Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of environmental contaminants that have gained increasing attention due to their potential to bioaccumulate, environmental persistence and potential toxicity. PFASs have been found in surface water, sediment, air, soil, sludge and ice caps globally, as well as in wildlife and humans. Furthermore, PFASs have also been detected in drinking water, leading to raised concerns for human health, since drinking water is one of the most significant sources of PFASs for the general population. Conventional water treatment techniques have shown to be ineffective removing PFASs, highlighting the importance for further research to develop efficient removal techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate the removal efficiency of PFASs in water using two treatment techniques; granular activated carbon (GAC), type Filtrasorb 400®, and anion exchange (AE), type Purolite A-600. Additionally, the effect of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) on removal efficiency was studied.

This essay focuses on two social workers talking about their working field in the prostitution area in a Swedish city. The study aims to investigate how the social workers talk about their field and clients that are in it through the use of narrative analysis. Furthermore we discuss the complications with qualitative interviews, narrative analysis from a feminist theoretical and methodological point of view. The study is based on an interview with the two social workers. The result reveals only tendencies rather than a general "truth".

The purpose of this study has been to look into and analyze the view on sex equality in textbooks and teaching media, and teaching of a group of upper secondary school teachers, through a gender perspective. The teachers teach subjects within social- and political science. The two questions that I wanted to answer are: What views do the teachers have on sex equality in their teaching? What views do the teachers have on sex equality in the teaching media (textbooks and other teacher media) which they have access to? Since I wanted to look into the teachers own views I chose unstructured interviews as the method of gather empirical information. To interpret the transcribed texts I chose the hermeneutic view of people as intentional.

In this paper I argue that the development of innovation ideas within the financial system of scientific research might have a counterpart within the financial system of the social sciences and the arts. The ideas of innovation share a common way to evaluate science in terms of how well it can contribute to economic growth. In the past two decades a similar development can be observed within Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ), one of the largest external financiers of the social sciences and the arts in Sweden. The idea of evaluating research used by the innovation ideas has grown popular within RJ, only it seems they evaluate research in terms of how well it fits into an international research community rather than how much it can contribute to economic growth as is the case within the innovation ideas. By examining the different ways of financing research that RJ has used during the last 2 decades, this paper aims to introduce a new perspective in which it is possible to understand the development within this type research funding as a part of a bigger system of development..

The purpose of my study is to give a good picture of what social media really is and how companies can make use of it, in their marketing strategy. It gets more important for every day that companies fully understand how social media works and how to act in the new digital channels. To be an updated marketer today, you need to fully understand social media and how it can be implemented in the company marketing strategy. This study gives you a snapshot over todays situation in the area of social media marketing.I have interviewed four different persons, who I believe have a great competence and are highly qualified for this kind of study. All of the interviewed persons work with social media marketing at a daily basis.

Our purpose with this essay is to examine how staff that works with drugaddicts in compulsory-treatment institutions for women and men uses gender in their work. We are trying to get knowledge and understand how the staff is using their own and the client's gender in the work that they are doing. We have chosen to take focus within women's care in institutions and compare if the work is done in the same way with male clients.Our essay is based on interviews with treatment-staff. We have used a qualitative method. The interviews are made with both men and women.

This master´s thesis is a comparative study of the importance of eight factors suggested in the literature to be related to the perceived utility of the service Book a librarian (Swe. Boka en bibliotekarie). Disciplinary differences were also analysed. 73 encounters between students and librarians in 11 Swedish academic libraries were studied using a survey. Six factors were significantly related (at the .05 level) to the utility of the service.

The aim of this thesis is to interpret and discuss the weapon-graves of Viking Age Birka. The weapon-grave phenomenon is deemed differential in relation to the rest of the grave-material of the site, and thus the questions that motivate the thesis is: who was buried with weapons and why? Further questions arise regarding the social aspects of individuals who were buriedalong with weapons. The theoretical approach will be to evaluate any differences in 'social class', 'social age' and 'gender' between the weapon-grave contexts. By conducting qualitativeand quantified analysis of the grave-goods, this thesis adresses both overall and detailed patterns in correlation and constellations between weapons, other grave-goods and terms of burial..

