Participation of the people is essential for a democracy's vitality and survival. In this study we focus on the individual as an active participant in the traditional political arena and beyond its sphere into the society as a whole. The first part of the study has a normative aim. Firstly we examine why political participation is essential for democracy, and especially the ideal of representative democracy and the restricted passive participation of its citizens in comparison to the ideal of participatory democracy and its ideal of an active participant in all aspects of society. An ideal participant is drawn up to set the course for the empirical part of the study.

This study aims to determine whether pupils, students and teachers at various music schools feel that there is a difference in status between different music styles/genres, and if this has an impact on the individual level. The survey was conducted with a digital survey that was e-mailed to junior/high schools with music profile in the Stockholm area and to all the teachers and students at the Royal College of music in Stockholm (KMH). Due to low participation by students and teachers from the junior/high schools the students and teachers of KMH became the main object of the study. The results shows that a majority of the main group of this study feels that there is a difference in status between different music styles/genres. The study also shows that half of the participants believe that the difference in status affects them on an individual level.

An important process for grid companies in order to reduce power losses in electricity distribution grids is to figure out where and how they appear. This report describes the factors that cause power losses in low voltage distribution grids and methods for how they could be measured and analyzed. Measurement data for consumed and injected energy were collected for twelve low voltage distribution grids owned by Gävle Energi AB in order to analyze the size of the power losses and how the measurement uncertainty affects the collected data. Then models of three of the grids were created in MATLAB in order to analyze the data and the power losses were calculated to be compared to the collected data. Curve fitting were also used as a method in order to analyze the power losses from collected data.The results show that the losses in the studied grids are low.

IP-adresserna under IPv4 är inte tillräckliga och har på många delar i världen redan tagit slut. IPv6 erbjuder många fler tillgängliga adresser och övergången till protokollet har redan börjat. Det Gävlebaserade företaget Interlan erbjuder en tjänst som kontrollerar om kommuner och myndigheter i de nordiska länderna är nåbara via IPv6 samt om de är säkrade med DNSSEC. Denna rapport beskriver jobbet med att förbättra och göra deras tjänst anpassningsbar för flera länder. Processen som beskrivs är parametriseringen av skripten som samlar data, skapandet av en databas att lagra data i, och ändringar till hur data presenteras så att det går att lägga till flera länder..

By the same time as the recent enlargement of the European Union, where Poland became a member, it was officially stated that the gender mainstreaming-policy was to be integrated into every area of EU. NGO:s working as entrepreneurs for the gender mainstreaming norm in Poland supported the accession largely because they believed it would help spreading the norm also on a national level. Qualitatively analyzing the Polish case and the difficulties gender mainstreaming as a norm candidate meets with I contrast expectations with what could actually be EU:s role in this matter.Arguing that EU is a context with room for spreading norms by both bargaining and socialization, this paper takes a social constructivist approach. Gender mainstreaming as a norm is difficult for EU to apply on their members, and thus was not widely discussed during accession negotiations. In the same time.

The aim of this study is to examine the collection One Thousand and One Nights (also: The Arabian Nights) from a european perspective, by comparing different european translations. The study focuses on three translations into Swedish from different periods of time and how the tales have changed in the translation process - depending on the prevailing line of approach and Western perceptions of Eastern standards. The thesis of the study is that Eastern culture, from a Western perspective, has been seen as exotic and different but not as a high literary culture and that this view has affected the translations into european languages. The study shows, among other things, that Western culture is many times considered normative in the translations and that the translators often give their own voices a prominent role, also that common Western notions of the East affects the translations.The word ?orientalism? is used frequently in the study and it refers primarily to the image of the Orient as it is described in Edward Saids' book Orientalism: as a Western construction whose main purpose is to strengthen its own conception of the Orient and thereby strengthen the Western identity as better than the Orient.

The aim of this study is to examine new interpretations of homosexuality in Islam based on Scott Kugle?s book ?Homosexuality in Islam? and the documentary ?A Jihad for love? by Parvez Sharma. Through a theological perspective, a critical analysis is performed in order to find new interpretations and compare them with each other and with the Islamic legal tradition. Argumentative analysis is also used for both the book and the documentary for this essay.     Both Kugle and Sharma use new interpretations and arguments about love to find space for homosexuality in Islam. They use a Muslim language to have relevance with their discussions to Muslim readers and viewers.

