Are agency and responsibility solely ascribable to humans? The advent of artificial intelligence (AI), including the development of so-called ?affective computing,? appears to be chipping away at the traditional building blocks of moral agency and responsibility. Spurred by the realization that fully autonomous, self-aware, even rational and emotionally-intelligent computer systems may emerge in the future, professionals in engineering and computer science have historically been the most vocal to warn of the ways in which such systems may alter our understanding of computer ethics. Despite the increasing attention of many philosophers and ethicists to the development of AI, there continues to exist a fair amount of conceptual muddiness on the conditions for assigning agency and responsibility to such systems, from both an ethical and a legal perspective. Moral and legal philosophies may overlap to a high degree, but are neither interchangeable nor identical.

This thesis deals with subject-based hierarchical search-services on the World Wide Web. The purpose is to investigate how systems of this kind facilitate information retrieval through subject-based information seeking. Its starting point is taken from the study of texts and qualitative analyses of search-services on the World Wide Web. Important aspects and features of the Internet and the World Wide Web are explained as well. Three systems are examined: Mölndals Stadsbiblioteks Länkkatalog, Svesök, and Alta Vista.

The aim of this study was to understand how social workers perceive and understand violence and threats of violence from clients, and how it effect their working environment. It seems that the respondents understand the violence and threats of violence from clients as a result of the clients background problems, vulnerability, dependency and from ?the reason" that the client is currently in the contact with the organization. How respondents interpret the client´s behaviour based on the above-mentioned factors, seem to determine how the respondents perceive and define the violence and threats of violence by clients directed against them. Interestingly enough, although all respondents in the study experienced violence and threats of violence from clients, none of them perceived themselves as exposed at work. The answer to this is consensual.

The advantage and the possibility of keeping track of a number of vehicles to make work practice more effective and smooth is today a favorable choice for Visual Units Logistics customers. We?ve been evaluating the software and trying to take it one step further and letting not only the individual user, but maybe, the company as a whole benefit from its advantages. This has been done by using methods like letting ourselves get to know the software, user case studies, workplace studies, interviews and future workshops. This resulted in a prototype introducing a new function designed with all collected data in mind trying to make the software, Visual Units Logistics, even more effective for the every day work practice of the user. A new function to keep track of vehicles outside the main working area at the same time as you still can keep track of the other vehicles in the field..

Biodiversity is under threat in Sweden and many species are on the brink of extinction. This is mainly due to the large-scale drainage projects during the 19th and 20th century and the increasingly intensive land use in agriculture and forestry. The intensive land use with sharply defined boundaries between the production units has in many cases led to either overgrazing or overgrowing. As a result many species have been pushed back to "leftover" habitats like shooting ranges, power line corridors, roadsides, dumps, embankments and other similar areas. Therefore the question has been raised, wether or not it is needed to re-introduce large herbivores into the wild in order to maintain the biodiversity that is related to the extensive land use.This study has been conducted as a literature review and will focus on the European bison?s (Bison bonasus) impact on other species and biodiversity; conditions for reintroducing large herbivores in Sweden are also discussed.Free roaming populations of large herbivores have a positive impact on plants, insects and many other groups of organisms.

Two different methods for measuring biogas production were used, gas meter and gasbags. The gas meters were electronic and counted each time a certain gasvolume passed through them. The gasbags collected the gas that hade passed through the gas meter until a manual measuring could be done. The two different methods gave the same result for a volume at three liters but for a volume around 0,2 liters they did not. Accuracy and precision for the gasbags was more exact than for the gas meters even if the method was difficult with a lot of different elements that could affect the result.

Today's global market means that raw materials are sought and bought from all over the world. This creates an higher demand for a well-functioning supply chain. In our thesis we have studied a large paper mill in northen Sweden which experiences issues with flow of raw material. Our aim has hence been to examine which aspects affect the flow of raw materials to the mill, and how these can be adressed using an IT-system. The question we sought to answer was; What factors are important to consider and how do these affect the ability of an IT-system which will support the flow of raw material at the paper mill? We have found that the problems are strongly connected to the low amount of information sharing between the mill and the suppliers.

