This essay takes its start in the problematic situation concerning source material in the study of the Norse religion before the Christianization of Scandinavia. There is a lack of written sources from the time when the religion was still practiced. There are plenty of archeological sources economic situation than their religious beliefs. The Icelandic stories written in the 13th and 14th centuries give us a broad pictureof the Norse mythology, but the writers were Christians which makes their reliability questionable.The focus of this essay is therefore on two texts written during the time when the Norse religion was still in practice. The first source is the travel notes written in 922 by the Muslim scholar Ahmad ibn Fadlan who met a group of the Rus? people.

In recent years, Lean has been implemented in a variety of companies with focus areas that differ from the conditions that characterizes manufacturing. This transfer has contributed to fairly superficial results because companies almost exclusively focus on Toyotas methodology and not on the goal of Lean. The effort of transforming Lean from manufacturing to any organization requires a definition on a general level and a view of Lean as a system. One of the core principles of Lean and the Foundation of continuous improvements is standardized work. In product development there is a negative view on standardized work, where the engineers state that the principle is not applicable for knowledge processes that include non-repetitive and creative work.In the framework of this master thesis literature has been studied to find support that standardized work is applicable for product development and areas that include knowledge processes.

The Swedish Transport Administration manage nearly 4,000 railway bridges in different condition and age around the country. These bridges is in constant need of maintenance and requires continuous inspections. This thesis is designed as a damage investigation on a single-track railway bridge south of Solvarbo in Säter municipality. The railway bridge is in operation and serves over 10,000 trains a year, everything from speed trains to freight trains. The bridge is built as a beam bridge, simply supported over a road.

A large proportion of businesses around the world is today ISO 9001 certified and is consequently conducting internal audits on a regular basis. It has however not been possible to conclude that internal audits always add value to the organisation, despite the large utilisation of this tool. Some authors, e.g. Alic & Rusjan (2010) and Wealleans (2000), mean that there are possibilities that internal audits may be used as a value-adding improvement tool. This has led to the emergence of this master?s thesis.The purpose of the case study was therefore formulated to examine how internal quality audits can be made more effective and used as an improvement tool.

Many buildings are now nearing the end of their service life. This applies to both the older houses from the 40's and 50's to the million project houses that did not prove to be as sustainable in the long run. Often there is a desire to extend the service lifetime, but to do that you need to make detailed inspections. The Folkets hus in Gävle is one of those buildings that is in need of renovation and to fulfill the new requirements that must be met in today's buildings. It is desired to make the buildings rentable space more attractive and to extend the building with two more floors.

Change is a natural state for both people and institutions, but as the surrounding world moves faster it becomes important to quickly be able to adjust to new conditions. Customers? force of negotiation increases as the global competition grows. One factor that becomes more vital to customers is the amount of quality standard a company can offer them. Several factors are essential if a work of change will be considered a successful investment, where the change can be perceived in both a positive and negative way for an employee.

Svartedalens nature reserve a social richness worth develop. The nature reserve of Svartedalen is an area of high biological and social values. The reserve is located close to several densely populated areas. The reserve has been classified as a national area of interest for nature conservation and outdoor life, and as a Natura 2000 area according to both the bird- and habitat directions. The reserve is the largest landarea in Västra Götaland, 3 410 hectares, where a resolution has been made about all these forms of protection. The Foundation Skogssällskapet owns 1 956 hectares of the reserve, at 1 384 hectares of the property they pursue FSC-certified silver culture, according to current management plan.

A study to optimize insulation thickness for stock-, industrial- and office-buildings for external walls and roof in an economical perspective has been conducted on behalf of DynaMate. DynaMate?s role is to maintain all Scania?s buildings. Analysis has also included other parts of the building envelope, such as windows, exterior doors and industrial doors. In this thesis, three different types of exterior wall constructions has been investigated, these are a sandwich design consisting of sheet metal and a another one consisting of concrete, as well as a wall of concrete with a coating of plasters.

This essay focus on the social media Twitter and how three Swedish PR practitioners view and use communication strategies for this social media. Twitter was created 2006 and is kind of a new channel in the digital world. The micro blog has over these few years attracted 175 million users across the world. In Sweden there is 91 000 registered users and according to a survey, 11 000 of them are active by tweeting once a day.Twitter is highly current and all kinds of people are using the social media, for example, artists, companies and individuals. Twitter is with its highly number of users building a new market for organizations to find their stakeholders.

The use of Internet by children and teenagers has become a special field of interest. Certain risks are associated with young peoples use of this media and national and international measures have been taken to assess and counter these risks.Library and informationscience have approached the subject of risks by looking at different software´s, so called Internet filters, that is used to control and censor the access to Internet based resources. In the USA, where public services and institutions that provide Internet resources to children and youth have started to require censorship of the Internet, a debate has arisen concerning the use of so called Internet filters.The theoretical basis of this master´s thesis is related to the conception of risk, gender and childhood. The focus of the paper lies on young peoples use of information and communication technology (ICT) and how risks associated with young peoples use of the Internet is constructed by different parties involved in supplying Internet resources. By means of a case study at a primary school in Skåne and at the company Netscan in Malmö.

Scania CV is one of the world's largest truck manufacturer. It is not only the directproduction of vehicles and methods that are important for Scania but also the servicemarket handling spare parts, repairs and workshops. The department Vehicle ServiceInformation construct standard times through work measurement for particularworks in the workshops. The software application STAM is used in the servicemarket to create and store standard times which then are exported to theworkshops' own systems.The purpose of this master thesis is to analyse and evaluate the internal workmeasurement system that includes standard times and the software STAM. Also,based on external analysis and benchmarking of other systems suggest appropriatefuture development within the area for Scania Vehicle Service Information.In order to perform the investigation, interviews and studies have been doneinternally at the departments that are involved in work measurement as well asexternally at Scania workshops.

SummaryEurope?s public authorities are influential consumers. If they spend their money on greener products and services they can make an important contribution to the work towards a sustainable development. Green public procurement can thereby significantly improve the take-up of new environmental technologies. Through the effects of economies of scale, production costs be lowered and better equip us to fight environmental problems.

The purpose of this paper was to carry out and evaluate a pedagogic ICT-project, where the computer was implemented in art class. Focus was on the consequences of collaboration and also on the students? understanding of their own performance, compared to techniques in traditional art class.The study was qualitative and began with studies in literature. The contents of the literature are the Foundation of the discussion, especially theories concerning the learning process, IT and computer-based learning. In the project, three different groups of students from upper secondary school attended and they where given tasks to solve in the image editing program Paint Shop Pro.

In the world we live in today the environmental issues has become increasingly important, and we have begun to realize that we can not continue to use fossil fuels at the rate we do. When it comes to generating electricity we are constantly trying to come up with cleaner and more efficient solutions. The fuel celltechnology is one such alternative and has been around for over 100 years. Yet, it is not until now that the world has started to notice this great technology. The fuel cell has been developed in several areas and can today be used for handheld electronics, vehicles and small settlements.

On a request from the water sewage plant Gryaab in Gothenburg a power quality survey was performed. The voltages and currents have continuously been sampled in the incoming 10 kV substation HSP01 from April-August 2008. Power quality measurements were also performed in Gryaabs other 10 kV substation HSP04 fed from HSP01 and at the terminals of the induction motor IN_PU4040 of 1.3 MW which controls one of the four large inflow pumps to the plant. The reason for the latter measurement was due to registered negative transients each time the motor was connected to the grid. The cause of the transients could be explained by the coupling in the substation, the ageing of the motor which could result in damage of the bearings or resonance in the motor circuit which amplifies high frequency harmonics.