This work summarises some of the new choice theories and compares them with the neo-classical theories. It will deal with choice behaviour in situations with complex choice, such as may be encountered by board members or members of a co-operative company. The thesis discusses how choice may change if the rules of choice change. The hypothesis that people will vote differently depending on whether they choose a desired alternative or remove the undesired alternatives will be tested. .

The agricultural sector has historically seen stable prices and a relatively constant demand for its products. Companies within the sector have generally had few loans and large sums of money tied in assets. The profitability of the companies has on the other hand been low. Together these circumstances have determined the creditors? demands on the companies within the sector and have formed the rules and regulations that exist today.

The environmental demands are increasing when it comes to product development. EcoDesign isabout minimizing the environmental impact of a product, considering the entire life cycle of it,without compromising other qualities like function or cost. In this master of science thesis amobile phone has been analysed with Ten Golden Rules in EcoDesign regarding production, useand End of Life. Also a functional and an environmental profile were made. The goal was tomake a new concept phone, based on the previous analysis, which communicates userfriendlinessand sustainable development.

Since Sweden joined the European Union all Swedish fruit and vegetables are classified according to EU Quality standards. One important function is the product description and how it can facilitate the trade; for example in better comparing prices and also to guarantee the quality of the product. This quality standards or product descriptions are written as words of an Act and obligatory for all countries that has joined the EU. It?s often a demand from the customers to be certificated according to some of many certificating systems. One example is the common worldwide GLOBAL GAP-certification system created by the organisation EUREP which represents the leading European retail traders.

In the media richness of everyday life, the encounter with information graphics ishappening on a daily basis, whether we are aware or not. With the development andeasy access of technologies, new ways to create and display information graphics hasemerged. Among them, the animated information graphics, which in the few pastyears appears to have increased in popularity on video sharing websites such asVimeo and Youtube. In the genre of animated information graphics, there seems to bean inherent diversity regarding the design characteristics. In this study we exploredliterature and research on information graphics and related subjects.

AbstractThis essay concerns a qualitative case study seeking to understand six boys? reading habits and to investigate why it is that some boys who do not like reading nevertheless display good reading comprehension according to the results achieved for that skill in national tests. The study shows that the boys? perception of reading has a lot to do with the contact they have with books when they are small. Whether or not there are adult role models in the home and whether the early encounter with texts in school is a positive or negative experience is significant for the boys? later attitude to reading.

This report is a bachelor thesis presented at the department of Computer Science andEngineering at Chalmers University of Technology. The aim for the project is to find a simplemethod to measure and display physical quantities in a three dimensional room.The report describes a method to construct a system for measuring differentphysical quantities via sensors. The system must be built in a modular and expandable way tobe adaptable to different tasks.The system explained in the report consists of two parts;A physical scanner with moveable probes for carrying sensors and a microcontroller forcontrolling the probes and communicating with the next part.An application written in Java for storing the measured values and presenting them in a lucidperspective.It is possible to construct the scanner with different designs and circuitry, with multiplexers andflip-flops, to ensure that an unspecified number of probes can be added to the system and thatthey can be operated simultaneously.The Java application is written in a modular way, using a design pattern that separates eachindividual part of the application. It contains exceptions and interfaces that ensure a safe andexpandable application..

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how semantic relations in a document collection can be visualized with a Kohonen self-organizing map. It can be seen as a map of the information space which can be used to support information retrieval. The study makes a comparison of the possible differences between a map that is based on morphologically unprocessed text and a map where the text has been lemmatized. The text that is being processed is the definitions of all the existing instances in WordNet of a random selection of indexing terms from the Times-collection. The purpose is to see if morphological processing somehow can show different semantic connections between term instances based on their definitions.

