This project examined the possibility to create an electronical aid with the purpose of increasing environmental awareness and to design the aid in a fashion that inspires other to develop similar applications. The impact of car traffic was examined, and the base of the aid was built up in modular form to simplify the hardware aspect. For the active, data processing part of the aid the Arduino platform was chosen because of its simplicity and big possibilities of help in different internet fora, for those who choose to create similar applications in the future. The main part of the project var the use of real-time information from the car?s on board diagnostics.

The objective of this thesis was to investigate what influence nature conservation measures taken at regeneration felling. Factors analysed were the forest owners´ situation and their characters, and information activities from wood-suppliers and the Regional Forest Board (RFB). The inventory was performed with a posted questionnaire followed up by telephone to forest owners and a posted questionnaire to wood-buyers. The forest owners were grouped in three strata, depending on the quality results (D- polytax inventory) of the taken forest conservation measures, and for this investigation forest owners were sampled from the population in the tree groups. In total 73 % (41/56) of the sampled forest owners answered the questionnaire Group A (17 answers): Good judgement Group B (19 answers): Bad judgement Group C (5 answers): This group was formed from the forest owners that were informed, by RFB, about nature conservation measures and culture history consideration before the regeneration cutting.

The purpose of this study was to develop recommendations for using more efficient lighting and better graphic design to create a more uniform structure in the exhibition hall ?Road to the past? in Jönköping County Museum by answering the following questions at issue:1) How are the objects in the exhibition hall ?Road to the past? exposed today?2) How can you use lighting and graphic design to create structure in the exhibition and strengthen the expression in the exhibition?Our work is based on observations and open group interviews. We observed the exhibition hall ?Road to the past? during day and evening. In the same hall, we observed a guided tour that we followed up with open group interviews.

 The theme of this essay arises from problematic pictures which travel journalism can bring about foreign countries, and in this specific case Mexico. These pictures can be problematic in the way that they can carry colonial elements and form colonial discourses. The main purpose of this study is therefore to investigate the Swedish travel magazines, Vagabond, RES and Allt om resor, and how they portray places and people in the written texts and photographs. This was done with a postcolonial and discourse theoretical framework, whereas empowerment of certain pictures can lead to formation of discourses, myths and stereotypes about places and people in Mexico. The method used to reveal different aspects of the travel reports was semiotic analysis, Norman Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis and critical linguistics.

The aim of this study was to describe the attitudes against abused women. A literature review was used in this study. Information was collected from the literature and articles written about the subject and brought together and then critical analysed. To help with the organisation structure we used Ida Jean Orlando's theory as a theoretical framework. Our findings indicate that the nurses had a lack of acknowledgment about the women's situations and needed education about their situations.

This study presents a survey of the capital budgeting methods used in investment decisions by selected Swedish firms. The study has a qualitative approach where the main goal is to increase the understanding of why firms use ?incorrect? capital budgeting methods like the payback method despite the well known fact that it is one of the most faulty methods, according to literature in business finance (Brealey. Myers). The study has specially researched the impact of company?s size, investments size, ownership structure, branch traditions and political risks influence on firms capital budgeting..

Picker robots are often mounted close to each other above a conveyor belt. To be able topack robots even closer, it is desirable to reduce the footprint of the robot?s base. One way toachieve this is to skew the arms of the robot which makes it possible to move them closer toeach other.This Master Thesis has been carried out at ABB Corporate Research. The purpose is toevaluate the benefits and drawbacks for the idea of making today?s Picker robot morecompact by skewing the arms.

The responsibility to identify, protect, look after and develop cultural and historical values in our surroundings - urban as well as rural - falls on the local authorities. This essay focus on local preserve programs for cultural landscapes in Sweden?s municipalities. Programs for preserving cultural landscapes are important tools in the aim to reach a sustainable development of these values. The object of the essay is to delineate how the municipalities handle cultural landscapes in terms of how cultural and historical values is identified, how the landscape is divided and assessed and how different aspects of intangible and tangible values are taken into consideration.

Should new buildings blend in or contrast from the older buildings around? Could contrasts even emphasize different characters? This report is a discussion on that theme. I´ve studied different architects wiev on the question and studied different of examples of where new buildings contrast to the context in a successful way. In part two I´ve done a proposal on a new housing settlement next to Hammarbyhöjden in Stockholm. The new buildings contrast to the existing and the aim is to emphasize the characters in Hammarbyhöjden as well as in the new structure.

The purpose of this essay is to study the impact of different factors on corporate capital structure. The factors studied in relation to corporate debt ratio are industry affiliation, size and profitability. The study involves all 252 companies quoted on the Stockholm stock exchange and cover a time period from 2007 to 2011. The result shows that branch affiliation has a significant impact on corporate debt ratios. Regarding size and profitability, however, these factors do not have an evident impact on corporate debt ratios..

The forest in the northern part of Sweden has changed dramatically during the last centuries. The forest has gone through a large-scale transformation, from it being only used locally for domestic purposes to becoming very important raw material for Sweden in the industrial age. The strategy by foresters during the second half of the 20th century has been to create pure production forests for commercial forestry. This has mainly succeeded and we have today homogenous production forests that give a high profit to the owners. The aim of the study is to compare the state of the forest in the former state forest Hällforsmarken in the years 1925 and 2000 and to interpret the changes which has taken place.

From a social perspective, I have been working on how to change current consumption patterns through a change in people's behavior and attitude towards their possessions. The concept is based on how we can value, care for, and preserve our belongings by using theories in the empathic design field. I have created a structure that allows people to become an active part of a creative process and create their own products. Through this commitment, an emotional relationship is built between the user and the product, and the product tends to gain a longer life. Based on a method to manufacture your own yarn by reusing old clothes, I want to provide the basic tools for an easy and playful way to build the knowledge needed to produce something useful..

To fulfill the climate target that EU and the Swedish government have decided to apply, it becomes increasingly important that the energy efficiency of existing buildings and making new buildings energy efficient as possible. Of Sweden?s total energy consumption in 2011 was 40% used by residential and service. Of the 40% of the energy consumption was 60% used for heating and domestic hot water. A report from year 2012 shows that one reason why the heating volume is so great could be due to underestimating on the energy consumption for the heating in the planning of the building.

What are the basic thoughts formulated in the Heraclitean fragments? A cosmology, a philosophy of nature, the idea that all can be reduced to a single substance? There is always a risk that Heraclitus is fitted into a thought pattern he doesn?t belong to, if we ? from our present horizon ? focus on continuity in an attempt to frame his thinking as part of an overall progress, running from the so-called pre-Socratics to Aristotle, in the history of philosophy. If we picture the dawn of Western civilization as an early development of scientific thinking, built on a gradual and continuous growth of knowledge, we will easily go astray as we try to discover the Greek origins of philosophy. Assuming, for example, that the readings of Heraclitus as a natural philosopher have come to a dead end, can we approach the fragments from a different angle?The aim of this paper is not to give a systematized reading of all the remaining fragments of Heraclitus, but neither to necessarily contradict the various interpretations that emphasise how these shattered remains reflect a coherent philosophy.

This two years master?s thesis consists of a domain analysis on the local Swedish newspaper Gefle Dagblad (GD). The domain analysis was developed by the Danish library and information scientist Birger Hjørland. The purpose of this theory is to understand the information behavior of individuals by studying the social and collec-tive context which surrounds this person. According to Hjørland, four different areas need to be studied in order to analyze a domain.