As birch is one of the most common trees in Sweden, and probably one of the easiest for someone who lives here to identify, it is interesting to note that most people do not know how variable the genus is and how widely it is distributed across the northern hemisphere. One can find birch growing at both high and low elevations, demanding different soil conditions and preferring varying amounts of sunlight. Many people may also be surprised to hear that the colour of the bark can vary from bight white to almost black, and different shades of pink, orange and red can also be displayed. This, together with the astonishing beauty of the genus, the important role as a pioneer in many ecological systems and the difficulty in sorting out the taxonomy of the genus, constitutes the background of this thesis. The thesis is written at the Department of Landscape Development in Alnarp, Sweden with Kenneth Lorentzon, researcher at the Swedish University of Agriculture as a supervisor. The aim of this thesis is to highlight which species and cultivars within the genus Betula could be appropriate for horticultural use in Sweden.

This study focuses on two text books, Magasinet and Ess i svenska, both common teaching material in Swedish schools. Since Swedish school system recently got a new curriculum and grading criteria, the purpose with this essay was to see how well the teaching materials used in school match the new documents.Since the subject has not really been studied before, the chapter containing recent studies focuses on layout, appearance and contents of good teaching material. The survey that I have implemented includes studies of the two text books, with comparison of the new curriculum, grading criteria and previous studies of what makes a good text book.Conclusions were that Magasinet is very comprehensive and match the criteria and curriculum very well, even though it spans over four classes and has to cover a lot of information. However, since it covers so much information, each section sometimes feels not as thorough as it perhaps should have been. Ess i svenska on the other hand, is a good complement to use in ninth grade, if you have studied the previous books for seventh and eight grade in the series.

Humidity problems and poor ventilation are factors that we associate with poor indoor airquality which are known to negatively affect health. Such problems have decreased with timein Sweden but, in other countries this is still a major problem especially during winter. InChile, this is most common in the central regions of the country, especially the Strait ofMagellan. This issue is primarily due to surface condensation happening indoors which bringsabout dampness which facilitates the growth of fungus and stains, foul odors, metal corrosionand more. This is due to a combination of poor ventilation and insufficient forms of heatingalong with buildings which have no insulation.

This Masters thesis work describes a comparison between two different methods for estimation of the down channel (base station to mobile subscriber) in Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The first estimation method, Optimal Feed-forward Channel Estimation (OFCE), is a conventional method that bases the estimates on data that is known to both sender and receiver, so called pilots. The second method, Decision Directed Channel Estimation (DDCE), is an elaboration of OFCE. It also uses user data for estimation. Simulations show that DDCE, in comparison to OFCE, does not attain an improvement in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) for high bit error rates (BER).

This thesis is an investigation of Iranian immigrants and their use of libraries in Sweden. It isbased on a combination of a qualitative and a·quantitative method.Using a qualitative method, I give an outline of the history of lran from ancient times up to the present, as well as the different ethnological groups in Iran and their cultures. The main objective of this part is to clarify the contrasts between Iranian and Swedish cultural, social, linguistic and family structures, and also the characteristics of the crisis that most immigrants go through on their arrival in the new country. The qualitative method also involves structured telephone interviews with eight highly educated Iranians.This method was supplemented by a quantitative study through questionnaires of the attitudes· of lranian immigrants to libraries and reading. Iranians in Sweden turned out to be frequent Iibrary users.

The safety and safety work on OKG, Oskarshamns Kraftgrupp, is supervised by SKI, Swedish nuclear power inspectorate. The task of SKI is to inspect that the nuclear power plants of Sweden runs in a safe way. The proprietor of the permit who runs nuclear power plants has the responsibility to maintain the required safety to run a plant. SKI publishes a number of statue books that OKG has to meet to be able to run the plants. SKI recommends in SKIFS 2 004:1, that OKG work with the safety requirements of IAEA.

