During the course of history, the world have come to see powerful nations rise and fall, religions spread and diminish ? and all too often there have been violent struggles between religious groups and secular forces, a fact that we still see in our world today. In the West, we often hear about the violent and fundamental dimensions of Islam. Buddhism is rarely a part of the equation in a western context, regarding violence. A common perception is the picture of Buddhism as a guardian of non-violent principles and values.

This essay aims to explore continuity in water centric cult within the period of the Christianization of Scandinavia (ca 800-1100 AD) and to understand the changing of symbolism of water in pre-Christian cult and early Christian religion. It has previously been thought that Christian priests took over the old holy wells and renamed them after saint, all to ease the pagan people into a Christian lifestyle. But archaeological evidence shows that the cult at these wells, and other water centric sites, where almost completely abandoned a few hundred years before the Christians came to Scandinavia. The Christians should not have felt the need to transform this tradition since it was only practiced in a very small and supposedly private scale. On the contrary, religious activities at these wells seems to increase with the new religion and perhaps this is explained by Christianity itself.

This essay is about the religious change that Jing-cult underwent 600-1500 A.D. It is a historical-critical essay based on literature studies, using Ha?kan Rydving?s theory of religious change. In chronological order, it will go through the religious change from ancient Japan to the late Muromachi-period when Shinto was created. It describes the early temple- cult, buddhism's mission to Japan and how the Jingikan was created.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine subject positions of masculinity in the fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock, spanning from the sixties to the present. Questions are: Which positions of masculinity dominate in four fantasy works by Michael Moorcock? How do these positions differ from each other or are there similarities? Do they strengthen or undermine the hegemonic masculinity? How do these positions of masculinity relate to historic configurations of masculinity? In order to find feasible answers to these questions I have used a theoretical and methodological approach rooted in the sociology of literature, mens studies and discourse analysis. Different masculinities are defined as subject positions. The hegemonic masculinity is defined as the image of masculinity that dominate and that every man has to relate to, in one way or another.

This master?s thesis deals with the development of the Swedish library catalogue. The thesis primarily has two purposes. Firstly, it describes how the Swedish library catalogue has developed from its first appearance until today. As the Swedish library sector is very extensive the authors have chosen a few catalogues which they have studied more thoroughly.

Sweden is considered to have one of the world's highest animal welfare standards in agriculture. Despite this, there are shortcomings in animal husbandry. One example is overcrowding, which is a way to increase stock size without making costly investments in the buildings. It can be carried out systematically to increase profitability or due to, for example uneven calving during the year. The European Commission criticizes the fact that stocking density is not controlled under Swedish welfare inspections.

Datorspelsbranschen är en relativt ung bransch, både jämfört med andra delarav mjukvaruindustrin och nöjesbranschen. En av de stora utmaningarnaspelutvecklare står inför är planeringen av den långsiktiga kompetensförsörjningen.Dock saknas sammanställda historiska data och applicerbararesursestimeringsmetoder, vilket gör detta arbete näst intill omöjligt. Det förstadelmålet med den här studien är att samla in historiska data angående strukturenoch storleken på utvecklingsteam som utvecklat AAA-spel (professionelltutvecklade spel med en hög budget) för pc-datorer. Datan samlas in frånkreditlistor hämtade via webbsidan Mobygames.com. Det andra delmålet beståri att utreda huruvida den insamlade datan kan appliceras på modeller förestimering av framtida personalbehov.

The use of energy is an important question in today´s society, and a substantial part of the energy that is used today is used in our homes. To lower this usage is vital, and there are regulations in place both on the national and the local level, that say that new apartment blocks must be built to consume less energy, which in the end will lower the impact on the climate.One way to make the housing sector more environmentally sustainable, is to produce energy issions that are bad for the environment, for example to build wind turbines close to or even on the buildings, so called urban wind power. The scope for this report is to see if urban wind power could be a sustainable alternative for the residential area that Svenska Bostäder plans to build in Albano in Stockholm.There are extensive scientific theories regarding wind and wind power, and a literature study is made to investigate past knowledge in the area. Efforts have been made to find earlier trials with urban wind power and, both scientific research and trials where urban wind power actually has been installed. The theory chapter deals both with the wind itself and how electricity can be generated from wind.

