The thesis presents an optimally designed kinematic structure for a new 6-DOF haptic devicebased on TAU configuration. The configuration of the TAU-2 proposed by Suleman Khan andKjell Andersson [1] was modified and its mobility was verified by using Grübler criterion tohave a 6 DOF. Analytical kinematic models for the inverse and forward kinematics weredeveloped for the haptic TAU configuration to determine a set of optimal design parameters.Kinematic performance indices such as volume of the workspace, kinematic isotropy and payload index, were defined based on the singular values of the Jacobian matrix. The Jacobianmatrix was scaled to homogenize the physical units. The Jacobian matrix dependent on theposition and orientation of the end-effector gives local isotropy and pay load index, so globaldesign indices were defined, which represent the performance of the mechanism in the wholeworkspace.

The aim of this essay is to investigate the function and development of non-player characters (NPC) in the TV/computer game Dragon Age: Origins. The NPCs are analysed in order to see if their development is affected by the player character?s (PC) background and interactions. The game?s ethics is also investigated by studying how the NPCs treat the PC and what significance they give to his background and actions.The results show that the NPCs are affected by the PC?s interactions, and furthermore, that they are round characters, which is unusual in TV/computer games.

Though still well used in Swedish schools, textbooks are no longer under any governmental control or inspection. It is now responsibilities of the teacher, thus, knowledge is considered crucial. Therefore, the aim of this study was firstly to investigate if and how four biology/natural science textbooks, produced 1957-2008 for primary school years (3) 4-6, expressed any sex, gender and/or sexuality norms. Moreover, due to thoughts of queer theoretic Judith Butler, the study also investigated if and how these three norms interacted. By examining what the textbooks mediated, the purpose was finally to find out if and how the norms differed or not.

The purpose of this thesis is to systematically describe and map how authorities define the school library and its function based on the current policy documents for the Swedish upper secondary school. The study is guided by the following questions: ? What dimensions does the school library have according to the explicit definitions, descriptions and requirements? ? What implicit arguments, references and unspoken assumptions about the school library and its role, function and significance can be derived? The study is delimited to the national policy documents, which have been divided into two groups ? structural and teaching focused ? corresponding to the two questions above. Further delimitations have been made to avoid noise and to manage a manual content analysis. Each question required its own analysis tool.

Antifouling paint containing the biocide bisTributyltinoxide (TBTO) has been used since1960 to reduce the occurrence of fouling on hulls on boats/ships. January 1st, 2003 theantifouling paints containing TBTO were prohibited. This ban covered all use of paintcontaining the substance TBTO. The ban was introduced because of alarming observationssuch as development of imposex in aquatic non-target organisms. Imposex is the impositionof male sexual characteristics on mainly female marine snails and occurs due to exposure toTributyltin (TBT).

Gothenburg municipality has a lot of natural water. This paper enhances the function and importance of water in the city. It also deals with the problems of sewage water and flooding. Gothenburg has reached an advanced stage of water planning. By developing a Waterplan, the municipality highlight that water has an important position in the urban planning.

Aqeri has since the past year a new profile with name and logotype, which has createda need for an updated visual product identity. The company is a leading developer,producer and distributer of IT products suitable for extreme environments in industry,defense and vehicles. This new profile with the different segments has together with aproduct identity from two companies resulted in that they have no clear designidentity on their products. From this background the aim of this research is todetermine how a development of a design identity is done to implement it to Aqeri.The design identity can be defined as a product?s identity visualized through its formor appearance which defines what the product is.

The aim of this thesis is to define digital library, and to investigate a relation between the construction of a digital library and user needs. The main questions to be answered are: 1 What criteria was used when constructing a digital library, particularly concerning issues like purpose, function, design, supply, services, resources and future development of the digital library? 2 How do the digital library system designers and system builders criteria correspond with those of postgraduate researchers? And what factors affect the use? A digital library is an enterprise that gives access to information stored digitally and directly available on the net. The crucial is that the enterprise has a control over collection of information and responsibility to make it available to a defined group of users. In order to investigate the relation between the construction of the digital library and user needs, I have interviewed five key people involved with the work with the digital library and twenty postgraduate researchers from the Gothenburg University.

