This report is a result of a bachelor thesis at the school of Architecture and the Built environment (corresponding to 15 HP) and is written during spring 2012 at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The Bachelor's essay is based on the design and dimensioning of a house which is located at a predetermined site in Malmo, Sweden.The idea is to construct a house that is appropriate to use for an average Swedish family of four family members. The house is designed in a modern way with respect to ease of access and disabled facilities. The installation that have been considered are heating, ventilation, sanitation and electricity. Construction calculations and material selection are also discussed.Furthermore, a study about photovoltaic cells has been done.

During consultation procedures between forest owners and the Sámi, data on, e.g., reindeer lichen biomass on the current site is needed. Hitherto, the existing methods of measuring lichen cover and biomass has been either objective methods such as the Point Intercept method, which is time consuming, or some sort of subjective visual estimation, which is faster but less accurate. However, both these methods are sensitive to different observers and/or to different inventories. This paper addresses the further development and evaluation of a photographical inventory method that uses colour distribution in images to estimate lichen biomass. During the autumn of 2011 six different locations, with different grazing pressure and lichen cover, in Norrbotten county were inventoried using both the Point Intercept method and the photographical method, complemented with collection of biomass samples.

In soundscape research, the field?s methods can be employed in combination with approaches involving sound quality attributes in order to create a deeper understanding of sound images and soundscapes and how these may be described and designed. The integration of four methods are outlined, two from the soundscape domain and two from the sound engineering domain. This study has shown that by combining these methods the understanding of both the entire soundscape and the specific sounds increase. The study also shows that when the methods are used, there is a qualitative change of the description and understanding of soundscapes and the concrete description becomes more elaborate..

The aim of this study has been to examine the role of control mechanisms when it comes to building relationships in a small business network. In order to reach this goal, we have performed a case study of a Swedish supplier of machines to the engineering industry, which acts as the exclusive representative of a foreign manufacturer on the Swedish market. Main results: A number of control mechanisms, both formal and informal, could be identified in the network. Their specific use, as well as relative importance differ between different actors in the network. In general, the importance of formal control mechanisms decreases as the relationship evolves over time and the importance of informal ones, mainly trust, increases in a corresponding manner..

More than 90 % of all business activity in the world market consists of small and midsized companies today. Recent studies have shown that there has been an increase in small companies? certification to ISO's management standards. Smaller organizations tend to have more limited amounts of resources at their disposal than larger ones. This can result in difficulties during the implementation process of ISO 9001.

The aim of this study is to investigate a specific form of Special Interest Tourism (SIT), namely health- and fitnesstravels. This kind of travelling is studied from a Swedish perspective and includes aspects like gender and age in active tourism. It also includes which travel motivations that lies beyond the choice of an active vacation.The study is based on a survey that was sent in an e-mail to the health tourism company InShapeTravel´s customers. The answers to the survey has been analyzed and related to earlier research about active tourism.The result shows that more women than men participate in the kind of healthy travels that InShapeTravel offers. A majority of the respondents are between 41-60 years old and the most common travel motivation was ?Better physic/psychic wellbeing?. .

Around the world, forests are generally being fragmented and as plant populations decline in both sizeand number of individuals, the genetic variation will also decrease whitch in the end leads to totalextinction of the plant. In this paper, I wanted to investigate what specific species of trees and shrubsyou usually find in the edge and core habitats in some of the forests in the Baltic Sea region. I alsowanted to identify the edge effects and their sources and finally compare the results between thedifferent regions.The data sources used are derived from the ongoining research project Landscape structures, patterns ofbiodiversity and conservation strategies in the Baltic Sea region by Kari Lehtilä, Patrik Dinnétz ochTiina Vinter who have made a record of all herbaceous plant species in four randomly chosen forestregions situated around the Baltic Sea: Estonia, Skåne, Södermanland and Germany. I made statisticalanalyses, using the computer program R, concerning the distribution of species in the edge habitats ofthe forests as well as in the core habitats. I performed generalized linear models and then variationanalyses with the factors light and biomass in order to investigate wether edge effects might appear dueto these factors.

