Twitter is an online social networking service which functions as an information sharing medium, hence it is perfect for media to convey pieces of news. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Al Jazeera English (AJE) are two international news channels that actively use Twitter to share their news stories. Previous investigations have found that depending on the news story, the BBC and AJE convey their pieces of news slightly differently. This study aims to give an analysis of the textual content in these two news channel’s text messages (tweets) on Twitter to see if there are linguistic variations. The tweets were analysed in terms of tone, word choice and information richness. Tweets where the words Syria and kill occurred were chosen for a more thorough analysis, and the results show that the BBC had a slightly more negative tone, provided more detailed news reports and used a more informative language than AJE. It might be that the findings were a result of chance considering the fact that the collection of tweets analysed was rather small and differed in size. Nevertheless, the differences that were revealed by the study were of an apparent nature and occurred too frequently and consistently in this small material to be discarded as merely incidental.

As companies discover the monetary benefits of a positive environmental image, a proliferation of green imaging confounds the public sphere. The consequence becomes the disarticulation of terms like environmental excellence, sustainable development, and minimum environmental harm. Because the oversaturation of greening efforts has elicited public distrust, stakeholders need timely and accurate information regarding environmental claims. As a major vehicle for communicating these efforts, corporate environmental reports (CERs) are laden with colorful and sublime images. This study examines the functionality of images found in CERs from 27 industry leaders, applying Sonja Foss’s tenets of visual rhetorical analysis to identify the nature and function of the images and offer an evaluation based on emergent themes. Because images are increasingly important to corporate transparency, the study concludes with several best practice recommendations to serve as ethical image design strategies and to reflect the ways companies address impactful operations.

Sammanfattning Titel: Redovisningsinformationens betydelse vid kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag. Nivå: C-uppsats i företagsekonomi. Författare: Annelie Engström och Christian Mattsson. Handledare: Ann W Dörner. Datum: Juni 2012. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur kreditgivare använder sig av redovisningsinformation vid kreditbedömningen av små och medelstora företag. Forskningsfrågorna är: Stämmer redovisningsinformationen överens med kreditgivarnas behov av information vid kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag? Vilka delar av redovisningsinformationen är viktiga vid en kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag? Metod: I denna studie används en mixad metod vilket innebär att en kvantitativ metod används vid insamling av data och en kvalitativ metod vid analyseringen av data. Empirisk data har samlats in med strukturerade frågeformulär med fasta svarsalternativ som skickats ut till respondenterna. Sekundärdata har sökts fram ur relevant litteratur, artiklar och tidigare undersökningar. Resultat och Slutsats: De flesta kreditgivare är nöjda med den information som ges. Balans- och resultaträkning är de viktigaste rapporterna vid en kreditbedömning. Rörelseresultatet är den viktigaste resultatposten, kassalikviditet och soliditet är de viktigaste nyckeltalen. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Följande två frågor har uppkommit under arbete och föreslås därmed som ämnen till framtida studier. Vilken redovisningsinformation saknar kreditgivare och vad skulle de vilja förbättra i den nuvarande informationen. Revisionspliktens betydelse vid kreditbedömning. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna uppsats utreder vilka av årsredovisningens delar som är viktiga vid kreditbedömning. Detta kan vara till hjälp för att utveckla bedömningsunderlag för framtida rapporter. Nyckelord: Kreditbedömning, kreditgivning, redovisningsinformation, årsredovisning, finansiella rapporter / Abstract Title: The relevance of accounting information in the credit-granting process concerning small and medium firms. Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. Authors: Annelie Engström and Christian Mattsson. Supervisor: Ann W Dörner. Date: June 2012. Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine how creditors use accounting information in the credit-granting process concerning small and medium-sized firms. The research questions are: Does the provided accounting information fulfill the creditor’s needs of information in the credit-granting process of small and medium-sized firms? What parts of the accounting information is important in the credit-granting process of small and medium-sized firms? Method: The design of this study is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The primary data is collected by a quantitative method. To obtain empirical data, structured questionnaires have been sent out with fixed response alternatives to the respondents. Secondary data, have mainly been taken from literature, articles and previous studies. Result and Conclusions: Not all but most creditors are satisfied with the provided information. The balance sheet and the income statement are the most important reports when credit-granting decisions are to be made. The operating profit is the main performance record and cash liquidity and solvency are the most important ratios. Suggestions for future research: Two questions arose during the study and is thereby suggested as topics for future studies. What are the creditors missing in today’s accounting information and what needs improvement? The mandatory auditing importance of credit-granting. Contribution of this thesis: This paper investigates which parts of the Annual Report that is important for credit-granting. This may help to develop the assessment basis for future reports. Key words: Granting of credit, credit process, accounting information, annual report, financial reports

