In recent years there has been a growing interest directed towards focusing on the importance of clear evidence for interventions in social work. To enable the measurement it?s necessary to develop concrete models with manuals on how social work should be designed. Evaluation of the benefits is made in relation to how well the method can detect evidence of clear measurable results. When measuring the result it?s of importance to emphasis on pre and post the situation, not the situation where social work takes place.

The aim of the study is to investigate how pedagogues working with gesticulation and facial expressions to communicate with children aged 3-5 years. The methods used are observations as well as interviews of educators. My empricial evidence was collected on two different preschools in Värmland County. The pedagogues are dealing with body language in a conscious way by collections as they sing and they reinforce feelings of characters support. In my conclusion I have come come to the conclusion that there is no difference on how male and female educators use gesticulation and facial expressions without its personality traits and body language often are unconsciously in conversations with children..

By using univariate analysis, tobit and logit regressions, this thesis investigates determinants of asset writedowns. After controlling for variables indicating reductions in asset values, the results show that changes in senior management are significant in explaining the writedown decision and magnitude, which is in line with previous research. The explanatory power of changes in senior management has not increased with the transition to IFRS in 2005. No evidence is found supporting the hypothesis that the explanatory power of management incentives is higher for more discretionary types of asset writedowns..

How can we use modern X-ray technology to raise awareness of the information that is hidden in historic upholstery? The materials and techniques add information to the history object in question and  about a profession that is sparsely documented in our country. The knowledge we have today has largely been obtained by studying damaged upholstery, or by removing the show cover and upholstery, a technique which involves high risk of damaging the upholstery. X-ray technology offers  a non- intrusive way to examine historical upholstery.Through case studies, I examined four artefacts. The artefacts went trough an inititial visual exam before being transported to The National Heritage Board in Visby where they underwent a thorough X-ray exam.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine the use of the concept cultural heritage in Swedish governmental cultural policy. Ten official reports, reaching over a time period of seven years (1997-2004) are examined in the following way: What is cultural heritage? What functions/ values does the cultural heritage have? Whose heritage is a cultural heritage? With some simplification you can say that there are two different views on cultural heritage in the documents. The most common way to refer to cultural heritage is a category of chosen historical objects whose preservation is motivated by their function as sources of information and knowledge about the history and development of the Swedish society.

The aim of this essay is to study the religious education which the Jewish Community of Göteborg offers to members between six and fourteen years of age. The main question of the essay is ?what function does the religious afternoon education serve for the Jewish Community of Göteborg??To answer this question I have interviewed four people who in various ways are engaged in the religious education. To analyse the result I have used Danièle Herviue-Léger?s theory ?religion as a chain of memory?.

Standing outside the EU and the EES, Switzerland is a unique state characterized by federalism, direct democracy and neutrality. Though always focused on preserving these features and its sovereignty, Switzerland has managed to gain access to some sectors of the single market through bilateral agreements with the EU. The purpose of this thesis is to examine what level of integration Switzerland has reached in those bilaterally regulated sectors of the single market. As integration cannot easily be assessed, the extent of the Swiss adoption of the acquis is seen as an indicator of the level of integration and is thus examined. The conclusion is that Switzerland, mostly due to the economic interest of common rules, but partly due to pressure from the EU, almost completely adopts the acquis in the bilaterally regulated sectors, including the interpretation of the ECJ.

The number of people that are categorized as being homeless in the Swedish society are increasing. This might be an indication that the methods being used today shows not to be working efficient enough. A group of researchers connected to the University of Lund are now in a process to spread new workingmethods against the problems with homelessness in Sweden. Their goal is to completely erase homelessness as a social problem. This new method of working is distinctively different from the one currently beeing used.

