Access to correct and updated intelligence about our environment is in an increasingly degree considered important in the private as well as in the public sector. At Mälardalens University, competitive intelligence as an area of research is closely related to Information Design - a multidisciplinary consideration which goal is to improve the receiver´s understanding of intended messages. This study was conducted in order to find out how Information Design was representedin different kinds of literature regarding Competitive Intelligence. Also, it describes the main focus areas concerning Competitive Intelligence in the same literature. Through an explorative "pearl-growing" method combined with searches through referrals, 60 different sources provide a broad basis for analysis.

Public participation is a key aspect in the planning of Swedish municipalities. It is probably the most important tool of them all in the planning towards a sustainable future within the cities and the municipalities as a whole. Participation from the public can take on several different forms. In this paper I focus to research and discuss in and around the usage of a web-based 3D platform called City Planner. The tool allows the user (the public) to view the municipalities planning in a fairly new (but quickly growing) environment.

The purpose of this essay is to examine why some countries in the world decided to support Kosovo?s declaration of independence in 2008, while others did not. The essay is a type of case study, with Kosovo?s independence as the main focus. For the purpose of the essay, main focus will be on the United States of America, Russia, China and Serbia.

My essey concern the non-profitable organization Ung företagsamhet and their extenal communication with collaborators. I have done three intervjues with three of Ung företagsamhets 24 district in Sweden, and these are Kalmar, Jönköping and Skåne. My qustions conserns their rethoric and strategic communications channales, and the focus lies in their external communications with collaborators. I have also made a secondary data analysis about their media coverage and seen how they consciously works with it.Ung Företagsamhet is a non-profit organization that need good partnerships in order to survive financially. My analysis shows that the three different regions works variously with their external communication.

The main purpose of this examination paper has been to do a review of recent scientific and evaluated studies performed on children 0-15 years of age, treated with an animal as an assistant to the therapist/professional. The key term is Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT). Our focus has been to describe in what fields these kinds of studies have been performed, what the results are and how effective they have been. As a supplement to our study we have performed 8 short telephone interviews with professionals in the same field of occupation corresponding to the studies we have summarized. Our results concerning the studies show that there has been a positive outcome in the treatment of children and adolescents and AAT.

We studied the initial process of reading, with a focus on typography, whether it ispossible to increase childrens lust to read in the age six to seven years old, byadjusting the typography and graphic design. We conduct this study through qualitative and quantitative studies, mainlyinterviews with a main focus on children in this particular age were used. In additionto the interviews a questioniare were sent out to a selection of students. The studyalso contained an interview with a pedagogue as well as studies of the current andexisting textbooks and teaching aids that is used on the school we are looking into.During the study we consulted educated pedagogues to get an understanding of thechildren and their learning and to be able to approach them in a suitable way.The theories we have been using were mainly from a typographic point of view.Other areas we explored were theories about reading processes. This study showedthat every child needs a method that is suitable for them and that the materialprovided today is typographically inconsistent. The childrens and teachers needs andwishes in typography did not correspond with the current teaching aids design. From this study the followning points were made about how to design a textbook forchildren in the first grade:? The typeface should be a sans serif.? The point size should be bigger than 12 points.? Text should be aligned to the left.? Sentences should be short without becoming abstract.? To maintain focus on the text the layout should be simple and unbarked.? The format should be designed after the pourpose of the publication, forexample when it is a complement to the textbook, the format should be of suchcharacter that it is easy for the children to bring home.? There should be a typographical consistency through all of the materialsprovided to the children..

In this essay we discuss the broad area of website usability from a tourism perspective. Our goal was to investigate the usability in smaller and bigger tourism websites. We have declared what website usability means and the importance of involving the users when designing a user interface. In a pilot study, we conducted three interviews with people who work with usability and then used the information we got to form questions to use in a focus group interview. In this focus group, we asked three people to assess two Swedish tourism websites, one bigger and one smaller, to find out if they were considered usable and if there was any difference in usability depending on the size of the site.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

AbstractTitle: Cancer in media from a gender perspectiveNumber of pages: 33 (49 including enclosures)Author: Emma KreüTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media- and Communication science DPeriod: Spring 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this thesis is to investigate if there are differences between the picture given in media of women with cancer and of men with cancer. The result is aimed to give a deeper picture of how gender is represented in media.Material/Method: The method used in this thesis is discourse analysis, applied on twenty articles which contained personal interviews with women and men who have or have had breast or prostate cancer. Ten of the articles contain interviews with women and ten interviews with men. The articles were selected from criteria based on where and when they were published. They were picked from the two largest papers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Aftonbladet (AF), ten from each paper, of which five were interviews with women and five with men.

