In the last decade, member states of the European Union have adopted a range of measures to decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. This has led to an increased use of biomass in heat and power production. In some countries, the lack of forest resource has led to large scale power producers importing their biomass needs. Due to high energy content and homogeneity, wood pellets have become an internationally traded commodity used for large scale power production. The Baltic States have emerged as one of the largest wood pellet exporting regions in Europe.

The purpose of this work was to investigate the early medieval view of the Bilical king David through the analysis of ten illuminations found in early medieval manuscripts in which he is depicted playing string instruments. First, a description of medieval manuscripts and king David and string instruments was presented, second, an analysis and a discussion of images as source material and an interpretation of the mythic and symbolic significance that is based on ideas presented by Paul Ricoeurs and Roland Barthes of the ten illuminations followed. The results showed that king David often was portrayed as a musical king, a dancer and a prophet that incarnated wisdom and justice; that king David served as a role-model for the Western regents, and that he was portrayed in an idealised and estethically appealing manner..

The purpose of this thesis is to critically investigate how to understand the regional transformations that are occurring in Sweden and Denmark. At a higher level of abstraction the results can be generalised to a wider context and I have found that there is an ideological hegemony that explains the regional transformation. Nation states are reterritorialising due to a changing world where global capital is becoming increasingly flexible and competition between states, regions and municipalities is needed to adjust. By using Sandberg's model of structural reforms I have shown that the differences between Sweden's and Denmark's reterritorialisation are due to differences in national political culture and existing administrative systems. In fact these two structural reforms are based on the same regionalist ideology as a reaction to the changing global economy.To investigate the regional transformations I have carried out an idea and ideology analysis on the recent Swedish proposal from Ansvarskommittén, Strukturkommissionen in Denmark and the proposal by the Danish government which was carried out in 2007.

Previous research has indicated that intellectual disabilities and parenting is not socially accepted and compulsory care of children often occurs in families where one or both parents have an intellectual disability. This study aims to, thru a document analysis, investigate ideas and representations of parents with intellectual disabilities that emerge in Swedish legal cases. The legal cases is about children who are taken care of according to LVU § 2, where one or both parents have a intellectual disability. The results of the study revealed that people with intellectual disabilities are seen as not capable of developing parenting ability, in some cases aroused concerns about parenting during pregnancy, these suggesting stereotypes of parents with intellectual disabilities. Of the documents reveals that social workers word overrides in the decision-making, this leads to a position of power where the parents are at a disadvantage..

This thesis examines Jews and Catholics views on immigration to the United States in the late 19th century. It is qualitative analysis of how immigrants and immigration is treated in two different magazines, The American Jewess and Catholic World. The findings are then put in the context of contemporary nativist ideas. This thesis states that both The American Jewess and Catholic World are, principally, in favor of immigration and do not want to restrict immigration at that time. Catholic World is somewhat more open to the idea ofdiscussing harder immigration laws but the overall tendency in both magazines is that immigration is not a problem to the United States.

Sweden and the surrounding countries have reorganised their armies towards a manoeuvre warfare concept. In Sweden new regulations were produced in the middle of the 90s using manoeuvre warfare as a basic idea. The purpose of this paper is to produce a clearer picture of the Swedish manoeuvre warfare concept and how it can be implemented. An inductive method of working has been used, qualitative data has been gathered and studied.The Swedish manoeuvre warfare concept has been difficult to define because of indistinct actions. It is only after complementing interviews that the picture has cleared up.

The market for management consulting services is changing with an increased level of competition and more specialized service providers. At the same time there is a high level of companies that fail in their efforts to establish themselves on the market. This thesis sets out to give the reader an increased understanding of the complex characteristics of the market for these services, focusing more specifically on which factors that have an effect on the strategy development for companies within the industry. The thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a deeper understanding of how developing consulting companies can tackle the specific challenges facing them. In order to meet the purpose of the thesis, we have applied relevant theories to a generic strategy model in order to develop a model that is applicable for the management consulting industry.

