The main purpose of this study is to investigate the unintentional learning that happens during the use of computer games. With the use of interviews with students in the ages 13-15 who all have played the game series Assassin?s Creed, and then compared them with students who does not play the game, we have been able to identify that some learning is taking place, but that the student?s attitude towards the subject, and their maturity, also is vital for the learning. Even tough, the students who didn?t really enjoy history as a subject showed better knowledge after playing the game, than the students who hadn?t played at all, which indicates that computer games can be a good source for learning.

The energy use in a workshop company has been examined in this work in order to find areas for energy efficiency improvement. The combined oil and electricity heating in the company were compared with other alternative heating systems including cooling of the premises in following combinations:Ground source heat pump for heating and coolingDistrict heating and absorption coolingDistrict heating and low temperate surface water coolingEnergy use, operation costs and carbon dioxide emissions were calculated for the current heating systems and the three alternatives including cooling. The ground source heat pump for heating and cooling decreases bought energy with 34 MWh annually compared to current heating only. The district heating and low temperate surface water cooling has the largest reduction of operation cost and carbon dioxide. The operation cost decreases with 42 kSEK and the carbon dioxide with 43 metric ton CO2 annually.

A key part in the development and verification of digital systems is simulation. But hardware simulators are expensive, and software simulation is not fast enough for designs with a large number of gates. As today?s digital zesigns constantly grow in size (number of gates), and that trend shows no signs to end, faster simulators handling millions of gates are needed. We investigate how to create a software gate-level simulator able to simulate a high number of gates fast.

Unaccompanied children that arrives in Sweden are usually placed in homes for care and residence, called HVB. It is the municipality's responsibility to provide adequate care and protection for the children. The aim of the study is to examine how a workgroup on a HVB home for unaccompanied children is working to meet the needs of the children, and how the workgroup improves the children?s integration process. The study also aims to examine the emotional labour of the workgroup, which illustrates how they can manage their own emotional behavior when working with the unaccompanied children.The study is based on a qualitative approach with detailed descriptions of five semi-structured interviews with the workgroup and assistant managers.

How does the criticism of landscape architecture in Swedish professional journals look today? Does it exist at all? What is criticism and what is its purpose? These questions have been the starting point for this degree project. I have found a lot of different answers among journals, books and websites, as well as in interviews with five persons that all have a relation to the landscape architecture criticism in different ways. These answers may look a bit disjointed at first, but are at a closer examination pointing in the same direction ? that the criticism of landscape architecture projects hardly exists today.

In this thesis, we are concerned with the many different professional roles that a public librarian, working at a small library, has. More specifically, the purpose is to find out which different roles that librarians believe they have, and which view they have upon those. Furthermore, we are exploring the tendencies that librarians discuss in relation to these professional roles. To pursue this goal, we have used the methodology of focus group interviews, with the unconventional twist that our interviews were done using web chats. This may have the advantage that the informants may present more honest views than when using ordinary interviews due to the anonymous character of chatting.

The aim of this study was to shed light on the phenomenon of sex purchase amongst men from the perspective of professionals working at KAST*. Our main research questions concerned who the sex-purchasing men are, what their incentives are and furthermore how the professionals depict their work with these clients. In order to examine this we conducted three qualitative research interviews. The theoretical framework used to examine our results consisted of social constructivism and professional acting space. Main results show, contrary to research, that the ?typical? sex buyer does not exist, nor do specific motives.

Severe floods caused by heavy autumn rains in year 2000 raised the question whether measures to reduce the damage from high water levels, in the area surrounding lake Glafsfjorden and along the river Byälven down to lake Vänern, are possible. One option is to reduce flow resistance along the river and thereby lower the maximum water level a given inflow would cause. Good knowledge of hydraulic and hydrological conditions is necessary in order to estimate the effect of such flow-reducing measures. In order to quantify such effect a 1-dimensional hydraulic flow model has been set up for the river Byälven using the software package MIKE 11. The model is more detailed, especially concerning topography and bathymetry, than earlier models used for studies of the river.

This study aims to examine attitudes and conceptions of staff who work with mentally disabled persons, concerning normalization and gender. Six qualitative interviews with such professionals were performed and subsequently analyzed. Since the method of this study is qualitative, no claim of generalizability is made. The interview material has been categorized into themes by means of coding. The result of the study is presented according to those themes.

This thesis has been performed at Scania CV AB Technical Centre in Södertälje and its aim hasbeen to study the causes and effects of deformations in the interface between the rear axlehousing ADA1100 and the central gear house R780 during operation. Design changes that wouldincrease the sealing capability of the studied interface are also suggested. Finite element (FE)and CAD software have been the primary tools in this study.Finite element (FE) simulations are used in the industry to predict and develop engineeringdesigns. The main motive for FE simulations has traditionally been to identify weak spots in thedesign, regarding high tensions and large deformations.The FE model is an aggregation of submodels and interface models that represents the rear axlehousing, suspension, central gear, central gear housing, wheels, bolts and weldings, and theirinteractions. The submodels have different material properties and they are connected withcontact interface models.Boundary conditions are defined on the bushings in front of the rear axle and on the air bellowsbehind the rear axle.

Abstrakt Produkten som jag har utvecklat är en mjukvarubaserad 3D-renderare. För att göra en sådan produkt är man tvungen att gå djupt in i området 3D och utföra alla beräkningar på egen hand. Dessa tar annars grafikkortet hand om. Denna rapport förklarar varför jag har valt att göra en egen mjukvarubaserad 3D- renderare och vad den är för något och i vilka områden den används. Här förklaras även min syn på programmering, digitala spel, vad programmering innebär för mig och hur min syn på spel har påverkat mig med tiden.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

This study was the foundation for an evaluation of an employment project in Sweden. The project offers occupations in carpentry as well as kitchen work for people with psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and other social difficulties. This studies purpose was to analyze the projects significance to its participants and also to distinguish weather the project influences the participant?s life in a professional or private way. The methodological tool was five qualitative interviews with the participants and three qualitative interviews with the employees.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how public libraries work with children's books, in other languages thanSwedish, regarding acquisitions. The purpose is also to describe what the libraries assignments are in regard tochildren with non-Swedish backgrounds. This is then put in a relation to the libraries democratic assignment.The main questions are: What are the libraries' assignments, as described in the libraries regulations? How do thelibraries work to fulfil their assignments?To answer these questions a survey in two parts has been carried out. The first is a study of the libraries'regulations, and various handbooks that serve as an inspiration for librarians.

During the last years the need for real-time database services has increased due to the growing number of data-intensive applications needing to enforce real-time constraints. The COMponent-based Embedded real-Time database (COMET) is a real-time database developed to meet these demands. COMET is developed using the AspeCtual COmponent-based Real-time system Development (ACCORD) design method, and consists of a number of components and aspects, which can be composed into a number of different configurations depending on system demands, e.g., Quality of Service (QoS) management can be used in unpredictable environments. In embedded systems with requirementson high up-time it may not be possible to temporarily shut down the system for reconfiguration. Instead it is desirable to enable dynamic reconfiguration of the system, exchanging components during run-time.