Texture is an important soil property and accurate particle size analysis of soil texture is therefore crucial. There are a number of well-established and newly developed methods available for determining soil texture. In order to compare the results of these methods, the differences between them must be determined. The difficulties, problems and differences regarding texture class determination were examined through a study performed on forest soil samples. The study compared different methods (pipette, hydrometer and field methods) and two types of dispersing agents (sodium pyrophosphate and sodium hexametaphosphate (calgon)) commonly used for particle size analysis.

To build high-rise buildings made of timber has for long been limited by national laws, due to the lack of knowledge in engineering solutions. Frame structures made of wood has for a long time been associated with major fire hazards and consequently lower safety and this connection is still being made today. The increased environmental awareness in recent years has contributed to the exploitation of indigenous building materials, including wood from our own Swedish forests and has become increasingly common. Increased knowledge about how structures behave in fire and how they can be protected in order to achieve safe timber structures has resulted in a growing interest in these structures in the construction industry. Research in the area is constantly updated and new laws allow any number of storeys in wooden buildings in Sweden as long as the performance requirements are fulfilled.The main part of this work has involved calculations of the fire resistance and load bearing capacity of floor and wall constructions.

Not much is today known about how epiphytic lichens are effected by fire. A considerable part of the fires in Sweden today are prescribed fires for the purpose of environmental conservation. How these fires affect lichens is largely unknown. The aim of this study is to find out how epiphytic fruticose and foliose lichens on Scots pine are affected by fire, and to elucidate the relationship between fire intensity and the survival of lichens and later re-colonization. The study was performed at three locations just outside Umeå in Västerbotten that were burned 5-7 years earlier. In all locations there were larger groups of surviving Scots pines with varying amount of fire-damage in the crown, which enabled a reconstruction of fire intensity.

The project deals with the evaluation and testing of speaker and microphone elements as well as microphone cavity.The first part of the report comprises a comprehensive theoretical part about drivers, microphone elements, and to some extent microphone cavity.The goal was to , on the behalf of the company Limes Audio AB, develop proposals on microphone element and cavity as well as drivers for a speakerphone application, based on specific factors. The main factors were performance, price and form factor.The aim was to create the best possible conditions for Limes Audio's software developers to implement the company's audio-enhancing software, mainly adaptive echo cancellation.The testing was carried out using Adobe Audition and MatLab. The test methods were developed in conjunction with Limes Audio and are described below.The project will result in suggestions for a speaker, a microphone and a cavity. The cavity were removed from the product because the results indicated that the cavity matter little for the end result.The report concludes with a discussion on how the measurements could have been enhanced to simplify the interpretation of the results and making the testing more efficient..

Not much is today known about how epiphytic lichens are effected by fire. A considerable part of the fires in Sweden today are prescribed fires for the purpose of environmental conservation. How these fires affect lichens is largely unknown. The aim of this study is to find out how epiphytic fruticose and foliose lichens on Scots pine are affected by fire, and to elucidate the relationship between fire intensity and the survival of lichens and later re-colonization. The study was performed at three locations just outside Umeå in Västerbotten that were burned 5-7 years earlier. In all locations there were larger groups of surviving Scots pines with varying amount of fire-damage in the crown, which enabled a reconstruction of fire intensity.

Thermal fatigue is a serious problem in todays power plants. A large amount of damages around the world circles around that subject. The damage can come from the mechanism of two flows mixing with different temperatures in a T-junction. It is a fundamental prerequisite that these T-junctions are frequently tested for damages. An amount of criterias steers the rate of testings.

In today?s IT world where software is constructed in a rapid pace, testing has become a crucial area to master when testing has to be done at a greater speed. To still be able to handle the demands of high quality software, companies have to spend more resources on testing and introduce test automation. By automating test cases the testers can gain time which they can spend on doing more complex testing and thereby increase the quality of the software.In this thesis we have helped Extenda AB, who delivers systems to retail companies, to introduce test automation in one of their customer specific projects. This has been done using their own in-house ?capture/replay? tool ECP (Extenda Cashier Player).We have also derived a process that explains how Extenda can introduce test automation on other customer projects.

