Students’ explanations in the Swedish national test in history

Denna studie undersöker elevers förklaringar i det nationella provet 2014. Provet skall tas i särskilt beaktning och därmed är det viktigt att förstå hur elever förklarar historiska skeenden vid provtillfället. Syftet med studien är att undersöka elevers uttryck av historiska förklaringar när de resonerar om orsaker till Förintelsen, Gulag och slavhandeln över Atlanten. Frågeställningarna utgår från elevers hantering av tankebegrepp och de mönster som återfinns i deras förklaringar. För studien användes en kvalitativ metod där 53 katalogiserade prov som bedömts med A analyserades. Resultatet delades upp i två grupper: Elevers hantering av kausalitet samt elevers hantering av aktör och struktur. Materialet inhämtades från arkivet vid Malmö Universitet, som på uppdrag av Skolverket utvecklar och utvärderar det nationella provet i historia. Resultatet visar att elever uttrycker komplexa förklaringar utifrån kausalitet och ett implicit förklarande av aktör och struktur. Därutöver visade resultatet att elever lägger stor vikt vid aktörers intentioner i sina framställningar av historia. Studien visar också att komplexiteten i förklaringarna skiljer sig mellan de olika frågorna, möjligtvis då de har olika platser i historiekulturen. Därutöver är en av studiens slutsatser att lärare i sin undervisning måste vara medvetna om hur de förklarar historiska skeenden. Studien visar ett behov av mer forskning kring hur lärare undervisar om svårhanterliga historiska skeenden och hur marginaliserade grupper framställs av lärare

Gradual Typing for a More Pure JavaScript

Dynamically typed languages have surged in popularity in recent years, owing to their flexibility and ease of use. However, for projects of a certain size dynamic typing can cause problems of maintainability as refactoring becomes increasingly difficult. One proposed solution is the use of gradual type systems, where static type annotations are optional. This results in providing the best of both worlds. The purpose of this project is to create a gradual type system on top of JavaScript. Another goal is to explore the possibility of making guarantees about function purity and immutability using the type system. The types and their relations are defined and a basic type checker is implemented to confirm the ideas. Extending type systems to be aware of side effects makes it easier to write safer software. It is concluded that all of this is possible and reasonable to do in JavaScript

Earnings management and insider trading : A study of firms listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm

There is an ethical dilemma and a legal issue of earnings management and insider trading, and a risk of it affecting the accuracy of financial markets. The use of earnings management leads to an information asymmetry between the corporate management and the financial markets. This paper investigates how earnings management affects insider trading and whether insider trading is a good information source about earnings quality and future performance. Studying companies believed to have conducted earnings management on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stock Exchange (Stockholm) from 2005 through 2014 indicates that: (1) insiders do not sell shares after managing earnings upwards; (2) the relationship between insider selling and future earnings performance is positive, contradicting agency theory and previous research; (3) the market’s reaction to the earnings announcement one year after suspected earnings management is positive for firms where insiders have sold shares, and vice versa. Taken together, our results are not in line with those of previous studies conducted on other markets. This is likely to depend on the unique Swedish setting with the existence of endowment insurances, where insiders can trade shares without having to disclose their transactions to the market. Because of this, we argue that insider trading is not an adequate signal about Swedish firms’ earnings quality and future performance. We therefor further emphasize the importance of a change in the Swedish legislation, in order to insure the accuracy of financial markets and to protect other investors.

Between theory and practice – research traditions presence in Swedish education

This study investigates how teachers implement select parts of the German and Canadian history didactic traditions in relation to the Swedish history curriculum in their practice. The material used is an overview based on earlier research as well as multiple empirical classroom studies conducted throughout Sweden. The result indicates that there is both correlation and an inconsistency between the research field of history didactics and teaching practice. This might be due to the complexity of the syllabus. To make the education more aligned with both the curriculum and the didactic traditions, our results point towards the need to assess historical consciousness both systemically and qualitatively, and that teachers’ practice regarding disciplinary approaches to history should be developed. Further research is suggested to develop how teachers interpret and implement certain components of steering documents in history education.

Post-anaesthesia pulmonary complications after use of muscle relaxants (POPULAR): a multicentre, prospective observational study

Background Results from retrospective studies suggest that use of neuromuscular blocking agents during general anaesthesia might be linked to postoperative pulmonary complications. We therefore aimed to assess whether the use of neuromuscular blocking agents is associated with postoperative pulmonary complications. Methods We did a multicentre, prospective observational cohort study. Patients were recruited from 211 hospitals in 28 European countries. We included patients (aged ≥18 years) who received general anaesthesia for any in-hospital procedure except cardiac surgery. Patient characteristics, surgical and anaesthetic details, and chart review at discharge were prospectively collected over 2 weeks. Additionally, each patient underwent postoperative physical examination within 3 days of surgery to check for adverse pulmonary events. The study outcome was the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications from the end of surgery up to postoperative day 28. Logistic regression analyses were adjusted for surgical factors and patients’ preoperative physical status, providing adjusted odds ratios (ORadj) and adjusted absolute risk reduction (ARRadj). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01865513. Findings Between June 16, 2014, and April 29, 2015, data from 22803 patients were collected. The use of neuromuscular blocking agents was associated with an increased incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications in patients who had undergone general anaesthesia (1658 [7·6%] of 21694); ORadj 1·86, 95% CI 1·53–2·26; ARRadj –4·4%, 95% CI –5·5 to –3·2). Only 2·3% of high-risk surgical patients and those with adverse respiratory profiles were anaesthetised without neuromuscular blocking agents. The use of neuromuscular monitoring (ORadj 1·31, 95% CI 1·15–1·49; ARRadj –2·6%, 95% CI –3·9 to –1·4) and the administration of reversal agents (1·23, 1·07–1·41; –1·9%, –3·2 to –0·7) were not associated with a decreased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. Neither the choice of sugammadex instead of neostigmine for reversal (ORadj 1·03, 95% CI 0·85–1·25; ARRadj –0·3%, 95% CI –2·4 to 1·5) nor extubation at a train-of-four ratio of 0·9 or more (1·03, 0·82–1·31; –0·4%, –3·5 to 2·2) was associated with better pulmonary outcomes. Interpretation We showed that the use of neuromuscular blocking drugs in general anaesthesia is associated with an increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. Anaesthetists must balance the potential benefits of neuromuscular blockade against the increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications