A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

The object under investigation in this Master?s thesis is students? information use in connection to Bachelor thesis writing. The purpose of the study is to increase understanding of why nursing students and product engineering design students are using information in such different ways despite their comparable starting point. The empirical material consists of 18 student theses and a document comprising directives for thesis writing that are analysed from three different theoretical perspectives. A citation analysis of all 18 theses is carried out.

This master thesis concerns the subject of a reference service named Book-a-librarian. The service makes it possible for the library-user to indulge in a subject with the help of a librarian after having made an appointment in advance. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the function of it. The methods used are a mix of literature and empirical studies to be able to comprehend and explain the practical nature of the service as well as placing the service in a theoretical framework. The empirical study is performed by a questionnaire, where librarians working with the service are asked to participate.

Our curiosity was awakened when we became aware that many social workers use "mindfulness" methods in their profession. In this study, we used qualitative methodology in our desire to examine and understand why the mindfulness approach, with its roots in eastern philosophy, is becoming established in society at large and, simultaneously, being used in the social work field. We were interested in when and why social workers choose to use mindfulness with their clients. Our prior research has revolved around development and use of methods in social work, and on the human reaction to stress.We conducted seven semi-structured interviews, which incorporated four comprehensive questions:1. Why has the mindfulness method become established in the social work field and in the culture in general?2.

The EU has for a long time had a special relationship with its former colonies in Africa Caribbean and the Pacific, called the ACP?countries. This relationship is about to change radically with the new partnership agreement signed in June 2000 in Cotonou. This essay aims to study the EU ?ACP Partnership Agreement from the perspectives of two different theories: The liberalist, free-trade policy theory and the nationalist/regionalist, protectionist theory.

This thesis applies a discourse theoretical approach in order to examine in whatways and with what possible meanings the library at KVINFO participates in the overall gender discourse in society. This means that our reading takes place at a metatheoretical level, focussing on the library as a constructor of meaning in relation to society's gender discourse.Besides the actual reading, the thesis argues for the fruitfulness of using both a discourse theoretical and a feministic perspective in the field of Library and Information Science. By looking at libraries in general through a lens provided by these perspectives, libraries are staged as battlegrounds for competing discourses,that attempt to promote its particular knowledge claim on how reality should be perceived.The reading shows that it is possible to perceive the library at KVINFO as amaterial articulation that takes shape by and is part in a feministic counterdiscourse against the masculinistic hegemonic discourse, which throughout ?hisstory? has positioned women as ?the other?, and established men as the normative category in society, including the libraries. Through its practise KVINFO has contributed to a change in the collective identity ascribed to women.

The purpose of this study was to illuminate the everyday work of school counsellors in the City of Stockholm with a gender perspective by studying the school counsellors ? talk about masculinity and femininity. The aim was to reach an understanding of how parts of the counsellors everyday work are influenced by gender through the perspective of the school counsellor. The study was conducted using qualitative methods. Six school counsellors, five woman and one man, were interviewed.

The purpose of this study is to describe and understand how the principle of the child?s best interest in the asylum process for families with children is interpreted and implemented in practice by the asylum bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency. Our questions are:?How is the best interest of the child in families with children interpreted by the asylum bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency??"How are asylum bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency reasoning about the implementation in practice of the child's best interest in families with children?The essay rests upon semi-structured interviews with eight asylum bureaucrats at three different asylum units. The interviews are based on an interview guide together with a vignette, which purpose was to see how the interviewees are implementing the best interest of the child in a specific case of a potential application.

Problem: Companies are becoming more active in social media. They usechannels such as Facebook, to communicate and interact with theirenvironment. In connection with this, companies must also be prepared todeal with crises in social media. Previous research shows no clear guidelineson how companies can work in social media to prevent crises.Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how companiesin the communications industry can work with Facebook to prevent crises.We hope that our study can provide new perspectives and guidance on howcompanies can work with emergency communication for prevention.Methodology: We used a qualitative research to arrive at our results. Thismeant we got an insight into the complex world that companies are workingin.