In January 2005 the emission allowance system was introduced within the European Union and the first period ends at the end of 2007. The system was introduced in order to decrease the wastes of carbon dioxide and the system is a part of ratifying the Kyoto ?protocol which first period runs between 2008-2012.The idea of the system is to reduce the wastes of carbon dioxide where it costs less to do so and the expenses for the society therefore are as diminutive as possible. Different theories explain that companies can benefit from environment legislation and can depending on the company?s attitude gain competitive advantages improve its productivity and thereby increase its profitability.With this in mind, the study aims at examining how the introduction of the emission trade system has influenced Swedish smaller companies in the distant heating industry, with focus on the factors attitude, innovation, competition and profitability.

Det finns ett behov av personer som klarar av att generera en mängd fräscha, slitstarka och kreativa idéer under press. Denna undersökning omfattar hur mångsidiga Art directors kan arbeta för att framställa och producera material som håller hög standard. Fyra Art directors har intervjuats och givit sin åsikt i ämnet. Utifrån resultaten av intervjuerna och en mängd kreativa tekniker har vi utfört en grundläggande idéprocess. Resultatet av denna process är en konstutställning där vi har skapat ett koncept med fokus på miljö och framtid.

The aim of this study is to examine how students and teachers experience full class lectures in contrast to working individually in mathematics education. Furthermore, the study explores how different ideas of individualization influence the teaching practice.The investigation uses qualitative interviews and the survey analysis is based on the phenomenographic method. The interviews took place in two senior level compulsory schools and both teachers and students were interviewed. The ambition has been to explore the teachers? perspectives regarding their choice of method in the teaching of mathematics.

Background: The increasing globalization of business and research has led to an increased demand for international meetings. This is a market that a number of countries wish to access and the competition is fierce to get the chance to host major conferences. Stockholm has a pronounced good position in the international meeting market and this essay will examine what it takes to be a successful meeting destination for international congresses.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the fundamental factors that must be met for a meeting destination to be successful in the international market for conventions.Question at issue: How can a city develop into a more attractive meeting destination for international congresses?Method: Persons with key positions in the Stockholm meeting industry have been approached by qualitative interviews by the authors.Theory: As a theoretical framework the authors used the value of the physical meeting, generally on the congresses, the planning process for site selection for the meeting, the meeting platform and image.Conclusion: The authors' findings are based on the empirical material gathered during the study interviews. The results from these interviews show the importance of facilities and hotels, availability, and the image..

Our essay focuses on media's coverage on the topic of overweight. We investigated how media portrays the picture of the ideal body and person and how the overweight person deviate from those pictures. We also tried to uncover how the media addresses specific types of subjects which we interpret to represent the normative way of being. From the way media presents their message we distinguished which subjects are being excluded. For this work we studied articles from the daily newspaper called Aftonbladet and a lifestyle magazine for women called Må Bra.

New political parties are increasing as phenomena in Swedish politics. Some of these parties have gained much attention in the media, and recent examples are Junilistan, Feministiskt initiativ and Sjukvårdspartiet. Media plays an important role for political parties as it is a way for the parties to communicate with the citizens. Therefore this essay examines how these three new parties have been pictured in media lately, and with what arguments they are discussed. This is done by argument analysis of editorials in five Swedish newspapers.

The school is a place of work where teachers, with different tools, are supposed to teach their students for the future. In the study the teachers? opinions will be lifted when it comes to use of computers as a tool to teach the students how to read and write. The interpretation is that the use of computers is reflecting the development of society and the intention is to find out if computers will be used in a didactic purpose in teaching. We focused on getting knowledge about which different opinions there are among teachers in grade 1-3 when it comes to the use of computers as a tool in teaching how to read and write.

Man?s impact on the environment is something that increasingly becomes topical in today?s society. Because of this, several companies have started to take interest in the effects they?re responsible for, not least considering their image. Emissions of carbon dioxide generated from goods traffic are accountable for a large part of the total emissions of greenhouse gases in the world.