It's an everyday experience shared by many that nature can be of help in relieving pain, reducing stress, support mental recovery etc. In the last three decades or so this experience has also found support in a large number of scientific investigations. Among other things the experience of nature has been shown to reduce stress and pain in patients and to boost concentration and reduce impulsive behavior in children. Most of this research however has mainly been concerned with the visual modality. In this thesis the aim has been to focus on the auditory modality in this context by trying to reveal some effects on people from the exposure of nature sounds played indoors in three different environments: a grammar school class room, a kindergarten play room and a post-surgery wake up room at an intensive care unit.

The last years trends of increasing globalisation and the decreasing importance of the nationstate has led to rising flows of travellers and information throughout the globe. This has affected the competition between destinations; they are now competing in a global market. The importance of placemarketing and representing a place identity, is today essential to attract customers from around the world. The purpose of this essay was to examine how Iceland as a place is represented through the photographs in horse tourism. The research questions asked were: How is the Icelandic landscape represented in photographs? How is people and horses represented in the landscape? And how can the horse be analysed as a part of the Icelandic landscape? The method used for research was image-analysis, a qualitative approach where horse tourism-websites and photographs on these websites were strategically selected.

The present study concerns a concept development of a product idea that Bengt Magnuson, associate professor, had when a heavy storm caused a widespread power failure of long duration. With a basic power-producing unit one should be able to get through a power loss. The product could also be useful for other tasks if different modules are connected, e g grass mower or snow-blower.According to the product idea the basic unit will be able to produce electric power enough for a fridge, freezer, TV, and a few electric lamps. Normally the basic unit can be used e g as a mower, when such a module is attached. An increased number of tasks would make the contraption useful and tempting for those who do not own an electrical power set in reserve.

Forestry and forest products are vital components of the Swedish economy but the forest is also important for recreation, hunting, out-door life and conserving biodiversity. The Swedish Forest Act has two equally important objectives, production and environmental protection. Polytax is the Swedish Forest Agency´s inventory programme which monitors progress toward the two objectives in connection with regeneration fellings. It includes data on environmental protection measures taken in connection with regeneration fellings. 30 § of the Swedish Forestry Act and related regulations specify the demands for conserva-tion of nature.

Kärnkraften har så länge den funnits varit en omdebatterad energikälla. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utreda och få en bild av hur och på vilket sätt natursynen hänger ihop med åsikter om kärnkraft. Jag har redogjort för vad energi är, kärnkraftens historia i Sverige och som energikälla samt beskrivit för- och nackdelarna med kärnkraften. För att kunna ge en bild av kärnkraft och natursyn har jag genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som på olika sätt är insatta i problematiken kring kärnkraften. Min undersökning visar bland annat att natursyn är ett komplext och stort begrepp som vi bör vara medvetna om hur det fungerar i arbetet för att förbättra miljön..

Title: Experiences of physical activity in a flat country Regular physical activity provides many chronic diseases and is an important contributor to health promotion. According to Swedish goals for public health, community planning ought to provide opportunities for exercise in all groups of the population and exercise in daily life should be uncomplicated, even in rural areas. The purpose of this study was to explore how individuals living in a flat country experienced their opportunities for exercise on a regular basis. Four semi-structured interviews were carried out with a phenomenological approach and for the analysis a phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used, resulting in two main themes and nine sub themes. The first main theme ?The reciprocal relation between physical activity and the landscape? showed that the informants experienced that they had good opportunities in the landscape for physical activity, it was easy to exercise on a regular basis, provided there was motivation.

This final thesis is performed on commission of Torsby forestry administration, Stora Enso Skog. Stora Enso Skog is one of the major forestry companies of Sweden. The main business area is located in and around the region of Bergslagen. During the last decade the practice of forest management has rapidly changed due to a new forest legislation. The new law has resulted in that the production goal is equal to the environmental goal within forestry.

Stormwater in urban areas has been treated as a problem for a long time. The large proportion of impermeable surfaces inhibits the water from infiltrating in the ground to the same extent that it does in nature. This causes intensive surface flow during rain, which in turn causes inconveniences such as decreased accessability, floods and increased risk of desease spreading. Drainage through pipes is the traditional and usually functional metod for storm water disposal. That is as long as water flows are moderate. But precipitation varies naturally in amount and intensity and additional impermeable surfaces make some pipes insufficient for heavy or lasting precipitation.

