This thesis examines history of the subject of mechatronics and innovation. The main reason tostudy mechatronics from a historical point of view is that it has never been done to a greater extent before. An overview is justified because various definitions have been used over the decades, but nowadays the subject has become more established. Focus in this thesis is mainly on development of the subject of mechatronics at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Innovation is the other aspect of this thesis.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine children's communication and interaction during story time at the public library. The aim is also to examine how to develop the story time ? in terms of participation and equality ? at a specific library.Action research was used as a research strategy and participant observation, log, tutoring and interviews as methods to collect data. Since action research is done on the basis of practice, a significant collaboration with the librarian and the participant children is taking place within this study.Research from the fields of Library and Information Science, Education and Childhood Sociology form the interdisciplinary research area to which this study links. The theoretical framework consists of theory and concepts from the Socio-cultural Perspective, Poststrucuralist Feminism and Childhood Sociology.

Different techniques for precision agriculture have been available during the last decade. Some of them are more widely used than others. The main purpose of this thesis was to investigate the different attitudes to precision agriculture that exists among farmers and advisors in Sweden. Eight advisors and sixteen farmers were asked for their opinion of a number of specific techniques for precision agriculture, such as yield-mapping, precision liming, the Yara Nitrogen Sensor and site-specific fertilization with phosphorous and potassium. They were also asked to describe the way in which the counselling in Swedish agriculture is used and also about it's importance for the adaptation of new techniques. The high costs are mentioned to be one of the most important reasons why precision agriculture hasn't been more widely spread. Several farmers refer to their farms as too small to bear the costs that come with the techniques. The individual interest for technique among the potential users plays an important role.

The aim of this essay is to examine how people living in the Swedish countryside looked upon changes in the interiors through modernization in 1850-90. For the first time, there was an abundance of objects available in stores in the countryside that the majority of the population had money buy. Many novelties were introduced in the interior decoration of ordinary peoples´ homes. This study focuses on the introduction and use of wallpaper and is based on a questionnaire about wallpaper sent from the Nordiska museet, National museum of Culture history in Sweden, to people all over Sweden in 1948. 148 people responded to the questions about use and attitudes toward wallpaper during the second half of the 19th century.My theoretical perspective is cultural diffusion, the spread of cultural items, more specific the diffusion of innovations from larger to smaller places, often influenced by social elites, hierarchical diffusion, and between individuals, contagious diffusion.The analytical perspective used for the analysis is based on the concepts of basic and variable modernity, initiated by the historian Sven-Eric Liedman.

Att tillägna sig sin bostad är en viktig aspekt för att kunna känna sig hemma i sin egen bostad. Arkitekten Ola Nylander presenterar i sin forskning sju egenskapsfält (material och detaljer, axialitet, omslutenhet/öppenhet, rörelse, rumsfigurer, ljus och rumsorganisation) som kan fungera som måttstockar för hur väl en lägenhet går att ta till sig. Uppsatsen utgår från de sju egenskapsfälten och undersöker, genom dem, hur de boende upplever trivseln i sin bostad. Alla bostäderna i undersökningen är placerade i ett passivhus på fastigheten Flaggskepparen 5 i Västra Hamnen Malmö. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka egenskapsfält som är viktiga för hur de boende upplever trivseln i ett nyproducerat passivt flerbostadshus. 9 stycken kvalitativa intervjuer har därför genomförts med de boende i fastigheten. Dessa intervjuer har varit mellan 20 och 60 minuter långa och genomförts på plats i respondenternas lägenheter (alla utom en).

AbstractTitle: DREAMING OF A UNITED ?NORDEN? (The North)? Four central Nordic actors about the progress and extent of Nordic cooperationThe Nordic cooperation are often spoken as in terms of a peaceful international cooperation that is built upon a wide range of similarities among its members, such as a common culture, language similarities and a related kind of political system etc. But in spite of the fact that these so called propitious factors are present, many of the attempts that has been made trying to bring the states of the North (Norden) closer together has turned out unsuccessfully. Therefore no far-reaching Nordic cooperation has come to be implemented. The aim of this essay is to find out what the main reasons could be why this has been the case.I have chosen to take a closer look at the motives given by the former Nordic Prime ministers Tage Erlander (Sweden), Karl August Fagerholm (Finland), Einar Gerardsen (Norway) and Mauno Koivisto (Finland).

Objectivity is often emphasized as one of the fundamental principles for the auditing profession and is also a requirement for preserving satisfactory professional practice. The multiple company scandals in the first decade of the 21st century have created distrust for auditors? capability to maintain objectivity. The purpose of this study is to contribute with a new way of thinking when it comes to the factors that affect objectivity. Earlier studies have indicated that personality factors may affect work performance in many different fields and this study is exploring the connection between separate personality factors, and the capability of less experienced auditors to maintain objectivity in the relationship with dominating and demanding clients.Data was collected through a survey that was divided into two separate parts where the first part measured the participant?s score on different personality factors, and the other part measured the participant?s score on perceived objectivity.

