The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of social distance used by the librarians and users in the virtual reference interview. With a conversational analysis and applied politeness theory 49 chat transcripts where analysed in order to answer the question of how the interlocutors positioned themselves regarding the social distance between them. By identifying what communicative strategies where used the following results were found. Generally the social distance between librarians and users is low in the Swedish virtual reference interview. Even though both parties used informal and casual language the results indicate that the librarians face wants were valued slightly higher than the users which were illustrated by a some what higher social distance in the stages of the conversations when the librarians face was under most threat.

Can degree of degenerative brain disease be predicted with the help of measurements of cognitive deterioration?Alzheimer?s disease progresses through nerve cell break down in the brain and the simultaneous deterioration of the individual?s cognitive function. This disease is common among elderly persons. This thesis examines if the level of deterioration of cognitive function is associated with different biochemical and clinical markers for degenerative brain diseases. In addition, this thesis examines if the level of decline in cognitive functions vary between groups with different levels of degenerative brain disease.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur musiker ser på begrepp som ljudnivå, musikupplevelse och relationen mellan dessa. Underlaget för studien är sex intervjuer med musiker och ljudtekniker, med och utan hörselskador. Studien byggs på sex kvalitativa intervjuer och är avgränsad till att i första hand behandla detta inom musikstilar vilka är baserade på trummor och bas ? pop/rock, jazz/blues.Studiens resultat visar att parametrar som t.ex. genre, lokal, ljudteknik, ljudtekniker och arrangör har inverkan på det ljud och den ljudnivå som uppnås vid en konsert.Vidare redovisas respondenternas syn på relationen mellan ljudnivåer och musikupplevelse.

The purpose of our qualitative study is to investigate how the caretakers, in the elderly care,interpret and manage the issue of alcohol problems in elderly people. We have beenperforming semi-structured interviews on 9 people, on different levels in the elderly care.There were 3 elderly care managers, 1 nurse, 1 assistance administrator and 4 auxiliarynurses, who all, at some level, work with alcohol problems in elderly people. Thoseinterviews were performed singularly, with one exception: we interviewed an elderly caremanager and her 2 auxiliary nurses at the same time. To analyse our empirics, we have usedthe theories of Power and Ageism. Our study shows that the auxiliary nurses, who are theones who must deal with these problems, have great difficulties to perform their work becausethey have no qualified knowledge about alcohol problems.

This essay tries, in different levels, to explain and create a deeper understanding for the phenomena ?private security companies?. By using Mary Kaldors theory about new wars, I will come to the conclusion that the insecurity that these wars create is an important part in understanding the emergence of a security need that these private security companies can provide. Later I investigate and explain howthe neoliberal privatization policy that is spreading through the world today has laid ground for development of the private security industry. When I have answered these questions I analyze how the private security companies can affect the state, war and peace both positively and negatively.

Abstract The main purpose of this study was to investigate if and how the employees in elderly care experience stress and which underlying causes they understand to be important in their work situation. The purpose was also to investigate whether Karaseks and Theorells demands and control models could be used to explain the employees feelings of stress and to see in which categories the participants are in. Furthermore, the purpose was also to understand the participants work situation and to describe the factors and remedies the employees perceive to contribute to the stress levels at their workplace. 81 questionnaires were distributed at three different locations, two of which were in Ronneby and one in Örebro. 56 people answered the questionnaires. The result yielded that 80% of the participants felt stress during their working hours the last few years. The results are in agreement with the demands and control models which showed that people with high demands and low control experienced a higher degree of stress than people with lower demands and higher control, which corroborates the hypothesis 1.1..

Existing studies concerning private labels are unclear as to whether private label manufacturers carry out product development themselves. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies comparing product development processes in private label companies and national brand manufacturers. This study highlights a set of critical product development factors and assesses their prevalence in four different companies in the Swedish retail business. The study is based on a number of qualitative interviews with key personnel responsible for various table fats. Findings indicate two levels of involvement in the product development process on the private label side.

Visualization plays a key role in the concept of Lean. Lean was developed in Japan as a business philosophy in order to lead to an activity, where only steps that contribute to customer value of the final product are being performed. By defining the customer value and establish visualized standards, it is possible to see when situations differ from the standard. Then it?s possible to lead the process back on track.

