In this study I analysed how burning affects sprouting ability and survival of oak (Quercus robur) during the first season after a burn in southern Sweden. The study consisted of two separate field tests; in the first, two 300 m2- plots in western oak dominated forest were burned to analyze the fire behavior and the immediate mortality of oak and beech seedlings defined as individuals (> 20cm of height). At the end of the season almost 50% of the oak seedlings had resprouted while the beech seedlings had 100% mortality. An attempt to investigate the effect of the burn of artificially sown acorns was totally ruined by wild boar grouting before any conclusive results could be seen. In the second test the resprouting ability of oaks of varying diameters (average BHD 7-9 cm, range 2-42 cm) was examined one season after a prescribed burn in southeastern Sweden.

This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.

AbstractThis essay concerns a qualitative case study seeking to understand six boys? reading habits and to investigate why it is that some boys who do not like reading nevertheless display good reading comprehension according to the results achieved for that skill in national tests. The study shows that the boys? perception of reading has a lot to do with the contact they have with books when they are small. Whether or not there are adult role models in the home and whether the early encounter with texts in school is a positive or negative experience is significant for the boys? later attitude to reading.

The study is made on behalf of SCA Skog Jämtlands förvaltning which is one of five administration units that SCA Skog consists of. The purpose of the study is to investigate which reduced expenses there are according to spatial concentration of cutting areas. By increasing the spatial concentration of cutting areas it will reduce the need of movements by trailer, also reduce the number of roads that you use during the activities. To be able to perform the study, access to a annual cuttings in nine years have been made available. From this volume new annual cuttings has been created but more concentrated. The two different results have been compared and the results show that concentration of cutting areas generates reduced need for trailer transports and less km road that has to be maintained. But then, if it´s practical viable can be discussed.

My aim is to find out about teachers? perceptions of methods concerning learning and assessment of oral proficiencies. My questions are: What perceptions are there among teachers concerning assessment of oral proficiencies? How do teachers describe their ways of promoting and assessing oral proficiency? In order to answer my questions and obtain data I have accomplished two focus groups interviews with seven language teachers. The result shows that teachers are concerned with several factors regarding assessment of oral proficiency.

The purpose has been to investigate leisure-time centers actual work on children with attention deficit disorder. In addition, the study strives to make leisure-time centers way of working, in relation to their assignments, visible. The study has also compared how the leisure-time centers work and what the research says. The survey was conducted with the help of three exploratory interviews with pedagogues and three-piece observations at the leisure-time centers. It was carried out at three different schools in two counties in Sweden.The results of the survey show that the schools are trying to create clear procedures, though the centers succeed with this in varied degrees.

The goal with this master thesis has been to evaluate and to examine the stationary resistance bridge. The resistance bridge uses a 4-point measuring to determinate the resistance, which is used in the manufacturing of the conductor. It is then used when the resistance is to be decided for coarser aluminium conductors. A conductor has to fulfil certain demands to be able to move forward in the process. One of these demands is the resistance in ohm/km, which has demands that the measure values of the resistance bridge are as true and precise as possible.

The purpose of this essay has been to study if the social services adjust the choice of institution to every juvenile's need of care. If the choice of institution isn't adjusted to the juveniles the institutional placement can become a way to store them rather then treat them.To accomplish the purpose of the essay we have interviewed ten social workers with different worktitles and positions. We have delimited the study to three swedish communities with varying sizes. We have analyzed the material with Bourdieus theory of "field" and "doxa" and Antonovskys theory "a sense of coherence" (SOC).We came to the conclusion that the social service adjusted the choice of institution to the juveniles needs as much as possible. Although there are a couple of factors that some times makes the best choices impossible.

This report is a degree paper made for the Engineering program in Technical Chemistry at the School of Engineering, Jönköping University.The intention of the project which is described, is to answer whether HV71 might become environmentally certified according to the criteria of "miljödiplomering". The project also included an investigation of which further steps and measures must be undertaken by the enterprise in order to achieve the certificate. The final part was to implement the necessary requirements for the certification.The report starts with a short background where the origin and function of environmental management is briefly explained.The report continues with how the practical work with the environmental certification was done according to requirements of Jönköping municipality. Motivations behind each part of the process are given as well as explanations of how each part of the process was carried out.The final result of the project was that HV71 took the measures needed to live up to the required demands. After a revision made by Miljöstrategen i Jönköping AB, HV71 passed the demands and became thereby an environmentally certified business..

The purpose of the study is to investigate how board structure influences CEO compensation for companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2004. The theoretical frame of reference is based upon the corporate governance theory, the principal-agent theory and previous empirical research in the area. A cross sectional regression analysis is used, where a number of control variables are included and significance tests are conducted. The study is based on information regarding CEO compensation, and possible factors affecting the compensation, from 267 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange A- and O-list in the year 2004. We find that the board structure has no significant effect on the CEO compensation.

The purpose of this essay has been to investigate the research and national initiatives regarding film and Cineliteracy in the Swedish curriculum.The results show that, after all research, national initiatives and the continual clarification from the Swedish National Agency for Education concerning film's place in the Swedish subject, the vision of students cineliteracy not at all obtain an obvious place in the curriculum.The research points out the main causes behind this result to be teachers' lack of expertise and the fact that the formal education for future teachers in the subject still upholds traditional views on the subject of Swedish.The initiative presented in this essay also show lack of continuity, lack of adequate professional development opportunities for teachers and lack of practical guidance manuals to help teachers to develop and educate their pupils in line with current research and visions. .

This report contains a programming improvement work in a LabVIEW? fire testing furnace control system for SP Fire Technology in Borås. Here materials and products behaviour are tested and evaluated, being exposed to fire. For this task, UGNET is being used for control and surveillance of the testing furnace system. System hardware has been updated gradually through the years, while the software has been neglected.

The task in this thesis is the steering of one of Saab Bofors Dynamics robots using Sliding Mode Control, a method they never used before. The robot constitutes a system which in addition to perturbations and uncertainties due to modeling imprecision, hold the difficulty of being highly time variant. In order to be able to keep required performance with uncertainties and modeling imprecision present, the use of robust control methods like Sliding Mode Control is necessary. SMC is based on the states of the system being forced to stay on or in the direct vicinity of a hyper plane in the state space which is chosen in a way that gives the system dynamics desired properties. Other advantages with sliding mode are reduced order dynamics on the switching surface and total insensitivity to some uncertainties and perturbations.

Blood-borne infectious diseases such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) spread when the addicts share needles and injecting equipmentwithin contact networks. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in Winnipeg,Canada in December 2003 - September 2004. Through a special questionnaire, respondentswere asked to answer questions about themselves and about their contacts, about relationshipsand how they shared syringes and other injection supplies. Blood tests were used to identifywhether they carried any blood-borne infectious diseases. We selected some variables from theoriginal data set.

The intention of this final thesis is to examine how to create a schoolyard that inspires children at the age of 6 ? 12 years to play and give them possibility to develop. To get a lot of knowledge in this subject, I have combined studies of literature with practical studies at Hosjöskolan in Falun. During my practical studies I have done interviews, walks in the area with the children and visited other schoolyards. I have based a design proposal for the schoolyard of Hosjöskolan on these studies.