Storage of biomass is associated with problems like heat development, biomasslosses, and reduction of the fuel quality. Certain processes such as biological- andchemical degradation are responsible for these storage problems. This master?sthesis was carried out at Vattenfall Research and Development AB and is alignedtowards quantifying the biomass losses from short-term storage (1-2 months) ofbark and recovered wood. The biomass was stored in outdoor piles during differentseasons, campaign 1 (summer) and campaign 2 (autumn).

Title: Communicate ? to provide an opportunity Authors: Ida Eriksson & Petra LindbergTutor: Johan Grinbergs, Mälardalen UniversityExaminer: Cecilia LindhSubject: Bachelor's essay, Business AdministrationKeywords: communication, internal communication, channels, communication models, communication theory, information, organizationPurposeThe idea of this study was to describe how ABB Sweden?s internal communication and information appeared in Västerås. The aim is also to see what tools and channels they use to communicate information internally and see how employees perceive them in Västerås.MethodWe have read literature in form of books and articles that discuss theories on the subject communication including internal communication, channels and tools. Interviews were conducted with employees of ABB and were to serve as the basis for our empirical work. A survey by the Communication Center was made in the spring 2010 and was also the basis for our empirical work.ConclusionsThe communication has been increasingly from one-to two-way communication. To get a functioning organization, it is required that the internal communication in the first place will work.

To be able to plan for the expansion of a town, one needs a vision of the future appear-ance of the town. It is the current issues (social situation, supply and demand, political control etc.) which decide what the ideal for town planning is. This is turn is the steering factor of the physical structure of the town. Therefore, the town's structure is decided by these ideals.In this report, I will present planning ideals that have historically been, and which criticisms that have been directed towards them. With reference to these issues, I will present those guidelines and ideals we have today for planning of our towns.

In the middle of Australia there is a city called Alice Springs. The city has one of the highest amounts of daily sunshine hours and sun irradiation in the world. The Australian Government runs a project called Solar Cities, and Alice Springs is one of the participators. The main part of the goal with the Solar Cities project is to increase the amount of electricity generated by solar power and by doing that lower the impact on the environment. This thesis examines the possibilities for construction of a large scale solar power plant in Alice Springs. This is done to determine the potential of creating a more sustainable energy system in the city.

The Swedish government has made the decision to transform the talking book system from an analogue system to a digital system called DAISY by the end of 2004. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how public libraries are affected by this system change. This is carried out by studying the current situation in public libraries concerning the transition to DAISY. This qualitative oriented study is primarily based on interviews with four librarians and three library managers at six public libraries. Management by objectives is here seen as a suitably theoretical framework since public municipal libraries are partly regulated by the governments goals and laws.

Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and Swedish lakes remains a major problem despite many years of effort to reduce the emissions of nutrients. One major source is waste water systems, especially private sewage systems. These sewages accounts for a very large share of nutrients per capita in comparison with citizens connected to larger sewage treatment plants. Norrtälje community has the greatest number of private sewage systems in Sweden. Discharges of nutrients, especially phosphorus, to the Baltic Sea from these sewage systems are significant.

Title: Management control of facility efficiency in municipalities - A case study of Halmstad municipalityLevel: BachelorSeminar date: 2012-05-31Authors: Markus Nilsson & Sara MattssonAdvisor: Sven-Ola CarlssonKey words: Control management in municipality, facility efficiency, management by objectives, internal rents and incentivesBackground: The public sector owns and manages a large property portfolio and in the municipalities, the properties are always a big cost item. Because of the outside world changes and the public interest, the properties should be used as efficiently as possible.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how control management of facilities looks like a municipality. The paper also seeks to explain how employees work to make the facilities more efficient in a municipality.Methodology: The authors use a qualitative method with open interviews.Theoretical perspectives: The choice of theory was made with the field of management control and facility efficiency in mind. The theory therefore includes management by objectives, internal rents and reward systems, motivation and communication within organizations.Empirical foundation: The organization has undergone a reorganization 2010/2011. There are no clear incentives to reduce facility costs.

Syfte: Syftet med examensarbetet är att analysera vilka variabler som påverkar den verkställande direktörens totala ersättning samt hur sambanden mellan dem ser ut. Examensarbetet ämnar bidra resultat till den pågående samhällsdebatten kring verkställande direktörers ersättningar.Metod: Författarna använder en deduktiv forskningsansats och utgår från en kvantitativ undersökning i form av en multipel regressionsmodell. Vid insamling av information används sekundärdata.Teoretiska perspektiv: Författarna använder sig av agentteorin samt riktlinjer för lönesättning. Vidare utgår examensarbetet från tidigare forskning gjord inom ämnet som teoretisk referensram.Empiri: Studien baseras på 42 bolag noterade på Large Cap under den studerade tidsperioden åren 2000 till 2007 samt med svensk hemvist. Data hämtas från Datastream, Avanza och företagens årsredovisningar.Resultat: Studien visar på ett positivt samband mellan verkställande direktörers förändring i total ersättning och förändring i antal anställda, överavkastning, förändring i ROA och förändring i ROS samt ett negativt samband med förändring i omsättning, VD-byte samt antal år sedan börsintroduktion.

