This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

Erasteel Kloster AB Söderfors have been commissioned by the county administrative board in Uppsala län to make an inventory of possible contaminations in theirs industrial- and landfill areas on the basis of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency?s; ?Method of Surveying Contaminated Sites-phase 1? (MIFO-fas 1). The inventory starts with maps and archive studies, place visits and interviews, and finally a risk classification is done. A risk classification is a compilation of four categories; pollutant toxicity, contamination level, possible spreading condition of the pollutant, sensitivity and protection value of the environment. In this paper five partial areas (Holmen- and Jörsöområdet, Järnsvampsområdet, Ingsådeponin, Östra verken and Myrområdet) have been described from a historical point of view. Only parts of four areas have been risk classified (Holmen- and Jörsöområdet, Järnsvampsområdet, Ingsådeponin and Östra verken), due to that the other areas isn?t own by Erasteel Kloster AB. Holmen- and Jörsöområdet Holmen- and Jörsöområdet have during the entire activity time been carried out as the production core in the company.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

This study was conducted in Kkingo district, west of Masaka, Uganda. It compared soil macrofauna abundance in non-agroforestry farms with that of agroforestry farms. The agroforestry farms had participated in the Vi Agroforestry´s program between 1995 and 2006, and continued on their own after 2006, when Vi Agroforestry left the area. The soil macrofauna is important for soil structure and processes that are contributing to soil organ-ic matter decomposition and nutrient mineralization. They are also predators of potential pests.

Many everyday tasks and also many sports require good grip and forearm strength. Everything from carrying boxes and lifting a child to grab the arms and legs in various martial arts, or holding a tennis racket involving the hand and forearm muscles in various ways. It is therefore important to train these muscles to prevent injuries and congestion and to perform well in sport. A well known way to train functional strength in the hand and forearm muscles is weight training with thick handles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in muscle activity in the upper arm and forearm muscles as well as the deltoids between two bars of different diameter (28mm and 57mm) in two different weight training exercises using electromyography (EMG).

This aim of this thesis is to measure the effect of the user interface in real searches on the Internet through a small experiment. Theories on web and search usability and psychological factors concerning usability were first explored. Then three interfaces were constructed, one "good" that followed usability guidelines and had multiple search functions, one "bad" that completely disobeyed those guidelines and had only a simple and small search field, and one "intermediate" interface that was a mix of the two. The search field was set to different sizes, with the shortest in the "bad" interface, a medium field in the "intermediate" interface and several long fields in the "good" interface. All three interfaces were then attached to the same web search engine, Altavista.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

This essay shows how natural areas in Älta, a part of Nacka municipality southeast from Stockholm, been changed quantitatively and qualitative as a result of the increased housing construction in the area. Three issues are discussed. Namely: how has Ältas green areas been changed in sizes and quality in line with the settlement's expansion, what is the reason or the reasons to building of different types of accommodations, what has been and is the operators in connection with building of the different types of accommodations?The essay shows that the green areas has been decreased with over 2 km from 1901 to 2000 and in addition to these areas of approximately 1,1km been converted to a planned green structure. Älta has during the years gone through four eras of building types an era of small family houses ? an era of building one million houses on a national scale ? an era of terrace houses ? an era of sporadic building of different housing types (one family houses, pair houses, terrace houses and small blocks of flats).

The purpose with this paper is to examine if tertiary education and democracy have an impact on economic growth. In order to decide how democratic the examined countries are the democracy index constructed by The Economist is used. Besides the two central theories the purpose is also to explain why these variables could affect growth and to examine direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects mean that one variable affects another variable which thereafter has an impact on economic growth.34 OECD countries are compared in order to investigate whether education and democracy are strongly correlated with BNP per capita. Therefore a statistical design is used as method.The empirical results suggest that there is significant correlation between democracy and economic growth.

The EU-project HEALTHGRAIN has suggested a new definition for whole grain which allows a small part of the grain to be removed during processing. By removing the outer part or the grain the hygienic quality will increase but it is not clear how the taste and colour is affected. So therefore in this study three different debranning methods, peeling, pearling and polishing, which remove the outer parts of the grains have been used on common and durum wheat. The dietary fibre and ash content, as well as germination was analysed in untreated, peeled, pearled and polished grains. The decrease in dietary fibre and ash was higher in grains that had been pearled compared to those that had been peeled or polished.

This thesis was rendered for the client HAGS Aneby AB that is a global leader in playground equipment. The goal of this project was to develop a seesaw that is available for children aged 5-12 years; both with and without disabilities. The project has aimed to develop a seesaw that fits everyone in the target group without looking specially adapted.Children with disabilities have difficulty using today's seesaws because they consist of only a seat and a handle on each side. It requires that the user has strong arms and legs and can sit up without support. HAGS Aneby AB would like to change this.To gain knowledge of the target group and on the different types of disabilities information was sought for on the internet including the RBU's and UNICEF's websites.

In my work I have chosen to examine the profitability for small scale production of hemp briquettes. My study also includes a review of which briquette technique that is the most common one among small scale producers. The reason that I have chosen this subject is because of the discussions about climate and energy that we face almost every day. I also think the subject is extra interesting in these days when the grain prizes are at a historic high level. In order for me to achieve a reliable report, a hemp and briquette producer has given me the actual data from his farm. In that way I have been able to make my calculations from a concrete perspective.

Sheep have played a very important part in rural history. In Sweden there were many kinds of small native breeds, kept for their meat and fleece. Women cared for the flock that often had very little to feed on during the cold and sometimes harsh winter months. This meant that these sheep over time acquired special phenotypic properties depending on the environment they lived in, and easily fed compared to modern breeds kept for meat. Most of these sheep have since become extinct.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of a present function of today´s public library, namely the function of meeting place; here called the social function or social space. Two small town libraries are included in the study, and the questions examined are:How is this function described at the two libraries and what similarities and differences are there between the two? How can one describe the relation between how the library as social space is described in research and at the libraries? The theoretical framework used in examining these questions, consists of three different discourses in culture policy (the discourse of state, market and civil society) and theories on civil society and the public library. A summary of current research makes visible eight different aspects of the public library as a social space. These aspects functions as parts of the theoretical framework as well.

The purpose of this work is to find out if the suctionvalve to the salivaejector for dental equipment in a simple way can be improved or if a new design is needed. The result of the examination of the suctionvalve shows that the friction between the piston and the seal is high and that this causes the valve in a few cases sheaves. The study concluded that only small changes in material or detail, improve the component..