In this paper discourse analysis on the Ethiopian National Action Program (NAP) to combat desertification is made. The aim is to describe how the overall image/picture of desertification, its causes, and effects and of possible solutions are presented in the NAP. The result of this analysis shows that the main cause of desertification is human activities mainly due to the poorly developed socio-economic situation in the dryland areas. It is indicated that an excessive dependency of the rural population on the natural resources, particularly land, is the major cause of land degradation and this deterioration of land is said to have been caused by the rapid population growth, overgrazing, forest clearing as well as past government and institutional failures. In addition it is indicated that the effect of desertification usually involves ecological changes that sap land of its ability to sustain agriculture and human habitation, therefore the most serious threat to human welfare.

The purpose of our research was to examine whether the acceptance and diffusion of RFID technology among the employees at public libraries in Sweden, follow the classic diffusion of innovation model. RFID or Radio Frequency Identification, is a technology that uses radio frequency and microchip technology to track items, in our case, library books and other library materials. Diffusion is the process by which, in our case, the RFID technology is adopted by the library staff. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors influenced the acceptance and adoption of RFID among the library staff. We used Everett Rogers' Diffusion of innovation theory as our framework.

The aim of the study was to examine experiences and attitudes to dental hygienist treatment in a group of patients by using the assessment tools Corah Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and Dental Hygienist Beliefs Survey (DHBS) at the dental hygienist clinic, the university of Kristianstad. Another aim of the study was to test the reliability of the assessment tools. Methods: Fifteen respondents answered the two questionnaires at two different occasions before dental hygienist treatment. The results showed that nine respondents reported that they are absolutely calm when their dental hygienist is going to remove tartar, while six are a little bit worried or tensed. The categories ethics, communication, trust and control in DHBS had a positive agreement (mean value 1.1 and 1.2).

We investigated a retirement home, where we looked at whether there are differences, disagreements or conflicts between teams who work day and night shifts. Our purpose was to examine the Heads of Unit and the employees perspectives on their perceived work situation, cooperation difficulties and why they emerged. We chose the general systems theory as our theoretical basis, which gave us the opportunity to highlight different parts that can affect the working climate and the cooperation of the working groups. The study also highlights the importance of structure, common goals, reporting and dialogue meetings. To understand the perceived work situation, we used methodological triangulation, using quantitative and qualitative methods (surveys, semi-structured interviews).

The objective of this study was to examine how an IT department has been affected by the changes of increased local usage of IT, and how the usage have affected municipalities IT departments demands of IT support. In the study we explore how both the IT department and the IT support works by interviewing present and former employees at the local IT department. The current IT department have undergone a series of local changes over the last 20 years, the department has gone from only having internal users to getting the entire municipalitiy?s agencies of IT as users. It started with how the municipality began to dig down fiber optic cable in the middle of the 1990?s, and today has started to develop solutions as to how to meet the demands of future usage of IT.

SMF Skogsentreprenörerna is a nationwide organisation for Swedish forestry contractors. It has about 750 organised companies with somewhere around 1500 logging machines. These machines perform well over 50% of all yearly landed wood in Sweden. The members of SMF also performs more and more of other functions in Swedish professional forestry, such as soil scarification, planting and pre-commercial thinning of younger stands. In order to determine what major priorities SMF should focus on in the future a member survey was initialised and carried out by SMF together with Daniel Larsson-Snygg, student at the swedish university of agricultural sciences SLU. This report presents the result of this survey sent out to all members of SMF. It is intended to answer a number of questions about their entrepreneurship such as: What different kinds of work do these companies perform? How many machines and employees do they have? How old are the company owners and their employees? What are their thoughts about the future of their business? How well does SMF serve their members needs?.

Public concern about the release of toxic compounds from wood-based products drives legislation towards enforcing industries to find and use more sustainable solutions for wood treatment. Plant oils are good alternatives to treat wood, minimizing or even neutralizing the impact on the environment. Wood modification with epoxidised linseed oil (ELO) and acetic acid as catalyst has proven a suitable method to impregnate and protect wood. However, the mixture presents a serious inconvenience because of the quick polymerization of the ingredients that limits its practical application. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate an alternative method using a two-step process which bypassed the problem above.

