The following study is a discourse analysis of the concept of critical thinking within pre-school teacher education. It considers the following questions: how does the concept of critical thinking appear in policy documents, central to the pre-school teacher education, and which possible conceptions of critical thinking are conveyed by students and teachers active within the education. Additionally, the study seeks to discuss, as well as suggest a possible relation, between the findings of those two questions. In reviewing the material (consisting of five semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, and of a selection of policy documents central to the education), I argue the existence of a sort of project within the education, which presents critical thinking as a higher value. At the same time, I argue that the concept is not defined or concretized. This project, however, as I suggest while drawing upon Foucault?s ideas of discourse and government, involves a rather high degree of control.

The aims of this project were to describe the circumstances around dogs being left alone in cars, to investigate owners? knowledge of the risks associated with Leaving dogs in cars and the relevant legislation and, finally, to study how changes in the air temperature and air composition in the car affect the dog. The project consisted of a survey of the literature, a questionnaire part and an experimental part. An important conclusion is the importance of the level of knowledge of owners, since there are several ways in which an owner can prevent their dog from heat stroke and, in the case of an eventual accident, their action can have direct consequences in minimizing the long-term damage to the dog and even whether or not it survives. Fewer than half of the owners in the study knew that for a dog suffering heat stroke, the most important thing is to bring the body temperature down. Only a third of dog owners knew that if a dog is left in a warm car and showing signs of heat stress, then the police should be contacted and the dog quickly helped out of the car.

This paper studies the relationship between individual characteristics of displaced workers and the probability of re-employment. A competing risks hazard model is used, distinguishing between exits from joblessness to self-employment and to paid-employment. All individuals between 25 and 55 years of age, at the time of displacement, that suffered from at least one year of joblessness after being displaced between 1990 and 1998 due to establishment closures that occurred between 1990 and 2001 are included. This allows for the closure procedure to be between one and three years long. Each individual is followed, from the year of displacement until the year of re-employment or at the latest, ten years after displacement.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how Irish people on a rural location practice their faith in everyday life. The intention is also to find out what strategies my interviewees use to negotiate the abuse scandal and what their thoughts on the Catholic Church are. The material mainly consists of interviews with seven people part of a rural parish in Ireland. My research also entails smaller observations and conversations in the homes of the participants.The results indicate that they all consider themselves religious, however not all Catholic. All of the participants integrate their religion in everyday life.

AbstractBackgroundEvery company has some kind of employee turnover and we can tell that som business has higher employee turnover than other business. Employee turnover is individual for all companies but in companies that is in the same business simularities can be seen. The employee turnover in the line of business hotel, merchandise trade and restaurants was according to Confederation of Swedish Enterprise closer to 40 % during the period of 2006-2007 and close to the business with highest turnover, the service sector. This is comparable to the buildning activity that with it?s 22 % is one of the business with lowest turnover.

This Master?s thesis provides insights into adult women?s fictional reading within the conceptual phrase ?a good book?. Eight qualitative and semi-structured interviews were performed in order to examine the nature of response and perceived benefits. The collected data were analyzed by Louise M. Rosenblatt?s reception-oriented transactional theory of reading and the cognitive psychology-based model of reading developed within the joint Nordic project SKRIN.

The search for antibiotic compounds from the natural environment has been going on for seven decades, ever since penicillin entered the market and antibiotic treatments became routine. The evolutionary pressure put on the pathogenic microorganisms induced a rapid spreading of naturally occurring resistance genes, Leaving only the option of finding new antibiotics to treat the resistant pathogens. Microorganisms have been extensively mined for their biosynthetic abilities to produce biologically active compounds. To date, more than 23 000 microbial natural products have been discovered. The Actinomycetales are ubiquitous bacteria that have been used for antibiotic discovery for more than half a century, and over 10 000 natural products have been identified from the order.

The purpose of this study was to create a deeper understanding for, and shine a light on the exit process for former criminal gang members. Which conditions appear to be important and what may constitute the enabling and inhibiting factors of an exit process? The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with respondents who themselves have experience of a criminal lifestyle and gang affiliation, and with professionals in social work. Our theoretical approach is based on Helen Ebaugh?s definition of an exit process, labeling theories, strain theory and control theory.

