Background: In Sweden it is a legal right for patients to have the possibility to participate in their own care. Several studies highlight the importance of a good relationship, good communication and good cooperation in order to increase a sense of security and thus the possibility of participation. One way to increase patients' ability to influence and participate can be to adapt person-centered care. This moves the focus from the patient's illness to the patient and his/her resources. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe patients' experiences of the possibility to actively participate in decisions regarding its care and treatment at surgical wards.

This master thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective. A qualitative research study was conducted to investigate children's attitudes towards reading, texts and libraries.The theoretical background is constituted by ideas from the new sociology of childhood, literacy-studies and reader-response theory.The study was conducted with 23 children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participating in focus groups.The results of the study reveal that children's literacy-activities in school are strongly influenced and limited by adults. Children's interest in pictures and non-fiction-reading do not correspond to the school institution that favors traditional media and fiction. The study also reveals a gender division between children's literacy-activities that tends to grow with age. All the children in the study regard libraries as book-houses and wished for libraries that combine activity and serenity.The thesis shows the importance of being aware of, and engage in, children's reading-interests and reading-practices if the reading stimulating activities in schools and libraries are to be successful.

The structure of the Swedish public library field has been evolving during the last decades. The traditional mission of educating the citizens to become responsible, democratic and knowledgeable members of society has in a way led to the integration between public and school libraries. Lately new co-operational models have been under debate and a sense of resistance has arisen because of the economical and market influences. In parallel with closure of library branches new libraries have evolved in malls and wash houses and some with self-service with no use of librarians. This work shows how co-operation in rural areas finds the common goals for the people living there who are concerned about keeping the service needed including the public library and thus using existing means and crossing borders of commercial thinking.

This thesis intends to examine the role of the city, Dublin, in the Irish economic growth during the 1990s. It is a case study where Dublin is compared with current theories on post modern cities as growth machines and increasingly prominent actors in the global context. The study has an interdisciplinary approach but focuses on political science issues such as power distribution, global-local governance and local political organisation. It is a theory driven study that also intends to add aspects to the understanding of the cities of our time. I argue that Dublin has faced a lot of changes during the last decades in accordance with the post modern city.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att kritiskt granska leksaksreklam riktad till barn. Genom att använda oss av reklamklipp från det sociala mediet YouTube vill vi undersöka hur manligt respektive kvinnligt samt heteronormativitet konstrueras i dessa. För att finna mönster som vi kan koppla till vårt syfte tittar vi ur ett genusperspektiv genom textanalys närmare på reklamklippen.Genom vår analys fann vi att leksaksreklam riktad till barn är påtaglig könsstereotyp och skapar förväntningar på barn hur de ska se ut samt vilka egenskaper de förväntas inneha. Vi fann också att reklamklippen reproducerar heterosexualiteten som den hegemoniska sexualiteten. Detta gör att heteronormativiteten blir stark i reklamklipen då samtliga reklamklipp riktade till flickor vi tittat på är byggda på en parrelation mellan en man och en kvinna.Nyckelord: Genus, heteronormativitet, maskulinitet, könsroller, leksaker, den inre och yttre sfären, arbetsdelningen, passiv och aktiv, rosa..

In this report listed buildings, according to the Swedish Heritage Conservation Act, have been studied with a focus on cases where economical compensation has been given to the owner of the building and cases where the listing of the building has been appealed by the owner. In order for a building to become listed it needs to be particularly valuable from a cultural and historical standpoint. The listed buildings are protected through a list of regulations that determines which parts of the building can or cannot be changed, what methods and materials should be used for changes and repairs, and how the building should be maintained. These regulations should as far as possible be formulated in agreement with the owner, but a building can become listed against the owners will. To decrease the damage this causes the owner he can in some cases have the right to economical compensation. There is also a possibility for the owner to appeal the listing of the building.

With an increased empowerment of the users, and a dependence on outside critics, one wonders what kind of role the librarians have in a context where qualitative literature is discussed. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between librarians private and professional views on qualitative fiction, in order to be able to discuss their role as quality intermediaries in a user oriented context.The method used, is the qualitative, semistructured interview. This author interviewed seven librarians from three different libraries in Sweden. The theoretical emphasis partly relies on the ten words of qualitative value that Inger Elam and Bengt Brülde discusses in their respective texts, partly on David Garvins quality assessment theory, which defines several quality categories divided between an absolute and a relative quality view.Through the comparison between the private and the professional quality view, examined with the two theoretical approaches, the analysis of the interview material shows that there lies a complexity in the librarians professional role. On the one hand, they are dependent of both the users and the critics judgements about the qualitative aspect in the work with purchasing new literature to the library.

