To build high-rise buildings made of timber has for long been limited by national laws, due to the lack of knowledge in engineering solutions. Frame structures made of wood has for a long time been associated with major fire hazards and consequently lower safety and this connection is still being made today. The increased environmental awareness in recent years has contributed to the exploitation of indigenous building materials, including wood from our own Swedish forests and has become increasingly common. Increased knowledge about how structures behave in fire and how they can be protected in order to achieve safe timber structures has resulted in a growing interest in these structures in the construction industry. Research in the area is constantly updated and new laws allow any number of storeys in wooden buildings in Sweden as long as the performance requirements are fulfilled.The main part of this work has involved calculations of the fire resistance and load bearing capacity of floor and wall constructions.

Several cities have implemented various projects to improve traffic safety in city centers.During 1970s and 1980s the city centers changed as the suburbs grew and large shopping centers were located outside the center. At the same time, several projects were initiated with construction of pedestrian streets and restriction of traffic in the center. In year 1994,shared-used areas were introduced in Sweden and these areas are often used in center environments.In Sweden, municipalities are responsible for integrating security in public places and in comprehensive plans and detailed development plans. The National Board of Housing,Building and Planning is the authority for administrating planning issues and develop general guidance about planning. Traffic is one of their key issues, although today there are no concrete guidelines from the National Board of Housing, Building and Planningfor the design of traffic safety in city centers.Traffic safety in city centers affects many people because the city center is a public place.It is therefore important that there are current guidelines available that are helpful for changes and improvements in traffic safety in the city center.The purpose of this report is to formulate guidelines for planning city centers from a traffic safety perspective.

Since the nineties the words customer, effectiveness and quality have become part of everyday school life. Municipalities? makes regular customer surveys to measure both independent schools as municipal schools ' quality. A common method for customer research and background studies is that parents and students are asked to respond to simple Web-based surveys. Customer satisfaction and/or customer dissatisfaction options are presented in tabular form, based on the percentage that expresses a particular position within a query.

The world around us is shrinking and globalization and capitalism are processes affecting the world. Global trends, like outsourcing and relocation of firms to low-cost countries, have become more common. This creates a huge vulnerability in the municipalities that today are concentrated around a single large company. One of these is Olofström which today is one of the most vulnerable municipalities in Sweden and whose survival today lies in the hand of the company ?Volvo Cars Corporation?.

Tall (Pinus sylvestris L.) är ett av Sveriges viktigaste trädslag. Med ökad efterfrågan på vedråvara samt ökade krav på naturavsättningar är det viktigt att öka produktionen i skogen. Röjning och tidig gödsling ger ökad volymproduktion men kan ge icke önskvärd påverkan på vedegenskaper som ökad mikrofibrillvinkel (MFV). MFV är vinkeln mellan mikrofibrillerna i cellväggens S2-lager och cellens längdaxel och påverkas av ståndort samt konkurrensen om ljus och näringsämnen. Höga MFV resulterar i sämre kvalitet på papper och sågade trävaror.

During the last decennium climate issues have become more and more important. Many steps towards an adaption of efficient energy supply systems have been taken all around the world. These steps have been created to ensure the next generation?s energy demand. In EU and Sweden objectives have been set to ensure that the energy consumption decreases by 20% year 2020 and by 50% year 2050 compared with the energy consumption levels of year 1995.

For centuries, the human body has been used as a mean to project the norms, moral values and aesthetic preferences that exist throughout society. It has been controlled through constrictive fashion, family and social virtues and through how we perceive gender and sexuality. This essay strives to show, not only how the body and the aesthetic values coexist, but also how they work together and influence each other, with the body as the aesthetic medium. To do this, Michel Foucault?s writings of sexuality and his theories on morality and discipline, as well as Judith Butler?s works on normativity and performativity are being used.

This report presents suggestions and recommendations on how to convert an old industrial building, built in 1958, to an office hotel. One of the main criteria was that the floor plan should be flexible. The building is situated at Jonsereds Fabriker and the study was conducted for Hantverkslokaler i Göteborg AB, the estate owner.The survey is initiated with study visits at various office hotels, together with studies of literature regarding office planning. One conclusion from the study visits is that meeting-places, where the different companies can meet and exchange ideas and services, are important. Another one, and probably the most important parameter when planning offices is that they should have windows.