Shakespeare- Dead or alive in school?The purpose with our degree project is to examine if Shakespeare still is alive in school and in what way he is being used. Our study is based on these following questions:Does Shakespeare exist in school today?How are the other classic books being used?Which teaching methods are used?How is Shakespeare received by the pupils?The methods used to be able to answer the questions are interviews with teachers and focus groups with the pupils. We carried out the interviews with six Swedish teachers and four focus groups in four different upper secondary schools.The main result of this study shows that teachers and pupils still think that Shakespeare is an important author.

Strömstad is a small city located on the Swedish west coast. Urbanization and development is acurrent issue for the municipally, as for many other in the current situation. The municipal housingcompany Strömstadsbyggen is one of the parties involved in the extensive development that mustbe implemented to meet the changes and developments which the issue holds.One area that is of interest in the discussion is Rådhusberget - this due to the existing infrastructureand unique qualities that the area holds. In order to achieve the best solutions possible for the area,Strömstadsbyggen wishes to listen to what the existing tenants at Rådhusberget thinks and feelsregarding the area and its future potential.This thesis has therefore been carried out in collaboration with Strömstadsbyggen and has beenaimed at identifying the current tenants' thoughts and opinions in the existing area of developmentand infill potential. The aim of this work was also to investigate how the tenants value their homeand local environment in its current state, and what their wishes are for the possible futuredevelopment of Rådhusberget.To achieve analyzable results concerning how the tenants perceive these aspects, an extensivesurvey have been carried out which were sent out to all tenants in the area.

Purpose: The main purpose of our study is to explain how the disability management in the municipality of Karlskrona can design its balanced scorecard from a theoretical basis. The mission of the balanced scorecard is to improve the management control system. To achieve the main purpose we have to study the problems that exist with the current control system, which then becomes our second purpose.Method: Our study has a qualitative approach. The design of the study is a case study in which one case has been looked at. The empirical data is collected through interviews and documents. We have gathered our theory through scientific articles and literature.Results: The goals set by the board are unclear and hard to define.

This examination work is performed at the institution of industrial economy and production at Jonkoping technical university, for JELD-WEN Door Solutions plant in Forserum.Today the focus in the company is on to reduce their inventories binding of capitals as well as inventory of products and that includes to get a good control of the supply and handling of material which is of great importance.JELD-WEN Door Solutions is one of the worlds leading producers of windows and doors and the head-office is located in Oregon, USA.A great number of wooden doors are manufactured by the company in varying of constructions, classifications and performance.The production of the plant in Forserum has a project- and customer focus manufacturing where only internal doors are produced. The overall market they are concentrated on is to different institution such as schools, hospitals etc.The purpose of this work is to investigate possibilities to improvement of material- and production control at JELD-WEN. The report will handle the master production schedule to and from the production divisions within manufacturing industry. Focus will be on the way for information- and material flows from arrival, transport within the company and further on to customers.Further a map of the flow was performed which gave a clearer picture of the connection between the flow of information- and material for the manufacturing process. On the basis of the mapping of the flow, the group discovered that the flow of material had some improvement potential.

This study is based on interviews with heads of unit, care staff and senior representatives from a total of six people. We have in this study directed our focus on care quality in the elderly as a concept in development. It appears, when the elderly do not have any dependents, it is even more important that staff supports some extra where no relatives are involved.Quality of life is the broader concept of good quality care and where a good quality of care is a necessary condition for a good quality of life. According to the social services care is the target that older people will live a good life and be allowed to live in a safe environment, which we intend to investigate in this study. Opportunity for greater influence should now be given to older people and their families on how interventions should be designed and implemented.

Shakespeare- Dead or alive in school?The purpose with our degree project is to examine if Shakespeare still is alive in school and in what way he is being used. Our study is based on these following questions:Does Shakespeare exist in school today?How are the other classic books being used?Which teaching methods are used?How is Shakespeare received by the pupils?The methods used to be able to answer the questions are interviews with teachers and focus groups with the pupils. We carried out the interviews with six Swedish teachers and four focus groups in four different upper secondary schools.The main result of this study shows that teachers and pupils still think that Shakespeare is an important author.