The presidency of the European Union (EU) is one of the most important institutional actors for the improvement of democracy and equality between the member states. To hold a presidency is a big task and for many countries a tough challenge. What makes a presidency successful? The purpose of the thesis is to examine this question using Ole Elgströms? ?four properties for defining a successful presidency? as the theoretical background. This thesis will employ a comparative framework of four countries, using size and age (age understood as ?time being an EU Member State?) as the defining factors.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur individer med olika roller inom en fotbollsförening för unga talanger upplever motivationsklimat. För att skapa förståelse för begreppet motivation i en fotbollsförening har följande frågeställningar använts; hur upplevs klimatet i verksamheten, vad upplevs vara tillfredsställande prestationer samt hur upplevs att tillfredsställande prestationer uppnås? I studien deltog tio manliga respondenter (m=36,4 år, Sd=16,9) med olika roller kopplade till idrottsverksamhetens talanglag. Respondenterna grupperades enligt följande: spelarrepresentanter, ledarrepresentanter och föreningsrepresentanter. Intervjuer genomfördes utifrån en semistrukturerad intervjuguide baserad på studiens syfte.

During the last years the need for real-time database services has increased due to the growing number of data-intensive applications needing to enforce real-time constraints. The COMponent-based Embedded real-Time database (COMET) is a real-time database developed to meet these demands. COMET is developed using the AspeCtual COmponent-based Real-time system Development (ACCORD) design method, and consists of a number of components and aspects, which can be composed into a number of different configurations depending on system demands, e.g., Quality of Service (QoS) management can be used in unpredictable environments. In embedded systems with requirementson high up-time it may not be possible to temporarily shut down the system for reconfiguration. Instead it is desirable to enable dynamic reconfiguration of the system, exchanging components during run-time.

This report is a study in voltagelevel in connection with regeneration of brake energy from the tramtype M31 in Gothenburg.In the act of braking, the tram M31 uses electrical braking where the electrical motors generates energy and if possible send it back to the overheadline, where other trams in the nearby can use this regenerated energy for its own driving force. In cases where no other energyconsumers are located in the same section, there is a resistance witch task is to convert this energy into heat. The regulation of this resistance appears to cause an increase in the voltagelevel into far too high levels.Investigations of the trams regulationequipment and its construction have been done. Further have measurements on the overheadline been performed in order to map the voltagevariations during a longer period of time.The result have been showing that the voltagelevel during regeneration often is as high as 880V-920V, more extreme values have not been observed in a large scale. The values are especially high compared to the nominal voltagelevel.

I have in this thesis looked at the reasons for why boys, in upper school classes, read so little fiction. Several surveys show that boys in their teenage years stop reading fiction. If they read fiction it is only as a school assignment and not as leisure. There has been research done in boys attitude towards literature, but there hasn?t been any research done asking them about why they don?t read fictionI have interviewed a group of boys about their reasons, and attitude, for why they don?t choose to read fiction on their spare time after school.

Vi har i vår forskning belyst hur elever upplever arbetet med öppna respektive slutna frågor. Vi har framförallt tittat på hur arbetet med öppna och slutna frågor haft för inverkan på elevers möjligheter till perspektivbyte i tid och rum. Öppna frågor har i vår forskning varit lika med hög frihetsgrad medan slutna frågor är lika med låg eller ingen frihetsgrad. Vi har i vår forskning jämfört resultatet av en essäuppgift från två grupper med elever från årskurs 6. Dessa två grupper har innan uppgiften vägletts i temat ?En resa till Kina? i var sin experimentlektion.

Det har visat sig att när en person motoriskt får utföra en handlingsmening (t ex ?kasta en boll?) blir minnet för den specifika meningen (subject-performed task, SPT) bättre än om personen bara kodar in meningen verbalt, t ex genom att säga meningen högt (verbal task, VT). Detta fenomen har kommit att kallas för enactmenteffekten. När orsakerna till enactmenteffekten har studerats har det tagits lite hänsyn till karakteristikan av handlingsmeningarna. Studien syftar till att undersöka betydelsen av graden av motorisk aktivitet i handlingsmeningarna som en potentiell förklaringsfaktor till enactmenteffekten.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate the reasons for public libraries to have story-time today and also the reasons for story-time at the public library historically in Sweden. Why is the phenomenon of story-time still existing at public libraries today? The study is based on a questionnaire that was sent to childrens librarians in the Västra Götaland region. The material collected in this questionnaire was put together and resulted in six different categories showing the libraries purposes and thoughts of their story-time activities. The categories were: cultural heritage/tradition, joy of reading, language and imagination, library visits, storytelling and mutual experience.

