In the spring of 2006 a pilot project was initiated by The Rural Economy and Agricultural Societies of Sweden together with The Swedish Ornithological Society in order to increase collaboration between bird watchers and farmers. The project as a whole comprised 11 farms in South-Central Sweden. The aim was to benefit the decreasing populations of bird species related to the agricultural landscape. The purpose of this master thesis was to study how similarities and differences between bird watchers and farmers regarding opinions about nature, landscape, agriculture, birds and nature conservation have influenced the collaboration. Four of the farmers and five of the bird watchers that participated in the project were included in this study.

The overall aim is to examine how the European Union Water Framework Directive has affected the local water management in the catchment Märstaån situated in the eastern part of the lake Mälaren river basin, Sweden. The first part of the study gives an historical overview of the area with focus on how the old agricultural landscape was handling the nutrient load from farming activities by means of different kinds of wetlands. By using the concept of the procedural landscape, introduced by Torsten Hägerstrand , together with historical maps with dates starting from the 17th century, the pre-modern landscape is analyzed.  The second part is an investigation, based on qualitative data, on how the different actors in the catchment area work together to secure the water quality for the Märstaån river. The analysis shows that the Märstaån catchment river systems are mostly unchanged in the rural areas.  The exception is the mainstream section of the Märstaån river running partly underground today and the Halmsjöbäcken river that is heavily affected by the Arlanda airport situated within the catchment area.

Since 1 January 2010 it is a requirement to use the European standards, Eurocodes, in Sweden when constructing bridges. One chapter that has caused an extra amount of problems for the engineers is the one about fatigue analysis, which resulted in us doing this thesis.To do this we had to read all of the Eurocodes that direct, or indirect deals with fatigue and calculating of such. We have read the background documents for the Eurocodes and master?s thesis in the subject. We also studied the calculations of bridges constructed by different construction firms.We have chosen to limit the thesis to discuss only road bridges made of concrete due to the lack of method for verification of concrete in the national appendix.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to evaluate bookmobile service as a decentralised library service. I have made a qualitative interview survey, with seven Swedish municipalities participating, all providing bookmobile service in their rural parts. The purpose with the interviews is to examine their bookmobile service. I have also studied articles on bookmobile service, and decentralisation through small library units in library journals, to get an insight into how the work with decentralised library service is done in Swedish municipalities. In this thesis answer is sought to the following questions: - Which decentralised library services are suitable for inhabitants and institutions in sparsely populated areas, considering factors such as number of inhabitants, proportion of old people and children, demographic changes, economy, possibilities to cooperate with other municipalities? - What is the current bookmobile service situation in Sweden, taking seven municipalities in the region of Småland as a starting point? My conclusions are that each municipality must decide which decentralised library services that best suites their needs.

The food industry is an important part of the Swedish economy, It is the fourth largest industry in Sweden in terms of number of employees and production value. Due to the increasing globalization, the Swedish food industry faces new conditions and challenges. Through the Swedish membership in the European Union in 1995 a whole new era of competition began for the Swedish agriculture and food industry. Markets that previously were closed now opened. In retrospect, it should be noted that the Swedish food industry managed well.

Att köra eller inte köra is a qualitative study aiming to show how environmentally conscious people who utilizes cars deal with their dissonant behavior, but at the sametime maintain an identity as environmentally conscious. The study is based on the fact that a third of those who drive cars in the municipality of Växjö would like to decrease their use of cars while at the same time having the infrastructural conditions to utilize other means of transportation. The study investigates inner obstacles in the form of habits and lifestyle, but also the different strategies the motorists use to reduce their cognitive dissonance and maintain a green identity. The indicators show that the reason the majority of the motorists continue to utilize cars is part due to inner obstacles (it's adeeply rooted habit, but also a big part of their lifestyles), part due to that the individuals have defenses for their use of their cars, defenses designed to have a dissonance reducing effect. The indicators also show that the motorists value their family higher than the environment, and in this way they can legitimize many of their car uses.

As the environmental requirements on businesses increase from various stakeholders, the incentives for businesses to work more with environmental issues also increase. Historically, the requirements were focusing on companies with direct emissions from operations. Lately, the environmental impacts that occur indirectly as results of corporate activities have become more topical. Companies and organizations that mainly offer services often have a greater indirect than direct environmental impact. This is because they are affecting third parties, which in turn have a direct environmental impact.

Tuberculosis is one of many infectious diseases in the world and is responsible for a large number of human deaths each year. The cause is Mycobacterium ssp included in the tuberculosis-complex, there among Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Infection with M. bovis causes bovine tuberculosis in cattle which in 90 % has a pulmonary location. Humans are infected mainly by milk from infected cows but also by close contact with coughing animals or by eating raw meat.

