This essay examines middle school students? understanding of a text read aloud to them in English and the connection between the degree of listening comprehension and the expected increase of vocabulary throughout middle school. The same listening comprehension test was carried out in grades 4, 5 and 6 in a middle school in order to survey differences in English listening comprehension in regard to the ability to reproduce the content of an oral text. The result shows that there was a progression from level to level when it comes to comprehension and the number of words reproduced and that this progression was most noticeable between grades 4 and 5..

Gungstolen är en möbel med en säregen relation till sin brukare. Känsloladdad, lite opraktisk men omtyckt. Jag önskar att fler ska få uppleva glädjen och stoltheten i att bidra till skapandet av en möbel. En träram som fylls med personligheten av sin brukare. Kan detta också göra relationen till möbeln starkare?.

The purpose of this project was to design an adjustable gutter bracket for Lindab Profil AB. Lindab currently manufacture a gutter bracket that is adjustable in angle, however, this model has some drawbacks.  One of it´s shortcomings is that it is somewhat difficult for the customer to mount.  Another problem with Lindab?s current model is that the design makes manufacturing unnecessarily complex. The new gutter bracket, that we have constructed, does not have these problems. It is adjustable for different roof pitches.

This report describes procedures and preparations made for developing a mobile application.Using a questionnaire and usability tests, I have developed a design document for a parkingapplication for the iPhone 4. The purpose of the application is to help drivers find allowedparking spaces thus making roads safer for everyone while the driver avoids parking tickets..

Children with Reading and Writing Difficulties and Their Language and Cognitive AbilitiesA Comparison with Children with a Cochlear ImplantAbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the cognitive abilities that are important for reading in children with reading disabilities, children with a cochlear implantation and typically developed children. 64 children aged 10-12 years participated in the study. To answer the question at issue we used the following tests: Block Design from WISC III, PPVT III, TOWRE, SL 40 and a few chosen tests out of the SIPS battery. On tests of the lexical access children with reading disabilities performed at the same level as hearing children, while the children with a cochlear implant performed significantly lower. Test of the phonological and complex working memory showed that children with reading disabilities performed significantly higher than children with a cochlear implant, but at the same time lower than typically developed children on the test of phonological working memory.

By doing a study of Stapelbäddsparken from a gender perspective I have been investigating and analysing physical planning and landscape architectural design. My intention with this thesis is to reflect on what a gender perspective in physical planning means and what kind of consequences and effects it could have on physical planning and outdoor design. Gender is something that is created, moulded and transformed by social and cultural processes. And it also includes a dimension of power concerning the knowledge of the relationships between women and men where the standard in today?s society is still men?s interests. To implement gender in my analysis of the park I have been observing how the park is used and who is using it. I have also been investigating who?s needs and wishes that has been provided for in planning and design.

When studying the voting behaviour of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) concerning the Services Directive within the EU, what patterns can be observed? With a starting point in previous findings about voting behaviour, this study analyses the results of the given Roll-call votes in the European Parliament in regards to the Services Directive. Here I focus on the division of votes within and between the member states and the parliamentary political groups; with the aim to identify patterns that might show clash of opinion concerning this issue. I found that ideology seems to play a role in the MEPs voting behaviour. Parties on the far left reach the highest level of cohesion and together with the party on the far right, they voted against the Directive, but due to different reasons.

Today?s cell phones include more and more functionality, it is no longer uncommon to be able to connect to the Internet or take photos with the cell phone. In this thesis the question is if the cell phone users are interested in this new functionality. Are there people who are interested in a cell phone that in this thesis is called ?Basmobilen? (the entry level phone), which include the following functions; phone call, SMS, phone book, calling lists, clock and the possibility to change the call signal.

Scana-Booforge is a Swedish company which specialize in heat treatment of various metal. The treatments take place in quenching ovens, where fans are used to circulate the hot air. The fans used today do not have a satisfactory lifespan. This thesis aims to develop a new design of the fans for the quenching ovens, and the goal is that the new fans will bring cost savings for Scana-Booforge.The design development process started with mapping out the environment in which the fans operate, and with analysis of the existing fan structure and damages, in order to establish the cause of failure and of short durability. The performance of the fan were also established at this stage.