The City Library has a problem getting children interested in reading. Futhermore, there are no clear signs to aid children to navigate themselves to books targeted to their age group. To solve this problem, this thesis aims to design signs that is both illustrative and informative.Of the images that were tested during the research, I would assume that children in such a wide age range requires the simplest level of abstraction from testing the three testing icons, since the second level of abstraction was not interesting enough for the kids. The third, nearphotorealistic level was most liked by the children who were in the city library more often and looked for books themselves..

Engelfors Trilogy is a three-part fantasy novel consisting of Circle, Fire and The key, written by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgrens. Circle was nominated for the August Prize award 2011, which is a literary prize awarded each year. The book has also been translated into 25 different languages. Fire came out in August 2013 and is the part of the novel that I will concentrate on in these theses. What I will do in this paper is a queer feminist analysis of the novel's main characters in the book Fire.

This study has researched how user click heatmaps and eye tracking can be utilized in usability testing. We have used the tools SessionCam and Tobii. We designed a website for a small clothing store and conducted usability tests, in order to evaluate the users clicks and eye movements in relation to design choices on the website. The aim of this study was to research how these tools can be integrated in usability testing and how results from the tests can be used to improve usability. We were able to use the recordings of clicks and eye movements and make design changes based on the findings.

The aim of this study is to examine the patient's understanding of the counselling while testing for an STI. The method was an inquiry directed to patients at two receptions, where tests for STI are made, and on the Internet for patients who made a test within the last year. The study involves 95 participants, 39 answered the inquiry directly after the test. The main results show that most participants are positive to talk about their sexuality and sexual strategies with the personnel, irrespective of who takes the initiative to the counselling. Women are yet more negative then men to talk about their sexuality, even if the test is made voluntarily by the woman.

This qualitative study examines how emergency people are framed in Swedish evening-, and local newspapers during the forest fire in Va?stmanland, Sweden 2014. The study also includes if there is any difference between the framing due to the location of the newspaper. The study is based on qualitative text analysis. The theoretical basis is representation, framing theory, media image, media logic and a few conceptions from crisis communication theory.

This thesis aims to increase understanding and knowledge of issues affecting the redevelopment of older office buildings to housing. The rising demand for housing in recent years has resulted in a need and an increase in cost housing projects. The need has led property owners wanting to build old office buildings to apartments. The case study is carried out in Lycksele town and in close contact with consultancy TM (Technician Mercantile) ? consulting, which has operations in the area.

Titel: Value stream mapping in practice ? A case study at Light MyFireAuthors: David Rydman and Tomas ÖnnemarMentor: Veronica Ülgen SvenssonExaminer: Åsa GustafssonBackground: Companies push their prices in today's markets to be competitive, which means that companies need to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining profits. (Cudney, 2009) According to Bergman and Klefsjö 2007, the basic rule of quality improvement says "there is always a way to achieve higher quality at a lower cost". One way is to improve a company's processes to get a more efficient flow and improvements that may cut costs. (Bergman & Klefsjö, 2007) Why it's important to look at the processes are that they often contain waste that can be eliminated.

The purpose of this study is to achieve an understanding of how a CE- marking process is conducted and to identify the relevant factors that must be considered in such a process. We have conducted our study at Lo?vhults Svets & Smide AB (Lo?vhults) in Skruv, Sma?land Sweden, which are manufacturing brackets for small covering constructions.To understand how a CE-marking process is conducted several documents and provisions have been reviewed to achieve a basic understanding and insight of the subject. It thus led to that guideline ETAG 015 were studied and the factors to be considered in the CE-marking of brackets were identified. Together with Jan-A?ke Johansson at Lo?vhults we agreed on four different brackets to investigate for a potential CE-marking.