This bachelor thesis in science Informatics contains the qualifications for the applying of IT in education for students in elementary school, grade 1-3. By empirical case study on an existing elementary school, whose success on IT use is noticed, describes how to apply IT in the classroom in an adequate way. We look at different theoretical frameworks in interaction and design of systems designed for learning purposes, and satisfies their specific needs and situations within the classroom's four walls. The current lack of statistical measurements on students' results and effects of the use of IT in teaching, prevents further improvements. If we simultaneously work to develop more well-designed systems that are designed for this purpose, it is possible that the effects become more and better.

Drawing on earlier research, and using observations as the method, this study presents a design of a nature playscape for children. Applying outdoor pedagogy to the fundamental structure of a specific location, the study proposes a design of a playscape, over a more obvious design, for instance one based around a quiz walk.The theoretical framework is Gibson?s theory of affordance, and the goal has been to create a "play flow". The study concludes that spatial rhetorics can be an important tool when teaching children about nature..

The Internet has played an important role for libraries giving them a means of fulfilling their democratic mission of giving equal access to everyone, including people with disabilities. In order to achieve this it is of the utmost importance that they ensure that their web sites are accessible. In this masters thesis we have examined to what extent the web sites are accessible. The thesis is based on theories of human-computer interaction, information architecture, pedagogy and a checklist. The checklist is derived from established international guidelines from W3C, which has been adapted to, and is used by Swedish public authorities to achieve the mission of a ?24-hour authority?.

 This report is an evaluation of Peab's purchase and call-off system, PIA.PIA is used to order goods for Peab's construction sites. The background to the work is that users of the system have understood the system cumbersome to use when purchasing goods for construction sites. The evaluation was carried out by the interviews and tests with users of the program, in this case, supervisors and site managers at the company. Ten users of the system were interviewed and eleven people have carried out a test order.The focus is primarily on the test order that users have implemented, which has been clocked and analyzed for time and cost. The evaluation is also a user analysis concerning how the users perceive the program, mainly in terms of usability, functionality and benefits.The result of this report shows that PIA is economically profitable to use for the purchase of goods for construction sites.

This essay discusses how insurance companies inform policyholders regarding home insurance. What level of support do insurance companies offer policyholders in order to supply them with enough knowledge to make an informed decision? Is information regarding insurance communicated in simple terms, or is it riddled with industry specific terminology?The essays focus is important to examine from a social context; Swedish social process does not select an insurer for an individual who neglects to choose one for their home insurance. Sweden's welfare system does otherwise provide a helping hand for a lack of decision with regard to preschool and school choice..

The Sand Catcher                                                       The thesis project The Sand Catcher investigates the encounter between permanent structures and an ever-changing landscape. The migrating sand dune Råbjerg Mile in northern Denmark is 40 meters high and moves more than 15 meters every year. By introducing a solid structure on the site, the fast movement of the sand dune is emphasised and thereby our view of time and space.Through intuitively building models with varied openings and densities I investigated how architectural elements react with sand. From these experiments a series of spatial features and effects were found, generated from the meeting with the sand.The Sand Catcher is a solid and permanent structure. The sand is the liquid element that generates new spaces, circulations and experiences.

This is a final project which makes up 20 credits at the Landscapearchitecture programme at SLU in Alnarp. The thesis is design based. My final project is comprised two parts; of a competition entry for ? A New Square in the Centre of Täby? as well as a theoretical study that derives from the competition proposal. The competiton itself was announced on March 1st 2007 with the final hand-in date on May 28th 2007. The program of the competition asked for a flexible urban square that offers a diverse range of activities that can be used during both night and day, all year around. I became interested in the term ?mutlifunctionality? and I went on to use the subject as a base for my design approach.

The paper, with a brief summary of timber floating in Sweden and also of some previous re-search in this field, contains a study on costs for timber-floating in the river Dalälven located in central Sweden. The public used timber-floating system in Dalälven and the historical background about this activity is described. The study is focused on the total costs for timber-floating in the public open floating system in Dalälven from 1900 to 1970, the year before the timber-floating was definitively closed down. Also the costs for separating the logs of a specific owner when they reached the point where they could be separated from the timber of other owners are analyzed..