During the last decade, Activity-Based Costing (ABC) has been recognized as a means to obtain more accurate and relevant information of product cost. Consultants have tried using the ABC concept as leverage for new projects, representatives from companies have attended seminars, and articles have been written on the theoretical foundations, the empirical justification, and on the implementation process. However, little progress seems to have been made despite of these activities. The question, whether ABC is the solution to the “Relevance Lost” or not, still remains to be answered. The research is based on a case study of an Ericsson company that has introduced Activity-Based Costing model for product costing. The purpose is to provide a critical evaluation and analysis of the existing model and to discuss how to “regain the relevance” of product costing through ABC. The study is conducted by interviewing relevant persons who are responsible for costing model and production process at Ericsson Mobile Communications AB in Linköping (ECS). Relevant documents during the implementation of ABC model have also been examined. Despite of a logical ABC model within ECS, the accuracy of cost information has not been improved. Many factors have been forgotten. Keeping costing model update, relating managers’ responsibility to activities performed and taking the cost of unused capacity into account are several examples. The study shows that ABCis not and will not be, however, the solution to the aging traditional product costing unless one uses it properly.

Uppsatsen redogör för tre svenska klädföretags miljöredovisningar och hur dessa uppfyller de kvalitativa egenskaperna: begriplighet, relevans, tillförlitlighet och jämförbarhet. Dessa kvalitativa egenskaper ska enligt det internationella redovisningsorganet IASBs föreställningsram vara uppfyllda i de finansiella rapporterna som företagen lämnar. De tre klädföretag som vi har valt att undersöka har offentliggjort frivilliga miljöredovisningar. I dagsläget finns det inga lagkrav på hur frivilliga miljöredovisningar ska presenteras, däremot finns det olika rekommendationer. Vi menar att IASBs fyra kvalitativa egenskaper kan appliceras på frivilliga miljöredovisningar i syfte att säkerställa ett visst mått av kvalitet. I vår uppsats har vi därför med utgångspunkt ifrån såväl IASB, FAR/SRS och FEE definierat vilka kriterier som rimligen bör ingå i dessa egenskaper. Egenskaperna har även anpassats till att kunna tillämpas på den svenska klädbranschen. Studien utfördes genom att vi först undersökte företagens miljöredovisningar varpå dessa analyserades utifrån det vi avser med de kvalitativa egenskaperna: begriplighet, relevans, tillförlitlighet och jämförbarhet. Vidare har vi genomfört intervjuer med de respektive företagens miljöansvarige för att slutligen göra en avstämning mellan miljöredovisningarna, vår analys och det företagen själva har uttalat sig om. I undersökningen har vi kommit fram till att ingen av företagens miljöredovisningar kan anses ha god kvalitet då samtliga uppvisar brister i någon av de kvalitativa egenskaperna som vi har utgått ifrån. Begripligheten i de tre miljöredovisningarna kan sägas vara god medan det förekommer bristfälligheter i fråga om relevans, tillförlitlighet och jämförbarhet. / This dissertation examines three Swedish clothing manufacturer’s  environmental accountancy statements and how these satisfy the qualitative properties: intelligibility, relevance, reliability and comparability. These qualitative properties should, according to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) framework, be satisfied in the companies’ published financial reports. The three clothing companies we chose to investigate have made public their voluntary environmental accountancy statements. There is currently no law stating how voluntary environmental accountancy statements are to be presented, though there are some recommendations. We consider that IASB’s four qualitative properties can be applied to voluntary environmental accountancy in order to guarantee a certain level of quality. We have therefore in this dissertation defined which criteria should be included in these properties on the basis of IASB, FAR/SRS and FEE. These properties have been modified to enable application within the Swedish clothing industry. The study commenced with an investigation of the companies’ environmental accountancy statements. These were then analysed on the basis of what we consider to be the qualitative properties intelligibility, relevance, reliability and comparability. We furthermore conducted interviews with the environmental officer of each company; and finally compared the different environmental accountancy statements, our analyses and information obtained directly from each company. In our study we concluded that none of the companies had environmental accountancy statements of good quality, as all had shortfalls in the qualitative properties which our study was based upon. Intelligibility in the three environmental accountancy statements can be described as good; however there were insufficiencies in the case of relevance, reliability and comparability.