In this essay I examine the auto fictive self in Jeanette Wintersons Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. I do this through a close reading of the novel using Mieke Bals narratological terms;narrator, story, fabula, time and order. These narratological terms have been merged together with central themes of the book. I look at the readers understanding of the novel, the relation between fairytale and realism, symbols, intertextuality, the mother-daughter relationship and silences and I analyze these themes in their relation to autofiction and the auto fictive self.  Gemma Lopez Seductions and Narratives has been a key reference, mainly her theories on self-creation in narratives, and the construction of the self, trough language. The narrative is the place where the self can transgress and reshape, which gives the narrative a subversive power. I analyze this presumed power, and look at how the story shapes an opportunity for the subject to see itself.

Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalities (MCOA) is a genetic disease that affects primarily Silver coloured horses of breeds such as the Rocky and Kentucky mountain horses. In these breeds the Silver dapple colour is very popular leading to an increase of affected horses. The major feature of the disease is ocular cysts of variable size. Large cysts also lead to a variety of secondary syndromes, for example retinal detachment. In previous studies the locus for MCOA has been mapped to an interval of 420 kb on equine chromosome six.

Title: future demands for office spaceLevel: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Facility ManagementAuthor: Rickard Blomkvist & Nils WilanderSupervisor: Lars SteinerDate: 2012-05Aim:  to examine how property owners can develop their properties to suit modern business needs and requirements of the office space they rent. Although the property owners should reason for their commercial properties will be attractive to the market. Investigate how a modern office looks like and in what are the trends?Issues used:What should property owners do to meet the new requirements of modern businesses place on the premises?How does the new work in the companies they use their premises?What is a good office today? Method: we used qualitative interviews to get answers to the issues.Conclusion: Today's office buildings have to be flexible so they can be adapted to the current tenant. Market mobility is high and the property owner must be prepared for tenants Leaving.

The aim of this study was to quantify the productivity and the costs of different harvesting systems (teams), containing harvesters equipped with accumulating harvester heads and forwarders, in first commercial thinnings were an integrated harvest of pulpwood and energy wood were performed. In the beginning the plan was to study and measure 20 sites before and after harvest. Due to storms during the summer of 2010, complete data could only be obtained from 8 of these 20 sites. Seven of these sites were privately owned and one was owned by UPM, all of the sites had been pre-commercially thinned. The mean stem density before harvest was 2578 stems per ha and the mean stem volume was 0.074 m3solid over bark.On average 1518 stems/ha was harvested.

Changes in the environment are affecting the world market, and pressures from several stakeholders? are forcing different enterprises to adjust to the current situation. Farmers? difficult working conditions and environmental impacts of the conventional cotton production in India have been highlighted. The small-scale production that is characterising India?s cotton farmers implies an insufficient competition power.

Purpose  The purpose of this paper is from a consumer perspective analysis whether or not blogs are affecting a customer?s purchase behaviour to a larger extent compared to traditional marketing methods through TV commercials. Additionally, within the scope of this try to identify the type of consumers that are more influenced to a purchase decision by blog contents compared to others.Methods Through a quantitative approach this study will examine the effectiveness of advertising in blogs. A survey was used in order to collect data where the respondents corresponded to the population in Sweden in the ages 15-79. Initially the size of the blog audience was estimated and thereafter it was examined how many of these that were affected towards a purchase decision by blogs.

Title: The transformation of news - an exploratory study of digital and analog news in the Swedish daily press.Author: Annika Arnell and Sofia AmanuelTutor: Lowe HedmanPurpose: This explorative thesis attempts to study if new ways of news production and distribution created by recent digitalization processes and technical development has different impacts and effects when the same news events is published in the same daily newspaper in a digital as compared to an analog platform.Method/Material: The method used is an explorative qualitative content analysis. The articles are divided into three levels: main news, middle-sized news and notes. The material consists of 40 news articles from two Swedish daily newspapers, with a divide of 20 news articles per newspaper.Main results: This study demonstrates that there are differences in how a news article is formed in a digital as compared to an analog platform. The differences show that main news events are presented in the exact same way on both platforms. The smaller notes show vast differences in all categories and are often fuller on the digital platform, Leaving information such as context and previous events out in the printed newspaper.