This essay deals with the individual collecting of four individuals with different backgrounds and lives. The essay investigates what, how and why people collect. It provides a stepping-stone in moving closer to understanding one, in human nature, deeply rooted phenomenon - collecting.The essay is based on a list of questions made by the Nordic Museum in Stockholm. It also includes in-depth examinations of four person?s passion of collecting, in which four individuals were interviewed: a pig collector, a collector of Mickey Mouse items, a multi-collector of objects from other cultures and one collector of items related to the artist Madonna.

Since 1993 the Swedish Forestry Administration conducts a nation-wide inventory of wood-land key habitats covering all forest land in Sweden. The inventory aims at mapping and describing habitats where redlisted species occur or can be expected to occur. According to the inventory stand history is crucial to the presence of red-listed species. However, the current knowledge of stand history in woodland key habitats is very limited. The purpose of this work is to describe stand history in woodland key habitats, i.e. fire history, Human Activities - mainly cuttings - and structural changes.

What is it that makes an audience love a character? Through comparative analysis and anevolutionary perspective, I have examined the relationship between the viewer ? the human ?and three popular characters: Shakespeare?s Bottom and Puck from A Midsummer Night?sDream and Dag-Otto Flink, the most popular character from Vallarnas friluftsteater inFalkenberg, Sweden. In what way do they attract us? Why do they attract us? The aim of thecomparative analysis between the characters was to reveal enough similarities for defining allthree as the same character type: the fool. One of the most important similarities for theevolutionary discussion was that especially Dag-Otto and Bottom are consistently themselves.Furthermore, the Darwinian perspective, especially with theories of Daniel Nettle, indicatesthat there are several factors that come into play for successive fiction.

How do museums work with plurality in their organizations and in the production of exhibitions and other activities? This paper examines how civic museums, provincial museums and state museums work with plurality from a perspective of culture policies, particularly in relation to the government bill Tid för kultur, issued by the Swedish government in 2009.All together I examine 25 museums and their efforts to include marginalized groups in their activities and exhibitions. To do so I have studied four possible measures that are available for the museums. This includes the following: projects that pay attention to a marginalized group or their living conditions; projects that are specifically created for a marginalized group; projects that include a marginalized group in the museums preparations; and projects were museums give full responsibility to a marginalized group. I have also examined how plurality have been presented ? as isolated cultures and cultural expressions or as hybrids and interchangeable phenomenons ? and to what extent the museums are ready to involve marginalized groups in their physical environment and in their exhibition and activity programs.

While almost 23 percent of the students in the Swedish upper secondary school are foreigners, only a fraction of the school libraries? collections consists of literature written in other languages than Swedish or English. This study examines how five school librarians experience the task of working with literature composed in foreign languages in the multicultural and multilingual school of today. The results of the qualitative interviews are analyzed in relation to the legislation and policy documents that the school libraries are working by, and also in relation to the theoretical framework of sociocultural theory and the theories on second language acquisition developed by linguist Jim Cummins.The study shows that while multilingualism is discussed as an important matter in the legislation and policy documents that the school libraries work by, the librarians in this study largely view the question of foreign literature as peripheral. Most part of the librarians connects first language reading to leisure-time activities rather than curricular activities, and stresses that the Swedish language should be prioritized in Swedish schools.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to study opinions about the Swedish hospital libraries and their activities for the patients, in a selection of Swedish library journal articles. The theoretical starting point is grounded in Laclau and Mouffes discourse theory. The empirical material consists of 43 articles from three library journals; Biblioteksbladet, Blänkaren and DIK-forum, published between 1990 and 2004. These are analysed through a reading scheme in four levels. In the empirical material two themes appear; the culture theme and the patient information theme.

