Since 2007 the American sitcom the Big Bang Theory has spread throughout the world. With its twenty million watchers it is one of the most popular sitcoms of our time. The starting point for this essay is that the humourus series with the more or less geeky main characters is more than just entertainment - it is a part of the mediatization of religion. This means that media is affecting the recipients? view on religion in general and the personal religion.

Detta är en studie om klimatpåverkan i samband med anläggandet av järnvägsbroar i syfte att ta fram nyckeltal (moment, material, mängder) för att effektivt kunna reducera utsläppen av växthusgaser. Till grund för studien har vi arbetat med Trafikverkets verktyg klimatkalkyl 2.0. Det har granskats utifrån användarvänlighet och riktighet i indata och emissionsomräkningsfaktorer. Det för att se till skillnaden mellan modellen och ett unikt anläggningsprojekt, var skiljer sig Trafikverkets typvärden mot de projektspecifika förutsättningarna samt vilka blir dess konsekvenser?Studien har kommit fram till att utan viss försiktighet vid arbete i klimatkalkyl 2.0 finns risk för inkorrekta resultat.

This essay is a selective review of Nordic literature with the aim to explore contemporary conceptions of male-on-female rape, to increase the understanding of how these can construct ?a real rape?. To achieve this two questions were formulated: What circumstances can cause an incident not to be defined as rape? What circumstances can cause an incident to be defined as rape? Searches in international and Swedish databases led to initial selection of peer-review journal articles and dissertations that were reviewed against set criteria. These criteria were met by 8 studies, that were assigned codes, from which comprehensive categories were developed.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate two pearl growing methods in ISI Web of Science. The methods tested are Find Related Records FRR, an automatic service that uses bibliographic coupling, and Author Keywords AK, where searches are performed using the two first keywords from this field. Both search methods were used on twenty initial documents and the first twenty hits were evaluated for relevance using a binary scale 0,1. The relevance criteria were based on specific information needs connected to every initial document. The measures used to evaluate the effectiveness of the search methods were Precision at DCV=10, P10, and Uninterpolated Average Precision AP.

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of 16th century Flemish art by approaching paintings by artists Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) and Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) from a different perspective. This is done by extending the discourse of art history, into a discourse of literary history and primarily 16th century novels by authors such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes. The paintings are studied in relation to these 16th century novels, by comparison and as a testament of this specific time period. A widening contextualization is also constructed in which a connection to the expression of the carnivals ambivalent form, as well as the notion of lower classes is explored.

Uppsala University Library owns eight volumes of manuscripts attributed to the academy equerry Johan Leven Ekelund (c.1701?1775). In this thesis, I apply methods from the field of material culture studies in order to establish which of the volumes that formed the donation from Leven to the library mentioned in his will. By mapping certain markers such as places, names and dates I am able to identify to some extent where Leven gained his practical skills and which writers influenced him. By analysing the texts, I draw the conclusion that the manuscripts can be divided into groups aimed for different audiences.

AbstractSweden is a country with good reputation when it comes to questions aboutequality. The definition of equality is not always explicit though. The aim of thisthesis is to examine what Swedish equality is and what it should be. By studyingdescriptions of equality and discrimination in the political programs of the partiesof the Swedish parliament from the sixties until today, I examine which groupsare included and excluded from the concept of equality. The analyse shows thatthe concept initially was only referring to class matters.

In 2002 the local council of Lund, Sweden, decides to implement the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. A number of actors, such as the state, the civil society, the political society and the bureaucracy, participate in the political process with different authority and points of departure. This thesis studies the actors´ interactions from an inside perspective by applying concepts such as political power, democracy and implementation. The methodological departure is action research from within, a local NGO, the local board of Save the Children Sweden. The results of the study indicate that governance and steering of the implementation process at the communal level is weak.

Le Français, what is that? What is actually a language?Questions like these are not easily answered and whilelinguists are continuing their search for the essence ofour communicative systems we are all free to make ourown interpretations.In various media, like schoolbooks and otherlanguage-teaching material, for instance, you mayfi nd visual interpretations of what French is, as alanguage?. Very often it is the common picture of whatis considered typically French that is shown. There areseveral problems to be found in limiting oneself to thesekinds of visualizations. One of these is that the Frenchlanguage is no longer strictly French.

