With the advance in computer and network technologies, multimedia systems and Internet applications are becoming more popular. As broadband network is prevailing, more clients are able to watch streaming videos or to play multimedia data over the Internet in real-time. Consequently, there is an increasing demand in the Internet for streaming video systems. As the run-time environment of such applications tends to be dynamic, it is imperative to handle transient overloads effectively. The goal of this work is to develop an algorithm that would provide a robust and controlled behavior of the video system so that important data is delivered on time to the video clients.

Background: Children are different and they live under different conditions, but one they have in common - the desire to play. Children's play is important for their health and wellbeing. The aim: was to highlight the knowledge and issues that preschool children's parents have about young children's health and wellbeing, with a focus on physical activity and play, to promote health. A further aim was to highlight the obstacles and opportunities that parents experience regarding physical activity for young children. Material and Methods: The main study two focus group interviews were used with eight parents of children of preschool age.

The purpose of this study is to investigate in what extension students experience that computer and videogames affect them. I have chosen to focus on the physical, mental and social affect that this activity might bring them. I have also examined how much time the students spends in front of the computer or the videogame and in which social context they play.The method I have chosen to use is a quantitative opinion poll which I used in three classes of the later junior high and I have also conducted five qualitative interviews.The conclusions I have drawn from this investigation are that computer and videogames affects teenagers both physically and mentally. Physically the affects of playing videogames mostly can be derived to the physical inactivity they expose themselves to. The students themselves did not experienced any positive physical affects from their playing.Amongst the mental affects that stood out the most I recognized the social training that online gaming provided and also the intellectual stimulation that certain games offered the player.

The drama of Kristina Lugn?s Kvinnorna vid Svansjön (The women by the Swan Lake) takes place in the dialogue and language; the same ambiguous language that is found in Lugn?s poetry. In this essay I examine how meaning and dramatic tension is created in the dialogue of Kvinnorna vid Svansjön.I describe the play, using concepts from various drama theories. However, the most important concepts of classical drama theory such as "story" and "plot" are not really applicable. This is because of the contradictory information given in the dialogue.

According to international and national literacy studies (PISA, PIRLS) Swedish boys are inferior to Swedish girls when it comes to reading. There can be numerous reasons to that statement. One is that Swedish teachers require more knowledge about communication as an important component in literacy. In spite of this shortcoming, Swedish girls manage to gain sufficient literacy. Why is that? The aim of this survey was to examine if there were any differences between girls and boys regarding communication skills when they begin in school.The main questions taken in account were:Which differences and/or similarities in communication skills are discernible between boys and girls this particular preschool?How do boys and girls communicate with each other in different room contexts on this particular preschool?           To be able to answer the questions, I adopted observations and audio recordings from children aged five.

The purpose of this study is to examine how employees in an organization using flexible work practices, experience that passive face time influences the evaluated of them. Further, the study aims to understand to what extent that perception of passive face time motivates the employees to spend more time at the office than is necessary for their work situations. The study concludes that employees in general perceive that passive face time does influence how they are evaluated and that this perception motivates employees that are relatively newly employed by the company to spend more time at office..

For an outdoor environment to function optimally as a playarea requires that it is flexible, that is, contains places and elements that give room for the imagination and for own interpetretations, and also that the children in some way can influence and change their surroundings. It is also important to have variety, both in the sense that the playground has a unique character that distinguishes it from other places, and that it allows many different games and activities. There should for example be room for both wild games of running and moving around where many children can participate, and calm corners to withdraw to for rest or quiet play. A good playground should surprise, challenge and encourage children to discover their surroundings. One way to achive this is to use plants and materials from nature, whose irregular forms and structures can become interesting elements to explore. Vegetation also gives sence-experiences of various kinds, materials like twigs and leafs to play with and a place to play house.

In a time of increasing urbanization the human tenure effects on the land has lead to a decrease and fragmentation of areas that are valuable to urban wildlife. These actions have had a detrimental effect on the species and habitats that exist in cities and towns.This paper investigates, through the study of relevant literature and the undertaking of interviews and field visits, the role that biodiversity plays in our society. The current attitude towards urban biodiversity and the responsibility for its promotion within the landscape architect profession has been explored.This paper includes three English case studies and a design proposal investigating how one can work to promote biodiversity on a smaller scale.This paper concludes that urban biodiversity is multi-functional ? being of ecological, social and cultural significance. The landscape architecture profession must be aware of the need to combine a variety of different factors such as economical, social and environmental aspects.

