Context: During the 21st century several alarming reports have been published that deals with the depletion and pollutant of the earth by human interference. The earth is an ending resource and so are the mountains and bedrocks which are continuously mined in order to harvest its minerals. The idea behind Urban Mining is to (re)invent processes enabling further purpose for materials both from old deposits and new products Providing secondary raw materials and energy. This thesis aims to investigate the challenges and opportunities of how firms and organizations can and will be able to strike a better balance between product-/service systems, economic growth and environmental stewardship in the context of Urban Mining as an approach. With the innovation of processes, technology, business- planning and creation in focus.Objective: How to future proof a business model for Urban Mining by the usage of business model design.Method: This thesis will be conducted using a case study approach, meaning that it will incorporate qualitative, exploratory and descriptive characteristics - aiming towards enabling both applied and fundamental research.Results: The result evaluates the business model element differences between traditional C&D industry and Urban Mining industry.

The aim of this thesis is to assess the strategic importance of Central Asia as a whole and interests of great powers in the region in particular within the theoretical framework chosen. The work shows Central Asia as an area of the New Great Game, analogue of the original Great Game which was played out between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia in XIX century. The parallels between the original Great Game and the New Great Game are drawn in order to understand the scope and the true intentions of the players of the latter one. Also, the security issues in the contemporary Central Asia are explored and analyzed to provide with the background for future predictions. Furthermore, the indirect purpose of the thesis is to examine whether the international system has changed from that of two centuries ago by comparing the structure of the international systems at the time of two Games.

AN EVALUATION OF EFFA-VÄSTERS PARENT PROGRAMME FOR PARENTS WITH CHILDREN 2-4 YEARS- A qualitative and quantitative research focused on content, effects and implementationAuthors: Fritz, Jesper & Johansson, LinaSupervisor: Koutakis, NikolausÖrebro UniversityAcademy of Law, psychology and social workSocial Work ProgramSocial Work 41-60 pointsC-essay, 15 pointsAutumn term 2008AbstractThis study is written on commission by The Unit for prevention which is a part of the Social welfare Services in the district of Örebro. The social work practice carried out by the unit is based on universal prevention, which includes Providing parent programmes. The aim in this study is to describe and evaluate the EFFA-Väster parent programme, which has been compiled by social workers working at the unit, with regard to the content, effects and implementation of the program. The study is based on a non-experimental inquiry of an experimental group which has been subjected to a pre- and post test. Further, observations has been made of every program session to examine whether the program is implemented in accordance with the intention and how the program is received by the participants.

As the media attention society on the world climate change, interest in the environment and social impact has increased. This has in turn made even more companies choose to maintain a sustainability report that contains the three aspects of economic, environment and social impact. The demand for sustainability reports has increased among stakeholders. It has made the companies that establish this form of reports experienced economic benefits. The sustainability report than became a useful way to compete among businesses.

This thesis explores the narrow spaces between closely built houses in the over 300-year-old wooden town center of Mariestad, Sweden, and their potential as time capsules and sources of knowledge in cultural-historical building investigations. By interpreting well-preserved carpentry work on a facade in one of these spaces, the study aims to provide an example of how these preserved spaces can serve as a source of knowledge and understanding of craftsmanship and the history of the place. The thesis also addresses the municipality of Mariestad's work with cultural heritage, as well as maps out more of these potentially interesting interstitial spaces. Old Swedish wooden towns possess a high degree of uniqueness both nationally and internationally; nevertheless, they are subjected to relatively significant threats of demolitions and substantial changes, often in the form of many smaller restorations or changes over a long period of time. The focus of the case study is a window from the 16th or 17th century and the facade's old, hand planed wooden cladding.

The prevailing food and energy crisis of the world, due to the declining reserves of fossil energy and a never ending rise of consumption, forces us to look into new fields to supply our energy demand. The boom of bio energy is criticized, as food crops are used to provide biodiesel and ethanol and the volumes are ridiculously small to supply world demand. Algae are one of the world?s oldest life forms and exist in many different phyla, Providing a great variety to choose from, for different purposes. Cultivating microalgae offer a way to produce energy at great volumes without competing with food production and at the same time the algae offer a way to use our expensive nutrients in a more efficient way, besides this the algae are carbon dioxide neutral since their carbon source can be supplied by the atmosphere and the additional energy required can be supplied by algal oil or other renewable sources.

Organizational change is hard to achieve, but if an organization doesn't change it might risk its own existence. Effective resource allocation and increased control of the internal production are examples of how organizations try to increase its competitive advantage. An ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) can help an organization to achieve this by Providing management with direct access to a wealth of real-time operating information, streamlined dataflow, and making the company's business processes more effective. Like other IT-related projects, ERP investments are associated with large risks. Many projects failure during the implementation in one way or another.