Research suggests that society's vulnerability to natural disasters along coasts could increase as a result of climate change, which is likely to lead to elevated sea levels and possibly an increase in the occurance of meteorological phenomena such as storms and tropical cyclones. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, both of which received considerable media attention, empirical data has indicated that coastal vegetation might be able to protect and reduce damages to coastal communities during tsunami events and tropical cyclones.The aim of the essay has been to study the function of coastal ecosystems as protection against tsunami waves and storms from a risk management perspective, meaning that I have, through an overview of scientific articles, compiled current research on how coastal ecosystems can attenuate storm surges and tsunami waves, and analysed how this knowledge can be put into practice in coastal communities from a risk management perspective, i.e. if coastal ecosystems are a viable risk reduction measure, are practically applicable, and if so, how they could be applied.There is empirical evidence suggesting that coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves, can reduce the strength of a tsunami wave, but full scientific consensus on this issue has not yet been reached. With regard to protection against storm surges, there is extensive scientific evidence that coastal vegetation can mitigate damages and reduce the height of a storm surge, although the wave has to traverse several kilometres inland through thick vegetation for the protection to be effective. A synthesis in the form of a figure regarding the many physical factors that influence wave development through coastal ecosystems has been created in an attempt to simplify and explain the phenomenon.The conservation and restoration of coastal ecosystems can be justified from a risk management perspective, but planting new forest belts for the purpose of disaster mitigation is quite unrealistic and can rarely be sustainable, since, for protection to be effective, the forest belt must extend several kilometres inland from the coast, and would thus likely prove difficult to implement along coastal societies..

Sweden has had laws protecting nature for about a hundred years. In this paper the views of nature and the values that serve as a rationale for protective measures are analyzed as results of a social process characterized by the dialectic relationship between institutions and discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to study this relationship and the discursive practices used by institutions, which reproduce or reshape views of nature that define the relationship between society and nature. Institutional design contributes to shaping discourse in the field of nature protection, while being originally shaped by discourse. In Sweden, the national park is an institution that reproduces a view of nature as the wild and untamed opposite of society, and the natural reserves reproduce a view of nature as holder of a multi-faceted set of values intertwined with society.

This essay is about two areas called Hackås and Myrviken, situated in the middle of Sweden around the lake Storsjön. In Hackås we can see traces after an early agrarian settlement, and in Myrviken we find Jämtlands largest concentration of ironmaking sites from around 400 AD. There are no clear evidence of the agrarian settlement in Myrviken, and only two ironmaking sites in Hackås. These two economies functioned at the same time, but were clearly separated. My purpose is to discuss if it was the farmers of Hackås who made iron in Myrviken, or if it was somebody else..

This Mag. thesis discusses how a gender perspective could be implemented in themanagement of cultural heritage focusing on the built environments in Sweden.The thesis further argues for the need of a gender perspective on the conservationof cultural heritage.The two main approaches, additive through the perspective of the women?s part inhistory and integrated gender perspective, are thoroughly presented in the thesis.In the additive gender approach built objects that represent women?s experiencesand lives are added to a history that traditionally represents men and theirexperiences. The integrated gender perspective includes a gender in all activitiesas an instrument in a historic analysis. The gender perspective illustrates therelation between the sexes.

Ovarian stimulation in assisted reproduction often leads to the production of a high number of oocytes. After fertilization of these oocytes, the resulting embryos can be cryopreserved for later use. Vitrification is a recently introduced method for cryostoring embryos, showing high survival rates for both cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts. Characteristic of vitrification are high concentrations of cryoprotectants and ultra fast freezing which makes the material glassily. A major concern with vitrification has been the direct contact of the cryo-solutions with liquid nitrogen.

The aim of this paper is to apply Robert N. Bellahs theory of civil religion, within a Swedish societal context. Bellahs theory was designed in, and influenced by American culture. Therefore, the ?translation? of Bellahs theory does not come without problems.

National libraries hold large, valuable repositories of often unique materials. How can we ensure that the knowledge is accessible without endangering the materials that hold the knowledge? Digital preservation is meant to solve this problem. With more and more material being accessible digitally, users are expected to do more and more of the finding on their own, instead of being guided by librarians. What kind of knowledge do the librarians have, that cannot be mediated through a system? How is the knowledge of experienced librarians passed on to new librarians? What is the difference between physical and digital materials? I have interviewed senior and junior librarians of Det Kongelige Bibliotek in Copenhagen, Nasjonalbiblioteket in Oslo, the National Library in Helsinki, and Kungliga Biblioteket in Stockholm to learn about their journey to knowledge of their collections.