The sun is essential to life on earth and no matter where you are, there is a constant need ofenergy. Nearly 800 000 years ago man learned for the first time to use fire in a controlled way.Since then, fire has given us the opportunity to inhabit places despite a cold climate. In Swedenthe resident sector accounts for a major part of the total consumption of energy. In a time whenenvironmental issues and greenhouse effects are increasing, we also see a future of rising energyprices. With this perspective, we have in this bachelor thesis in the Building Environment at theRoyal Institute of Technology, KTH, in Stockholm decided to focus on the renewable energysource, solar energy.The energy from solar radiation is a free resource and does not have any negative effects uponthe environment.

The aim of this study is to try to explain the process using both an actor driven perspective as well as a structural perspective examining the reasons why the County Council of Värmland wants to merge with Region Västra Götaland. The answers to the following research questions are sought to shed light on the problem: What constrained the discretion of  the political actors in the choice of region to merge with? Which role did  different political actors play? Does the study provide Game Theory, from Rational Choice theory,  and Path Dependency, from Historic Institutionalism, a new perspective and strength especially  when bringing them together? The study is limited to two policy areas, health care and regional development policy. The structural background is drawn upon the Annual Report 2008 of the County Council Värmland, the Regional Development Program and Regional Transport Infrastructure Plan 2010-2021 by Region Värmland. The chronological order of decisions and events is drawn upon protocols from various regional political organs all linked to the municipal of Värmland and the correspondence between the officials of Värmland?s municipal and the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency of the State.

This study concerns mapping and analysing two different Supply Chains at Setra Group. Setra Group is Sweden?s biggest producer of solid wood and is primarily owned by Sveaskog, Mellanskog and LRF. The Company consist of twelve sawmills, five planning mills and an organisation for distribution of building material. This study maps one chain for Swedish Glulam standard beam and one chain for solid pine flooring on export to Japan. The glulam chain is based on spruce as raw material and includes all actors between sawmill and the Swedish building material retailers.

Today, about 15 to 20 percent of Sweden?s total emission of carbon dioxide can be traced to the household sector. By examining apartment blocks in a life cycle perspective, the origin of the carbon dioxide emission has been charted and analyzed. This information has been used to create a computational model that calculates the total emission of carbon dioxide from a specific apartment block. The results from the analyzed apartment blocks indicate that both the use of energy and the emission of carbon dioxide have been reduced since the 1960s. Through the examination of building materials, it is possible to lower the emission of carbon dioxide that origins from the construction phase of an apartment block.

This final project discusses renewal and upgrading of the area of Prim. It is discussed how this industrial area can be an attractive neighborhood with a varied range of services and commercial trade. Prim is located 2km north-east of the center of Barcelona. The area boarders to a deep railway valley that historically has separated Prim from its neighboring districts. At present there is almost no housing, services or commercial trade within the area and the industry is discontinued or the existing industrial buildings are derelict.

This is a study of American Methodist Mission in Sweden and how this mission eventually formed the Methodist Church in Sweden 1876. The mission began as a consequence of returning Swedish emigrants and sailors who had encountered Methodism in America, mainly through the works of Swedish-American missionary Olof Gustaf Hedström on the Bethel ship in New York. During the 1850?s Methodist missionaries were sent to Scandinavia by the American Missions Society. The first to come to Sweden was Johan Peter Larsson, who spent two years in Sweden in 1854 before he was transferred to Norway.

Finnish-born writer Susanna Alakoski?s novel Svinalängorna became a big success after being published in Sweden in April 2006. Though the novel has many themes in common with earlier literature written by and about Finnish immigrants in Sweden, little attention has been brought to this fact by reviewers and journalists. This essay examines connections between Alakoski?s novel and Finnish migrant literature in Sweden, mainly from the 1970s, and how these connections have been recognised by reviewers in Sweden and Finland.

Finnish-born writer Susanna Alakoski?s novel Svinalängorna became a big success after being published in Sweden in April 2006. Though the novel has many themes in common with earlier literature written by and about Finnish immigrants in Sweden, little attention has been brought to this fact by reviewers and journalists. This essay examines connections between Alakoski?s novel and Finnish migrant literature in Sweden, mainly from the 1970s, and how these connections have been recognised by reviewers in Sweden and Finland.

