AbstractThis essay concerns a qualitative case study seeking to understand six boys? reading habits and to investigate why it is that some boys who do not like reading nevertheless display good reading comprehension according to the results achieved for that skill in national tests. The study shows that the boys? perception of reading has a lot to do with the contact they have with books when they are small. Whether or not there are adult role models in the home and whether the early encounter with texts in school is a positive or negative experience is significant for the boys? later attitude to reading.

This report is a bachelor thesis presented at the department of Computer Science andEngineering at Chalmers University of Technology. The aim for the project is to find a simplemethod to measure and display physical quantities in a three dimensional room.The report describes a method to construct a system for measuring differentphysical quantities via sensors. The system must be built in a modular and expandable way tobe adaptable to different tasks.The system explained in the report consists of two parts;A physical scanner with moveable probes for carrying sensors and a microcontroller forcontrolling the probes and communicating with the next part.An application written in Java for storing the measured values and presenting them in a lucidperspective.It is possible to construct the scanner with different designs and circuitry, with multiplexers andflip-flops, to ensure that an unspecified number of probes can be added to the system and thatthey can be operated simultaneously.The Java application is written in a modular way, using a design pattern that separates eachindividual part of the application. It contains exceptions and interfaces that ensure a safe andexpandable application..

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how semantic relations in a document collection can be visualized with a Kohonen self-organizing map. It can be seen as a map of the information space which can be used to support information retrieval. The study makes a comparison of the possible differences between a map that is based on morphologically unprocessed text and a map where the text has been lemmatized. The text that is being processed is the definitions of all the existing instances in WordNet of a random selection of indexing terms from the Times-collection. The purpose is to see if morphological processing somehow can show different semantic connections between term instances based on their definitions.

As the volumes are entering the world of computer graphics the pure volume visualisation becomes a more important tool in for example research and medical applications. But the advance in haptics --- force feedback from the computer --- is behind. In volume haptics no equal to the proxy method so popular in surface haptics has yet emerged. Some implementations of volume haptics even use surfaces as intermediate representations so that surface haptics can be used.The intention of this work was to create natural feeling haptic feedback from volumetric density data using pure volume haptics. The haptic algorithm would be implemented in Reachin API for the Reachin Desktop Display, together with other parts to build up a usable volume visualisation environment.To achieve the feeling of stiffness and friction dependent on tissue type, a proxy based method was developed.

One part of preventive conservation is controlling the lighting in the exhibitions. As a first step we have to accept the fact that the very act of displaying objects is causing them damage, and because the trend is for everything to be open to the public view all the time, the aim is to minimize light exposure of exhibits.This essay will present lighting options and relate them to the current recommendations. I have put the emphasis upon describing which methods one can use to minimize the degradation of exhibits on display by eliminating UV- and IR-radiation and reducing the visible light. The intention with this essay is to investigate the current lighting options and compare these to the recommendations on lighting exhibitions.The selections of different lighting options such as LED-, halogen- and energysaving lamps were made based on avaibility. Thereafter I did two types of investigations.

This thesis lays the foundation of the future routines of effective error repotring fortraffic devices in the raiway sector.If a device, for example a timetable display, stops working it is vital that the device isfixed as fast as possible so that the travelers dont miss any important information.The methods that are used today are old and not very effective. It can take time forthe repairmen to find the right device or locating the broken component. At the sametime he is supposed to maintain telephone contact with central control throughoutthe whole session.The need for a new, more effective, system is vital to make the whole repair pfocessmore effective and let the repairmen work without having to contact the centralcontrol by phone.I started this work by examining the possibilities of assigning every object with aunique identifier (ID tag) that could be accessed by a manual scan device. The ideawas that the ID tag could holw information about the object and be obtained byscanning the ID and get the information presented on a mobile device.The work also included building a internet application that enabled the reader to seeand change the information on the ID tag.The result was a database that stored information of different objects which could beobtained by scanning the ID tag and presented by a internet application..

More and more companies open up facilities and stores in countries all around the world. Entering a new country means a new culture, a new language, different norms and values and new people with a different way of thinking unlike what you are used to. In order to survive and be successful in this new country means that you have to adapt to the new culture and its components you encounter.The purpose of this thesis has been to identify possibilities and barriers in the Middle Eastern culture affecting international clothing companies. Furthermore it has been investigated how these companies must adapt their products and promotion to this culture.In order to obtain relevant data for achieving the purpose of the study interviews and observations was made at three international clothing companies in Tehran, Iran. These were Mango, United Colors of Benetton and adidas.

