The purpose of this essay is to analyse how and why culture and tradition is created and maintained within a minor student society at a Swedish university by looking at its history. The West Coast Nation student society provided the material which was subsequently analysed and three sociological perspectives were applied in order to give the study a theoretical base. In order to investigate the purpose of the society, durkheimian theories on functionalism were applied. Moreover, Bourdieu?s thoughts on social fields were used as well as Elias? theories on the established and the outsiders.

The last century, forest fires have decreased in frequency due to efficient fire-suppression along with the growth of the industrial forestry. Since 1990, fire has been reintroduced under controlled forms to recreate burnt habitats. Many species that are dependent on, or benefits from, forest fires have increased since fire was reintroduced. The importance of connectivity is often addressed in ecological research. This is particularly important for species dependent on short-lived habitats such as burnt forests.

Perch (Perca fluviatilis) is a very popular fish in Sweden and it is common in Swedish waters. In some areas along the Swedish coast the perch population has decreased. It is therefore important to get a view at the health status of perch. During April, July and August of 2008, a total of 346 perches were caught in the Gump Bay in the Botnian Sea. The fish were mainly caught by net but also by rod.

Studien syftar till att erhålla en djupare förståelse om hur ordningsvakters uppfattningar om hur deras yrkes? och privatroll ser ut. Vidare är syftet att ta reda på hur våld och hot hindrar utförandet av en framgångsrik vaktroll. Metoden vi har använt oss av var semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med åtta ordningsvakter. Studiens resultat tyder på att yrkes? och privatlivet utgör två separata sfärer.

There are several thousands shallow bays along the Swedish east coast. Most of them are disturbed by different human activities, and undisturbed bays can be considered as quite unique. In the sheltered shallow bays water warms up more rapidly than adjacent water favoring the growth of vegetation, which in turns is beneficial to spring spawning fish species like perch and pike. It is nowadays more common that coastal habitats are inventoried to facilitate future preservation and planning. The aim of this study was to investigate the shallow bay Utanåfladen (59° 53`31.38 N 19°00`44.90 E) in the north Stockholm archipelago and evaluate its habitat value.

Sub Saharan Africa has during the last decade become the world?s fastest urbanizing region. This change is concentrated to a few metropolitan areas one of them being Dar es Salaam, the largest city of Tanzania. Since the 1960s Dar es Salaam has grown from being a relatively small coastal city of approximately 300 000 people to become a bustling urban centre of four million inhabitants. This development has had a major impact on the city structure, which in turn has affected people?s welfare and the surrounding environment. One such consequence is the detrimental loss of urban vegetation and open areas in the city.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the development of libraries on Tjörn, an island on the Swedish west coast. I have divided the thesis in two parts, one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1873 to 1952 in the municipality of Stenkyrka and one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1976 and 1985 in the municipality of Tjörn. The study is mainly based on written materials and a theoretic model will also be used in which I apply three factors, society, the libraries economy and individual actors on the library activity. The libraries in Stenkyrka during the early period were dependent of public grant from the state for their survival and the libraries were undeveloped. The society around them was poor and hardly any money or assistants came from the municipality.

Working horses in developing countries are mostly used for transportation. They are often owned by people with limited economical resources and lack of knowledge about how to take care of the horses and due to this the horses often suffer from problems such as dehydration, poor body condition, lesions and parasitic infections. The aim of this master thesis was to investigate if free veterinary care improved the health and hydration status of working horses in Nicaragua and it was performed as a part of a project called ?Free veterinary assistance for working horses and training of their owners as veterinary promoters in the Pacific coast of Nicaragua?. Five parameters were used to investigate whether free care improved the health of working horses in six towns along the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.

In this thesis work a Geographical Information System (GIS) based methodology to identify locations suitable for the installation of wave energy converters has been developed. Parameters of importance have been identified and a GIS-database has been set up, containing data about the marine environment. In a case study of the Swedish west coast the methodology has been applied, resulting in a number of maps showing possible areas. The results show that large areas are suitable for installation of wave energy converters, from a technical and economical point of view. When consideration is taken to other interests in the area, such as navigation, fishing and environmental protection, the size of the suitable area diminishes considerably.

