This master thesis is about designing and dimensioning a boat for transport of caravan, car, trailer or ATV. Buoyancy and stability are important properties as the pontoonboat should also be able to serve as a workboat. Many of the vessels on the market today that is being used for similar purpose are stable enough, but their hull is often similar with barges and thus too slow. This work has been to construct a boat that has good stability but also has a hull that enables it to move faster, is more maneuverable and having a more attracting design than today?s barges.

In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups.

Most of today?s concrete structures that are built on site are mainly constructed in a traditional fashion with a lot of artisanal operations. One step towards industrializing the in-situ construction of concrete is to use prefabricated reinforcement. Through this method there can be a lot of savings when each bar doesn?t have to be placed and fixed separately on site.

The aim of the present study was to compare two differenttypes of assessment of dysarthria to be able to conclude which methodmight be more suitable for use in research and in clinical practice.Five speech pathologists with extensive experience assessed 20different recordings of individuals with dysarthric speech using twodifferent forms, one more detailed and one designed for a more overallassessment. In the detailed form 30 aspects of voice and speech wereanalyzed. In the short form 5 overall aspects of voice and speech wereanalyzed. Six of the recordings were duplicated to serve forassessment intra-judge reliability for each form. The results show thatthere was a high correlation between the two forms and that theymeasures the same types of speech deviations although on differentlevels of details.

The purpose of the study was to examine if Talking Mats® couldsupport communication and participation for people with Huntington?sdisease, carers and a dental hygienist in conversation about oral care. Elevendyads, a person with Huntington's disease and a carer, participated.Conversations with and without mats were video recorded and compared.Each participant responded to a questionnaire about how they experiencedthe conversations. Analysis with Effectiveness Framework of FunctionalCommunication showed that two participants increased their communicativeeffectiveness using Talking Mats®. Feelings of participation increased forall participants and were significantly higher for participants withHuntington's disease.

AbstractLean production has become one common concept within industries to make the work more effective and to meet today?s hard competition. A challenge for Chinese production is the threat from new low cost countries. It will become very difficult to succeed to produce to a lower cost than these countries; this led to that Chinese companies must develop new strategies, according to Lee and Zhou (2000). This will put China in front of new challenges and new strategies can be needed to retain their strong competitive advantages.

Syfte:Syftet med vår uppsats är att kartlägga nötköttsbranschen med avsikten att vidare utreda de bakomliggande faktorerna till varför det, i butiker, skiljer så mycket i pris mellan svenskproducerat och utländsk importerat nötkött. Metod:I vår uppsats har vi utgått ifrån en deduktiv ansats, med vissa induktiva inslag. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod, där vi har insamlat material främst via intervjuer. Teoretiskt perspektiv:Vi har använt oss av teorier i form av de fem konkurrenskrafterna och Strategic Cost Management. De fem konkurrenskrafterna möjliggör en kartläggning av nötköttsbranschen och genom Strategic Cost Management har vi analyserat värdekedjan, vilket köttet passerar igenom från producenten till butikerna.

The purpose of this study is to explore the Swedish site Funbeat which is a space dedicated to people who share an interest in exercising in general, and running in particular. By applying a netnographic analysis, I will investigate if Funbeat matches the criteria of a participatory culture and how the members manage to establish a collective intelligence within the community. In order to achieve this, I will analyze the interactivity between the participants which occurs in discussion threads concerning injuries related to running, in the sites discussion forum. The results will then be discussed in relation to previous research within the field for participatory culture, collective intelligence and interactivity.The outcome of the study revealed that Funbeat can be regarded as very good example of a participatory culture. By each member sharing their individual knowledge in matters regarding injuries, a collective intelligence was established.

The study set out to find how artists organize and use their personal collections from a Personal Information Management (PIM) perspective, and how that use affects their practice and their art production. A secondary object of the study was to articulate the ways that personal collections are utilized as tools by creative users.  The empirical data consisted of five qualitative, semi-structured interviews with Swedish and Norwegian sound artists. The constant comparative method was used for analysis, and Activity Theory was used as a theore- tical framework for the study. The study concluded that artists? personal collections, while diverse in content and structure, serve the same functions as tools in creative processes, and that attention to the uses of personal collections highlight needs that could be better met by integrated PIM-functionality.

In this Master's thesis we investigate the collection management regarding fiction for adults. The apprehension of fiction has changed over the years. From the beginning it was considered to be mostly educational rather than being the purpose of entertainment. As for today these views are not opposites to each other. Regarding this we discuss the problem concerning terms of quality.

There is no doubt about the significance of nature on the health of human beings. Not only is the tree an element of nature that is of great value to our survival, it also serves as a valuable object and symbol of human beings? enjoyment and appreciation of the environment. The purpose of this study is to present the relationship that a person may have with a specific tree. Three women and two men are interviewed about their trees and the places where they are located.

Public opinion has increasingly become a political force in the European integration process. At present, it appears that the people?s attitude towards the European integration is relatively skeptical. How can we expect that the attitude towards European integration will evolve in the future? This paper tests the extent to which diffusion theory can serve as a model to explain the development of attitudes to European integration policy in Sweden from 1999 until 2009.

The purpose of this study is to analyze different aspects of a portraying of individuals from a time past. It is concentrated around questions about why it is important to show the people?s stories in, for example, exhibitions and under which conditions this would serve as a good use of history according to different theories about history and the portraying of it.I have chosen the theories of Freidrich Nietzsche and Georg Simmel as a tool to analyze different aspects of the portraying of people from the past. Nietzsche?s theory about the different ways in which we use the past and Simmels theory about the meeting between a viewer and a cultural experience.

The use of streaming media such as Spotify has increased rapidly in recent years. Although the consumption side of Spotify is well established with over 10 million users, the medium might provide new unexploited opportunities as an advertising channel. The purpose of this thesis is to increase knowledge about advertising through streaming media and in particular via Spotify. To contribute to such knowledge we have conducted a case study to investigate how Spotify can be used and serve as an advertising medium for a smaller firm, Hasseludden Yasuragi, so that it may reach its target group. To examine the medial effect, a quantitative as well as a qualitative study was carried out using the ARF Model as a basic framework.

The purpose of this thesis was to create a strategic/tactical road access plan. This was done by designing an analytical method which gives the road manager a template to create long-term road access plans. The analytical method will help to identify and appraise roads to be upgraded and give information when it is time for building new roads. The study method involved developing an analytical method. The method was comprised of five main parts: the harvest plan, analysis of the road network, transport costs, quality and storage costs and finally, identification of investment alternatives.