Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / Long waiting times before receiving a health service, give rise to long queues and congested health facilities, both of which are unnecessary and avoidable. Since patients in part judge the quality of the service by the length of time they spent waiting for it, it is imperative to measure waiting times, and determine and mitigate the immediate and underlying causes of lengthy waits. The facility under investigation was known to have excessively long waiting times. Since the immediate causes of long waiting times were known, it was thus required to research and understand the underlying causes of long waiting times and consequently whether there were any barriers to implementing recommendations to reduce waiting times at this primary health care facility. AIM: The aim of the study was to determine the underlying causes of long waiting times and the barriers to implementing recommendations to reduce waiting times. METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional analytical study with a small qualitative component was undertaken. The qualitative study took a workshop format by piggy-backing onto feedback sessions held to present the results of the previously conducted waiting time survey to staff. Staff commentary at the workshops on possible underlying causes and barriers to recommendations to reduce them, were then used to develop a questionnaire for the quantitative portion of the study. The population and sample for the qualitative part of the study were all staff working at the facility who attended the feedback sessions. The cross-sectional descriptive quantitative study intended to uncover what underlying causes affected long waiting times, what recommendations could be explored to mitigate long waiting times and improve the patient experience, and if there were any barriers to these recommendations. The quantitative study population and sample were all staff who worked at the facility for more than six months and all patients who had utilised the services at the facility for three or more times. Data was collected using structured questionnaires, which were different for staff and patients. A detailed descriptive analysis was conducted.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / Long waiting times before receiving a health service, give rise to long queues and congested health facilities, both of which are unnecessary and avoidable. Since patients in part judge the quality of the service by the length of time they spent waiting for it, it is imperative to measure waiting times, and determine and mitigate the immediate and underlying causes of lengthy waits. The facility under investigation was known to have excessively long waiting times. Since the immediate causes of long waiting times were known, it was thus required to research and understand the underlying causes of long waiting times and consequently whether there were any barriers to implementing recommendations to reduce waiting times at this primary health care facility. Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the underlying causes of long waiting times and the barriers to implementing recommendations to reduce waiting times. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional analytical study with a small qualitative component was undertaken. The qualitative study took a workshop format by piggy-backing onto feedback sessions held to present the results of the previously conducted waiting time survey to staff. Staff commentary at the workshops on possible underlying causes and barriers to recommendations to reduce them, were then used to develop a questionnaire for the quantitative portion of the study. The population and sample for the qualitative part of the study were all staff working at the facility who attended the feedback sessions. The cross-sectional descriptive quantitative study intended to uncover what underlying causes affected long waiting times, what recommendations could be explored to mitigate long waiting times and improve the patient experience, and if there were any barriers to these recommendations. The quantitative study population and sample were all staff who worked at the facility for more than six months and all patients who had utilised the services at the facility for three or more times. Data was collected using structured questionnaires, which were different for staff and patients. A detailed descriptive analysis was conducted. Results: The study found a number of potential underlying causes for each immediate cause of long waiting times at the facility. For early morning batching the underlying causes found were: 45% of patients were given early appointments which caused clients to arrive early; 100% of patients with appointments after 10H00 arrived before 10H00; and 43% of the patients stated that they arrived early because they feared being turned away.

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the Straits Times reported Singapore's communication news between May 1992 and October 1995, with a focus on Singapore's communication regionalisation. This study is a modest attempt to depart from some of the approaches taken by recent communication related studies of the Singapore experience. They tend to focus on the domestic side of state-press relationship and the issue of Singaporean press freedom, without sustained consideration of external forces, such as globalisation. This analysis provides a synthesis of secondary sources and a qualitative content analysis of communication news in the Straits Times. The results suggest there has been a convergence between the stories in the Straits Times and official views about two themes - business regionalisation and 'Asian' media standards. Results suggest the government has an extensive influence over Singapore's communication, especially with regard to media content. Also, the analysis shows Singapore's identification with Asia, despite bilateral and regional tensions in business and culture, and suggests an uneasy relationship between Singapore and the West, in particular, with the US. That is, while Singapore's business relations with the US are good, its cultural relations are not, especially when Singapore's practice of media standards does not accept the American interpretation, but one based on its national interests. This study provides a glimpse of global communication forces which are influencing Singapore's communication development, as interpreted in the stories from the Straits Times. Although there remains uncertainties about Singapore's communication future, this study may provide an insight as to whether Singapore has taken the right direction in becoming a leading country in advocating an 'Asian voice'.

