The aim of the study was to install a biogas system consisting of three tubular polyethylene biogas digesters at a rural household in Malawi and to evaluate the constructed biogas system with regards to relevant system parameters. The purpose was to evaluate if the technology is a possible solution to reduce deforestation and support Malawi in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The study was carried out in the southern part of Malawi in cooperation with the University of Malawi. Locally available materials were used to construct and install the system. Three different feed materials, cow, goat and a mix of cow and goat manure, were used in order to determine which one was best suited to utilise as a digester substrate. After the installation, measurements of temperature, pH, biogas production, biogas composition and system functionality were made. The results of the study show that a biogas system with tubular polyethylene biogas digesters can be successfully installed at a rural household and that the most suitable feed material is a mix of cow and goat manure.

Under våren 2008 utförde jag mitt examensarbete på Utvecklingsverkstaden, inom Volvo Construction Equipment i Eskilstuna. Uppdraget bestod i att presentera förslag på ett skyltsystem som skulle vara modernt, professionellt utformat och ha ett enhetligt utseende. Den befintliga skyltparken var kraftigt eftersatt och föråldrad.  Syftet formulerades till att utforma förslag på ett tydligt skyltsystem som skulle representera aktuell avdelning och dess verksamhet. Syftet innefattade även att ta fram övergripande riktlinjer om placering, för varje kategori av skyltar.

Trade is the driving force for economic development. A greater equity in international trade can improve the livelihoods and the well being of producers in developing countries. The small-scale farmers have limited resources and have difficulties to get access to the international market. As a result of this, the Fair Trade movement has been developed and has now formed a trading partnership between the producer and the consumer. This study analyses if the Fair Trade movement can be a way for the workers in developing countries to achieve more justice in their production manner in the international trade of cut flowers and continue to be an important competitor of these products, but with better livelihood conditions. My method has been to do a comprehensive literature study of the Fair Trade movement, in which I describe the certification process, and the market of Fair Trade in Sweden.

AbstractSeveral of researchers have reflected that the school ought to be developed to a learning organization. A method as proceed from such a perspective and should be able to match a local child- and educations administration is problembased school development. To investigate in which ways a child- and educations administration prosecute a problem based learning inside the organization a case study was used as research strategy. The question this report gives answer to is:In what/which way works a child- and educations administration in a rural district with a method to fulfil a problembased learning.To collect empiric data a canvassing inquiry was accomplished among the child- and educations administrations group of management. According to the research result it can declares that there are good conditions for the organization to prosecute problem based school development, but there is yet a great deal to do before it´s can be said totally fulfilled.

Intresset kring lågenergibyggnader blir allt större och så kallade passivhus, med god isolering, hög lufttäthet och värmeåtervinning, byggs i allt större utsträckning i Sverige och andra europeiska länder. Vissa frågetecken har dock uppkommit kring inomhusklimatet i husen och risken för både under- och övertemperaturer. En annan viktig aspekt är hur husens egenskaper påverkar värmelasterna och hur detta i sin tur påverkar energiförsörjningssystemet. I detta examensarbete undersöks dessa båda aspekter ? värmelastegenskaper och innetemperaturer ? i fyra likadana nybyggda flerbostadshus i Falkenberg.

This bachelor essay is divided into two parts, the first being a construction of a single-familyhouse and the second an in-depth study of five different isolation materials, analysed from anenergy perspective.The first part, the construction of the single-family house, has been created from knowledgeacquired during three years of studying at KTH Royal institute of Technology in Stockholm, inthe program Architecture and the Built Environment. The constructed house is a one-floorhouse of 137m2with façade plaster, situated in Borlänge, Sweden. The house has a wooden framewhich is built on a on sight cast concrete foundation, on the ground. The house?s roof is a gableroof, which has an angle of 24 degrees.

Pulsatilla vernalis is one of several endangered plant species that benefit from wildfires and small scale disturbance events that repel competing vegetation and create open patches in the vegetation cover. Previous studies argue that Pulsatilla vernalis is decreasing in numbers due to vegetation changes associated with the decrease in wildfires, forest grazing and changes in forest management. In this study, 17 populations of P. vernalis were inventoried in order to examine if soil and/or vegetation structures affect the population structure of P. vernalis (i.e.

The purpose of this study was to exam the possible differences in the experienced self-confidence and motivation among the elite players in bandy and amateur players in bandy. In addition, any differences between boys and girls within the same area to be studied. A total of 112 athletes participated of whom 52 of them classified as elite players and 60 amateur players, with 62 boys and 50 girls. The athletes filled at one point in the questionnaires The Sport Motivation Scale, Harter?s (1980) ?competence scale? and The Sport Confidence Inventory.

Det perfekta kroppsidealet gör sig ofta påmind i samhälls- och mediadebatten. Dagens västerländska kroppsideal domineras av en smal och fettfri kvinnokropp. Under tonåren är fokuseringen på kroppen mer påtaglig än under någon annan del i livet. Strävan efter det slanka idealet är svårt att uppnå och kan medföra att individen inte förmår att acceptera sin kropp. Syftet med denna studie var att få en bild av och jämföra kroppsuppfattningen hos unga kvinnor som går på gymnasiet i Luleå respektive Jokkmokk.

