The main argument of the thesis is that multinational companies (MNCs) can promote democracy through corporate social responsibility (CSR). MNCs hold some prerequisites giving them the means to create positive changes. But they lack one important prerequisite: knowledge about local conditions. Therefore the best CSR result is reached through partnerships with local NGOs.H&M's CSR-work in Bangladesh, including a partnership with the Bangladeshi women's rights organisation Karmojibi Nari, serves as an illustrating case. It is argued that the CSR-work promotes democracy through strengthening the civil society, through indirectly implementing national laws concerning labour legislation and human rights and through raising awareness about rights and legislation among the workers.The CSR process changes the terms for both NGOs and MNCs.

Hard-to-heal ulcers are resource intensive due to the fact that they are difficult to treat and especially vulnerable to bacterial invasion. The bacterial culture contaminating these wounds often consist of several different bacterial organisms that originate from endogenous sources. Necrotic material in ischemic ulcers provide nutrition which support bacterial reproduction, increasing the risk of infection. Determining causative pathogen in infected ulcers proves to be difficult when culturing swab samples, however Staphylococcus aureus and hemolytic streptococci generally act as primary pathogens.    The aim of the study was to investigate if the detection rate increased for S. aureus and hemolytic streptococci when culturing swab samples from ulcers on Columbia CNA; a media selective for gram-positive bacteria.

The purpose of this study was to find an explanation for why Amnesty International in Sweden has seen an increasing number of members, while the number of participants at the national annual meeting has decreased.The method of the study was done with an inductive approach in which the problem has affected the choice of theory and empirical data. The empirical data has been collected through both qualitative and quantitative method in which the analysis was implemented with support by statistics and interviews.To strengthen the arguments in the paper, sociological theories on organizations are used and also theories about social movements.The conclusion of the study is that Amnesty International Sweden has undergone a transformation towards a decentralized organization because it is not longer relevant for people who are members to achieve the purpose of the organization to participate at the annual meeting. This because that these members accesses the recourses they want to achieve by working on a local level. The main conclusion of this study is that Amnesty has moved towards being an organization that to some extent are working as a social movement, where there is no longer any clear link between local work and the central board of Directors. .

Local cultural environment planning in Sweden often comes to rely on municipal heritage plans. These plans are meant to facilitate management of local cultural values, work as a tool for local planning and increase awareness of cultural environments for the public. In the last decades public participation in planning has become more and more of the ideal strategy, challenging the idea of cultural environment planning as an expert-led field. The idea of the field as one that implicates public participation as a strategy has been fortified in Sweden through national goals, government bills and conventions. Nevertheless the implementation of public participation in municipal heritage plans remains quite uncharted. The aim of this study is to explore public participation in regards to how municipal heritage plans are developed and the perception of public participation in cultural environment planning amongst professionals, comparing bigger and smaller municipalities.

Arbetet har syftat till att fallstudiepröva rutnätskonfigurationen som grund för en strukturplan med avsikt att möjliggöra en övergripande strategi för utbyggnad av ett exploateringsområde.

This essay is a time-geographic study of workinglife mobilities and investigates two days of work for five respondents. One from home and the other from the persons workingplace. Qualitative and quantitative methods has been applied to illustrate and analyze the two days along with time-geographic constraints. The findings are concluded into themes which represent the two local pockets of order: Home and Workplace. Themes of home are: Comfort station, Household, Curtained-off, Tele-contact and Environment.

The structure of the Swedish public library field has been evolving during the last decades. The traditional mission of educating the citizens to become responsible, democratic and knowledgeable members of society has in a way led to the integration between public and school libraries. Lately new co-operational models have been under debate and a sense of resistance has arisen because of the economical and market influences. In parallel with closure of library branches new libraries have evolved in malls and wash houses and some with self-service with no use of librarians. This work shows how co-operation in rural areas finds the common goals for the people living there who are concerned about keeping the service needed including the public library and thus using existing means and crossing borders of commercial thinking.

