White-Nose Syndrome, WNS, is an emerging fungal disease in the Northern American bat population causing mass mortality in infected hibernacula. Geomyces destructans is a newly discovered psychrophilic fungus causing WNS but the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the disease is not yet fully clarified. Geomyces destructans has been found in Europe but has not been a cause of mass mortality there. This study is the first investigation done to see if G. destructans is present in Sweden.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate if there might be a possiblecorrelation between young women´s fascination with the vampire narrative andtheir search for identity in the late modern age. With the help of contemporarysociological studies in the field of the late modern man and today?s youth culture,I?ve chosen to do qualitative interviews with eight young women in order to examinehow today?s society affects their process of identification. Lately we?ve been ableto see an enormous interest for books that deal with the vampire saga, and while thereaders are mostly young females, it brought me to ask the question why the combinationof teenage drama and vampires seems to be such a winning concept.We live in a time where most young females experience a lot of pressure trying to addup to the demands of society, and as the media keep producing images of youngwomen being thin and looking like supermodels, most teenagers feel a lot of pressureand anxiety trying to live up to such unnatural ideals that in the long run might lead tovarious health issues and eating disorders.As a result of this thesis I?ve found that the vampire narrative answers to some ofthe existential needs we have as members of a late modern society.

The aim of the essay is to analyze destructivity and the aspiration of artistry in August Strindberg´s debut novel Röda rummet. By the method of close reading the thematic analysis is performed. The method is also based on an hermeneutic way of looking at literature.A historical context is adapted and the characters are compared to historical descriptions of artists such as bohemians, decadents and dandys. The artists of the novel prove to be, like the bohemians of the 19th century, standing outside and against society, although the presence of relations and cultural exchange seem to be just as important. There is also an ambivalence to be found in their relationship with the city and it´s lifestyle.The question at issue is how the development of the characters´ artistry come about, and in what ways the characters are influenced.

Syftet är att analysera vilka variabler som påverkar performance positivt i nystartade BioMed och ITT-företag och i denna process även beskriva och jämföra hur dessa variabler ser ut i de två branschgrupperna och hur företagen har utvecklats. Vi har använt oss av en kvantitativ metod och har genom ett enkätutskick fått empiriskt material från 20 grundare av BioMed-företag och från 30 grundare av ITT-företag. Slutsatserna är att i BioMed påverkas nystartade företags performance positivt av: grundarens ålder, arbetserfarenhet, branschkunskap, start-up-erfarenhet och ett heterogent nätverk. Nystartade ITT-företags performance påverkas positivt av : grundarens ålder, utbildningsnivå, arbetserfarenhet, branschkunskap, antalet grundare, initial kapitalmängd i företaget och att ha affärsänglar och riskkapitalbolag som kapitalkälla. Connects olika insatser får generellt sett inte bra betyg av grundarna och därmed drar vi slutsatsen att Connects betydelse för företagens performance inte är stor.

The aim of this study was to examine the current and historic mercury(Hg) load of the lake Storjuktan due to its recent exposure to a local potential source of Hg in form of the Sulphide mine Blaikengruvan(2006) and an earlier potential sources of Hg-load, the damming of the lake(1960s). Sediments were extracted using a HTH-sampler, freeze-dried, and analyzed for tot-Hg, LOI and activity of 210Pb and compared to samples extracted prior to the opening of the mine(2006). Constant initial concentration (CIC)-dating model was used for dating the samples. Low levels of Hg (100ng/g) were found throughout the lakes sediment. The highest levels of Hg(220ng/g) was detected at a depth of 4-5cm dating back to the mid 1970:s, suggesting that increased levels of atmospheric Hg rather than damming of the lake has caused the increase of Hg.

The thesis was done in collaboration with EAB situated in Smålandsstenar. In the initial discussion faze on doing a thesis with them there was a need to analyze and ensure the strength of an existing product, cantilever racks. This included performing FEM calculations on a model and comparing the results with physical tests.EAB has two models of cantilever racks, a light duty and a heavy duty. Within the heavy duty model series there are five product variants that differ in both size and load capacity. We will be working with the product variant with a load capacity of 1000 kg/arm which is the variant that is in the middle of the series.When we started work on the thesis we did a literature study and couldn?t find any well defined methodology that integrates both product development and computer aided design analysis.

Between 1965 and 1975 a major housing project was carried out in Sweden to resolve a major housing crisis, the so-called one million housing program (Swedish: miljonprogrammet). To raise the standards and create a more attractive housing in these areas is currently a very relevant topic in Sweden.Evidence-based design is the process of basing decisions of the built environment on credible research and studies to achieve the best possible outcome. This method is primarily used in the healthcare sector to improve quality of care and reduce costs by creating healthy environments.The possibility of refurbish apartment buildings from miljonprogrammet using evidence-based design has been studied by means of an extensive literature review and a closer examination of the residential area, Husby in Stockholm, which has been chosen to represent the miljonprogrammet in its entirety. Furthermore, the evidence-based research has been limited to seven fields; nature, noise, color, wayfinding, safe environment, daylight and thermal comfort which has been assessed to be applicable on housing. In order to obtain a comprehensive overview of the different fields, four different subjects were chosen to investigate further within each field; research and studies, laws and regulations, constructional aspect and Husby.

