The present study aimed to replicate Tversky & Kahneman's' survey of 1981 The Asian Disease Problem. A survey was conducted on the Internet (N = 200). An identical problem was added, yet with The Swine Flu as the disease. This was done to be able to investigate if there are any order effects, and also if it matters whether the mentioned disease is fictional or real. The results show the same results as Tversky & Kahneman already noted; positively and negatively framed problems generate different responses from the participants.

I samband med att intresset för att bygga högre trähus har ökat så krävs nya lösningar för att t.ex. kunna möta efterfrågan på stora öppna ytor och långa spännvidder. Träbjälklag med lång spännvidd har dock oftast svårigheter med att klara kraven på svikt och vibrationer. Ett nyutvecklat förslag på träbjälklag som förmodas klara dessa krav bättre än traditionella träbjälklag har varit utgångspunkten för detta examensarbete där syftet har varit att undersöka bjälklagets styvhet. Detta gjordes laborativt genom att bygga och testa en prototyp av det föreslagna bjälklaget och genom att en numerisk modell baserad på finita element metoden togs fram och användes för att studera hur olika parametrar påverkar bjälklagets styvhetsegenskaper.Bjälklagets design bygger på fackverksprincipen i primärriktningen och på balkverkan i sekundärriktningen.

A common problem in forestry is plant death caused by frost. The risk of frost is highest on wind protected, flat or low-lying areas in the terrain. Here you often have regeneration problems with Norwegian spruce which is especially sensitive to spring frost. Swedish tree experiments have shown that the black spruce can be a suitable alternative on these areas, for example on moisture frost prone areas. The species originates from North America and its pioneer tree characteristics make it more frost hardy than Norwegian spruce.

Climate change is an increasingly widely known concept. In the EU the construction sector is responsible for more than a third of the carbon dioxide emissions and 40 % of the total energy use. In Sweden, measures have been taken to prevent this climate change. By 16 targets, three of which can be linked to the construction sector, Sweden will reduce the negative trend. None of the three goals with relation to the construction sector will however be achieved before 2020.

The purpose of this study is to examine how participants perceive virtual agents shown on a computer display. In particular, it is explored to what extent participants transfer gender and attraction stereotypes that are commonly applied in the physical world to virtual agents. Previous related studies have often explored only text or voice interfaces, without any visually appearing agents, and here indeed found evidence for a transfer of gender stereotypes. Our hypothesis was that the addition of a visual agent interface would reinforce this effect. The results support our hypothesis that participants transfer human gender and attraction stereotypes onto virtual agents, as well as that these processes are affected by the visual representations of the agents..

The change of the Real property index map has met a lot of resistance in Dalarna.This is the reason that the parcel?s reform has not had the same impact in Dalarnaas in the rest of Sweden. In addition, even ?Laga skifte? (the reformation on propertystructure) was never effected in most areas of Dalarna. This has lead to thatDalarna has a unique property structure with many small and narrow parcels.Some argue, however, that the property structure has been the same for many centuries.The purpose of this thesis is therefore to study how the property structurelooked before ?storskifte? (the reformation on property structure) was done, howit was when äganderättsutredningen (the adjudication), in the 1970s, was accomplished,and finally how the structure looks when land consolidation has been implemented.For the template of the studies, seven different villages were chosen.The basis for the study was comprised of acts for each stage and each village.The study showed that change in property structure has occurred.

The intention with the research was to investigate the role of civil society in the Kenyan democratization process. The research intends thus to analyze (1) the role of civil society in Kenya's transition to democracy (1990- 2002), and (2) the role of civil society in the further democratization process (2002- 2013).The results of the research demonstrates that the role of civil society played a crucial role in Kenya?s transition to democracy given that civil society provided with a multiparty- system in 1991. In addition, civil society endowed with education for citizens in order to attain constitutional reforms. As a result, Kenya accomplished a transition to democracy in 2002.