Our study aims to investigate whether resilient children share common factors that could explain them not following the expected course of development for said group. The study also sets out to explore which strategies resilient children implement in order to cope with their situation.The study is based on the following questions:How do resilient children describe their experiences from growing up with parents with substance abuse problems? What risk and protective factors do they mention in their biographies?We use the system theory and Goffman's dramaturgic perspective as analytical tools.  The system theory could help us see the family as a system, while Goffman's theory might help us understand how resilient children find different strategies, and why they implement these strategies, to hide their family problems.The results show that the most important factors with a positive effect on resilient children were: to have somebody else important in their lives, to have goals in life, to have a safe haven, to think independently and to develop a high level of independence early in life..

Computers and business systems are used more frequently in a world where IT gradually is taking over. This is also true when it comes to the real estate valuation process where actors on the Swedish real estate market are using automatic valuation systems for real estate appraisal. But the real estate agents have not yet seen the charm in using these automatic valuation systems for real estate appraisal. Can the real estate agents also use the automatic valuation systems? We developed our three main subjects: the valuation process, an automatic valuation system and the real estate market with assistance from scientific articles.

During the late twentieth century, political and societal changes gave rise to an increased interest in performance evaluation in public organizations. This development also affected libraries in the public sector. The main concern for this master thesis is performance measurement in libraries. In this study two different types of libraries are investigated, one public and the other academic. My aim is to find out if and how performance measurement appears in the libraries annual activity reports.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine what the data from recent Library- and Information Science studies tell us about the importance of school libraries in a student perspective. Our theoretical framework is built upon Elisabeth Tallaksen Rafste?s concept about the values of school libraries to students. Our aim is to investigate how students between the ages of 15 and 18 use and experience school library.

An automatic control system for calibration of pressure indicators has been constructed. This control system can be used as a complement to the calibration system located at AerotechTelub, division MainPartner, in Linköping. The calibration system used today contains some not wanted pressure changes, which is compensated by hand today. The new system presented in this report automates the calibrating process and simplifies the calibration. Suitable hardware as motor, controls card and so on have been found and software in the form of Visual Basic program has been developed.

En designers främsta uppgift är att hitta lösningar på problem som är svårformulerade vilket kräver full förståelse för designsituationen. Interaktionsdesignern fungerar dessutom som länk mellan olika aktörer i en beställarprocess med syfte att tillgodose slutanvändarens behov, som ofta faller mellan stolarna. Avsikten med denna rapport är att studera hur interaktionsdesignern kan vara den kommunikatör som krävs. Detta har gjorts genom att titta på hur objekt används i kommunikationen mellan designern och dess klient. Studien är gjord genom en videoanalys som tolkats utifrån Herbert H.

The aims were to investigate the public awareness of aphasia in a Swedish sample and examine if knowledge of aphasia relates to gender, education or age. Participant?s sources of knowledge of aphasia were examined. A total of 153 individuals, aged 18-90, were surveyed. Participants were categorized into three groups; heard of, knowledge of and not heard of aphasia.

This thesis investigates in which way principles and theories of usability is revelant when evaluating interactive systems for children aged 10-12. It also investigates whether there are specific factors that you should keep in mind while developing interactive products for the targeted group.The results of the qualitative study shows that priciples and theories of usability is relevant when evaluating interactive systems for the targeted group. However there is one concept that is more significant than the others. Our study shows that our targeted group is sensitive to time-consuming activities such as loading times etc. which has to do with the efficiency of the system.

During 2001-2002 a prototype, IMIS (Integrated Mobile Information System) was developed at BTH (Blekinge University of Technology) to demonstrate how mobile IT-systems can be used in healthcare. The prototype was based on the activity theory of Engeström. An ongoing project started in spring 2003. The purpose of the project is further development of IMIS with special focus in the diabetes healthcare. Participants in the project are scientists and students at BTH, ALMI Företagspartner, Blekinge FoU-enhet, Barndiabetesförbundet Blekinge, Blekinge Diabetesförening, Vårdcentralen Ronneby and Vårdcentralen Sölvesborg.