Denna uppsats Sociala omsorgsprogrammets yrkesrelevans har syftet att undersöka hur utexaminerade studenter vid Örebro universitets Sociala omsorgsprogram med inriktning mot äldre och funktionshindrade, beskriver att utbildningen förbereder dem för yrket som enhetschef i kommunal äldreomsorg. Genomgående i studien är tre centrala begrepp; yrkesrelevans, kunskap och ledarskap. Studiens empiriska material baseras på intervjuer med enhetschefer. Det övergripande resultatet visar att frågan om yrkesrelevans är mångfacetterad. Möjligheterna till att utöva ett bra chefskap beror inte enbart på kunskaper från utbildningen, utan också på personliga erfarenheter och kunskaper, samt förutsättningar i stöd och personalantal. Sociala omsorgsprogrammet som grundutbildning kanske inte enbart bör ses som tillräcklig för ett kvalificerat ledarskap. Utbildningen bör kanske i annat fall ändras så att den motsvarar de krav arbetsgivarna ställer på nyexaminerade enhetschefer. I denna uppsats framträder dock att arbetsgivarnas krav ibland kan uppfattas som orimliga. Att utöva ett bra ledarskap beror inte enbart på utbildning, utan förutsättningarna i verksamheten är minst lika viktigt. / This thesis The vocational relevance of the programme in Social Care has the intention to study how students with an examination from the programme in Social Care oriented towards Elderly and Disabled at Örebro University, describes the education concerning its ability to prepare them for a profession as manager in government organized elderly care. Throughout the study three conceptions are essential; vocational relevance, knowledge and leadership. The study’s empirical material is based on interviews with managers in elderly care. The main result in this essay is that the question on the vocational relevance of the programme in Social Care is ambiguous. The prospects of performing a good quality in the leadership among management in elderly care also depends on individual skills, earlier work experience and the organization according to number of employees and support. The programme in Social Care is a compulsory education and may not be viewed as sufficient enough in an advanced leadership. Otherwise the education perhaps should change according to these demands of the employer. However this study shows that this demands sometimes is incongruous. To perform a good leadership does not only depend on the education, the conditions in the organization is also as essential.

La tesi concerne il potere di rappresentanza degli amministratori e la rilevanza esterna del procedimento decisorio nelle società di capitali. Dall’interpretazione della direttiva 2009/101/CE risulta un sistema che stabilisce l’opponibilità dei limiti legali e l’inopponibilità dei limiti convenzionali. Dalle limitazioni soggettive consentite dalla direttiva si ricava “per sottrazione” che il diritto europeo prevede una regola suppletiva secondo la quale il potere di rappresentanza spetta a ciascun amministratore disgiuntamente. Nel diritto interno, nel silenzio delle fonti convenzionali, la mancanza di un’espressa regola suppletiva determina l’operatività della regola suppletiva europea. La fonte del potere di rappresentanza ha natura legale ma le fonti convenzionali possono stabilire delle limitazioni soggettive opponibili ai terzi ex artt. 2383, comma 4°, e 2448 c.c. Ammessa la rilevanza esterna dei limiti legali ai poteri degli amministratori, accogliendo la tesi secondo cui nelle società di capitali la dissociazione tra potere gestorio e potere rappresentativo costituisce un elemento del modulo organizzativo legale dell’amministrazione pluripersonale, si sostiene che il mancato rispetto del procedimento decisorio sia opponibile ai terzi che la società provi essere stati a conoscenza o aver colpevolmente ignorato il vizio affettante un presupposto legale del procedimento collegiale richiesto dalla legge (art. 2388, comma 5, c.c.). / This thesis concerns the power of representation of the directors and the external relevance of the decisional process in italian companies. The Directive 2009/101/EC provides a system in which the legal limits can be invoked and the internal limits cannot be invoked with respect to third parties. From the subjective limitations allowed by the Directive is obtained "by subtraction" that European law provides a default rule, according to which every director has the power of representation separately. In domestic law, in the silence of the statute, the lack of an explicit rule determines the operation of the European default rule. The source of the power of representation has a legal nature, however the statute can determine subjective limitations that can be invoked with respect to third parties. Admitting the external relevance of legal limits on the powers of the directors and accepting the argument that in case of a board of directors the legal model provides that the decision-making power is dissociated from the power of representation, it is argued that the breach of the decisional process can be invoked if the company proves that the third party knew the lack of a legal condition of the process required by law or ignored it culpably.

