The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine seven public librarians? attitudes towards manga as a new kind of literature in public libraries. Manga is an art form, originally from Japan, but in recent years manga has become very popular in the Western societies. The main issue of this thesis is how the librarians? look at manga and what they think about manga.

In this master thesis I investigate different views on literary quality in two quite different library journals; Biblioteksbladet and Bibliotek i Samhälle. One aim of the study is to see whether the ambiguity of the term literary quality is considered. Since there is no universally accepted definition of literary quality to be found the analysis is inspired by discourse analysis. This theoretical frame work starts off in the assumption that our views of the world are much dependent the way we describe it. The work of Finnish scholar Sanna Talja is presented and the results of this thesis are compared with the three perspectives on music culture that are presented in her book.

As the volumes are entering the world of computer graphics the pure volume visualisation becomes a more important tool in for example research and medical applications. But the advance in haptics --- force feedback from the computer --- is behind. In volume haptics no equal to the proxy method so popular in surface haptics has yet emerged. Some implementations of volume haptics even use surfaces as intermediate representations so that surface haptics can be used.The intention of this work was to create natural feeling haptic feedback from volumetric density data using pure volume haptics. The haptic algorithm would be implemented in Reachin API for the Reachin Desktop Display, together with other parts to build up a usable volume visualisation environment.To achieve the feeling of stiffness and friction dependent on tissue type, a proxy based method was developed.

Studiens syfte är att se ifall det är möjligt att under en kortare tid bli en bättre a-vistaläsare. För att underso?ka detta har jag under en åttaveckorsperiod övat a-vista 15 minuter per dag, med hjälp av en bok just för a-vistaläsning. Ett urval av dessa övningstillfällen har jag videofilmat. Jag har också använt mig av loggbok för att dokumentera mina upplevelser av min egen process.

This study is about how eurhythmic teachers create a comfortable and educational environment in their classrooms. In other words how they create a healthy working environment. Four teachers were chosen for the study, one of them male. I?ve used qualitative interviews because I believe it's the best method to collect information that illustrates what a teacher's working situation looks like and what he/she does to realize their own ideas.

The establishment of loan-based structures within a group of associated enterprises with the purpose of lowering the group's taxes by using deductible interest payments to transfer money has become increasingly popular in Sweden during the past few years. The legislator has therefore implemented new laws which restrict the amount of interest payments that are deductible within a group of associated enterprises. As a consequence the definition of associated enterprises has become of high importance. The definition has been criticized and is perceived by many as vague and difficult to interpret. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the definition of associated enterprises in Swedish tax law with the aim of clarifying its scope and meaning.

AbstractThe aim of this examination paper is to get an overview on the ?no-maintenance? windowsthat exist on the Swedish market, like plastic and aluminium windows.By way of introduction the reader gets knowledge in the background and problemformulatethat this subject has. This introduction explains why it has become so popular to changeyour windows into plastic- and aluminium windows and there is an existing scepticismagainst PVC and aluminium as construction material for windows.The main part of this report is constructed by segments of interviews where bothproducers of windows and stakeholders gets to answer questions about their viewing onno-maintenance windows from a material and construction point of view and where theproduction is headed to in the future. This is followed by an evaluation of a questionnaireon how pleased the house owners that changed their old windows to no-maintenancewindows are, followed by an inspection of windows made up from wood and an aluminiumclothing, windows made from only aluminium and PVC-based windows. It ends with atheory part about the materials PVC and metal based upon facts included in literature.By reading this report you can draw the conclusion that no window can be entirely nonmaintenancebut that the materials PVC and aluminium still are good substitutes for woodto lessen the maintenance..