Despite the fact that mandatory financial auditing has been abolished for small private public companies in Sweden we still see this service being used by these firms. Earlier research, papers and published articles tend to focus on the abolishment of the mandatory audits seen from the accountant?s point of view. There has however been less emphasis on the fact that 85 percept of the companies relived from the mandatory audits still utilises this service. We think that we have found a new and until now unexplored angel on this subject, and the purpose of our study has been to explore what the Swedish bank officials and what the Swedish Tax Agency?s officials think that they have to gain from a mandatory financial audit.The scientific method used in the study is deduction due to the fact that existing theories has been used to form the hypothesis.

Title: Pricing of IPO:s on the Swedish stock market Authors: Mikael Gustavsson Martin Kvist Henrik Wannberg Tutor: Anders Hederstierna Problem: There are certain sets of problems for underwriters when they are pricing potential stock-exchange companies. The problem partly consists of estimating the demand at an IPO and also to accurately value the business in comparison to the market. To set the price per share is problematic, since the company carrying out the public offering wants to optimise the amount of capital at the same time as they want the share to be subscribed in full. If the IPO would not be carried out, it could cause harm to the position of the underwriters. Purpose: To investigate whether underpricing exists associated with IPO:s on the Swedish market during the period 1995-1999. Method: The collection of data has been achieved by means of: Internet, E-mail and telephone calls. Conclusions: We have reached the conclusion that oversubscribing in comparison to the return at an IPO has an average growth of 3.3 per cent the first day, on every occasion of oversubscribing. For the studied population, including 138 initial public offerings, the average market value rise is 15 per cent the first day. When we made our calculations, adjustments have been made for the general index of Affärsvärlden (AFGX).

WSP building physics in Stockholm has certified the preschool Temmelburken in Bromma with the system of certification Miljöbyggnad. The rating of the building became BRONZE. In this thesis the preschool has been investigated with respect to the three areas: thermal climate, use of energy and improving of the level of certification. The thermal climate at the preschool has been investigated by a questionnaire survey and by measurements in order to do comparisons between the results from the two investigations as well as with the results of the simulations that WSP has done at the certification of the preschool. The differences between the results from the simulations and the questionnaire survey for winter as well as from the measurement performed with a comfort meter the 19th of March are concidered to be reasonably small since they give rise to the same rating according to Miljöbyggnad.   Operational data for the use of energy for the preschool have been obtained in order to do comparisons with simulations performed by WSP and Svenska Besiktningar AB. The comparison shows that the simulated values for the specific use of energy are lower than what the real specific use of energy would be for the preschool, since just the operational data for the heat energy is higher than the simulated values. At the investigation of the possibility of improving the level of certification it was found that the rating of the preschool can be raised from BRONZE to SILVER by improving the ratings of the ?thermal climate summer? and the ?daylight?.

The purpose of this essay is to discuss and compare different ways of learning new words and expanding your vocabulary in a foreign language. This is done by an examination of relevant literature and available research, as well as by an empirical study with two upper secondary school classes, in which two different methods are put to the test: one traditional method of the kind that is found to be most common in second language acquisition, and one designed to take existing research into account. The results show that, although effective in the initial stages of acquisition, the traditional method, where words are learned in isolation and via translation to L1, results in a very limited form of knowledge. A big part of the words acquired via this method is also forgotten soon afterwards. The other method, where words were learned and tested in its proper context, was found to result in a broader form of vocabulary knowledge, covering more aspects, and that remained over time.

Automatic query expansion has long been studied in information retrieval research as a technique that deals with the fundamental issue of word mismatch between query and document. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the retrieval effectiveness of different strategies for automatic query expansion. The strategies are based on local analysis of the corpus and use statistical information from the local document set to extract terms that suppose to adapt themselves to each individual search and therefore appear to be searchonyms to the index terms. The strategies compared are: association clusters, metric cluster and scalar cluster. Baseline queries of 24 topics are expanded using terms from the different clusters and searches are made.

Propofol is an intravenously administered, hypnotic and short- acting pharmaceutical. One common sideeffect (>1:10) and therefore a disadvantage with propofol is the local pain that arise when the initial injection is given. Why the pain arise is not clearly understood. A majority of different pharmacological treatments, different doses and combinations, alternative administrations methods and physical interventions have been tried to reduce the pain when injection of propofol is given. One important task for the nurse is to relieve pain for patients.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the view on the personal encounter between staff and visitors in public libraries in order to detect possible differences between the two groups in order to see if the personal encounter as such could be used in order to market libraries. We believe that social competence must interact with the initial personal encounter in order for the visitor to experience the visit as positive. We have based the theoretical framework on Erving Goffman?s theory on social interaction, as well as on Christian Grönroos? theory on quality of service and marketing. We use the following questions: How do library staff view the personal encounter? How do library visitors view the personal encounter? How does the library staff?s treatment affect the visitor?s view of the library?Are there any differences in view between visitors and staff concerning the personal encounter? If so, what kind of differences are they? Using qualitative interviews, we have interviewed nine visitors and six staff members at two public libraries.

The initial aim of the roll out of smart electricity meters in Sweden was to allow remote readings of the households? monthly electricity consumption for billing purposes. Since then the transition towards a smart grid has become a more prioritized matter. In the roll out of next generation smart meters more attention is therefore given to how the Distribution System Operator (DSO) can benefit from the meter through different smart grid applications. This study uses a qualitative research method to identify three general fields of application and 15 specific concepts corresponding to ways in which the DSO can create added value from the information provided by the smart meter.