This study examined the hypothesis that developmental expression of psychometric risk in the form of subclinical psychotic experiences in the general population is usually transitory but in some instances may become abnormally persistent and progress to a clinical psychotic state. A prospective cohort study was conducted in a general population sample of 845 adolescents, aged 14–17 years, in Munich, Germany (Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology Study). Expression of psychosis was assessed 4 times (T0–T3) over a period of 8.4 years. Transition from subclinical psychosis at T0–T2 to clinical psychosis in terms of impairment at T3 was examined as a function of the level of prior persistence of subclinical psychosis (present never, once, twice, or thrice). The more the subclinical psychosis persisted over the period T0–T2, the greater the risk of transition to clinical psychosis at T3 in a dose-response fashion (subclinical psychosis expression once over T0–T2: odds ratio [OR] = 1.5 [95% confidence interval {CI} = 0.6–3.7], posttest probability [PP] = 5%; twice: OR = 5.0 [95% CI = 1.6–15.9], PP = 16%; at all 3 measurements: OR = 9.9 [95% CI = 2.5–39.8], PP = 27%). Of all clinical psychosis at T3, more than a third (38.3%) was preceded by subclinical psychotic experiences at least once and a fifth (19.6%) at least twice. Consequently, a significant proportion of psychotic disorder may be conceptualized as the rare poor outcome of a common developmental phenotype characterized by persistence of psychometrically detectable subclinical psychotic experiences. This may be summarized descriptively as a psychosis proneness-persistence-impairment model of psychotic disorder.

Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of fMRI data has been growing in popularity due to its sensitivity to networks of brain activation. It is performed in a predictive modeling framework which is natural for implementing brain state prediction and real-time fMRI applications such as brain computer interfaces. Support vector machines (SVM) have been particularly popular for MVPA owing to their high prediction accuracy even with noisy datasets. Recent work has proposed the use of relevance vector machines (RVM) as an alternative to SVM. RVMs are particularly attractive in time sensitive applications such as real-time fMRI since they tend to perform classification faster than SVMs. Despite the use of both methods in fMRI research, little has been done to compare the performance of these two techniques. This study compares RVM to SVM in terms of time and accuracy to determine which is better suited to real-time applications.

In this thesis, a semantically aided web service and restful service search mechanism is presented that makes use of an ontology. The mechanism relates method names, input and output parameters for ontology guided matches and offers results with varying relevance corresponding to the matching degree. The mechanism is demonstrated using an experimental domain that is tourism and travel. An ontology is created to support a set of web services that exist in this domain.

Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Betrachtung der Leitbahnen der Akupunktur unter wissenschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten. Bereits während der Recherchen wurde deutlich, dass dieses Thema auf mehreren Ebenen zu bearbeiten ist. Zunächst wurde daher der zeitliche Rahmen der Entstehung der Akupunktur im Allgemeinen und der Veterinärakupunktur im Besonderen eingegrenzt, die Bedeutung der Veterinärakupunktur im Alten China untersucht und die Beschreibung und Darstellung der Leitbahnen und Punkte beim Tier thematisiert (Kap. 3). Anschließend wurde eine Einführung in die theoretischen Grundlagen gegeben, ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung vor allem unter historischen und soziokulturellen Gesichtspunkten und zuletzt im medizinischen Kontext beschrieben (Kap. 4). Im Folgenden wurde der Versuch des Nachweises der Leitbahnen in naturwissenschaftlichem Kontext anhand verschiedener methodischer Beispiele untersucht (Kap. 5). Schließlich wurden die Ergebnisse zusammengefasst, untereinander sowie mit Aspekten der Forschung zur Punktspezifität in einen Kontext gestellt und abschließend eine Einschätzung des Stellenwertes der Leitbahnen in der (tier)medizinischen Praxis gegeben (Kap. 6). Anhand der Quellenlage kann die Entwicklung der Akupunktur ab etwa 200 v. Chr. nachvollzogen werden, wobei Nachweise für die Tierakupunktur erst in der Sui-Zeit (581 – 618 n. Chr.) vorliegen. Aus dem Alten China sind keine Darstellungen der Leitbahnen bekannt, eine Einteilung erfolgt eher nach den Körperregionen. Erst im Europa der 1950er Jahre werden Leitbahnkarten für Tiere durch Transposition entwickelt. Die Akupunktur ist eine Teildisziplin der sogenannten Entsprechungsmedizin. Als solche sind die ihr zugrundeliegenden Theorien ein Ergebnis der politischen und sozialen Veränderungen zwischen der Zeit der streitenden Reiche (481 – 221 v. Chr.) und der Han-Zeit (202 v. Chr. – 220 n. Chr.), die danach über etwa 1700 Jahre nie grundlegend in Frage gestellt wurden. Dieser theoretische Rahmen hat in China selbst nur geringe praktische Relevanz, während ihm im Westen als Abgrenzung gegenüber der konventionellen Medizin und um den Wunschvorstellungen einer idealen alternativen Therapiemethode zu entsprechen eine deutlich größere Rolle zukommt. Ein Nachweis der Existenz der Leitbahnen wurde vielfach versucht, konnte jedoch nicht erbracht werden. Einige Ergebnisse dieser Arbeiten und auch vieler Wirksamkeitsstudien zeigen, dass es sich bei der Akupunktur um ein multifaktorielles Therapiekonzept handelt. Besonders hervorzuheben ist die rezeptive und transmissive Rolle des Nervensystems auf unterschiedlichen Funktions- und Integrationsebenen. Die Leitbahnen als Linien auf der Körperoberfläche haben rein deskriptiven Charakter, um eine Anzahl von Punkten zu verbinden. Allerdings deutet einiges darauf hin, dass eher von sensiblen und effektiven Zonen gesprochen werden müsste. In diesem Rahmen ist es nicht sinnvoll, an einer Kartographie von Punkt und Linie festzuhalten. Zu eng sind hier die Beziehungen zur sozio-historisch bedingten Theorie, die die physiologisch-anatomischen Gegebenheiten nicht adäquat wiedergibt. Die weitere Forschung auf dem Gebiet der Akupunktur muss weiterhin um Aufklärung der Wirkmechanismen bemüht sein. Gleichzeitig muss eine objektive Quantifizierung der Akupunkturwirkungen erfolgen, um sinnvolle Einsatzbereiche zu definieren.

