AbstractC-level essay in political science, by Frida Orlinder, spring semester 2008Supervisor: Susan Marton?Good contracting? ? A study of contracting in public procurement regarding the transportation of school children?Over the last decades models influenced by the market have been gaining influence in public administration all over the world. New Public Management has been presented as a theoretical ?shopping basket? from which concepts can be applied to the administration of municipal services. The purpose of this essay is to investigate in an explorative way how New Public Management (NPM) views contracting and the role of the internal customer in contracting.

This paper is written to take a close look at teaching methods used at the Summer Academy (SHS), which is held at Södertörns Högskola in Stockholm. SHS is a subdivision of the institution of teaching education, which annually, during summertime, offers an eight-day program for pupils between 13-15 years of age, from different schools located in socio-economically disadvantaged suburbs of Stockholm. The intention of SHS is to give the participating pupils an insight into higher education, especially that of university. The purpose of the activities, such as field trips, guided tours and corporate visits, is to make pupils aware of their own responsibility for their educational situation through different methods of knowledge transfer, to diversify the means of the education, and to bring awareness to the array of possibilities which they have access to within the Swedish system of tertiary education.The study is based on six deep-interviews, three with pupils and three with student mentors. Together with 131 surveys from the course given during the summer of 2014, and theories of John Dewey on ?Learning-by-doing?, the results show that pupils participation in SHS give them a better understanding for, and knowledge about their own educational responsibility.Another question this paper seeks to address is how significantly the SHS program is changing the pupil?s experience of education in general and their view upon higher education specifically.

Partnering is a collaboration method where the contractor and the client work together, based on a mutual trust towards each other and with a common goal for the project. The method originates from the United States where it was early adapted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It later spread internationally where the United Kingdom and Denmark were early in Europe to see the potential with partnering, to help aid with the issues they were having where construction projects kept running late, going over budget and lacked in quality. By using partnering you can achieve a shorter building time, improved work relationships and enhanced efficiency and cost effectiveness.

In 1974 the three municipalities of Åsele, Dorotea and Fredrika were amalgamated despite of hunger strikes, mass protests and a serious threat of violence. But after six years the marriage shattered as Dorotea left the other two after years of continued struggle. In 2005 the idea of an amalgamation of Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina municipalities was brought to life by an older and ever declining population.By creating a democratic ideal type consisting of the three variables ? legitimacy, participation and identity ? this study assesses what impact an amalgamation of the three municipalities might have on local democracy.Combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach this study concludes that amalgamating the municipalities today could create a democratic unit lacking legitimacy, having a weak identity and impeding participation. But the study also brings forth that the impact of an amalgamation upon the variables of the ideal type as defined is not written in stone.

With examples from a single classroom situation, several educational moments show what goes on between the teacher and the student. The teacher?s responsibility in the learning process is, with a gesture frozen in the air of the moment, to lead and follow the student in her tentative efforts at seeking knowledge. Initially, it is an attempt to shed light upon the "not yet seen" with a certainty that the student herself possesses the capacity and the aptitude to reach greater insight and clarity in her understanding. The Validation/Feil Method presented in this instructional situation illustrates how best to communicate with elderly people suffering from Alzheimer?s dementia.

AbstractThe purpose of this essay is to increase the knowledge of which strategies students with reading and writing disabilities or dyslexia use to learn in secondary school. The study aims to examine the following questions:Which coping strategies do students with reading and writing disabilities use in their studies?How can remedial teachers support students with reading and writing disabilities in their learning process?The study consists of two interviews with a total of three hours recorded material made with a secondary school teacher who teaches Swedish and English. The teacher has experiences of reading and writing disabilities herself but also from teaching students with dyslexia. The interviews are constructed into a lifestory describing experiences of reading and writing disabilities in school, during teacher training and as a teacher.

Over the past twenty years, the cooperation within the European Union (EU) has strengthened and expanded with both more number of Member States and stronger influence on international politics. The unique character of the Union and its ability to enforce peace and humanitarian intervention has attracted attention in political science. This prominent position of the Union is perceived by many scholars who often hold this derived from the Union's influence in international relations. Various terms have been used to define the powers of the Union. The British researcher Ian Manners states that the unique identity of the Union in the international arena is formed by its normative power.  An important policy area within the Union is the environmental cooperation.

