My point of origin concerning this thesis was an interest for how school may develop students? reading comprehension. International surveys show that the results for Swedish students? performance regarding reading comprehension have declined and the current curriculum, Lgr-11, emphasizes the importance of incorporating this into all school subjects. The special teacher education programme has raised the awareness concerning the importance of including the students and that learning is achieved in an interactive setting.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to examine whether a web-based library catalogue is to be considered user-friendly. We have examined this from a user-perspective by interviewing users of a web-based catalogue at a public library. In order to get a picture of the user-friendliness of a catalogue, the thesis is centred upon the following questions: How is a web-based catalogue used? What problems do the users experience? How is the catalogue perceived by its users? Since the producers of these catalogues now are taking into account the research upon human-computer interaction, we are also interested in finding out whether a web-based catalogue is more user-friendly than a more traditional OPAC. We do this by comparing the results of our examination with earlier studies of OPAC use.

Jumper´s knee is a common overuse injury due to repetitive microtrauma to the patellar tendon. It is especially common among athletes who are involved in sporting activities that involve jumping or fast running. The term jumper´s knee was adopted after Blazina published his original paper in 1973. Its pathology can be considered as a partial or total rupture of the patellar tendon in one of its three insertions. The aim of this literature study was to review the methods used to treat this condition and the results obtained focusing on pain relief and returning to previous sport or level of activity.

The bioenergy market has been introduced relatively late in a perspective of the Swedish forestry. Nowadays branches and tops are used more frequently as bioenergy after harvesting. Therefore, it has developed a competitive situation between pulpwood and bioenergy. This situation has even established some questions. Two examples of these are: ? At what top diameter should the final piece of pulpwood be crosscut to get the best economically result? ? Should the top diameter, at the final piece of pulpwood, be crosscut at a thicker or smaller diameter than what is done today? The purpose of this report is to answer these two questions when the harvesting is made motor manually in beech stands.

The purpose of this comparative study is to investigate how certified family therapeuts, with base professions psychologist and social counsellor respectively, construct boundaries through language. The study aims to demonstrate and analyse how the two professions present each other, through similarities and differences. For the purpose of definition and elucidation, the study comprises five main themes (see Appendix). The first theme is concerned with motives for choosing a professional career in family therapy. The second theme investigates conceptions of the professional role, while the third theme looks at professional practise and the implications of family therapy work.

Today?s wind power plants are only compensated for their reactive power consumption at no-load. As the wind power plants grow bigger the amount of reactive power they need also increases. This is no longer a problem that can be ignored, especially as the net owners are beginning to charge the reactive power they transport.In this thesis a couple of different methods of compensation and their prices will be discussed and evaluated. Problems, such as self-excitation, that can occur if one fully compensates the wind power plant will also be brought to surface.

The thesis mission is to investigate whether the swiveling laser that Vectura (former Vägverket Konsult) has in use to measure the road areas and straddle measuring can be used to detect differences in the reflective road markings function. This is to increase use of the swiveling laser and get rid of the manual measurements performed today.Currently, the measurement of road markings reflective function is performed with both mobile and handheld measuring instruments. The purpose of this thesis is to develop better methods for determination of road markings? reflective function, in order to facilitate the description and suggestions for improvements of the maintenance of road markings reflective function.The questions that the thesis has been to start with are:Can the swiveling laser detect differences in longitudinal and transverse road markings reflective function?The accuracy of measurement has been sweeping the laser over the reference instrument (LTL-2000)Is it necessary with a conversion factor for swiveling laser data against the reference instrument data?To answer the question 2 and 3, there has been a field work in Värnamo where a road stretch with longitudinal road markings and zebra crossing (transverse road markings) has been investigated with a swiveling laser and LTL-2000.The formulas and calculations contained in the thesis are drawn from scientific reports that are produced by VTI in Linköping. The same formula that was used to calculate the optical measurement data was also used for the swiveling laser data.

According to the client, land survey of Sweden, there is no current information regarding other well developed property tax systems. This information is necessary in order to analyze the effectiveness and develop the Swedish system. The purpose of this study is to contribute with improvement proposals to the development of the Swedish property tax system through a survey of the English and Welsh property tax system.Methods used are: (1) a literature review where the English and Welsh valuation methodology and organization regarding property taxation is studied; (2) an interview with the client at the land survey of Sweden regarding existing problems with the Swedish property tax system; (3) An interview with a contact person of the Valuation Office Agency regarding the English and Welsh property tax system.In England and Wales there are two different property taxes for municipals, Council Tax and Rating. All domestic properties are included in Council Tax and commercial properties or part of commercial properties is included in Rating. Council Tax is based on the properties market value and Rating is based on the commercial property or part of the properties current rental value.

