The thesis presents an optimally designed kinematic structure for a new 6-DOF haptic devicebased on TAU configuration. The configuration of the TAU-2 proposed by Suleman Khan andKjell Andersson [1] was modified and its mobility was verified by using Grübler criterion tohave a 6 DOF. Analytical kinematic models for the inverse and forward kinematics weredeveloped for the haptic TAU configuration to determine a set of optimal design parameters.Kinematic performance indices such as volume of the workspace, kinematic isotropy and payload index, were defined based on the singular values of the Jacobian matrix. The Jacobianmatrix was scaled to homogenize the physical units. The Jacobian matrix dependent on theposition and orientation of the end-effector gives local isotropy and pay load index, so globaldesign indices were defined, which represent the performance of the mechanism in the wholeworkspace.

The aim of this essay is to investigate the function and development of non-player characters (NPC) in the TV/computer game Dragon Age: Origins. The NPCs are analysed in order to see if their development is affected by the player character?s (PC) background and interactions. The game?s ethics is also investigated by studying how the NPCs treat the PC and what significance they give to his background and actions.The results show that the NPCs are affected by the PC?s interactions, and furthermore, that they are round characters, which is unusual in TV/computer games.

The purpose of this thesis is to systematically describe and map how authorities define the school library and its function based on the current policy documents for the Swedish upper secondary school. The study is guided by the following questions: ? What dimensions does the school library have according to the explicit definitions, descriptions and requirements? ? What implicit arguments, references and unspoken assumptions about the school library and its role, function and significance can be derived? The study is delimited to the national policy documents, which have been divided into two groups ? structural and teaching focused ? corresponding to the two questions above. Further delimitations have been made to avoid noise and to manage a manual content analysis. Each question required its own analysis tool.

The aim of this text is to compare the semantic profile of the Russian prefix B?- with that of the Swedish particle "ut". It follows Janda's categorization of Russian B?-verbs into semantic groups and compares Swedish phrasal verbs with the particle "ut" to the semantics of the Russian prefix B?-. The material consists of Russian B?-verbs and their Swedish translations retrieved from Norstedts ryska ordbok.

Abstract The goal of the study was to conduct an in-depth investigation of how conflicts are resolved in schools, from a pupil- and a teacher perspective. Our intention was to view and compare pupils and teachers different opinions in the school environment. A major focus was put on different ways teacher handle conflicts and how they try to prevent them. The material was acquired by interviews with both teachers and pupils. The study is based on Jean Piagets and Lev Vygotskijs visions about the cognitive developmental stage for children. The result of the study shows the teachers need to be attentive and also that the pupils generally do not notice when the teacher works to prevent conflicts.

Gothenburg municipality has a lot of natural water. This paper enhances the function and importance of water in the city. It also deals with the problems of sewage water and flooding. Gothenburg has reached an advanced stage of water planning. By developing a Waterplan, the municipality highlight that water has an important position in the urban planning.

The purpose of this essay is to examine Cognitive and Psychodynamic theory in the ways they approach spirituality. How and whether or not the personal view of spirituality affects the professional role of the psychologist is investigated. Data from six semi-structured interviews with psychologists have been collected and analysed in a qualitative, phenomenological method. The results reflect two main topics and several subsequent headlines with regards to: 1) the psychologist's professional approach and 2) the area in between the psychologist's personal and professional approach to spirituality. From empirical studies and relevant theories, a discussion is held about the psychological approaches to spirituality in psychotherapy.

Aqeri has since the past year a new profile with name and logotype, which has createda need for an updated visual product identity. The company is a leading developer,producer and distributer of IT products suitable for extreme environments in industry,defense and vehicles. This new profile with the different segments has together with aproduct identity from two companies resulted in that they have no clear designidentity on their products. From this background the aim of this research is todetermine how a development of a design identity is done to implement it to Aqeri.The design identity can be defined as a product?s identity visualized through its formor appearance which defines what the product is.

The aim of this thesis is to define digital library, and to investigate a relation between the construction of a digital library and user needs. The main questions to be answered are: 1 What criteria was used when constructing a digital library, particularly concerning issues like purpose, function, design, supply, services, resources and future development of the digital library? 2 How do the digital library system designers and system builders criteria correspond with those of postgraduate researchers? And what factors affect the use? A digital library is an enterprise that gives access to information stored digitally and directly available on the net. The crucial is that the enterprise has a control over collection of information and responsibility to make it available to a defined group of users. In order to investigate the relation between the construction of the digital library and user needs, I have interviewed five key people involved with the work with the digital library and twenty postgraduate researchers from the Gothenburg University.

The purpose of the study is to reach knowledge about how public librarians understands and describes environmental scanning as a working process in a Swedish public library. The study consists of 5 interviews with public librarians working within the same organization. The empirical material is presented in two ways. The first one is what aspects of the external world the librarians find important. The second is through a theoretical framework based on Magnus Hoppes model of environmental scanning, including communication and cognitive processes aswell as ways of analyzing information from the external world.

Changes in swallowing function are common in elderly and chronically ill individuals. Therefore it is important to be aware of these changes and their prevalence. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of dysphagia in nursing homes in the municipality of Linköping, and to correlate dysphagia with variables that can be a cause or a consequence of dysphagia. These variables were gender, age, MMT-result, dentition, weight loss, medical diagnose or number of medications. The intention was also to examine the additional information regarding dysphagia supplied by pulse oximetry.Sixty nursing home residents aged 74-101 years were chosen to participate in the study.

The award-winning Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgård achieved great success with his latest book, Min kamp. Both commercially and critically, the novel was praised for its seemingly successful attempt to transcend the boundary between fiction and real life. Focusing on the auto-fictional narrator?s struggle to balance his daily life with his ever so demanding aesthetic ambitions, the novel gives high-detail descriptions of the most basic day-to-day chores, intimately mixed with philosophical reflections on topics such as painting, literature and postmodern civilisation.This essay proposes an alternative perspective on the realism of the novel. Instead of relying on a correspondence theoretical view, which highlights the level of correspondence of a particular representation with reality, I seek, inspired by Martin Heidegger?s thoughts on works of art, to trace a poetics which sees the verity in a work of art as the ?unconcealment? of the world, or the coming-to-being of objects.

Current technology offers many possibilities for remotecommunication. Nevertheless, people with cognitive and communicativedisabilities have limited access to common communication technology like textmessaging via a mobile phone. This study is part of the project Text messagingwith picture symbols - a possibility for AAC users and people with cognitiveimpairments. Semi structured interviews were used to investigate three menand four women?s experiences of using Windows mobiles with adaptedfunctions for text messaging.

This master thesis deals with the differences in the design of the environmental scanning between different kinds of organisations, as well as the demands and regulations etc. in the respective environments that influence the environmental scanning. The content of the environmental scanning and the organisation of the function are outside the scope of this study. Two organisations that do not have an organised function but are scanning their environment were chosen for the investigation. A model for conducting the environmental scanning developed by Frankelius is used to analyse the practice of environmental scanning.

The Swedish government has declared the year of 2006 a special Year ofMulitculture. This has inspired me to look for similarities and differences allover the world, especially the use of rug carpets.During travelling to Indonesia and a visit to the sister of the Sultan ofYogyakarta, I experienced a pleasant moment drinking chilled lemonade. Wewere all sitting on carpets on the floor. To sit on, and get together around acarpet, is an excellent function which we don?t do in the western world.