Discussions about the democratic deficit of the European Union have gotten more intense and the criticism usually points towards a great gap between the citizens and the EU politics. In this study the political communication policy is being put under the scope to investigate to what extent the policy is designed to counter the democratic deficit, supported by the theory of deliberative democracy. The analysis examines three Aspects of the deficit ? decentralization, participation and the distribution of information ? and makes research into the communicative measures that have been implemented. The importance for EU to make deliberation possible is stressed throughout the essay and in the conclusion I argue that improvements still need to be made.  .

This report is our Master thesis. Our work has taken place at a one-stop-shop in Sölvesborg during the spring of 2002. We have conducted ethnographical studies concerning the one-stop-shops frontdesk and telephone exchange. During these studies we became aware of some differences under which the daily work was to be carried out. When operating the switchboard the staff usually work alone and perform the tasks individually.

Library 2.0 is a term which emerged a few years ago and is frequently discussed. There is no uniform definition of the term but the central aspect of the concept is to encourage increased participation from library users.The aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate if and if so, how the professional role of the librarian is affected by Library 2.0. To do that, we have conducted a case study at the public library in Umeå. Their homepage minabibliotek.se is a practical example of Library 2.0. The homepage is based on interactivity and the library users can participate in various ways.We thougt that qualitive interviews was the best way to gain an understanding for how the librarians at the public library in Umeå experience how the work with minabibliotek.se affect their professional role.

Having the right executive group is vital for the success of a company. The complex context, in which the company operates, makes it difficult to create a well functioning and high performing group. This study aims to investigate how the executive group should be composed in terms of externally and internally recruited people, in order to take full advantage of the positive Aspects associated with each one. Furthermore, we will discuss why and when a company chooses to recruit people to the executive group either externally or internally..

The purpose of this essay is to do a narratological analysis of Utvandrarna by Vilhelm Moberg to see how the form affects the theme of freedom and liberation. I used narratology as the method of analysis and my questions for the text regards the significance of the narrator, the use of focalization, the powers, helpers and opponents, the locations and spaces, and how these Aspects affect the theme. In my analysis of the novel I found that the narration took place in three levels. This gave the story different perspectives of the theme; an outer perspective, a semi-distant perspective and a more personal perspective. The focalization of the main characters creates sympathies, and the focalization of non-main characters gives the reader an outer perspective on the characters.

This study aims to examine the views on digitization of eight respondents, all working at different libraryinstitutions in Sweden, and how their views are reflected in their library's digitization strategies. The poll wasconducted on the basis of Ingrid Mason's theory of information standards, their structure and sociopoliticalnature. The informantion standards are divided into three Aspects, curatorial, semantic and technical, and theyaffect selection of, intellectual and physical access to the digitized material, which in the end is what constitutes the digital cultural heritage.The background to the study is that the Swedish library institutions in the current situation lacks a nationalstandard or a common strategy for the digitization of cultural heritage, while it is still implemented digitizationprojects at many library institutions. The method used is qualitative, structured interviews with open-ended questions.The study shows that one of the main motives behind the libraries' digitization projects is to make librarymaterials available in a new way, creating greater opportunities for the users to take advantage of the material.The library users are the ones who mainly control what is digitized, although Aspects of preservation ismentioned. Furthermore, it appears that the respondents believe that digitization offers improved capabilities tosearch and learn more about the collections, but the actual work of image capture, the addition of metadata,presentation to users and long-term preservation is very complex.Views on what it is to be digitized, how the material should be selected and provided with metadata and howit should be presented to users is what creates the standards that libraries use when they digitize their materials,and digitization of library materials creates new conditions for new users to access and use library material.This is a two years master?s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies..

This study aims to examine how families that during a long time have lived with neuropsychiatric disabilities have experienced their contact with different authorities. The study builds on qualitative interviews with two young people and five parents, from four different families. Focus in the paper lies mainly on the families' experiences of the school and different care sectors.The result shows that there is a great number of Aspects as lack of information, lack of knowledge, dislodges between different authorities lack of support from school and care sectors, incorrect medication and shortage of long-term plans for treatment, which the families experienced as problematic. These Aspects have also brought dramatic consequences that have strengthened the disabilities' negative effects.The result also shows that the parents are very active and bears a great responsibility for the child's health. The parents are in large extent alone in search for care, arranging meetings, searching for information, taking care of the children's medication etc.

Evidence-based psychotherapeutic methods compete with each other, while meta-analysis have shown that variability due to different methods related to outcome is remarkably low. In this qualitative study six former patients were interviewed about experiences of method and technique in Affect-focused therapy, with a slight overweight towards unsatisfactory experiences. Responses were analysed and categorised in emergent themes. Methodological focus on affect showed to be a much appreciated, as well as insufficient, element. Alongside positive experiences or summaries of therapy, methodological frames were felt to be at times restrictive, even invalidating, as far as not allowing focus on what was felt to be the more predominant need.