<p>For youths leisure activity the organized sport is vital. Young people become increasingly sedentary</p><p>and the healths of young people are the various municipalities responsibility. In Eskilstuna, the</p><p>handball is very popular but there are only three grounds that meet the standards of the dimensions of</p><p>a handball pitch, 40x20 meters. The same dimensions are used by floorball. Eskilstuna municipality</p><p>owns one of these, the other two is privately built and owned and the municipality rents time in the</p><p>halls.</p><p>IF Guif and HK Eskil are two handballclubs in the central part of Eskilstuna. They have access to only</p><p>one 40x20 meters pitch that they have to share between their 45 teams. Hence forth the handball</p><p>player’s in Eskilstuna rarely has the opportunity to practise at full-size pitches before they reach junior</p><p>age. In the part of Eskilstuna called Torshälla, the situations for another handballclubb is much better.</p><p>Gökstens BK uses the full-sized Ellfolkarenan together with Torshälla IBK, a floorballclub. The new</p><p>built Ellfolkarenan has been a big boast for Gökstens BK and they are now pleased white their access</p><p>to practice areas.</p><p>Floorballclubs in Eskilstuna have, due to private construction, access to two full-sized halls. In</p><p>addition, they are practising in halls which are just below the authorized dimensions. Despite this, they</p><p>have difficulties to get access to the new hall times to expand their club by starting up new teams with</p><p>practise at attractive times of the day.</p><p>With only three full-sized halls, Eskilstuna is among the big-sized municipalities in Sweden with most</p><p>people per full-sized hall. If a new multipurposearena with three pitches would be built in Eskilstuna,</p><p>the municipality would count themselves by those of the big-seized municipalities that are below</p><p>average of people per full-sized hall.</p>

Title:"All the news that´s fit to print": A quantitative content analysis of The New York Times and Dagens Nyheters front pages on the basis of tabloidization theory. Authors: Pär Brolin &amp; Kristoffer Olofsson Aim: We intend to distinguish elements of tabloidization in two daily newspapers as an effect to the increased economic and public orientated business models. The New York Times and Dagens Nyheter has been chosen mainly because they operates within different national media markets, secondly they are well known for their high journalistic standard. Based on the upcoming result, it's in our concern to illuminate these possible changes effect on the overall journalistic quality and discuss its importance. We aim to reveal the actual state of tabloidization in the two high quality newspapers The New York Times and Dagens Nyheter and thus answer the following questions: - In which way are the elements of tabloidization shown in The New York Times and Dagens Nyheter in a contemporary context as well under a twelve years period? - Based on the achieved results, what are the main differences between the two examined newspapers and what potential impact could it have on the journalistic quality? Method/Material: In order to perform this study, we have executed a quantitative study built on content analysis of the two newspapers front pages. To be able to see some individual changes within the two newspapers, two empirical swoops has been done, in September year 2000 and in September 2012. This study covers a total of 120 front pages, 60 per newspaper and thus 30 per month. The selected 9 variables are based mainly on the basis of Ingela Wadbrings study from 2012 concerning commercialized journalism which examines the changes of Swedish newspaper content between the years 1960 and 2010. In addition, the theory of tabloidization is based on the academic discourse on the process which describes journalism that aims to satisfy the public demands to gain economic profit rather than report on more important matters in favor to the democratic society. Furthermore, to facilitate the analysis chapter, an academic discussion regarding the reputable journalistic quality constitutes the theory chapter. Main results: This study's result reveals some major differences between the two newspapers publication models. Dagens Nyheter shows pure elements of tabloidization mainly by prioritizing headlines and large pictures in front of clear text as well an equal distribution between hard and soft news. The New York Times shows on the other hand an over-representation of sequentially written text rather than large pictures and headlines, furthermore they demonstrate a frequent occurrence of hard news in favor of soft news. The content quality is, from a theoretical point of view, of a lower journalistic standard regarding Dagens Nyheter than in The New York Times. Although, during the working process it became clear that the overall quality of newspapers content is rather subjective and that the definition of tabloidization, as something uncompromisingly negative, should be reconsidered.Course: Media and communication studies CUniversity: Division of media and communication, department of information science, Uppsala university.Period: Autumn semester 2012Tutor: Lowe Hedman / Syftet med denna uppsats är att utifrån den akademiska definitonen av begreppet tabloidisering jämföra två dagstidningar med liknande värdegrund verkande inom två olika nationella kontexter. Detta för att se om tabloidiseringens faktorer anammats i samma utsträckning över landsgränserna och hur två stora dagstidningar eventuellt tvingats rucka på sina publicistiska värdegrunder. The New York Times och Dagens Nyheter har valts ut som analysenheter vars framsidor kommer att studeras enskilt likväl i komparitet mot varandra. För att underlätta en analys av tidningarnas enskilda progression så utförs två empiriska tidsnedslag, under september år 2000 och september 2012. Då tabloidisering oftast används i negativa ordalag där den klassiska journalistiken anses bli lidande så är det även av intresse att föra en diskussion huruvida den journalistiska kvalitén kan tänkas påverkas i och med tabloidiseringsprocessens faktorer i respektive tidskrift. Detta mynnar ut i följande frågeställningar: -Hur gestaltar sig Dagens Nyheters respektive The New York Times tabliodiseringsprocess i en nutida kontext och över en tolvårsperiod? -Utifrån uppnått resultat, vad är de största skillnaderna mellan de två undersökta tidningarna och vilken eventuell påverkan har tabloidisering på den genomgripande journalistiska kvalitén? För att besvara uppställda frågeställningar är studien en kvantitativ undersökning vars uppnådda resultat slutligen behandlas i en kvalitativ del. Den kvantitativa undersökningen utgörs av sammanlagt 120 framsidor och sammanlagt nio variabler vilka huvudsakligen grundar sig i Ingela Wadbrings studie från 2012 rörande journalistikens kommersialisering. Huvudsakligen uppvisar Dagens Nyheter en velande inställning gentemot deras egen publiceringsmodell, vilket gestaltar sig i en ökning av annonser, överrepresentation av bilder och rubriker före löpande text samt en allt jämnare fördelning av hårda och mjuka nyheter över tid. New York Times uppvisar det tydligaste tecknet på tabloidisering endast i form av en ökande annonsförekomst. Den ansenligaste skillnaden mellan Dagens Nyheter och New York Times är den klara överrepresentationen av hårda nyheter i komparitet med mjuka nyheter från New York Times sida. Den innehållsliga kvalitén utifrån valda teoretiska resonemang visar att Dagens Nyheter i sin hybrida tidningsmodells välkomnande av tabloida inslag löper en större risk att omfamna journalistik med lägre verkningshöjd.

