Books and reading are important elements in cultural policy. On 1 January 2002 VAT on books and magazines was reduced from 25 per cent to 6 per cent. The purpose was to increase reading in all sections of the population. A special Book Price Commission was appointed to follow and examine price trends and to work for an enhancement of reading in all groups of the Swedish population. But what form of reading are the BPC talking about? With a theoretical point of departure in the theory of power and discourse by Michel Foucault the aim of this thesis is to explore if there is an existing discourse about reading and, if so, how this discourse is operating in the BPC reports.

Botulism is a serious disease with high mortality that can affect horses. Due to this about 20-30 percent of the horses in Sweden are vaccinated against botulism. The purpose of this study was to see how common botulism is in the Swedish horse population and to se if a connection between feeding with haylage and botulism could be seen. In addition to this, the study aimed to find how common vaccination against botulism is among Swedish horses and on what grounds the diagnosis botulism is made. Medical records of horses being diagnosed with botulism at all the major large animal hospitals in Sweden between 1995-2005 were searched. In addition to this the database where general practitioners report their cases as well as the cases with botulism reported to the insurance companies were included. The results of this study show that only 0,03 percent of the Swedish horse population has been diagnosed with botulism during the time period this study covers. In all the cases included in this study the diagnosis was made based on clinical signs and in none of the cases verification by isolating the toxin was possible. In all cases where forage is noted in the journals the horse has been feed haylage which indicate that there is a connection between the use of haylage and botulism. Three horses died despite being partially vaccinated against botulism type B which indicate that a correct vaccination has to be done before the horse get any protection or that the correct diagnosis was not botulism type B..

A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. Hence, finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task.This master thesis is an innovation and concept development project that has been carried out in cooperation with organisations in Sweden and Namibia. The purpose of the project has been to (1) develop a concept for off-grid electricity supply in Namibia and (2) to gain a deeper knowledge within the area of innovation and product development for the Base of the Pyramid population, i.e. the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population.Essential in this project has been to acquire user understanding and to identify user needs to create a foundation for developing the concept.

Folkhälsovetenskapligt program.

The purposes of this study were to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters for conformation traits in Swedish Ardenner, a heavy draught horse, and to investigate the inbreeding status of the population. Additionally, a breeding scheme proposal was created, based on the results achieved in the study. The data studied were obtained from the Swedish Horse Board and from the Swedish Ardenner Association. The data included 1632 three-year-old horses, mainly mares, and 356 stallions, judged between 1986 and 2005 at conformation shows. The traits studied were type, head-neck-body, legs, walk and trot at hand, total score and height at withers.

Kransalger är en viktig nyckelart i Östersjön. De förökar sig med hjälp av oosporer och denna studie har syftat till att urskilja morfologisk differentiering mellan oosporer inom och mellan individer och populationer. Främst ställde jag mig frågan huruvida skillnader och likheter i morfologi kan associeras med skillnader mellan olika geografiska avstånd och habitat samt i vilken mån oosporer kan återföras till korrekt population och individ. Kransalger av arten Chara aspera har insamlats på lokaler i östra Svealand och elliptiska Fouriertransformationer har använts för att med hjälp av vågfunktioner beskriva oosporernas konturer. Parametrarna i vågfunktioner har sedan använts för statistiska analyser.

The aim of this essey was to find out what kind of help problem gamblers can get at social service offices in the region Västra Götaland in Sweden. We also examined the knowledge regarding gambling problems at social sevice offices and who the head of the social service offices regarded having the responsibility for the question of helping problem gamblers. As a last question we wanted to know if the size of the population in the community had an impact on these questions. Central questions in our essey asked are:How much help does the social service offices in the region Väsra Götaland offer problem gamblers? Who has the responsabilety to help problem gamblers according to social service offices?What knowledge does the social service offices have concerning problem gambling?Does the population of the community have an impact on theese questions?This is a quantitative study made as a webbservey to the head of the social service offices in the region Västra Götaland.