To support uniform and fair assessment of Swedish students? English language competences, mandatory National tests are provided both for secondary and upper secondary education. The current thesis may be seen as a contribution to the further development and validation of these tests, with regard to the likely introduction of computerized testing methods. The aim is to gain further knowledge from current research in the field, to study and elucidate international experiences of implementation, and to gather and analyze feedback from students and teachers. Based on my findings, some tentative conclusions will be drawn, and recommendations made concerning future developments.

AbstractAim: The aim of this study was to describe cancer patients? experiences of quality of life and wellbeing in relation to yoga practice.Method: A descriptive qualitative study with semi structured interviews was carried out during the fall of 2009 at the University of Uppsala. Informants in the study were cancer patients who were participating in the yoga/psychotherapy group at the clinic of oncology at the Akademiska hospital in Uppsala.Result: Five out of six informants experienced that their quality of life and their wellbeing improved by practicing yoga. One informant had mixed feelings which were not due to the yoga practicing, but to the place where it was practiced. For her this place was associated with illness.

The purpose of this project has been to cut production costs for the fascia panels ofGetinge?s largest autoclaves. The cost for the stainless steel plates currently used is veryhigh. An alternative material solution could cut costs significantly.In addition, improvements have been made to the instrument tower which is a central partof the fascia panel. As a result of the new modular design in a new material theinstrument tower has been improved in several Aspects..

Summary                                                               Overweight and obesity in Sweden and in the rest of the industrialized world continues to increase. This results in increased costs both to society and the healthcare system. Part of this development is the increasing consumption of sugar and that is what should be restricted to tackle this growing social problem. Part of the increased consumption of sugar in Sweden was the launch of pick and mix ingrocery stores.  This study aims to examine how store managers look at their public health responsibilities, and investigate how managers of grocery stores think about health and health Aspects in general and about the sugar consumption in particular. Semi-structured "face to face" interviews was used to collect data and seven grocery store managers participated in the study.

The aim of this study was to investigate how school personnel work with preventive and health promoting efforts to motivate young people to achieve interest in physical activity and nutrition awareness. Further the aim was to describe the possibilities and difficulties that school personnel experience in their work.  The research questions were: How do school personnel describe their health promoting work at school? In a health promotion perspective, what efforts do school personnel think is important when it comes to nutrition and physical activity? What possibilities do school personnel experience with health promoting efforts? What difficulties do school personnel experience with health promoting efforts?The study has a qualitative approach in which seven individual interviews were conducted with personnel at a secondary school. The respondents worked with different Aspects which broadened the perspective.

Our study emanates from a socio?cultural perspective on learning and aim to describe and comparetwo different upper secondary school classes and their work with information literacy as a socialpractice in project work and their use of ICT (information and communication technologies). Thequestions at issue in the study are; how the pupils handle information seeking processes, whatdifferences and similarities can be observed in the two social practices and which consequences thesedifferences have in an project work environment.Our choice of research methods to collect data consists of both observations and interviews withpupils and teachers. The interviews performed in the study can be categorized as qualitativeinterviews, and in addition we recorded and took notes during the interviews and transcribed thematerial.The study shows the importance of a good learning environment when it comes to working withinformation seeking processes, that the instructor?s role is of outmost importance and that the pupilsfundamental knowledge of information seeking processes and their information literacy are keysuccess factors when it comes to project work linked to ICT to be productive.

Master?s Thesis in Media and CommunicationTitle: See me, buy me ? A study of how women and men are exposed in commercial advertisements for beauty productsAuthor: Annelie EliassonUniversity: University of HalmstadCourse: Media and CommunicationTerm: Spring 2013Supervisor: Ebba SundinExaminer: Ingegerd RydinPurpose: This studys purpose is to examine how women and men are exposed in commercial advertisements for beauty products. To examine this purpose two main questions have been formulated:What differences and similarities are there in the representation of women and men in the commercial advertisements?Are there any differences in the representation regarding the target audience in the commercial advertisements?Method: Quantitative content analysisMaterial: 443 commercial advertisements for beauty products in the Swedish lifestyle magazines Plaza Kvinna and Café Magazine from 2008 to 2012Main results: The result of the study shows that women and men, presented in the commercial advertisements for beauty products, were very much alike in most Aspects. For example there were only insignificant differences regarding how much of the person?s body that was included in the advertisement, the body position and the activeness of passiveness of the person in question.