Denna studie syftar till att utgöra underlag och förslag till utformningen av statistikrapporter till WoodEye’s nya statistikdatabas som ingår i WoodEye 5. WoodEye 5 lanserades på Lignamässan i Hannover, 30 maj- 3 juni 2011. Förslagen har sin grund i kvalitativa intervjuer med ett urval av Innovativ Vision AB’s kunder, som tidigare visat intresse i frågan. Innovativ Visions kunder finns inom träbearbetningsindustrin, och uppvisar stora variationer i verksamhetsområde. Därför ska den nya statistikdatabasen präglas av en större valfrihet och flexibilitet, för att ett specifikt företag ska kunna göra de produktionsuppföljningar som är lämpliga för ändamålet. I slutet av 1960-talet påbörjades utvecklingen av automatisk virkessortering, eftersom detta skulle medföra en högre kapacitet och en jämnare avsyning i träbearbetande företag. En större mängd produkter kan tillverkas och fler sorteringsregler kan tillämpas samtidigt vid automatisk virkesavsyning jämfört med manuell avsyning. På senare år har även träindustrin påverkats av olika produktionsfilosofier, exempelvis resurssnål produktion. Detta medför att arbetet med kvalitetsteknik får en mer betydande roll i träbearbetande företag. Eftersom trä är ett heterogent material, är kvalitetsoptimering en komplex aktion. Därför har man börjat förespråka idén om rätt kvalitet för rätt ändamål, istället för att tala om hög och låg kvalitet. Innovativ Vision har sina rötter i den datorbaserade bildbehandlingen som bedrevs med stor framgång vid Linköpings universitet under 1980-talet. I slutet av 2011 beräknas den femte generationen WoodEye vara i drift, och i dagsläget finns tre tillhörande mjukvaruoptioner; Sorter, CrossCut och Parquet & Flooring. Sorter är en sorteringsoption, CrossCut är en kapoptimeringsoption och Parquet & Flooring är en sorteringsoption med förbättrad avsyning av färgvariationer i virket. I intervjuerna framkommer att de uppföljningar som referensföretagen utför idag är personal-, tillgänglighets-, och leverantörsuppföljningar samt hur den faktiska produktionen förhåller sig till den kalkylerade produktionen. Det finns stora variationer i uppföljningsverksamheten mellan företagen. Tre företag utför leverantörsuppföljningar och dessa anses vara de som har bäst rutin på uppföljningar. För optimalt genomförda uppföljningar av råvaran krävs en utvecklad defektstatistik, en funktion i statistikdatabasen som skulle innebär ett stort mervärde för kunderna. Det är framför allt kunder som använder WoodEye CrossCut som efterfrågar defektstatistik. Det beror sannolikt på att ingen motsvarighet till WoodEye Sorter’s nedklassningsstatistik finns till denna kapoptimeringsoption. I WoodEye 5 kommer trendstatistik genereras. Trendstatistiken blir ett verktyg för att avgöra hur det ögonblickliga produktionsutfallet förhåller sig till produktionsutfallet över tiden. Bland referensföretagen råder delade meningar om hur trendstatistiken kommer att användas; en del företag tror sig vilja göra uppföljningar baserat på informationen, medan andra enbart vill tillämpa den som ett stöd då WoodEye är i drift. / This study aims to provide support and suggestions for the design of statistical reports to WoodEye's new statistical database based on interviews with a sample of customers of Innovativ Vision AB. The new databas will be developed because of the improved fifth generation WoodEye 5, that will be in operation in late 2011. The customers varies widely in scope, and therefore the new statistical database should be characterized by a greater freedom of choice. Automatic sorting of wood panels imply a higher capacity and a smoother inspection. A greater variety of products can be produced, and a larger amount of sorting rules can be applied to automatic inspection of wood than in the case of manual inspection. The interviews reveal that there are wide variations in follow-up activities between the companies. The follow-ups the reference companies perform today are primarily whether the actual production is related to the deferred production, personnel monitoring, availability monitoring and supplier monitoring. Many of the companies demand some kind of defects statistics, for optimal follow-up of the raw material.

Problems related to sustainable development such as environmental issues, human rights, orlabor conditions, are nowadays deeply integrated in our society. It became primordial forcompanies to take into consideration these problems in their business development. For morethan a decade now, car companies started to publish official documents summarizing theircommitments in favor of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) actions. Through thesesustainability reports, car producers disclose information concerning their sustainable policyand bring details to stakeholders on performed sustainable actions. Because publication of sustainability reports is a relatively new phenomenon, a lot of studies still have to be made in this sector. In this way, no main studies were made regarding howCSR actions performed and disclosed by car companies evolved in the past decade. Didcompanies keep focusing on the same type of sustainable actions or did some changes occuron the way they conduct their CSR policies? No trends were available to try to understandhow car companies CSR actions evolved. This thesis is an attempt to fulfill this gap and bringa first set of useful findings on this topic. Based on three different car producers which are BMW Group, Ford Motor Company andMitsubishi Motors Corporation, our study analyses these companies 2002, 2006 and 2010sustainability reports and looks at how CSR actions are disclosed. The purpose is firstly todescribe how companies’ CSR commitment disclosure is evolving between 2002 and 2010and secondly to find explanation to the key trends. In order to achieve this, we used six mainCSR categories (Economic, Environment, Human Rights, Labor Practices and Decent Work,Product Responsibility and Society) and classified disclosed information in relation with thesecategories to create trends. For each of these six categories, sub-categories were used in orderto be more precise in the analysis process of the documents. Results showed an important interest of car producers for the environment category whichrepresents, on average, more than 40% of disclosed information in sustainability reports.Society category trend shows an important increase between 2006 and 2010 which led it tobecome the second most represented category in reports. Other categories trends present amore stable evolution with time. As it is explained more in detail in our analysis part, thisattraction toward environmental issues for car producers can be explained by the badreputation given to car producers in terms of emissions, energy consumption and moreglobally environmental protection. Cultural background and business mindset are alsoinfluencing companies’ choices. Responsive behaviors resulting from stakeholder’s pressureas well as adaptation to a weak regulatory framework are additional elements to explain the key disclosure trends.