White-Nose Syndrome, WNS, is an emerging fungal disease in the Northern American bat population causing mass mortality in infected hibernacula. Geomyces destructans is a newly discovered psychrophilic fungus causing WNS but the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the disease is not yet fully clarified. Geomyces destructans has been found in Europe but has not been a cause of mass mortality there. This study is the first investigation done to see if G. destructans is present in Sweden.

ABSTRACTToday's modern technological society is constantly evolving and house planning is one area that is constantly creating new technical solutions. By looking back at selected architectural eras during the 1900?s, the idea is to study and analyse three building structures in Gothenburg with a focus on quality and content in the urban space.In order to provide a background for the three selected areas, their history has been studied. The main question for the research is: how do different building structures affect the content and qualities in the urban space?The areas have been selected to represent three typical epochs in Swedish building history.

Bakgrund: Parodontit definieras som en inflammationssjukdom orsakad av en obalans mellan bakterier i den dentala biofilmen och värdens immunförsvar. Det saknas en enhetlig klassificering för allvarlig kronisk parodontit i epidemiologiska studier; internationell data avseende prevalens och utbredning av kronisk parodontit är därför svårtolkade. Det saknas studier som har undersökt huruvida och hur mycket variationerna av klassificeringar påverkar utfallet, det vill säga prevalensen av allvarlig kronisk parodontit. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att utvärdera skillnaderna mellan fem olika klassificeringar av allvarlig kronisk parodontit: (i) Konsensuskonferensen 1999, (ii) American Academy of Periodontology and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (AAP/CDC), (iii) European Federation of Periodontology (EFP), (iv) Jönköpingsstudien samt (v) Skånestudien. Material och Metod: För att kunna jämföra klassificeringarna studerades prevalensen av allvarlig kronisk parodontit utifrån en population i Kalmar län.

This study describes the intellectual ability of a cohort consisting of 120 young women in compulsory care at a SiS institution in Sweden, tested and analyzed between January 2001 and May 2005. The women have been tested with the intelligence tests WISC-III or WAIS-R, as well as the personality trait tests BCT, CMPS and SCL-90, and the personality disorder test SCID-II. This material has been analyzed to investigate how these women's intellectual ability relates to other factors. The analyses show that the main difference between the women of this study and the normal population is their level of intelligence and presence of personality disorders. The IQ level of these women is statistically proven on an average one standard deviation lower than the normal population.

There is no general aging process therefore should health efforts directed at elderly population based on each individual as a unique person with specific needs. When aging becomes a fact not generally decrease the lust and the desire to be active but it is perhaps more about the body's ability to keep up on what the head wants. Therefore the range of activities towards the elderly population requires some adjustment that can partly be achieved by taking some of the older people?s experiences. The purpose of this study was that by the older people?s experiences of organized activities in a social context to illustrate how they perceive their participation.

The purpose of this study was to, using statistical analysis, investigate to what extent families of a different cultural background have participated in family therapy and other family treatment programs at Familjeenheten in Lund. With questions regarding the goals of treatment, and the importance of cultural competence in the treatment process we have let two unit managers comment on the statistics. The population of the study is too small to allow general conclusions to be drawn, however, we have been able to ascertain that families of a different background are over-represented relative to their percentage of Lund´s population. Familjeenheten has no statistical record of ethnicity and the interviewed persons express no certain importance in the families´ cultural origins. They express no need to develop special treatment methods that take the clients´ cultural background in regard as they feel that so many of family issues are universal.

To United Minds, large-scale surveys are an important offering to clients, not least the public opinion poll Va?ljarbarometern. A risk associated with surveys is satisficing ? sub-optimal response behaviour impairing the possibility of correctly describing the sampled population through its results. The purpose of this study is to ? through the use of multivariate outlier detection methods - identify those observations assumed to be non-representative of the population.

Media has the power to influences society. Some call them the third power of a state. Through amongst others, the agenda setting theory and the framing theory, this report seeks to understand how media describes the swine influenza and how it uses its power to influence people to vaccinate. As this report will show, there is no doubt that media has had an impact on the Swedish population of which 60 per cent followed through with the vaccination. Media used an information discourse and attempted to present its articles in an impartial manner and used governmental authorities and experts to support its arguments.