Uppsala University Library owns eight volumes of manuscripts attributed to the academy equerry Johan Leven Ekelund (c.1701?1775). In this thesis, I apply methods from the field of material Culture studies in order to establish which of the volumes that formed the donation from Leven to the library mentioned in his will. By mapping certain markers such as places, names and dates I am able to identify to some extent where Leven gained his practical skills and which writers influenced him. By analysing the texts, I draw the conclusion that the manuscripts can be divided into groups aimed for different audiences.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how the transfer from academic studies into professional life is experienced in retrospect by professional librarians. The aim is also to examine in which context the studies in library- and information science in Sweden has been formed. To attain the purpose of the thesis four main questions is being asked: In which context has LIS-studies from the period 1993-2007 been formed? Which competence does the professional librarian consider to be the most fundamental in professional life? Does the professional librarian experience that the knowledge attained from LIS-studies is sufficient for the actual tasks? Which are the differences between tasks at different types of libraries? The study is performed through a questionnaire survey in which 94 professional librarians express their experiences of their LIS-studies in retrospect.

[?If we zigzag in the middle, it?s OK?] The purpose of the following study is to examine the relationship between tourism and religion in a Balinese context. We look specifically at changes in religious practice, culture and mentality, as well as how religious philosophy is used as a tool for limiting the negative impact of tourism. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Central themes in the following essay are globalization in the form of tourism, westernization, subsystem theory and capitalism, which also make up the theoretical framework.

The teaching of modern foreign languages within Swedish educational system has been a subject of a number of alarming reports in recent years. Several studies have shown that students lack motivation to learn any language but English. Of particular concern is the young males? underachieving and disinterest in foreign languages. In the meantime, a number of international studies and the statistical data from Swedish national agencies of secondary and higher education (Skolverket and Högskoleverket) have indicated that Russian is one of the languages that are favoured by males. The primary goal of my case study was, therefore, to examine students? motivation to learn Russian and their attitudes towards language, community and Russian-speaking people.

The thesis aims to analyze strategic, cultural and structural aspects of Grameen Bank and its micro-credit project, in order to identify key success factors. A case study was performed with an inductive and qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews. The data was collected by field observations and interviews on site in Dhaka, Bangladesh and surrounding areas.The main conclusion is that the critical success factor of Grameen Bank is the relationship focus, guiding and aligning its strategy, culture and structure. Also, local offices have been observed to utilize practices not permitted by the bank?s management, ultimately increasing the organizational efficiency..

Background: Sweden is a country where vitamin D deficiency seems to be common, partly because of its geographical position, which reduces the availability of UVB radiation, but also that people avoid sunlight due to increased skin cancer risk. Research shows that vitamin D plays an important role in the prevention of many diseases such as cancer as well as autoimmune and neuropsychiatric diseases.Vitamin D is a fat soluble pre-hormone and a collective name for closely related compounds which act as hormones after undergoing a transformation in the body.Humans can utilize vitamin D through diet and produce it in the body by exposing the skin to the sun. Previous observational studies and epidemiological studies have established a hypothesis that there seems to be an association between vitamin D supplementation and reduction of depressive symptoms.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate if vitamin D supplements may decrease depressive symptoms.Methods: This work is organized as a literature review and article search is made in the database PubMed in January 2012. Keywords used were ?vitamin D and depression? and inclusion criteria were: randomized clinical trials, be conducted on humans, written in English.

The focus of this two year master?s thesis in Library- and Information science is the study of two Swedish Public Library buildings with the examples Lomma and Halmstad. The main goal and purpose of the thesis is to try to uncover which views and values of the public library are expressed in the examined libraries; and to what extent these views manifests are shown in its architecture.The theoretical framework is based on Raymond Williams?s cultural concepts of effective, dominant culture and the two extremities of this culture, called residual and emergent cultures. A second aspect is Yi-Fu Tuans concepts of Space and Place.

The aim of this essay is to describe the historical development of the intercultural teacher training program at Södertörn University in Stockholm. I have also examined how the intercultural teacher training program was started, how and why it became intercultural and how the people in charge of the development of the teacher training program discussed intercultural science. The teacher training program has been an active part of Södertörn University since 1998, but it became intercultural in 2002. I have studied these questions through documents from the Södertörn University archives and literature by the funders of the education. The study shows that the university profile, ambitions and motives have been a key factor in the decision to make the teacher training program at Södertörn a multi-cultural one..