Tuberculosis is one of many infectious diseases in the world and is responsible for a large number of human deaths each year. The cause is Mycobacterium ssp included in the tuberculosis-complex, there among Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Infection with M. bovis causes bovine tuberculosis in cattle which in 90 % has a pulmonary location. Humans are infected mainly by milk from infected cows but also by close contact with coughing animals or by eating raw meat.

An increasing global population and a worldwide growing urbanization has raised the questionabout the future food security in cities all over the world. Peak-oil limits the access to cheap fossilfuels which threatens the global food-supply chain. This has resulted in a larger awareness anddiscussion related to urban agriculture. Growing crops and keeping animals within the city-borderscould be one way of creating a more robust and sustainable food supply for city dwellers. However,to enable an expansion of the urban agriculture many theorists argue that policies and institutionalstructures that supports and promotes city farming have to be developed.

Purpose: Our purpose is to describe and understand how a project-based, knowledge-intensive firm in the high-technology industry creates and transfers knowledge, seen from two perspectives.Methodology: Our qualitative case study has an explorative approach since earlier studies within our positioning are absent, thus we look at KM abductively. To gain more depth to our study, we mirror our findings from our case company with data collected from three additional organisations.Theoretical perspectives: We see a clear distinction between researchers, either seeing knowledge as an object or a process. Thus, we review theories from both sides, either focusing on the creation or transferring of knowledge. In addition, theories on KM in project organisations areaccounted for.Empirical foundation: The study is based on the empirical foundation which consists of the data received through six interviews with employees at our main case company and, additionally, two interviews at each of our three mirrorcompanies.Conclusion: The study found KM being seen from both perspectives in all four firms. Through this, we found implications for how our case company could proceed in the future..

Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) is a quality control system created by the European Union (EU) to protect integrity of certain food and drinks that are produced in a specific area in a unique way. By protecting these products, the EU can certify that the traditional region-specific methods of food and drink production are preserved. The EU countries that follow such a system are mostly from Southern Europe. For instance in France, the PDO system has helped improve the income for farmers, boosted the rural development and assured protection for farmers against the abuse of their brand and the selling of their products by outsiders. In Sweden, there are no PDO products yet, instead there is Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guarantee (TSG) that are not as protective as PDO.

The aim of this examination project was to work with the processof making a pattern collection for fabrics. The collectionshould consist of at least three patterns with report measurementssuitable for screen print. I wanted the pattern collectionto be a simple, mystic and colourful collection with a folklorespirit like the popular rural life I experienced during my childhood.The purpose of the project was that I during the working processwould deepen my estethic background to enforce my personalgraphic expression ability and evolve as a pattern designer.I wanted to try to mix my personal view of domestic graphicexpression with another language that I gained in recent years.This I wanted to do in order to find the tools that could helpme clarify and develop my pattern signature.A few of the questions that I had about this project were if thelong scetching phase that I planned would help or damage theproject.I also thought it would be interesting to experiment with coloursin this project. I wanted to see how far I dared to go inmatter of colours as well as how the patterns would be visuallyexperienced if I for example reduced one colour or replaced itwith the opposite colour.I thought it was inspiring to work with traditional techniqueswith the colours. It was only positive that part of the patternstory telling was developed in an unpredicted direction duringthe scetching phase.

An information system is something that evolves over time to enhance the company that is using it. The technology for building an information system is also evolving. New methods and new programming languages make system development easier. As new technology breaks ground and the demands of a company?s information system grow, the company will sooner or later get to a point where a change in the base of the system is necessary.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur Gagnefs kommun och Bergs kommun arbetar med det generella strandskyddet, vilka attityder till detta som finns i kommunerna och hur arbetet påverkar landsbygdsutvecklingen. Särskilt fokus läggs på hanteringen av små sjöar och vattendrag. Undersökningen har skett med hjälp av en kvalitativ metod som innefattar intervjuer med markägare och tjänstemän från kommunerna samt observationer. Analysen utgår från Garrett Hardins begrepp tragedy of the commons, Elinor Ostroms begrepp common-pool resources och open access resources samt Bo Rothsteins begrepp sociala fällor och tillit. Slutsatsen med uppsatsen är att Gagnefs kommun och Bergs kommuner arbetar olika med strandskyddet gällande små sjöar och vattendrag. En majoritet av informanterna anser att det generella strandskyddet endast ska omfatta naturliga vattendrag, samt att strandskyddet bör vara mer flexibelt på landsbygden än i storstäderna. Flexibiliteten innebär exempelvis att strandskyddets regelverk ska anpassas till platsen och inte tillämpas generellt över hela landet..