Allt fler verksamheter väljer att investera i IT lösningar, med avsikt att skapa konkurrensfördelar gentemot organisationer i samma bransch. ERP system är en av dessa IT lösningar, och det har framkommit att dessa system inte alltid fungerar på ett tillfredsställande sätt. Därför är dessa system att betrakta som mindre dugliga ur ett användbarhetsperspektiv. Avsikten är att utveckla vår modell (TTF/A) som studerar hur en matchning mellan systemkaraktäristiska drag och karaktäristiska drag hos arbetsuppgifter påverkar systemets användbarhet. Modellen betraktar även hur erfarenhet av teknologianvändning och erfarenhet av att utföra arbetsuppgiften påverkar matchningen.

This Bachelor of Science thesis was carried out at Metso Panelboard AB, located in Sundsvall, Sweden. The work lasted for 10 weeks and began at the end of February 2007. Metso Panelboard is one of the leading suppliers of complete lines, single machines, engineering knowledge and after-market services to the fibreboard industries. The task involved building a 3D-model of a dryer cyclone in the CAD-program Pro/ENGINEER. A dryer cyclone is the part where the tree fibres are dried in the process of manufacturing fibreboards. Currently, it takes about two weeks to draw a dryer cyclone. By creating a 3D-model of it, which should have the functionality to be generated to different sizes, the goal is to decrease the drawing time to about 20 hours and to increase the quality of the work. This report includes the fundamental theories behind the manufacturing of fibreboards with focus on the dryer cyclone.

Saab Training Systems (STS) in Huskvarna is manufacturing material for educationalpurposes to armies worldwide. They are now implementing parts of the Lean productionconcept in their organisation.One part of the work with Lean production is to eliminate waste. To be able to identify waste,value stream mapping is a good tool and also what we used in our thesis. To gain a betterefficiency in the production of Personnel Detector Device (PDD) flow was one of our goals.The PDD is a harness used during battle training which registers if the user is being hit by itsenemy.Our work with the thesis started up with a short education in Lean production and in valuestream mapping (VSM). The work proceeded with a VSM of the production flow of the PDD,interviews were made and studies of literature were done to gain greater knowledge of thesubject and solve the task.The VSM resulted in five areas which were followed up out of those six we identified.

The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge and a picture of how foster parents perceive their task, the role of the placed children and their biological parents.  Even how they perceived their family have been affected by the mandates removal. Consistently showed the most positive experiences with strong ties to the children placed. However, there are experiences of the need for additional guidance, support, education and contact with the client to enhance a sense of competence in the task and prevent collapse. Burnout experienced often based in the placed child's difficulties in integration.

This thesis is performed at Saab Bofors Dynamics in Karlskoga and investigates a technique for ranging with laser pulses. The investigated technique is called Constant Fraction Detection (CFD). Described briefly, the received laser pulse is split into two equal parts, where one part is delayed half the pulse width and inverted. This signal is added to the original pulse. The resulting curve has the shape of a laying S and the detection of the zero level is used to stop the time measurement.

This essay is about literature instruction in the last three years of Sweden?s compulsory school from one teacher?s and six of his pupils? perspective. The research is analysed from a socio-cultural perspective on learning and literature reception.The empiric material is based on interviews with the teacher and six of his students.The research shows that there is a difference between what the pupils read on their spare time and what they read during Swedish instruction. It also shows that the pupils wants literature full of action where descriptions of people and the setting don?t slow down the reading experience.The teacher is successful in finding literature the pupils appreciate but sees the value of literature on another level ? in the processing of the reading experience.

Time studies in dairy production are an essential tool when deciding about level of mechanisation and automatisation both in investment situation and improving efficiency in existing operations. In previous investigations such studies have been carried out during normal barn conditions during winter. Since there is a compulsory to have dairy cows grazing 3 to 5 months during summer time in Sweden time studies during this season is important to have a full picture of needed working time. During grazing season time studies was carried out at 14 dairy farms representing herd sizes from 66 to 450 dairy cows of which 6 farms with AMS. 8 farms were the same as studied during winter season.