This thesis describes new methods for automatic crack detection in pavements. Cracks in pavements can be used as an early indication for the need of reparation.Automatic crack detection is preferable compared to manual inventory; the repeatability can be better, the inventory can be done at a higher speed and can be done without interruption of the traffic.The automatic and semi-automatic crack detection systems that exist today use Image Analysis methods. There are today powerful methods available in the area of Computer Vision. These methods work in higher dimensions with greater complexity and generate measures of local signal properties, while Image Analyses methods for crack detection use morphological operations on binary images.Methods for digitalizing video data on VHS-cassettes and stitching images from nearby frames have been developed.Four methods for crack detection have been evaluated, and two of them have been used to form a crack detection and classification program implemented in the calculation program Matlab.One image set was used during the implementation and another image set was used for validation. The crack detection system did perform correct detection on 99.2 percent when analysing the images which were used during implementation.

AbstractAim: The aim of this study was to describe which coping strategies women use when they have been diagnosed with breast cancer. In addition, the purpose was to describe how woman?s self-image changes after a mastectomy. Method: A literature review study has been carried out with a descriptive design. The result of the study included 16 articles which were found in the databases: Cinahl, PubMed, PsycInfo and through manual search.

Blood-borne infectious diseases such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) spread when the addicts share needles and injecting equipmentwithin contact networks. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in Winnipeg,Canada in December 2003 - September 2004. Through a special questionnaire, respondentswere asked to answer questions about themselves and about their contacts, about relationshipsand how they shared syringes and other injection supplies. Blood tests were used to identifywhether they carried any blood-borne infectious diseases. We selected some variables from theoriginal data set.

The purpose of this essay is to identify how the drug user is portrayed in motion pictures. My main questions are: How is the drug use described? How is the male and female drug user depicted? How may the movies contribute to the construction, reproduction and change of gender? The method I use in my research is a qualitative, selective discourse- analysis of a number of movies prominently portraying drug use. A gender perspective is also applied on this paper.The main result of the study is that I have found that the great majority of the analyzed films portray drug use as means for something else. Drug use is often portrayed in the beginning as heavenly but changes to be depicted as problematic.

Tidigare empirisk forskning förevisade samband mellan optimism och hälsa, likaså mellan self-efficacy och hälsa. Föreliggande undersöknings syfte var att utifrån könsskillnader mellan kvinnor och män undersöka hur op­timism och self-efficacy samverkar med deras självskattade hälsotillstånd. Deltagarna var 190 högskolestudenter, varav 113 kvinnor, i Mellansverige. Statis­tisk analys utfördes genom t-test, multipel linjär regressionsanalys och jämförelse mellan korrelationskoefficienter. Mätinstrumenten Life Orientation Test?Revised, General Health Questionnaire och General Self-efficacy Scale, samt ett påstående om fysisk hälsa användes.

Aim: The aim of this study was to study through papers if early intervention of children and adolescents with deaf-blindness can be facilitated through early intervention programs, cochlear implants (CI) and communication strategies.Method: The method that we used was a literature study of scientific articles through Pubmed and Cinahl databases. The articles reference lists were also studied which lead to that more papers were found.Results: Children and adolescents with deaf-blindness can benefit from early intervention programs, when their caregivers were educated to give appropriate response to the children?s behavior. The interaction between children and their caregivers can improve through an early intervention model. Children and adolescents with Deafblindness have variable results from CI.

Since 1999 Sweden have a law that criminalises the person who buys sexual services instead of criminalising the one who is selling, which in most cases is a woman. Seven years has passed since this law took place and in this study we aim to investigate what kind of help the society offer women in Malmö, Sweden, who wishes to step out of prostitution. Our aim with this study is also to look at the attitudes among citizens towards the new law and prostitution. The research is qualitative and all the six persons we interviewed has knowledge about the problems the women are facing when they want to step out of prostitution. To explane and analyse the answers we are using the theory of empowerment, labelling theory, the theory of gender socialisation and Jürgen Habermas theory of the lifeworld.The most significant outcome of this study shows a positive result in regard of the laws effectiveness in diminishing street-prostitution to half of what i t was before the law was put into practice.

