In a time of increasing urbanization the human tenure effects on the land has lead to a decrease and fragmentation of areas that are valuable to urban wildlife. These actions have had a detrimental effect on the species and habitats that exist in cities and towns.This paper investigates, through the study of relevant literature and the undertaking of interviews and field visits, the role that biodiversity plays in our society. The current attitude towards urban biodiversity and the responsibility for its promotion within the landscape architect profession has been explored.This paper includes three English case studies and a design proposal investigating how one can work to promote biodiversity on a smaller scale.This paper concludes that urban biodiversity is multi-functional ? being of ecological, social and cultural significance. The landscape architecture profession must be aware of the need to combine a variety of different factors such as economical, social and environmental aspects.

The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of how immigrant children become included in some preschools. With immigrant children we meant those children who immigrated to Sweden. In order to achieve our purpose we have chosen to find out some educators' perceptions about inclusion and which strategies they use to include immigrant children.To realize the study purpose, we have chosen to use qualitative interviews as a method. We conducted interviews with sex educators who worked in two preschools. The empirical materials we got from the interviews formed the basis for our analysis.The analysis of our collected data was based on our theories and conceptions.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to increase the knowledge about how public libraries can contribute to fulfil political programmes aimed towards integration. To achieve this we have conducted an evaluative case study about a public library in Sweden and the activities they carried out within the framework of the metropolitan policy programme Storstadssatsningen?. The questions raised consider which the political aims for integration within this programme were, which activities the library did accomplish, what the result in comparison with the politically decided aims was, and what conclusions can possibly be drawn from this? The theoretical framework consists of theories regarding evaluation, political programmes, integration and segregation, and public library-activities.

Title: ?When The Line Between Transmitter and Receiver Blurs? ? A Study of how organizations look at social media as part of their external communication and how they respond to the environment in the new media toolNumber of pages: 49 (51 including enclosures)Author: Ida Hansson KällTutor: Cecilia StrandCourse: Media and Communication Studies D 30hpPeriod: Spring 2010University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Informatics and Media,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to study how five organizations look at social media as part of their external communication and how they respond to the environment in the new media tool.Material/Method: A qualitative method has been used. Five interviews as primary sources have been conducted with representatives from each organization.Main results: The main results of the study is that organizations have to integrate social media as part of their external communication plans in order to face and respond to their surroundings in a new interaction and multi-way communicative platform. Results also show that organizations are well aware of the importance of making use and participate in social media.Keywords: blogs, external communication, facebook, respond to the environment, social media.

Several studies have analysed the relationship between Normalised DifferenceVegetation Index (NDVI) and radiative surface temperature. A main goal for moststudies have been to find the best method for carrying out land cover classificationsand to study land cover changes, based on a combination between the twoparameters. Since atmospheric components have a significant influence on bothparameters, most applications were based on multi-temporal data. The quality of theindividual values in such a combination is improved, but the biophysical justificationis uncertain. This study presents a different method, based on only the combination ofvalues that have been registered the same day and about the same time of the day.125 daily images of NDVI and 250 images of radiometric temperature were used inorder to analyse the relationship between (1) NDVI and radiative temperature and (2)NDVI and relative temperature difference between early morning and mid-day.Results between NDVI and radiative temperature show a significant negativecorrelation on areas where a distinct growing season develops, and a strong positivcorrelation where vegetation is abscent throghout the season.

There are several methods avaliable to find areas of interest, but most fail at detecting such areas in cluttered scenes. In this paper two methods will be presented and tested in a qualitative perspective. The first is the darg operator, which is used to detect three dimensional convex or concave objects by calculating the derivative of the argument of the gradient in one direction of four rotated versions. The four versions are thereafter added together in their original orientation. A multi scale version is recommended to avoid the problem that the standard deviation of the Gaussians, combined with the derivatives, controls the scale of the object, which is detected.

In this literature review the cemetery is studied in its role as a public space in an urban context. To be able to scrutinize the cemetery?s relationship to the public domain in the future, the cemetery?s background and history is studied in the beginning of the essay. The cemetery?s connection to the church, as well as a variety of other factors such as economic, architecture, hygienic aspects and different ideals has influenced the cemetery to be the place it is today.

 The Swedish school of today reflect the society we live in. We live in a multi cultural society and in our schools there are pupils with different backgrounds, cultures and mother tongue, which make it necessary for every teacher to treat every single pupil?s need and condition. The education in Sweden must be equivalent, according to Skollagen, 1 kap. 2§.

Few would disagree that the media landscape has undergone significant changes the last decade. From bulky computers and plain mobile phones to portable High-Definition computers and multi-functional smartphones. Other media, such as newspapers and music, have evolved and prospered in a digitalized environment. The constant urge to digitalize aspects and functions of our daily lives seems almost instinctive. Television has taken further steps into this environment as it is now accepted and featured via the Internet.