This thesis deals with credit risk modeling and related mathematical issues. In particular we study first-passage models for credit risk, where obligors default upon first passage of a ``credit quality" process to zero. The first passage problem for correlated Brownian motion is a mathematical structure which arises quite naturally in such models, in particular the seminal multivariate Black-Cox model. In general this problem is analytically intractable, however in two dimensions analytic results are available. In addition to correcting mistakes in several published formulae, we derive an exact simulation scheme for sampling the passage times. Our algorithm exploits several interesting properties of planar Brownian motion and conformal local martingales. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a novel multivariate framework for credit risk. We allow for both stochastic trend and volatility in credit qualities, with dependence introduced by letting these quantities be driven by systematic factors common to all obligors. Exploiting a conditional independence structure we are able to express the proportion of defaults in an asymptotically large portfolio as a path functional of the systematic factors. The functional in question returns crossing probabilities of time-changed Brownian motion to continuous barriers, and is typically not available in closed form. As such the distribution of portfolio losses is in general analytically intractable. As such we devise a scheme for simulating approximate losses and demonstrate almost sure convergence of this approximation. We show that the model calibrates well, across both tranches and maturities, to market quotes for CDX index tranches. In particular we are able to calibrate to data from 2006, as well as more recent ``distressed" data from 2008.

For youths leisure activity the organized sport is vital. Young people become increasingly sedentary and the healths of young people are the various municipalities responsibility. In Eskilstuna, the handball is very popular but there are only three grounds that meet the standards of the dimensions of a handball pitch, 40x20 meters. The same dimensions are used by floorball. Eskilstuna municipality owns one of these, the other two is privately built and owned and the municipality rents time in the halls. IF Guif and HK Eskil are two handballclubs in the central part of Eskilstuna. They have access to only one 40x20 meters pitch that they have to share between their 45 teams. Hence forth the handball player’s in Eskilstuna rarely has the opportunity to practise at full-size pitches before they reach junior age. In the part of Eskilstuna called Torshälla, the situations for another handballclubb is much better. Gökstens BK uses the full-sized Ellfolkarenan together with Torshälla IBK, a floorballclub. The new built Ellfolkarenan has been a big boast for Gökstens BK and they are now pleased white their access to practice areas. Floorballclubs in Eskilstuna have, due to private construction, access to two full-sized halls. In addition, they are practising in halls which are just below the authorized dimensions. Despite this, they have difficulties to get access to the new hall times to expand their club by starting up new teams with practise at attractive times of the day. With only three full-sized halls, Eskilstuna is among the big-sized municipalities in Sweden with most people per full-sized hall. If a new multipurposearena with three pitches would be built in Eskilstuna, the municipality would count themselves by those of the big-seized municipalities that are below average of people per full-sized hall.

