For an outdoor environment to function optimally as a playarea requires that it is flexible, that is, contains places and elements that give room for the imagination and for own interpetretations, and also that the children in some way can influence and change their surroundings. It is also important to have variety, both in the sense that the playground has a unique character that distinguishes it from other places, and that it allows many different games and activities. There should for example be room for both wild games of running and moving around where many children can participate, and calm corners to withdraw to for rest or quiet play. A good playground should surprise, challenge and encourage children to discover their surroundings. One way to achive this is to use plants and materials from nature, whose irregular forms and structures can become interesting elements to explore. Vegetation also gives sence-experiences of various kinds, materials like twigs and leafs to play with and a place to play house.

GPGPU is a collective term for research involving general computation on graphics cards. A modern graphics card typically provides more than ten times the computational power of an ordinary PC processor. This is a result of the high demands for speed and image quality in computer games.This thesis investigates the possibility of exploiting this computational power for image processing purposes. Three well known methods where implemented on a graphics card: FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), KLT (Kanade Lucas Tomasi point tracking) and the generation of scale pyramids. All algorithms where successfully implemented and they are tree to ten times faster than correspondning optimized CPU implementation..

In 1974 the three municipalities of Åsele, Dorotea and Fredrika were amalgamated despite of hunger strikes, mass protests and a serious threat of violence. But after six years the marriage shattered as Dorotea left the other two after years of continued struggle. In 2005 the idea of an amalgamation of Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina municipalities was brought to life by an older and ever declining population.By creating a democratic ideal type consisting of the three variables ? legitimacy, participation and identity ? this study assesses what impact an amalgamation of the three municipalities might have on local democracy.Combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach this study concludes that amalgamating the municipalities today could create a democratic unit lacking legitimacy, having a weak identity and impeding participation. But the study also brings forth that the impact of an amalgamation upon the variables of the ideal type as defined is not written in stone.

Uppsatsen undersöker två svenska socknar kring nödåret 1867. Syftet är att se de direkta och varierande konsekvenserna av en missväxt.Socknarna är Vilhelmina i Norrland och Döderhult i Småland och den avgränsade tidsperioden är 1865-1870. Undersökningen har gjorts utifrån församlingarnas kyrkoarkiv samt Statistiska Centralbyråns (SCB) befolkningsstatistik. Forskningsläget visar på varierande konsekvenser av nödåren 1867-1869 och ett tydligt samband med en ökad emigration till Nordamerika, men det finns ingen liknande jämförelse på mikronivå som detta arbete kan visa.I uppsatsen finns en översikt över Sverige på 1860-talet, missväxtåren samt en beskrivning över Vilhelmina och Döderhult. Stapeldiagram presenterar de två socknarnas födda, döda, utflyttade, emigrerade samt totala befolkningsmängd.

Uppsatsen försöker kartlägga hur och om datorspel kan användas i samma syfte som skönlitteratur i den litteraturundervisning som GY11 föreskriver. Fokus ligger på beröringsytor mellan skönlitteratur och datorspel gällande lärande; främst identitetsskapande, moral och etik men också stilistiska drag och litteraturvetenskapliga begrepp. Med två exempel, Fallout: New Vegas och Grand Theft Auto IV, visas hur berättandet i datorspel kan ge mediet en plats i gymnasieskolans litteraturundervisning, samt hur immersion, perspektiv och interaktivitet kan ge spelare något som inte skönlitteratur kan ge läsare..

I den här rapporten undersöks stereoskopisk 3D. Vi utreder hur ett spel ska anpassas för att tafram en så bra och tydlig stereoskopisk 3D-effekt som möjligt och så att betraktaren upplever etttydligt djup utan att uppleva ett obehag på grund av effekten. Rapporten tittar djupare på vilkatekniska aspekter man behöver ta hänsyn till vid spelutveckling i stereoskopisk 3D. Samt vilkaprestandabegränsningar som man bör ta hänsyn till vid stereoskopisk 3D. Vi beskriver hurprocessen och framtagandet av prototypen Kodo med anaglyfisk stereoskopisk 3D såg ut.Prototypen togs fram för att testa och analysera resultatet av stereoskopisk 3D-effekten..

abstractThe aim of this essay is to try to convince the reader that relativism and postmodernism (the latter implying the former, but not the other way around) can be reasonable methods for the social sciences, rather than the irresponsible play of ?extremes? theories of this kind sometimes are made out to be.The intention is to do this by way of the later Wittgenstein, the philosophy of whom is the foundation for what is termed relativism and postmodernism in this essay (definitions of a kind that are here claimed to be missing from the discourse of the social sciences). The essay also contains an empirical presentation/analysis, displaying the Wittgensteinian theory through an aspect of the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and -60s..

