AbstractIT can facilitate communication among individuals and connect people across geographical distances. On the contrary, citizens of the society who do not use communication technologies to some extent might feel excluded from the information society. As elderly citizens are already in a vulnerable position for the digital divide, communication technology becomes an important tool for interacting with friends and family. The social situation of elderly, 60 years of age and older, is a topic of current interest since they are the fastest growing age group in the world today. Further, social interaction becomes more important among elderly since it has a positive effect on well- being.

This thesis describes the work process and the results for the development of a newkind of ergonomic cleaning mop, ranging from basic concept to a virtually productionready digital prototype. The project was made in cooperation with, Ömer Altun, whowas also the project supervisor, and whose plan it is to launch this new product onthe market in a foreseeable future. The mop is meant to be used by both professionalcleaning staff and ordinary home users. What makes this product unique is that it hasa movable center piece that simplifies the cleaning under low furniture.The work began with the establishment of a product requirements specification andlater a study of similar products and existing functional models was conducted. Afterthese surveys the work began with refining the existing concepts in order to makethem more complete.

AimThe specific questions in the theoretic part were:What is contained in the terms "balance and balance skill" and how can this skill be measured?The specific questions in the empirical part were:How does balance skill in different age categories of children correlate with biological and physiological parameters such as age, gender, body height, weight and level of physical activity?MethodsLiterature search based on books and scientific papers related to the questions posed above. Selection was made at libraries and on?line through "Pubmed". Specific search words were used.

The study emanates from the national quality registry for persons with severe and profound hearing impairment. The aim was to examine possible differences between signing deaf and adults with acquired severe hearing loss, with reference to self-assessed problems, how the hearing loss influences daily life.In total 234 adults aged 30-90 years were included (128 women, 106 men). In the registry, there are background variables and questions that the patients have answered. The results, indicated on a visual analogue scale (VAS) from 0-100, from a question ?To which extent does your hearing loss at present influence your life?? were analysed.The study was performed by pooling the results of VAS and dividing the patients into signing deaf and those with acquired severe hearing loss, and in age groups 30-60 and 61-90 years.

Hemuppgiften är ett viktigt moment inom såväl Funktionell familjeterapi (FFT) som Dialektisk beteendeterapi (DBT). Målsättningen med denna uppsats var att utröna om, och i sådana fall på vilket sätt, hemuppgifter ges inom den familjeterapeutiska kontext som utgör ramen för FFT. En hypotes vid arbetets ingång var att de interaktionistiska hemuppgifterna kommit att ersättas av de mer beteendeorienterade som ingår i DBT.De personer som utgjort underlag för undersökningen arbetar alla på en öppenvårdsmottagning inom Barn- och ungdomspsykiatrin (BUP) i Uppsala, med antingen ovan nämnda Funktionella familjeterapi (n=3) eller med Dialektisk beteendeterapi (n=2).Syftet med studien var att, dels via en enkätundersökning dels via en intervju i fokusgruppform, försöka förstå mer av det psykoterapeutiska redskap som utgörs av hemuppgiften. Fokus låg på den relationella hemuppgift som familjeterapeuterna tillhörande nämnda team förväntas konstruera utifrån tillhandahållen FFT-manual.Resultatet visade på en relativt stor bredd när det gällde terapeuternas syn på och tillämpning av hemuppgiften, men det generella mönstret pekade på att terapeuterna i sitt praktiska arbete konstruerade såväl relationella som beteendeorienterade hemuppgifter. Vad som framkom är dock ett behov av och en önskan från familjeterapeuternas sida om en större tydlighet kring hur man går tillväga då man fastställer och ger en familj en relationellt orienterad hemuppgift.

The logistic business Svenska Retursystem AB was founded by the Swedish retail sector in the year 2000, and their introduction of a grey plastic crate to the supply chain for perishable goods changed the situation for the swedish horticultural sector. The new system revealed several challenges to be tackled by all actors, from the small family firm to the bigger organisations. Whereas the initiative comes from the customer himself, from the horticultural sector ?s point of view, a refusal of the new packing is a hard decision to take. It is however interesting that a comparison between the two systems, shows in favour of the corrugated board boxes, not only concerning environmental aspects but also for economical and ergonomical reasons.

Saab Aerosystems has a long tradition and a lot of competence in the field of flight simulation. Their ambition to broaden the market horizon has led to a discussion about also selling vehicle simulation solutions, both for military and civilian use.The aim of this thesis is to investigate the driver?s experiences of the accelerations he or she is exposed to whilst driving in rough terrain. The results may be used as a basis for future decisions and can act as a platform for the construction of an effective simulation model.To investigate the driver?s exposure of acceleration, some kind of dynamic simulation is needed.

