The purpose of this master´s thesis was to investigate the role and function of the annual reports of public libraries: for what purpose are they put together and how are they evaluated and utilised. The study presents different views on the structure and content of library annual reports. Focusing on a specific public library and its municipal administration, the authors identify and describe problems and possibilities regarding the library annual reports. The study also provides a general view of their occurrence, their addressees and the importance attached to them.In a review of current literature on accounting and activity reports the authors place the annual reports of public libraries in a wider context. The study also presents two current models of performance measurement - the Intangible Assets Monitor and the Balanced Scorecard - which were developed in the private sector, and the authors discuss their relevance when applied to public libraries.Data were collected both in interviews and by means of a questionnaire.

The purpose of this study is to examine the usage of IT technology within preschool and study how IT tools are used by preschool staff for administrative as well as pedagogical assignments. Several aspects affects the work preschool staff do with IT which concerns availability to technology, how technology is used and how technology is made available for the children. There are a number of questions linked to these aspects where some examples this study examines are which advantages, disadvantages, obstacles or other limitations that comes with introducing IT? This study also examines how, when and in what contexts IT is being used? Other questions examined are the pedagogue?s general views of IT, competence development and eventual needs of investment? Further on this study examines to some part how children interact with IT during pedagogical activities? The overall objective is to shed light on problems that preschool staff encounter  in their daily work and on the basis of identifying important questions at issue that could constitute a basis for further research. The results of this study are based on both a literature review and a field study.

This essay takes the three models from Allison and Zelikow book Essence of decision and applies them on the Swedish defense system. After the cold war the Swedish defense system had to undergo changes to be a more modern defense and be able to defend Sweden against threats. To also be able to cooperate with other countries in peacekeeping operations the Swedish defense had to be reorganized. The solution was to change direction from a defense system that was organized for invasion to instead be a movable defense ready for any challenge in Sweden or abroad. This reorganization will be analyzed according to the three different models..

AbstractTitle: External communication and brand strategies in Swedish municipalities? Author: Philip Hagne & Einar Svensson? Tutor: Jessica Gustafsson? Purpose: The aim of this thesis was to study and obtain greater understanding on how Swedish municipalities use external communication and branding strategies to gain and attract more residents. The key questions to be answered in this thesis were: What does the external communication look like in the selected municipalities? Are the selected municipalities trying to establish their own brand? What does the work on creating the brand look like??Method/Material: This thesis is based on material collected trough interviews with people working with external communication in eleven swedish municipalities. The selected municipalities where divided into two groups based on their negative or positive population growth between 2005 and 2012.

Working with health-management has become something most organizations would describe as essential for being legitimate today. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how this subject is handled in an existing company and how this work is percieved by the employees in the organization. Due to the fact that limited research has been conducted on this issue, we see this thesis as a potential for increasing the understanding of how health management is articulated in practice. Our results show that health management in our studied organization is far reaching in comparison with most organizations, but has room for improvement according to the Integral Theory. The consequence of differences in perceptions between management and employees could result in that health management does not become an integral part of the company and its daily operations to the potential extent..

A report has been made at a company in Borås at a company called ACG Nyström. Thecompany is today international and is marketing advanced equipment, systems and furthereducation to the manufacturing industry. A part of ACG Nyström?s production is a machinethey call Unimat. ACG Nyström doesn?t just stand for the actual production of the machine,but also for assembling and installation of the machine at the final customer.

This thesis explores the possibilities of avoiding the issues generally associated with compression of noisy imagery, through the usage of vector quantization. By utilizing the learning aspects of vector quantization, image processing operations such as noise reduction could be implemented in a straightforward way. Several techniques are presented and evaluated. A direct comparison shows that for noisy imagery, vector quantization, in spite of it's simplicity, has clear advantages over MPEG-4 encoding..

This thesis aims to explore the process where strategies for music artists are created by record companies. We describe and analyze how decisions regarding signing, distribution, marketing, bookings and co-operations are made. Through our study we find that the strategy process can be described as a pattern according to Mintzberg's definition. The "inside-out" perspective is dominating and the record companies base their strategies on internal core competencies and the artistry and will of the music artist. The underlying causes of this are the uncertainty that characterizes the industry; the focus on social relations; and the importance of cultural legitimacy..