High school students of today frequently come into contact with the English language throughradio and television. Many students even manage to read instruction manuals and understandhow technical devices work, such as, for example, computer games. However, most teachersunderestimate their students? ability and persist in using Swedish to explain how the Englishlanguage works. I have analysed how high school students manage when they take an Englishgrammar test in English.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att identifiera designprinciper vid migrering av stationära spel till Apples iPhone. Litteraturstudier, heuristisk utvärdering, enkätundersökning och djupintervjuer användes som metoder. Resultaten visade på att framför allt inmatningsmetoder, brist på feedback och skärmstorlek är problemområden i migrerade spel. Slutsatser inkluderar att spel aldrig bör migreras exakt som de stationära versionerna, nya inmatningsmetoder hos mobiltelefoner bör utnyttjas bättre och det bör övervägas om vissa spel överhuvudtaget bör migreras beroende på genre..

Background Svenska Spel is a regulated company run by the state and government, where CSR, community and social responsibility is in focus. The highly regulated Swedish gaming market has in recent years become more exposed to competition by foreign unregulated betting companies thru Internet.Problem discussion There are two views regarding CSR and how they are affecting competitive advantage and profitability. On one hand, it suggests that companies foremost shall focus profits and act in the best interest of the shareholders. On the other hand, it connects CSR to be a contributor to competitive advantage that increases the company?s profitability.Problem formulation Svenska Spel is competing with other betting companies who doesn´t act under the same conditions, betting companies that don´t have a responsibility to the state.

As a result of my fascination for nature I have chosen to study the possibilities to introduce natural environments on schoolyards. Too many schoolyards are lacking vegetation and many of them look like sterile asphalt deserts. The master thesis consists of two parts. The first part is based on literature studies and the second part in which findings from part one are put into practice. Five examples are presented; four schoolyards in Malmö; Kryddgårdsskolan, Kirsebergsskolan, Rörsjöskolan and Lindängeskolan and one in Kalmar; Åbyskolan. Malmö Naturskola has been working with the chosen areas on the schoolyards in Malmö.

De flesta företag strävar i huvudsak efter att maximera värdet av sitt företag och ett sätt att öka värdet av företaget kan vara att genomföra investeringar. En viktig faktor för att lyckas med sina investeringar är att skapa en strategi och att följa denna är avgörande för att nå dit man vill. Strategier kan utformas på olika sätt, men gemensamt för alla strategier är att de måste hantera osäkerhet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vad små- och medelstora företag upplever som osäkerhet vid investeringar samt hur företagen hanterar dessa. Valet av små- och medelstora företag grundar sig på att den största delen av tidigare forskning inom detta ämne är gjord på stora företag.

Immersion is a construct that measures how deeply engrossed a user is with any mediated situation. In the field of game design, immersion is a significant aspect of what makes a game enticing, and as such it is of pivotal importance to create and maintain it to keep the player's mind off the real world while inside the confines of a game framework. According to the GameFlow theory, it is one of seven key tenets of evaluating and implementing a successful game design. Yet, certain multiplayer online games are designed in a fashion that in some cases seem to break immersion, where the player is frequently put out of action, sometimes for minutes on end. In this study, using online questionnaires, we discover that players, despite claims otherwise, seem to be in several ways affected negatively by this breaking of immersion.

Immersion is a construct that measures how deeply engrossed a user is with any mediated situation. In the field of game design, immersion is a significant aspect of what makes a game enticing, and as such it is of pivotal importance to create and maintain it to keep the player's mind off the real world while inside the confines of a game framework. According to the GameFlow theory, it is one of seven key tenets of evaluating and implementing a successful game design. Yet, certain multiplayer online games are designed in a fashion that in some cases seem to break immersion, where the player is frequently put out of action, sometimes for minutes on end. In this study, using online questionnaires, we discover that players, despite claims otherwise, seem to be in several ways affected negatively by this breaking of immersion.

Smallholder farmers in low-income countries face a number of challenges in animal production. Animal husbandry carries great potential in reducing poverty, hunger and gender inequality, but at the same time infectious diseases are prominent threats to farmers? livelihoods and their animals. The objective of this study was to investigate the socioeconomic impact of infectious animal diseases on smallholder farmers in low-income countries, using African swine fever (ASF) in Uganda as an example. The study was conducted in two parts. The first part of the study was questionnaire-based and performed in Gulu district, northern Uganda.