In subsequent to Post-colonialism the African nations have dilated into different political directions. While some nations have established well-functioning democracies, others are still under authoritarian regimes. The aim of this thesis is to examine if civil society has an impact on democratic development in West Africa. Therefore the theoretical starting point is Putnam?s theory of social capital, but this study will also examine other possible causal explanations for democratic transition.This study will be based on a comparative analysis of Ghana and Guinea.

Now a day?s there is dramatic change from traditional to digital information processing in construction industry. This change can be visualized in the project concept stage where it now has accessibility to join all the data in one place. Location-based planning technique simplifies scheduling by visualizing the schedule efficiently and has many advantages such as might shortened the project period by about 10 - 20 % if the company uses location-based technology, reducing risks in many ways by maintaining production continuity and identify collisions between things etc. Vico Office software has been used for Location based planning technique and in this thesis.The purpose of this thesis work was to demonstrate how location -based planning technology change the scheduling stage in Peab, potentially reducing the project time.

The group of elderly people in Sweden will increase significantly in the future and science point out that the future elderly people will not accept today?s standards and offers of assistance in today?s public elderly care. Therefore public elderly care stands before a significant challenge in terms of development that has to be sustainable. New research also points out that middle managers can be a great strategic resource, and a founder of success, in the challenge of sustainable development. The aim of the report was to increase the knowledge about what middle managers in public elderly care think sustainable development has to embrace, when it comes to quality and personnel administration, in order to meet the needs of the future elderly people.

The actual project presents the development of a testing rig for a steam engine. A short overviewabout the development of steam engines is presented, until arriving to the development of thepresent engine, which will require to be tested in different ways.The testing rig studied on this project (based on a Lanchester engine) will be used to testdifferent materials and layouts for the group Piston-Cylinder.The engine is a high performance steam power engine, which is going to have a highpower/dimensions ratio, what will lead to require high performance components and materials.An introduction to the testing rig is presented, and the entire design project is done in order toreplace the disappeared documentation of the current testing rig, built on the 1970?s. Also somemodifications done in the original testing rig are presented, as well as some detected problemsand their possible solutions..

Background: The majority of the occupational accidents and work-related diseases at Swedish workplaces occur due to poor ergonomics during lifts and transportation of objects. The most common consequence of poor ergonomic conditions is low back pain (LBP) and the risk of developing LBP increases as the mechanical loading on the intervertebral disks grows. This study has investigated the biomechanical loading in the low back during two different types of patient lifts. The first lift (lift A) is developed by Modern Arbetsteknik (MA) and the second lift (lift B) is a common lifting technique among care workers. Objectives: The aim of the study was to identify any advantages or disadvantages with MA?s lift, regarding shear and compression forces in the L5/S1 disc.

The purpose of this examination paper is to get an understanding as an upcoming teacher about how friends make an important impact on children?s identity development in school, their choice of friends circle and what kind of groups there can occur among them. With a deeper comprehension of these circumstances should an educationalist be more considerate and adapt his or hers education to prevent negative group formations and to be an outsider. To achieve my results I used a qualitative research method where I through observation handpicked eight students from upper level of compulsory school with different friend circles from two classes for further interviews. Beside this I observed students in their school environment for three days.

Quickmatch is a company that recruits students to other companies that need temporary workers. Today all administration is done by hand, which is very time demanding and therefore inefficient. Employees send assignment reports by e-mail about the working hours and breaks to the administration office. Since these reports are handled manually, there is a great need for an automated system that makes the company more scalable.The purpose of this work was to solve the defined problem, i. e.

This study aims to illustrate the Leader approach and analyze the work of collaboration development within Leader. The idea has also been to describe some of the difficulties that might be encountered in this type of development work. By highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of this approach we hope to enhance the chance that future work in similar projects can be implemented more easily. Leader is a tool and methodology used in the European Union (EU) for work on sustainable rural development and it has been used since 1991. The purpose of Leader is that by supporting rural projects they will gain social capital and development in the rural communities.