The Swedish preschool combines both education and care from a holistic point of view. This makes it even harder for both parents and the educators to make an objective evaluation on their own preschool. In Sweden we are proud to have one of the world’s best preschools. It is regulated by the government and is obligated to undertake critical evaluation from the state and the parents that are the consumers of these services. I have chosen to look closer on how these quality reports are made and how they are used by the preschool. Is it even possible to make such evaluations based on so very different ideas on quality as a concept? What is con-sidered good quality from the parent’s point of view and what do the government mean with good quality? In my investigation I interviewed parents and asked them on this subject. In this report I will present the result of these interviews. I have looked at previous researches on this subject and my results gave a picture of miscommunication between the parents, the state and the preschool. The parents are valuing good care in a safe environment by engaged teachers in the preschools. The state and the preschools mostly focus on the quality of the children’s edu-cation and how the preschool´s work with the values that the curriculum stipulates.

This study aims to understand and explain World Bank&rsquo / s changing approach to poverty since 1990. Established as a development institution and as one of the leading members of development community, the World Bank has nearly turned out to be a poverty alleviation institution especially from late 1990s on. This change is a reflection of a process in which the Bank shapes its approach to poverty not only in accordance with its own goals but also in the framework of what happens in wider social, economic and political spheres of which the Bank is a part as a subject that both shapes and is shaped by them to a certain extent. Consequently, a remarkable change is observed in the Bank&rsquo / s approach, and this process of change is investigated in this study in two sub-periods that are characterized by ruptures in continuity. The first period more or less between 1990 and 1997 is characterized by the Bank&rsquo / s neoliberal approach to poverty, which mainly assumes poverty as a complementary element of structural adjustment programs in countries they are implemented. The second period from 1997 up to present is characterized, on the other hand, by a &ldquo / third way&rdquo / approach to poverty which mainly assumes poverty-as-social-exclusion as an indispensable central element of a renewed hegemonic project. In this study, the traces of these ruptures and the continuity in the Bank&rsquo / s approach are followed through their reflections on Turkey by making a close reading of the Bank&rsquo / s documents about poverty in Turkey.

This thesis describes an information extraction system that is designed to process free text Turkish radiology reports in order to extract and convert the available information into a structured information model. The system uses natural language processing techniques together with domain ontology in order to transform the verbal descriptions into a target information model, so that they can be used for computational purposes. The developed domain ontology is effectively used in entity recognition and relation extraction phases of the information extraction task. The ontology provides the flexibility in the design of extraction rules, and the structure of the ontology also determines the information model that describes the structure of the extracted semantic information. In addition, some of the missing terms in the sentences are identified with the help of the ontology. One of the main contributions of this thesis is the usage of ontology in information extraction that increases the expressive power of extraction rules and helps to determine missing items in the sentences. The system is the first information extraction system for Turkish texts. Since Turkish is a morphologically rich language, the system uses a morphological analyzer and the extraction rules are also based on the morphological features. TRIES achieved 93% recall and 98% precision results in the performance evaluations.

The aim of the thesis is to find out children&rsquo / s expectations from smart products that enhance their learning and analyze their conformity with the state of art smart products and educational technologies. The developments in technology affect many dimensions including education. There are many studies that aimed to improve the learning process by the help of technology. However, the perspective of children considering this topic is almost absent in the literature. Therefore, expectations of children from learning technologies are explored via an empirical study. The state of art smart technologies and products to enhance learning will also be covered. Then, in the light of an empirical study, to what extent children&rsquo / s expectations overlap with current technologies will be presented.

I conduct experiments to investigate how episodic knowledge obtained from prior experience as an auditor or a manager affects audit committee members' judgment in supporting the auditor in a disagreement with management. This paper sheds light on the advantage of first-hand accounting-related experience in the important oversight task. It also brings to bear the potential benefit from direct manager experience as claimed by researchers and regulators. I find that the episodic knowledge obtained from prior experience as an auditor, especially the experience of having been a diligent auditor, strengthens the degree of auditor support of participants in the role of an audit committee member. By contrast, the effect of episodic knowledge from first-hand experience as a manager on the likelihood of auditor support varies with the manager type. While the episodic knowledge acquired from direct experience as an aggressive manager augments the level of auditor support, such knowledge attained by prior experience as a conservative manager has no significant effect.