The purpose of this study was to investigate if preferences for high- and low context communication differed significantly between individuals from individualistic and collectivistic cultures, living in a multicultural environment. A quantitative survey was used as method and the survey was answered by 150 students at Jönköping University and Uppsala University. Two self-assessment scales, obtained from previous studies were used to measure the degree of the two cultural dimensions and communication styles. Two multiple regression analyzes were performed to investigate the connection between collectivist cultures preference for high context communication and individualistic cultures preference for low context communication, that has been found in previous studies. Two ANOVAs were also performed to investigate differences in communication style depending on sex and length of stay in Sweden.

An environmental review has been carried out at FORIA AB, a transportation- and machine service company, to analyze the company?s environmental aspects from the transportation segment. This report describes the essential background and the methods of identifying and evaluate the environmental aspects. It also describes how the work with the environmental aspects often vary between different actors. The design of the ISO 14001 is intentionally broad in order to apply on all sorts of activities and organizations.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur människor upplever att ständigt vara tillgänglig med sin mobiltelefon och/eller Internet. En kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts, där tolv personer, sex gymnasieungdomar och sex vuxna personer, har intervjuats. Hälften av de intervjuade bor i södra Sverige, hälften i norra. För analysen har McQuails grupperingar inom Uses and gratifications-teorin använts, liksom cultural studies teorier. Resultatet visar att de intervjuade ser det både som en möjlighet och ett krav att vara tillgängliga och uppkopplade, att Internet och mobiltelefon verkar bidra till att arbete/skola och fritid flyter ihop samt att de äldre intervjuade i något högre grad än de yngre upplever negativa aspekter av att vara ständigt tillgänglig.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how teachers work and reflects on gender education in preschools. We also want to take part of how teacher?s thoughts are reflected in the physical indoor environment and how the environment is designed by reviewing the rooms furnishing and the selected materials. We will do this by visiting a number of preschools located in Stockholm and New York. We have chosen three questions to get the answers on our purpose.How teachers reflect around gender pedagogy are, and how the thoughts are expressed in the practical work.How the teachers communicate with their co-workers about gender pedagogy.How the teachers own thoughts and reflections on gender pedagogy have been expressed in the physical indoor environment where the children stay during the day. We have used interviews and observations as a method to gather the information that we needed to answer our questions of the thesis.

The purpose of this analysis was by qualitative semi-structured interviews with twelve children 5-years old and six pre-school teachers at three pre-schools, a total of six departments, find out how pre-school teachers worked with waste separation, if it motivated the children to take care of the environment, and if the work was understandable for the children. The results showed that the children did not comprehend what the pre-school teachers expressed that they worked with regarding waste separation and actions connected to caring for the environment. The pre-school teachers also expressed that the children was not mature enough to learn about the process when waste separated garbage is recycled, and that the work with the subject therefore had been carried out on a lower level. The children however expressed knowledge that did not come straight from their actual every day life, but since dialogue about the subject did not seem to exist between pre-school teachers and children, the pre-school teachers appeared to have failed in making the learning meaningful and understandable for the children, from their knowledge, experiences and interests..

This thesis aims to present the essential background on how to perform climate changeimpact assessments, and to present the results from a climate impact assessment on waterbalance and nitrate leaching for an arable Swedish soil. The soil is a sandy soil in southwesternSweden, grown with spring cereals. This study is meant to be a benchmark example,and cannot be seen as a regional or national assessment for Sweden, rather as an approachto present and analyze the most important parts of these kinds of assessments.A dynamical simulation model (COUP, Jansson and Karlberg, 2004) was used for thisstudy. The model was parameterized and calibrated against data from an experimental site,located in Mellby in Hallands county, south western Sweden. Measurements were carriedout between 1st of April 1988 and 1st of April 1991.

Reducing the CO2-pollution, resulting from the combustion of fossil coal for energyproduction, is important to affect environmental changes. One way to achieve a reductionis to use the oxy-fuel technology. The technology uses O2 and re-circulated flue gasduring the combustion which results in a flue gas mainly consisting of CO2. The flue gascould then be compressed and stored without environmental effects. A problem thatfollows from the compression is the risk of acidification in sensitive parts of the process.Acidification can occur because of reactions following from the contact of condensedwater and sulphur- and nitrogen-oxides which are also present in the flue gas.This report compiles and evaluates the basis of a scientific unit with the purpose ofexploring the possibilities of extracting impurities of SOx and NOx from the flue gases.The dimensions of the unit are based on basic conditions, defined for an existing oxy-fuelprocess at Chalmers, and on the results of computer modelling.

Uppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen i Kulturvård, Trädgårdens hantverk och design, 15 hp, 2015.

