This thesis has been carried out at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at SLU Ultuna during the spring semester 2009. The topic of the paper is how energy consumption can be influenced through design and if the conditions for good design decreases when solutions based on energy efficiency are used. The report is divided into one literature study and one part where energy efficient solutions are used in a design. The thesis work has its origin in a project called "Energihus i Uppsala." The planned building will be a center for energy research in Uppsala. The project aims to demonstrate to the public what is currently happening in research related to energy.

This thesis assignment at C-level is focused on calculation models and prediction methodswhish can be used in the stage we call ?prospecting? of possible windmill locations. Thelocation is southeast of Halmstad at the Farm ?Stjernarpsgods?. The rapport has two mainareas directed towards this task.

Streams and riparian zone are closely linked by reciprocal flows of energy and nutrients. A large part of the transportation from water to land is in form of emerged aquatic insects. Conversion of land from forest to agriculture can greatly affect aquatic ecosystems, and due to the close link, also affect the adjacent terrestral zone. Investigating how the presence of agriculture in the surrounding area affects amounts of emergent aquatic insects gives an indication on how agriculture, in turn, may affect the terrestral enviroment. The study was preformed alongside ten streams in northern Sweden; five in landscape transformed by agriculture and five in undisturbed forest areas.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

This report presents suggestions and recommendations on how to convert an old industrial building, built in 1958, to an office hotel. One of the main criteria was that the floor plan should be flexible. The building is situated at Jonsereds Fabriker and the study was conducted for Hantverkslokaler i Göteborg AB, the estate owner.The survey is initiated with study visits at various office hotels, together with studies of literature regarding office planning. One conclusion from the study visits is that meeting-places, where the different companies can meet and exchange ideas and services, are important. Another one, and probably the most important parameter when planning offices is that they should have windows.

Outdoor education is a teaching method which has several advantages to traditional classroom tuition. Its ideas have a long tradition and find support in the current Swedish curriculum. The place for the tuition is a central aspect within outdoor education. This essay aims to investigate what good places for outdoor education look like as well as discussing how the characteristics of such places can be used when designing schoolyards. Previous research shows that nature has characteristics that suit outdoor education well.

Today Sweden is both a secular and multi-religious country, of which Christianity historically has been a dominant player. Both processes of individualization and migration have contributed to a changed religious character as the current Swedish social situation represents. An interesting question to consider is how the Swedish school system has been able to adapt to the changed religious climate. This study examines the policy documents for religious education produced for upper secondary school, to see how the role of religion in the processes of individualization and migration, and the changes that these processes have brought the role of religion in today?s society as a whole, are described within them.

Throughout its wide distribution in the northern hemisphere, the golden eagle occurs in a diverse range of environments, e.g., mountainous, forest and open areas. The literature on juvenile golden eagles is limited, and this study provides further knowledge on habitat use and ranging behaviour during the post-fledging period in boreal Sweden. A total of 14 golden eagle juveniles were tagged with GPS transmitters during 2010 and 2011, and nine could be followed during the entire post-fledging period from fledging until migration. The juveniles fledged at the end of July and beginning of August and initiated migration during October and beginning of November. The length of the post-fledging period, until migration started, ranged from 49 to 97 days. During this period, the juveniles? distance from their natal nest and their GPS height increased with time as their flying abilities developed.

The purpose with this thesis is to understand the relationship between a square?s design and its function as a public meeting place, were Sundstorget in the city of Helsingborg is used as a study object. The architect Jan Gehl developed a theory of people?s outdoor activities in his book Livet mellem husene (1996). He divides the activities in three categories; 1) necessary activities, 2) optional activities and 3) social activities, which are differently affected by the place?s design.

In this project, an area in the small town Tungelsta south of Stockholm, is in focus. Tungelsta is placed in the municipality of Haninge and it is for the planning department on the municipality, this project is made. The task is to compose an arrengement of buildings and open spaces for a 50 hektar area. Today the area is consists of agriculture fields and forests. The area is placed near the railway station, in the city centre of Tungelsta, which makes it interesting and important to work with. There are different opinions about the future plans for the area.

Sigill Quality Systems has been certifying beef since the autumn of 2006 using the brand name label Swedish Sigill. IP Sigill (the certifying system for integrated production) encompasses the values: animal ethics, food safety, free range and environmental concerns. Product quality is not yet one of these values, and there is a variation in the quality of Swedish beef. Swedish Sigill wanted to investigate the factors that influence product quality, review which of the present regulations that have an influence on product quality and formulate new regulations with the purpose of enhancing the product quality (sensorial, technological and nutritional quality). A survey of quality parameters and factors that influence product quality was done in order to establish a scientific foundation to work from.

According to a decision of the European Commission, measures are to be taken to reduce the use of energy in the EU. The goal is to reduce it by 20 % compared to the current use. This shall be done to the year 2020 (European Commission, 2011). One industry that use large amounts of energy is the construction of buildings which account for almost a third of the energy use (Brogren, 2012). The major part of the energy that is used in the construction industry is not used when the buildings are built, but rather during the rest of their subsequent lifetime.

The aim of our master thesis is first and foremost to win the competition One Prize - mowing to Growing: Reinventing the American Lawn, announced in USA by the organization Terreform 1, the first of December 2009. Apart from winning the competition we have also tried to reach a deeper understanding of food production today and its future possibilities. Our ambition to present a winning design proposal has to a large extent decided the structure of the entire thesis. Our completed and submitted design proposal - growforgold.org - is a way of addressing urban food production in a creative way, keeping the sovereignty of the individual in mind. Instead of presenting a place-specific design solution our proposal aims to create incentives and possibilities for urban farming to take place anywhere and anytime. Our submission to the competition represents both a tool and a platform which, put in practice, could make landscape architecture happen through the hands of the individual.

This study was made with the incentive to find out the view on advertorials in Swedish press today. Our exploration of advertorials refers not only to adverts that look like editorial texts, as per the definition in the oxford dictionaries, but also to ways that editorial texts use an advertorial style or language similar to adverts. We explored both these sides because we recognized that the existence of advertorials in press today has to do with material which is indistinctive in several ways, and to find out the views on this, we interviewed chief editors and publishers on six local daily newspapers in Västra Götaland, Sweden.Our theories were based in the fact that the press finds itself working in a commercialized landscape, at the same time as journalism has a democratic role to uphold in society.We also considered that there used to be a committee against advertorials in Sweden called Textreklamkommittén, which was disbanded in 2005. That committee had a mandate to govern and try cases of advertorials in the press, but today, the only thing that journalists have to consider is a guideline of publishing matters. The central part of our study was therefore to find out what actual issues journalists have to consider in their daily work, as they are exposed to various forms of advertorials.After conducting the interviews, we asked four analytical questions to our material using the ECA-method of analysis.

New Economy Firms (NEFs) are considered being important drivers of economic development and growth in Sweden. Also, entrepreneurship is a widely discussed topic that is considered being essential for firms that are making business in a fast moving landscape. Usually, the growth of companies is put in context of the life cycle. The life cycle further implies that as a company moves from the startup-stage along the curve, the organizational structure increases. Further, increased structure is claimed to impede the entrepreneurial culture within the firm.