In today?s society more and more activities are digitalized. This means that everyone has to be able to use information and communication tools (ICT) in order to take part in the digital world, otherwise they will be left out of the digital community. There is a so called digital gap between for instance elderly and young people, where elderly do not know how to use the tools and there for cannot gain access to the digital society. What happens when people, not only grow old, but also have a communication disorder, such as aphasia? How are they included? The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not surf pads are good tools for bridging the digital gap for people with aphasia, and which activities and situations that encourages people with aphasia to work with the surf pad.

Due to their complexity and heavy wear from rail traffic, switches are a sensitive part of the railway infrastructure and moreover expensive to maintain. Furthermore, increasing railway traffic not only accelerates the wear rate but also obstructs the necessary maintenance measures. This paper examines the opportunities for a transition to a long-term maintenance strategy in the Swedish railway network. It contains a study of the maintenance strategy of Banverket, and also analyses statistics of errors in the railway infrastructure. The survey was completed utilising interviews with infrastructure managers, maintenance contractors, planners of railway operations and the Banverket material service department.

Green Cargo är den största aktören för godstransporter på järnväg i Sverige. Dotterbolaget Road&Logistics erbjuder kombinerade transporter bestående av järnväg och lastbil. Järnvägen utnyttjas för de långväga transporterna och lastbilarna för slingtrafiken. Med hjälp av crossdockingterminaler samlastas även gods från olika lastbärare till en enhet. Detta för att optimera kapacitetsutnyttjandet, vilket ger synergieffekter i form av miljövinster och sänkta kostnader.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

A method for measuring the total impulse from a multi hole diesel injector, introduced inprevious thesis work, ?Development of a method and a device for measuring the momentumrate of fuel sprays?, by Mikael Lindström, has been further developed and tested. The conceptis to simultaneously deflect all sprays from a multi hole diesel injector by using a bell shapeddeflector. The fuel sprays are deflected straight down from their initial umbrella angle, andthe resulting deflection force is measured in a thin strained section of the load cell. The strainis given by three strain gauges, with quarter-bridge circuitry for each gauge.

This report aims at giving you as a reader a basic knowledge in measurement techniques used in the road/land construction and witch instrument and methods that is commonly used. It also tries to shed light on the problem with unfinished or incomplete blueprints, which cause additional work performed by the surveyor. This report is written in collaboration with PEAB Umeå whom has given insight in their work.The goal of this report is to examine what kind of work surveyors has to perform on blueprints delivered by a technical consultant. The reader of this report gets a run-through of the different theoretical measurement techniques used today and a short explanation of different measuring instruments used by surveyors in their day to day work. Computer programs used in the field of construction are briefly explained, and some of the most common file extensions used, for example dwg and Land-xml.The report concludes in a questionnaire that was sent out to surveyors employed by PEAB.

The consociational democracy model in Macedonia, which came out from a warcrisis and a peace agreement from 2001, in addition, putting an end to the violent conflict, actually admits the division of the society along the ethnic lines. Paradoxically, there is an attempt to bridge the ethnic gap with this model. As a result, the consociational democracy model holds solutions that can be abused if somebody misuses its power and desires to disintegrate the country. The future development depends therefore on the moderate attitude of the citizens, and first and foremost, on the political elites and their commitment to the values of democracy and human rights instead of their nationalistic goals. Furthermore, thepresent democratic consolidation in Macedonia is established on the execution of the peace agreement and the improved effectiveness of the institutions.

Ombord på moderna fartyg finns möjligheten att navigera med enbart ECDIS. ECDIS är beroende av många olika delsystem för att kunna fungera optimalt.Failure Mode and Effect Anylysis (FMEA) är ett verktyg med vilket man kan undersöka ett specifikt system för att upptäcka eventuella konstruktionsfel och brister i produktionsdesignen. Detta examensarbete har med hjälp av en FMEA undersökt ECDIS simulatorerna vid Sjöfartshögskolan i Kalmar för att ta reda på hur ECDIS påverkas när ett eller flera av delsystemen kopplade till ECDIS fallerar. Syftet med denna undersökning har varit att upptäcka konstruktionsfel, brister och begränsningar i ECDIS systemet vid simulatorerna i Sjöfartshögskolan i Kalmar. Det kunde påvisas att ECDIS i vissa fall ej har avgett de larm som enligt tillverkaren skall varsko navigatören att ett delsystem har fallerat.

Background:Studies show that when nurses are experiencing problems in the care of non-Swedish speaking patients, it is often due to obstacles in the communication. Studies also show that a prerequisite for adequate care is that there is a basis for a direct communication. Nurses perceive interpreters as an important link to the patient when they do not share a mutual language, the nurses perceive interpreters as a bridge in the conversation.Aim:The purpose of the study is to describe nurses' experiences of the quality of assessments done with the help of an interpreter.Method:The study was conducted through interviews with ten nurses, working at psychiatric clinics. Qualitative content analysis was used for the analysis, which resulted in five categories.Results:The analysis resulted in one theme: "it´s the interpreter who tells me and have not the feeling that the patient has" and five categories: "shades of the language", "conversation structure", "the interpreter's competence", "interpreting implementing" and "the interpreter's gender and origin". The nurses experience working with interpreters as a challenge.

