SummaryI have a great interest in bouzoukis and since I, during my education in guitar making, mainly have focused on building bouzoukis and other traditional folk instruments, I have chosen the bouzouki as the object of my degree project.In connection to the making of these instruments, I started to consider the construction of the bouzouki and why the bouzouki has such a characteristic sound.One of my theories is based on the fact that most bouzoukis are made with floating bridges instead of glued pinbridges. Do these types of bridges differ from each other tonally and if so, how much and in what way?To receive answers to my questions, I have built two identical bouzoukis with different types of bridges, one with a glued pinbridge and one with a floating bridge. I have been very precise in the making of these instruments, giving them the exact same dimensions and using material from the same piece of wood. This to make sure that the instruments should be as exactly alike as possible.After finishing the making of the bouzoukis, I arranged for a sound test where I let musicians play and listen to the instruments.

The object of this two years master's thesis has been to study a specific genre of personal archives by examiningthe archives of nine parents who have lost one or several infants. Using internet-based methods, (e-mail, Skypeand digital photographs), I have conducted qualitative research using a general interview guide technique. Usingresearch from archival theory as well as other fields, my material has been arranged and analysed according tothemes and recurring thoughts picked up from my informants during the interviews.My main theoretical aid has been that the role of parent who has lost a child is the starting point for the creationof the personal archives. Another important theory is my definition of the term ?document? as not dependent onmedium and format, but on usage: if an object has been used as a part of an archive, it is a document.

The purpose of my study is to examine how children through interaction are recognized and understood by other children and teachers at the preschool for one hour in the afternoon. This study gives voice to what young children in preschool do after snack. The overall purpose of this study is to find out what young children's experiences will be in preschool through interaction. The purpose of my research is to gain knowledge about how the time and opportunity for interaction exists between children 1;7-2;5 years, and educators as well as other children, and how this interaction appears during afternoon activities in the preschool.My research questions are:1) What experiences do children get in terms of their development of identity for one hour in the afternoon? 2) How does the interaction that the youngest children are involved in during the afternoon appear? And how long time does every occasion last? The study is based on the interactionist perspective and systems theory.

The aim of this project is to investigate the meeting between the city and the sea and tolook into how that could be developed and made use of. I want to find out how you can increase the availability of a specific place and make it more welcoming, I also want to bring life to an already existing space and create a central meeting place in the city. The purpose is to give form to an esplanade along a dock in the central parts of Kalmar. Starting with an analysis of this public place, I want to create a concept that is close to the existing context and communicates the contrasts or associations between for example: city and nature, artificial and natural and indoor and outdoor. The primary object of the project is to add a welcoming, public place to the city where you on an accessible way canfamiliarize yourself with the meeting between the city and the sea.

The scarcity of qualified forest machine operators as well as the increased competition for competent machine operators among others from the mining industry in Norrland, were the reasons to investigate what attracts and what deters active and potential forest machine operators to the occupation. An interview study was conducted among four groups with four persons in each group. The groups were students in year 1 and 3 respectively at a forestry school at upper secondary school level as well as employees of a forest company and employees of contractors. The majority of all respondents were of the opinion that their interests in machines had been important for the choice of occupation. But for the active machine operators both the interest in the forest and their interest for machines have had importance for choosing this occupation.

To work in an unpredictable work environment requires communication that functions well. In every organization it?s important that employees receive information that is relevant yet not confusing. Due to that, our ambition with this study is to understand how rescue effort organizations communicate in meetings; and whether their communication is clear or not. Our subject for this case study is the Emergency Services in the region of Karlstad.

This paper is about how transport companies in the future will be able to adapt their activity to an environmentally sustainable development without the effect of negative company economic consequences. Today, the environmental threat is a global problem and knowledge about that effluent of carbon dioxide have a negative impact on the climate is generally known. A transport system that works well is important for Sweden, but the sector has a negative impact on the environment. Regulation and legislation for increased environmental requirements often meets resistance and fear that the work will be hampered by increased costs for environmental work that can lead to an international decrease in competitiveness. The transport companies have outside pressure from the society to do something about the environmental issue, however the companies? customers are not ready to pay a higher price for environmental work.