The objective of this thesis was to investigate what influence nature conservation measures taken at regeneration felling. Factors analysed were the forest owners´ situation and their characters, and information activities from wood-suppliers and the Regional Forest Board (RFB). The inventory was performed with a posted questionnaire followed up by telephone to forest owners and a posted questionnaire to wood-buyers. The forest owners were grouped in three strata, depending on the quality results (D- polytax inventory) of the taken forest conservation measures, and for this investigation forest owners were sampled from the population in the tree groups. In total 73 % (41/56) of the sampled forest owners answered the questionnaire Group A (17 answers): Good judgement Group B (19 answers): Bad judgement Group C (5 answers): This group was formed from the forest owners that were informed, by RFB, about nature conservation measures and culture history consideration before the regeneration cutting.

The aim of this project is to investigate the meeting between the city and the sea and tolook into how that could be developed and made use of. I want to find out how you can increase the availability of a specific place and make it more welcoming, I also want to bring life to an already existing space and create a central meeting place in the city. The purpose is to give form to an esplanade along a dock in the central parts of Kalmar. Starting with an analysis of this public place, I want to create a concept that is close to the existing context and communicates the contrasts or associations between for example: city and nature, artificial and natural and indoor and outdoor. The primary object of the project is to add a welcoming, public place to the city where you on an accessible way canfamiliarize yourself with the meeting between the city and the sea.

As a result of my fascination for nature I have chosen to study the possibilities to introduce natural environments on schoolyards. Too many schoolyards are lacking vegetation and many of them look like sterile asphalt deserts. The master thesis consists of two parts. The first part is based on literature studies and the second part in which findings from part one are put into practice. Five examples are presented; four schoolyards in Malmö; Kryddgårdsskolan, Kirsebergsskolan, Rörsjöskolan and Lindängeskolan and one in Kalmar; Åbyskolan. Malmö Naturskola has been working with the chosen areas on the schoolyards in Malmö.

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare what six preschool teachers thought about their opportunities to take advantage of children's interest in natural sciences and technology, across four kindergartens. The following questions were explored in order to achieve the aim of the study: How do the preschool teachers interviewed describe their work with science and technology in the preschool and what these preschool teachers think about the meaning of motivation in the children?s learning of natural sciences and technology in preschool.  The study used a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews and interviewed a total of six trained pre-school teachers from four kindergartens with different profiles. The first kindergarten focuses on mathematics, science and technology.

The report contains a survey on telecommuting in nature and how concepts around that information could look like. The client for the project is Lars Sandberg, Dotank AB in Karlstad. The project is implemented in the course Bachelor of Science in Innovation and Design, MSCG22 of the faculty of health, science and technology at Karlstad University in the spring of 2014.Working flexibly and remotely in the so-called knowledge based professions is growing. That nature is an important source of recovery is a fact. The literature search in this report shows that there are factors that create both physical and psychological stress on most office workers while nature is a source of recovery and inspiration.

This thesis analyses the conditions for subject indexing of fiction by studying the relationship between the nature of fiction and the properties of subject indexing. The analysis is founded on a reading of a recently published Swedish subject headings list and uses a theoretical framework of Adornos theory of modern reason. The study is conducted through a qualitative text analysis in three steps. In the first step the subject headings list is analysed by examining how it provides subject access to fiction by the aspects of form, frame and subject. In the second step of the analysis these aspects of subject access are analysed and discussed by relating them to relevant research of subject indexing of fiction.

This essay studies the funnel-beaker ceramic in connection with the megalith graves in South Scandinavia. In my work I have described the nature of ceramics and looked on the crockery types and ornamentation and then discussed the use of the material in a ritual perspective. In the first part I have focused on the critical aspects you have to think about when you do a study like this one. In the second part of this essay I have done a case study, with the ceramic material, in three passages graves in the area of Falbygden, Western Sweden and studied the ceramic material and the nature of it in South Scandinavia as well. Then in the third I discussed the potential use, there is two, of the ceramic material in general of South Scandinavia and looked at it in a ritual perspective..