<p>Med anledning av att allt färre elever väljer språk som tillval på gymnasiet så är syftet med detta examensarbete att ta reda på vad som påverkar gymnasieelever att välja, respektive välja bort, språk som tillval. Det jag främst vill undersöka är ifall det finns skillnader i motivation, attityder och nöjdhet/missnöje med undervisningen mellan de som har valt språk och de som har valt bort språk som tillval. Vidare syftar undersökningen till att ta reda på vilka förbättringar både elever och lärare tycker vore nödvändiga. Metoden som användes var både kvalitativ och kvantitativ i form av intervjuer och två olika enkäter. Fyra elever och två lärare intervjuades och enkäterna besvarades av 34 elever med språk som tillval och av 40 elever med andra tillval. Resultatet visar inte på några specifika skillnader förutom motivation mellan grupperna, däremot fann jag flera möjliga orsaker till bortval; bland annat ointresse, taktikval och tråkig undervisning. De förbättringar som efterfrågades var till viss del organisatoriska, men till största delen handlade de om själva undervisningen. Det jag kom fram till är att undervisningen på högstadiet troligen påverkar bortvalen i hög grad och att det är förbättringar där, samt ett nytt skolsystem som premierar språk, som är de viktigaste faktorerna för att få fler elever att välja språk som tillval.</p> / <p>The purpose with this degree thesis is to find out why pupils choose, or do not choose, language as an optional subject. Mainly I want to see if there are any differences in motivation, attitudes and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with language teaching between the pupils who have chosen language and the pupils who have chosen another optional subject. Furthermore the investigation aims at finding out what improvements teachers and pupils find necessary. The method being used was both qualitative and quantitative in the form of interviews and two different questionnaires. Four pupils and two teachers were interviewed and the questionnaires were answered by 34 pupils with a language choice and 40 pupils with other choices. The result shows no specific differences except motivation between the two groups, however I found several possible reasons to why pupils tend to choose some other subject than language: lack of interest, tactical choices and an unsatisfying language teaching. The suggestions of improvements concerned to an extent organizational aspects, but mainly the actual teaching. The teaching in the upper level of compulsory school probably affects the fewer choices of language and we need to improve this teaching and introduce a new school system that rewards language choices to make more pupils choose language as an optional subject.</p>

This dissertation examines the financial statement effects of firm attributes on the components of equity, the market reaction effects on key events in the adoption of IFRS, and the cumulative earnings response coefficient effect in the context of IFRS adoption in Canada. Firm attributes were tested for association with the adjustment to retained earnings at the transition date when first adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS.) Evidence from the analyses of the adjustment to retained earnings model revealed a statistically significant association between the adjustment to retained earnings and the firm attributes of volatility of income, internationality, and firm industry. Market reaction was measured for two key events of IFRS adoption: early adoption announcement and the release of first quarter financial results under IFRS. A negative mean for Cumulative Average Return (CAR) resulted from tests of both events. However, only the negative mean CAR from market’s reaction to the release of first quarter financial results under IFRS demonstrated statistical significance. The adjustment to retained earnings model used in this study developed a benchmark for tests of value relevance. In the test of value relevance, the benchmark or unexpected adjustment to retained earnings was tested against the actual adjustment to retained earnings for market reaction. The results from the tests of value relevance were not statistically significant. This study contributes to the literature by identifying firm factors: volatility of income, internationality, and industry as firm factors associated with the adjustment to retained earnings upon adoption of IFRS. Further, evidence from the event study demonstrates that the market reacts negatively to the adoption of IFRS and suggests that the Canadian market may not perceive IFRS as an improvement in financial reporting or a reduction in information asymmetry.

This article aims to determine the extent for the regimen of administrative procedure of selection, in the framework of the Peruvian Public Procurement Law. In that way, by analyzing the juridical doctrine and the Supervisory Agency of Public Procurement’s pronouncements on the matter, it will be determined that we are facing and optional regime on exemptions. / El presente artículo busca determinar el alcance del régimen de exoneraciones de los procedimientos administrativos de selección, en el marco de la normativa de Contrataciones con el Estado en el Perú. En ese sentido, a través del análisis de la doctrina y de los pronunciamientos del Organismo Supervisor de las Contrataciones del Estado, se verificarási es que nos encontramos o no ante un régimen facultativo de exoneraciones.

