In recent years, the characterization of the Third World and its inhabitants in West-originated children?s books has been subject to debate. Media attention around a selection of books has generated discussions on how this relates and aligns with Sweden?s national teaching curriculum. The objective of this study is to explore how a selection of authors, born in Western countries, have characterized and presented the Third World and its inhabitants in its literature.

The use of a bit in the mouth of a horse is being increasingly questioned with respect to its actual function, and is sometimes judged an obsolete instrument of control with potential to injure the horse. The objective of the research presented herein was twofold; firstly, to investigate the actual pressure load in the mouth of the horse with regard to oral health issues, and, secondly, to investigate whether this could be a viable method to objectively measure strength exerted by a rider/driver to the mouth of the horse especially with regard to training regimes. From the results, it is evident that these newly developed sensors have a future in equine research, although they are still under development. They can be useful both as a pedagogic teaching instrument, providing instructor and pupil with instantaneous, objective feedback on the contact between hand and mouth, as well as an aid in measuring pressure loads from our common bits. .

Today in Sweden, apples are mostly cultivated for direct consumption, i.e. dessert apples. Apple breeding aims at developing cultivars with new and improved qualities in order to meet the demands of different target groups and to increase the interest in apples on the market. Different target groups have different views on the qualities of an apple. The consumer, for instance, wants an apple that is tasty and beautiful, while the grower, in addition, wants an apple cultivar that is healthy, has good winter hardiness and a predictable, annual productivity.

Avdelningen för strömningslära vid Luleå Tekniska Universitet har en vindtunnel som främst används till utbildning i aerodynamik för studenter. I skrivandets stund finns bara en vinge (osvept) som tillåter att 3? dimensionella effekter kan studeras och jämföras med en vinge som har 2? dimensionell strömning av samma sorts vingprofil. Resterande vingar har bara 2?dimensionella egenskaper eftersom deras spann sträcker sig från vägg till vägg i vindtunnelns testsektion.

The purpose of this essey is through empirical methods investigate usability factors on Video On Demand applications for the Internet. More specificly we will focus on a application called Voddler. The purpose is to identify usability problems that exist in Voddler, and present the reader with suggestions on possible solutions. This could be used as guidelines to how to design for usability in this kind of system. We will use an online survey to investigate Voddler usability and use this data as a basis for our analysis.

I examine how relationships between people and objects are created and continues through contiguity every time one use or touch an object and through participation through use and memories. The aim is to continue a relationship and to keep a communication alive with people beyond time and space, then, now and henceforth. I take advantage of and transform the traces in an object that belonged to someone. Parallel I create new space for bodies to put their mark for the first time. I compare my work with the Nordic Museum's task to preserve the present for the future.

This report describes the development of an application in collaboration with Designingenjörerna AB. The company has worked for a long time with a community platform and they required an application where users can create their own unique profile representations, called Avatar Creator. An Avatar Creator is computer based application, which makes it possible to create a virtual character. The problem area behind this is that, large websites require a lot of administrative work when people upload profile pictures on different community pages. They can contain abusive material or pictures of other people rather than those who created the profile.The questions in this report are, how can an Avatar Creator help user to get a unique profile of himself? What are the advantages and disadvantages of an Avatar Creator? How to create a user-friendly application?To understand how an Avatar Creator works and get ideas to create an application, exiting Avatar Creators were reviewed on the Web.Collaborative work with Designingenjörerna AB was done to pin down the requirements for the Avatar creator application.

A pilot study conducted on four patients, which we received from the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, who were all potential candidates for a cochlear implant. We fitted our test subjects with a pair of frequency compressing hearing aids called Phonak Naida V SP during the study and let them evaluate them for about seven weeks. Measurements made with monosyllabic words throughout the study showed significant differences in speech perception (p?0.05) compared to their regular hearing aids in 3 out of 4 cases. De-activation of the frequency transposed function showed significant decreases in 3 out of 4 cases compared to when it was activated.All test subjects were satisfied with the new hearing aids and chose to keep using them at the end of the study..

Data retrieved from airborne laser scanning represents a new source of forest data. Today, the technology has matured so that it can function in an operational environment. The aim of this study was to compile areas of application of laserdata in forestry. Moreover to analyze costs and accessibility of laserdata. The goal was to provide private forest owners information to support assessments of possible benefits of laserdata.

The aim of the study is to examine how the executive leadership and the decision-making process are shaped by the leadership environment in a transition democracy as Venezuela. The questions I intend to answer are: What kind of leadership environment surrounds the leadership and what kind of consequences does it have on the leadership and the decision-making process in Venezuela? To answer my questions I will use the literature: Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies (Elgie, Robert 1995, London: Macmillian), together with the method ?The cultural determinist school of history? by Tomas Spencer, later reproduced by Kellerman. The leadership environment provides unique opportunities for a leader to gain control over the decision-making process. Institutional structures and the needs of the society are major parts in determining how the political leadership is exercised.

This qualitative study involves the implementation of Lean and Kaizen methods in a Swedish service industry. Lean philosophy is based on a method to achieve more with less. In practical terms this means that the use of an organization's resources is improved. The origin of Lean is the Toyota Production System. Now, Kaizen methods give managers and employees a better more efficient system to reach their goals within the organization or company.

The aim of this thesis is to get a better understanding of how the management control system works at V&S Distillers. V&S Distillers went through an organizational change in the beginning of 2005. The marketing function went from being a country-driven to a category-driven organization. Among other things this resulted in increased cooperation between employees in different geographical locations. We aim to analyze how a geographical distance affects relations and the use of management control.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the reason behind thedecision to open libraries at subway stations in Stockholm.The theoretical framework for the study is Douglas Raber´s threeideologies, social activism, conservative response and populistinitiative. The study includes interviews with librarians and apolitician responsible for the service and documents with plansfor the Public Libraries development during the period. Theempirical material was examined with an idea- and ideologicalanalysis.The conclusion is that the concept of the subway libraries consistsof a combination of the three ideologies but the most evidentare those of populist initiative and social activism.The reason for opening libraries at subway stations is to makethe libraries more easily accessible, to attract new visitors and tomake the Public Libraries service more visible. These smalllibraries have a function as a market place for the Public Librariesand as a meeting place in the city..

The purpose of this thesis is to assist the Swedish energy company NIBE Energy Systems in their studies of adaptive regulation applicable to electrical water heaters. Due to coming energy classifications of these appliances in the European Union, NIBE Energy Systems needs to use adaptive regulation, called Smart Control, to keep their products in the best possible energy class and remain competitive to the market. By using this Smart Control regulation a 2-3 % improve-ment of efficiency can be credited the system. This is a small number, but heavily needed, since the energy classes are based on the idea that the European Union is provided with electricity from coal condensate power resulting in a 40 % maximum efficiency. Furthermore, doing noth-ing will result in some water heaters not being approved to use on the market from 2015 due to low efficiency.

Hydrauliska stötdämpare har länge varit en central komponent på både bilar och motorcyklar. Stötdämpare påverkar fordonets komfort, väghållning och köregenskaper. Dessa olika egenskaper kräver ofta helt olika typer av dämpning och med vanliga passiva dämpare blir resultatet ofta en kompromiss av samtliga dessa. Kompromisserna har lett till utvecklingen av en stötdämpare med ställbar dämparkarakteristik som är tänkt att ersätta passiva dämpare. Öhlins Racing säljer idag ett semiaktivt stötdämparsystem som kallas CES, Continously controlled Electronic Suspension, där dämparkarakteristiken styrs av en tryck- och flödeskompenserad CES-ventil.