In this paper discourse analysis on the Ethiopian National Action Program (NAP) to combat desertification is made. The aim is to describe how the overall image/picture of desertification, its causes, and effects and of possible solutions are presented in the NAP. The result of this analysis shows that the main cause of desertification is human activities mainly due to the poorly developed socio-economic situation in the dryland areas. It is indicated that an excessive dependency of the rural population on the natural resources, particularly land, is the major cause of land degradation and this deterioration of land is said to have been caused by the rapid population growth, overgrazing, forest clearing as well as past government and institutional failures. In addition it is indicated that the effect of desertification usually involves ecological changes that sap land of its ability to sustain agriculture and human habitation, therefore the most serious threat to human welfare.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the library of Workers´ Educational Association in the community of Oskarström. This library is special because the organisation run it much longer than usual, until 1977, and to find an answer to why, we have the following questions: Why does the library of Workers´ Educational Association start their activity in Oskarström, and how does it develop, in relation to premises, librarians, financing, the stock of books and the numbers of books out on loan? What is the reason that the library in Oskarström is municipalized as late as 1977? The methods we use are hermeneutics and evaluation of the sources. The library is founded in 1914 and become important for the workers. Important sources of income are the subventions given by the state, municipality and other associations.

The object of this thesis is to discuss the limits of the hypertext concept. The issue is whether the concept of hypertext necessarily depends on the conditions of the electronic media and www, or if the concept of hypertext more likely is founded on certain textual structures and strategies. In the light of contributions to hypertext theory during the 1990s, this thesis compares different views on hypertext, and concludes with an evaluation. The poem it the authors own translation of the original Danish title det, written in 1969 by the system-poet Inger Christensen, is the object of this case study. The poem is analysed with respect to its structural organisation and literary composition.

Abortion during late gestation is often caused by placental dysfunction such as placentitis. To prevent this from happening the placenta can be monitored pre partum so treatment can be started at an early stage. Methods for monitoring the placenta include hormonal monitoring, presence of clinical signs of placental dysfunction and ultrasonographic evaluation of the fetus and the placenta. Transrectal ultrasonography provides a very good image of the caudal portion of the allantochorion where an ascending placentitis normally establishes. An increased combined thickness of the uterus and the placenta, CTUP, has been associated with placental failure. This study included ten Swedish standardbred trotter mares in late gestation. They were monitored by transrectal ultrasonography of the placenta two times with approximately a month in between. CTUP was measured on each examination.

Our aim with this study has been to show the central factors that we consider have had animpact on public libraries in the "information society". We have studied two communities in the south of Sweden, Ronneby and Sölvesborg. These two communities have both started a development to the IT society, a society where information plays a great role, where the technique is the tool that supplies information.Ronneby community had early the aim to be the chief Swedish information center. A priority on information technology has therefore been obvious for them. Sölvesborg community has had another method and time schedule towards the IT society.We have been studying the documentation of aim and the strategy for IT development in different levels.

Detta examensarbete har gjorts på uppdrag av Compare Testlab på Sätterstrand, Hammarö. Målet med arbetet var att de?nera en uppsättning frågor och punkter som ska vara med i ett lättviktstest med inriktning på säkerhet. Efter mycket studier av böcker och webbsidor kom vi fram till att det inte var så lätt som vi trodde att de?nera ett allmänt säkerhetstest för mjukvaror eller applikationer.

In industrial control systems PID-control remains the prevalent strategy, also for processes that would benefit from model based control. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether model based control can be readily implemented in an industrial control system. To this end a simulated surge tank with a simulated industrial control system is studied. For evaluation two scenarios with specified objectives are selected.Following a review of LQR and versions of MPC, Predictive Functional Control (PFC) is considered the most suitable for implementation. PFC is a form of MPC developed with industrial applications in mind and therefore has several advantages for implementation in an industrial control system.

During the last few years the western world has seen an increasing interest in the topic of atheism, with bestselling books by writers like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. The critic of religions that these writers have brought to the table have not gone unmet, with writers like Dinesh D'Souza rushing to the defence of Chrisianity.Taking on the arguments of New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D'Souza in the current debate on the existece of God and the usefullness of religion, I here examine the claim by D'Souza that atheism, in fact, is responsible for the worst mass murders of history. In taking D'Souza's arguments and analyzing them on its own philosophical merits, with methods like the process of elimination and information evaluation (i.e source criticism), I will here show just exactly how persuasive these arguments prove to be. In the following pages we will not only discuss the role of atheism in 20th centuary totalitarianism, but also answer questions like ?Was Hitler an atheist or a theist??, ?Is atheism responsible for the worst crimes of history?? and ?Are people who believe in God in fact more moral the those who do not??.