Studerade effekten av social ångest och självfokusering på attributionsstil och impressionsbildning. En 2 (uppmätt hög/låg social ångest) x 2 (manipulerad hög/låg självfokusering) design användes. Deltagarna var 68 studenter, 56 kvinnor och 12 män. För attributionsstil användes separata skalor för bra och dåliga händelser. För impressionsbildning användes en positiv och en negativ skala.

Participation is central to the concept of democracy. The role of the civic participation varies with different types of democracy, but a fundamental requirement is that the participation is free and equal. In spite of this, there are significant differences between possibilities to democratic participation in Sweden today.This essay seeks to understand how disability, historically and still today, is constructed as a social deviation from normality, and is constructed to Otherness.One way to regard freedom and equality is to examine the personal autonomy, the legth to wich a person decides her/his roles and activities in abcence of external limitations. Personal autonomy is theoretically central in deliberative and strong democracy, but should reasonobly be a demand for the fundamental definition of democracy.The explanation to why the lack of personal autonomy is accepted, is that the construction of Otherness results in that the persons are categorized and are given simplified characteristics, and are thereby not accepted as equivalent people.In the inteviews conducted, seven politicians contribute both whiteness, pathological discourses regarding disability and ideas of normality through discussing democracy, participation and disability. Simultaniously, they express interest and an awareness on the majority's power and symbolic violence on the minority..

I have researched different methods for practicing with the purpose of learning some useful ways to handle my performance anxiety issues, to better understand the phenomenon, and to be able to perform better under pressure. I chose or created nine methods and used each during a decided period of time, each period ending with a performance. Afterwards I analyzed the methods with the help of audio recordings and written concert evaluations to see if it was possible to alter my practicing techniques to be more directly focused on preparing for the concert situation..

The purpose of this essay was to investigate the care personnel's experience, and thoughts concerning the elderlies use of sedatives and sleeping tablets. The purpose was also to make a comparison between different forms of living, in an attempt to find out if the form of living in itself was a factor that affected the use of sedatives and sleeping-tablets.In order to investigate this, the main questions of this essay became:- To what extent do the patients use sedatives and sleeping tablets?- What is the care personnel's experience of, and thoughts about the patients' use of sedatives and sleeping tablets?To obtain answers to my questions I interviewed care personnel working at different types of homes for elderly people and working with elderly people still living at home.I came to the conclusion that where you live may also have an influence on the use of sedatives and sleeping tablets. This could be seen when a group of elderly people lived together, and some of them were suffering from dementia. Then it could happen that the elderly with dementia where given sedatives and sleeping tablets, not just in order to calm them, but also to give the others a better environment to live in..

Med denna uppsats vill vi (författarna) samla ihop 5 år av tankar, teorier och erfarenheter kring systemutveckling och lärande. Uppsatsen presenterar 8 projekt som är genomförda i Blekinge mellan 1995-1999. Med utgångspunkt i projekten behandlas en utvecklingsprocess för IT-system som är baserad på kreativitet och lärande miljöer. Särskilt lyfter uupsatsen fram behovet av att förändra processen för att möta slutanvändare av program och tjänster..

The purpose of this essay was to look into whether any attention is paid to the biological children in foster families when the investigation about foster home is made. I did some qualitative interviews with six foster home-investigators, working in five different municipalities. Some of the main questions have been: Do the investigator meet the biological children during an investigation? Are the children´s opinions taken into consideration? Is the suitability of a foster home judged even from the biological children´s perspective?It was shown that it could happen that a foster home was not approved, if it for some reasons should be a negative experience for the biological children, if a foster child would be placed in their home. All the six persons in my interviews thought that it is important to take the biological children´s opinions into consideration, and that the family is not suitable to be a foster home if not all of the family members have a positive attitude.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a recognized social problem. The IPV is common in all types of intimate relations, this essays purpose was focused on the violence performed by women against men. To find the social workers conceptions the study conducted a survey sent to local social service in Sweden. The essay had a statistic approach to visualize the social workers conceptions, and a discursive approach to focus on the language used in text answers. Different aspects of the violence were explored to find the conceptions.