In an effort to strengthen democracy in the union, the EU in 2005 took a new approach to communications policy to reach out to the citizens. The strategic document "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate" was accompanied by two other documents, and the three of them were the core of this policy. Both democracy and communications work means at EU level a higher complexity than in the nation-state arena. Objective of this study is to examine how the implementation of Plan D has turned out in a democracy renewal perspective. To achieve that answers are sought to questions concerning the goals of Plan D, how they are still present today, what happened in practice regarding the efforts that are highlighted, and how the substance of the activities can be judged from a democratic theory perspective.

Environmental issues and sustainable development is a high priority in today?s society and has received substantial attention lately. In the inaugural speech it is expressed that the goal for the IT?politics is a sustainable information society for everyone, which can be achieved by using IT to support sustainable growth. The Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications has developed a document which outlines three specific proposals on what the government should focus on during a three?year period (2008?2010) that with the use of IT will contribute to a sustainable society.

This thesis deals with an iterative user-centered IT-development project in a bank setting. The aim is to present a solution for deployment of future Internet banking for small businesses. The project features a design of IT-related concepts and ideas with a strong emphasis on scenario-based design and the usage of patterns as a documentation tool.The project plan featured an iterative framework and was carried out by a group of designers in collaboration with a reference group representing the future users of the system. This group consisted of company managers and bank employees, all from the small town of Åtvidaberg in Sweden.The method used in the development process was Scrum. A total of three sprints were completed with user meetings at the end of every sprint.

This bachelor thesis discusses three Swedish landscape architects and their plan drawings and illustrations. The landscape architects are from the 18th century, the 19th century respectively the 20th century. The three persons are: Fredrik Magnus Piper, Knut Forsberg and Gunnar Martinsson. The landscape architects are brought up in chronological order in a chapter each where the person?s life, educations and work are described.

Knowledge organization is perceived as a central, constituting activity defining the notion of libraries. Critique calling for a new theoretical foundation voiced by active researchers within library and information science concerning the current knowledge organization has been utilized as a point of departure. Specifications concerning a new theoretical foundation implied by these critiques are considered within this thesis and theory found in The Order of Things by Michel Foucault proposed as an alternative theory for understanding knowledge organization as a human science where meaning, value and representation, by which the ordering of things is possible, is acknowledged as a result of human activity and history. Thus meaning, value and representation must be perceived as dynamic. An example of implementation of the proposed theory has been achieved by the use of bibliometrics.

To be able to plan for the expansion of a town, one needs a vision of the future appear-ance of the town. It is the current issues (social situation, supply and demand, political control etc.) which decide what the ideal for town planning is. This is turn is the steering factor of the physical structure of the town. Therefore, the town's structure is decided by these ideals.In this report, I will present planning ideals that have historically been, and which criticisms that have been directed towards them. With reference to these issues, I will present those guidelines and ideals we have today for planning of our towns.

This study has focused on obesity prevention efforts in schools in the United States of America. The study was conducted in two states, Oklahoma and New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, the study was focused on more minor efforts which were the "CSHP", HEAL, Early Sprout, FIT, AFHY, 5210, and Kids CATCH Club. In Oklahoma, the focus on the study was on the program It's All About Kids.Method: Unstructured interviews and observation, analysis from an national policy document. A total of seventeen interviews conducted, seven of them in New Hampshire and ten in Oklahoma.

Reading old handwritten documents can be a real challenge for genealogists, especially as some documents in Sweden are written in the old German alphabet that is not used today. Much research has been done on how to enable computers to read old handwritten documents, but computers have so far not reached the level of reading that expert humans have. The focus seems to be on the computers reading the document with or without the help of human experts, with the aim of making the documents available in easily read form. I have, however, not found any research on how computers can help non-expert humans trying to read handwritten documents. In this project I have focused especially on beginning genealogists as reading gets easier with practice, and you need the help more in the beginning. By conducting interviews and observations with genealogists I established that reading is an issue and that there are many factors involved that make it difficult to read.

