This thesis has two purposes: (1) to analyze the emptiness in Blodbok by Christine Falkenland, and (2) to analyze my own reading of the same book. I have chosen to focus on how emptiness is expressed through the body, the language and the place in Blodbok, because of the deep impact these seem to have on the emptiness. The thesis discusses what kind of emptiness that is described, what it does to me as a reader, and how it is connected to other works by Falkenland. Cultural politics of emotions by Sara Ahmed, Uses of literature by Rita Felski and Pouvoirs de l?horreur by Julia Kristeva together form the theoretical framework.Blodbok is a poetry collection, about the loss of a mother.

Alien plants that have intentionally been introduced to an area for cultivation in public or private gardens constitute the primary pathway of introduction for invasive alien species that spread into nature. Garden owners want species that have satisfying characteristics, these characteristics are often also linked to plant invasiveness. Thus, the horticulture industry plays an important role by making scientifically based decisions and phasing out invasive plants and replacing them with alternative species with satisfying characteristics, but low risks of becoming invasive. This thesis aimed to examine the sale of and the attitudes towards alien plants in the horticulture industry in Sweden. Alien terrestrial plants identified to have a severe risk, high risk or potentially high risk of spreading and becoming invasive according to ArtDatabankens assessment, were examined to see if they were for sale.

During the 1970?s the interest for quality management and the concept of quality costs increased considerably. Business leaders noticed that there was a great potential for reducing costs of poor quality. Since up to 10-30% of a company?s total turnover may consist of poor quality costs some consider them as an unexploited goldmine.

AimThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of MotVikt´s obesity-treatment program on eight severely obese subjects, concerning Body Mass Index, Waist-Circumference and Weight after three and a half months and Sense of Coherence, Body Image and Self-experienced Health after three months. The question in focus was: Did MotVikt´s obesity-treatment program have any effects concerning the factors mentioned above?MetodInformation was collected with questionnaires that were filled out by the eight subjects, three men and five women, who participated in MotVikt´s last round of treatment. Data concerning waist-circumference, weight and BMI were provided by MotVikt. The questionnaires that were used to get information about Sense of Coherence, Body Image and Self-Experienced health were SOC-29, BSQ and IQOLA SF-36.ResultatThe average BMI in the group has decreased with 2,9 kg/m2, from 39,7 till 36,8.

The aim of this study is to gain an increased knowledge and deeper understanding of compulsive gambling and its consequences in today?s society. Gambling addiction will be described and analysed by a selection of experts, therapists and people with an addictive gambling background. The basis of the empirical research has been undertaken by a qualitative design with interviews consisting of three fundamental themes. The research group of eight participants included four gamblers, two therapists and two specialists.

All since Thomas Kuhn?s strongly influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions the Philosophy of Science and ?even more so ?the Social Sciences have contained a greater amount of theories that could be described as more or less relativistic, meaning that the standards of justification or truth thereafter more often were said to be relative to language, culture, or biological makeup. One of the more elaborate ways of developing Thomas Kuhn?s theories in a more relativistic direction ismade by the philosopher Richard Rorty. Rorty, mainly a supporter of Thomas Kuhn, is also a philosopher who has been seen as a main exponent of a so called Postmodern philosophy.My intention in this thesis is to evaluate whether Kuhn's and Rorty's theories of science and knowledge could be regarded as relativism, in respects of their view of incommensurability, rational argumentation, and of their position vis-á-vis the more conventional picture of scientific knowledge and truth.

Many companies have historically forced their interests through without any thoughts about the future needs of the humans and the society. In the last few years voices have been raised for a change, companies need to take their responsibility regarding sustainable development.The purpose of the report is to describe and explain possible relations between sustainabil-ity performance of companies and profitability, valuation, industry and size respectively.To be able to judge the sustainability performance of the companies Folksam (2006a) have been used. This is a solid investigation of the companies listed on the A- and O-lists of the Stockholm Stock Exchange by the end of 2005. The sustainability marks have been com-pared with the chosen key values for each hypothesis respectively. With this quantitative data as foundation, a quantitative approach and a deductive method have been used.In the first area of the investigation, profitability, the authors found correlation for the main hypothesis between sustainability performance and ?Return on Total Assets? through a statistical test.

Chlorinated solvent are volatile organic substances that can be harmful for humans and for the environment. Examples of common chlorinated solvents are perchloroethene, PCE, and trichloroethene, TCE. Chlorinated solvents appear as contaminants in soils primarily where they have been used as washing fluids in dry-cleaning facilities or as degreasers in metal industries. Chlorinated solvents are DNAPLs (dense non-aqueous phase liquids), which means that they are not easily dissolved in water and that they sink to the bottom of the aquifer. Adsorption to soils is low so chlorinated solvents are mobile in soils.