AbstractIn the heart of Paris, you will find Sweden?s only cultural center abroad. Since the early 70?s a wealth of cultural activities has been offered, and every year the center receives more than 100,000 visitors. The center is a branch of the Swedish Institute (Si), a public authority which promotes mutual relationships between Sweden and other countries through culture, education, science and business.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to illustrate and analyze the approach and parental involvement of a group of mothers in their children's schooling. Also their reflections on parental involvement will be highlighted and what the parents experience as obstacles in their involvement.Method: I conducted six semi structured interviews for my research. I chose to interview six mothers who have a child in the sixth grade. I chose specifically the sixth grade because the mothers will have had quite a few contacts with the school at this point. I also chose not to reveal their ethnicity because they cannot represent a whole ethnic group anyway.Result: The result of my interviews show that the parents have different approaches when it comes to parental involvement.

AbstractThe indoor environment affects the human performance. Noise pollution, poor lightning and coloring are some of the factors that affect our work performance. The human is also affected by the air change and temperature, these factors are in most buildings possible to adjust and through this make economic savings. To find out about the indoor environment in the O-building a questionnaire was handed out, measurements/surveys and an interview was also made. 108 questionnaires where handed out to employees and students.

The aim of this study is to better understand the Swedish concept of ?förebyggande socialt arbete?, preventive social work. I have conducted eleven qualitative interviews with different key persons and skaters, together with participant observation. During the process of analyzing the material I have used Randall Collins´ concepts of interaction ritual chains together with Jean Laves and Etienne Wengers concept of situated learning. The answers could be split up in three areas, first those who regard prevention work as building good things for the future.

Preservation of cells and tissues by freezing at temperatures below 70°C has led to new possibilities for the storage of germ cells for fertility preservation. During the freezing process problems might occur, the greatest being ice crystallization which can cause membrane destruction and thus cell death. To minimize this risk, solutions that reduce the freezing point can be added to reduce crystallization and increase survival rates. These solutions are called cryoprotectants. The best method for freezing is still not known.The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of various parameters on the survival rate of human semen frozen with liquid nitrogen.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine if a pre- and post-operative difference could be seen in self-reported pain disability and self-efficacy among patients undergoing surgery as treatment for spinal disc herniation in order to improve process of rehabilitation.Method: A quantitative and descriptive design was used. 10 patients awaiting surgical treatment for spinal disc herniation were included at Akademiska sjukhuset (The Academic Hospital) in Uppsala. Participation was voluntary and the selection was made by convenience. Data was collected using The Pain Disability Index and Self-Efficacy Scale by which the patient would estimate how hindered they felt because of their pain in everyday activities and their self-efficacy to perform everyday activities. This was done the day before surgery and two weeks after surgery.

Personal assistance from a welfare perspective, offering a variety of reasons is perceived as a different design assistance than is usually there in the public social assistance depending on the strong foundations of the handicap principle autonomy and influence is in terms of how, what and when the operation is performed. The aim of our study was to highlight the handicap principle influence and autonomy in the operation of personal assistance. It is intended both to illustrate the legislature's intentions and ideologues expectations and also to examine a number of managers and personal assistants experiences of the conditions that exist for realize these principles. In order to answer our purpose and our issues, we have chosen a qualitative approach. We have first conducted a literature review and secondly implemented six interviews with personal assistants and managers.

To be able to provide the growing human population with food, the productivity of the animals as well as land use needs to be improved and intensified. Hence, understanding the behavior of animals is crucial both for animal welfare and productivity as well as the management of the cattle. There are many factors affecting the grazing behavior of cattle in tropical conditions, such as human-animal interactions, herd management, breed, season and temperature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the grazing behavior of two tropical cattle breeds, Ankole and Boran cattle. Kenyan Boran belongs to a zebu type of cattle and is preferred to many other breeds due to the higher productive and reproductive capacity and adaptability to tropical conditions.

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Human Activities fossil fuels will have to be replaced with renewable energy alternatives, such as bioenergy. Sweden has a great potential to produce bioenergy derived from forest products and there is currently a great interest within Sweden in using stumps for bioenergy production. However, the environmental consequences of the method need to be investigated before stump removal can be performed on a large scale. Swedish forest soils contain large carbon pools and a different land use may change conditions so that soils that presently act as sinks of carbon could potentially turn into sources of carbon release instead. This study investigates the initial effects of stump harvesting on the emissions of three greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The emissions were measured from the soil surface in a Norway spruce forest located in the southern part of Sweden.