts and judges is. The principle of power division, the ratio of court’s authorities with other authorities (legislature and executive power) as well as the features of the court power are distinguished... [to full text]

Tyrimo tikslas – įvertinti ergoterapijos įtaką savarankiškumo įgūdžių vystymuisi vaikams, sergantiems autizmu. Tyrimas atliktas Kauno vaikų abilitacijos centre 2007 metais sausio – balandžio mėnesiais. Tyrime dalyvavo 28 vaikai, sergantys autizmu: 14 (50%), kuriems papildomai taikyta ergoterapija ir 14 (50%), su kuriais dirbo tik spec. ugdytojas; 8 (29%) mergaitės ir 20 (71%) berniukų. Vaikų amžius nuo 3 iki 17 metų. Tyrimo metu vaikų savarankiškumo įgūdžiai vertinti naudojant Ivoškuvienės R. ir Balčiūnaitės J. rekomenduojamą įgūdžių tikrinimo schemą. Įgūdžių tikrinimo schema – tai 11 skalių schema, padedanti įvertinti vaiko dėmesingumą, bendrąją motoriką, smulki���ją motoriką, rankos ir akies koordinaciją, komunikaciją, suvokimą ir mąstymą, skaičiavimą, skaitymą, savarankiškumą, žaidimą, elgesį. Šiame tyrime dalyvaujantys vaikai buvo mokomi savarankiškumo, ugdomi valgymo (5 užduotys), prausimosi (4 užduotys) bei apsirengimo ir nusirengimo įgūdžiai (11 užduočių), kuriuos iš viso sudarė 20 užduočių - minimali 20 balų, o maksimali 100 balų suma. Buvo atrinktos porinės imtys: kiekvienam pirmosios imties elementui parinktas visais atžvilgiais analogiškas antrosios imties atstovas pagal amžių, autizmo sunkumo laipsnį bei savarankiškumo įgūdžius. Abiejose grupėse buvo po 4 vaikus, kurie turėjo lengvą autizmo sunkumo laipsnį, po 5 vaikus, turinčius vidutinį autizmo sunkumo laipsnį, po 3 - žymų ir po 2 vaikus labai žymų autizmo sunkumo laipsnį. Buvo lyginamas tiriamosios ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The goal of the research is to evaluate the influence of occupational therapy upon the development of self-independence skills of autistic children. Research was performed at the children's rehabilitation center in Kaunas from january to april, 2007. 28 children with autism participated in the research: 14 (50%) who received supplementary occupational therapy and 14 (50%) only received training from a specialized trainer; 8 (29%) were girls and 20 (71%) were boys. The children's ages ranged from 3 to 17 years of age. During the research the children's self-independence skills were evaluated by using the self-independence skill scheme of R. Ivoškuvienė and J. Balčiūnaitė. Skill evaluation scheme is an 11 scale scheme, assisting in evaluating the child's attentiveness, broad motor skills, fine motor skills, hand and eye coordination, communication, perception and thinking, numeration, reading, self-independence, playfulness and behavior. The children who participated in this research were taught self-independence, trained in eating (5 tasks), washing oneself (4 tasks) and getting dressed and undressed skills (11 tasks), these consisted of 20 skills - lowest score was 20 and highest score was 100. The children were paired up: from the first group there was selected a similar child from the second group that was similar in age, the level of autism and self-independence skills. Each group consisted of 4 children who had a low level of autism, 5 children with a medium level of... [to full text]

The thesis is devoted to the application of a new class of probability metrics, N-distances, introduced by Klebanov (Klebanov, 2005; Zinger et al., 1989), to the problems of verification of the classical statistical hypotheses of goodness of fit, homogeneity, symmetry and independence. First of all a construction of statistics based on N metrics for testing mentioned hypotheses is proposed. Then the problem of determination of the critical region of the criteria is investigated. The main results of the thesis are connected with the asymptotic behavior of test statistics under the null and alternative hypotheses. In general case the limit null distribution of proposed in the thesis tests statistics is established in terms of the distribution of infinite quadratic form of random normal variables with coefficients dependent on eigenvalues and functions of a certain integral operator. It is proved that under the alternative hypothesis the test statistics are asymptotically normal. In case of parametric hypothesis of goodness of fit particular attention is devoted to normality and exponentiality criteria. For hypothesis of homogeneity a construction of multivariate distribution free two-sample test is proposed. Testing the hypothesis of uniformity on hypersphere in more detail S1 and S2 cases are investigated. In conclusion, a comparison of N-distance tests with some classical criteria is provided. For simple hypothesis of goodness of fit in univariate case as a measure for... [to full text] / Disertacinis darbas yra skirtas N-metrikų teorijos (Klebanov, 2005; Zinger et al., 1989) pritaikymui klasikinėms statistinėms suderinamumo, homogeniškumo, simetriškumo bei nepriklausomumo hipotezėms tikrinti. Darbo pradžioje pasiūlytas minėtų hipotezių testinių statistikų konstravimo būdas, naudojant N-metrikas. Toliau nagrinėjama problema susijusi su suformuotų kriterijų kritinės srities nustatymu. Pagrindiniai darbo rezultatai yra susiję su pasiūlytų kriterijaus statistikų asimptotiniu skirstiniu. Bendru atveju N-metrikos statistikų asimptotinis skirstinys esant nulinei hipotezei sutampa su Gauso atsitiktinių dydžių begalinės kvadratinės formos skirstiniu. Alternatyvos atveju testinių statistikų ribinis skirstinys yra normalusis. Sudėtinės suderinamumo hipotezės atveju išsamiau yra analizuojami normalumo ir ekponentiškumo kriterijai. Daugiamačiu atveju pasiūlyta konstrukcija, nepriklausanti nuo skirstinio homogeniškumo testo. Tikrinant tolygumo hipersferoje hipotezę detaliau yra nagrinėjami apskritimo ir sferos atvejai. Darbo pabaigoje lyginami pasiūlytos N-metrikos bei kai kurie klasikiniai kriterijai. Neparametrinės suderinamumo hipotezės vienamačiu atveju, kaip palyginimo priemonė, nagrinėjamas Bahaduro asimptotinis santykinis efektyvumas (Bahadur, 1960; Nikitin, 1995). Kartu su teoriniais rezultatais pasiūlytų N-metrikos tipo testų galingumas ištirtas, naudojant Monte-Karlo metodą. Be paprastos ir sudėtinės suderinamumo hipotezių yra analizuojami homogeniškumo testai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]