Title: Point of Purchase TV-screens - An analysis of Gender and Generations in the In-store-Retail-EnvironmentDate of Seminar: May 29th 2007 Course: BUS 809, Master Thesis in International Marketing and Brand Management.Authors: Søren Berg Jørgensen, Daniel McCartney and Ben Wallenborn.Supervisors: Karin Alm and Ulf Johansson Keywords: In-store Marketing, Point-of-Purchase, In-store TV, Gender, Generations. Thesis Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to contribute to a greater understanding as to how consumers react to and perceive PoP TV-screens within the in-store retail environment. More specific, the aim of the study is to investigate if gender and generations react and feel differently towards the use of PoP TV-screens. From a practical standpoint, the study will aid marketers in how they can communicate more effectively with their target-market inside the store. In addition to this, the study will provide retailers with an insight into the overall atmospheric effect that the placement of TV screens has on stores.

When a company seeks to enter a new market, the multiple choices of possible new business relationships exist. Further, establishing new relationships is a time-consuming procedure associated with high uncertainty and high costs. Hence, if the firm does not succeed in pinpointing the most suitable business partners to collaborate with, the firm may both forfeit other possible good relationships, as well as resources invested. Based on this notion the aim of this thesis is to explore how a manufacturing company can base the selection of future dealership Business-to-Business partners by evaluating indicators of a possible business relationship?s potential to become successful. The choice of focusing on the Business-to-Business relationship between a manufacturer and a dealership company originates from being influenced by the issues facing the Swedish agricultural machinery manufacturer Väderstad-Verken AB, who is putting attention to explore the US market.

The system tungsten-oxygen has potential of being suitable for decorative coatings since ceramic coatings are often hard and wear resistant, and since modulations in oxygen content or incorporation of small ions could give bright colours. The aim of this report was to investigate the relationship between process parameters and  the properties of the films, with the wear resistance being of special interest.Samples with tungsten to oxygen ratios in the range of 100:0 to 25:75 at% were made using reactive sputter deposition, either with constant gas flow, or gas flow controlled by optical emission of the plasma. The hysteresis of the system, which means that a certain gas flow will cause different pressure and/or target voltage depending on in what way the flow is reached, makes it interesting to control the process where the system makes the steep change from metallic tungsten to ceramic tungsten oxide. This is difficult and thus requires precise control equipment.The samples were analysed using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and an empirical wear test suitable for small components like cell phone cover for example, in order to characterize the structure, composition and wear resistance of the coatings. The results could be divided into three groups: (I) tungsten-like, with very low oxygen content; (II) mixed phase and (III) tungsten oxide like, with oxygen content close to 75 at%.

This project aims at investigating if the use of UML as a support to small-scale development ofan embedded system is relevant. The investigation is conducted by using UML during the initialphase of the development ofTelfafill, a filling machine by the company ?Telfafill AB?. The aimof the development of Telfafill is to separate the user interface from the control unit. In additionto this main objective, Telfafill AB would like possible changes to, and additions of,functionality of the filling machine to be investigated.Within the boundaries of this project, the development of Telfafill reached a full requirementspecification of the proposed system, and contact was made with potential external developers.No prototype construction had been started when the project ended.

This study has been made on behalf of the Swedish Transport Administration to study the work of the department National Projects. The Swedish construction industry has for many years been characterized by low productivity. By being the largest purchaser of contracts in the industry the Swedish Transport Administration has a unique opportunity to influence the productivity. In order to improve in productivity The Swedish Transport Administration is adopting a new role in which they will order more turnkey projects. In our study, we will focus on how one department within the Swedish Transport Administration, National Projects, can perform successful turnkey projects.To clarify how the department National Projects can perform successful projects, this study identifies critical factors for projects and their links to different phases of the project.

The milk production has developed rapidly the last years. The milk production per cow is increasing and the production units are larger with an increasing number of animals and a decreasing number of workers. Many milk producers invest in automatic milking systems (AM) to meet this change. In these systems the cows can voluntary decide milking frequency and usually the milking frequency are higher than two times per day. But how does the milking frequency effect the composition of the milk? The aim of the present study was to study the effect of milking frequency on the milk composition and the milk fat quality.

Internet and social media have opened up new possibilities for companies and organisations tocommunicate their brand. It only takes a few seconds to communicate the message of a website to theuser. This indicates the importance of having the intended message of the website communicated clearlyin order to give the user a correct impression of the company or the organisation. When it comes to theconcept design of a website, it?s important that all different parts is presented uniformly.