The determination of the optical properties of biological tissue is an important issue in laser medicine. The optical properties define the tissue´s absorption and scattering behaviour, and can be expressed by quantities such as the albedo, the optical thickness and the anisotropy coefficient. During this project, a measurement system for the determination of the optical properties was built up. The system consists of a double integrating sphere set-up to perform the necessary reflection and transmission measurements, and a computer algorithm to calculate the optical properties from the measured data. This algorithm is called Inverse Adding Doubling method, and is based on a one-dimensional transport model.

This is a qualitative study about how young men in the age of 16-18 years can construct their masculinity. How do these young men describe a ?real man?? What are their thoughts about themselves as adults? The purpose of this study includes a gender perspective in surroundings that cope with the sport football. To answer this study, six young men in the age of 16-18 years, whom are active football players in different levels, have been interviewed. The findings showed that the young men seemed to construct their masculinity in cooperation with the surroundings and the nearest family members seemed to have a very strong influence of the boy?s development to become a man.

This thesis describes a method of measuring axial magnetic leakage flux in an operational hydropower generator. Axial magnetic leakage flux is the magnetic flux at the ends of a rotating generator, which goes through the stator parallel to the rotor axis. This flux can cause circulating currents in the stator iron, giving rise to losses, and can in the worst case overheat a generator, causing it to melt down. To measure the axial flux, and how it affects the generator temperature, a measurement system was constructed on behalf of Vattenfall. The system consists of search coil sensors and a signal-processing unit with amplifiers and active filtering.  To confirm the behaviour of the axial leakage flux and the functionality of the measurement system, a test installation was made.

Oljeprisets påverkan på svensk och europeisk ekonomi är högaktuell ? det skapar dagligen rubriker i massmedia. Inte minst på aktiemarknaden iakttas oljepriset noggrant. Denna studie undersöker huruvida statistiska samband mellan oljepriset och olika aktieindex kan påvisas, och även huruvida dessa går att utnyttja för prognostisering. Fyra branschindex ? industri, kemi, transport och råvaror ? samt generalindex, för Sverige respektive EU, undersöks.Kointegrations- och regressionsanalys används för att undersöka sambanden mellan oljepris och aktieindex, och resultaten tillämpas sedan för prognostisering.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur etisk produktion påverkar konsumenters attityd gentemot en ökad investering vid konsumtion. Vedertagen teori menar på att etisk produktion har en positiv påverkan på den genomsnittlige konsumentens attityd och att konsumenter kan tänka sig att betala ett högre pris för produkter producerade på etiskt vis. Med syfte att konkretisera begreppet CSR och underlätta för respondenterna i enkätundersökningen används begreppet etisk produktion med hänvisning till äggkonsumtion. Aspekterna av begreppet etisk produktion som ligger till grund för denna studie är miljövänlig transport och god hönshållning. Studiens resultat redogör för att konsumenter är positivt inställda till att betala ett högre pris för produkter producerade på ett etiskt vis och att etisk produktion är ett produktattribut som påverkar konsumenternas attityd gentemot konsumtion..

This paper is about the composition and function of boards of social enterprises. A social enterprise can be defined as a company, which is founded by users or external stakeholder in order to create jobs (or a work place), a meaning in live or to further integration. One tries to achieve this goal by a business activity and/or subsidies and/or neighbourhood projects. The amount of social enterprises grew steadily after the restructuring of social welfare in Sweden since the 1980. Alternative forms of welfare ? such as a social enterprise ? will probably grow further in importance.

This thesis is about how the library can help immigrants integrate into theswedish society. By studying leading documents of the libraries in Malmö,Stockholm and Umeå in search for how the relate to work consideringimmigrants and integration I have studied the library as a bridge betweenbeing included and excluded in the society. The thought is that the libraryopens the door to new worlds both for immigrants and born swedes toobtain knowledge about a culture different from their own.In my thesis I reached the conclusion that library on a day to day basisworks with the integrationprocess for immigrants. Although the leadingdocuments should evolve since they show gaps and seem somewhatmisguiding in their presentation of the libraries function. The librariesshould work more with analysis of the environment that they are active in sothat they are more individualized for the people around it.

