Public participation in urban planning is meant to increase democracy in the planning process. Even though all citizens have the option to participate in urban planning debates, few seize their chance to partake. This thesis describes a study on how user needs are met and prioritized in design processes concerning urban planning. The aim was to determine whether user-centered design (UCD) methods could be used as an avenue for public participation in urban planning and ultimately invite more citizens into the planning process.The thesis details a design process where a team worked to develop Farsta, a suburb of Stockholm. The design problem was the question of how Farsta could become an attractive business location.

The ability of dairy cows to survive and the economic importance of this have been in-creasing in dairy cattle breeding lately. Increased longevity contribute to an increased pro-portion of cows that produce milk in more productive lactations and reduces the replace-ment costs together with a good health and fertility. Unfortunately it is often argued that longevity has been decreasing due to a strong selection for production traits in dairy cattle.The aims of this study were to find correlations between different longevity evaluations and between different estimates on longevity and other traits in the Nordic Total Merit (NTM) breeding value. The aim was also to compare different traits for cows of two differ-ent longevity groups.The data were Predicted Breeding Values (PBV) from Nordic HOL and SR bulls and records from Holstein (HOL) and Swedish Red (SR) cows estimated by the Swedish Dairy Association.The three Swedish longevity indexes were very highly correlated (>0.89) and the corre-lations between the Swedish official longevity index and the five Nordic Cattle Genetic Evaluation (NAV) longevity indexes varied between 0.73-0.83.In the sire evaluation part, the traits most negatively correlated with longevity for HOL were dairyness, protein and fat index. In SR, milk, protein, and fat index only had slightly positive correlations with longevity.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to elucidate the phenomenon of storytelling and its methodology in the context of public library story-time for pre-school children. It also strives to give an insight into the functions of story-time both with regard to the storyteller and the participating children. The study is based on qualitative methods in the form of a literature analysis, observations and interviews. The interviews were undertaken with two storytellers from the same library who work with children up to three years old and children aged between four and six years. The result of the study suggests that storytelling is more appropriate than reading aloud in situations when large groups of children are involved.

This thesis is based on the implementation of a bilateral rural development program in Burkina Faso. The main purpose of this study was to put the actual implementation process of a bilateral development program in view. This was done by investigating how two dominant perspectives in the implementation literature can explain what in fact happens during the realization of an aid program. A further aim of the thesis was to explore the limitations of these two dominant theories, in order to get a full understanding of the complexity of the realization of an aid program. Based on the implementation theory, this study shows that the realization of an aid program can be understood from three different angles.

PR appears to be an indistinct division and a complicated resource for companies to value. The current circumstances are negative to the credibility and reliability of PR. This study emphasizes how an application of return on investment contributes to a more strategic use of PR and increases the status and credibility for the division.We experience that measuring the economic value of PR is of great importance and of current interest with few prior studies made. The purpose of this study is to find out how a PR-agency and one of its clients relates to and works with evaluation of PR-activities and to which extent the economic contribution of the activity is measured.The foundation which the theoretical reference grounds on is theories of Delusions of PR and the use of benefit-cost analyzes, Stages and Levels for Evaluating Public Relations Programs, Marketing Return on Investment and PR Return on Investment. The theoretical reference serves as a base during the analyze of the study.The conclusion, based on the empirical body of information, is that an application of return on investment could contribute with a higher status and credibility for the PR-division.

ABSTRACTBackground: In all cancer therapies occurs more or less side effects, there one of them are mucositis. Symptoms of mucositis include wound and blister in the oral mucosa and affects 50-80% of children undergoing cancer treatment. Today there is no Swedish tested assessment scale for mucositis.Aim: To describe how teenagers with cancer and parents of children younger than 12 years with cancer perceive issues in a mouth-assessment instruments, Children?s International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES), that have recently been translated into Swedish.Method/Design: The study was a quantitative descriptive research design. The participants were teenagers with cancer 12- 18 years (N=15), and parents (N=15) of children younger than 12 years.

Previous research has, by studying large listed firms, identified cost reductions and knowledge transference as the primary reasons for outsourcing.  Previous research has also indicated that Business Process Outsourcing is likely to increase in popularity and experience high annual growth going forward. This study aims to explore why mid-sized and large firms decide to in Jämtlands län, fully or partly, outsource their finance/accounting activities. Theories regarding transaction cost economics and resource based view composes the foundation of this study and the information used has been gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews.  The results shows, like the chosen theories and previous research indicates, that the outsourcing decision is primary based on expected cost reductions.

