Effects of climate change, urbanization and global homogenization are resulted in the degradation of land and losses of natural habitats. Ecological design integrates nature into urban environment by respecting natural ecological principles and processes and creating resilient urban biotopes which also can be used by local urban communities. The aim of the thesis is to answer the research questions: How ecological design principles can be applied for re-design of Toledo Riverfront (with requirements of the design competition)? and What is the ecological design in landscape architecture? I participated in the USA design competition with the aim to create a vision and redesign of Toledo Riverfront in Ohio State, USA. The site is located in the south point of Lake Erie. As a result of a long industrial activity, riverfront of Toledo had been transformed into inaccessible and abandoned brownfields. In my proposal I applied ecological design principles on three scales: the city of Toledo by reinforcing of ecological connection and creating green corridors along the river; the intermediate scale by suggesting public parks along the river front and on the fine level by proposing detailed design including remediation of the site and use of dredged material.

The purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes of the teachers of Reggio Emilia inspired preschools concerning the science work with children between the ages of one and three, as well as their opinions on how the physical preschool environment and the choice of materials influence their scientific work. The study was conducted in three departments of two different kindergartens. Although both kindergartens called themselves Reggio Emilia inspired, their working methods and their environments differed largely. None of them were originally built as Reggio Emilia inspired preschools. One of the kindergartens strived to design their indoor environment the same way as the preschools of Reggio Emilia are constructed, there for they were setting up different stations where the children themselves have the opportunity to explore various scientific areas.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate if the companies listed on Nasdaq/OMX Stockholm Large Cap use the earnings management phenomenon Big Bath Accounting to a greater extent when a change of management (CEO) is made.Management tends to use earnings management when there is a bonus plan linked to the result of the company. To gain maximum bonus the management will try to manipulate the result in a way that in a long term maximize their utility. Through the earnings management technique Big Bath the management is given the possibility to take one large cost as a one-time expend, even though the cost is supposed to run over several financial years. This, of course, within the legal framework. A big bath may occur when there is an impairment of goodwill, tangible and/or intangible assets or larger provisions for future expense, or both of them at the same time..

Today it is common to have adult horses stabled for most of the day. This limits the horses? ability to perform some of their natural behaviors such as foraging and movement. The purpose of this review was to compare the feral horses? diurnal rhythm and time budget with stabled horses.

Comfort analyses regarding human induced vibrationsIt is not too common among civil engineers in Sweden to perform comfort analyses considering the vibrations caused by human activities. In addition, the Swedish standards lack requirements to be used for comfort analyses in design of floor-systems. The demand for large spans in combination with slender slabs, is today a reason to investigate the floor-system constructions, in order to prevent disturbing vibrations and oscillations.The purpose of this thesis is to create a guide for how a comfort analysis, considering vibrations, should be implemented. Göran Svedenbjörk who is an expert in structural dynamics has been interviewed where he presents his latest project Värtaterminalen and answers some questions about vibrations due to human activities.Floor-systems, consisting of concrete slabs supported by steel or concrete beams, have been investigated with simulations in the finite element program Abaqus. In the simulations, the influence of various factors on the natural frequency of floor-systems and the acceleration level caused by dynamic loads, is studied.

Uppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen iKulturvård, Landskapsvårdens hantverk, 15 hp, 2013.

A controlled recording in a studio is the basis of all voice treatment. However, this controlled way of recording voice patients' voices can be questioned. The voice use may be different in a natural environment. In children noise related voice problems are investigated in a study about voice and its development (BUG ? Child voice and noise).

Nature´s healing capacity is well known and is today an important asset in the protection against stress. Noise problems in cities and it´s green spaces are increasing which in turn provokes stress and in the long term can lead to cardiovascular diseases. To promote people?s health it is important that natural environments have good soundscapes, research show that visiting natural surroundings and listening to sounds of nature promote rehabilitation and relief stress. The purpose of this essay is to determine the value of rehabilitation in forests in Carlshem and Röbäck.

The river Selångersån runs through thenorthern Swedish city of Sundsvall, splittingthe city in two as it winds through thevalley between Södra- and Norra Stadsbergetand out into the Baltic Sea.The river is a national interest of nature conservationbut at the same time in the middleof an urban development string for the city,creating a complex situation of developmentcontra conservation of natural environment.This project attempts to create a strategy oflandscape urbanism for the area surroundingSelånger Bay, four kilometers upstreamalong Selångersån. A sensitive wetland, todayrather forgotten but with great potentialfor introducing wild nature as an active partof the city. Or rather, initiating a processwhere the built environment can infiltrateand enrich the natural environment gradually.A city park in this location to initiate thisprocess could be a joint project of the city?sresidents with the scope to become a projectin constant development.The idea of the project is to offer a large ecologicalpark and meeting place near the citycenter. This will be achieved by clarifyingthe activities and values that already existin the park, such as the largest living deltai the region, football fields and a medievalchurch ruin, and by creating new paths.

This is a paper about the process of creating meaning in speeches held by president Bush after the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001. People need tools to orient and understand the surrounding world. They need to create a meaningful orientation in a chaotic world. Some meaning is favoured due to the prevailing social structures. Thru language discourses are produced that helps us understand how the world is constructed.

During the winter 2011 Isaksson and Andersson did a time budget study on Nordens Ark?s Przewalskis horses during daytime when there were visitors and caretakers in the park. This time budget study was made during daytime and when there were no visitors or caretakers in the park. The horses where observed in the morning (5.30-6.30 am) and in the evening (5.45-6.45 pm) during four days. In addition to a time budget, the horses? positions in the enclosure were registered.

This thesis investigates the effects of active ownership on the return on assets (ROA) of Swedish listed companies during the years 2003 to 2013. Active ownership is operationalized based on the probabilistic voting model that is used to calculate the minimum amount of shares the largest shareholder needs in order to possess control of a contested vote at the shareholder meeting. We study the three largest lists on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, having 1454 observations from 207 companies to test our hypothesis. The main result from the study is that there's a significant positive relationship between active ownership and ROA during the investigated period. The active owners' relative strength also proves to have a significant positive relationship to ROA..

In this thesis, I enquire into how the USA ? our world?s wealthiest and most powerful nation ?  and its federal government has dealt with two of its most severe natural disasters: the drought and dust storms that plagued the Great Plains during the 1930?s, i.e. the Dust Bowl, and Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in late August 2005. I attempt to identify differences and similarities and analyze if and, in that case, how the hegemonic politico-economic paradigm affected the federal management of these crises. This comparison is made relevant by the fact that two differing paradigms were at play during these events. In the thirties, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched his ?New Deal?, a series of counter cyclical measures in line with the Keynesian school of economics, as a response to the overwhelming economic depression as well as the raging drought.

This paper is intending to examine the intercultural aspects of two teaching aids used in Swedish schools today. How does the material take the students prerequisite in consideration? Is every student included in the material in order with the standpoint and laws in the Swedish school system? And if they are not, who is the outsider in this occasion? With intercultural pedagogy lies the idea that everyone is unique and that teachers has an opportunity to develop and make student grow mentally. Intercultural endeavor is to learn to accept our differences and see them as assets instead. The theory?s used in this paper in mostly the postcolonial theory with its dividing between "us" and "the others"..

The purpose of my study is to determine students? attitudes to the Natural Science subject. I want to contribute to scientific discourse about different learning styles that can respond to childrens? requirements in teaching as well as to determine the student?s experience of learning styles. The studies were carried out at an upper secondary school in Stockholm (spring term 2011) for three different classes.