This is an investigation of a mobile prefabrication factory´s competitiveness and profitability which also will result in a suggestion for a design of the factory. The mobile prefabrication factory is an idea of a new concept for production which is meant to be used in the manufacture of slab. The main intention with this concept is that by using a fast established prefabrication factory to produce elements near the construction site, thus avoiding transport from the factory to the building site. This means not only an environmental and economic gain, but also that you can avoid risking damage the elements which often occur during transportation. The contractor is owner of the mobile prefabrication factory and can thus avoid long waiting times and cyclicality.

This is a study about the transition process and the consolidation of power in Belarus. In this paper the concept of "authoritarian state building and the sources of regime competitiveness in the fourth wave" is the major theory used. After giving a description of the theory?s concepts a short historical background of Belarus follows. Chapters four describes and explain the political situation in Belarus during five periods.

AbstractTitle: Communicating diversity ? A study about communication and involvement in The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations.Number of pages: 58Author: Frida SamuelssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The general purpose of this essay is to analyse how the member organizations of LSU ? The National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations, see the communication,activities and their influence over the organization. I aim to do an analysis of the target group to find out if the lack of involvement in LSU is caused by communication problems.Material/Method: The method of this essay is quantitative and is based upon a web-survey.The chairmen of the member organizations have been asked to answer a survey about the communication in LSU. To get an idea of how widespread different opinions about LSU are the empirical data has been made into graphs to show the frequencies and also cross tabulations to find out if there are any correlations between the variables.Main result: This study has shown that the problem with involvement in LSU is only partly a communication problem. One important result is that many member organizations feel that LSU doesn?t listen to their opinions and they express a wish to have more influence over the organization.

A study to optimize insulation thickness for stock-, industrial- and office-buildings for external walls and roof in an economical perspective has been conducted on behalf of DynaMate. DynaMate?s role is to maintain all Scania?s buildings. Analysis has also included other parts of the building envelope, such as windows, exterior doors and industrial doors. In this thesis, three different types of exterior wall constructions has been investigated, these are a sandwich design consisting of sheet metal and a another one consisting of concrete, as well as a wall of concrete with a coating of plasters.

VAV (Variable Air Volume) system has been studied in a newly constructed office-building. The goal for the study has been to evaluate how the ventilations system work in practice, if adjustments can be made to achieve an more energy efficient system and to evaluate if other alternative ventilation systems is to be preferred in the further.The degree project has been executed at Helenius Engineering Firm who is working with the environment, media systems, HVAC and energy in buildings. The building that has been studied is owned and operated by Akademiska hus.Literature studies, visits at site, inventory, review of system documentation, energy analyses, interviews, key figures, LCC, sand energy- and indoor climate simulations has been made to study the building. Where appropriate some tools from Six Sigma have also been used.How to achieve an energy efficient system and a pleasant indoor climate is studied with human health and well-being as base for the indoor climate requirements. Technical support systems such as ventilation systems have to be designed so that an acceptable indoor climate can be achieved.

This thesis work has introduced process orientation at the printing company Color Print Sweden AB. The outcome ofthis work is a survey of the work flow at the prepress department. To visualise the production process at the companya comprehensive mapping of the main process, order-to-delivery, has been made. The work has detected a couple ofcritical elements in the existing process. These elements are the following: initial check of material delivered to the prepressdepartment as well as the control made of the plotter print-out, digital test print and plate.

This survey was made to investigate the possibility of using an alternative method of fencing inSwedish forestry. The most common way of fencing in Sweden today is made by a two meter highmetal net that is attached to turned impregnated poles. The fencing methods that have beeninvestigated is a fencing system made completely out of wood so called ?German wood fence?.Browsing of game in forest regeneration areas is often a big problem and some kind of protection ofthe plants is often necessary. There is several ways of building fences and the most common way isto use metal nets and impregnated poles, this leads to a problem when the fence has profiled itspurpose.