The aim of this study is to try to explain the process using both an actor driven perspective as well as a structural perspective examining the reasons why the County Council of Värmland wants to merge with Region Västra Götaland. The answers to the following research questions are sought to shed light on the problem: What constrained the discretion of  the political actors in the choice of region to merge with? Which role did  different political actors play? Does the study provide Game Theory, from Rational Choice theory,  and Path Dependency, from Historic Institutionalism, a new perspective and strength especially  when bringing them together? The study is limited to two policy areas, health care and regional development policy. The structural background is drawn upon the Annual Report 2008 of the County Council Värmland, the Regional Development Program and Regional Transport Infrastructure Plan 2010-2021 by Region Värmland. The chronological order of decisions and events is drawn upon protocols from various regional political organs all linked to the municipal of Värmland and the correspondence between the officials of Värmland?s municipal and the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency of the State.

Andelen  äldre  i Sverige  ökar. Hos normalhörande  äldre människor  sker  det  en  förändring  i taluppfattningen som är en del av det naturliga åldrandet. Syftet med denna studie är att belysa det  biologiska  åldrandets  påverkan  på  den  åldrande  individens  taluppfattningsförmåga.  En systematisk  litteraturstudie  har  använts  som  metod.  Resultatet  från  övervägande  delen  av använda  artiklar  i  denna  studie  visar  att  normalhörande  äldre  har  sämre  taluppfattning  än normalhörande  yngre.  Den  försämrade  taluppfattningen  är  enligt  artiklarna  ett  resultat  av förändringar i det centrala hörselsystemet. Artiklarna pekar på att dessa förändringar beror på förändrad  lateralisering,  förlångsammad  kodning  av  talsignalen, minskad  nervaktivitet  eller förtvinade nerver i hörselkortex..

This dissertation examines how creativity can be of benefit for the school. It discusses if there is a need or demand for it and how the present situation is in Swedish schools. Defining creativity accurately is difficult but it is relevant to look at the environments that use creativity. There is a vast amount of literature that uses creativity and it varies to some extent. Creativity originates from meetings and combinations, both within and outside of the individual.

There is a shortage of locally produced high quality protein concentrates in Europe andSweden. Local production would decrease the dependency on imported soybean and meet thedemand for organically grown feedstuff from ecological dairy farmers. Field bean (Viciafaba), peas (Pisum sativum) and sweet lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) are good alternatives tosoybean, but contain anti-nutritional substances (ANS) that could reduce their use as proteinconcentrates in dairy cow diets. The aim of this literature study was to review which ANSfield bean, peas and sweet lupin contain and whether they affect dairy cows negatively.Trypsin inhibitors and Chymotrypsin inhibitors (TI) were present in all three crops. TI couldbecome inactivated and degraded in the rumen, but due to the high passage speed of thedigesta, most TI left the rumen in an active state.

The case method is a relatively new pedagogical method in Sweden that is based on students exercising their skills in the analysis of complex situations and problems that are based in reality and that help students to see a broader perspective and context.The purpose of this study has been to investigate, through interviews with students and teachers, the advantages and disadvantages of the case method in teaching geography.The results of the study show that both teachers and students share almost the same opinion. The conclusion is that the case method is a didactic method that is well suited for teaching geography, as it is based on reality and develops the students? ability to analyze, argue and find solutions in several areas within the subject of geography. If a student is strong in these skill areas they can really benefit from the application of the case method in the teaching of geography, but for students who are weaker in these skills, the case method can be a disadvantage.

In Sweden the social assistance from a historical perspective, has been a part of the social legislation, since the 18th century. In that time called poor relief. Through the centuries this has established the social assistance we have today. With focus on the child, we have attempted to illustrate how the social workers consider the child perspective when they are dealing with the social assistance. We wanted to get a view of how the social worker reasons about needs the children have and how they can see that the benefit has been provided for.

The aim of this literature review is to give an overview of the differences between pure- and crossbreeding systems. Crossbreeding is a mating system with individuals of different lines or breeds. It is one of several breeding strategies in dairy production used to increase the economic profit. The use of crossbreeding increases due to changes in the dairy market and an increase of inbreeding among purebred Holstein. The main benefit of crossbreeding is heterosis, which is the improvement in genetic level in a hybrid offspring above the average of the parent breeds.

The aim of this study was to understand how social workers perceive and understand violence and threats of violence from clients, and how it effect their working environment. It seems that the respondents understand the violence and threats of violence from clients as a result of the clients background problems, vulnerability, dependency and from ?the reason" that the client is currently in the contact with the organization. How respondents interpret the client´s behaviour based on the above-mentioned factors, seem to determine how the respondents perceive and define the violence and threats of violence by clients directed against them. Interestingly enough, although all respondents in the study experienced violence and threats of violence from clients, none of them perceived themselves as exposed at work. The answer to this is consensual.