As the information society becomes increasingly flooded with digital images, the need for efficient image retrieval systems increases as well. To handle the vast amounts of data involved, the indexing process needs to be run automatically, using content-based descriptors extracted directly from the digital image, such as colour composition, shape and texture features. These content-based image retrieval systems are often slow and cumbersome, and can appear confusing to an ordinary user who does not understand the underlying mechanisms. One step towards more efficient and user-friendly retrieval systems might be to adjust the weight placed on various descriptors depending on which image category is being searched for. The results of this thesis show that certain categories of digital images would benefit from having extra weight assigned to colour, texture or shape features when searching for images of that category..

Abstract Denna uppsats handlar om att undersöka hur andraspråkselever som misstänks ha läs- och skrivsvårigheter/dyslexi utreds på en skola. I en empirisk studie intervjuas sex stycken pedagoger som arbetar med att göra de inledande testerna/kartläggningarna på elever med misstänkt dyslexi/läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Lärarna i undersökningen arbetar inom samma upptagningsområde som speciallärare/pedagoger. Uppsatsens resultat visar på att tillängliga diagnosverktyg på undersökt skola inte är anpassade för att kunna säkerställa en eventuell diagnos hos elever med ett annat modersmål än svenska..

This two years master?s thesis is a review and exploration of the Swedish debate concerning children?s literature from the 19th century to the present, as well as the evaluation and analysis of four adaptations of the tale Red Riding Hood. The aims are to identify how ideas and values regarding the role of children?s literature in society have developed over time and to contribute with a knowledge base for continued reflection and discussion on the subject of children?s reading and mediation of children?s literature in public libraries.The theory and method used in the thesis, is primarily based on the discourse analysis of Michel Foucault. I have identified four main discourses: the educational discourse, the liberation discourse, the politicized dis- course and the popular discourse.

Reading difficulties is the most common learning difficulty in the western world and it is common that people with reading disabilities also exhibit arithmetic difficulties. Different theories about the cause of the relationship exists, one theory describes the importance of good phonological ability in reading as well as in arithmetic, while another theory describes the importance of a reliable number system and that only a subgroup of students with reading disabilities also have difficulties with arithmetic. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students with reading difficulties (RD), without any known mathematical difficulties, perform on mathematical tasks relative to a control group. The study was theoretically grounded on the Triple code model (Dehaene, 1992), which is a model for numerical information processing that describes how various numerical and arithmetic tasks are processed through three distinct representation systems in the brain, a verbal and a visual representation system and a quantity system. Reading skills, phonological skills, arithmetic skills and number processing skills were examined in 61 students through a variety of tests.

The purpose of this study is to examine the view of Swedish language teachers on the role of fiction and of school libraries within the compulsory school?s teaching of Swedish of form 6-9. The questions to be answered are:? What part do Swedish language teachers (hereafter called teachers) think fiction is playing regarding the pupils inclination to read and reading promotion?? What is the attitude of teachers regarding the function of fiction in the Swedish subject?? What do teachers consider being the role of the school library in education, and can this be related to the local school library resources?To answer the questions a questionnaire was sent out to thirty-five teachers. Four qualitative interviews were also carried out among the fourteen teachers that answered the questionnaire.

A study around some fourteen and fifteen year old boys, who are interested in reading. It is about their reading and library habits, what has created their interest and where they acquire access to literature. A certain amount deals with the habits of the boys? school-friends in this subject. The result compares with earlier made reports.

Denna undersökning utgår ifrån Mary Jo Bitners servicescape-modell om hur fysiska miljöegenskaper formade efter en berättelse eller tema påverkar serviceverksamheter. För att sedan implementera modellen i en digital miljö. Resultatet av att nyttja teorierna kring servicescapes på exempelvis serviceverksamheter ger besökare möjlighet att fly undan vardagen, medvetet eller omedvetet, genom en kombination av olika sinnen. I undersökningen såg vi att besökarens självmedvetenhet kunde jämföras med Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis teorier om ?flöde?, där medvetandetillståndet hos en individ blir uppslukat av individens aktivitet.