Testicular measurements and daily sperm output (DSO) are important factors affecting reproductive capacity of stallions. In the present study testicular measurements of 10 Swedish half-blood stallions were determined (height, length, width and volume). Ejaculates were collected from each stallion once daily for 10 days to evaluate some important seminal characteristics: gel-free ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, percent progressively motile spermatozoa and total number of spermatozoa (TSN). The gel-free ejaculate volume was measured with a graduated cylinder, the sperm concentration was counted in a Bürker chamber, the sperm motility was estimated in a phase-contrast microscope and TSN was determined by multiplying the gel-free seminal volume by the sperm concentration. Testicular measurements were as follows (left and right testis): height 7,5 cm and 7,8 cm, length 10,6 cm and 10,8 cm, width 6,5 cm and 6,6 cm, volume 278,2 cm3 and 293,8 cm3, scrotal width 12,3 cm and total testicular volume 572,0 cm3 .

Changes in swallowing function are common in elderly and chronically ill individuals. Therefore it is important to be aware of these changes and their prevalence. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of dysphagia in nursing homes in the municipality of Linköping, and to correlate dysphagia with variables that can be a cause or a consequence of dysphagia. These variables were gender, age, MMT-result, dentition, weight loss, medical diagnose or number of medications. The intention was also to examine the additional information regarding dysphagia supplied by pulse oximetry.Sixty nursing home residents aged 74-101 years were chosen to participate in the study.

The award-winning Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgård achieved great success with his latest book, Min kamp. Both commercially and critically, the novel was praised for its seemingly successful attempt to transcend the boundary between fiction and real life. Focusing on the auto-fictional narrator?s struggle to balance his daily life with his ever so demanding aesthetic ambitions, the novel gives high-detail descriptions of the most basic day-to-day chores, intimately mixed with philosophical reflections on topics such as painting, literature and postmodern civilisation.This essay proposes an alternative perspective on the realism of the novel. Instead of relying on a correspondence theoretical view, which highlights the level of correspondence of a particular representation with reality, I seek, inspired by Martin Heidegger?s thoughts on works of art, to trace a poetics which sees the verity in a work of art as the ?unconcealment? of the world, or the coming-to-being of objects.

This master thesis deals with the differences in the design of the environmental scanning between different kinds of organisations, as well as the demands and regulations etc. in the respective environments that influence the environmental scanning. The content of the environmental scanning and the organisation of the function are outside the scope of this study. Two organisations that do not have an organised function but are scanning their environment were chosen for the investigation. A model for conducting the environmental scanning developed by Frankelius is used to analyse the practice of environmental scanning.

The Swedish government has declared the year of 2006 a special Year ofMulitculture. This has inspired me to look for similarities and differences allover the world, especially the use of rug carpets.During travelling to Indonesia and a visit to the sister of the Sultan ofYogyakarta, I experienced a pleasant moment drinking chilled lemonade. Wewere all sitting on carpets on the floor. To sit on, and get together around acarpet, is an excellent function which we don?t do in the western world.

This Master of Science thesis is conducted at the faculty Integrated Product Development at theRoyal Institute of Technology and in cooperation with EssNet Interactive AB, both situated inStockholm. In the report the final results and the road to get there is described as well as thedesign process and how the process is used to obtain the goal of this thesis.The author of this thesis has developed the design and the function of an interactive videoterminal (IVT) and by using semantics created an encouraging gaming design. The projectspurpose was to change the anonymous withheld shape and produce an experience of gamingmachine that has been absent. The work was aimed to answer the question: How does oneproceed to develop the IVT and by using semantics creating an understanding of gamingmachine?In general the author wants to show that small changes, with the help of design and its signals,can completely change the overall picture of a product.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this essay is to analyze and discuss the razors? and tweezers? roles and dualism between them in the Nordic Bronze Age societies. This paper is an attempt to investigate what these little things can tell us about the people that were buried with them. For this purpose I have examined material of burial that consist of finds of razors respective tweezers and their connection with artefacts in the graves. I have done a comparative and contextual study together using quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate their roles and dualism.