The aim of this study is to investigate colonization processes and population and agricultural development during the 16th century. The studied geographical area consists of the northern part of the northernmost province of Sweden of that time, Västerbotten. During this period, this part of Sweden consists of four parishes, from the south to the north: Piteå, Luleå, Kalix and Torneå. The area constitutes a bailiwick (county administrative division) of its own, the northern bailiwick of Västerbotten. The geographical area studied in this thesis is today’s County of Norrbotten below the border of Lappmarken and Torneå Municipality in Finland. By the middle of the 16th century the region is an established and developed agricultural district. The average farm’s acreage is nearly three acres. The differences between the parishes are considerable, however. Besides arable farming and cattle farming, fishing is important. Studying land colonization, settlements and population in 16th century Sweden means being limited mainly to one kind of source, namely bailiff accounts (fogderäkenskaper). These accounts consist of cadastres (land registers of rent and revenue), registers of other ordinary and extraordinary taxes, and, from the end of 1560s, the tithe registers. This collection of registers constitutes the bailiffs’ accounts of incomes and expenses and is an expression of the increased control exerted by the Crown over production and private wealth in the country. An important task has been to check the quality of the sources for the study. Quality means in this context up-to-dateness and completeness. An investigation of the sources shows that they were regularly updated. By comparing the different registers the completeness can be examined, i.e. the extent to which they correctly follow the instructions, “undervisningar”. These circumstances, the up-to-dateness and completeness of the sources, guarantee the possibility of describing, in a correct manner, the real situation in the region regarding the land colonization, settlements and population. Placing the development in the studied region in a geographical context has been important. Some studies have been performed using the cadastre registers, many of which were included in the Nordic project studying the late medieval desertion of the colonization process in Sweden during the 16th century, Nordiska ödegårdsprojektet. A feature of the development in Sweden during the 16th century is two periods of growth and a weak or retrograde period in between. A common pattern in the settlement development is a strong growth in 1540s and 1550s. In the late 1560s and during the 1570s the settlements are weakening, stagnating or decreasing. From 1580 and onwards, another growth of farms is established again, to a greater or smaller extent. The increase in the population is generally considered to be the main cause of the land colonization process in the 1540s and 1550s. The weaker development of the next two decades is related to the Nordic Seven Years’ War (Nordiska sjuårskriget), with its great negative impact on many areas in Sweden. After a fast recovery the colonization process starts again and is in progress for the rest of the century. A closer study of the situation in two parishes in Norrbotten shows that the two periods of growth have different qualities. The first period, during the 1540s and 1550s, illustrates traditional progress through colonization. The growth consists of farm divisions and the establishment of new farms. The development of new farms follows a certain pattern. By clearing land the farm is established, a first registration is made, and the farm obtains tax release for a few years and is finally entered in the land register (jordeboken). During this period the agricultural sector is growing when both new and already established farms contribute by land reclamation. During the second period of growth the farm division process continues and new farms are established. However, this time the new farms are generally of another kind. They are very small and are established mainly by detaching parts or buying land from older farms, not by land reclamation. The agricultural sector is not growing, with some exceptions, during this period. Furthermore, the population increase during the earlier period, which seemed to “force” the agricultural sector to grow, is not effective this time. Instead, during this second period, a population decrease takes place. The general picture of the settlement development in Sweden during the 16th century is growth. The differences between regions concern the strength of the total growth of farms during this century. In Norrbotten the development is weaker than in most other regions in Sweden. The western part of the country seems on the whole to have a stronger growth than the eastern and northern part. It should be observed, however, that areas situated very close to each other can show quite a different progress.