Denna uppsats syftar till att få en inblick i hur frilansande folkmusiker i Sverige gör för att lansera sig själva som artister, vilka redskap som används samt vilken funktion dessa redskap fyller. Detta har undersökts genom kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra frilansmusiker inom den folkmusikaliska genren. Musikbranschens förändrade förutsättningar, ställda i relation till Lundberg, Malm & Ronströms (2000) begrepp görare, vetare och makare, utgör de teoretiska utgångspunkterna för uppsatsen. Dessa begrepp har i uppsatsen omformats till de tre nya begreppen individen, arenan och branschen. Resultatet visar att respondenternas artistlansering är en medveten process som består av många komponenter.

Knäckfrågan som uppsatsen rör sig kring är hur dessa rättigheter skall kunna garanteras när privata globala bolag, som inte har åligganden enligt FN-konventioner, kommer in som nya aktörer inom den kommunala vattenhanteringen. Hypotesen, att privatiseringar av vattenförvaltningen kan innebära risker för medborgarens rätt till tjänligt och tillgängligt vatten till rimlig kostnad, prövas därför.Vilka aktörer har i dagsläget egentligen makten över vattnet i Sverige och över de mänskliga rättigheternas tillämpning i vattenfrågan? För att få kunskaper om detta utfördes litteraturstudier i ämnet, liksom en jämförande studie mellan Norrtälje kommuns vattenförvaltning och dess driftentreprenör, Veolia Vatten AB, ett dotterbolag till det globala multi-utilitybolaget Vivendi.Konklusionerna är flera: dels att man från kommunalt håll upplever vissa fördelar med viss privatisering; dels att svensk vattenförvaltning är införlivat i ett globalt kommersiellt nätverk av privata aktörer och därför känner sig hotad av en potentiell maktförlust, s.k. ?överlagring?; dels att även den offentliga makten värnar sin domän i och med att den stiftar nya lagar med syfte att förhindra privatiseringar och stärka den offentliga kontrollen över vattnet; dels att det finns tendenser till global samverkan kring mänskliga rättigheter mellan FN-organ, det privata näringslivet, stater och ideella organisationer..

This study includes several purposes which are to describe the concept of working environment, explain who is responsible for its functioning and how the working environment should look like. Other purposes the study have is to investigate how the working environment is in both Swedish and the two investigated companies construction sites and to share some operators proposing measures for the shortcomings and problems that exist in the construction sector working environment. To achieve these purposes was a qualitative study made with unstructured observations, interviews and survey where three construction sites were observed. The result shows that the concept of the working environment cover many aspects and is essentially about the environment we live in and experience in our work and this environment can be both an indoor as an outdoor environment. In this work, the concept is divided into four areas; it is the physical, the ergonomic, the psychosocial and the chemical.

The discussion about gender and ideals shown in mass media is a subject of great importance for the society in general. Media is playing an essential part when it comes to establish standards and values and we are constantly exposed to all types of impressions, whether we are aware or not. It is therefore of great importance that we understand how stereotypes are built and to gain a deep knowledge that would enrich the area of Media and Communication Studies.The aim and focus of this study was to analyze how male stereotypes is communicated in print advertising and how visual means of expressions helps to construct the masculinities shown. From a semiotic analysis of seven print adverts appearing in the Swedish lifestyle Magazine Café were we able to gain a thorough understanding about how male stereotypes are communicated and built.The result showed that different kinds of stereotypes are in fact used but it is still a hegemonic masculinity that is predominating. Traditional male characteristics are still in use but we were able to see strong indications of effemination, sexualizing and objectifying.

Purpose This thesis tries to create an understanding of how male homosexual entrepreneurs, both as persons and as a concept, relates to the fact that entrepreneurship, as well as the society as a whole, is heteronormative. Moreover, it examines by what methods the male homosexual entrepreneurs cope with the seemingly paradox of a homosexual man who also is an entrepreneur. Method The method has been qualitative from a social construction-point of view. We have made semi-structured interviews with nine male homosexual entrepreneurs and structured the findings from the interviews with a computer programme and mind mapping techniques. We have compared the structured findings with theories, in an abducting manner, to find out an answer to the purpose of this thesis.

There has been an increasing interest for ranking of Swedish health care and a lot of emphasis has been placed on the creation of indicators in order to rank hospital units. However, essays on to what extent the choice of statistical method affects the final result of the ranking of health care units have not been given the same attention. For this particular reason, the main objective of this essay has been to investigate whether the choice of statistical model has a significant impact or not on the final result, by using five different, more or less common, statistical approaches: bar charts (with and without confidence intervals), control charts, logistic regression, multi-level analysis using shrunken residuals. The analyzed material in the essay comprises 24119 patients that all have been prescribed some form of the lipid-reducing medicine statin. According to directives given by Region Skåne, doctors are encouraged to prescribe a particular type of statin medicine, namely Simvastatin, which has been proved to be equally effective, but significantly cheaper than other statin medicines.