Active sensors are used a lot in the society and industry, for example to gain better control over processes or to get proximity sensing features in different products. Within industry there is great interest in developing safe automation products that can be controlled with high accuracy but still at a low cost.The goal of this project is to develop a prototype of a non-contact rangefinder that measures distance using infrared light. The sensor is to be used for various applications in industries with relatively high accuracy and be compact, but at a low cost. By implementing a rangefinder into a product, more accurate detections of an object?s presence can be done.In this project a new distance sensor, EPC600 from ESPROS, was used.

Teaching preschool children about the environment. A comparative study of how two preschools work with environmental issues.My investigations are based on qualitative interviews and observations carried out at two preschools, one of which has a nature and environment profile while the other works in traditional ways with these questions. I sought to explore the ways in which pedagogues in each preschool raise environmental awareness and, more generally, awaken an interest in nature in the children. The consequences of methodological similarities and differences will be considered.This term paper concludes that the difference between an environmental profile preschool and a traditional preschool working on environmental awareness is not large. The knowledge gained by children in the latter preschool surpassed that gained in the former.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate and analyze how widely and intensive genderequality issues are considered within Swedish companies. Qualitative interviews werearranged with personnel managers within each company, and complemented with aquestionnaire amongst the employees. The collected information was analysed on the basis ofgender theory, organization and change theory, theory of equal opportunities and historicalstatistics. The outcome of the analysis indicates that companies find gender equality of highinterest, and important to address within the daily work. However the analysis also shows thateven though the companies find gender equality important it is only adopted within few areas,and not across all departments.

Labour and its conditions is a subject constantly in focus. Therefore this study aims to shed some light on different factors which constitutes the basis for the definition of optimal labour conditions, as well as creating a need for change of labour conditions. In this case these factors are changes in society and cultures. The study describes how different levels of society - government, employer and employee ? are affected by, or wishes to affect the labor conditions in terms of location, working hours and leisure.

Religious phenomena, such as prayer, have more or less always interested and engaged people, but most likely for different purposes. Since the early 20th century, starting notably with Edmund Husserl and especially Martin Heidegger, phenomenologists have taken an interest in understanding and expounding the meaning of religious phenomena. The attention of such a discourse have not ceased but is rather current, and also of importance seeing that religious themes, such as prayer, still occupy a great extent of human life and practice.Phenomenology of religion is not a science of religion: the former approaches religion in terms of its meaningfulness, whereas the latter as an object of inquiry and in the same manner as an economist approaches economical indicators in order to understand and explain how the whole economy functions. In other words, phenomenology of religion expounds religion, as it were, from within, while science of religion does it from without or externally.When approaching prayer phenomenologically, it shows itself to be a process or structure through which the one praying empty himself in order to be able to receive the valuable presence of the other. The value that is received from the other will also be reflected by the one praying and in that sense effect his surroundings and fellow humans..

This thesis was created in an attempt to examine the concept of cultural heritage. What is cultural heritage to us and why do we treat it in the different ways we do? In my attempt to find an answer to this I have chosen to concentrate my interest on a situation where historical objects have been preserved as well as destroyed, Iraq 2003 until 2007. In my research I have divided the Iraqi cultural heritage in three different groups based on the different treatments they where exposed to during the occupation of Bagdad and the aftermath. For each group I have chosen one object or a category of objects to be a representative examined.

The interest in businesses active on the countryside and their funding situation has increased in recent years. In a survey, conducted by Leif Berndtsson (2003), it was reported that there is a lack of external capital in rural areas. According to Berndtsson (2003) the lack of external capital inhibits the rural firm?s growth. The essay attempts to answer whether the shortage of external capital is a factor that inhibits development for rural businesses.

The primary purpose of this essay is to study and describe what student?s self experiences of the media coverage of social work. The theoretical perspectives applied to analyse the empirical data are social constructionism, roles, and construction. The method of this study is qualitative and based on ten personal interviews. The material has been analysed by condensed meaning units and three themes have been used, the media coverage of social work, the relationship between social workers and media and the influence media coverage has on the students.The results given from these interviews show that the majority of the interviewed group considers the media coverage of social work as negative.

Being physically active plays an essential role in ensuring good health and well-being. Motivation is a key factor for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and together with the help of today?s modern technology, facilitating new innovative approaches has made it easier to motivate people towards regular physical activity. This study aims to examine how a training application can increase motivation and how behavioral change occurs when using a training application. Qualitative data collection methods such as interviews and observations have been used in this study.

In this report female farmers use of technical equipment is investigated. There is little research made on this subject in Sweden, therefore this report can be seen as an explorative study. Research makes it clear that machinery, throughout history and even today, has been seen as a male area. Heavy machines are often associated with the same attributes as masculinity. Force, power, efficiency and control are some examples.

The health care is an important part of the welfare services in Sweden. Therefore it is of large interest that it is well performing. A part of this is related to how the health care is organized. This essay examines how the Swedish health care has been organized between 1960 and 1990 and what organizational changes that have been made to the health care. It shows that the Swedish health care has un-dergone many organizational changes the last decades.

Banks have been some of the biggest operators on the market of business customers financing. When the Swedish Förmånsrättslagen was changed 2004 the banks became more restrictive to allow traditional bank loans. The change made it more difficult for customers to get their loans granted. For that reason customers had to find other forms of financing. Factoring is an alternative that means companies can mortage/sell their claim on customers to finance companies.

This report is prepared in cooperation with Södra, Norra Halland SBO. The survey gives the members an opportunity to influence the services and also gives the staff at Södra a hint of the member?s demands.Södra is the largest co-operative forest company in Sweden with over 50 000 members and is divided into 31 areas. Norra Halland SBO is one of them.A questionnaire was sent to the members and 516 (or 53 %) of them answered. Of the respondents 68 % were between 60 and 69 years of age.

Managing credit risk might be the single most important business area for any commercial bank. The assessment of "good" and "bad" corporate clients is a important task for a creditor. A bad debtor is a corporate client with hardships in meeting the continous claims (interest payments) that a creditor requires. One way of evaluating or separating a "bad" client from a "good" client is to assess the propensity for the client to file for bankruptcy. This thesis examines 226 firms in the Swedsh market in the quest of predicting corporate bankruptcy.

How does a corporation work during the recruitment phase to entice and motivate younger members to work for their organization?The aim is to examine in which grade corporations and organizations? recruitment needs to adapt to encounter Generation Y on the labour market.The base in our method is abduction and our research is based on a qualitative method. We have fulfilled interviews with corporations such as Scania, Skatteverket, Swedbank and Appelqvist & Ottoson HR AB.Corporations need in a sense change their recruitment and emphasis their resources to sell the whole corporation and its image to the young job applicant. The younger members demand a total impression of the corporation to implement an interest and to get motivated to work there. Together with our respondents we have realized that Generation Y has higher demands on their workplace than earlier generations..