This study examines the functions of phrases with the word missverstehen in any inflected form in German discussion groups. The corpus consists of about 600 different messages with a phrase containing the verb missverstehen from all kinds of discussion groups speaking the German language. The hypothesis is that those phrases do not always refer to a factual misunderstanding in the communication. There is no such thing as total understanding in communication, since people cannot fully know how other people are thinking. Instead understanding is a social construct. Misunderstanding occurs when a group member cannot interpret a message so that it correlates with what the sender has meant. This understanding contains both the discussed theme as well as the relation between the group members. Relevance occurs when interpretable information is communicated through contextualization cues. Some cues carry information about the discussed theme, others communicate face work. A misunderstanding is caused by missing contextualization cues, i. e. the message is irrelevant. The study shows how the communicators can construct a disagreement as a misunderstanding, which it in turn has an impact on face work. The phrase is then being used together with added contextualization cues in order to construct a common understanding. Thereby the communicators can influence the interaction. This is done in a sequence in the discussion group. Hence the script theory (Schank/Abelson 1977) aims to describe the phenomenon of how a phrase with the word missverstehen can be used for different purposes. One script is defined for each purpose. The difference between the scripts is being maintained by the contextualization cue that carries the information about how the relations between group members are interacted.

Globalization has led to the growth of international financial markets, as one of the results, the EU adopted IFRS in 2005 to meet the need of accounting globalization and harmonization. This action has triggered a debate about whether the adoption of IFRS is beneficial to accounting quality and information comparability. Meanwhile, China, playing a key role in the global economic development stage, realizes the importance of accounting harmonization and attempts to move towards the IFRS as well. However, to reach the goal that the Chinese companies produce financial statements that are the same as those that apply IFRS, there is still a long way to go. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the adoption of IFRS by EU has enhanced the quality of financial reporting and accounting information comparability. Additionally, the thesis further identified the seminal undertakings for the convergence of IFRS in Europe and pointed out the implication for China’s convergence with IFRS. The empirical findings in this thesis were obtained through qualitative interviews. The empirical findings suggest that accounting quality and information comparability has been enhanced with EU’s strong and full enforcement with IFRS. With the confidence in IFRS which is gained from the success of the EU’s adoption of IFRS, a coherent result was found that the convergence towards IFRS would also benefit China in accounting quality and information comparability, and further lead to more international investments. However, when it comes to the question whether China should emulate EU’s example to adopt IFRS directly or keep CAS (Chinese Accounting Standards) which is similar to IFRS, two mixed opinions were obtained basically from Europe side and China side. Through in-depth analysis with these empirical findings, the conclusion is that it is necessary for China to take steps to build intensive programs to enhance its capacity of the adoption of IFRS, so that it could adapt itself to the fact that the IFRS is already making its way around the world as a single set of high quality global accounting standards.