The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how librarians perceive the importance of staff reading groups in helping to make fiction more accessible to adult users of public libraries. The study also examines how librarians perceive the learning processes in such groups, and what these learning processes involve and how they appear. The empirical data was acquired via observations of four staff reading groups and interviews with seven public librarians who took part in the groups. In part, the empirical data is interpreted by means of Lena Wilhelmsson?s analytical tool, which deals with changes of perspective within an organised group.

This essay investigates and compares the readability in two different schoolbooks: Eko Historia (the primary school grade 4-6) and Epos Historia (the upper secondary school). The questions of the survey are:- Which differences in linguistic and layout can be found between books meant for the primary school and books meant for the upper secondary school?- Are the texts easy to read according to the former research in readability?In order to answer the questions structural dimensions as lexicon, syntax, bounds between sentences and narrative voices have been studied. Also the texts disposition and typography have been examined.The results demonstrate that the book designed for the primary school has a verbal structure with an explicit vocabulary, lots of verbs and short sentences. A clear narrative voice gives an impression of spoken language.

This thesis examines the approach for implementing strategy that has been applied by the study object, Svenska Spel. The specific approach originates from the theories of Elliot Jaques, whose key proposal is that individuals have different capability of carrying out tasks over different time-spans. The main purpose of the study is to analyze how the approach has influenced the management control systems in use, in order to ensure that the strategy is successfully implemented on corporate as well as operational level. Twenty in debt interviews conducted with employees, representing a vertical cross section throughout the organization, are the main source of the study?s empirical foundation.

In May 2007 a committee called ??Ansvarskommittén??, assembled by the Swedish government, came with a proposal of changing the Swedish regional structure. The committee which consisted of representatives from all the sitting parties in the parliament proposed that the present regional structure consisting of 20 county council districts and 21 counties would be reduced to between 6-9  regions called ??regionkommuner??.The purpose of this study is to analyze how the committee?s proposal balances democratic and economic values by using a qualitative method. The committee?s proposal is analyzed by a comparison in five political areas with two differentiated regional theories called old and new regionalism.

In this two years masters thesis in Library and Information Studies, the Russian Library-Bibliographical Classification (LBC/BBK) and the Chinese Library Classification (CLC) are analyzed with regard to their historical and ideological backgrounds and their respective evolutions. The structure of these classifications is compared with the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), as well as three chosen subjects (History, Politics and Religion). A qualitative comparative textual method is used.The study shows that these classification schemes, created at different times, different parts of the world, and different political systems, have different biases but give priority to the European before other foreign views. Otherwise, they often use a proximity principle. The CLC and the LBC were originally based on Marxist materialist principles but built in totally different ways.

In this study I analysed how burning affects sprouting ability and survival of oak (Quercus robur) during the first season after a burn in southern Sweden. The study consisted of two separate field tests; in the first, two 300 m2- plots in western oak dominated forest were burned to analyze the fire behavior and the immediate mortality of oak and beech seedlings defined as individuals (> 20cm of height). At the end of the season almost 50% of the oak seedlings had resprouted while the beech seedlings had 100% mortality. An attempt to investigate the effect of the burn of artificially sown acorns was totally ruined by wild boar grouting before any conclusive results could be seen. In the second test the resprouting ability of oaks of varying diameters (average BHD 7-9 cm, range 2-42 cm) was examined one season after a prescribed burn in southeastern Sweden.

This research analyzed differences in measurements of magnetic field strength and frequency response in five audio induction loops installed in rooms of wooden construction materials and five audio inductive loops installed in rooms of steel reinforced concrete constructions. The inductive loops were installed at floor level and the measurements were made at the listening height of 1.2m. Measurements of background noise, field strength and frequency response were made at fifteen different measurement points across the room. The research measurements showed that there are differences in field strength and frequency response between these two conditions, whether the audio induction loop is installed in a wooden construction or the audio induction loop is installed in a reinforced concrete construction. The results had a significance level of p=0,05..

This study explores women?s experiences of the impact of remote work on work-life balance, and the potential consequences of telecommuting from a gender equality perspective. This investigation is contextualized by societal shifts post-pandemic, during which remote work has become increasingly prevalent. This transition raises new questions about the impact of home-based work on individuals? work-life balance, particularly for women who, according to prior studies, carry a greater responsibility for household tasks.

