Automatic query expansion has long been studied in information retrieval research as a technique that deals with the fundamental issue of word mismatch between query and document. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the retrieval effectiveness of different strategies for automatic query expansion. The strategies are based on local analysis of the corpus and use statistical information from the local document set to extract terms that suppose to adapt themselves to each individual search and therefore appear to be searchonyms to the index terms. The strategies compared are: association clusters, metric cluster and scalar cluster. Baseline queries of 24 topics are expanded using terms from the different clusters and searches are made.

Ear piercing performed in hairdressing salons and jewellery shops using a piercing gun has been set aside from the obligation to notify the local environmental and public health authorities, due to the use of disposable cassette with the piercing gun. According to the Swedish environmental code each practitioner are required to prevent any health hazards arisen from the operation. Local bacterial infection is the most frequent complication associated with the ear piercing procedure and to prevent the potential risk of such an event, hygiene conditions in both the premises and in procedures are essential. The purpose of the report was to examine the presence of ear piercing practitioners in Umeå and their current hygiene conditions. The study consisted of interviews with employees and managers on site whose answers was evaluated and compared to the general recommendations of The National Board of Health and Welfare.

An information audit identifies, among other things, organizations information resources, the information flow and the needs of the information users. The purpose of this masters thesis was to describe the management of information within a local unit of Borås municipality by putting an information audit-method in practice. The focus was on three issues: What information needs could be seen in the organization? How does the information flow through the organization? How does Sugan Henczels seven-stage model serve as a tool to map the management of information within the local unit? The study only described the situation at a certain time at the chosen organization. The seven-stage information audit model was revised and adjusted to the studied organization by only carrying out four of the seven steps: Planning, Data collection, Data analysis and Data evaluation.

AbstractThe aim of this essay is to analyse the effects of women's representation on actual political outcome. Quantitative method and materials are used to study the consequences of women's political participation in Swedish municipals.Many theorists think that women have special interests, different from men?s, which is also the belief of this essay. This political interest is here defined as freedom from discrimination and violence against women. In order to see if this interest is present in local policy it is transformed into variables concerning whether the local authority has an equality plan, supports a local shelter for abused women and by how much money it supports women's shelter.

This degree project summarizes five years of education at the landscape architecture program at the Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, SLU, Alnarp and the School of architecture at Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Stockholm. The project has been carried out by Lovisa Berg and Per Crona in collaboration with DRIFT Scenkonst. This master project is based on the ongoing transformation of a former mining site in Ställberg, Bergslagen situated in central Sweden. The organization DRIFT is in the process of recreating to former industrial mining site as a green cultural center. Their field of artistic examination concerns existential questions connected to the site. The aim is to offer a place for both performing and experiencing contemporary performing arts in Bergslagen. Our objective is to contribute to the growth of the performing arts project and to demonstrate in concrete terms how a conversion of a mining area can be completed, while taking into account both its history and its new function.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the electric solar potential on the Swedish island Gotland. The Gotlandic habitations have been divided into four house categories. For each category energy demand, roof area, geographic orientation androof tilt have been decided. Solar radiation data have been collected from the Swedish solar radiation model STRÅNG (STRÅNG, 2012).The buildings characteristics and the solar radiation have been used as input values in common solar formulas, the solar potential for each building category have been summed up to a total electric solar potential for the region.The electric solar potential on Gotland was calculated to 242 GWh/year with solar data from 2010. Gotlands largest city, Visby, is marked as cultural heritage by UNESCO (UNESCO, 2012).

Coordinator of public health has recently become a new profession in the field of Health Promotion. During the last few years the pedagogic perspective has been increasingly important for the coordinators as a way of adapting their work methods to the circumstances. The conditions for coordinators of public health differ between municipalities and thus their tasks and responsibilities may vary with the local structure. According to the literature there are several ways to conduct Health Promotion and it is in the hands of the coordinator to adjust the methods to fit local conditions. The purpose of the study was to examine what influences the coordinators of public health and how that affects their work methods.