Heart failure is a condition where the heart is incapable of Providing adequate blood supply to different organs in the body. The underlying causes of heart failure is some kind of disorder in the heart function, and require careful diagnostics. The basic symptoms that arise from heart failure is difficulty in breathing, that aggravate when lying down, and fatigue. The patients? symptoms and impaired quality of life can be in different stages depending on the severity of the heart failure.

Abandoned and unused railway structures often possess great potential if they are reclaimed and reused for new purposes. The thesis focuses on the global trend of restoring and revitalizing these areas, converting them into park areas, rail trails and green corridors in the city landscape, while preserving their ecological, social, esthetic and historic values. These rail areas were often abandoned when industries moved out from the cities, either to industrial areas or abroad. The use of railways for transporting industrial goods was also replaced to a large extent my motorized road vehicles in the mid 20th century, leaving the rails under-utilized. Because of their location and intrinsic values, they can be reused for important functions, such as green areas in the city environment, Providing space for recreational activities and exercise and social meetings and interactions. I have closely investigated the three park areas High Line in New York, Promenade Plantée in Paris and Schöneberger Südgelände in Berlin, which have all gone through this transformation in recent years. I have summarized my conclusions in three key concepts to consider: design for social values, preserve the architectural history, and leave room for future evolution. The final part of my work is a design program for an abandoned railways area in Stockholm: Eriksdal railway area.

This paper attempts to display how five teachers of social studies use and relate to the policy documents and their instructions on gender. To penetrate the subject, five teachers were intreviewed. Each interview focused on how the curriculum attempts to guide teachers regarding gender, sex differences and equality of opportunity. The collected information was processed, analyzed and discussed using gender studies and discourse theory.The results show that the interpretation and usage of the curriculum is very subjective and varies greatly between all the interviewed teachers. Their personal interpretation proves to be crucial when it comes to making reality of the stated goals in the curriculum, concerning actively working towards equality of opportunity between sexes.

The prevailing food and energy crisis of the world, due to the declining reserves of fossil energy and a never ending rise of consumption, forces us to look into new fields to supply our energy demand. The boom of bio energy is criticized, as food crops are used to provide biodiesel and ethanol and the volumes are ridiculously small to supply world demand. Algae are one of the world?s oldest life forms and exist in many different phyla, Providing a great variety to choose from, for different purposes. Cultivating microalgae offer a way to produce energy at great volumes without competing with food production and at the same time the algae offer a way to use our expensive nutrients in a more efficient way, besides this the algae are carbon dioxide neutral since their carbon source can be supplied by the atmosphere and the additional energy required can be supplied by algal oil or other renewable sources.

The purpose of this study is to analyse and compare how religious and non-religious world views are described and represented in three Swedish textbooks. The main question of this study is: How do three textbooks for the first stage of religious studies in high school represent non-religious and religious world views based on the text analysis tools: ethos, modality and transitivity?The three textbooks that are being analysed and compared were produced in the years of 2000, 2002 and 2009. The textbooks are used when teaching the first stage of religious studies in Swedish high school. The text analysis that I´ve chosen to use in this study is a part of Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis.

Diversity of ground beetles (Col: Carabidae) in managed riparian grasslands. The carabid community in moist seminatural grasslands was studied at three different sites in mid-Sweden. Pitfall trapping was carried out during six weeks in spring and early summer 2003. Eight transects, each containing seven pitfall traps, were placed in three different management regimes, either late or continous grazing, or meadow. The species composition was analysed by ordination analyses, i.e. DCA and CCA.

The thesis aims to investigate the farmer?s perception of currency hedging and interest rate bonds and to investigate the farm size of companies categorized by number of acres, has no effect on this. The work also aims to gain an insight into what active farmers consider to be important what to consider when they choosing a bank and a personal banker. The work is based on the survey and has been supplemented by a literature review on the subject. For the survey were selected out randomly 50 farmers with Agriculture and Rural Management education. The requirement of the farmers was that they should be farmers by profession, and also made sure that the farmers of various sizes came with. We got a total of 32 responses within the set response time we said, which was better response than we expected. When the final result came we ranged the farms in a size range. We found out that all farmers in the study diligently follow the market and are easy to assimilate new ideas, Providing opportunities to profitability of their business with the different instruments that are available on both the financial level and farm level. The investigation revealed that the major in favor of having a personal banker. They think it´s good to have a special plug to turn to who has knowledge and experience of how the agriculture sector operates.

This project explores how artificial landscapes as parks and squares above ground can save space by using the vertical voids in urban environments and how they can create spatial and social as well as ecological qualities and connections. Hybrid landscapes are a phenomenon of current interest within the field of architecture and urbanism. Architecture as surface, where facades and roofs become possible to tread, is a relatively recent occurence that has over the past few years become an increasingly common sight in architectural magazines and on international architecture exhibitions. Many of my selected reference projects have often been associated with sensational contemporary design trends generated by advanced computer software. But the phenomenon is also a result of other different currents of change that exist within today?s society, such as densified cities with a lack of open space, which is also expressed in architecture.