This project was conducted during the spring semester 2013 at mechanical engineering program at University Halmstad. The project was conducted in collaboration with MPQ Consulting in Halmstad. MPQ Consulting is a newly established company looking to take step into the product development world. The company has already had ideas and existing products. One of the ideas is to construct and design a form of beach games whose rules are based on the volleyball rules.

Today we see a growing need and interest in working towards sustainable development. To be able to contribute to a sustainable development as individuals/business we need to emphasize the importance of education and contextualisation that learning occurs in a sense that is relevant to the learner.This is the background to this study, which in turn is the basis for an education that focuses on how to environmentally secure your purchases, an opportunity for us to set environmental standards purchasing products and services. The process for purchase is considered by many to be a key factor in businesses work towards sustainable development. Key people in this process and target audience for this education is environmental, purchasing and procurement managers.The purpose of this study is to design an education calledMiljösäkrade inköp from the target audiences? knowledge, interests and attitudes, together with literature.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate which apple cultivars are best suited for production of juice and cider. The study was limited to 41 cultivars. Common as well as uncommon apple cultivars were selected from available cultivars in the cold storage at Balsgård, Department of Horticultural Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, SLU.The practical part of the study consisted of the apples being pressed, and then the juice characteristics being assessed by appropriate criteria and methods of analysis. The analyses consisted of measurment of soluble sugars with a refractometer (Brix), titration of total acidity, determination of total phenolic content with a spectrophotometer, estimation of alcohol content by density meters and qualitative taste tests.The study did not account for different maturity of cultivars. Different apple cultivars were pressed on separate occasions, before and after Christmas 2010.

This paper attempts to illustrate a gap when it comes to the knowledge about unpaid volunteers in Swedish organisations. The person-oriented explanations of individual preferences when choosing an orientation in which to volunteer does not suffice to explain and enlighten the fact that there is a gender-based division that orientates women towards voluntary work within organisations with a social direction, while men tend to choose sports-oriented voluntary tasks. This illustrates a pattern that is common in society in general. Eight interviews including four women volunteering in socially oriented organisations and four men in sports-oriented organisations have been conducted. An attempt has been made to explain results from earlier research as well as the respondents reasoning about their voluntary work with gender related theories.

The purpose of this master thesis is to, with the strategies of the organization and the preferences of the co-workers in mind, explore how reward systems can be designed in heterogeneous organizations. This is done by interviewing store managers and sales personnel in a heterogeneous organization. The frame of reference deals with theoretical approaches on reward systems and is divided in the following sections, individual or group based, differentiated or not differentiated rewards systems and goals, measurements and rewards. These sections are highlighted from the following aspects, equity, implementation possibilities and finally environment. The theoretical discussion ends in the conclusion that heterogeneous organizations should have several different reward systems, but not if a restructuring process is in progress or the system becomes too costly.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if and how children acknowledge TV-commercials, and if that is the case, are their preferences in products a result of it? The study also investigates which TV-commercials that are broadcasted together with children?s programs and if and how the children acknowledge these. The studies are based on interviews and an exercise with pictures that was carried out with two groups containing four children each. One group contained four children in the age of 6, and the other four children in the age of 7. The children are situated in a school in the Swedish countryside.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study has been to analyse and understand the effects of heteronormative structures in the Swedish asylum process. Homosexual refugees, seeking asylum in Sweden, is in focus when proceeding an analysis about these social structures and normative phenomena. The main discourse, being handled in this study, is between homosexuality and heterosexuality. However, central findings in this study consists of how different approaches, such as gender based identities as well as sexual preferences and ethnic background, combined is influencing the asylum process and the treatment of the asylum seekers.The analysis is based upon legal material, as well as the guidelines and work ethics of the Migrationsverket, which is being compared with theoretical approaches on heteronormativity and structural hierarchy. To achieve a wider understanding of the area and to gain more information, we have also performed interviews with relevant sources.Key-words: Heteronormativity, asylum seekers, homosexuality, power structuresSara Haugbak & Jenny Thomsen, Sociology C, University of Växjö, Sweden.