This Master?s Thesis aims to examine the attitudes concerning gender issues among children?s librarians. The main purpose is to examine what their views on the subject are, and if they consider gender issues when acquiring and mediating books. We are also interested in their opinions about gender stereotyping in children?s books.

By reading three 21st century books am I trying to see how the female friendship is described in literature of our days. The books are Rebell med frusna fötter by Johanna Nilsson, Lutherska badet by Unni Drougge and I närheten av solen by Hanna Wallsten. They are all written by Swedish authors and taking place in Stockholm in the early years of 2000. I am doing a critical reading against the roles of ?heteronormativitet? as the word is described by Tiina Rosenberg and Fanny Ambjörnsson trying to see how the characters are following or breaking these roles.

The purpose of this project was to find out how reading is affected, and not affected, by different elements on a start page. The site I was studied belongs to the magazine Fitness Magazine, and the current site has a problem. The editorial texts and articles don?t reach out to the visitors. The goal was to make a proposal for a new first page of the web site that highlights the texts and the reading.With the help of interviews, user testing and textual analysis, I studied if the texts were in itself that caused the problem or if it was the design.

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate how parents? in multilingual families perceive language learning and reading for young children, and how their practice of this can be understood in relation to their language situation and cultural background.This study focuses on the interaction between parents? and young children in the light of the literacy practice. Important concepts such as early childhood literacy and family literacy have been used to study language, culture and literacy practice as phenomena that interact. The theoretical framework is a sociocultural perspective. Through qualitative interviews with seven parents?, it was found that multilingual families have a strong ambition for their children to learn all the languages spoken in the family.

Driveability analysis of terrain data offers an important technique for decision support for all kinds of movements in the terrain. The work described in this report uses a high resolution digital terrain model generated from the laser radar data and further processed by the Category Viewer program, and information from the Real Estate Map. Properties of features found in a filtering process are calculated and compared with a set of rules in a knowledge base to get a driveability cost. This cost is then visualized in a graphical user interface. An evaluation of what driveability is and what it is affected by is performed, and a general cost function is developed, which can be used even if not all relevant information is available.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine information seeking andinformation use among high school pupils in two Norwegian highschools. The main research question focuses on different kinds ofinteraction or lack of interaction in the pupils? information seeking andinformation use.The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on a socioculturalperspective which allows for a specific focus of various forms ofinteraction. I investigate interaction in relation to concepts such associal practices, previous experiences and meaning making. Theempirical material consists of data from a large scale questionnaire (n=217) and in-depth interviews with six pupils.The results show that these pupils are used to interact with digital tools.The pupils trust printed sources more than digital ones, but at the sametime they prefer digital sources since these are easier to handle, it isquicker to locate information and this is easier to understand.

This Masters thesis is a study in library and information science, that examines literature as a tool for young people in their identity creation. Both scientists and teachers have found that teenagers like to identify themselves, when reading literature. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how youths construct their identity through reading in relation to the purpose that libraries and cultural politics have in youth novels. The starting point of this study is the sociologist Thomas Ziehe and his idea about identity try-out identitetsutprovning and Erving Goffmans dramaturgy perspective. The main question is: what is the relation between young peoples identity creation in youth novels and in their reality in proportion to the young peoples reading of youth literature and the science about their reading? The question is answered in three parts.

Syftet med denna undersökning var att undersöka den digitala kompetensen hos en grupp elever i årskurs nio på en skola i Stockholmsområdet. Utöver detta undersöktes några utvalda variabler för att avgöra deras eventuella inverkan på den digitala kompetens eleven tillägnat sig. Begreppet digital kompetens utnyttjas bland andra av EU-parlamentet och organisationen OECD vilka publicerat varsin skrift rörande nyckelkompetenser för livslångt lärande. Dessa två ger, tillsammans med en norsk undersökningsgrupps publikation, en gemensam definition av begreppet digital kompetens. Denna undersökning fokuserade dock enbart på ordbehandling, ett område inom den digitala kompetensen.Den empiriska undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av en provliknande enkät där eleverna fick besvara frågor rörande ordbehandling.