The survey aims to shed light on traditional and contemporary bottom floor frames, their construction and different insulating materials; mineral wool, wood shavings and charcoal. The purpose is to analyze and discuss the similarities and differences as well as the pros and cons with a focus on the construction and the different insulating materials. The work has been limited to comparing two different wooden floor frames. The first one is based on a real floor frame from an older building, this example is presented as the traditional floor frame in this study and are from around 1940. The other floor frame is presented as a contemporary floor frame and is based on wood building type descriptions and literature.

The starting point of this thesis is the debate surrounding the two referenda?s in France and the Netherlands in May and June 2005, regarding the proposal of a European constitution. The aim of this study is to analyse how democratic legitimacy and the role of the citizens portrays within the democratic discourse of the European Union. The empirical material is based upon both speeches from the European Commission and news articles from the French newspaper Libération and the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Discourse analysis is used as a theoretical frame of reference combined with models of democracy.

Due to recent legal enactments regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the car industry is facing higher demands. An effective way of reducing these emissions is to minimize the weight of the vehicle. This thesis constitutes a feasibility study on whether or not it is applicable for the car industry to utilize an inner floor structure comprising composite materials. The principal was the projectSåNätt, in which the main participant was Volvo Cars Corp. In consultation with a reference group, consisting of delegates from the industry and KTH, a specification of requirements was produced.

 This report will describe a project between two students from Karlstad University and Markus Norström from Hovercraft solutions. The project aim was to develop a cabin for the hovercraft 380TD. The project was divided into two sub parts; one concerning the design of the cabin and one concerning the engineering. Throughout this rapport you can follow the engineering part of the project. The project has followed a systematic product development process resulting in optimized results for material selection and engineering solutions.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country?s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service.

The purpose of this study is to shine a light at the Swedish americans impressions and attitudes against the American society from the perspective of modernization and cultural attributes. This, with a reference frame of the deeply politically rooted European conception of America as a threat to the cultural well being, and as a thriving materialistic and progress bound constitution.The result shows that the attitudes against America in the descriptions were not all comparable with the conception that was conducted in Europe. However, the experiences altered whereas the study attends two different periods of time. The experiences differenced due to the growing exposure to cultural diversity and a modernization that grew faster in America than anywhere in the world. Not to mention the change of experiences and expectations that was with brought from a changing atmosphere in Sweden.

This thesis includes a mechanical engineering design work performed incollaboration between ÅF and Halmstad University. The work is done by FredyOlsson?s methods of Principle- and Primary Construction and David Ullman?stheories of Design for Assembly.The group was commissioned by ÅF to produce a concept to narrow down theassembly time of today?s luggage doors by reducing the numbers of adjustmentoptions. They also wanted it to be easier to mount the assembly by making itpossible to adjust the door in a closed position. Today luggage door takes, with its10 adjustment possibilities, around 4 hours each to assemble and ÅF wanted anassembly time around 10 minutes per door.Initially a preliminary study was made where the group began reviewing today'sconstruction and mounting of rails and doors on buses.

The interest in tiny wireless applications raises the demand for an integrated reference oscillator with the same performance as the macroscopic quartz crystal reference oscillators. The main challenge of the thesis is to prove that it is possible to build a MEMS based oscillator that approaches the accuracy level of existing quartz crystal oscillators. The MEMS resonator samples which Philips provides are measured and an equivalent electrical model is designed for them. This model is used in the simulations of the Pierce oscillator and the transresistance amplifier oscillator that are evaluated in this thesis. Finally the Pierce oscillator is implemented in the A BCD2 process and manufactured at Philips Semiconductors in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

SummaryBackground: Management control is important for all kinds of activities, both in trade and industry and in the public sector since you must economize on scarce resources. There are nevertheless many different views on management control, which have changed with the times. With regard to the public sector in Sweden, the management control systems have changed radically the last half century, especially from the 1980s, due to depressions and increased focus on effectiveness. New approaches have been taken by many municipalities and county councils, both in Sweden and internationally, where the former management control systems have been abandoned in favour of result control, target costing, and activity-based-costing, for example. Another new approach has been the Balanced Scorecard, which was introduced by Kaplan & Norton in a pioneering article in 1992.The Balanced scorecard is a multidimensional tool, originally intended to be used in trade and industry, but with regard to its nature, it has been adopted even by many non-commercial organizations, especially in Sweden.

This study describes how the women lived with breast cancer. The purpose with this study was to describe the womens' view on the disease and the understanding they hade on the social support they were depended on. The method was a study of literature with article reviews according to Polit et al., 2001. As theoretical frame of reference we choose Carnevalis model, Everyday life -Functional state of health. The result showed that the following four groups were formed: Support, positive and negative support off nursing staff and significant others.

Human-computer interaction is central for computer assisted development. The aim was to investigate the user experience of a new (U2) compared to an old (U1) computer system, within a cognitive psychology frame of reference. Six subjects, frequently using the system, participated in the study. It was shown that the new (U2) compared to the old system (U1) enhanced and supported more the users? system related procedures/tasks.

The concept of IT has developed into ICT (Information- and Communication Technology) over the years. ICT has an increasing impact in society and the Swedish curriculum (Lpo 94) highlights the importance of school to convey lasting knowledge that constitutes the general frame of reference that everyone in society is in need of. The purpose of this study was to find out how teachers perceive and use ICT in secondary school and discover the teachers? vision concerning ICT.The used approach for the study is a qualitative research with a basis of interviews. Four interviews are made with teachers from the early years of secondary school, at two different schools.

The aim of the study was to examine if the benthos in a restored portion of a small lowland stream south of Linkoping differed from two non restored reference areas two years after restoration. The reference areas were one stretch downstream and one upstream stretches of the restored stream. The benthic invertebrates were collected using standardized kick sampling. In order to classify the communities and estimate any differences, three different indices were exercised. In addition rank-abundance curves and checklists were used to get a picture of species composition.

This master of economics paper discuss that the globalization has lead to increasing internationalization among small Swedish IT- companies in the service sector. Sweden has a long history of foreign trade but in the beginning of the industrialization only large companies that produced goods answered for the foreign trade. Before, the Swedish companies begun their operations abroad in fairly nearby markets and only gradually penetrated far-flung countries. Now this is no longer possible. When small companies nowadays seek growth in other countries there is no time internationalize with the same approaches as before, especially when the company offers a service.

This is a qualitative interview study of the importance of the non-verbal communication related to the reference situation at public libraries. The experiences of both librarians and users of the reference service have been explored with regards to non-verbal communication. Eight interviews have been carried out. The results reveal that the users and librarians consider that it is important that the librarian find eye contact as well as give affirmation through nodding and smiling. To demonstrate interest and involvement in the questions through attentive listening is also of great value.