This thesis seeks to investigate how Swedish first class hotels by use of IT can improve customer service and thereby increase the share of loyal guests. The authors have conducted a qualitative study predominantly consisting of an interview-based case study at one of Stockholm?s largest independent hotels. To get a broader and more generalized picture of the hotel industry four smaller studies at other hotels in Stockholm were also conducted. The findings suggest that the use of IT can improve the communication between the hotel and its guests and make possible a continuing relationship between visits that strengthens guest commitment.

The aim in this thesis is to study what attitude music teachers in Sweden and New Zealand have towards Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in music education and obtain a better understanding of how their attitudes affect the way they use ICT in their teaching. Another intention is to discuss differences and similarities between the teachers´ preferences regarding this issue in the two different countries, and whether it has any effect on teaching. It's a qualitative study based on interviews with music teachers from both countries. Through the answers we can get an impression about how ICT is used in music education, how the curriculum is interpreted when it comes to use ICT in music education and how the teachers' attitudes towards ICT affect the music education. This thesis shows that teachers are positive towards ICT in music education but the attitude, knowledge and the way of using it differs, due to access to technology and different opinions about what is essential in music and what is pedagogical.

This report presents the development process of a mobile interface for the C2-monitor. A monitoring tool used to support the operations for the broadcasting services of Ericsson Broadcasting and Media Services (EBMS). With the support of the C2-monitor, operators can monitor hundreds of channels and services produced from EBMS. To enhance a more flexible working environment, the C2-monitor needs to be developed further to support mobile devices with a customized design to take advantage of mobile phones features and functionality. Established and well-recognized design methods and principles have been applied in the development process and user testing have been made iteratively throughout the project.

The aim of this study was to look at introduction for staff in a social service office and the social workers experience off the first period at a new workplace. Qualitative interviews have been used as a method of investigating how social workers look at introduction in the workplace and how social workers have experience the first period at the workplace. The empirical material have been analysed by using the theory of Human Service Organizations, street-lever bureaucracy theory and theory concerning work environment. This papers first chapter presents the methodological preferences, the second chapter the theoretical perspective and the results of the study are presented in the third chapter followed by a discussion and ending comments in chapter four. My study showed that introduction is necessary in a complex organisation and could be a way to improve the social workers situation in social service organisations..

A co-operation is established when a group of people, sharing the same preferences and values, come together in order to satisfy a common need. The co-operative association should be democratic, governed and supervised by its members and open to everyone. The purpose of this article is to, from our ideal type, study similarities and differences regarding the corporate governance of the consumers? and the producers? co-operative movement. The motive behind our choice of alignment is that the mechanisms of corporate governance often are described from the perspective of the joint-stock company, making it valuable and interesting to study these mechanisms from the co-operative point of view.

The purpose of this study is to examine what view librarians have on reading promotion for adults, in particular reading circles, and in which way earlier experiences, education and competence form this view. To what extent, if any, do perceptions of professional identity influence the interest to carry out some kind of reading circles for adults?Our study is based on qualitative interviews with librarians, both those in charge of reading circles in libraries and those who are not. As theoretical starting point we have used Andrew Abbott's work on theory of professions and Jofrid Karner Smidt's thesis on literary preferences and different kinds of mediation of literature. For our analysis we will also use earlier studies on the subject to place our study in a wider context.Our conclusions show that the librarians in our study have an ambivalent view on their profession and professional identity.

There is a lot of research made on second language (L2) learning (Jesney, 2004). However the relationship between foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics within pronunciation tutoring is quite an unresearched area (Thorén, 2008). The aim of the study was to analyze how a course in Swedish pronunciation affected foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics among L2-learners of Swedish. A total of 41 people participated in the study: 16 L2-learners, 4 native Swedish speakers consisting a control group and 21 perceptual assessors with Swedish as native language. The L2-learners foreign accent and intelligibility were rated by the listeners before and after a course in Swedish pronunciation on an eight-point Likert-scale.

In order to be a good teacher according to preferences from outside the school area, there are many different voices to listen to. The different roles that are assigned for teachers are colliding with the latest research from the pedagogical institutions and therefore the role as a teacher of today is in a complex state of mind. Somewhere, between the traditional role of teaching and the moderating ideal image, reality is revealed in the ambivalent role of the teacher of today. In this pedagogical essay on advanced level we are focusing on obstacles that are hindering the moderating teacher?s role, to be fully developed in the classroom.