This thesis examines why working time preferences differ between workers and nations, and explains the effect of working time regulation and working time flexibility on negotiating work-life balance. In five separate sections the following working time issues are examined: the number of hours worked by workers in Europe; factors affecting individual working time preferences; how working time preferences are negotiated in the national industrial relations systems of Sweden, France and the United Kingdom; how the institutions of the European Union have influenced working time negotiations through the Working Time Directive; and the benefits and practices available to organisations implementing working time flexibility. Broadly this paper views working time preferences as being a highly personal and influenced by factors such as wages, taxation, culture (national and workplace) and non-work responsibilities. It is argued that negotiating a preferred working time pattern is essential to achieving work-life balance and when such a balance is achieved, workers are more healthy, motivated and committed to their employer. Essentially this provides an incentive for businesses to voluntarily implement working time flexibility beyond the regulatory standards..

According to international and national literacy studies (PISA, PIRLS) Swedish boys are inferior to Swedish girls when it comes to reading. There can be numerous reasons to that statement. One is that Swedish teachers require more knowledge about communication as an important component in literacy. In spite of this shortcoming, Swedish girls manage to gain sufficient literacy. Why is that? The aim of this survey was to examine if there were any differences between girls and boys regarding communication skills when they begin in school.The main questions taken in account were:Which differences and/or similarities in communication skills are discernible between boys and girls this particular preschool?How do boys and girls communicate with each other in different room contexts on this particular preschool?           To be able to answer the questions, I adopted observations and audio recordings from children aged five.

Drawing on earlier research, and using observations as the method, this study presents a design of a nature playscape for children. Applying outdoor pedagogy to the fundamental structure of a specific location, the study proposes a design of a playscape, over a more obvious design, for instance one based around a quiz walk.The theoretical framework is Gibson?s theory of affordance, and the goal has been to create a "play flow". The study concludes that spatial rhetorics can be an important tool when teaching children about nature..

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are constantly evolving in today's information society. The school uses ICT as a teaching tool and it begins to be included at the leisure-time in school by the educators.Aim of this study is to examine how educators describe their perceptions and experiences of using ICT in the leisure activities. The questions is about how the educators use ICT, what they believe children learn of ICT, and which advantages and disadvantages they see with ICT at leisure-time in school.Through a qualitative approach, I have had my questions answered by six trained educators, five of whom are recreational educators and one who is a preschool teacher. These have individually answered my interview questions as an interview took place over a phone call, while the others answered the same questions by e-mail. The interview questions were open-ended questions that were formulated so the educators could respond so freely and fulfilling as possible.The survey shows that teachers use ICT in multimodal approach at leisure-time in school, both in informing parents and in activities with the children.

Music today is a big part of a person's everyday life and can influence emotions as wellas initiative and motivation. This effect together with development in technology hasled to that music today is accessible and can be played from a large amount of differentkinds of products. This in turn has meant that the demand for smaller audio playbackdevices is greater than ever.The goal of this project is to develop a concept for energy-efficient speakers withwireless communication that has the ability to obtain and play high quality music. Thespeakers will use the latest available technology and at the same time, using digitalsignal processing, have a low environmental impact through high energy efficiencyand low power consumption. Parallel to this work a pilot study will be conducted tosee trends in listener preference of sound.The result achieves the goals pledged while power consumption in sleep mode is solow that they meet the demands of tomorrow.

Counter-Strike has established itself as one of the most popular computer gaming phenomenon the last decade with a major online community and loyal fan base. Within the world of e-sports it has also become one of the most lucrative games to compete in. In order to keep up with the competition it has always been important to use the best hardware available for the task. This thesis is about these tools that gamers use to play - gaming gear - and how pro gamers train to increase their chances of winning. We investigate various factors that might be important in their choice of gaming gear when they play, and how they train to use these artifacts more efficiently to get maximum performance.

The main reason for the study was to find out how much naturscience is used in the daily situation in the preschool/school environment with the younger kids. I have studied the teacher`s educations background, if this had any role in the teaching of naturscience. To get my answers I interviewed ten teachers with different teaching background.The result showed that science was present both in the preschool and school for the early years. Everything from teamwork to outdoor play and small experiments. To play out in the woods is most important part teaching in naturscience.My study showed that a teacher`s educations background had no part in the teaching of everyday life in the nature.Keyword: experiment, primary, school, science..