This essay examines through a sociological perspective how physical objects in Ted Kooser?s poetry collection "Delights & Shadows" can be used to depict the characters? social environment. This is done by examining the physical objects found in 25 poems, the relationships between subjects and objects, and how this relationship can describe the social environment. The essay also examines how the relationship between subjects, objects, and the presence of the social environment within the text affects the reader experience. The physical objects are examined with Bill Brown?s Thing Theory as "things" that stop working for humans, when their flow within the circuits of production and distribution, consumption and exhibition is arrested, however momentarily.

From a social perspective, I have been working on how to change current consumption patterns through a change in people's behavior and attitude towards their possessions. The concept is based on how we can value, care for, and preserve our belongings by using theories in the empathic design field. I have created a structure that allows people to become an active part of a creative process and create their own products. Through this commitment, an emotional relationship is built between the user and the product, and the product tends to gain a longer life. Based on a method to manufacture your own yarn by reusing old clothes, I want to provide the basic tools for an easy and playful way to build the knowledge needed to produce something useful..

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the relationship between feelings and visualizations of climate change. A case study was done on visualizations of climate change from a web page concerning climate change published by the Swedish newspaper Expressen and from the American photographer Gary Braasch?s web page ?World view of global warming?. The thesis is based on the article ?Emotional anchoring and objectification in the media reporting on climate change? by Birgitta Höijer.

This project was initiated by a veterinarian, that at stallion performance tests for breeding during a number of years, noted breed differences in various types of testicular disorders. Therefore it was of interests to examine the proportion of testicular disorders within certain breeds. The aim with the project was in a first part to study cryptorchidism in common horse breeds in Sweden. Information about castrations of stallions performed during a 10 year period (2000-2009) was collected from computerized case records at five animal hospitals. The case records showed the numbers of castrations, normal cases and cases preformed on stallions with cryptorchidism, abdominal respectively inguinal.

The purpose of this study is to hightlight experiences of living in a relationship where BDSM is being exercised. The acronym is an umbrella term for bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadomasochism. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five persons who define themselves as BDSM practitioners. The overall questions of this study are: How does the BDSM practice appear in everyday life? How did the practice start and how has it developed over time? What's included in the sexual BDSM practice? The empirical material has been analyzed with interactionism as the theoritical framework. The picture that emerges is complex.

The ability to tackle NP-hard problems has been greatly extended by the introduction of Metaheuristics (see Blum & Roli (2003)) for a summary of most Metaheuristics, general problem-independent optimisation algorithms extending the hill-climbing local search approach to escape local minima. One of these algorithms is Iterated Local Search (ILS) (Lourenco et al., 2002; Stützle, 1999a, p. 25ff), a recent easy to implement but powerful algorithm with results comparable or superior to other state-of-the-art methods for many combinatorial optimisation problems, among them the Traveling Salesman (TSP) and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). ILS iteratively samples local minima by modifying the current local minimum and restartinga local search porcedure on this modified solution. This thesis will show how ILS can be implemented for MSA.

I am a practising classical soprano. After more than 20 years of professional singing, I re-trained my voice according to principles of the old Italian school of singing. In this essay, I examine the origins and priciples of bel canto, with special focus on appoggio and chiaroscuro, two key ingredients in the bel cantao tradition. I explore the relationship between science and the craft of singing, and what modern voice science has to say about the efficiency and health aspects of this technique, I also describe the profound effect it has had on me as an artist..

Animal welfare is of increasing concern in present society. In commercial pig farming, animal welfare problems are common. One of the causes for these problems is the barren environment in which pigs are housed, which can cause oral manipulation of pen mates. Providing straw might be one solution to this problem. Another solution could be reached through genetic selection.