In today's society, the availability of energy plays an integral part in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, the price of energy in Sweden has increased in recent decades. A large part of our energy consumption goes to heating modules for houses, where heating methods that depend on energy sources such as electricity, district heating, fuel oil, gas and biofuels are the most common ones. During the winter period, the increase in energy costs becomes significantly evident, especially for small property owners. This increase in energy cost is most noticeable for home owners with electric heating.This thesis is written at the Halmstad University, in cooperation with a company, which makes parts of this thesis confidential.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate different types of measures for making buildings more energy efficient and to estimate their profitability. The calculations were performed with the building simulation program VIP+ and the evaluation of the profitability with the life cycle cost method. Furthermore, it was examined how losses in the distribution of secondary systems of district heating can be avoided. Options to replace district heating with a local district heating system based on bio-energy have been investigated. The possibilities of achieving more efficient thermal energy consumption and production for the chosen estate were also examined.The object of the study has been a residential estate with 133 detached houses in Uppsala, built in 1974.

This master thesis was made to describe how sales organisations are constructed in Sweden within an industry with almost every sales situation as a new task selling, and where almost every selling is over one million Skr. One of these industries is the homebuilding industry with companies that manufacturers prefabricated houses and semi-fixed manufactured homes in Sweden. The pre-studies where made by using the Internet, intervjues and theory studies to construct a conceptual framework. The sales organisation was conceptualized to be able to measure: salesman, sales leader, improved skills, communication, reported information, compensation and company targets. This conceptualisation and operationalisation lead to a survey that captured organisations within the homebuilding industry in Sweden.

The aim with this thesis is to highlight components regarding small children?s reading environment in preschool and see how these affect their meeting with literature. The study is based on J. A. Appleyard?s theory on man?s development as a reader.

Textbooks are a very influential medium considering the fact that they often introduce students to information they have never read or heard about before, and as such they become very important in forming students? opinions on different matters. In this study I have taken a closer look at five textbooks in history that are currently being used in the Swedish upper secondary school. My aim has been to find out how East Asia is pictured and also how much space East Asian history is given in these textbooks with the postcolonial theory as theoretical basis. My study shows that East Asia is given very little space compared to Europe in these books, with an average of less than a twentieth of the number of pages that deal with European history.

The background to this final thesis is that our mandator, A-hus, was interested to examine which roof system that would be most appropriate to their types of houses. To investigate this, we first conducted an evaluation of the most commonly used roof systems in Sweden today: decking, board, roof cloth and prefabricated roof cassettes.To gather information about the different systems we have conducted interviews with several professionals within the construction industry, done an extensive literature study, and gathered information from the Internet.Based on the evaluation of roof systems and the literature, we analyzed advantages and disadvantages of the roof systems from three main perspectives: system characteristics, economics and other characteristics. We found these perspectives to be the most relevant when selecting a roof system.The main perspectives comprise three categories which are graded. These grades are then added together for a score for each main perspective and a total score for the three main perspectives. Then we compared the systems and, based on the scores, suggested one roof system as the most suitable for A-hus.Our result suggests that the prefabricated roof cassettes probably is the best solution for A-hus, but only if it is possible to standardize the cassettes and still maintain the flexibility to match A-hus? house types.

The purpose of the study is to see how four teachers at a school look at the reception and approaching of newly arrived pupils.How do the interviewed teachers describe the school´s reception of newly arrived pupils? How do teachers in preparatory and regular class see at the selected school's reception and treatment of newly arrived pupils?To get answers to my purpose, I have done an ethnographic study called field study and I am using qualitative interviews, and one passive observation. To arrive at a result of my study, I have processed collected data from interviews and observations and coupled the collected material to the theories and previous research. I have in my study used both pedagogical and sociological theories.The results of my study show that it would be difficult for newly arrived students to be placed directly into the ordinary class, the results also show that newly arrived students receive a safe and stimulating start to their school and class preparation. However, there are shortcomings and resistance of the trajectories leading to entry of the preparatory class of ordinary class, but when newly arrived students have started in an ordinary class, students receive a stimulating teaching.

The design of the building envelope affects the energy consumption of a building. As the energy requirements for new buildings are becoming more demanding, the performance of the building envelope must be improved. Energy efficiency and durability are important attributes to consider.This report includes investigations of the building envelope, moisture and passive solar energy. It is based on the analysis of two different buildings with different designs. These buildings stand as reference for two of the companies who are working on a new, climate smart, residential area in Uppsala, Sweden.Studies and analyses on energy consumption and moisture transportation were made.