Commissioned for this report is Ramboll, Bridge and Tunnel Unit in Stockholm. Theidea throughout the work has been to primarily help bridge designers compilingadvice and instructions on how fatigue verification for railway bridges in reinforcedconcrete shall be performed under the new rules, the Eurocodes.After the introduction of the Eurocodes in 2011 has major problems emerged amongdesigners around Sweden. In some areas, it differs in the calculation rules comparedwith rules from the Swedish Transport Administration and the National Board ofHousing, Building and Planning calculation. Fatigue verification is one area where thenew calculation rules are different from the past.A large part of the report has been to interpret and find the relevant information inthe Eurocodes concerning fatigue. When questions or doubts have surfaced, this hasbeen discussed with Elisabeth Helsing at the Swedish Transport Administration andbridge designers at Ramboll.The result is a report where the structure is organized in the way that the bridgedesigners can move from cover to cover and realize that fatigue verification in realityfollows the same order as the report's sections.

There are several objects of age whose provenance and history has disappeared with time. The purpose of this thesis is to find out which analyzing methods that gives results and how the different methods can be combined and /or established in each other. The investigations centers around an embroidery, belonging to Tämta church, with unknown origin, use and age. The embroidery is long and narrow with applications in the form of dragons and eagles on a ground of velvet cloth. The dragons and eagles are covered with metal threads.

The hotel industry in Stockholm is characterized by intense competition, and within the next couple of years the construction of a number new hotels is planed. As the number of hotels in Stockholm increase, the competition will increase and the importance of having well functioning strategies will become vital. The purpose of this essay is to examine how two hotels within the hotel industry in Stockholm experience and handle the competition. The two hotels that are included in the study are Clarion Hotel Stockholm and Scandic Continental. The essay derives from models and theories that are related to marketing and competition.

Train travel has increased in Sweden, and future increase of train transports putdemands on the already vastly exploited railroad net. The increased need of capacitycan be seen in the ongoing and planned expansions of the railway track. One part ofthe railroad infrastructure which is affected by an increase of travellers is the design ofthe station platform. Since the platform is the place where the traveller meets thetrain, dangerous situations can occur in this environment. A number of studies focuson single safety risks, albeit there is no research to show the full picture of safety inthe platform environment.This study aims to treat and put together a compilation of risks for the traveller in theplatform environment in the form of a checklist, which can be used as support inplanning and design of a safer platform environment for existing or planned platforms.The thesis has, through case studies of five ongoing projects within the NationalRailroad Administration (Banverket), interviews with train company personnel andinternational railroad administrators, identified and treated safety (and security) risksin the platform environment.The conclusion of the study is that the relations between the traveller, the physicalplatform environment and the project organisation are important to explore andexploit when designing effective safety measures.

The main purpose of this thesis was to examine the collection management at five different hospital libraries´ children and youth?s section to discern different roles of the collections. We made qualitative interviews with five hospital librarians. The purpose was also to see how the collection development affected the different roles of the collections. We used two theories.

Japan's foreign and security policy has seen some substantial changes as a result of events like the first Gulf war and 9/11th. This has been taken as proof, by some, that Japan is abandoning its antimilitaristic stance and pursuing a more traditional hard power role through military means. This essay aims to explore if these shifts have coincided with any substantial shifts away from antimilitarism, which has had a strong influence on the country's security policy since the end of WW2.To do this I use constructivist theory, specifically regarding the impact of norms and identities on states security policy and briefly look into the problem of actor designation. The thematic focus is on security policy, from a narrow perspective, and thus I examine areas like the input and output to the Japanese military and the actual applications of this force. State identity is used to explore the prevalence of nationalistic sentiments and support for anti militarism in the public opinion and the political elite.The result of this study points to the further relevance of constructivist theory and especially the application of norms and identity.