Light pollution in urban areas - How to prevent light pollution at construction Jakob Sjöling Light pollution is a relatively new but rapidly growing form of pollution. Society's increasing demand for light coupled with the pace at which lighting technology evolves is accelerating that growth. The purpose of this study was to analyse how the construction industry plan and design outdoor lighting when erecting new buildings, specifically with regards to the issue of light pollution. It also investigated how local authorities work with these issues during urban planning. In both cases special interest was placed in ways to improve the planning and use of outdoor lighting in order to minimize light pollution.

In our everyday life we are constantly affected by sound; at home, on our way to and from work, when taking a walk through the woods and when we sleep. In discussions about sound one often talk about noise and to what degree a certain noise disturbs us. The positive qualities of a sound and what sounds contribute to the experience of a good environment is rarely discussed. The question of sound and the quality of sound is given more attention through the expansion of Stockholm, the city is becoming both bigger and more crowded. This raises new questions concerning the planning of the city e.g. should the changes of the sound quality in a place be one of the aspects taken into consideration when planning new buildings, are there ways to improve the sound quality in new building projects? Can we even improve the quality of sound in existing places by simple means? I have chosen to study four different areas in Stockholm; Hötorget, Mariatorget, Berzeliipark and Norrmalmstorg.

This is a study about the relation between the Swedish school and the political system of Sweden. I wanted to see if the relation had changed since the election of 2010 as it was in that election the Sweden Democrats got over five percent of the votes and took seat in the Swedish parliament. The thing that is unique about this election is that it was really the first time a right-wing party had been elected into the Swedish parliament. Many experts argue that this is the first xenophobic party that has been elected into the Swedish parliament. This led to a problem for schools and their principals and a difficult question to answer because xenophobia is contrary to the school?s core values and the school?s democratic mission.Should the school still be open for political parties? How do schools manage to distinguish between political information and political propaganda? If parties still are welcome into the schools, which parties should be allowed? The equality ombudsman has said in a report that the schools have to comply with the principle of objectivity, which stipulates that the public sector has to be unbiased.I have chosen to make use of a qualitative method because I think the study then gets a deeper understanding of the topic.

Today's urban centers become denser, which contributes to higher demands on sound and noise. It is therefore highly relevant to build homes with good sound environment while maintaining living space. This thesis aimed to reduce the current concrete walls and see how the mass law affects the reduction index value and flanking transmissions. Handmade calculations were calculated according to the Swedish standard SS-EN 21354-1, where only air sound was calculated.Calculations we­­­re performed on wall elements with different weights and thicknesses, and compared with results from Bastian.In Bastian calculations of flanking transmissions were also made, this was made to see the impact of the flanking transmission when changing the mass per unit area. Mass law's impact was examined by flanking transmission and the result shows that they are not affected as long as the ratio between the thickness and the density remains the same.A questionnaire survey was conducted to determine the actual sound experience; this questionnaire was conducted on three concrete buildings in Växjö.

Mechanical ventilation is the most common type ofventilation in newly constructed office buildings. Therehas been an interest to utilize natural ventilationinstead of mechanical ventilation among architects andHVAC consultants in recent years. This is due to thesize of mechanical ventilation systems, which arespace consuming. The mechanical ventilation system isalso complex and requires maintenance. Furthermore,the fan uses a considerable amount of energy.

This study examines how gender is at work in four series of teaching material of Swedish in the years 7-9 of the Swedish primary school. Analyzing eight books in total, and also their respective teacher?s manuals, the study focuses on the following aspects in both texts and pictures within the books: heteronormativity, marginalization, stereotypes, equality, and also general gender related issues. Doing so, this study approaches the analyzed material with the eyes of a feminist critic. Moreover, this study applies both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis as its method of approach. Initially, the theoretical background and scientific method for this study is presented.

Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) is a common broadleaved species throughout Europe, however often of minor interest to the forest sector. There is currently a lack of research on sycamore maple, and some of its characteristics have throughout history contributed to a negative reputation in both literature and the forest society. Since broadleaved species in general are of great importance to the forest sector in Europe and presumably of enhanced significance in the future, deepened research is needed and particularly Swedish. With a desire to hopefully increase the interest for sycamore maple, was the objective of the study to examine the current status of the sycamore stands in southern Sweden. The study was carried out both as a survey with inventory field work and as a literature study. Parts of the latter mentioned is also presented in the introduction. The study shows that the majority of the sycamore stands in Sweden are growing well, producing fairly high qualities and volumes.