The level of increased central government that we have experienced during the last decades in school, for the purpose of increasing equality and to adapt the Swedish school to a certain international standard, clearly shows that increased control scarcely leads to improvement.The aim of this paper is to examine whether teachers believe that national tests contribute to equivalent assessment and increased goal attainment. Furthermore the teachers? attitude towards and work with national tests is described. The paper is written from a school improvement perspective, where good examples from current research on what creates increased quality in school meaning increased goal attainment and equivalent assessment are related to research on school effectiveness and increased testing in schools. The study builds upon a quantitative survey among teachers in upper primary - and secondary school in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden.The result shows that the teachers have a somewhat more positive than negative attitude towards national tests, as a whole.

Librarians like to think that libraries contribute substantially to the progress of research. However, libraries still seem to have serious problems getting integrated in their parent organization on equal terms with other parts of that organization. The degree of integration of the library is thus the main topic of this thesis and the purpose is to examine how the interaction between librarians and scientists is formed and can be developed. That issue leads to concrete questions concerning what part librarians play in the scientists work and which factors influence the cooperation or lack of cooperation. We have chosen, for reasons of comparison, to make two case studies; one is a branch of a university library and the other is a library in a large pharmaceutical company.

The thesis has been made for NCC Teknik in Gothenburg. The NCC Corporation is one of the largest leading companies in Scandinavia within the construction industry. NCC is active throughout the whole construction process, where one part is to carry out soil investigations prior the construction of various buildings, for example residential buildings. NCC Technology wants to visualize the samples taken at the construction sites in 3D for clients, authorities and also internally to show in a simple and understandable way how contamination is spread out in the soil.The thesis includes the area of Limhamns läge in Malmö, previously an industrial area. The area has previously included a concrete factory and the contamination from that factory has lingered in the soil.

Sustainability reports have during the last decade had a strong development. Both in terms of establishing a sustainability assurance, in its form, and get it assured together with standards, principles and regulations which organisations and accountants have utilized. The growth of sustainability reports and the choice of getting them assured have in particular favoured the accounting business. Due to this result, some critics have voiced that assuring a sustainability report gain accounting firms more than it gains the actual organisation. Other say that it is necessary in order to increase the credibility and the eligibility of the report, while it also has become a requirement from stakeholders.

This paper discusses the world heritage of Falun and its influence on the marketing of Falun as a destination. The reason for this study is the fact that world heritage nominations can lead to an increased pressure on the destination and an increase in popularity for the place. A world heritage is something unique and odd that can be used in the marketing of the destination in the purpose of attracting tourists, company investments and so on. It has been vital for the study to interview people that work with marketing or have important rolls within the world heritage.With this background the study is focused on three major questions:What meaning does the world heritage have in the marketing of Falun?Is the world heritage important for Falun? If yes: For who and why?Which organisations/persons in Falun have the greatest influence on the marketing process?In order to answer or discuss this question there are discussions in the paper regarding the notions of place marketing as well as the importance of a well outlined marketing strategy as a basis for the formulation of a product portfolio and segmentation strategy as well as strategy for developing a strong profile on the market.The answers to the question are relative and can have a different view in the future.

Alkali-kiselsyrareaktionen (AKR) är en kemisk reaktion som medför att spänningar uppstår i betongen då den bildade silikatgelen expanderar. Reaktionen kräver tillräcklig hög alkalihalt, reaktiv ballast samt vatten. På grund av de AKR-inducerade spänningarna är det av intresse att få kunskap i hur reaktionen påverkar betongens böjmomentkapacitet, förankring samt skjuvnings- och genomstansningskapacitet. För att besvara frågeställningen har därför en omfattande litteraturinventering tillsammans med tre kompletterande intervjuer utförts. Resultat som har erhållits, påvisar att två huvudsakliga effekter fås av AKR.

We are heading towards a huge switch of how energy is produced with fossil fuels being replaced by renewable energy sources. It is not difficult to replace the energy you use in the house and there is no need for futuristic technology. There are already many established products on the market such as high efficiency vacuum solar collectors, heat pumps & small wind power stations that can supply the energy being used in a house. The company Sol & Energiteknik SE AB in Huskvarna has many different products which can reduce the need for an outside energy distributor. An average house in Sweden uses 15 000 kWh for heating, 5000 kWh for tap water and 5000 kWh for electricity.