Torture has long been denounced by the international community; the need to protect citizens from abuse at the hands of the state is a principle enshrined in international law. One area where abuse is common is within the correctional system and as a result, there is a need for oversight in places of detention. The Optional Protocol to the UN’s Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is an international human rights instrument that acts as a preventive measure to monitor all places of detention through regular visits. Supportive of the OPCAT since its adoption, Canada has considered signature/ratification since 2002 but has yet to commit. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that have led to a delay in Canada becoming State Party to the OPCAT despite adherence to the principles that this instrument embodies. A policy analysis framework was utilized to conduct stakeholder interviews and review government documents. The concept of agenda-setting received special attention and content analysis of media reports and a review of government legislative activity were conducted to provide insight into the prevalence of the issue on the public and political agendas. The author argues that while there are real challenges that policymakers must overcome, the absence of political leadership has resulted in stagnation in the decision-making process. As a result, the issue has disappeared from both the public and political agenda. In order for progress to be made, political will must be created and the impetus to act (‘re-setting the agenda’) must come from civil society in the absence of government engagement on this issue.

This thesis explores stochastic modeling and Bayesian inference strategies in the context of the following three problems: 1) Modeling the complex interactions between and within molecules; 2) Extracting information from stepwise signals that are commonly found in biophysical experiments; 3) Improving the computational efficiency of a non-parametric Bayesian inference algorithm. Chapter 1 studies the data from a recent single-molecule biophysical experiment on enzyme kinetics. Using a stochastic network model, we analyze the autocorrelation of experimental fluorescence intensity and the autocorrelation of enzymatic reaction times. This chapter shows that the stochastic network model is capable of explaining the experimental data in depth and further explains why the enzyme molecules behave fundamentally differently from what the classical model predicts. The modern knowledge on the molecular kinetics is often learned through the information extracted from stepwise signals in experiments utilizing fluorescence spectroscopy. Chapter 2 proposes a new Bayesian method to estimate the change-points in stepwise signals. This approach utilizes marginal likelihood as the tool of inference. This chapter illustrates the impact of the choice of prior on the estimator and provides guidelines for setting the prior. Based on the results of simulation study, this method outperforms several existing change-points estimators under certain settings. Furthermore, DNA array CGH data and single molecule data are analyzed with this approach. Chapter 3 focuses on the optional Polya tree, a newly established non-parametric Bayesian approach (Wong and Li 2010). While the existing study shows that the optional Polya tree is promising in analyzing high dimensional data, its applications are hindered by the high computational costs. A heuristic algorithm is proposed in this chapter, with an attempt to speed up the optional Polya tree inference. This study demonstrates that the new algorithm can reduce the running time significantly with a negligible loss of precision. / Statistics

Torture has long been denounced by the international community; the need to protect citizens from abuse at the hands of the state is a principle enshrined in international law. One area where abuse is common is within the correctional system and as a result, there is a need for oversight in places of detention. The Optional Protocol to the UN’s Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is an international human rights instrument that acts as a preventive measure to monitor all places of detention through regular visits. Supportive of the OPCAT since its adoption, Canada has considered signature/ratification since 2002 but has yet to commit. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that have led to a delay in Canada becoming State Party to the OPCAT despite adherence to the principles that this instrument embodies. A policy analysis framework was utilized to conduct stakeholder interviews and review government documents. The concept of agenda-setting received special attention and content analysis of media reports and a review of government legislative activity were conducted to provide insight into the prevalence of the issue on the public and political agendas. The author argues that while there are real challenges that policymakers must overcome, the absence of political leadership has resulted in stagnation in the decision-making process. As a result, the issue has disappeared from both the public and political agenda. In order for progress to be made, political will must be created and the impetus to act (‘re-setting the agenda’) must come from civil society in the absence of government engagement on this issue.

The thesis consists of three parts: the theorical part - the literature review, the methodics and the practical part. The theoretical part is focused to benefits especially to definition of benefits, the ways how benefits can be devided in, and to their significance in employee's rewarding. Then it is aimed on cafeteria system its meaning and types. The methodics consider a procedures and formulas which are used in thesis. The practical part solves the main tasks of the thesis, which is to evaluate a possibility of use cafeteria plan in the choice firm. To reach the aim of thesis, firstly there was stated a generally characteristic of firm, its history and other facts. After that there was desribed current status of payroll system including using benefits. Finally there was suggested cafeteria plan supplied by outsourcing in type of the common core and optional benefits with defined budget. Then there was stated three variants (the pessimistic, the realistic and the optimistic one) of the optional part of cafeteria plan with point calculation for each of one. In conclusion, there was stated the summary cost calcutation and a recommendation to a firm about using some of cost variants of the cafeteria plan in practice.