The teaching of modern foreign languages within Swedish educational system has been a subject of a number of alarming reports in recent years. Several studies have shown that students lack motivation to learn any language but English. Of particular concern is the young males? underachieving and disinterest in foreign languages. In the meantime, a number of international studies and the statistical data from Swedish national agencies of secondary and higher education (Skolverket and Högskoleverket) have indicated that Russian is one of the languages that are favoured by males. The primary goal of my case study was, therefore, to examine students? motivation to learn Russian and their attitudes towards language, community and Russian-speaking people.

This thesis deals with tactics for information seeking in electronic databases. An important aspect is knowledge of the relative value of different subject access points. The method used here is literature studies. Nineteen empirical studies are described and analysed with the purpose to compare the relative value of different subject access points. The studies examined compare the relative value of subject access points in relation to each other or in relation to different scientific disciplines.

AbstractHuvudfrågeställningen för uppsatsen är hur invandrarungdomar upplever och hanterar sin livssituation i de två kulturella världar de eventuellt lever i, den ursprungliga och den svenska kulturen? Undersökningen är utförd kvalitativt och baseras på fem intervjuer. De intervjuade har haft sin primära socialisation i hemlandet och under tidig ålder flyttat till Sverige. Teoretiskt utgår uppsatsen från Berger & Luckman, Jenkins, Ålund och Deniz vilka med sina skilda teorier förklarar varför identitetsprocessen och tillhörigheten är komplexfyllda för invandrarungdomar. Tidigare forskning har visat att invandrarungdomar upplever skilda problem i sin vardag därför att de lever i utkanten av två skilda kulturer.

The main purpose of this examination paper has been to do a review of recent scientific and evaluated studies performed on children 0-15 years of age, treated with an animal as an assistant to the therapist/professional. The key term is Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT). Our focus has been to describe in what fields these kinds of studies have been performed, what the results are and how effective they have been. As a supplement to our study we have performed 8 short telephone interviews with professionals in the same field of occupation corresponding to the studies we have summarized. Our results concerning the studies show that there has been a positive outcome in the treatment of children and adolescents and AAT.

There are certain organizations that manage to handle risk in such a successful way that they almost stay error-free, in spite of the fact that they daily face the risks of accidents. These organizations are usually given the name High Reliability Organizations (HRO). While the most common example is that of a nuclear plant the variety of what organizations can fit into the category is extensive.The purpose of this study is to describe safety culture and theories about HRO and how these can be found in practise within an organization.This qualitative research uses influences of ethnography in its method. The ethnographical approach was picked due to the field of the study and the cultural context in which it is set.The results of the study identify a number of elements sorted into four themes. These themes are deemed compatible or non-compatible with relevant existing theories.

Abstract Title: We are equal. A study of cultural differences and professionalism in international projects.Level: Thesis for Master Degree in Business Administration.Author: Zahra AhmadiSupervisor: Lars EkstrandDate: 2012-05The purpose of my study is to analyze and examine it well-educated people can reduce the cultural differences in interaction with other actors around the world. Part of aims study surveys and analyzes to understand how educated people can communicate and facilitate communication in order to achieve the goals and motivation in international collaboration. Problems can arise from cultural differences in connection with that persons face in society and in international collaboration. In this study, I assume theoretical framework that exists in cultural and communication theme and professionalism to find common objectives within educated groups.Method: The purpose of this study, I have chosen to use a qualitative approach.

The objective with the study was to evaluate what key persons at LFV Group (Luftfartsverket) think about-presented core values and their implementation within the company. Another objective of the study was to describe and compare the process of implementation of core values and how this affects organization culture at two selected reference companies. A qualitative method was applied in the form of semi-structured interviews with key persons at Luftfartsverket and the other reference companies.As the result a four-step program is proposed to describe the implementation process of core values: presentation, introduction, realization and follow-up. Within the implementation process it is possible to distinguish another process, which is based on core values, - introduction of new employees. The implementation of core values has contributed towards the development of the organizational culture as well as creating a successful company governed by core values..