The bank market for farmers in Sweden is dominated by Swedbank and Landshypotek. One of the most aggressive challengers is Länsförsäkringar Bank, which in 2009 had seven per cent of the Swedish bank market for farmers, but 57 per cent of all new lending. This paper deals with the problem of new banks to break into the bank market where farmers are slow in terms of change in their attitudes and loyal to their banks. The study has been carried out in cooperation with Länsförsäkringar Gävleborg which is a new actor in the banking market and thus eager to take part in the outcome of the study. This essay thus seeks to examine the attitudes farmers have against bank switching and the factors that influence their choice of bank.

Departing from Fred Dretske?s groundbreaking article, this essay explore the epistemic closure principle: the principle that states that knowledge is closed under known implication. It also explores the relationship to skepticism, various attempts to challenge and defend the principle, as well as developing a new perspective where the skeptical premise is seen as an a priori justified tautology that can be overriden by a posteriori experience. I argue that Dretske?s illuminating example makes it clear that there is an unescapable choice between either rejecting a skeptical premise ? however intuitive it may seem ? or inextricably having to admit a skeptical conclusion. .

My aim with this essay is to examine the relationship between identity positions and spatial positions in Jean Rhys novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966). Through this I wish to show how Wide Sargasso Sea problematize the analytical cathegory "women", as well as classic western canon, and feministic eurocentric readings of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte to which Wide Sargasso Sea correspond..

SAMMANFATTNING/SUMMARY Titel/Title: Hur myndigheter definierar sina prestationer i förhållande till sina mål och hur dessa följs upp./ How government authorities define their performance indicators and measure them up in relationship to the goals. Författare/Author Almaliki, Rayya; Hulaj, Anita; Nepola, Fisnik Handledare/Supervisor: Gyllberg, Henrick Sektion/Section: Sektionen för Management, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola./ The Section of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology. Kurs/Course: Kandidatarbete i företagsekonomi (FEC007), 10 poäng./Bachelor?s thesis in Business Administration (FEC007), 10 credits. Syfte/Purpose: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur statliga myndigheter definierar och följer upp sina prestationer, i förhållande till uppsatta mål för verksamheten./ The main purpose with this thesis is to research how government agencies define their performance indicators and measure them up in relationship to the goals. Metod/Method: Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ fallstudie, där vi har utfört sex semistandardiserade intervjuer på Blekinge Tekniska Högskola och Boverket. Det material som vi har fått från intervjuerna samt annat sekundärt material, utgör grunden för vår analys och slutsats./ We have done a qualitative case study, where we did six semi standard interviews at Blekinge Institute of Technology and Boverket. The material we got from the interviews and other secondary material make up the ground, for our analysis and conclusion.

ABSTRACTChlamydia and Chlamydophila are species of a family of bacteria (Chlamydiaceae) that cause a range of diseases, including conjunctivitis, in a variety of animals including pigs and humans. Some species cause zoonotic disease. This study examined the occurrence of Chlamydiaceae in samples taken from the lower eyelid conjunctiva in pigs with and without conjunctivitis. The study was initiated based on a herd investigation aimed to examine the experienced increase of conjunctivitis in some finisher herds. This study was conducted as a case-control study, by collecting samples from 62 case pigs (16-26 weeks old) and an equal number of controls, from three herds in Uppland, Sweden.

After parturition the energy demand for milk production is greater then the energy provided from the diet. The cow mobilises therefore body tissues to compensate for the energy loss. Live weight and body condition scores decreases as a consequence of the mobilisation. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between body condition score, live weight and subcutaneous fat depth measured by ultrasound and the changes during the lactation. Possible differences between Swedish Holstein (SLB) and Swedish Red and White Cattle (SRB) were also investigated.

Technology based self-service (TBSS) used in supermarket self-scanning checkouts is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden. Studies on TBSS as a self- checkout device have been formerly carried out but with focus on the customer perspective. The authors therefore saw a challenge in covering the self-scan checkout concept, from a company perspective. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate, through a management perspective, the changes brought about by implementing an innovative TBSS system in Swedish supermarkets, and its effect on the competitiveness of the company. This is done by presenting and linking the theoretical framework and empirical study in the research.