During the last decades the Swedish local party systems have gone through some considerable changes. The number of parties present in local party systems have increased and in some cases even doubled. This makes coalition building between parties complex and parties will be forced to rethink their coalition strategies and adjust to the new circumstances. Theoretically, coalition building has often been considered and applied to national data and there have been just a few attempts to develop and theoretically explain coalitions on a local level. Thus the aim of this paper is to use different theoretical approaches to local data to test the significance of traditional coalition theories.

The role of the quality manager has evolved from being a quality controller to work with a more global business. Within many organizations in Sweden, however, the traditional role of the quality manager's remains and the tasks categorized as quality control still takes up most of the quality manager's time. The survey conducted as part of this master thesis shows that the quality manager in most businesses has multiple roles in addition to the role of quality manager, which can create a role conflict. One consequence of this is that each improvement is not given priority due to time constraints. Although the importance of a clear and committed leadership is the key for succeeding as the quality manager.

This report is the written documentation of a project work carried out at the Division of Engineering Materials at Luleå University of Technology in cooperation with Seco Tools AB. The project deals with the analysis of residual stresses in Ti-Al-N thin film grown on WC/Co cutting inserts. The composition of Al varied from 0% up to 75%. Increasing the Al content in the Ti(1-x)Alx N compound improves the compressive residual stresses even after annealing of the material. The experiments have been performed in a high temperature x-ray diffractometer (HTXRD) where the interplanar atomic spacing was determined in-situ and subsequent converted into stresses.

This is a study about the communication interaction in the context of the reference work at some public university-libraries and some private company libraries in Gothenburg and Borås. The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the communication interaction in a library situation. The second purpose is to deepen the knowledge, understanding and to establish what is important in this communication. Focus has been on how the intermediaries communicate and how she or he perceives this communication. The intermediary needs to manage the communication with all the different patrons and different information needs of the patrons.

The purpose of this study is to compare the energy related and environmental consequences of implementing optical sorting as a means of waste collection with those of reducing food waste. In addition to studying the possibility of implementing optical sorting in downtown Stockholm, the yielded amounts of energy from waste collection and reduced wastage will be calculated. This is done by way of literature reviews and interviews. The amount of energy that can be generated through optical sorting and biogas production via anaerobic digestion in downtown Stockholm is 29-44 TJ/year, compared to 118 TJ/year saved by completely eliminating food waste. The generated biogas can replace fossil fuels, but the required food waste contributes to increased greenhouse gas emissions as well as reduced bio diversity and eutrophication during the wasted food?s lifecycle.

The purpose has been to investigate leisure-time centers actual work on children with attention deficit disorder. In addition, the study strives to make leisure-time centers way of working, in relation to their assignments, visible. The study has also compared how the leisure-time centers work and what the research says. The survey was conducted with the help of three exploratory interviews with pedagogues and three-piece observations at the leisure-time centers. It was carried out at three different schools in two counties in Sweden.The results of the survey show that the schools are trying to create clear procedures, though the centers succeed with this in varied degrees.

This project is a learning CD-ROM production aimed at first-time parents. It is using both sound and images, moving as well as non-moving. The purpose of the production is to be an interesting alternative to traditional books. We have been looking at similar productions like drivers license educational CD-ROMs and encyclopedias for inspiration and ideas on how to proceed. In order to give the content some dynamics, we've also added the element of 3D-animated sequences.

The purpose of this thesis was to study a selection of Swedish government agencies and their usage of new media to convey information. We thought that the relationship between government agencies and the media should be addressed. This because of the current transitional period between traditional and new media. We have studied five different Swedish government agencies; Swedish Armed Forces, Swedish Tax Agency, Swedish National Institute of Public Health, Trafikverket and Sida.We used a qualitive content analysis and analyzed their homepages on the basis of six different criteria. In addition to this we studied their presence on external social communities and how the government agencies comply with the requirements of their communicative efforts.The study shows that the government agencies? media usage varies.