Med anledning av att allt färre elever väljer språk som tillval på gymnasiet så är syftet med detta examensarbete att ta reda på vad som påverkar gymnasieelever att välja, respektive välja bort, språk som tillval. Det jag främst vill undersöka är ifall det finns skillnader i motivation, attityder och nöjdhet/missnöje med undervisningen mellan de som har valt språk och de som har valt bort språk som tillval. Vidare syftar undersökningen till att ta reda på vilka förbättringar både elever och lärare tycker vore nödvändiga. Metoden som användes var både kvalitativ och kvantitativ i form av intervjuer och två olika enkäter. Fyra elever och två lärare intervjuades och enkäterna besvarades av 34 elever med språk som tillval och av 40 elever med andra tillval. Resultatet visar inte på några specifika skillnader förutom motivation mellan grupperna, däremot fann jag flera möjliga orsaker till bortval; bland annat ointresse, taktikval och tråkig undervisning. De förbättringar som efterfrågades var till viss del organisatoriska, men till största delen handlade de om själva undervisningen. Det jag kom fram till är att undervisningen på högstadiet troligen påverkar bortvalen i hög grad och att det är förbättringar där, samt ett nytt skolsystem som premierar språk, som är de viktigaste faktorerna för att få fler elever att välja språk som tillval. / The purpose with this degree thesis is to find out why pupils choose, or do not choose, language as an optional subject. Mainly I want to see if there are any differences in motivation, attitudes and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with language teaching between the pupils who have chosen language and the pupils who have chosen another optional subject. Furthermore the investigation aims at finding out what improvements teachers and pupils find necessary. The method being used was both qualitative and quantitative in the form of interviews and two different questionnaires. Four pupils and two teachers were interviewed and the questionnaires were answered by 34 pupils with a language choice and 40 pupils with other choices. The result shows no specific differences except motivation between the two groups, however I found several possible reasons to why pupils tend to choose some other subject than language: lack of interest, tactical choices and an unsatisfying language teaching. The suggestions of improvements concerned to an extent organizational aspects, but mainly the actual teaching. The teaching in the upper level of compulsory school probably affects the fewer choices of language and we need to improve this teaching and introduce a new school system that rewards language choices to make more pupils choose language as an optional subject.

Torture has long been denounced by the international community; the need to protect citizens from abuse at the hands of the state is a principle enshrined in international law. One area where abuse is common is within the correctional system and as a result, there is a need for oversight in places of detention. The Optional Protocol to the UN’s Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is an international human rights instrument that acts as a preventive measure to monitor all places of detention through regular visits. Supportive of the OPCAT since its adoption, Canada has considered signature/ratification since 2002 but has yet to commit. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that have led to a delay in Canada becoming State Party to the OPCAT despite adherence to the principles that this instrument embodies. A policy analysis framework was utilized to conduct stakeholder interviews and review government documents. The concept of agenda-setting received special attention and content analysis of media reports and a review of government legislative activity were conducted to provide insight into the prevalence of the issue on the public and political agendas. The author argues that while there are real challenges that policymakers must overcome, the absence of political leadership has resulted in stagnation in the decision-making process. As a result, the issue has disappeared from both the public and political agenda. In order for progress to be made, political will must be created and the impetus to act (‘re-setting the agenda’) must come from civil society in the absence of government engagement on this issue.

There are three Optional Protocols to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The first one is about children in armed conflict and the second about the Sale of children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. The third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the UN in 2011, provides children with an international complaints mechanism to address violations on their rights. The third Optional Protocol is ratified by close to fifty states, but Sweden has neither ratified or signed the protocol - despite pressure both nationally and internationally. This means that children in Sweden doesn't have somewhere to go when they want to leave complaints when their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child have been violated.  The aim with this study was to analyze the pros and cons with a Swedish ratification of the Third Optional Protocol from a Human Rights perspective, to justify an answer if Sweden should do so or not. The analyze is an argumentation where the disadvantages first are presented, followed by the benefits, before they are set against each other. The most distinct disadvantages to a ratification is about processing times, inadmissability and the risk for manipulation. The benefits on the other hand, is about a reduced marginalization, children's increased position as right holders, the greater chance for restoration and a need for Sweden to incorporate child-sensitive complaint mechanisms on a national lever. The analyze makes clear that most of the disadvantages with a Swedish ratidfication can be responded by either counter-argument, or through the benefits which has been found due to the Human Rights perspective.  The conclusion of the study is that a Swedish ratification would strengthen children's position as own actors and right holders based on the given oppertunity to make complaints in the event of a perceived violation of rights, without the consent of their guardian.