The degree project at hand investigates how large areas of older forest (80 plus years) suitable for clear cutting there is on the Swedish island of Gotland. Large areas of older forest on Gotland are situated on land with shallow soil depths which are economically uninteresting and often unsuitable for clear cutting forestry. Other forests hold big nature conservation values and should not, or cannot, be used for forestry purposes. The survey is made as a GIS analysis based on the old but carefully made ?Brief forest inventory? (ÖSI) made in the 1980s and early 1990s. A sample from the inventory is combined with studies of orthophotos, satellite photos and other GIS layers that display estimated soil depth and nature conservation values. Partly contrary to common belief, the survey shows that there are still large areas of older forest suitable for clear cutting forestry on the island.

Transport is an important aspect to take account in efforts to achieve sustainable tourism development. If we do not change our behavior regarding travel, the consequences will be significant for the environment. This study examines the various transport operators on the two Swedish ski resorts if their websites and marketing are different from each other in the mode selection. The destinations are Åre and Hemavan Tärnaby. They studied modes are two Swedish airlines, two train companies, three bus companies and three taxi companies.These corporate websites are studied with a content analysis in which the results of the keywords that have been developed are scored according to different categories.

Social media has meant that organizations can engage in dialogue with their audience without journalistic intermediaries. PR 2.0 is a term that defines the new way for organizations to work with public relations in the new media landscape. The aim of our study is to examine how IKEA uses social media to create, maintain and develop their relationships. Furthermore, great interest is directed to the concept profile. This essay will examine how the stated profile IKEA has pervades the work on social media.

The aim of this paper is to describe which view the Chinese government in connection with the Olympics wants to display for the natural world and analyze if this view coincide with China?s foreign-policy goals. A qualitative content analysis is used. By using the theory of rational choice and a model with three different political approaches I want to examine whether or not the foreign-policy goals of the Chinese regime comport with the view that displays in two major newspapers in China. Since the runoff voting in Moscow in 2001 for the 2008 Olympics the Chinese government has been able to act rational and to compose different strategies to use the Games in Beijing for political propaganda.

The purpose of this study is to examine what readers of fiction literature are influenced by when they choose books. What libraries and bookstores do to influence readers in their choice of literature and how readers perceive the librarys and the bookstores influence on them in their choice of fiction literature. We have also studied which factors outside the library and the bookstore that readers are influenced by when borrowing or buying a certain book and to what extent readers are influenced by the books appearance. To answer our questions we chose a public library and a bookstore, where we interviewed six persons in each place. We have interviewed a librarian and a bookstore manager for information about how these two cultural institutions work with marketing of their fiction literature.

In which ways have composing processes in music appeared over the past 300 years? How may composing processes work today? What does new technology do to this processes?The key purpose of this study is to investigate various composing processes. A further purpose is also to gain an awareness of how we use modern technology by computers and their notation programmes.The research design of this thesis includes a display of literature related to composing processes. along with an analysis of the writer?s own experiences in the area.

In this essay we map and evaluate obstacles and problems that can occur during the establishment of international companies in Russia. This is done by investigating Swedish companies, which are established in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We used secondary and primary data from books, previous surveys, reports, articles and the Internet. We also interviewed the following companies: Alfa Laval, Kockum Sonics AB, Höganäs Keramik, Skanska, Assa Abloy, Advakom, AnoxKaldnes, Lindab, Delovoj Peterburg, HL-Display and also a journalist from the Swedish Radio.Most of the problems named by the interviewees were similar, but some differences were also found. The differences were primarily found in the ranking of importance between the different problems.

Inbyggda system blir allt vanligare i dagens samhälle. De inbyggda systemen finns i nästan allt nuförtiden, från diverse fordon till leksaker för barn.Dagens teknik innebär bland annat att gårdagens lösningar kan realiseras på en bråkdel av den tidigare ytan. Allt mer blir ytmonterat med mindre och mer komplexa kretsar. Detta är inte alltid till utvecklarnas fördel då montering av prototypkort blir en svår och/eller dyr process.Målet är att ta fram ett inbyggt system med en ARM-processor. Systemet ska innehålla USB-OTG, ethernet, minne av olika slag som FRAM och microSD samt en display med pekskärm för användargränssnitt.