This study focuses on the development of methods for sexual determination of human skeletal remains, mainly between the years 1981 to 2007. By comparing an older analysis from 1983 (Persson and Persson) with my own on the same material, a difference of 40% was shown, which indicates that the methods has changed through time, and that these should not be used for newer conclusions about a population if the method is not throughoutly described.The main cause of the difference was identified as a change in the reliability of the sexual indicators, rather than a total change of method. Any general tendencies did not show, it is however considered that the pelvic bones are able to make a better conformity between the analyses as opposed to using the cranium..

The study discloses unaccompanied children´s socialization in their new society. The purpose of the study is to investigate how unaccompanied children's schooling is an important factor in their socialization and skills development in their new society. For example, we have chosen to illustrate how their school works and if and whether the teachers receive the support they need in order to help children develop their skills so they can find their way in society. The research is based on three different methods. The first method is based on literature research.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the reading promotion project called ?A book?s all sides?, together with the activities of the book-event, can stimulate young people?s reading. The research questions are: How do the project leaders plan and organize activities for the book-event? How do the young people respond to the activities at the book-event? Do the young people get interested in the book which is presented at the book-event? Which connections between Vygotskij?s theory and the activities can be found in the book-event? The theoretical approach is based on Lev Vygotskij?s socio-cultural theory. To answer my research questions I have implemented four qualitative interviews and two interviews with the adult activity leaders and observed a book-event in the classroom.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the concept of competence within the social services. More specifically it aims to find out how the social workers themselves look upon their own competence in social investigations concerning children. As the study was based on focus groups the main questions were vague at the beginning and were cleared later on during the group sessions.In three focus group interviews in three different municipalities in southern Sweden 11 social workers were asked to discuss this issue. The interviews were then thoroughly transcribed. In the data I identified 9 themes seeming to play a special roll in the discussions about competence: practice; experience; approach; intuition; responsibility; theories, methods and laws; reflection; resources and ethics; specialisation versus integration.The analysis made on these themes was based on two different kinds of perspective; one focusing knowing-in-action and the other focusing the organization framing the competence considered.As a conclusion the 7 first themes can be seen as a definition of the competence used in social investigations concerning children.

The concepts of environmental scanning and Business Intelligence have gained increased interest over the last years in a number of different organisational contexts. The research in this field has mainly been dealing with methods and issues regarding organisation but the aim of environmental scanning, the forming of new perspectives, has been largely ignored. The purpose of this thesis is to study how Swedish joint-stock banks put environmental scanning and Business Intelligence into practice. First a literature study is made to create a background and to explain the different conceptions. Then I describe the different functions of the different services in Swedish joint-stock banks.

This essay aims to examine what subject positions are possible within the discourse of relationship anarchy. Through semi-structured interviews with four people who define themselves as relationship anarchists I've made a discourse analysis to determine how these relationship anarchists explain what, in the discourse they?re in, is described as an relationship anarchistic way of being, what isn?t and how they relate to this. Relationship anarchy is described as an ideology based on freedom. It is about the right to define their relationships as they like, as something constantly changing and that does not hold a specific value based on its label.

This report reflects an examination work performed for Getrag All Wheel Drive AB during the spring of 2005. Among the companies range of products there exists some concern regarding the amount of clamping force and friction on bolted joints caused by the assembly torque.The aim of this project has been to determine if there is a simple way in which to identify and then practically apply testing methods for clamping force and friction through utilization of existing testing equipment.Three separate methods of clamping force and friction determination have been tested in rear drive unit, RDU, at a 30 Nm assembly torque. A fourth and final method, screw elongation with ultrasound, has been used as reference. The methods are:?Torque-Tension test.?Screw elongation with micrometer.?Joint stiffness test.?Screw elongation with ultra sound for reference.The results from tests can be viewed in table below.MethodTorque-TensionMicrometerCs=318 kN/mm Assembled with torque wrenchMicrometerCs=318 kN/mm Assembled on lineUltra-soundCS=311 kN/mm Ultra- soundCS=318 kN/mm Joint stiffnessTheoreticalClamping force-21,8 kN17,6 kN17,3 kN17,6 kN17,1 kN17,3 kNFriction-0,110,1470,1530,1470,1520,149.