This study intends to examine why the Swedish children?s programme Bolibompa is produced the way it is during a larger catastrophe. Our intention was to find out how the editorial staff, in the children?s department in the public service television of Sweden (SVT),was handling the Estonia disaster, the September 11 attacks and the Asian Tsunami. To accomplish that, we first had to find out how the children?s programme looked during these catastrophes and also understand how the editorial staff was working with children?s programme during ordinary days.To achieve our purpose we have been interviewing five persons from SVT, who was involved in producing the children?s programme during these three catastrophes.

The problem of separating a non-rectangular foreground image from a background image is a classical problem in image processing and analysis, known as matting or keying. A common example is a film frame where an actor is extracted from the background to later be placed on a different background. Compositing of these objects against a new background is one of the most common operations in the creation of visual effects. When the original background is of non-constant color the matting becomes an under determined problem, for which a unique solution cannot be found. This thesis describes a framework for computing mattes from images with backgrounds of non-constant color, using Bayesian statistics.

This thesis examines the reasons behind the Swedish migration policy reform which led to a replacement of the Aliens Appeal Board by the Migration Court. This introduced a two-party procedure, oral hearings and enhanced transparency. It was designed to guarantee the rule of law and to thwart political arbitrariness.The transfer of power from representative institutions to judiciaries is referred to as judicialization, and the Migration Courts may be considered a typical example of this phenomenon. However, this can be questioned. The straggling nature of the term implies everything and anything unless cautiously defined.

Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) is a common broadleaved species throughout Europe, however often of minor interest to the forest sector. There is currently a lack of research on sycamore maple, and some of its characteristics have throughout history contributed to a negative reputation in both literature and the forest society. Since broadleaved species in general are of great importance to the forest sector in Europe and presumably of enhanced significance in the future, deepened research is needed and particularly Swedish. With a desire to hopefully increase the interest for sycamore maple, was the objective of the study to examine the current status of the sycamore stands in southern Sweden. The study was carried out both as a survey with inventory field work and as a literature study. Parts of the latter mentioned is also presented in the introduction. The study shows that the majority of the sycamore stands in Sweden are growing well, producing fairly high qualities and volumes.

The starting point for the present study is that the physical environment can enhance the learning processes of children. We want to contribute to more focus being placed on this within library and information sciences. Our main aim is to illustrate how the physical environment can facilitate the learning of children. In order to achieve our aim, we examine a concrete physical environment, namely the children?s department at the main library in Kungsbacka.

GIS on the Internet is a rather new phenomenon, which has evolved from the need ofdistributed geographical data. It is also a powerful tool for presenting information on theInternet. This master thesis aim to create a web based GIS application with information onlime spreading and the situation concerning acidification in the county of Kronoberg, Sweden.The web based GIS application will be used by the county administrations in Kronoberg toinform the public and the municipal authorities of current counteracting acidification activity.This report includes documentation on acidifying processes and liming activities, which arepublicised together with the web based GIS application. The web based GIS application wascreated with ArcIMS, a new program in the ESRI family of GIS programs. The programincludes a guided structure, to development of everything from a map to a complete GISapplication, including mapservice and websites.

AbstractC-level essay in political science, by Frida Orlinder, spring semester 2008Supervisor: Susan Marton?Good contracting? ? A study of contracting in public procurement regarding the transportation of school children?Over the last decades models influenced by the market have been gaining influence in public administration all over the world. New Public Management has been presented as a theoretical ?shopping basket? from which concepts can be applied to the administration of municipal services. The purpose of this essay is to investigate in an explorative way how New Public Management (NPM) views contracting and the role of the internal customer in contracting.

I denna studie analyseras skriftspråksutvecklingen hos sex elever i riskzonen för läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Syftet med studien är att klarlägga vilken roll specialpedagogiska insatser spelar för elevers skrift-språkliga utveckling. Har innehållet i stödet någon betydelse för elevernas utveckling och vad händer när stödet uteblir? Studien fokuserar på tidig kontra sen identifiering av elevernas läs- och skrivsvårigheter samt påföljande insatser. I detta sammanhang analyseras också hur dessa insatser påverkar elevernas självförtroende och motivation för skolarbetet.