This thesis presents a method for detailed landscape presentation. The method incorporates both fieldwork-based comprehensive geomorphological description and digital data handling and thus contributes in filling the gap between traditional geomorphological mapping and modern geomorphological studies performed in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The main part of the thesis relates to development of a new detailed geomorphological mapping system, constructed to be easy to use and yet present a large amount of geomorphological information. The legend of the mapping system has successfully been applied to various types of landscapes, mapped at various scales between 1:5,000 and 1:50,000 without any modifications needed. The information presented in the map is based on simple descriptive criteria and thus the subjectivity is kept low, which enables a broad field of usage. In parallel with the mapping system a GIS-based geomorphological database has been developed. The structure and data presentation of the new mapping system allows for easy transformation of the data to form part of this database. The selected format of the GIS database is the ESRI ArcGIS®, Personal geodatabase. In the development of the geomorphological mapping system four field areas have been mapped in central (Bonäs, Risa and Liden) and northern Sweden (Tarfala). In addition the new legend has been adapted to a field area situated in Vorarlberg, Austria (Upper Gamperdona valley). In relation to the Tarfala field area an added issue of the project has been to give insights in the effects of physical and chemical weathering on various rock types to see if this can be detected in materials and landforms. The results from this study point at that resistance towards weathering vary among rocks even though they are of same rock type.

SMEs serve as a backbone to keep an economy going and to boost it up in times of difficult hours like recession, for example. They are considered as the main source of modernization, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Like rest of Europe, 99% of enterprises are SMEs in Sweden which form a ratio of approximately 58 SMEs per 1000 inhabitants. Moreover SMEs employ around 60% of Sweden‟s manpower which shows their concern toward social responsibility. Several companies irrespective of their size are bound by the statutory rules of a particular country in which they operate to prepare financial reports that conform to specified set of accounting principles. There has been much ongoing debate regarding the suitability of one set of accounting standards in a country for all its operating enterprises, regardless of their size. In July 2009 the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs). The IFRS for SMEs is intended to be applied to the general purpose financial statements of entities that do not have public accountability. The main theme of our thesis is to examine the suitability and difficulties faced by SMEs in Sweden towards IFRS for SMEs. Furthermore, this thesis will identify the problems that will be faced by SMEs in Sweden, in the process of adopting IFRS for SMEs. Lastly, this study will be conducted to check whether SMEs in Sweden prefer to choose and use IFRS for SMEs or Swedish GAAP. In order to achieve the determined objectives, the study "Assessing the preparedness of small and medium-sized entities in Sweden to adopt International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs)" was conducted. A qualitative research employing semi-structured interviews was carried out with eleven interviews in order to solidify the quality criteria of our research work. Sample was selected based on convenient sampling from Umeå due to the limitations of resources in terms of cost and time; opinions from three different categories of respondents (audit firms, SMEs and experts‟ opinion from the academic perspective) would be gathered. All collected data would be analyzed against the theoretical framework, and with the help of analysis conclusion regarding this study would be drawn. Based on the qualitative results, the findings exhibits that SMEs in Sweden are not inclined towards IFRs for SMEs and are not ready in any way to adopt these standards. The Swedish GAAP has been designed over years and all SMEs are very much familiar with the rules and principles applicable in Swedish GAAP. Therefore, according to our research inclination of SMEs in Sweden is towards Swedish GAAP rather than IFRS for SMEs.

This project is a comparative study of three elementary schools in India and two elementary schools in Sweden. The purpose of this project is to study if Indian and Swedish students have the possibility to have influence on their English lessons. The research involves values conveyed in the socialisation and their consequences for student influence, democracy and society in the two countries. National and international research and literature concerning socialisation, language didactics, democracy and student influence were used as a foundation of this study. Furthermore, the study investigates the Swedish and the Indian curricula, and makes use of observations of English lessons, questionnaires and interviews with teachers in both countries. The method for this research is qualitative with some features of quantitative research and based in the method of Grounded theory. The results of this project is that the teachers in both countries controlled the students in different ways during the lessons and practiced student influence only when letting the students choose between preselected materials. Exclusion, inclusion and the hidden curriculum were aspects that appeared, which are likely to teach the students about their individual values in society. The lack of student influence consequently leads to the students being discouraged to be partaking citizens. Instead, the students will learn to follow the rules of society, be loyal to authorities and to carry established values with them and thus reproduce the society in each country and make it remain the same.