This study examines how the Swedish state has communicated security, threats,and citizen responsibility to the population through different versions of thebrochures ?If Crisis or War Comes?. Drawing on securitization theory and UlrichBeck?s theory of the risk society, the study analyzes how threat perceptions, protected referent objects, and the role attributed to individuals have changed overtime. The analysis is based on a deductive qualitative content analysis of sixbrochures published in 1943, 1952, 1961, 1989, 2018, and 2024.The findings demonstrate a clear transformation in the construction of threats,shifting from a predominant focus on conventional military conflict during theSecond World War and the Cold War to a more diversified threat landscape in thetwenty-first century, including societal disruptions, propaganda, cyber threats,environmental risks, and pandemics.

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

 Problem: For what type of investors are index funds versus exchange-traded index funds best suited?Objective: The purpose of the paper is to determine how an index fund or an exchange-traded index fund (ETF) suits different types of investors with different requirements in terms of time frame, investment size and purpose of investment. The comparison is based on fees and trade practicality. This is going to describe the advantages and disadvantages with the two different financial instruments.Method: The study is a comparative study using two methods; one of which is a case study, the other is a qualitative interview. The case study focuses on fees and is made on an exchange traded fund (XACT OMXS30) and a simple equity index fund (Erik Pensér equity enhanced index).

Introduction: Increased savings in funds has enforced the importance of the institutions. During the last 25 years they have augmented their ownership from 20 to 85 % of the Swedish stock exchange. Thereby the ownership becomes more and more financial, meaning that the return is the most crucial. In an article in Dagens Nyheter the president of the Swedish Shareholders Association and the president of Metall object to the institutional passivity which they consider being an important problem. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to put the institutional passivity in perspective.

This thesis purpose is to determine an explanation of the efficiency in a labour-market related project. ?Enter? is an EU-financed project with a focus on long-term unemployed workers in the district Härlanda, Gothenburg. Starting in September 2004, Enter offers individually based coaching and job guidance to totally 110 young persons with problems entering the labour market. The goal is to provide these people courage to find either full or part time employment or to start study.

Transmission of reactive power is well known to cause active power losses. Thus, newcomponents who can help minimizing these expensive reactive power flows are ofgreat interest to the power distribution companies. ABB Corporate Research hasdeveloped the first electronic power breaker. One possible application for thisbreaker is transient-free switching of capacitor banks. This could prove a usefuldistribution voltage complement to the switch-sync technique, mainly applied to transmissionvoltage level.

Den säkerhetspolitiska debatten har under de senaste åren tillvaratagit ett bredare perspektiv av hot och risker. Undersökningen tar sin utgångspunkt i frågan om i vilken utsträckning detta kommit till uttryck i svenska försvarspropositioner? Undersökningen kartlägger likheter och skillnader i tre försvarspropositioners uttryck av hot och säkerhet relaterat till det vidgade säkerhetsbegreppet under perioden 1982-2009. Vid kartläggningen undersöker jag med hjälp av Barry Buzan m.fl. analysramverk för det vidgade säkerhetsbegreppet vilka säkerhetspolitiska värden som uttrycktes vara viktiga att säkerställa.

The aim of this study was to conduct an instrument test of the Canadian questionnaire Alberta Context Tool (ACT) version Long-Term care for Swedish conditions. ACT is designed in order to measure the context in the care environment and different behaviours related to the changes in clinical practice. In total, 159 Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) and Registered Nurses (RNs) within municipality care of the elderly were included in the survey. The test included the instrument's reliability and face validity.The reliability test was implemented through calculation of Cronbach´s Alpha, and showed internal consistency for five of the scales of the ACT-instrument with Cronbach´s Alpha values ranging between 0,728 and 0,873. However, three dimensions got lower values (0,558 - 0,683).The analysis was carried out with content analysis and carried out for LPNs and RNs in separate groups.