The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country?s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service.

AI är något som blir allt viktigare inom dagens spel och får allt högre krav på att agera mänskligt och intelligent. Detta kandidatarbete undersöker vilken metod som är att föredra för att skapa en AI som kan lära sig av sina tidigare erfarenheter. Några av de metoder som undersöks är trädstrukturer, Artificial Neural Network och GoCap. Genom att skapa en applikation med en av metoderna samt göra en undersökning på hur AI:n i applikationen upplevdes fick vi resultat om denna metod var användbar. Utifrån detta diskuteras det ifall andra metoder hade varit mer effektiva, hur man hade kunnat förbättra AI:n samt hur framtiden för spel-AI skulle kunna se ut..

The aim of this study was to examine how the new established phenomenon of ?Internet drugs? causes challenges to organizations, both individually and in relation to collaboration. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives from three organizations - one youth police unit, one medical addiction centre and four units working within social services. The theoretical approach that was used is theory about human service organizations, theory about collaboration and new institutional organizational theory. A conclusion is that the current drug classification is problematic and mainly challenging for the organizations that focus on prevention work and early interventions.

Swedish studies concerning children?s reading habits show that detective stories have become more popular in recent years. The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to examine how the gender system is described in four detective stories written for children at the age of 9 to 13 years. Our main question is: How is the gender system reflected in the four selected detective stories for children? We also pose the question: How are femininity and masculinity described? Our study is based on three theories.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how a public library should sign and organize their resources to make them as accessible as possible to the users of the library. Our theory, Paul Arthur?s and Romedi Passini?s wayfinding theory, is about how people search through information loaded environments. Our empirical material consists mainly of three parts: an inventory of the resources and guiding at Hammarö bibliotek, eight interviews with visitors at Hammarö bibliotek and observations of how visitors use and interact with the library, its resources and guiding.

The aim of this study is to examine which factors in a traffic wardens? situation at work that promote and which that inhibit satisfaction at work. The aim of this study is also to examine if there are any differences in the work experiences for traffic wardens that work alone versus those who work in a team of two. The following questions are examined in the study:?Which factors promote and which factors inhibit the work situation for traffic wardens??Are there any differences between traffic wardens that work alone and those who work with another colleague?The selection consisted of eight traffic wardens, of which four of them work with another colleague while the other four work by themselves.

The aim of this study is to examine which factors in a traffic wardens? situation at work that promote and which that inhibit satisfaction at work. The aim of this study is also to examine if there are any differences in the work experiences for traffic wardens that work alone versus those who work in a team of two. The following questions are examined in the study:?Which factors promote and which factors inhibit the work situation for traffic wardens??Are there any differences between traffic wardens that work alone and those who work with another colleague?The selection consisted of eight traffic wardens, of which four of them work with another colleague while the other four work by themselves.

This is a study where the purpose was to investigate whether preschool teachers have a positive or negative attitude to outdoor education. Their view of outdoors education is also treated. The methods used were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The survey was sent to all preschool teachers in three municipalities and on a social network. The interviews were conducted at a preschool, which had a form of outdoor profile.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and expand the knowledge of how bereaved spouses in palliative care handled their grief. Attempts were also made to distinguish common patterns among the experiences that the bereaved spouses expressed.  Furthermore the study aimed to understand how the bereaved spouses handled their grief, and to understand what helped them to move on. A qualitative method was used in this essay, related to the purpose of investigating the spouses? emotional experiences. The questions used to reach an understanding of the matter were: How did the bereaved experienced their grief? Were there important contributing factors worsening their grief or making it easier? How did the bereaved persons handle their grief, and what helped them to work things through and carry on with their lives? The result was analyzed by using Antonovsky?s theory; a feeling of coherence, Lazarus? coping theory combined with Folkman?s revised coping theory.

AbstractTitle: Who are you? Who am I? ? Charades in the mediated world of today. A study of the construction of identity at Facebook.(Vem är du? Vem är jag? ? Charader i dagens medierade värld. En studie av identitetskonstruktionen på Facebook.)Number of pages: 58 (66 including enclosures.)Author: Mathilda WahlundTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The aim is to study how people construct their own identities today.

Around the 1950s an explosive population growth started in the Third World. Parallel with the population growth a global network grew up advocating population control and limited population growth. Sweden had a unique place in that network through a pioneering role promoting the issue in the UN organization. During the 20th century Sweden was a pioneer country in terms of initiatives for population control. Ceylon family planing pilot project was something new in a time when other donors considered family planning be too controversial area for bilateral aid projects.

The aim with this Masters thesis is to examine the professional knowledge of the librarian. The method used is text analysis of a state public investigation, SOU 1969:37, that concerns librarian education. The theoretical starting point is a theory of knowledge thats descended from Aristotle. Three different forms of knowledge are central concepts in the theory: the theoretical, the practical and the ethical. The main issue in this thesis is: In what ways did the investigators look at the librarians knowledge? Was it in a changeable period of time? In that case, what reasons could there be? The conclusion shows that educational political changes were affecting the whole educational sphere at the late 1960:s, and in the beginning of the 1970:s, including library education.

Deregulation on the market for agricultural products leads to a more globalised market with increasing price fluctuations. This, in turn, places the farmer in positions influenced by new risks but also improved opportunities. The farmers are faced by uncertainty in terms of financial outcome. To be able to utilise these new market conditions it becomes increasingly important for farmers to continuously follow the price trend, and to develop strategies how to manage the risks exposed by a volatile market. Farmers with different conditions perceive risk in different ways. Hence, their risk management behaviour will vary.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

This paper seeks to discern the political factors that determine the results of negotiations in international cooperation. On the one hand, it makes a contribution to the broader theoretical debate on international regimes by combining regime theory and theories on globalisation into an integrated framework for the analysis of international policy results, or in this case treaties (theoretical objective). More generally, globalisation theory will help us understand why it has become important to initiate international cooperation, and regime theory to elucidate how these international cooperations emerge. To many observers, it is the large transnational corporations of the rich North, which have done best out of free trade. Through the huge influence they wield over governments at the WTO (World Trade Organisation), these corporations have won the freedom to move around the globe without restriction, making use of cheap labour, and locating wherever they can best tap into the largest and most lucrative markets.