In Sweden we have the highest rate of nontraditional students among Europe. Coincidently, we also have the highest rates of drop outs among OECD. In this particular field, drop out from higher education, there is a need fore more qualitative studies that can support the "statistics". Studies about experiences of drop outs are significant for society, university and individual. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how nontraditional student experiences drop out from higher education.

With the climate change issues growing in importance on the social agenda, the field of urban masterplanning is of no exception when it comes to minimizing the carbon footprint in a variety of projects. The aim of this thesis has been to prepare the Carbon Critical Masterplanning tool, a software plugin for carbon dioxide emissions assessment developed by Atkins, to be used in Swedish conditions. The main targets were to improve the areas of the tool associated with energy conversion and renewable energy sources, and to test the tool in a real case. A planned construction of a new campus in Albano, Stockholm was chosen for the pilot study. A 3D model was built in the tool and the carbon footprint was calculated for a variety of combinations for energy supply to the future area.

The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge and understanding of the early process of socialization and its influence on the choices in life, with the example taken from the agricultural family. The question is considering how the process of socialization within an agricultural family has influenced on the choices in life of four women. A qualitative method with a hermeneutic, phenomenologic perspective is applied and four interviews have been done with women who all grew up in an agricultural family. The results have been analysed through social constructive-, psychodynamic-, attachment- and cognitive theory. The results indicate that socialization is a complex process.

The students participating in my development work will work with a process book for handicraft studies. In the beginning of their studies, the students need practical knowledge about the development of the profession itself, but they also need to be challenged and learn how to solve problems on their own which will help them gain a deeper knowledge of the subject.    I focus on open questions to create a process with the students. This process is created when working with Solution-Focused-Education. Through ?assessment for learning? we can help the students to improve their self-assessment and understanding of the learning process.

With this paper we intend to investigate what kind of benefits there are by adding commodity futures to a well-diversified portfolio. Since the last fifteen years the commodity speculation has grown tremendously, which partially can be explained by that commodities exposes the investor to certain factors other than an investment in equities. According to our calculations the commodity futures have outperformed stocks during our research period, which partially could be explained by the increasing demand of physical commodities in developing countries e.g. India & China (Akey, 2005). By constructing different portfolios consisting of equities and corporate bonds we could investigate whether our portfolios will benefit from commodity futures and how this will vary over different levels of risk.

Idag är det inte många textilföretag som har möjlighet att ha strumpproduktion i ett land som Sverige på grund av lönsamhetsskäl. Det är billigare att producera i låglöneländer i Europa eller Asien, men det tär istället på våra naturresurser och vår miljö att transportera produkter fram och tillbaka. På grund av de höjda lönerna i Kina och valutakursen för euron som höjts drastiskt i Europa har Sverige dock kommit till ett läge då det blir ekonomiskt lönsamt att flytta tillbaka en del av produktionen till Sverige. Dessutom ökar trenden med ekologiska och närproducerade varor, vilket ökar efterfrågan på svensktillverkade produkter. Studien syftar till att ge privatpersoner och företag ett underlag till att undersöka sina möjligheter för produktion av strumpor på den svenska marknaden.Utvecklingen av strumpproduktionen i Sverige pågår hela tiden och företagen uppdaterar sina maskinparker och utbildar sina anställda, vilket leder till en utveckling av marknaden.

Swedish beef production has during the past year decreased while the consumption has increased. It´s imported beef that takes market shares. The purpose with this degreeproject is to investigate if the restaurants in Sweden are using imported or Swedish beef and the reason for their choice. The purpose is to find out if there is something the Swedish beef producers can change to increase Swedish beef in restaurants. My expectation is that the demand for Swedish beef will increase in restaurant and later even among consumers. I have interviewed ten chiefs in different restaurants and asked them the following questions: Is it the price, quality or something else that influences your choise? Does it matter to their customers if they serve Swedish or imported beef? How is the marketing of Swedish beef? It appeared both Swedish and imported beef on the restaurants.

The change in the information society has affected the development of the labour market for information specialists and informants as well as their roles. Companies are now aware of the fact that information specialists have a variety of important skills and competence that is important for them. The goal of this thesis is to see what defines an information specialist and an informant and also to find out their situation on the labour market. The similarities and differences between the two professions will also be discussed in the thesis. The main method used is the investigation of the job advertisements in the journal DIK-forum from the year 2000 and year 2004.

This study examines how farmers certified by KRAV face proposed regulations on organic soils put forward by KRAV economic association among others, and how they are affected economically. These soils are, from an environmental perspective, interesting as a target for production regulations as they cause greenhouse gas emissions through decomposition of organic material when cultivated. The regulations advocate that organic soils should be grown with pasture where soil cultivation is only allowed every fith year which implies that possible adjustments of cultivation have to be made in order to fulfill the regualtions. Collection of data have been made through a questionnaire sent out to 574 farmers certified by KRAV. The answers have been analysed using a decision making model and statistical findings suggest that proportion of organic soils, type of production, economic conditions and farmers? goals and values have an influence on whether the regulations and potential cultivation adjustments have been considered or not.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the factors of children?s voluntarily reading in their spare time. We also want to know if the children choose non-fiction books for their voluntarily reading. The method as well as the empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of twenty-eight children in ages between 9 and 12 years. We conducted nine interviews with 3?4 children in each group.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the factors of children?s voluntarily reading in their spare time. We also want to know if the children choose non-fiction books for their voluntarily reading. The method as well as the empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of twenty-eight children in ages between 9 and 12 years. We conducted nine interviews with 3?4 children in each group.

My interest in examining what happens when you as a teenager are exposed to five or six times the amount of time as ordinary classes to music education derrives from my own experience as a music teacher at a school which has those kind of special music classes. During my career as a music teacher in grades 4 ? 9 in Swedish compulsory school I have taught music classes as well as ordinary classes for 18 years. During this time I have often wondered what this exposure means in retrospect. Is it the conquering and mastering of music skills that students remember when they?ve grown up to young adults, or is it something else?The aim of this study is to find out what it means for teenagers to have music as a school subject every day of their years in Swedish high school.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the factors of children?s voluntarily reading in their spare time. We also want to know if the children choose non-fiction books for their voluntarily reading. The method as well as the empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of twenty-eight children in ages between 9 and 12 years. We conducted nine interviews with 3?4 children in each group.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the factors of children?s voluntarily reading in their spare time. We also want to know if the children choose non-fiction books for their voluntarily reading. The method as well as the empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of twenty-eight children in ages between 9 and 12 years. We conducted nine interviews with 3?4 children in each group.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the factors of children?s voluntarily reading in their spare time. We also want to know if the children choose non-fiction books for their voluntarily reading. The method as well as the empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of twenty-eight children in ages between 9 and 12 years. We conducted nine interviews with 3?4 children in each group.