One of our big public health problems in Sweden is that human beings are too inactive in outdoor settings. That is why stress related diseases increase and influence humans both mentally and physical. The physical activity is halved among many children when they start school and the older they become the less they enjoy school. It is also an increasing problem that children and youth in today's society have lack of worthwhile experiences in the nature. The aim of this study was therefore to examine how the experience of outdoor environment had importance for health and learning on upper secondary school pupils.

This essays overarching aim is to contribute to the theoretical discussion of transformation processes that are shaping the urban landscapes and further to problematize contemporary planning discourses in Sweden. Drawing on the concept of Foucault?s heterotopia and actor-network theory for spatial analysis, the paper seeks to analyze the complex urban landscape transformation process as an emergent property of human and non-human actor-networks seeking to transform and order space. With the district of Rosenlund in Gothenburg as a starting point, this thesis intends to examine how the cultural infrastructure - used by the residents and visitors of the city - are related to the city's planning and development processes. The case study is based on a boat (Rio Rio) in Rosenlund canal that is defined as a cultural infrastructure.

In the 1940s, 50s and 60s the two youth movements of the beats and the hippies emerged in the United States. Disagreeing with the progressive positivism of the previous generations these youths were part of a counter culture that adhered to an ideal of living in the present.Alan Wilson Watts (1915?1973), most known for his popularization of eastern philosophy and religion in general and Zen-Buddhism in particular, became one of the most influential and well-read advocates of the new movements. Drawing upon eastern philosophy and religion as well as modern psychology, Watts challenged the western world view by rejecting the dualism of self and environment, arguing that man is one with God and nature and claiming that nothing exists but the present experience here and now.Based on Watts? view of man and reality, and in the context of the emerging youth movements, this study examines Watts? criticism of western culture and society as well as his view on happiness and the possibility of a better life for the individual living in the west.The study shows that, according to Watts, the root of the problem facing western society lies in man?s incapability of distinguishing concept from reality, preferring abstract ideas and symbols to the experience present in everyday life.

The objective of this master thesis was to study the relation between public green open space and health among adolescents in Uppsala municipality, Sweden. The aim of the study was to investigate if there is an association between the access to green open space in the living environment and adolescent´s health, in terms of fysical activity, self- reported health and overweight. The public health questionnaire ?Liv och Hälsa Ung 2009? provided data together with a map over public green space, where the measure taken into account is the proportion of public green space in the living environment. The study includes 3423 adolescents, 12-19 years old.

The theme of this bachelor thesis in sociology has been developed through the perspective of ?grounded theory?, where the writers starting point touched the subject of integration in the organization Samhall in Sweden, an organization that hires disabled individuals that do not have enough working abilities to be hired any place else. From there, the methodology moved into a qualitative research through interviews with first generation immigrants hired at Samhall, where the result presented clear patterns of integration problems such as identification with an organization that does not have a normal way of working, the feelings of security which led to an unwillingness to leave the organization (which actually is the main goal of Samhall) and the stigmatized presumptions of the organization as such that makes it even harder to get a regular job on the open work market. These patterns were then put together with theories of stigma, cultural sociology and organizational identification, which three were the theoretical framework of this thesis. This study has contributed with an enlightenment of how it is to be an immigrant in a state governed organization and the consequences that follow when integrating an immigrant in a work disabled working environment. .

The Earths climate is changing at a higher rate, i.e between 1861 and 1994 the annual mean temperature in Scandinavia increased with 0,68º C and according to recent climate models the annual mean temperature is likely to rise with another 3º C during this century.A warmer climate in many ways is associated with changing conditions for lake ecosystems. An expected higher water temperature and a stronger summer stratification of the water column increases the risk of anoxic conditions at the lake bottom. Thus anoxic conditions are likely to cause a phosphate leakage from the sediment, i.e. a higher internal loading of phosphate.In this project, the extremely warm summer of 2002 has been used as an example for a possible scenario for a future climate. By comparing levels of phosphorus in the summer of 2002 with a ten-year median value, a phosphorus related sensitivity to climate change has been analyzed for 55 Swedish lakes.

This thesis compares different methods for risk assessment of a creosote contaminated site in Vansbro, Dalarna. In a complementary study the importance of using representative data for calibration and validation of stationary groundwater models is discussed. The time dependency between surface water levels and groundwater levels on the site in Vansbro is evaluated by step response analysis. The results show that the groundwater levels reflect only long-term variation in the surface water levels. Hence the use of such long-term means for calibration and validation of the stationary groundwater models is the only theoretically defendable alternative.As a first step in the comparison of risk assessment methods the degree of contamination is evaluated on the basis of generic guideline values for contaminated soils, developed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.