This thesis is an evaluation of the new traffic solution at ?Skvallertorget?. The innovative theory behind it is to increase traffic-safety by introducing insecurity feelings for road-users. The conclusion of the evaluation is that the newtraffic solution is well adjusted according to guidelines for municipal traffic planning. The evaluation also illustrates the conflict between traffic planners deliberate attempt to avoid clear information and the road users wish to get it.

The .NET Framework is a widely used system component for MicrosoftWindows. This thesis describes how the functionality of the framework canbe adapted to Microsoft Excel. Specific operations, such as integration ofuser interfaces, database connections and the ability to divide programs intosmaller components, are discussed. A number of architectural - and designpatterns to facilitate development are analysed.Several techniques have been made up in consultation with experiencedprogrammers. These techniques were further developed by implementinga number of test programs.The results of the study are a number of standard classes for future usageand a larger pilot project containing most of the analysed functionality..

This master?s thesis is a remote sensing study of an area-based method used to detect forest in need of thinning by use of laser data and field samples. Only pine-dominated forest has been included in the study and height limits were set to match empirical restrictions. The study area was in the municipality of Älvsbyn (Latitude 65° 40´ N, Longitude 21° 00´ E), in northern Sweden.The Swedish authority Lantmäteriet is currently laser scanning most parts of Sweden, providing new opportunities and applications. The primary aim of the national laser scanning is to create a new elevation model, useful in consequence analysis of climate changes.

F?rt?tningen av st?der skapar en utmaning f?r bevarandet av de t?tortsn?ra skogarna. V?rden som skapas av m?nniskans upplevelser i skogen kan sammanfattas i begreppet skogens sociala v?rden, som visat sig ha en stor betydelse f?r folkh?lsan. D? m?nga kommuner ?ger t?tortsn?ra skog, ?r det av intresse att studera hur de planerar f?r skogens sociala v?rden.

Många av dagens fredsfrämjande insatser genomförs i insatsområden som åtminstone vid en första anblick tycks vara av litet geopolitiskt eller ekonomiskt intresse för de intervenerande staterna. För svenskt vidkommande motiveras ibland Sveriges engagemang i exempelvis Afghanistan med att den terrorism och drogproduktion som härrör därifrån hotar och påverkar även människor i Sverige. Ytterligare en möjlig motivering har att göra med spridningsrisken; för att minska risken för spridning av en konflikt utanför det ursprungliga konfliktområdet intervenerar utomstående stater. Men vilken bild av den svenska statens motiv för att engagera Försvarsmakten i fredsfrämjande internationella insatser målas upp i riksdagsdebatten? Är argumenteringen rationell och visar de motiv som förs fram att Sverige faktiskt gynnas av att delta, eller grundar sig viljan att hjälpa till i att den svenska staten anser sig vara moraliskt förpliktigad att ingripa, om förmågan finns, då mänskliga rättigheter kränks? Föreliggande uppsats syftar till att klarlägga hur de två största, blockpolitiskt åtskilda riksdagspartierna motiverade besluten att deltaga i de internationella insatserna i Afghanistan och Libyen.

Background: Various follow-up studies show that there are deficiencies in the care of patients affected by stroke. In order to provide good care according to the National Board of health and welfare and national guidelines for stroke care systematic quality audits need to be carried out.Purpose: To investigate if the local guidelines for stroke care in Örebro County are followed and to explore how people with stroke experience care and rehabilitation in hospital, primary care and community.Method: Primary health care records were reviewed using quality indicators in the local stroke guidelines. Samples of patients were obtained from the County´s three hospitals. Differences between men and women, younger and older, were analysed with chi-squared test. Eleven people were interviewed about their experiences of care, rehabilitation, support and participation.

Student recruitment? - Three teachers? thoughts concerning children's first experiences in municipal arts and music schools. The aim of this thesis is to explore three teacher' experiences of recruitment of students to arts and music schools. The thesis includes thoughts about how teachers can inspire students and why the orchestral string bass is an infrequent choice of instrument to study. I have examined the issues through a qualitative study where I have interviewed three licensed string bass teachers of different ages and backgrounds.