During installation and operation of a geothermal heat pump system leakage of an antifreezing agent can appear in a borehole and leak out in surrounding groundwater. To guarantee high quality drinking water for generations to come Sweden has dedicated some areas as water protection areas. The local authority gives permits for the installation of heat pump systems within water protection areas. Before giving a permit the local authority makes an evaluation of the risks involved in installation and operation of the system within the area. By keeping a certain distance between the protected object in the area and the heat pump system the risk of polluting the protected object with an anti-freezing agent can be reduced.This thesis makes a comparison between three different methods of calculating an appropriate distance between the protected object and the heat pump system.

The aim of this thesis is to study the conditions three public libraries have to be a resource for university students. The libraries are all situated at a distance from universities that allow the students to commute between the university and their homes. These students often make the same demands on the public library as they do on the university library. In order to conduct this study the frame factor theory has been used. This theory was developed by pedagogic scholars during the 1960s and focuses on how the framework surrounding the school affects the learning results.

The aim of this study is to compare how three local librarieshandle their collections, and to compare this with handlingcollections at national level. I have investigated librarian?sopinions of their collections and how they take care andpreserve them for the future. It has also been studied if thelibraries collections of old material contains more than justold book rarities.In this study I had compared my respondents answer withSvante Beckman and Magdalena Hillström`s theory ofmuseum`s four idealtypes. Their view of a museum is in theforms of a treasury, archive, school and a theatre.

This study aimed to explore the perceived role and mandate of civil servants employed in municipalities in Kronoberg county. The study aimed to answer the question whether civil servants engaged in municipal economics have different perspectives on their mandate and role based on how said civil servants implement and manage policy tools available in Swedish municipalities. The study aimed to through policy tools theory explain how civil servants through four categories view the policy tools employed in the municipality. The study is based on the reasoning that policy tools influences exercise of authority that in turn influences view on policy tools. In order to study civil servants perspective on perceived mandate and role interviews were conducted with a sample of civil servants from each of the eight municipalities in Kronoberg county.

The energy use in a workshop company has been examined in this work in order to find areas for energy efficiency improvement. The combined oil and electricity heating in the company were compared with other alternative heating systems including cooling of the premises in following combinations:Ground source heat pump for heating and coolingDistrict heating and absorption coolingDistrict heating and low temperate surface water coolingEnergy use, operation costs and carbon dioxide emissions were calculated for the current heating systems and the three alternatives including cooling. The ground source heat pump for heating and cooling decreases bought energy with 34 MWh annually compared to current heating only. The district heating and low temperate surface water cooling has the largest reduction of operation cost and carbon dioxide. The operation cost decreases with 42 kSEK and the carbon dioxide with 43 metric ton CO2 annually.

Bacteria are exposed to evolutionary pressure to an extent unlike other organisms. This leads to a high degree of adaptation to its surrounding. This thesis investigates the degree of adaptation towards higher accuracy in the transcription of DNA to RNA in coding sequences in the DNA of the E. coli bacteria. Two coding sequences with different nucleotide contents were investigated.

The municipalities of Sweden have a great responsibility when it comes to adapt the physical planning to a more sustainable development. The development of the society depends upon the growth of new communities and other public services, but to build new communities in a long-term sustainable manner you need good methods and guidance. This study presents four sustainability certification scheme intended to improve and adapt the planning, implementation and performance of new communities and infrastructure project to more sustainable methods based on economic, ecological and social sustainability. These systems are the latest versions of environmental classifications and similar rating schemes, but with a broader focus since they also include the social aspect of sustainability.This study aims to investigate what role sustainability certification schemes can play in local planning for sustainable development. The study compares the certification systems criteria to the tools and goals that the Swedish municipalities have been provided with, to lead efforts towards a more sustainable society.

Water hardness indicates the concentration of calcium and magnesium ions in water. Water with high concentrations of these ions is described as hard water and water with low concentrations is described as soft water. Water that is too hard or too soft can lead to technical and economical problems. In collaboration with Midvatten AB, groundwater hardness in the Badelunda esker between Leksand and Avesta has been mapped, and an attempt has been made to explain the variations. For this purpose, different GIS programs, such as ArcView, ArcInfo, IDIRISI, and one geochemical modelling program, PHREEQC, has been used.