I have, with a point of departure in two case studies; the artist, curator and scientist Andreas Gedin and Maria Lind, curator and director of Tensta konsthall, contextualized with a couple of respondents; the freelance curator, writer and editor Power Ekroth and the freelance curator and artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff, conducted a field analysis on curatorial and artistic practices. I have applied key concepts in order to conduct the analysis.Furthermore, the case studies and the respondents have been placed in a contemporary artworld. These components have been related to a contemporary historical segment of the artworld. This in turn, has been related to older, international cicumstances of change and various conditions in the two subfields. I have suggested certain a proximity in the artistic and curatorial practices.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the authors of Matthew and Luke describe Joseph; The main aim is to see how the picture of him is drawn in the infancy narratives of their respectiveGospels; what unites, and what distinguishes the pictures of the two evangelists' account of Joseph,as a character and as a father.With the help of both textual and grammatical criticism, this study investigates - pericope bypericope - different aspects of Joseph's participation in the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke; his relationship to the child and the mother, the terms used to describe him, and his overall modusoperandi. This essay builds its structure upon the individual study of each pericope, with the aim of painting a general and summarized picture.From the outset of already formulated uniting characteristics of the two gospels, as stated in Raymond E Brown's The Birth of the Messiah this study proposes that more can be said about the common features of Matthew and Luke, especially concerning Joseph's both character and relationto the child. First, this study suggests that both Matthew and Luke describe Joseph as the legal father of Jesus; second, both evangelists seems to describe Joseph as observant of Jewish law andcustom.The main impression of the two evangelists' birth narratives is however the differencesconcerning the description of Joseph. This study shows that there is one major common feature: the ambivalence evident in the evangelists' way of describing Joseph. On the one hand, both Matthew and Luke prescribe Joseph some importance; Matthew by describing Joseph and letting him act,Luke by calling him father and parent.

Numerous studies raise the topic of highly educated immigrants whose education and list of qualifications devalue in the context of the Swedish labour market. However, little is known of those with foreign background who enter into higher education in Sweden. Our study attempts to shed some light onto the value of higher education relative to that of a person?s ethnic background. The background material features nine in-depth interviews of foreign background academics, as well as data extracted from an extensive survey study previously carried out at Växjö University. Initially, the quantitative data showed that students with foreign background, including Swedish-born children of immigrants, had not managed to find qualified work upon completion of studies to the same extent as their Swedish background counterparts.

This report is a thesis for collegeengineering program in structuralengineering at Uppsala University andwas commissioned by the Swedishcontractor Svevia. The study aims toprovide an overview of the mostbeneficial bridge material from bothenvironmental and economic point ofview.The life-cycle analysis covers onlycarbon dioxide emissions, since it isthe most spoken of in today?s climateagenda. Furthermore, this study aims tohighlight which parts, of the systemboundary, that contributes to greatercarbon emissions for the wood- and theconcrete bridge.The life-cycle cost analysis wascalculated with a lifespan of 40 yearsand covers the basic cost of investment,operating and maintenance, anddecommissioning costs.The analyzed constructions in this studyare existing projects that are almostcompleted. Both bridges were designed tohandle loads up to 60 tons.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how a bank?s features and internal factors have affected its choice of method in calculating the capital requirement.Theoretical and Empirical Method: The research strategy of this study has been of a qualitative nature with a deductive approach. The choice of method was depth interviews with respondents from a targeted sample of Swedish banks. These respondents were chosen based on the knowledge they possess as key employees in the capital requirement process and their involvement in choosing their banks? method for calculating the capital requirement.

The present study examines power relations, textual genre and attitudes to the matching process in the labor market in the employment office?s opinion articles in the period 2009?2014.     The power relations that emerge in the debate articles between employers, job seekers and private employment constitute the study's main question.The theoretical starting points are taken from Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis (1992, 2001, and 2010), where the discursive practice consists of the employment office?s production of opinion articles during a recession. The social practice consists of the laws and regulations that make its actions to reduce unemployment in the society. The method is derived from Halliday?s (1994, 2002) systemic functional linguistics.

This account deals with my degree in furniture design. The project was done in collaboration with the architect firm Byggnadskonst AB in a quest for the cafe chain "Vivels"Byggnadskonst AB?s mission was to make the interior of the cafe that Vivels is building in Larsberg Center on Lidingö. My assignment was to design chairs for the café. In the beginning I had even thought about designing a table, but as time past I focussed more and more on the chairs.

This thesis is based upon the work done at Westinghouse electric company (WEC)inVästerås during the spring semester of 2015 and describes the development of a quickcoupler with associated blade changing tool. These are meant to be used togetherwith a sawing tool that the company uses for the dismantling of nuclear reactors,which is performed under water.The aim of the thesis was to develop a complete manufacturing documentation withdrawings and related CAD models which Westinghouse later can use to manufacturethe tool and the quick coupler. It was also included in the assignment to, if necessary,modify parts of the saw tool to adapt these to the intended blade changing tool.A number of visits to the company's workshop was made during the time to study thesaw that the thesis is based upon. The purpose of these visits was to get a better ideaof the dimensions, construction and the field of use of the saw. On three of thoseoccasions various engineers and consultants accompanied us to discuss possibleproblems with different ideas.This was interspersed with information in the form of literature studies on quickcouplers to create a clearer picture of the nature of the task.When enough information had been gathered a functional analysis was made to dividethe main problem into subthis phase the idea and concept generating process took place.The methods used for this was mainly brain writing and brainstorming.