Almost all Swedes today have access to the Internet, if not through the home then via the library or work. Despite this, around 20% of the population stand outside the information society in that they lack in knowledge, assistive usability tools or positive attitude towards technology and its influence on society. The main factors influencing the digital divide in today's society are age, disability and education, while the main reason for staying outside seems to be disinterest.The question about digital inclusion is important as we now stand on the breaking-point between a society where the industry has had a prominent position for private as well as national economy and a digital society where access to the Internet is no longer about prestige, but where significant differences between users' knowledge levels can create a power gap. Gaps in access and use not only reflects already existing socio-economic conditions, but can also maintain and enhance these.It is crucial for the future expansion of Internet usage how today's non-users feel about becoming users. To understand what underlies the motivations not to use computers is one of the keys to get non-users to embrace becoming users.

Today is what you could call a golden age for technological development in health care. Technology is given a bigger role in healthcare and serves not only as a support for health professionals in their daily work but also as a tool for the patient. With the help of eHealth services, patients are becoming more involved in their own care. This improves patient?s knowledge about their health, which in turn contributes to higher motivation to perform self-care.

This essay aims to create an understanding of how leadership can be arranged in a company that embraces new technology and telework, and how it can be experienced from the employees' perspective. In order to make it possible to investigate this purpose are three questions formed; ?How is the leadership perceived??, ?How does telework into motivation?? and ?How does telework into communication??. A presentation of previous research is given, focusing mainly within different types of leadership, distance, and telework. Based on this, three interviews was made in which respondents? experience of telework was in focus.

With the climate change issues growing in importance on the social agenda, the field of urban masterplanning is of no exception when it comes to minimizing the carbon footprint in a variety of projects. The aim of this thesis has been to prepare the Carbon Critical Masterplanning tool, a software plugin for carbon dioxide emissions assessment developed by Atkins, to be used in Swedish conditions. The main targets were to improve the areas of the tool associated with energy conversion and renewable energy sources, and to test the tool in a real case. A planned construction of a new campus in Albano, Stockholm was chosen for the pilot study. A 3D model was built in the tool and the carbon footprint was calculated for a variety of combinations for energy supply to the future area.

The purpose of this case study is to see how all the involved parties; students, custodians and teachers look upon ?A meeting of learning ? personal development dialogue that is led by children and young people?, on a school south of Stockholm. Our questions at issue were to see what the students had learned from their personal development dialogue, if the custodians had received all the information they expected to get from a personal development dialogue, and last but not least if all the involved parties; students, custodians and teachers, wanted to continue with this model? We used interviews and paper questionnaires to collect answers to our case study and the questions at issue. In both the interviews and paper questionnaires we could see that an overwhelming majority had a positive opinion about students leading and ?owning? their personal development dialogue, especially the students themselves.

Current technology offers many possibilities for remotecommunication. Nevertheless, people with cognitive and communicativedisabilities have limited access to common communication technology like textmessaging via a mobile phone. This study is part of the project Text messagingwith picture symbols - a possibility for AAC users and people with cognitiveimpairments. Semi structured interviews were used to investigate three menand four women?s experiences of using Windows mobiles with adaptedfunctions for text messaging.

During the last year in the Innovation Engineering Program, at Halmstad University, a degree project was performed that was carried out during Fall semester in 2006 and Spring semester 2007. The project was performed by two students in corporation with LIC Audio AB, a company in Stockholm. The degree project was meant to result in a communication aid for people with a cognitive handicap. The project focused on people suffering from dementia because of the expressed need within this group. This aid should first and foremost help in a conversation between a person with dementia and another person, like a relative or nursing home staff.

The objective of this study was investigating social worker?s perspective of how alcohol consumption can affect, and what elements in the social environment that may be of significance for, alcohol consumption and development of identity. The questions at issue were: Do social workers experience any positive effects from alcohol consumption in 16-17 year-old girls with problematic alcohol consumption and what influence do the effects have on self esteem, self image and development of identity? What do social workers experience are the negative effects from alcohol consumption on self esteem, self image and development of identity? How important do social workers find the social environment and how do they believe the social environment affect the alcohol consumption and development of identity? This was investigated with a qualitative approach from a social worker?s perspective, hence social workers were interviewed. The study?s theoretical basis was Symbolic Interactionism and Erikson?s theory of Psychosocial Development.

This report treats a Master Thesis performed at Scania CV AB. The task was to create a computer model of a hydraulic actuator system in the software AVL Hydsim. The system consists of two spring-loaded masses with surrounding hydraulic components. The purpose of the model is to study phenomenon and problems in the system, as well as to be a support in the development of the system. It is not supposed to be used to study absolute values in its current form.

Bortom historien slut ? Beyond the end of historyAccording to Robert Dahl there are seven criteria that have to be fulfilled in order for a state to be democratic. Dahl also states that there are several factors that effect the development of democracy. In today?s world it is mostly developing countries that have failed to bring about democratic changes.

Rapid urbanization causes competition over land use between green area preservation and urban development in cities and greatly affects ecosystems as well as human well-being. This conflict is significant all around the world as many cities are now replacing existing green areas with new developments. The area around Dag Hammarskjöld's väg in Uppsala is currently experiencing the same conflict, as the need that the city has for new housing represents a threat for the many valuable green areas that are in the site. The purpose of this project was to understand how the need of urban development and the preservation of green areas could be balanced. This understanding would thereafter be used to make a design proposal for the area around Dag Hammarskjöld's väg.

This qualitative study aims to examine what career opportunities the Swedish employment service Arbetsförmedlingen can provide, as well as how the employees perceive their career development opportunities. Furthermore, we have touched on what it is that makes employees feel satisfied with their job and workplace, and also stay in the organization. The study was conducted on one of Arbetsförmedlingen?s offices in northern Sweden and the informants consisted of six employment agents, an executive assistant and a head of division. The result of the study has been analyzed using theories within the field of career development.

Syftet med denna studie är att uppmärksamma attityder till Teknik hos förskollärare, lärare, skolledare och näringslivsrepresentanter och försöka ta reda på tänkbara orsaker bakom dessa attityder för att se möjligheter och svårigheter i arbetet med ämnet. Den forskningsfråga jag kommer att försöka besvara lyder: ? Hur ser några ?tidigarelärare? förskollärare och representanter från näringslivet på barns tidiga möten med Teknik? De empiriska data som studien bygger på kommer från 83 enkäter och 2 intervjuer. Enkäterna besvarades av 28 förskollärare, 30 lärare och 25 anställda i näringslivet. Intervjuerna hölls med en person ur ledningen på ett större företag och en skolledare.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the term balanced collection in relation to Swedish laws and the democratic assignment. The Unesco Public Library Manifesto states that libraries are to formulate a policy defining objectives, priorities and services in relation to local community needs. The Swedish Libraries Act, paragraph 7, states that municipalities and counties shall adopt plans for library services. To fulfil our aim we will answer the following questions. By which terms is the democratic assignment visible in Swedish public libraries collection development policies? Is the term balanced collection used in Swedish public libraries collection development policies? If not, are there categories describing balanced collection? Do the terms in Swedish collection development policies differ to the six categories found by Farooq M.

Current technology offers many possibilities for remotecommunication. Nevertheless, people with cognitive and communicativedisabilities have limited access to common communication technology like textmessaging via a mobile phone. This study is part of the project Text messagingwith picture symbols - a possibility for AAC users and people with cognitiveimpairments. Semi structured interviews were used to investigate three menand four women?s experiences of using Windows mobiles with adaptedfunctions for text messaging.