The purpose of this essay is to study if and how five South African educators work with music as a special pedagogical tool in children's language development. To achieve the purpose of this study, two research questions were created. As method, interviews of a qualitative character were chosen.  The aim of the method is to give the educators the opportunity to think about and use their own experience before answering the questions.The result shows that the South African educators are not using music as a special educational tool. They rather use music as an everyday educational tool to promote children's language development. The result indicates that music in educational activities promotes children?s communication with each other.

The aim of this thesis in Archival Science was to explore the concept of electronic archives and the challenges that might be encountered when attempting to move archives into a new digital age, as well as having a closer look at the term e-archive itself. Another aim was to explore how the OAIS reference model works in practice.To explore these questions I decided to do a case study on E-Arkiv Stockholm, a functioning e-archive. I decided to do a study on several documents that were created throughout the project, these included documents related to the planning of the archive, as well as the final report. My reason for this method was that these docu-ments came straight from reality and would give a clear and unbiased view of the project and it?s many aspects.Examination of the documents showed that the OAIS reference model and its concepts had been the foun-dation of much of the planning.

This Master?s thesis is one of two parts of a combined project called Sustainable development around the Lake Victoria, the purpose of which is to investigate the importance of local anchoring and active participation in the work towards sustainable development. The present study aims to investigate whether men and women are empowered by the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) process promoted in their villages by the VI Agroforestry Project Masaka/Rakai. The study is primarily based on interviews with farmers within the project area and brings up a local perspective on the concepts sustainable development, active participation and empowerment. The study shows that to improve the farmers? livelihood and to create a sustainable development in the community, the farmers have to be actively involved in, and in control of, the process.

Byggsektorn befinner sig i ständig utveckling där nya produktionslösningar och konstruktioner tas fram för att öka effektiviteten och minimera kostnaderna. Syftet med denna rapport är att utvärdera två relativt nya produktionssystem: rullarmering och den mer beprövade självkompakterande betongen. Data har samlats in för att analysera enhetstider, kostnadseffekter, kvalitet, hanterbarhet och arbetsmiljö för de nya metoderna. Lean Production är resurssnål eller mager produktion översatt till svenska och är en ide för utformning av produktionsprocessen som ett flöde utan spill. Grundtanken i Lean Production är att få rätt saker, till rätt plats, vid rätt tidpunkt, i rätt kvantitet med minimalt slöseri samtidigt som produktionen är öppen för förändringar.

I den konkurrensutsatta tillverkningsindustrin är det viktigt att ha effektiva processer för att kunna hålla nere kostnader och samtidigt hålla en hög kvalitet för att kunna erbjuda attraktiva produkter till konkurrenskraftiga priser. Lean Production är en produktionsfilosofi vars fokus är att eliminera alla former av slöseri som inte skapar värde för kunden. Ursprunget till Lean Production kan härledas till fordonsindustrin och det japanska Toyota Production System. Systemets tanke byggde på en effektiv produktion för att kunna möta konkurrensen från större amerikanska konkurrenter som kunde dra nytta av storskalsfördelar i sin massproduktion. Ett av inslagen i Toyota Production Systems var att lagra material i nära anslutning till produktionen i så kallade supermarkets.

This thesis is a feasibility study for a future product development project. The purpose ofthis project is to evaluate the possibilities and difficulties associated with the design of anelectric power assist servo for all terrain vehicles (ATVs). The project has been carriedout in collaboration with Nira Control AB. Nira designs and manufactures electric andelectro mechanic products mainly for the motor sport market segment.Nira Control AB is developing a fuel injection system for a new line of large ATVs oncommission. To be able to compete with manufacturers like Yamaha and Honda thecommissioner should be able to offer optional power assist steering.

The profit a company makes is dependant of its employees which means that their competence is important for the company to perform well. The middle manager has a central position in the organization and is expected to take on different roles. This probably puts a lot of demands on the middle managers and their competence. We want to contribute with a comprehension of how learning, competence and needs for competence can look at a middle management level. Furthermore we also want to find out what kind of strategy for competence development the middle managers want the company to use so their competence development can be facilitated.