This degree project deals with the concept of creativity and the creative output based on howSwedish upper-secondary design teachers within the Technical Engineering Programexperience this from a student's perspective. The project discusses how the concept creativityis interpreted and how the creative output is regarded by educationalists and professionaldesigners and how this then can be related to literature on the subject and in the steeringdocuments. The purpose of this degree project is to visualize the interviewees' viewpoint oncreativity and the significance of experience, skills, and environment for the creative outputand within the field of design. This in order to, in the pedagogic and didactic situation, enablethe improvement of teaching so that creativity and its output come to show. Moreover, theproject aims to create a ground for discussion of the view of the importance of these skills inthe pedagogic/didactic situation.In order to reach this aim, I have read literature on creativity from several perspectives andcarried out eight qualitative structured interviews: both with three educationalists withoutexperience within the design profession, and with two educationalists who are or have beenactive within the design profession, as well as with three professional designers.

Zakrisdal and the west coast region of Karlstad was at one time a protected area where the ammunition factory AmF Zakrisdal 1941-1994 was situated. This factory manufactured explosives for the Swedish armed forces and for export. In this context it is an interesting paradox that the production of ammunition, mines and armorpiercing grenades for more than 50 years has preserved the environment surrounding the factory.The factory is now gone and the production is moved to Karlskoga. Plans are being made to build housing for 3-4000 residents and other enterprises within the area. The area now stands before yet another change, most likely the most profound to date.The inspiration for this work comes from the economic historic Jan Jörnmark.

Multilayered woodland types are an important part of the urban forest. The knowledge how to establish and maintain such plantations are not as deep as other knowledge fields concerning forestry. Therefore this study has looked upon how to achieve multilayered structures in young nature-like woodland plantations. As a theoretical base for the study three different major knowledge culture have been studied that concerns the subject, ecology, forestry and landscape management/design. This three theoretical framework concludes that many natural processes strive in the opposite direction of multilayered structures in their youth.

Sweden?s health care is continuously subjected to economical cutbacks, which results in enormous workloads. To prevent problems that arise in these situations, it is of great importance to take measures to increase the efficiency of the working process. This goal can be obtained by increasing our knowledge of the body, under both normal and sickly conditions. That is, by sharing knowledge of the various medical service units within Stockholm?s county council and thus elaborates diagnostics.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to explore the function of public libraries as arenas for young people's artistic creations. It examines how the public library makes activities based on independent creativity visible, and what activities of this sort imply to the public library. The thesis also relates this to the public library's task in society. The main object of examination is Demoteket, an on-going project in the south-eastern parts of Sweden. In this project Länsbibliotek Sydost co-operates with Reaktor Sydost, a centre of resource in the fields of young communication and filmmaking.

This master of science thesis intends to examine how the established innovation theoriesinteracts with the social and cultural phenomena arising from the reduction in communicationcosts as a result of the development of the internet.The aim is to present a knowledge inventory of attitudes to and experiences of an openapproach, with emphasis on collaborative innovation, in product and service developmentdriven companies in different fields. The studied theories and the empirical results forms thebasis for an analysis of how companies can benefit from the diversified knowledge that existsoutside their borders as well as an exploration of the potential for this kind of knowledgeexchange to act as a catalyst for innovation.The theoretical part of the study is based essentially on two tracks: (1) innovation theories witha focus onopen innovation and user innovation, and (2) a broad review of how theories ofdiversified knowledgeand collective intelligence has become possible to apply in an innovationcontext. The empirical part of the study is based on material obtained from semi-structuredinterviews with respondents from six companies.The results show that companies have implemented unstructured innovation initiatives withoutany formal links to the structured product development processes, which are part of thecompanies core activities. The main conclusions include the following insights: There is a needfor structured links between the unstructured initiatives and the core activities, which makes itpossible to take promising ideas to market. The companies also have to lose some control of theunstructured initiatives; consequently it is impossible to pinpoint what the outcome will be.

This is an essay concerning the density of the city. An increasing amount of today?s cities have a shortage of space available for the erection of new buildings and settlements, especially in areas close to the city-centre. New buildings and settlements are therefore often found in the outskirts of the city, resulting in long distances between work and living for many people. These long distances are a waste of limited resources and are inconsistent with the vision of the sustainable city.The challenge for the future is to insert new buildings and settlements in the existing city-structure and in this way reduce the distances between different city-functions.The density of the city can be increased in two different ways; by inserting new buildings between existing ones or by extension existing buildings, for example by an additional floor.

In this essay I have read the novels Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys 1966), Desirada (Maryse Condé 1997) and Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino 1972) through Édouard Glissant?s notion of the primary scene in Philosophie de la relation. Poésie en étendue. I have examined how the primary scene can be seen as a political/an aesthetical strategy in the three novels. This was done in order to question the blunted tool of the notion of the identity, which is often considered in studies regarding ?postcolonial novels?.