Pharmaceuticals are environmental pollutants that are a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and very little is known about their ecological consequences. In this study growth, survival and behaviour (sociability, activity and boldness) of perch fry (Perca fluviatilis) were examined in order to study the possible effects of exposure to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug, Oxazepam, during embryonic development. The study tested following hypotheses: (1) perch growth is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; (2) early perch survival is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; and (3) boldness and activity increases while sociability decreases in perch fry exposed during embryonic development. Embryos of naturally spawned perch were exposed to water with two different concentrations of Oxazepam. The embryos were exposed during different parts (24-hour periods) of the embryonic development, because embryos may be more vulnerable at certain times during embryonic development and/or because the exposure at different times can produce different effects.

The basic intention of this study is founded on an ambition to make change within the competing activity at ?Svenska Brukshundklubbens Halmstadavdelning? (SBK Halmstad). This is a local association for owners of working dogs, where I am one of the members. A problem in engage a larger number of voluntarily working members in the association has been established and discussed over several years. My premier aim was to make the members award of different perspectives of the problem.

The aim of our study is to explore the empowerment process among micro-business owners in Kayamandi, a black township of Stellenbosch in South Africa. What are the positive and negative implications for the empowerment process? Another aim is to find out the role of local and international support in this process. The theoretical framework of this study revolves around the concepts of gender, power and empowerment. Our methods are qualitative interviews and observations.

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a further development of the Six Sigma draft to carry through preventing quality measures in developing and designing of new products and processes. With increasing demands on enterprises development processes to be more safety and faster the need of DFSS arise as a product, process and service development concept in the organisations. Design for Six Sigma aims to improve and structure the development process of an organisation and consider the application of the innovation problem solving. The concept aims to leave the structure of the traditional Six Sigma concept and instead, from an innovative perspective, search for new solutions to existing problems. The concept constitute of a toolbox with a lot of quality tools that are divided into phases in a development model.

The purpose of this essay was to examine what social functions the local pub provides to its regular frequenters, as well as the significance of the pub in the regulars? life. Essential questions were: For what purpose do the regular frequenters visit the pub? What are the routines of the pub visit? Can regular frequenters be viewed as a homogenous group, and if so, what are the prevailing norms in the group? How do the regulars perceive the staff, does the staff influence the regulars´ choice of pub? How does the staff perceive the regular frequenters?Our method was a qualitative case study based on participant observation and eight interviews with regular frequenters on a particular pub in Malmoe, Sweden.The main conclusion of this essay was that the relationship between the regular and the pub was much deeper than we initially thought. In addition to drinking beer, they also visited the pub to avoid loneliness, find fellowship and socialize with people who have similar backgrounds and values.

Due to the forest industry downsizing, many communities in rural forest regions in Canada and Sweden are facing problems to survive. In order to create community sustainability, resilience and well-being in remote forest regions, the view on the forest resources has shifted towards multiple use, through the concept of sustainable forest management (SFM). Beside the economic and ecological elements of sustainability, the social forest values are needed, contributing to the human well-being, local participation, stakeholder collaboration, human rights and cultural connection. In this thesis the embodiment of the social component of SFM within Prince Albert Model Forest (Canada), and Vilhelmina Model Forest (Sweden) will be examined. Being partners and facing similar challenges as rural boreal forest regions, the two model forests are compared through analysis of projects and activities, conducted interviews and organization documents. Looking at projects mentioned as successful by the interviewees, they all have elements from the social values of SFM. The direction can be explained by the introduction of the Forest Communities Program in Canada, demanding the Model Forests to work towards community stability and resilience, the Model Forest organization concept itself and the way global focus are increasing around social forest values. In the future, it may be important that the role of the MFs enable some kind of political authorization and legitimacy in order to improve conflict solving and indigenous rights equality.

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a further development of the Six Sigma draft to carry through preventing quality measures in developing and designing of new products and processes. With increasing demands on enterprises development processes to be more safety and faster the need of DFSS arise as a product, process and service development concept in the organisations. Design for Six Sigma aims to improve and structure the development process of an organisation and consider the application of the innovation problem solving. The concept aims to leave the structure of the traditional Six Sigma concept and instead, from an innovative perspective, search for new solutions to existing problems. The concept constitute of a toolbox with a lot of quality tools that are divided into phases in a development model.