To Swedes in general and, to hunters in particular, there is a great interest for moose (Alces alces), witch is Sweden?s largest deer species. In the province of Öland (Sweden?s second largest island) the local people show a great interest for the moose existence, both for consumptive (hunting) and non-consumptive use (tourism). This became apparent in 2002 when the moose hunters on Öland voluntary agreed to temporarily postpone the moose hunt on the island.

Phosphate is a used as a surface treatment method which is used for various purposes in the industry. In this case, phosphate coated wire is used in the processes to achieve a desirable outcome. The reason to why phosphate coated wire is used in the production process is because phosphate acts as an accumulator, where it stabilizes the lubricant on the surface of the wire. Lubrication is important because it plays a major role in the roll quality and characterizes important benefits regarding the outcome.Currently, SKF has to wash away all phosphates residues after extrusion process in an operation called tumbling. The main reason for this is simply because the surface has to be completely free from lubricants and coatings till the next step of process.

With this essay we want to describe the transformation process that the real estate owner has to go through to sell the current rented flats to tenant. We also want to provide an understanding how the valuation is performed in the transformation process and highlight the issues that affects the price in the valuations. In the essay we would like to see if the valuation and the transformation process differ in a public real estate company compared to a private real estate company. Based on this we have asked us the following question to answer: -Is there any differences in how real estate?s are valued in the transformation process between public real estate companies and private real estate companies? We have used a qualitative approach to keep our main question.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on how evidence-based librarian and information practice (EBLIP) is understood and practised at some Swedish hospital libraries, and also to analyze how EBLIP functions as a strategy to bridge the gap between research and practice as described by Haddow & Klobas. The theoretical framework for the study is partly based on Haddow & Klobas description of the gap between research and practice in the field of LIS and partly a description of the EBP-process which plays a key role in the use of EBLIP. Interviews have been done with four people, three librarians, all with management experience, and an academic development officer, active at three different hospital libraries where EBLIP is practiced. All informants believed that it is important to make use of research results in order to improve services and practice. In their efforts to apply the research findings the informants face a number of hindrances, which indicates a gap between research and practice.

This Master's thesis aims to investigate the reference interview using the discourse analytical method discourse psychology. The reference interview has been studied thoroughly, and its importance has been proven repeatedly within the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). However, it has never been studied from a discourse analytical point of view before.The material for our study was gathered at Malmö public library, and consists of 10 tape-recorded and then transcribed reference interviews. Our study shows that there are several discourses within the reference situation. The dominating discourse, the reference interview discourse, is found within all the reference interviews.

Today multi-touch technology is the basis for many new techniques designed to improve interactions with computers and mobile devices. It seems that multi-touch screen interface makes the user handling very natural in the sense that there is no need for a manual in how to interact with the object on the screen. The aim with this paper is to establish a fundamental set of design principles intended specifically for large multi-touch interfaces. To reach this goal we have implemented a couple of sub-goals beforehand: It was essential that we acquired a good understanding of the current state of the multi-touch interface and the different implementations that exist today. To make this possible we constructed a multi-touch display, "Rosie". Knowing how the hardware is produced today will help us understand the limitations and also the possibilities of the design implementations today and in the future. We also needed to devise a sound interaction design process that conveys the modern designers work.

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the socialization process that audit associates experience within an auditing firm that is included in the Big 4-sphere. Our purpose is also to describe which attributes that characterize the organizational identity, and how these attributes are reflected in the self-image of the associates. Furthermore, we seek to explain how the socialization process has influenced the organizational identification. This subject is of interest since the business of auditing is facing higher demands from regulators and politicians, due to the bankruptcy of HQ-bank among others during the financial crisis in the beginning of the 21st century. Earlier research claims that the socialization process of recruits, especially in the initial state of the employment, has a major impact on their future values and attitudes in their job performance.

SMC is in the process of developing a micro simulation model. The existing micro simulation model developed at Cornell University for US data, CorSim, is one of the fundamental parts for the new micro simulation at SMC. To develop the Swedish model, Swedish data on all individuals in Sweden during 11 years are also available. These data are organized in a database. This paper describes the process of rebuilding the database to a more useful structure.