This study focuses on the booking agencies in Sweden and their point of view on the reality with a focal point from the mass media perspective, which says that they have become rather wealthy because of the changes within the music business. The mass media describes the booking agencies situation as golden because of the economical and technological changes that more or less have paralysed the record industry. The study is performed with a qualitative approach and is based on interviews with relevant individuals from eight different Swedish booking agencies. These individuals have been chosen to match as many different segments in the booking agency business as possible. On account of the qualitative approach it is difficult to generalize the conclusion of the study.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how Ranma ½, one of the most popular Japanese Manga series, reflects the gender system in society. We have chosen to make use of two different gender theorists to determine if Ranma ½ follows the gender norms of society or not. The theoretical framework is based primarily on Yvonne Hirdman's theory of the two basic principles: the principle of dichotomy and the principle of hierarchy. Judith Butler's theory of performative gender is used as a complement.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the importance of virtual communities for independent record companies. It also aims to examine how these companies use virtual communities in their marketing activities and how to gain competitive advantages by working with virtual communities. A case study based on interviews was conducted with managers from two independent record companies, Music Is My Girlfriend Recordings and B&B Records. Our study has shown that virtual communities are important for independent record companies as tools for finding and addressing the right target market. Useful information about the members of these communities can easily be gathered with the use of the various search options that are available.

On the behalf of the European commission suggestions were made on how to increase the usage of public transportation in cities in Europe. A suggestion on how to make public transportation more popular was to use more emotions when marketing public transportation. However, according to theory emotional marketing is best suited for products that have a more hedonic character which public transportation does not usually have. The aim of this report was to investigate if emotional marketing could have a more positive effect on the attitude toward public transportation than less emotional marketing. Ads for the metro in Stockholm were made and it was tested to what degree they conveyed positive emotions.

In my study I have participated at the Fifth Dimension / Active Worlds site in Villa Gymnastiken in Ronneby, where I have worked both as an assistant to the project leader and as a researcher, but also as a participant together with the children. The children are working in a virtual world called Femtedim, created in a internet-based program named Active Worlds Education Universe. The Femtedim-world are bridging together two physical worlds in Ronneby and Copenhagen. My main focus is on an intervention that occurred in the 12th of March when the research-team in Copenhagen, which runs the project in Denmark, decided to create a new challenge for the children since some of them started to get bored. They added gravitation to the Femtedim-world, which lead to a few different reactions among the children. Most of the children didn´t like it and were very hostile towards the idea that they would not be able to fly around freely in the Femtedim-world.

The main purpose of this essay is to study ideas concerning the concept of ?art? within the discourse of the exhibition space that is part of a fanart community. In order to do so I have used a hermeneutical and to some extent structuralistic, discourse analysis. I have examined structure and rhetorics in two established and popular communities, Fanart-Central and deviantART.My conclusions states that personal ideas regarding artistic value are undermined the joint policies, because of a collective rhetoric somewhat inherent in the community structure.When a lot of works are being based on internal knowledge of symbolics and historical narratives, this may to some extent have consequences where unfamiliar observers might fail to notice elements of possible significance. Moreover, certain interests in keeping a united front of ?quality art? may also affect a general idea immediate to what signifies fanart.

In recent years, the internet has exploded of images. Not at least in the popular photo-sharing network Instagram as one of the fastest growing social network for the moment. Millions of people around the world share pictures and expose themself for friends and family. We were therefore interested in which experiences and attitudes users have towards their identities in relation to their self-image and self-presentation on Instagram. Furthermore, whether they in general have a primary interest in using Instagram as a tool to experiment with images to present their identity on Instagram, in which way they approach their Instagram follower?s expectations on how they present themselves on Instagram and if they are aware of any strategies in their self-presentation on Instagram.The result of this study is the fact that our respondents thinks that they do not intend to have a primary interest in experimenting with images on Instagram to present their identitiy, it is rather something that comes naturally in how they present themselves on Instagram.

Erfarenhet från min musikundervisning främst inom grundskolan har motiverat en undersökning av eventuellt samband mellan elevernas erhållna betyg i ämnet musik och gruppstorlek. Undersökningen begränsades till att omfatta elevernas betyg i ämnet musik åk 9, gruppstorlek samt om flickors och pojkars resultat skilde sig.Av undersökningens resultat gick det inte att bekräfta något samband. Skillnaden mellan undersökningens resultat och skolverkets medelbetyg skilde sig på det viset att skolverkets betyg var något högre i snitt. Fler aspekter hade behövts undersökas för att påvisa ett eventuellt samband mellan de deltagande elevernas kunskaper och deras erhållna betyg..