Stabilization of subgrade is an internationally common technique to improve the characteristics of a soft soil. Improving the stiffness and bearing capacity of the subgrade enables the pavement to be designed with reduced depths of subbase and basecourse aggregates. This makes the stabilization technique both economically and environmentally interesting. Both natural and stabilized soils have high inherent property variability that should be considered when the characteristic value is derived. By analyzing the spatial variability in stabilized and natural subgrades it is possible get the parameters needed for reliability?based modeling of soil properties.

The purpose of this study is to learn about educationalists´ apprehensions and their experiences of working with action programmes within the compulsory school's earlier years. Two issues have been composed in order to meet this purpose. They are also the foundation of the interview questions, which are enclosed at the end of the essay.The purpose with the issues is to look into educationalists´ work with action programmes. Another purpose is to find out how they consider an action programme should be formulated in order to function as a support for students in need of special aid.From the study the result shows that the apprehensions of working with action programmes are separating from one teacher to another. The informants of the study indicate the importance differs inviting both pupils and parents to participate in the entire process.

The most common reason for a horse owner to seek veterinary care for their horse is related to the musculoskeletal system. Assessment of the horse's movement pattern is essential in the equine veterinary work. How uniformly veterinarians evaluate the lame horse may have both diagnostic and prognostic significance, such as follow up examination by the same or different veterinarian. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether there are between-veterinarian differences in assessing lameness in the same horse. In total 12 veterinarians evaluated 80 video sequences of 4 horses with induced lameness and made an evaluation of the affected limb as well as the degree of lameness.

Most often when developing a new system there is a need get a functioning testtool up and running. Including time, cost and resources the solution isn?t always obvious, developing your own or buy one ?of the shelf?. The purpose of this thesis is to study how a general testtool for executing functional tests should be designed to be reusable, be based on recognized knowledge and be able to fast and simple be customized for different types of systems. Key functions from the litterature is presented and used in the design of a testtool prototype.

The purpose of this study was to compare less experienced veterinarians? subjective assessments of lameness in horses on the lunge. Previous studies on subjective lameness evaluation have mainly focused on horses trotting in a straight line and the results have shown generally low compliance. With a web-based questionnaire, 43 veterinarians assessed 60 recordings that showed both fore- and hindlimb lameness, interspersed with sound horses that were trotting on the lunge in one direction. The horses showed mild to moderate lameness.

This Batchelor?s Thesis concerns 20 points at the MDA-program (People, Computers and Work) at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Ronneby, Sweden. 10 points concerns Computer Science and 10 points Human Work Science. The thesis is about the process of starting a new department of Blekingesjukhuset [Blekinge Hospital] in Karlshamn, Blekinge called Sjukvårdsrådgivningen [Health Care Advice Bureau]. The thesis starts with a description of the ethnographical methods used, followed by the process of establishing the department. In this new department, the nurses are using a computer based system called Teleråd, developed by TietoEnator. The thesis takes up the issues of how the department uses this system today and concerns what ?user-friendliness? is.

The project deals with the evaluation and testing of speaker and microphone elements as well as microphone cavity.The first part of the report comprises a comprehensive theoretical part about drivers, microphone elements, and to some extent microphone cavity.The goal was to , on the behalf of the company Limes Audio AB, develop proposals on microphone element and cavity as well as drivers for a speakerphone application, based on specific factors. The main factors were performance, price and form factor.The aim was to create the best possible conditions for Limes Audio's software developers to implement the company's audio-enhancing software, mainly adaptive echo cancellation.The testing was carried out using Adobe Audition and MatLab. The test methods were developed in conjunction with Limes Audio and are described below.The project will result in suggestions for a speaker, a microphone and a cavity. The cavity were removed from the product because the results indicated that the cavity matter little for the end result.The report concludes with a discussion on how the measurements could have been enhanced to simplify the interpretation of the results and making the testing more efficient..