Chemotherapy is one of the most important methods of treatment available today for the treatment of neoplastic diseases and gives many patients an increased quality of life and a prolonged survival time (McKnight, 2003). The object of this study was to find out more about owners? views on and experiences of chemotherapy of dogs when it comes to for example quality of life, side effects and if they would make the same decision and treats their dog again in the future. A questionnaire was in the spring of 2009 sent out to the owners of 100 dogs that had been treated with chemotherapy for neoplastic diseases at Universitetsdjursjukhuset, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) in Uppsala between 2002 and 2008. The response rate was 67 %.

Introduction:Children in early age diagnosed with scoliosis and in need of surgery will grow up to undergo several operations in the back. Parents play a major role in the care of their children during hospitalization.Purpose:The purpose of this study was to investigate parents´ experiences of having a child diagnosed with scoliosis before the age of five undergoing repeated surgeries in the back.Method:The study had a qualitative descriptive design. Five parents with children aged 5-15 years, who have undergone several operations were interviewed about there experiences of the child?s illness and treatment. Phenomenological-hermeneutical analyze where used.Results:The parents felt a sense of shock when they were told about their child?s diagnose and treatment.

Our society is based on a heterosexual norm. This may lead to the fact that LGBT-persons have a poorer health status than the heterosexual population. The nurse education lacks information and courses that highlights sexual identity. This is defective since healthcare staff needs knowledge on the subject to be able to treat patients in a professional and respectful manner. The purpose of this study was to illustrate how heteronormativity influences the treatment of patients within a healthcare context.

The local politicians in Sweden are responsible for a great deal of the welfare system why one would assume that there are a lot of demands put on them - demands for certain skills or a certain level of competence. I have in this study tried to find out how the demands on the local representatives concerning the demands for competence and the actual level of competence among the politicians are affecting the local politics. This was done through investigating how the local politicians are perceiving their level of competence and the demands put on them, but also how the employees are perceiving the demands and the level of competence put on the politicians. The study was made in the municipality of Gislaved in Southern Sweden. I was using both quantitative method (an opinion poll among the politicians and employees in the municipality) and qualitative method (interviews with three politicians and three employees and literature studies).In order to investigate the demands for competence I split the concept into ?soft? competence (socially and emotionally based skills), and ?hard? competence (skills based on knowledge, education and experience).

Aftercare is an important condition for the Care of Alcoholics and Drug Abuse Act (LVM) to be successful. According to the law, the municipals are responsible for the aftercare. We compared how three municipal in Skåne, Sweden, define and work with the aftercare after treatment under LVM. The study was based on nine qualitative interviews with social workers, division managers and politicians from each municipal. As a theoretical reference the theory of total institutions and empowerment theory were used.

Wastewater contains biodegradable materials, which are often measured as BOD7.Trickling filters are sometimes used as a purification step for BOD-reduction. Atrickling filter is a tower, which is filled with a carrier material. Microorganisms growon the carrier material in the form of a biofilm. This biofilm consists mostly of bacteriathat purify water from BOD.In Älgarås? wastewater treatment plant the water is purified by a trickling filter.However the treatment plant has difficulties reaching the emission requirements forBOD.

The purpose is to describe and analyze Handelsbanken?s proftit share system Oktogonen and to investigate how it affects the motivation among the employees and management.The method qualitative case-study has been used. Both primary and secondary sources act as a foundation for the thesis. The primary sources are based on eight qualitative interviews. The empirical material is completed with appropriate theories.

Intense competition and pressure from various market participants is prevalent in today?s modern and technologically developed society. It is important to keep a high standard of service and customer care to be able to keep your position on the market. The focus of the paper is to study how a store manager can influence their employees to perform better on the job, in terms of service to customers and increased sales. The aim is to analyze the different tools store managers use to motivate their employees with the goal of improving service to the customer and to increase sales.