The theme of providing predictable criteria for absolute continuity and for mutual singularity of two density processes on a filtered probability space is extensively studied, e.g., in the monograph by J. Jacod and A. N. Shiryaev [JS]. While the issue of absolute continuity is settled there in full generality, for the issue of mutual singularity one technical difficulty remained open ([JS], p210): "We do not know whether it is possible to derive a predictable criterion (necessary and sufficient condition) for "P'T..." (expression not representable in this abstract). It turns out that to this question raised in [JS] which we also chose as the title of this note, there are two answers: on the negative side we give an easy example, showing that in general the answer is no, even when we use a rather wide interpretation of the concept of "predictable criterion". The difficulty comes from the fact that the density process of a probability measure P with respect to another measure P' may suddenly jump to zero. On the positive side we can characterize the set, where P' becomes singular with respect to P - provided this does not happen in a sudden but rather in a continuous way - as the set where the Hellinger process diverges, which certainly is a "predictable criterion". This theorem extends results in the book of J. Jacod and A. N. Shiryaev [JS]. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers SFB "Adaptive Information Systems and Modelling in Economics and Management Science"

This thesis deals with credit risk modeling and related mathematical issues. In particular we study first-passage models for credit risk, where obligors default upon first passage of a ``credit quality" process to zero. The first passage problem for correlated Brownian motion is a mathematical structure which arises quite naturally in such models, in particular the seminal multivariate Black-Cox model. In general this problem is analytically intractable, however in two dimensions analytic results are available. In addition to correcting mistakes in several published formulae, we derive an exact simulation scheme for sampling the passage times. Our algorithm exploits several interesting properties of planar Brownian motion and conformal local martingales. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a novel multivariate framework for credit risk. We allow for both stochastic trend and volatility in credit qualities, with dependence introduced by letting these quantities be driven by systematic factors common to all obligors. Exploiting a conditional independence structure we are able to express the proportion of defaults in an asymptotically large portfolio as a path functional of the systematic factors. The functional in question returns crossing probabilities of time-changed Brownian motion to continuous barriers, and is typically not available in closed form. As such the distribution of portfolio losses is in general analytically intractable. As such we devise a scheme for simulating approximate losses and demonstrate almost sure convergence of this approximation. We show that the model calibrates well, across both tranches and maturities, to market quotes for CDX index tranches. In particular we are able to calibrate to data from 2006, as well as more recent ``distressed" data from 2008.

Vilka inramningar använder sig tidningarna Dagens Nyheter och The Times of India av i bild- och rubriksättning av artiklar om klimatförändringar? I vilka artikeltyper förkommer dessa artiklar och har antalet bildsatta artiklar och bilder per år förändrats från 2000 till 2009? Dessa frågeställningar har vi besvarat med hjälp av teorier om inramning (framing), bildretorik, semiotik och mediernas påverkan på människor. Vi valde att jämföra en svensk och en indisk tidning eftersom Sveriges och Indiens inställningar till klimatförändringar skiljer sig åt. Vi ville se om ländernas inställningar återspeglas i tidningarnas rapportering. Då Dagens Nyheter och The Times of India är de största dagstidningarna i respektive land sett till upplaga, och informationen i dem därför når många människor, är det intressant att se vilka inramningar de använder sig av i artiklar om klimatförändringar. Metoden, vilken är en kvantitativ bildanalys, har vi designat med stöd av ovanstående teorier. Bildanalysen har bestått av tjugo variabler med tillhörande variabelvärden med vilka vi har kategoriserat insamlad data. Totalt har vi analyserat 374 bilder uppdelat på 235 artiklar. Resultaten visar att en etisk inramning (där ansvarsaspekten av klimatförändringar är huvudsaken) var vanligast i båda tidningarna. Nyhetsartiklar var den vanligaste artikeltypen följt av opinionsartiklar. Vad gäller en förändring i antalet bildsatta artiklar och bilder, och om dessa har ökat med åren, kan vi inte dra några generella slutsatser men se en trend som visar på en ökning. Bilder på politiker och aktioner/demonstrationer är vanliga i vårt material. Slutsatserna vi drar av detta är att klimatförändringar är frågor som måste lösas på politisk nivå och att den politiska kontexten tidningarna verkar i påverkar vilken inramning de använder sig av. Vi upplever även att klimatförändringar har fått högre prioritet och att bilder har blivit viktigare i rapporteringen om dessa frågor.