J.O. Mallander?s Extended Play (1968) is a sound recording, a readymade, of the counting of votes in two presidential elections in Finland, during 1962 and 1968. A voice repeats monotonously: ?Kekkonen, Kekkonen, Kekkonen, Kekkonen, Kekkonen?? Although the Finnish president Urho Kekkonen represents, almost personifies, the politics of the post World War II period in Finland, Extended Play does not explicitly address the political. Rather, as this essay argues, it engages in the discourses of power and politics by providing a temporalization of its fixedness, or what Jacques Derrida terms the proper.Extended Play is, in parallel with Derrida?s critique of western metaphysics, a deconstruction in sound that challenges the state ideologies conveyed in the process of the counting of votes, where the presuppositions of the presence of the voice characterizes the ambiguities of power that Kekkonen?s politics of neutrality represent.Mallander?s readymade emerges as a double of the game theory strategies of the Cold War, a mimetic surplus of the administrative control mechanisms of sound recording.

Background Swedish nurses are required by law to document nursing care. Studies have proved scarce in nursing documentation with regard to written language, the nursing process and the nurse´s caring perspective. Educating nurses in using the VIPS model have improved nursing documentation. Few studies have included nursing documentation of psychiatric care.Aim The aim of this study was to describe nursing documentation within psychiatric care of inpatient settings.Method A quantitative, retrospective descriptive research design was applied. A total of 60 nursing journals from a psychiatric department of six wards were studied.

Studies in the recent years have showed that the preschool playground is important for both the physical and emotional development of children. The Botkyrka local government has decided to improve their preschool playgrounds in order to take advantage of these studies. The administration of childcare and education in Botkyrka is arranging a network between the different preschools where they work together to improve their outdoor environments. The network is arranging workshops and seminars where people from the different preschools can come and gain inspiration for improvements of their own preschools. The administration of properties has created a document where they describe the changes that are supposed to be made to the different outdoor environments. Through the administration of properties and the person who is responsible for the outdoor environments I was introduced to their work with the preschool playgrounds.

This study was conducted at a special school for children with autism and developmental disabilities. The study consists of three interviews where pedagogues have different experiences of working with children in need of special support. The aim is to get an idea of how teachers think about working with children autism, but above all to find out what methods and educational tools that are used, and why they are used to best motivate students to a rewarding education. Sense of coherence (SOC) is a central concept and a theoretical basis of the study relating to the student to create comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in life. All of these three are essential for the student to find a predictable environment.From the result shows how schools and teachers use different methods and different tools, but both have a focus to help the student find motivation in the learning process.

The main purpose of this Master Thesis has been to investigate issues concerning apple fruit quality in orchards of Äppelriket Österlen. The goal has been to develop a document, for future benefit towards growers and company management in the production of high quality apples.In order to investigate main issues of fruit quality, focus has been on statistics concerning apple varieties, age of the apple trees, new planting, orchard size and growers opinions. Nine growers have been interviewed to investigate opinions and contribution of different growing techniques to increased fruit quality. The investigation showed high age of the trees in production and low rate of planting of new trees. Differences in fruit quality were highest between small orchards. Most growers were satisfied with their fruit quality and with their own measures made to improve it.

Today an increasing number of schools and organizations are investing in so called Learning Management Systems. Researchers disagree on the pedagogical value of these tools. Some mean that Learning Management Systems cement old-fashioned behaviouristic teaching practices; others mean that the systems provide good opportunities in supporting learning in a socio cultural perspective. The aim of this study is to reach better understanding and increased knowledge of how the introduction of a Learning Management System influences the role of the teacher and how the learning is organized. We have conducted two case studies.

Today, activities funded with public funds needs to present relevant and reliable information which shows the results obtained. Requirements increase in welfare activities to be run based on scientific, empirical knowledge. This applies particularly to social work. The social work is, however, poorly researched in areas such as knowledge of interventions in the content, context and effects. One way to evidence-base social work can be to conduct regular and qualified assessments.