Electronic availability of information resources has increasingly become an important part of academic libraries everyday vocation. This is a fact that puts impetus on the libraries to know more about the way in which electronic information is being dispersed and handled. This thesis aims to comparatively evaluate Uppsala university library´s own metadata system Summon with the publicly available equivalent Google scholar. The evaluation is based on Péter Jacsó´s theories on database evaluation which concretely puts focus on Summon and Google scholar via the use and application of ten different criteria. The uses of precision and relevance criteria were also implemented as additional evaluation tools.

In this project I have worked with creating a new kind of room in a hospital enviroment for children. The main purpose of the project has been to form a secure and positive experience for the patient while visiting a specific room at the department of childrens physiologi, at Drottning Silvias Children- and youth hospital in Gothenburg.The project was based on questions like how it is possible to move the focus from the unsecure and scary, to something secure and positive, when the patient is going through an testing situation.The target gruop included a wide age span (0-16 years old), therefore I have worked with a theme, H2O, that works for diffrent ages. In the room, I have applicated the theme in different levels that is changeable depending on the age of the patient.During the project I have presented my ideas for the staff at the hospital. We have discussed their problems, what they wish in their working enviroment and how they experience the situation for the patients. I have also asked the patients how they experience the specific room today.The result of the project is a visual idea of how you can create a room, that you don?t exepect to find in a hospital..

The purpose with this study is to examine what kind of support there is for school libraries at the selected independent upper secondary schools and how these schools ensure that libraryservices is available to their students and their teachers. The purpose is also to examine what attitudes the administrators of the schools have to school libraries and teaching in information seeking. A qualitative method with interviews was used to fulfil the purpose. As a theoretical basis of the study Loertschers taxonomies of the school library media program and Limbergs three levels of pedagogic research were used and the interviews were analysed with these two theoretical frameworks as a background. The result of the study showed that neither one of the three examinated schools has a school library which means that they use the public library instead.

In this project a simulator has been developed (in C++) with the purpose of illustrating how changes in environmental regulations, tax levels and other policy measures affect the composition of an energy system. The aim of the project was to investigate how energy companies? investment strategies are affected when changes in economic and environmental conditions occur. A standard scenario has been created based on current Swedish conditions, but the user can create new scenarios and set parameters freely. The user is tasked with building power plants to supply the city/region with district heating and electricity during a pre-set number of years. When the simulation is finished the result is graded in the following categories: economy, environment and quality. To evaluate the simulator three scenarios were created (?early 20th century?, ?reduced environmental control? and ?future?) in addition to the standard scenario and these were compared with each other by examining how a select group of power plants perform under the given conditions.

The purpose of this study was to find out what the educators view on the working method Matte på burk in preschool looked like. I also wanted to find out what the educators thought about the working method. My questions are:How does the educators in preschool experience the method Matte på burk?What do the educators in preschool believe that Matte på burk can give the children?The study was carried out through a qualitative interview study with six educators. During the interviews with the educators it became apparent that the method not only focused on mathematical exercises.

The highly toxic man-made substance referred to as dioxin (polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs)) causes severe health damages both to humans and other organisms, with lethality as its worst. Because of the toxicity several risk assessments has been performed on dioxins trying to determine at what concentration there are no risk of exposure. Resent years of research has discovered that these substances are not only anthropogenically but also producedin natural processes, like volcanoes and forest fires. To investigate if there is a need to take these naturally formed dioxins into account in the risk assessment processes, interviews with persons at relevant institutions in Sweden has been made. Analyses of existing risk assessment methods and political documents were also made to complete the picture.

The project has been provided by Zenit design group and the goal for this project was tomanufacture and perform tests of a prototype that supersaturates water in a continuous flow ofwater. The project has involved finding and sorting out relevant data in scientific papers, books,communication with foreign manufactures and other platforms for information.The project has resulted in manufacturing of a test rig and an oxygen infuser based onmembrane technology. The test rigs purpose was to perform tests on oxygen infusers fordifferent comparison test and performance benchmarks in a in a laboratory provided by Zenit.The project led to satisfying results using the oxygen infuser manufactured by the authors withcomparable levels of saturation to the reference infuser.The theory behind this project is based on medical research, belonging terms will be explainedbut the authors have chosen to delimit the project from the medical area. The reason for this islack of knowledge in this area and its irrelevance to the mechanical engineering education insuch..