The results obtained from this research indicates that there is no statistical relation between the chosen financial variables and the total compensation to the CEO, except sales. CEO compensation is a highly debated subject in Sweden. The debate concerns whether or not CEOs are paid too much in relation to their results. This research investigates what decides the CEO compensation. Can the CEO compensation be explained by the financial variables ROA, ROE, Sales, Tobin’s q, and the size of the largest shareholder? In this paper companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange OMX Stockholm large and mid cap during the years 2003 to 2008 are analyzed by empirically and theoretically adapted models.

No description available.

Problem The problem of the paper is the structure and characteristics of the interior door market in Sweden. Purpose The purpose of the paper is to provide the possibly deepest research of the Swedish market of interior door. Method The research constitutes of several parts. The theoretical framework derives from dependable literature, namely books, articles and journals. The data about the focal company is mostly of the primary type, gathered through series of interviews with Classen Pol's vice-chairman and a questionnaire filled in by the marketing manager of the company. Result The result of this paper is a description of the interior doors market in Sweden. Existing producers, distributors, sellers and importers are presented. Moreover, the author presents the optimal distribution for Classen Pol to pursue while entering Sweden.

Title: Female entrepreneurs in Sweden and Thailand – differences and similarities in motivation. Problem: Female entrepreneur is an interesting topic in the entrepreneurship field of study since there are a few numbers of researches that show that female-owned businesses are gradually becoming an important factor to contribute growth in the global economy. The study of ‘how’ to start business and ‘how’ to keep the business successful and sustainable in global business world is the focus in most of the research. Still, what motivates an entrepreneur to start business is one interesting topic for further and deeper study in the field of entrepreneurship and especially female entrepreneurship. In addition to the motivation of becoming an entrepreneur, other factors that could have possibility in influencing the motivation as well as similarities and differences on motivation when comparing in nationalities are interesting to focus on in the study. Aim: To describe the motivational factors for entrepreneurs, with focus on female entrepreneurs, and compare these factors with female entrepreneurs in Sweden and Thailand. Method: Relevant literature review and conceptual framework were selected from entrepreneurship field, including male and female entrepreneurs, motivation and entrepreneurial motivation. Interview, both personal interview and e-mail interview, and questionnaire were used in data collection for the empirical data part. With application of literature review, conceptual framework, and empirical data, the analysis and conclusion parts are concluded and lead to the answer of the research question. Result: Swedish and Thai female entrepreneurs are similar in motivation of starting the business in term of pull factors, such as need for independence, want to be one’s own boss, need for autonomy, and want for self-achievement. While we have no evidence that education background and career experience had an influence on the motivation of an entrepreneur to start the business, we did find however, that family background showed a result with some weight in influencing motivation from a majority of the respondents in the study.

Vad är Second Life? En värld på Internet som fungerar likt ett socialt nätverk men till skillnad från andra virtuella världar är det inte ett spel. Det är en förlängning av verkligheten. Man vinner ingenting i Second Life, förutom nya bekantskaper och fascinerande upplevelser i en vacker tredimensionell miljö. Den uppdaterade versionen av Internet har suddat ut gränserna mellan användare och producent. Second Life är ett resultat av samspelet mellan virtuell värld och verklighet. Den virtuella världens genombrott på webben är här.

This paper investigates the environmental effectiveness of the Swedish energy taxes. That is, whether these have decreased the CO2 emissions and how they have changed the structure of the energy consumption. Time series data for the years 1960-2002 is used. The results show that the oil and coal taxes seem to favour a substitution towards less CO2 intensive energy sources. For the natural gas tax however, the opposite is true. An energy saving effect is found for the oil tax and the petrol tax, but the electricity tax seems to increase energy consumption. Regarding the total effect on CO2 emissions, the oil and coal taxes seem to decrease CO2 emissions while the natural gas tax seems to increase them. Cross-country regressions are also made to examine if countries with a higher petrol tax have lower a lower rate of CO2 emissions on average. The results show that a higher petrol tax is significantly correlated to lower CO2 emissions. The results thus indicate that energy taxes do decrease CO2 emissions. They also show that caution should be used before implementing a natural gas tax since it can have adverse effects on the CO2 emissions.