This master thesis is about designing and dimensioning a boat for transport of caravan, car, trailer or ATV. Buoyancy and stability are important properties as the pontoonboat should also be able to serve as a workboat. Many of the vessels on the market today that is being used for similar purpose are stable enough, but their hull is often similar with barges and thus too slow. This work has been to construct a boat that has good stability but also has a hull that enables it to move faster, is more maneuverable and having a more attracting design than today?s barges.

We would like to learn more about how the restrictive policy against incentive programmes affects the board?s of Swedish state owned commercial firms ability to govern management in an efficient way. We also want to find out if there are different consequences in reference to this that are not directly linked to corporate governance issues. Our empiric observations have been made in order to profoundly explore the subject and examine it through the eyes of professional individuals, all expressing different views and standpoints. We conclude that the most efficient structure is when an active board is complemented by a well structured and individualised incentive programme.

This is a qualitative case study of young womens? experiences of blogging about One Direction on the social media/microblogging platform Tumblr. The aim of this study was to find out what fan blogging is and why fans blog. We did this by creating an account on Tumblr where we invited young women between the ages of 16?29, who had active fan blogs dedicated to One Direction, to answer an open-ended questionnaire.

AbstractReading books to children is often an integral part in preschool activities. The purpose of thisstudy is to investigate how educators think about the educational function of literature inpreschool activities. I have in my study used qualitative interviews with active educators andobservations to answer my questions about why the educator reads to the children, how theeducator thinks about the choice of literature and if the literature can contribute to thechildrens development and if so, how. The knowledge- and research background presentsliterature and previous research done on the subject. The results of my study shows that theeducators have many thoughts about the importance of literature in preschool.

När paket transporteras vintertid kommer dessa att kylas ned av den låga utomhustemperaturen. Vid ankomst till sorteringsterminalen kommer paketen ha antagit en lägre temperatur än den i terminalen. Under tiden som paketen hanteras i terminalen kommer deras temperatur att stiga på grund av den högre inomhustemperaturen. Detta medför ett ökat uppvärmningsbehov i terminalen vilket således bidrar till en ökad uppvärmningskostnad och miljöpåverkan. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att ta fram en modell som beskriver energiflödet under transport och sortering för att kunna beräkna storleken på det ökade energibehovet som uppstår i paketterminalerna vintertid då nedkylda paket hanteras. Energibehovet skall sedan sättas i samband med den extra uppvärmningskostnad och miljöpåverkan som paketen ger upphov till.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine the views of the elderly and the caregivers that appear in brochures for the elderly and the discourses that can be found within. The data that the study is based on was collected and analysed using content analysis and Faircloughs (1992) critical discourse analysis. The theoretical frameworks that have been used are social constructionism, critical discourse analysis, assortment and protest, and New Public Management. The results showed two images of older people (I) the elderly as active and autonomous and (II) the elderly as passive and in need of help. The results also showed two pictures of the caregiver (III) the caregiver and NPM, and (IV), the non-profit care provider as a complement.

This essay is an investigation of the level- and importance of interactivity on YouTube for the active user. YouTube is a great example of a user-friendly Internet environment which enables the users to take part in a virtual community where they can create the content and, with the various functions the site has to offer, interact with each other. With Uses and Gratifications as a tool for this research we look at the motivations and needs of the user and how they come into play on the most popular video distribution site in the world today. Qualitative interviews on Swedish respondents give us insight in how the YouTube-users with their own words perceive this relatively new highly interactive era. We focus on a narrow group of the most popular age-group of YouTube-users to go deeper - not to expand.

Arbetet med denna studie gick ut på att inventera vilka metoder som använts i Dannemora gruva av Dannemora Mineral AB (DMAB) gällande skuthanteringen under jord och ovan jord samt belysa och ge förslag på hur skuthanteringen skulle kunna effektiviseras och eventuellt generera en ökad mängd färdiga produkter och tillika högre intäkter för företaget.Med en mer effektiv skuthantering med fokus på separering av gråberg och malm, både under och ovan jord, hade DMAB erhållit mer färdiga produkter och därmed högre intäkter. Uppsatsens resultat motiverar att en förstudie inleds i företaget. Tillkomsten av nya arbetsmoment innebär naturligtvis en kostnad men den torde vara liten och högst försvarlig i sammanhanget men måste utredas i den rekommenderade förstudien. Det handlar också om andra besparingsaspekter som exempelvis minskade transport- och hanteringskostnader och i förlängningen även miljöbesparing, vilka dock ej är medtagna i den här studien..