My essay is an attempt to describe how complicated it can be to follow the rules and maintain boundaries without obstructing the children in their creative development. The aim is to highlight my approach and emphasize the importance of growing up in a kindergarten with standards and values which may not always coincide with their own opinion.I begin my essay with two stories about Emil five years, defying the rule of not climb up the climbing frame roof and Emma for three years, who are keen to spin on the swing, but followour rule and refrain. I wonder what it is that drives some kids to go against the rules and stretch the limits while others do not have any problem doing that we decided? I also tell about the time I as a newly-qualified nanny was rebuked by a colleague when I acted "recklessly". I would handle the situation differently today? In the last story, I praise a child for being "mischievous", which makes me proud.

The ever-evolving information technology gives users more opportunities, but also put higher demands on them. The digital agenda of the state and society clarifies the objectives and effects academic libraries? development. E-books influence the development of organizational, economic, legal and political perspectives. At the University Library in Gävle work is ongoing. The process is controlled by the acquisition policy which makes it clear that e-books should be purchased if possible.

Abstract Title: Enabling Smart Research and Development through Knowledge Conversation Seminar date: 2005-06-08 Course: Master thesis in business administration, 10 Swedish credits (15 ECTS) Authors: Andreas Johnsson, Johan Rosendahl Advisors: Lars Bengtsson Key words: Knowledge management, Knowledge conversation, Research and development, Ba, Trelleborg Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to create a model that shows how knowledge management aimed at research and development processes can be used and how the theoretical fields can be connected. Methodology: The thesis is based on abductive perspective where empirical and theoretical material has been mixed to create a foundation for the analysis. Theoretical perspectives: Theories concerning knowledge management and research and development have primarily been used. These have been complemented with material about team structures and incentive systems. Empirical foundation: The empirical material is based on semi structured, mostly qualitative interviews and strictly quantitative inquiries performed at Industrial Hose within the Trelleborg group.

In this study we have investigated how local journalists in Kalmar think when they choose their sources to interview. We have also studied several factors that can affect their choices of sources.We have interviewed eight news journalists from the two largest local news papers Barometern and Östran in Kalmar.The journalists were asked about the sources they often use as interview objects. They were supposed to tell about how they think when choosing sources and define which sources they commonly use. There are different factors that can affect the choices and we have narrowed them down to ethics, source critics, credibility, stress, hard production conditions, public and their own interest and if they consider themselves to be individualistic or controlled by the news desks. Furthermore the journalists were asked to characterize what changes they would make when choosing sources in a perfect world.All of the journalists had not reflected prominently on the subject of sources before our research.

 Purpose: The purpose with this study is to investigate how preschool teachers understand the concept the competent child and in what ways this understanding affects their role in children?s learning. Question at issue: What perspective on children do the contributing educationalists have? How do they define a competent child? Do such children exist and if so, are they always competent in all situations? What is the educationalists perspective on learning and knowledge? What is the preschool teacher?s view of their role as educationalists? What do they consider as their most important tasks?Method: To execute this study I have made a qualitative research based on interviews with eight teachers from four different preschools.Main theories: I have built the theoretical part of this study based on four different perspectives on the concept the competent child according to the philosophies of Dion Summer, Jesper Juul and Reggio Emalia. I also describe different theories about learning, knowledge and educationalists as well as the preschools role in the development of child according to different well-known scientists and researchers.Summarized conclusion: The study shows that the interviewed preschool teachers chose to interpret the concept the competent child in three ways.

The purpose of the study is to examine, describe and analyse how a selection of parents to children with Asperger syndrome understand, experience and cope with their parenthood. To attain this purpose we focused on these following questions;How does the respondents view their parenthood?; What kind of strategies does the respondents use to cope with their parenthood on the basis on their child with Asperger syndrome?; How does the respondents experience the mesosystem interact with them regarding situations contenting strenuous and stress?We chose to do a qualitative study by conducting separate interviews with eight parents to children with Asperger syndrome. Then we analyzed the answers using an abductive research, we tested the empirical data against our choice of theoretical perspectives. The results shows; that several of the parents in the study have experiences of high strenuous and stress in combination the several roles their parenthood contained.