This is a diploma thesis executed as a part of the examination of the educationalprogram Building engineer ? Construction management at Halmstad University. The aim of the thesis is to compare and evaluate conventional open-cut pipe-laying withhorizontal directional drilling. The thesis includes a comparison of the economic,environmental and time-based aspects of both methods and discusses which factorsthat determine the optimal choice of method.The study is mainly based on previous studies regarding the subject and oninterviews with professionals from the industry.A fictional project with five realistic cases of pipe-laying scenarios was compiled,sent to different companies for calculation, evaluated and compared. Our conclusionregarding when it?s suitable to use which method is entirely dependent on thespecific project.

The aim of this two year master thesis is to study the knowledge production within the field of Textile Studies at Uppsala University, with special focus on the use of artifact documentation as a research method. With domain analysis as a theoretical framework, ontological and epistemological assumptions as well as historical and social aspects are studied in relation to the research process. Qualitative research methods are used, including interviews, observations and text analysis. In the analysis of the knowledge processes in the field, perspectives on tacit knowledge and the concept of documents, are used as a theoretical basis. In the field of Textile Studies, the artifacts are used as one of the main objects of study, along with archival and pictorial sources. The main epistemological assumptions are that artifact analysis is dependent on a knowledge base, where technical handicraft skills, contextual knowledge and practical experience of object observation are the most important qualifications.

This bachelor thesis is a study in the analysis of paintings with focus on the technical exami-nation within the framework of ATSR. ATSR is a methodology based on an interdisciplinary study with the aim of putting the object in its context.The study is based on questions concerning which information the object can give, how we access this information and how it can be put in a larger context. My thesis contains three major parts. First a short overview of methods of analysis used in this form of investigation is presented. This is followed by two case studies which exemplify the technical investigation.

In this qualitative study of students? methods of calculating subtractions, I have used interviews, subtraction exercises and analysis of teaching material. The purpose of my study was to explore which methods students in grade three uses when calculating subtractions. I also wanted to highlight which strategies the students use and their comprehension of the concept of subtraction. In the study, I also highlight the different pedagogical ideas on which the teaching material is based on and the students? choice of methods.  The study shows that the students choose to use the methods?deduct? and ?kind of number? independently.

Through a thorough analysis of the current situation, we have highlighted differences inworking methods for the various workshops and drew up proposals for improvements incombination with a practical work description that can be implemented in the company..

During consultation procedures between forest owners and the Sámi, data on, e.g., reindeer lichen biomass on the current site is needed. Hitherto, the existing methods of measuring lichen cover and biomass has been either objective methods such as the Point Intercept method, which is time consuming, or some sort of subjective visual estimation, which is faster but less accurate. However, both these methods are sensitive to different observers and/or to different inventories. This paper addresses the further development and evaluation of a photographical inventory method that uses colour distribution in images to estimate lichen biomass. During the autumn of 2011 six different locations, with different grazing pressure and lichen cover, in Norrbotten county were inventoried using both the Point Intercept method and the photographical method, complemented with collection of biomass samples.

Rising energy prices and higher energy demands have led to an increased focus on energy efficiency, in particular in the real estate business, where high potential for energy savings exists. Within the next few years, buildings that were constructed in the sixties and seventies will be in need of renovation. One of the challenges of these renovations will be to improve energy efficiency. A real estate company that is facing this challenge is Uppsalahem AB, based in the city of Uppsala, Sweden. This study focused on analyzing energy efficiency measures when renovating old buildings.

The aim of the study was to look at a particular work group of housing supporters, whomhave implemented two special working methods in their work. The methods have been implemented by two of the housing supporters that also have special education in the methodsSOC (Sense of Coherence) and solution focused brief therapy. The study is based on anethnographic observation and analysis of documents that are used in the implementation. To analyse the information that was given at the observation and in the document I´ve used a theory which illustrates the significance of developing professions so their knowledge become legitimate. I´ve also used a theory that illustrates the importance of implementation and how it´s done at its best.

The aim of this study is to analyse and investigate a rather new field of LIS studies, i.e. link analysis which is a part of webometrics. Webometrics has been described as the quantitative study of web based phenomena drawing on bibliometric or informetric methods. Link analysis has its counterpart in citation analysis within the field of bibliometrics. The questions the study investigates are if webometrics can provide LIS with new knowledge and if there is a place for webometric studies in LIS research.

In this master's thesis the problem of determining the uncertainty for an estimator of an unknown parameter is considered. The case we study is the estimation of gravity using a reversible pendulum. This involves the estimation of the point where two regression lines intersect. The estimated gravity is a function the coordinates of this point. One way to determine the uncertainty of this estimator is to use bootstrap methods.

My aim in this case study has been to create a method for creature design to test this method in a production and evaluate the results. To achieve this I studied and analyzed the methods of three concept artists and illustrators named James Gurney, Neville Page and Iain McCaig. From the analysis of these artist´s methods, combined with my own personal experience, a new method was formed. To test this method a creature was designed based on directives given by a game design group in the process of creating a table top role playing game in a fictitious world. These directives where given for the creature´s role and its living conditions.

The aim of this meta-study is to present an overview of the methods used in Master theses written at The Swedish School of Library and Information Science at the University of Borås, where all Master theses from 1999, 2004, and 2009 has been studied. The aim includes examining if there is a connection between college (Swedish term: kollegium) belonging and methods used but also to examine and compare the qualitative and/or quantitative approaches to the methods. In the 252 Master theses studied, 353 different choices of method are recognized. After taking note of the methods, six categories are created in which the methods are placed. The categories are: Interview, IR-test, Observation, Studies of Text, Survey, and Other.

The purpose of this study is to examine how educationalists work with bilingual children's language by looking at how and what approaches are used to encourage language development. I have chosen to compare two educational philosophies: Montessori and Outdoor Education, to see how big the differences / similarities are in working methods. The background to this study is that preschools uses various approaches and have different methods to stimulate the children. This means that the conditions for children's language development might look different depending on the preschool they go to. The information used has been gathered through interviews, where I have taken note of educationalists thoughts on their working methods, and through professional literature dealing with this topic.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to study whether bibliometrics can serve as a method to analyse the humanities.To investigate this a literature study was conducted that examined previous studies concerning bibliometrics and the humanities. Furthermore a bibliometric analysis of comparative literature was carried out. These research findings were then further examined through the perspective of theories on intellectual and social organization of the scienceThe bibliometrical study includes 38 literature journals (11 855 articles in total) which were downloaded from ISI's Web of Science. The material was analysed by using co-citation analysis and co-word analysis. The results of the study are presented in five co-citation maps.

In recent years, agile software development methods have become increasingly popular throughout the world. Today there are a number of different agile methods and they all rest on the Agile Manifesto that was formulated in 2001 as a reaction to the traditional software processes.The aim of this thesis is to make a survey of some of the agile methods used today and to see how they are being used in practice. It consists of two parts: a literature study and an interview study with people working in the software business. First, a definition of agile methods is proposed and a number of different agile methods are described. Second, the interviews are being analysed with special focus on communication, collaboration, expectations and results.