As a part of Göteborg Energi?s work towards a smarter electric grid, the company has chosen to investigate the possibilities of automation in their middle voltage grid. In Europe, there are example cases where these technologies already are installed which many articles on the CIRED conference 2011 proved. Netcontrol Oy in Finland has, together with Tekla, created an automated SCADA system that Vattenfall in Finland today uses. The grid mainly consists of 10 kV open loop fed city grid and this automation is mainly designed for this type of grid.

The purpose of this essay was to examine municipal guidelines regarding the administration of the social assistance, collected from 18 municipalities in the Stockholm-area to achieve a greater understanding on how they were constructed in respect to the legislation and how the language mediated their contents. The legal aspects of the social assistance was studied through a jurisprudential method in which the legislative history, texts of laws and case laws were examined. The empirical aspect of this essay was studied through a hermeneutical method and analyzed through theories of social constructionism and legal pluralism. The results from the jurisprudential study were also used to understand how the municipal guidelines were constructed in relation to the law. The results of this essay corresponded well with previous studies in this field where considerable divergences in the approval of social assistance have been established.

Sara Lidman?s second novel Hjortronlandet (1955) unfolds in the north of Sweden in the early 20th century. It describes the progress of modernity and the conflicting interests of an old local culture and a new more ?civilised? one. The two cultures are constituted by different value systems and in the novel they are represented by two neighbour communities.

The purpose of this study was to examine how local producers in the food and confectionery segment in Västernorrland, Sweden, working to communicate that the product is locally produced through its packaging design. We have chosen to look at how they work with the right packaging design because it is such an important part of the product marketing. A further aim was to examine how consumers perceive the packaging design of the locally produced products and how they consider that the packaging design communicates the product as locally produced. We have also analyzed the graphical elements contained in the locally produced product packaging through a semiotic analysis.The theoretical framework is based on theories in brand communication and Visual Communication, specializing in packaging design?s visual elements.The method used in this study is a qualitative method.

This thesis explores the opinion of different participants in the music business regarding music being made available at the public libraries. The aim of the thesis is to answer the following questions; which are the most important issues concerning the distribution of music? How do the informants perceive the public libraries mission and activity in regard to make recorded music available? Which are the benefits/disadvantages with music being made available at public libraries? Seven qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from the following organisations; SKAP (The Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers), FST (Society of Swedish Composers), SAMI (Swedish Artists and Musicians Interest Organisation) SMF (The Swedish Society of Musicians), SOM (Swedish Independent Musicproducers), IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) and EMI Music Sweden. A study of literature and articles generated nine themes, which constitutes the frame of reference for the thesis. The result shows that several of the informants have not reflected upon the public library as an important actor when it comes to the distribution of music.

The purpose of this study was to examine how local producers in the food and confectionery segment in Västernorrland, Sweden, working to communicate that the product is locally produced through its packaging design. We have chosen to look at how they work with the right packaging design because it is such an important part of the product marketing. A further aim was to examine how consumers perceive the packaging design of the locally produced products and how they consider that the packaging design communicates the product as locally produced. We have also analyzed the graphical elements contained in the locally produced product packaging through a semiotic analysis.The theoretical framework is based on theories in brand communication and Visual Communication, specializing in packaging design?s visual elements.The method used in this study is a qualitative method.

This report considers how the design and planning of the city can influence and promote a sustainable development focused on the social dimension. My prior intention was to look in to how a landscape architect can work with social matters of sustainability such as integration, equality, safety and so on. Which are our most successful tools and capabilities? I started to work with the historical background in September 2008 and soon discovered the multitude of theories and definitions of sustainable development, international, national and local. In Sweden the local political level has been given a lot of responsibilities to achieve a more sustainable society.

AbstractTitle: Företag X? the hidden power? a study of internal communication, culture and internal branding. Företaget X has in real life a different name.Number of pages: 42 (49 with enclosures)Author: Charlotta Babington ThorszeliusCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2007University: Uppsala University, SwedenPurpose/Aim: To analyze the internal communication, culture and internal branding of an insurance company and how they can improve these company tools can be improved.Material/Method: qualitative method using interviews, analysis of internal communication policies and observations.Main results: The policy documents do not match how the internal communication works in every day life. There is a structure that is working and the information flows through the different levels. The vision and goals are difficult to understand as they are written in a complicated way.