This is a Master´s Thesis based on my own idea instead of that of a company. It is a survey that focuses on finding out more about which part of the development process that is blocking the establishment of electronic scorecards on the golf market. Why has it not been introduced on the market in a larger scale yet, considering the technology we possess today? This question is investigated through interviews with the Swedish Golf association, and three companies that have chosen different paths to implement an electronic scorecard. The interviews focuses on finding out what developers and the association believe to be the main problem, before taking the next step in releasing electronic scorecards on a larger scale.

This thesis reports on a case study of two different organisational forms in the Swedish forest industry; the geographic and the functional organisation. The work in the geographic organisation is carried out within districts under the supervision of an overall responible district manager, where as in the functional organisation the work has been divided into functions headed by function managers. Forest magement, logging and wood purchases are examples of such functions. The general idea of the functional organisation is having the functions working over a larger geographic unit, without subdividing district boundaries of the region. Also a third organisational form of current interest for the forest industry; the process orientated organisation, is analyzed in the case study. Here, a company outside the forest industry has been analyzed, since no forest company was considered to have made as much progress of changing organisation to process orientation. In the report I present the results from qualitative interviews, where I give the reader a picture of the motives behind each organisational form, what the form implies for some of the company?s interested parties and the organisations? views on future organisational development.

This thesis presents the results of the implementation and evaluation of two machine learning algorithms [Baz98, GB97]based on notions from Rough Set theory [Paw82]. Both algorithms were implemented and tested using the Weka [WF00]software framework. The main purpose for doing this was to investigate whether the experimental results obtained in [Baz98]could be reproduced, by implementing both algorithms in a framework that provided common functionalities needed by both. As a result of this thesis, a Rough Set framework accompanying the Weka system was designed and implemented, as well as three methods for discretization and three classi cation methods. The results of the evaluation did not match those obtained by the original authors.

Small!size!enterprises!within!the!outdoor!industry!seldom!use!a!structured!process!or!method!when!involving!users!in!product!development.!One!reason!for!this!is!that!many!structured!development!processes!are!designed!for!large!companies!with!very!different!resources.!When!involving!users!in!product!development!processes,!the!most!common!user! is! an! elite! athlete.! She! or! he! often! has! different! requirements! than! the! regular!consumer!and!in!the!customers?!point!of!view;!this!leads!to!nonCmaximized!developed!products.!!The! result! of! this! thesis! is! a! user! involvement! process! for! small! outdoor! companies!based! on! the! Sister! Kenny! Research! Center! Innovation! Handbook,! a! product!development!process,!which!itself!is!based!on!a!phaseCgate!model.!The!process!focuses!on!the!user!category!enthusiastic!amateurs,!since!this!is!what!companies!in!the!industry!require.!The!process!also! focuses!on!how!and!where! small!outdoor! companies! should!involve!users!and!give!recommendations!on!how!many!users!that!should!be!involved!in!a! product! development! process,! different! from! what! the! theory! recommend.! The!process! also! builds! on! that! ideas! should! come! from! the! users! first,! and! then! being!further!developed!by!the!company's!product!developers.!The!degree!of!communication!between!users!and!the!company!is!shown!and!the!report!clarifies!the!user!involvement!intensity!in!product!development!processes.!!The!involvement!process!that!has!been!developed!has!also!been!summarized!in!a!guide!that! can!be!used!by! a! company!on! a!daily!basis.!This! contains! information!on,! among!other!things,!how!users!are!selected!and!how!to!plan!a!workshop.!!! !.

Do new, attractive neighborhoods meet the requirements of being socially sustainable? This essay is based on the potential conflicts between the pursuit of social sustainability, while the theory of the creative class influence city planning. Social sustainability is difficult to measure, but implies broadly that everyone should have equal rights and opportunities. A city or region that aims to attract a certain type of people by providing what they ask for, might pay less attention and spend less resources on the rest of the population. Socially sustainable - for whom? The new district Hyllie in southern Malmö stands in focus, and the paper seeks to identify how different operators in Malmö defines the concept of social sustainability, how it is implemented in the design of Hyllie, and if any potential conflicts may arise.Interviews with the following informants; representants from the Office for City Planning in Malmö, the nonprofit organization Sustainable Development Skåne, the Commission for a Socially Sustainable Malmö and the company Skanska Öresund have constituted the main methodology, among with reading and analyzing existing documents and policies relating to the development of Hyllie.

Fast pyrolysis is a method for converting biomass into three energy rich products: char, gas and bio-oil, where the latter is most interesting.  Pyrolysis is an endothermic process where biomass is heated in an anaerobic environment and, with the right operating conditions, up to 80 %wt bio-oil can be extracted. Key parameters for fast pyrolysis are: stable reactor temperature (~500°C), short residue time for gas in the reactor (<2 s) and a very high heating rate for the biomass. Today there are several different process solutions for fast pyrolysis, where fluidized beds and rotating cones are most developed. Bio-oil has compared to fossil oil: lower heating value, low pH and also polymerizes with time. Because of this upgrading is desirable for increasing competitiveness.