Network RTK is a real-time technique for accurate positioning with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The technology means the use of correction data from a network of GNSS receivers with known positions (reference stations) to reduce the uncertainty in position for the user´s GNSS receiver (rover). However, this requires that the correction data can be transferred seamlessly to the user in real time. Commonly the corrections are transferred via mobile phones. The Swedish National Land Survey operates a nationwide Network RTK service, where users can receive correction data via GSM or mobile Internet (GPRS).

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to find possible explanations of variation in light scattering in a fine paper. Samples were collected from each second tambour during a time period of two weeks from a paper machine at MoDo Paper, Husum. Two data sets, consisting of 20 and 95 observations, were selected for extensive analysises of tensile and structual properties. The data was evaluated with multivariate data techniques using the programs Simca and Extract. The results of PCA- and PLS- analysises pointed out 3 of 52 variables as important for the variations in light scattering.

Bergvik Skog is one of the leading forest companies in Sweden who use airborne laser scanning for forestry information. They utilize laser data retrieved by the Swedish National Land Survey to describe the forest holdings and facilitate planning for thinning and final felling operations. However, the possibility to identify stands with clearing needs by using laser scanning data has not been tested in a large scale. The data used in the current study are field data from The Swedish National Forest Inventory in combination with laser data from the Swedish National Land Survey acquired in 2009. The collected data is used to find one or several laser variables that best describe the relationship of the field measured samples with clearing needs.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and propose improvements to the current procedure for cost estimations of purchased maintenance work at Banverket, the Swedish rail administration. This governmental institution is responsible for the procurement of maintenance services for the country?s railroad network through open tenders. Due to the generally low number of contractors, it is particularly necessary to establish accurate cost estimates in order to assess the offers and ensure that a fair price is being paid to the suppliers. Several flaws associated with the current practice are identified and analyzed according to cost accounting theories.

Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature.

Uppsatsen beskriver arbetet och undersökning för hur deduplicering i filsystemet ZFS påverkar effektförbrukningen. En större mängd redundant data förekommer i centraliserade lagringssystem som förser virtualiserade servrar med lagringsutrymme. Deduplicering kan för den typen av lagringsmiljö eliminera redundant data och ger en stor besparing av lagringsutrymme. Frågan som undersökningen avsåg att besvara var hur ett lagringssystem påverkas av det extra arbete som det innebär att deduplicera data i realtid.Metoden för att undersöka problemet var att utföra fem experiment med olika typer av scenarion. Varje scenario innebar att filer kopierades till ett lagringssystem med eller utan deduplicering för att senare kunna analysera skillnaden.

The aim of this study is to examine the collection One Thousand and One Nights (also: The Arabian Nights) from a european perspective, by comparing different european translations. The study focuses on three translations into Swedish from different periods of time and how the tales have changed in the translation process - depending on the prevailing line of approach and Western perceptions of Eastern standards. The thesis of the study is that Eastern culture, from a Western perspective, has been seen as exotic and different but not as a high literary culture and that this view has affected the translations into european languages. The study shows, among other things, that Western culture is many times considered normative in the translations and that the translators often give their own voices a prominent role, also that common Western notions of the East affects the translations.The word ?orientalism? is used frequently in the study and it refers primarily to the image of the Orient as it is described in Edward Saids' book Orientalism: as a Western construction whose main purpose is to strengthen its own conception of the Orient and thereby strengthen the Western identity as better than the Orient.

Today Holmen Skog finds and selects suitable thinning stands using data on upper height and basal area. These figures are often based on basic forest data that has been updated with the help of growth prediction models. The problem is that these figures are not always correct. The aim of this study was to investigate if a combination of data from a profiling laser and a digital camera for low elevation photography, can be used for collecting data on number of stems per ha, tree species mixture as well as basal area weighted mean height and upper height for stands. The possibility to use these data to assess the need for thinning cutting was also investigated.Laser data and aerial photographs were collected from a helicopter operating at an approximate height of 100 meters.