With emphasis on women's magazines and men, this essay will revolve around the image of the ideal woman. Our purpose was to examine whether men have a distinct image regarding the appearance and behaviour of the ideal woman. Next step was to establish whether the women's magazines also presented a specific image to their readers.The answers were found through a qualitative study that included ten men, and through an extensive analysis by women's magazines. The result indicated that both the men questioned and the women's magazines presented a clear view of an ideal woman. The views held by the men, were then compared to the images presented by the women's magazines and were found to be very similar.We used Erving Goffmans sociological theory to describe the actual woman and the ideal images of women that the men questioned and the women's magazines presented.

The purpose of this paper is to present a possible understanding of why the company Tekola is segregated according to sex. In accordance to this purpose, an understanding of how the segregation affects the employees in relation to power, values and possibilities is discussed. The theoretical understanding is that the organization of men and women within Tekola is done in close connection to creation of the meaning of gender in Tekola. This, in turn, affects and is affected by the recruitment to and within the company. Through the study of statistics from a survey, five interviews with employees and former employees and Tekolas? equality plan, we are able to see the possible existence of a glass ceiling, and a culture of homosociality, which affects the possibilities of women to enter the company and also to gain full entrance to power-positions in a negative way.

AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Line Säll, spring semester 2007.Tutor: Susan Marton.?To do things by the rule of law -A study in the discretion of front-line bureaucrats?This essay has it´s starting-point in the theoretical problem of social science to unite democracy and bureaucracy. The purpose is to illustrate the problems with the discretion of front-line bureaucrats in a democratic state. The theoretical approach is front-line bureaucracy-theory. Certain characteristics of the work of street-level bureaucrats makes it impossible to severly reduce discretion.

The structural rationalization of rural firms in Sweden has led to many new creative ways of developing companies. The agriculture sector is characterized by the need of capital in form of buildings, labor and inventory. The rationalization process has led to free capacity in rural firms when new technology make buildings and inventory not longer necessary for the production process. To get a better cost coverage this free capacity can be used to start-up new business areas that help the rural firm to growth.The study aims to identify factors that motives entrepreneurs in rural firms to develop new business areas. The purpose is also to analyze driving forces that lies behind development of rural firms and the forces that support or not support development in rural firms.The study is built upon five cases that all can be categorized as firms with different size and orientation.

The purpose of this study is to examine how young people with experience of running away and/or getting thrown out look upon and understand the phenomenon. Another purpose of thestudy is to examine how the youth evaluate the help and support they did or did not receive at the time of their experience, as well as to examine what the ultimate help and support would be according to them. The study was done in a qualitative approach with the use of focus groups and individual interviews. The results were analyzed through the perspective of the ?sociology of childhood?.

The subject of this master thesis concerns the area of change in libraries, with special orientation towards privatisation. Its aim is to investigate how privatisation is portrayed in one of Sweden?s largest library magazines, Biblioteksbladet, in order to gain insight into why these portrayals are what they are, and what consequences they might get. Three theoretical viewpoints create the general base of the thesis; first, Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis (CDA) theory on the relations between text and society; second, Audunsson?s theory concerning how change is dealt with in public libraries; and third, a conceptual framework on privatisation consisting of definitions and perspectives of the phenomenon.

The purpose of this essay is to explore how social media affect the political orientation and commitment of youths. Three scientific questions highlight the purpose from different angles. The didactic perspective is discussed in the initial and closing discussion, and is analyzed in the corresponding chapter. Two methods are involved in the study; one survey and one interview with a focus group. The survey had a total of 98 respondents from four different classes, all in the first grade of upper secondary school.

The aim with the study was, that through a qualitative research approach, to examine in which way social services employees perceive information about children with incarcerated fathers and how they furthermore relates to the child's right to both parents in these situations. Seven interviews were implemented with social workers in the Stockholm County to obtain informa-tion on the following questions; how the children's needs are noticed at the social services, how employees discuss the child's right to their incarcerated father and which possibilities and obstacles social workers experience to promote contact between the child and the father. The ecology of human development theory was used in the analysis. The conclusions are that chil-dren with incarcerated fathers seldom is noticed at the social services as a result of inadequate cooperation between authorities but also due to whether the social services should be respon-sible for the children. Furthermore, children always have the right to maintain contact with their incarcerated father, with exceptions for situations where physical or sexual abuse have occurred.