The 17th century was a time of change in Sweden. During the century many of the Swedish laws were altered. In the beginning of the 17th century this alteration resulted in a more severe sentence for most of the committed crimes, but a mitigation of the sentence for some of those crimes was effected in the middle of the 17th century. The aim of this study is to see how two local courts in the judicial system during the mid 17th century in Sweden treated adultery, and those who committed the crime against the background of what the law regarding adultery stipulated. The source material used are court records from Fryksdals hundred and Jösse hundred in western Sweden, and laws regarding adultery during the 17th century.This research shows that the laws regarding adultery were in themselves not gender specific, and their main concern was the marital status of those involved.

A flat organisation makes a horizontal career development possible, which means that it is more important to develop an individual?s knowledge base than to gain a higher title. This leads to a personal development, which motivates expats to stay. Since the responsibility of the career development mostly lies on expats themselves, companies should create conditions that make individual, internal job search possible. Like in IKEA:s case, it can be done through a strong and prestige less company culture, that penetrates the whole company.

This study aims at contributing to the studies of political implementation. The theory of implementation claims that local implementation that meets the demands of national policies is close to none existing. By examining the implementation of industrial policy in two Swedish municipalities that differs in location, prosperity and political believes I am putting the theory to the test. If the test were to show that the implementation is rather well executed in these two cases, where the risk of failure is great, the questions about whether the theory is valid or not will rise.By interviewing the two local government employees in charge of the work with industrial policy, and studying their strategic documents I got my answers. This by looking at their work but also their attitudes towards the national policy in terms of understanding the policy, being able to work with it, and wanting to work with it.

According to the Swedish preschool policy documents all children should have the same opportunities to develop their early language skills regardless of their social background. The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers work with children's early literacy and language development with focus on reading aloud. The reason is to investigate how the preschool teachers work to create an environment that stimulates children's literacy and language development. Another intention is to study how often reading aloud occurs in the children's home environment and what the preschool teachers thoughts are about that. The study is based on interviews with four preschool teachers and surveys that were answered by parents.

The purpose of my study is to investigate teacher?s perceptions of their mission in the preschool class, and how they work to promote children?s written language development. What methods and working methods they use to awaken curiosity and motivate children to read and write. I am using the qualitative research method to get answers to my questions. I have made four qualitative interviews with four teachers in preschool classes from different schools.My questions are:What conceptions does teachers have about their mission in a preschool class?What different methods and approaches does teachers use to stimulate and wake children?s curiosity for reading and writing development?The theoretical basis for my study is the socio-cultural perspective, where learning occurs in interaction.

Personal trainer is a profession that has grown strongly in recent decades, and has become increasingly common in the labor market within the health sector due to the widespread and growing interest in health and self- improvement. Further more, personal training is a great example of occupations with a close interaction between producer and consumer. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and if so how, personal trainers experience that the relationship with the clients affects their own personal development. This by finding out what impact the profession has had on the personality, what impact the relationship with the clients has affected the leadership, and last what impact the relationship with the clients have had on the personality based on social and mental aspects. Based on the purpose of the study qualitative method was chosen and data was collected with qualitative interviews.

In the beginning of the 1990s the responsibility for the schools shifted from the government to the local authorities. This started an era with a freedom of choice for students where they themselves could choose which school to go to. The new system also opened up the possibility for independent private schools to exist side by side with local authority held schools. The overall aim of this study is to determine the factors that affect the location of these independent schools and the geographical pattern these independent schools create. The study in this paper is based on materials from statistics and interviews.

The goal of this work has been to create a flexible strategic group-based artificial intelligence for the Arrowhead Game Studios-game Magicka, by implementing, using and examining different AI-techniques that's used in many commercial games in more or less extent. C# is the programming language that has been used in the development, and the implementation has been made as flexible as possible to make further development and extending AI-rules etc. easier..