The Methodology used to gather empirical materials for this thesis has been different types of interviews. The interviews have been mainly unstructured personal interviews directly with our respondents, due to limiting factors some of the interviews have been carried out via phone or email. The theoretical framework consists of literature from well-recognised authors and is divided into four different parts: Insourcing & Outsourcing, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management, China & Intercultural understanding. The empirical foundation has been gathered from a great variety of different sources in an attempt to cover the many complex angels in which this subject can be looked upon. Chinese students, managers in international companies with experience from China, Chinese employees in Swedish companies and different people with good knowledge of different areas of China are all among our respondents. In our conclusion we have reached the three following conclusions for why one should start a “bridge building” enterprise in between qualified Chinese human capital and Swedish structure capital: 1. To fill future shortage of qualified human capital in Sweden. 2.

A few hundred metres from the beach on Fårö, Gotland, is a small lot with pine trees, green moss and wild fl owers situated, owned by my brother and sister. Eventually they would like tobuild a summerhouse here, in close proximity to their relatives. My project is a proposal for the summerhouse at the site, within the restrictions of 61 m² building area, with focus on interior,exterior and the environment.My proposal is a house close to the surrounding nature, with reference to the the building tratition on the island and with local materials. Orientation to the sun, road and neighbours hasall infl uenced my ideas of this house and the relation between inside and outdoor living, were important in my creative work. The aim was to create a house made for the family and theirholiday lifestyle and allowed consideration for the possibility of a growing family with more children.

Turkey has often been described as a cultural and geographical bridge between West and East. When the Islamic AKP came to power in Turkey 2002 many critics feared that the country was going to abandon its former Western allies and strengthen their relations with the Arab world instead. The criticism was intensified when the AKP increased Turkey?s bilateral relations with the Middle East and moved closer to former foe?s like Iran and Syria, at the same time as their long-time friendship with Israel experienced serious crisis. The aim and purpose of this thesis is to describe and explain the change in AKP?s foreign policy towards Israel.The research method is a combination of a qualitative text analysis of Turkey?s speeches in the UN General debate and Jakob Gustavsson?s model for explaining foreign policy change.The results show that the Turkish-Israeli relations have deteriorated after the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2010, particularly regarding diplomatic relations and military agreements.

VBG Produkter AB is a process-orientated company that develops, manufactures and markets trailer couplings with belonging coupling equipment, protection equipment against skidding and stands for wagon-bridge for heavy vehicles. The company feels that their set-up time in production for couplings is not at an acceptable level. Due to high demands of customer oriented production the intermediate stock level of included products within the assembly of couplings has gradually increased which has resulted in high inventory holding costs. VBG Produkter applies Kanban in their production, therefore it is important to produce exactly the necessary amount and avoid overproduction. The objective of this project is to suggest appropriate solutions so that VBG Produkter is able to reduce their set-up time in assembly of couplings, by identifying internal and external set-up time for the chosen process bushing cell.

In this paper, I have proposed a way of interpreting the philosophical subject of the Discours de la méthode that has remained relatively unexplored by contemporary commentators. By investigating the subjectivity that is expressed through Descartes? use of architectural metaphors, I laid bare some of the difficulties inherent in its discursive structure, as well as suggesting that the cogito in fact repeats and inscribes itself into this structure. In this context, the metaphor of the road (or travel) takes a supplementary role in relation to the architectural metaphor, marking the very conditions of existence of the architectonic subject. The subject, in order that it may establish itself as ?pure? and ?independent? thought, is dependent on a certain ?forgetfullness?; that is, only by forgetting its constitutive dependence on the diversity and historicity that is signified by the metaphor of travel, can it establish itself as its own source.

The aim of this paper is to elucidate and analyze history teacher's didactic choices in the conflict between unequal educational materials and the requirements of equality in the curriculum of Swedish secondary school. The empirical data consists of interviews with five secondary school history teachers, observations of their lessons as well as analysis of their tests. The starting point was to investigate teachers' didactic work in the role as a bridge between the non-equal historiography presented in textbooks in history and the curriculum?s demands for equality. Three different approaches have been observed in the teachers' didactic work when considering gender perspective into their teaching: that women become extensions in a male-dominated historiography; that another part of the story is presented when a gender perspective is considered; and that the gender perspective is included in history teaching and becomes an integral part of all the content of the subject.Several of the teachers acknowledged that gender equality is less prioritized than the courses core content and related assessment criteria.