Purpose - To analyze the relationship between supply chain management maturity, supply chain performance and financial performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME:s).Design/methodology/approach - The data comprises 15 SME:s that participated in a local logistic study in Gävleborgs län. The levels of supply chain mature within these firms were based upon an interview study and the financial performance of the firms was then examined using financial reports-based data.Findings -The results of this study indicate that there is a strong relationship between SCM maturity and SC performance in SMEs, some relationships between SCM maturity and financial performance, as well as some relationships between SC performance and financial performance. This means that if firms use maturity indicators in the SCOR areas to improve their processes, they will most likely achieve a positive effect on supply chain performance and probably also on financial performance. The result implies that the supply chain maturities in these firms are higher than expected with no one at the adHoc level.While this study is based on a rather small number of participating firms, it would be valuable to further test the significance of the indicated correlations between SCM maturity and performance in a large-scale survey.Research limitations/Implications - The research is an attempt to understand supply chain maturity and it´s implication on financial performance. Developing supply chain maturity is an opportunity for a company to gain superior performance.

Abstract Title: From Theory to Practice - A case study of Balanced Scorecard at the disability management in the municipality of Karlskrona Authors: Erica Isacsson and Marthina JohannessonSupervisor: Elin K. FunckExaminer: Lars-Göran AidemarkContact person at the disability management in the municipality of Karlskrona: Claes Wiridén, DirectorSchool: School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, VäxjöCourse: 4Fe03E, Thesis, 30 ECTS credits.Date: 2011-05-27Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe and explain how the Disability Management thinks that their Balanced Scorecard will be used, namely what is the planned use. We will also describe and explain how the balanced scorecard is actually used.Methodology: We have conducted an abductive, qualitative case study. The empirical material is collected through interviews, observations internal as well as external written material. The theoretical framework is based on the published texts in books, scholarly articles and dissertations.

Abstract In the contemporary world of information technology you find a multitude of applications and systems covering a broad spectrum of areas of need in different companies. One effect of this multitude of programs is the difficulty to make them exchange information with each other or to collaborate, since they are developed by different programming languages for different platforms, with different standards and different data formats. Our aim with this work is to describe how it is possible to tie these programs together to make them actually communicate with each other in order to exchange information, share their native methods and also to become a part of the overall business processes. In this integration task you will, among other things, find different levels of application integration such as data level, method level, application interface level and user interface level integration. Application integration also involves hardware components, called middleware, that facilitate the physical connection between applications. There is a range of different middleware products offered today on the market.

This paper accounts for the work with a website for a company whose real name will not be disclosed in the text of this paper. Instead, they have been assigned the fictitious name Larmbolaget, which can be translated as ?The Alarm Company?.During our work with Larmbolaget?s website, we consulted a selection of accessibility guidelines from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, developed by a working group within the World Wide Web Consortium, as well as a number of design principles and heuristics outlined in this paper. We also conducted several usability tests on users from our intended target group. All the measures taken were an effort to ensure that Larmbolaget?s website be as accessible and usable as possible.Our conclusion is that the resulting website does comply with the accessibility guidelines and design principles described in this paper, and thus we consider it to be accessible and usable to a wide range of users, including those with disabilities..

The objective of this thesis was to research and gain knowledge about people involved in organized crime in Sweden. By conducting interviews we were able to analyze what factors played a role in an individual's choice to become a member of a criminal gang, as well as to gain an overall picture of these people. The qualitative research was carried out in three different cities in Sweden. Three people, aged between 30 and 60, who are currently members of a gang, were interviewed. In these interviews they shared their life stories in terms of childhood, youth, gang involvement as well as their hopes for the future.The results were then further analyzed to explore any similarities and differences among the participating individuals.

Ett community är en mötesplats på Internet där människor kan hålla kontakt, lära känna nya människor, diskutera osv. Det finns idag en mängd olika communities med många olika inriktningar. Communityn är idag mycket populära sidor på nätet och vissa har enormt mycket besökare och tjänar stora pengar. Det kan därför vara svårt att locka medlemmar om inte communityt innehåller nyheter som inte redan finns. Målet med det här arbetet har varit att skapa en tilltalande och användarvänlig design till ett community med ett sommar, fest och rese- tema.