Barley is one of the most important cereals cultivated in the Nordic countries. Climate change brings warmer and moisture climate which favors fungal diseases. In the cropland barley can be seriously infested with hard fungus attack. Since it is important that the yield bears a high quality it is of great importance to find varieties more resistant to attacks.Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are stress proteins induced in the plant in response to infection and abiotic stress (van Loon, 1997). PRs are shown to have antimicrobial activity differing between bacteria, fungi and oomycetes (Tandrup Poulsen, 2001).

This study examined the factors influencing dairy farmers´ decisions to invest in automated milking systems (AMS). The problem studied involves uncertainty, information and complexity for dairy farmers in specific decision contexts. The frame of reference in the thesis combines contingency theory and decision theory and is used in a qualitative analysis of a set interview with dairy farmers who have recently bought an AMS and salespersons from Delaval, one of the AMS suppliers.The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the decision making processes of dairy farmers, and in particular to identify which types of factors influence the outcome of an investment decision in the technological development of a farm.The study uses Thompsons` (1967) theory about the structure that organizations develop to handle the input of information. Thus, interest is focused on how a farm business structure handles information in the AMS decision, investigating the differences in information with Delaval?s "feed first principle" system and Lely?s "free cow traffic" system.The results of the qualitative interviews with the dairy farmers who bought an AMS show that there are three important factors that influence the outcome: employees, suppliers and the owner.

Vertical jumping ability is an essential skill in many sports. The aim of this study wasto investigate the acute effects of assisted jumps on subsequent countermovementjump (CMJ) performance by female athletes. Nine healthy, trained female subjectsvolunteered to participate in the study. In a randomized order, they performed oneregular warm up protocol before testing their CMJ baseline value, and one warm upprotocol with an addition of five assisted jumps at 30% body weight reduction beforeanother CMJ test. Elastic cords attached to an overhead pulley system and to aharness around the subjects' upper body were used to reduce the body weight.Significant improvements were noted in jump height, 2.3 cm (7%), positive forceimpulse, 4.7 Ns (2%), vertical take off velocity, 0.1 m/s (3%), countermovement time,0.1 s (12%) and breaking time, 0.1 s (14%), p.

The evaluation of the function of the feeding of sheep herds is suggested to involve the work effort, the fulfilment of the nutrient needs of the sheep and the feed waste. Mechanisation of the feeding can be very simple or include high degrees of mechanisation. Three different farms, representing different levels of mechanisation are presented. Descriptions and analysis of the feeding systems including mechanisation, work effort and estimations of the feed waste are made on each farm. The herd with the most advanced feed mechanisation included a rolling feed band and mix wagon. The other farms were partly or little mechanised including ad lib feeding from big bales and manual distribution of hay and concentrates. The most mechanised farm was able to feed a large herd of sheep at a low work effort and little feed waste. However, the investment in machinery has to be weighed against the improved efficiency.

Designing temporary cities is a study of the design and physical planning of five temporary cities. The purpose was to discuss and note the important questions to be considered, when designing the outdoor environment in temporary cities to create as good an environment for the visitor as possible. The five cities I have chosen are among the most famous ones in Scandinavia, and they represent different kinds of temporary cities. This was a deliberate choice to achieve diverse research material, and with that a broad view of what the planning stage generally looks like. Study of the cities has been done through interviews with the people responsible for the design and/or physical planning of each city.

Sweden's school voucher reform has made the Swedish school system into one of the world's most liberalized. The debate concerning the ownership of Swedish schools is intense and the Swedish Minister of Education is open to restricting private equity owned companies from running schools. Interestingly, fewer calls are heard for restricting smaller profit-driven companies from owning schools. This essay aims to examine whether or not the quality of education provided by an individual school changes if it is acquired by a large private equity owned school group. This is done by conducting a comparative study on four independent schools recently acquired by AcadeMedia, Sweden's biggest private equity owned school group.

This pilot study examined whether treatment with Vortex Process Technology (VPT) of the irrigation water used on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants had any effect on plant growth. In a block experiment, with two blocks comprising 12 vases containing 1 L water and two tomato plantlets, treatment in which, nutrient solution was based on Vortex-treated water was compared with an control using untreated water. All vases were kept in a static aerated culture system in a daylight chamber for four weeks. The results showed that the effect of the two blocks exceeded the effect of vortex treatment in terms of leaf area and weight of fresh and dry matter. Plant height, stem width and internodal length were significantly different in tomato plants grown in Vortex-processed water compared with the untreated control.