Free Space Optics (FSO) has received a great deal of attention lately both in the military and civilian information society due to its potentially high capacity, rapid deployment, portability and high security from deception and jamming. The main issue is that severe weather can have a detrimental impact on the performance, which may result in an inadequate availability. This report contains a feasibility study for an all-optical free-space link intended for short-range communication (200-500 m). Laboratory tests have been performed to evaluate the link design. Field tests were made to investigate availability and error performance under the influence of different weather conditions.

Background:Every year, in Sweden, 250 children and adolescents below 15 years of age are diagnosed with cancer. Over 75% of those diagnosed are cured. Cancer affects not only the child but the whole family. Siblings of the affected child can easily suffer from a lack of attention.Aim:This study aimed to illuminate siblings' experiences of living in a family with a child affected by cancer.Method:A literature-based study based on nine qualitative studies.Results:The result showed that it was important for siblings to have someone close and not be alone, they needed to feel a community. Not to know and not to understand what has happened made them to feel grief, fear, stress and jealousy.

The names of railway stations and halts along the earliest railway lines on Lithuanian territory have been studied, i.e. along those railway lines built between 1861 and 1873. Especially, attention has been drawn to names that are not obvious regarding the geographical location of the station or halt. Some 50 percent of the names are showing some kind of irregularity in this respect. Most common (about 30 examples) are stations or halts that are serving a population centre situated at some distance from the station, but still bearing the name of that population centre.

Siblings of persons with disabilities tend to be sidelined and not get the same attention in the same amount as the child with the disability gets, both by the parents and the society. Previous research in this area is limited and siblings of people with disabilities and their experiences of support needs to be explored. The purpose of this paper is to learn about support for siblings of people with disabilities in terms of both adult siblings own experiences from his childhood and from practitioners experience. Six qualitative interviews with four adult siblings of people with disabilities and two professionals were interviewed. Systems Theory and Bronfenbrenners ecological model has provided the theoretical basis for the essay.

The aim of this essay was to study if social workers have a gender awareness in the social work they perform and if it appears in the assessment of needs and intervention. A qualitative vignette study with four social workers who handle adult- and addictive clients have been performed. Gender theory is used to interpret the empirical results. The results of the study show that social workers doesn´t see any differences in the clients situation, or make any different assessment of needs depending on if the client is a man or a woman. Social workers also propose the same interventions to men and women.

In the beginning of the twentieth century in Sweden the laboring class grew and became more established. This entailed both a change in housing conditions and the design of the social policies. The purpose of this study is to show how the Child Welfare Committee in Kalmar conducted its work during 1911-1918. The aim is to show on what grounds they made their decisions and how the interaction between the committee and the families functioned in practice. This will be accomplished by giving examples from the protocols written by Kalmar?s Child Welfare Committee.

Information technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. The Web is an important part of this development, however, web pages can be inaccessible to many groups of users. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the accessibility of Swedish public library websites. Besides examining the general accessibility, this study also covers whether any specific aspect of accessibility is particularly poor and if so which groups may be affected. In addition, this study also examines whether a correlation can be found between the degree of accessibility and the size of the website.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate adult students information seeking. We draw a distinction between traditional timetabled studies, flexitime studies and external studies. For many adult students flexitime studies and external studies involve a new kind of studying. The new types of studies entail that adult students must apply themselves to more information seeking. In our study we investigate how the students proceed when seeking information.

The main purpose was to develop norms for the Five to fifteen questionnaire ? toddlers? version (FTF-S) in children aged 25?40 months. Apartial aim was to validate the language domain of the FTF-S against the linguistic scale in the test Bayley Scales of Infant Development ? thirdedition (Bayley-III). Another partial aim was to analyze parents' experiences of the FTF-S in order to provide suggestions for further development.

This thesis work researches what motivates swedish Facebook users to pass along and shareinformation on Facebook, their attitude towards shared information and what affects this behavior. The goal of this thesis is to research todays behavior and motivations to enlighten  what makes information worth sharing to others on Facebook, instead of simply attracting attention. By using a web survey we have collected data by sampling a part of the actual population  of  swedens Facebook users.Our results show that swedish Facebook users main reason for using Facebook is to socialize with offline friends and share information to show otherssomethingtheybelivetheywillhaveuseforand/orwillappriciate.WecompareourfindingstoexistingresearchandtheFIROtheoryabouthumaninterpersonalneeds.Wefindthatuserssharinghabitscanbeidentifiedasmotivatedbyinterpersonalneedstomaintainsocialbonds,influenceothersopinionaboutthemselves,feeluniqueandstandoutinthecrowd.WeconcludethathumanneedsarecontributingtosharingactivityonFacebookandinfluencethesharinghabitsoftheSwedishFacebookusers.Theusersshowacriticalviewonsharingbehavioringeneralbutdonotbelievethattheyshareforthesamereasonthemselves..

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, China has captivated global attention due to its astonishing economic growth. This development has resulted in an enormous growth in foreign direct investments, as well as the country?s new role aseconomic super power. When joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China agreed to adhere to the minimum requirements of the organization?s several multilateral agreements.

More relevant price comparisons between groceries are possible. This study points outone possible path through an example. The purpose of this approach is to develop amodel in a realistic context. The main assumption behind the proposed model is thatprice always has to be compared to quality. The model (algorithm) starts with a basketwith the cheapest goods.

The essay's aim was to see which attitudes county council's and municipality representatives had about themes like: collaboration and competence in the work around double diagnosed persons. Its objective was to zero in on the attitudes of the representatives regarding a coallocated collaboration project in Stockholm. Also, it sought to find out what attitudes the representatives had about the other representatives attitudes concerning the above mentioned themes. A number of attitudes were presented during the qualitative interviews with the representatives, highlighting which attitudes seemed strongest. Then the interviews were analyzed using meaning condensation and then set against the theory of social representations.The analysis showed that before work with the target group starts, there?s a need for synchronization of the different representatives involved in the collaboration project.

The explosion of new digital media puts pressure for developments within copyright law both in Sweden and internationally. These developments are taking place on two different international areas: (1) WIPO which is a part of the UN family and (2) the EU where a new directive on copyright law is being prepared and probably implemented during 2001. The aim of this thesis is twofold: (1) to study which considerations libraries must make when handling the new digital media both under today's copyright laws and under those which are being developed internationally. (2) What will be the consequences, for Swedish libraries, if the new EU-directive on copyright law is implemented in Sweden? By analysing current copyright laws, international treaties and the proposal for a new EU-directive as well as the national debate the thesis brings attention to a number of central issues for libraries.

Intimate partner violence is a problem which is increasingly drawing attention in society. The authority responsible for providing care and support to victims of intimate partner violence and their children is the social services. The purpose of this study was to show how social workers deal with intimate partner violence and to create a description of how this work is currently carried out in seven municipalities in the north-west of Stockholm. This was done through a quantitative survey including all investigating social workers in the municipalities concerned. The results were analysed with concepts from organizational theory.