In preparation for the autumn term in 2011, the Swedish elementary school adopted new syllabuses regarding, inter alia, the civic education (Sw. Samhällskunskap). The civic education has traditionally been a disciplinary subject with a main purpose of mediating democratic values as well as providing generalorientation in the society. Generally, the civic education intends to reflect the world in which people live in, being a complex society which to a large extent is regularly affected by global aspects and developments.      The purpose of this study is to review all the elementary school?s syllabuses relating to the civic education with specific focus on the globalisation perspective.

Title: Shop at us ? and we?ll carbon offset! ? How large and well-known companies affect consumers feelings towards their brand by using green marketing and CSR.Authors: Emilie Jäfvert & Carolin RuthbergAdvisor: Christine TidåsenLevel: Bachelor thesis in Marketing, (15 Swedish credits), Spring 2011Keywords: Green marketing, CSR and branding.Question: How do large and well known companies affect their customer?s view towards their brand by using green marketing and CSR?Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how high consumer?s value companies who works with green marketing and CSR, and also to find out how it affects the company brand.Method: We have chosen to do a qualitative research with a deductive approach. We have done five open interviews with companies and ten open interviews with consumers to conduct our research.Theoretical framework: Our theoretical framework includes four different areas; CSR- Corporate Social Responsibility, green marketing, brands and consumers. These sub-chapters include theories that will help the reader get a better understanding of the areas.Empirical studies: We have gathered empirical data by multiple open interviews. Two of the five interviews with the companies were face-to-face, two via email and one over the phone.

In the middle of Australia there is a city called Alice Springs. The city has one of the highest amounts of daily sunshine hours and sun irradiation in the world. The Australian Government runs a project called Solar Cities, and Alice Springs is one of the participators. The main part of the goal with the Solar Cities project is to increase the amount of electricity generated by solar power and by doing that lower the impact on the environment. This thesis examines the possibilities for construction of a large scale solar power plant in Alice Springs. This is done to determine the potential of creating a more sustainable energy system in the city.

During the last decade a number of studies have been published that investigate how the most fundamental aspect of political organization, the regime type, affects population health. The results unanimously show that citizens of democracies live longer and healthier lives than citizens of non-democracies. Many explanations for this have been suggested, among these are that democracies redistribute more and invest more in salutogenic resources, and that the tendency of dictatorships to control the media negatively affects the ability to spread information crucial to public health. When these mechanisms are controlled for, however, it turns out that democracy has a large residual correlation with for example life expectancy, which suggests that other mechanisms are also involved.In this paper two new mechanisms regarding the possible psychosocially mediated health effects of the regime type are investigated, namely political repression, and the possible negative effects this might have on the levels of chronic stress, and autonomy, which connects to a large previous literature in social epidemiology. In the paper an ecological cross-country design is used and country-level data, provided mainly by the World Bank and Freedom House, is analyzed with a simple multiple OLS-regression model.

AbstractThis text deals with one of the preschool everyday routine chores, and the phenomenon I have chosen to investigate is the hallway situation. The purpose of the study was to see if the hallway situation offers good communicative interactions between children and teachers, and investigate if the teachers use special strategies to make the hallway situation work. The method of this study was survey, qualitative interviews and observations. The three methods have deliberately been selected to best suite and reply to the different issues.Today?s groups of children in preschool are very big, and some of the preschools are not adapted to these large groups of children that we have today.

The aim with this report is to investigate what influence the way playgrounds are used throw the case study in Vänersborg, and also to find methods for municipalities to collect information about how playgrounds are used. The methods were observations, interviews with parents and children, a questionary with questions about what playgrounds they used, how often and why they used them and what the children used to do there. There was also a demographic investigation and documentary research. The most popular playground, Skräcklan, gets visitors from all parts of the municipality. It is located in a park with a view over the lake Vänern, there is a parking place and a café and it has furthermore a large area and many play equipments. Many of the families make shorter trips and picnics to this place. In exception of this playground, the families almost always go to the playground in their neighborhood and their part of the town.

In preparation for the autumn term in 2011, the Swedish elementary school adopted newsyllabuses regarding,inter alia, the civic education (Sw. Samhällskunskap). The civiceducation has traditionally been a disciplinary subject with a main purpose of mediatingdemocratic values as well as providing general orientation in the society. Generally, the civiceducation intends to reflect the world in which people live in, being a complex society whichto a large extent is regularly affected by global aspects and developments.The purpose of this study is to review all the elementary school?s syllabuses relating to thecivic education with specific focus on the globalisation perspective.