This study is about language use in text messaging. In this study there are 338 text messages: 206 of them written by girls and 132 written by boys. The informants in the study are 16 years old and they live in the countryside on the outskirts of a small town in southern Sweden. The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristic linguistic features in the messages, in order to determine what significant meaning an emoticon such as a smiley brings to a text and further, to explore what speech acts smileys occur in.The results show that the language in the messages is a mix of spoken and written language. The characteristic features that were found in the messages were short sentences, onomatopoetic expressions, words written in capital letters, English expressions and use of smileys.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the view on the personal encounter between staff and visitors in public libraries in order to detect possible differences between the two groups in order to see if the personal encounter as such could be used in order to market libraries. We believe that social competence must interact with the initial personal encounter in order for the visitor to experience the visit as positive. We have based the theoretical framework on Erving Goffman?s theory on social interaction, as well as on Christian Grönroos? theory on quality of service and marketing. We use the following questions: How do library staff view the personal encounter? How do library visitors view the personal encounter? How does the library staff?s treatment affect the visitor?s view of the library?Are there any differences in view between visitors and staff concerning the personal encounter? If so, what kind of differences are they? Using qualitative interviews, we have interviewed nine visitors and six staff members at two public libraries.

Results have shown that flow batteries may be a solution in the future as an effective and environmental friendly method to an energy storage system (ESS). The technology is reliable and has a high efficiency that comes with low energy losses and a long lifetime. The range of possible fields is suitable for cutting energy peaks in the power grid, by always have a ready and available energy storage that balances the production. By comparing the advantages of flow batteries with conventional batteries it is mainly the fact that they can conserve energy for a long time without being self-discharged thanks to that the storage capacity is in principle endless and limited by the size of the electrolytes tanks that makes them a great energy storage system. The batteries won?t take any damage or decrease in performance when charging or discharging it or if you exhausts it to 100 % and leave it discharged for a long time.

The purpose of our study has been to analyze the character of the interaction between music labels and media and to examine to what extent the artist brand is being considered in music labels relationship with media. This has resulted in our research question:What characterizes the large music labels relationship with media?For this study we have used a qualitative approach to achieve a deeper understanding of our chosen topic. We have conducted seven interviews with representatives from both major record labels and media companies with great knowledge about our subject. Five of the interviews were conducted face-to-face and two were performed via e-mail.In the final chapter we answer our research question and thus present our conclusions.

The project was carried out in cooperation with the department of product development IOS at IKEA. The work included improvements of a new existing product that Ikea soon will release on the market, Observatör, a wall bracket for flat screens. The product is supposed to fulfil the needs within this market for IKEA. However, since Ikea was not satisfied with it, our work was to carry out the improvements that were specified in the beginning of the project. Another task in the project was to develop a side-product that is supposed to be used together with Obeservatör for storage of DVD/decoders.The project included labour as problem definition to final technical drawings and a prototype.

Since prehistoric time man has used wood to build their environment. The material?s availabilitycombined with its good mechanical properties has often made it the material of choice. Like allmaterials exposed to natures degradative processes the properties of wood decreases over time.Rot, UV radiation and attacks by insects and pests damage wood if not protected. Since we wantwhat we build to consist, optimizing our building materials durability is of great interest.Techniques and methods for increasing the endurance of wood have been developed in severaldifferent places and for a long time.

The aim of this essay is to examine three separate Swedish public libraries and their respective websites on the grounds of the usability sciences. I firstly had to summarize the main properties of the usability-field in order to gain an extended knowledge of its purposes and possible usage for today?s library systems. I was then able to apply the extended knowledge in the examination of the three library websites and the purpose of determining whether or not they were designed according to the standards set by the usability-sciences.Usability is a rather new science that deals with the dissection and examination of computer-based systems, in order to find the key components that make systems user-friendlier. With user needs being the main focus of its research, usability tries to meet all the different needs of the modern user and construct systems that are less system-centered and more user-centered.

This report is a bachelor thesis work within the field of Product Development and is also an assignment for Thule Sweden. The work has been performed by Niclas Tjäderborn and Christian Holm, students at the Mechanical Engineering Program with major in Product Development and Industrial Design at Jönköping School of Engineering during spring the semester of 2009.The thesis work concerned the development of a new wheel holder for bike carrier for Thule Sweden. The background to the project was that the initiator wanted a more user friendly wheel holder with better design than those available on the market. The wheel holder is able to be implemented on one or several of Thule?s current wheel holders.

Flustret is a restaurant and an entertainment place situated by Svandammen in Uppsala. It all began in 1842 as a café serving coffee, tea, chocolate and pastry. During the years the building has had numbers of different owners. The owners of today are running Flustret in a same friendly spirit that has been characteristic from the beginning. The buldings history is now approaching an age of 165 years. Throughout the years different historical layers have been placed on top of each other, leaving a layer of patches.

The aim of this thesis is to practice the theoretical methods that are concerned during the product development process of two new products. The theoretical concepts that embody the two products are created out of a product specification which is given by a commissioner with a private interest. The primary tasks of the design of the concepts are aimed on the products shape, which is to be created as a flexible structure by using silicon rubber as material.The storage box is a further development of the already known food storage box, or lunch box, which is common used in consumer kitchens. The main idea is to design a flexible product by using silicone rubber. It will able the storage box to be compressed when it is not used, be storage friendly and not consume more space than necessary in a storage compartment.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of selecting films at Bibliotekstjänst and at Swedish public libraries. The tools that have been used for analysing and interpreting the results from the interviews and the questionnaire are theory-based models describing the selection process concerning film and Carl Gustav Johannsen?s quality definitions. The result of the investigation shows that Bibliotekstjänst doesn?t really work with any quality definitions in their selection process.

The ambition with this study is to look into and create an understanding for how an intranet can work as a support system in work processes in capacity as a source of knowledge. We want to enhance the understanding for which kind of knowledge that can be coded in and transmitted by an intranet, and which that is lost in this process. We also want to clarify what it takes to get this knowledge, in collaboration with the intranet, to support the work in an organization. It is a qualitative case study at a Swedish bank. It consisted of semi standardized, half structured interviews with five people in one of the bank?s local offices.

In recent years it has become way more important for organizations to use their brand to market themselves as an employer. In a market where organizations are competing for labor it has been known that the brand can make it possible for organizations to differentiate themselves as unique and attractive place of work. The concept is called Employer Branding and if an organization wants to suceed they have to have a clear and defined structure. The concept is well known among private organizations and not as common with the public sector. The purpose of this study was to examine how a small municipality in northern Sweden is working to be an attractive employer.

The purpose of this study was set against the background that social media today are used as an platform for companies to communicate with their customers, as well as communicate their brand. Therefore it was interesting to examine this phenomenenon through a critical point of view and try to put light on the different forms of power that is produced on this arena.The overall aim of this study was to examine how PR-consultants talk about social media as a communication channel. The empirical data consisted of five interviews with PR-consultants on five different PR-agencies. The theoretical framework was based on a social constructional perspective and Foucault?s theory of power.

In todays high-technological society where the Internet plays a central role in our day-to-day life, many e-retailers are not able to attract customers to complete a transaction on their website. In order to succeed, many e-commerce sites must improve several safety aspects regarding online payment, in order to be perceived as a reliable and secured retailer. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if increment in various combinations and aspects in online payment will in fact improve the customer's perception of the e-retailer and result in completed transactions. In order to investigate this aspect, an experiment was conducted to be able to compare eight independent groups, that each had been exposed to a different security scenario on the online payment website of either a known or unknown retailer. Our results clearly prove that perceived security of the retailer's payment website increases willingness to purchase from the retailer.