As the volumes are entering the world of computer graphics the pure volume visualisation becomes a more important tool in for example research and medical applications. But the advance in haptics --- force feedback from the computer --- is behind. In volume haptics no equal to the proxy method so popular in surface haptics has yet emerged. Some implementations of volume haptics even use surfaces as intermediate representations so that surface haptics can be used.The intention of this work was to create natural feeling haptic feedback from volumetric density data using pure volume haptics. The haptic algorithm would be implemented in Reachin API for the Reachin Desktop Display, together with other parts to build up a usable volume visualisation environment.To achieve the feeling of stiffness and friction dependent on tissue type, a proxy based method was developed.

One part of preventive conservation is controlling the lighting in the exhibitions. As a first step we have to accept the fact that the very act of displaying objects is causing them damage, and because the trend is for everything to be open to the public view all the time, the aim is to minimize light exposure of exhibits.This essay will present lighting options and relate them to the current recommendations. I have put the emphasis upon describing which methods one can use to minimize the degradation of exhibits on display by eliminating UV- and IR-radiation and reducing the visible light. The intention with this essay is to investigate the current lighting options and compare these to the recommendations on lighting exhibitions.The selections of different lighting options such as LED-, halogen- and energysaving lamps were made based on avaibility. Thereafter I did two types of investigations.

This thesis lays the foundation of the future routines of effective error repotring fortraffic devices in the raiway sector.If a device, for example a timetable display, stops working it is vital that the device isfixed as fast as possible so that the travelers dont miss any important information.The methods that are used today are old and not very effective. It can take time forthe repairmen to find the right device or locating the broken component. At the sametime he is supposed to maintain telephone contact with central control throughoutthe whole session.The need for a new, more effective, system is vital to make the whole repair pfocessmore effective and let the repairmen work without having to contact the centralcontrol by phone.I started this work by examining the possibilities of assigning every object with aunique identifier (ID tag) that could be accessed by a manual scan device. The ideawas that the ID tag could holw information about the object and be obtained byscanning the ID and get the information presented on a mobile device.The work also included building a internet application that enabled the reader to seeand change the information on the ID tag.The result was a database that stored information of different objects which could beobtained by scanning the ID tag and presented by a internet application..

This study examines the possibilities of interpreting the moral values and ethics presented in the current curriculums in a way that makes them inclusive and constructive. The study also reveals how the liberal democratic ideal, presented in the curriculums as a hyper-ideology, is not at all easy to define or live up to in the pluralistic school of today.By close-reading and criticizing the curriculum for the Swedish senior high school (Gy11)and by looking at it from two different points of views, as rules or norms and as a process, Ishow how the curriculum can be interpreted as a basis or starting point for a communicationabout values. I also discuss wether the aim of this communication should be consensus or anongoing process..

The government regulations for energy use in buildings will be tightened in the future. At the same time the interest in environmental classifications and certifications of buildings is increasing. This has meant a new situation for solar energy. The designs of solar heating systems are often based on experience and/or rules of thumb, rather than calculations and simulations. This thesis examines whether simulation tools, in this case Polysun, are useful in this work.

The aim of this thesis is to study the situation of minorities in Slovakia before and after the EU-membership and if EU has played a role in the situation. Also the criteria for becoming a member and other treaties regarding protection of minorities between European institutions and the accession/member states are studied. With the help of i.e. literature, relevant internet pages and yearly studies of EU, the conclusion has been made that Slovakia has made an immense change in the state?s legislation when it comes to minorities and their fundamental rights, but that changes need to be made in attitudes as well.

This study includes several purposes which are to describe the concept of working environment, explain who is responsible for its functioning and how the working environment should look like. Other purposes the study have is to investigate how the working environment is in both Swedish and the two investigated companies construction sites and to share some operators proposing measures for the shortcomings and problems that exist in the construction sector working environment. To achieve these purposes was a qualitative study made with unstructured observations, interviews and survey where three construction sites were observed. The result shows that the concept of the working environment cover many aspects and is essentially about the environment we live in and experience in our work and this environment can be both an indoor as an outdoor environment. In this work, the concept is divided into four areas; it is the physical, the ergonomic, the psychosocial and the chemical.