This paper concerning the regional architectural term known as the Tjust Empire style analyses manor houses built in the Tjust area by the east coast of Småland in the period 1810-1860. The term Tjust Empire style was invented in 1937 by PhD. Manne Hofrén in his dissertation on architecture in Kalmar län in the period 1650-1850. The aim of the paper is firstly to determine whether there is a distinct difference between the regional Tjust Empire style in architecture and the common Swedish empire style or as its Swedish equivalent is known; the Karl Johan style. Secondly, the paper strives to analyse why and how the Empire style became so popular in the area during this period, focusing on architecture as a means to express social identity and status.

To better understand how various factors affect the establishment of forest and trees around the tree line-ecotone, this study was conducted in Troms County, Norway. The altitude of different forest and tree limits together with the surrounding vegetation type were collected during August 2011. Comparisons of the collected data were made with previously collected data from the same sites conducted 1914 and 1915. On average the forest limit has expanded with 26 meters in altitude, however, an expansion is not statistically significant for the whole area. The tree limit has significantly expanded in altitude.

Social kompetens är ett relativt modernt uttryck som allt oftare förekommer i olika sammanhang i arbetslivet. Den offentliga sektorn har genomgått stora förändringar de senaste 20- 30 åren, och detta har bidragit till att arbetssökande nu bedöms på ett annat sätt av arbetsgivare. Numera är det mycket vanligare att en arbetssökande värderas mer efter sina personliga egenskaper än sina formella kvalifikationer. Studiens syfte är att undersöka samt ge exempel på hur förändringen inom den offentliga sektorn under de senaste decennierna har påverkat rekryteringsprocessen samt vilken roll social kompetens spelar i dagens rekryteringsförfarande inom statliga myndigheter. Undersökningens ambition är att till viss del öka förståelsen för ett av samhällsforskare redan identifierat problem, och kanske även synliggöra några av de möjliga ?dolda? funktioner som begreppet i praktiken skulle kunna fylla.

Convective snowbands is a weather phenomenon that is associated with heavy snowfall in a limited area. They are formed over ice-free parts of e.g. the Baltic Sea when there is a cold easterly airflow over relatively warm water. These convective snowbands can cause large amounts of snow along the Swedish east coast, often causing traffic hazards. Sometimes they can even paralyze an entire community.  In this study, convective snowbands that have formed over the Baltic Sea during the period 1980-2009 are examined, in order to find out how often they occur, what place they are most common and in what month they usually appear.

Social kompetens är ett relativt modernt uttryck som allt oftare förekommer i olika sammanhang i arbetslivet. Den offentliga sektorn har genomgått stora förändringar de senaste 20- 30 åren, och detta har bidragit till att arbetssökande nu bedöms på ett annat sätt av arbetsgivare. Numera är det mycket vanligare att en arbetssökande värderas mer efter sina personliga egenskaper än sina formella kvalifikationer. Studiens syfte är att undersöka samt ge exempel på hur förändringen inom den offentliga sektorn under de senaste decennierna har påverkat rekryteringsprocessen samt vilken roll social kompetens spelar i dagens rekryteringsförfarande inom statliga myndigheter. Undersökningens ambition är att till viss del öka förståelsen för ett av samhällsforskare redan identifierat problem, och kanske även synliggöra några av de möjliga ?dolda? funktioner som begreppet i praktiken skulle kunna fylla.

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr) is just like Norway spruce (Picea abies) a species in thegenus picea. The natural range of Sitka spruce is a narrow strip along the west coast of North America. Itis the most coastal of all picea species, and very dependent on the mild and humid climate along thepacific coast.Sitka spruce has been grown a long time in the countries around the North Sea, particularly in GreatBritain where it currently is the most important species in British forestry. Sitka spruce has not beenplanted in Swedish forests to any large extent before the storm Gudrun in 2005. Several studies indicatethat the production of wood biomass is higher for Sitka spruce compared to Norway spruce.