I am a practising classical soprano. After more than 20 years of professional singing, I re-trained my voice according to principles of the old Italian school of singing. In this essay, I examine the origins and priciples of bel canto, with special focus on appoggio and chiaroscuro, two key ingredients in the bel cantao tradition. I explore the relationship between science and the craft of singing, and what modern voice science has to say about the efficiency and health aspects of this technique, I also describe the profound effect it has had on me as an artist..

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the relationship between the socially constructed genders is manifested in American library science. To visualize gender, bibliometric analyses of peer reviewed articles published in three core journals of library science between 1980 and 2000 inclusive, are performed. The three journals are: College and Research Libraries, Journal of Academic Librarianship and Library Quarterly. Questions: 1. Does gender affect the publishing process regarding the distribution of female and male authors? 2.

Though still well used in Swedish schools, textbooks are no longer under any governmental control or inspection. It is now responsibilities of the teacher, thus, knowledge is considered crucial. Therefore, the aim of this study was firstly to investigate if and how four biology/natural science textbooks, produced 1957-2008 for primary school years (3) 4-6, expressed any sex, gender and/or sexuality norms. Moreover, due to thoughts of queer theoretic Judith Butler, the study also investigated if and how these three norms interacted. By examining what the textbooks mediated, the purpose was finally to find out if and how the norms differed or not.

This thesis analyzes and discusses the role of institutions concerning countries' abilities to create economic wealth. The countries that we are analyzing are the former members of the Warsaw pact and former Yugoslavia. These countries are referred to as transition countries. In order to analyze the transition countries institutional structure we are using Douglass C. North's theory regarding institutions and institutional building.

According to international and national literacy studies (PISA, PIRLS) Swedish boys are inferior to Swedish girls when it comes to reading. There can be numerous reasons to that statement. One is that Swedish teachers require more knowledge about communication as an important component in literacy. In spite of this shortcoming, Swedish girls manage to gain sufficient literacy. Why is that? The aim of this survey was to examine if there were any differences between girls and boys regarding communication skills when they begin in school.The main questions taken in account were:Which differences and/or similarities in communication skills are discernible between boys and girls this particular preschool?How do boys and girls communicate with each other in different room contexts on this particular preschool?           To be able to answer the questions, I adopted observations and audio recordings from children aged five.

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.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight of four preschool teacher?s perspectives and reasoning in two different local if they working to counteract exclusion. The questions this study assumes are: How does the teachers in preschool reason about how they working against exclusion of children with diagnosis in the free game, if there are? How does the teachers reasoning about their methods and personal strategies they uses to include children with diagnosis in the free game, if they are excluded? How does the teachers reasoning about the diagnosis effect of these children?s social interaction with other children if the diagnosis became their identity? The method in this study to collect material about the teacher´s perspective on the subject is semi-structured interviews. The collected material has been analyzed and interpreted from a socio-cultural perspective.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att ta fram en modell för att attrahera innovationsmöjligheter till Munktell Science Park i Eskilstuna. Detta gjorde författarna genom att från befintliga teorier deducera fram en hypotetisk modell. Modellen används inte för att skapa innovationer utan för att hitta komplexa problem. Det är lösningarna på de komplexa problemen som i sin tur kan vara innovationerna. Därför har vi kallat de komplexa problemen för innovationsmöjligheter. .

Som blivande pedagog och författare av examensarbetet har jag gjort en kvalitativt inriktad forskning för att besvara mitt syfte. Fenomenografi är ett centralt begrepp i examensarbetet. Inledningsvis har jag i bakgrunden skildrat en historisk tillbakablick med viktiga årtal för förskolan. Vidare har jag definierat och skildrat olika uppfattningar som skildras i forskning och litteratur från 2000-talet om utvecklingssamtalet i förskolan.  I denna studie har tio kvalitativa intervjuer gjorts med fem föräldrar och fem förskollärare. Syftet har varit att undersöka vilka uppfattningar som finns hos förskollärare och föräldrar om förskolan.

I have together with Frimeko AB developed new hallway furniture for preschools. The background to the project is the fact that all the existing hallway furniture?s on the market today have a similar design and same features. None of the furniture stands out immediately. Companies who work with school furniture in general have been inspired by each other, and therefore is the collections monotonous.

The purpose of this study was to examine parenthood of young mothers from a professional point of view. The professionals work in a medium-sized city in Sweden and they represent different professions to give a broad perspective of the subject. The questions in the study were: What were the advantages of being a young mother of today and were there any problems with being a young mother, from the professionals perspective? What role did young mothers network and family play, from a professional point of view? From a professional point of view, how well did society handle young parenthood? How do the professionals handle the young mothers they met? Studies with reference to professionals' thoughts and expectations of young mothers were few, therefore the professionals were given a central position in this study. A qualitative method was chosen, for this study.

To challenge the competition within the construction business there are requirements ineffectiveness and use of operating computer based programs and work-methods. Thecomputer based programs are continuously improved and can at some point be the start of anew work-method. The work-method of tomorrow can be Building Information Modeling(BIM).This Master of Science Thesis gives an understanding in what BIM is and what therequirements for Sweco Theorells are in a future BIM-use as a consulting-firm. Theunderstanding is presented through a study of theory within the subject. The way of thinkingand acting among different disciplines and individuals within the building process isexplained through an interview study.The term BIM is regularly used.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine upper secondary school teachers? views of their students? information seeking practices and their perspectives on consider the concept of information literary. The theoretical framework consists of a sociocultural perspective and the empirical material has been collected through interviews with six upper secondary school teachers. The material is analyzed phenomenographically and revealed three practices. Social science teachers consider the library and librarian to be valuable resources for students? information seeking, particularly in view of information overload in society today.

A third party access to district heating networks has been proposed in Sweden, to increase the competition on the district heating market. Such third party access could create opportunities for the agricultural sector as an energy producer. This study describes the technical, economical and environmental prerequisites for a farmer cluster to build and run a heating plant, fueled with local wood fuel. The heating plant in the described scenario is 8 MW and will supply a village of 1000 houses, and is fueled with wood chips exclusively. Supplying a heating plant with fuel puts high demands on the logistics, since there need to be a continuous flow of fuel. In the scenario, wood residues from felling and thinning is stored in stacks in the forest, and a few times a year chipped and transported to a storage area at the heating plant. In the study, an estimation of the profitability has been made by estimating the cost of the investment, personnel, operating and maintenance costs and costs for the fuel and ash handling.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not there has been a change in the use of democratic values in textbooks in social science for classes 4-6. The focus lies on democratic values from two different theoretical perspectives, Dahl?s theory of democracy and Habermas deliberative democracy. The method used is a text analysis based on a model made by Lennart Hellspong. The material we?ve analysed consists of four textbooks in social science from different decades, with a range from 1981 until today.