The construction and use of buildings in the EU accounts for half of the EU?s extracted materials and energy consumptions, and a third of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past decade, the construction sector has responded to such concerns by focusing on post production energy efficiency. However, new findings indicate that upstream construction processes influence emissions significantly ? necessitating a shift in focus to include material choices and building processes.

Due to their complexity and heavy wear from rail traffic, switches are a sensitive part of the railway infrastructure and moreover expensive to maintain. Furthermore, increasing railway traffic not only accelerates the wear rate but also obstructs the necessary maintenance measures. This paper examines the opportunities for a transition to a long-term maintenance strategy in the Swedish railway network. It contains a study of the maintenance strategy of Banverket, and also analyses statistics of errors in the railway infrastructure. The survey was completed utilising interviews with infrastructure managers, maintenance contractors, planners of railway operations and the Banverket material service department.

A prefabricated timber frame house previously built by Villafabriken AB has been modeled in Autodesk Revit Architectural, a 3D-program based on BIM-technology. This has been done tosee if it?s possible to produce the publications that Villafabriken demands from the designengineer?s work, and examine which possible extra values that may arise compared to traditional 2D-CAD drawing.BIM is short for Building Information Modeling. Everything is stored in a single database and a change in the project file is automatically updated across the project. BIM provides more than just drawings since information from the model can be retrieved in various ways such as lists and quantity schedules.It was possible to produce the publications that Villafabriken demanded using Revit, but BIM doesn?t only mean a new way of drawing, it also require a change in the company?s process were the information from the model is being used..

There is much research into the reasons why a temporary pain, in some individuals, becomes chronic. Many of the causal factors linked with pain also seems to coexist with social anxiety, public self-consciousness and, to some extent, private self-consciousness. The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify possible patterns of self-consciousness (private and public), social anxiety and pain. This was done by a cross-sectional study in which a questionnaire was distributed to students at Örebro University. A total of 302 completed questionnaires were received.

For today's young adults, the experience of being in the age period 18-30 years is, compared with previous generations, quite different. There is more room for exploring and experimenting when lifestyles and life-choices are no longer predetermined, and most things are possible for today's young people. The object of this thesis is to examine young people2019s experiences in the transition from youth to adulthood and to illuminate those experiences and difficulties that take place during this period. In the study, qualitative interviews were used in four focus groups, divided up in two age categories. The results reveal that the feeling of being an adult arises in the latter part of the period, and that variations between individuals are readily apparent.

This report describes a comparative study about reading- and writing development in ?A-towns school? in The Gambia and in ?Villaskolan? in Sweden.The purpose of this study is to compare two teachers in Sweden with two teachers and two volunteers from the school in Gambia, with focus on their thoughts and methods on teaching reading and writing at each school and in their social context. The aim is also to observe and describe how classroom environment at both schools can encourage students to read and write.The theoretical base of this study is rooted in a sociocultural perspective but I have also chosen to illuminate behaviorism and cognitivism. The study is qualitative and the main research methods are interviews and observations of the classrooms.My conclusions are, even though considerable differences in approach and conditions, teachers in both schools work hard and show dedication towards their students.Another finding is that teachers use different techniques and working methods to achieve the same goal -to teach their students to read and write based on what is required of them in their cultural and social context. The different ways of teaching have been caused by the existence of different perceived needs based on culture and tradition.One conclusion is also that read and write requirements for students in the Gambia and Sweden are different from each other.

It is a difficult task to define the little word ?modernity?. One may argue quite a lot about what modernity is as well as when modernity breaks trough. The burgess class was the group who initiated modernity in most cases. Since these people mainly dwelled in the cities it was in the cities were modernity started.

Det är sedan tidigare känt att den s k bokföringseffekt som uppstår vid sjunkande döds- och födelsetal kan ha en positiv effekt på ekonomisk tillväxt.  Ekonomisk och demografisk data visar emellertid att många av de länder som haft en hög hastighet i den demografiska transitionen, även har upplevt en högre ekonomisk tillväxttakt. Syftet med uppsatsen är därför att undersöka huruvida det finns en korrelation mellan hastigheten i den demografiska transitionen och ekonomisk tillväxttakt. Efter att ha genomfört statistiska tester, såsom bl a parvisa korrelationer och regressionsanalyser, kan vi dra slutsatsen att en korrelation mellan dessa variabler råder, samt att hastigheten i den demografiska transitionen spelar roll och kan förklara en del av den ekonomiska tillväxten i de undersökta länderna..

The purpose of this study is to analyze how places can be marketed through tourism brochures. The study is based on a discourse analysis and texts and pictures from three brochures, which come from the region of Småland in Sweden, have been analyzed. The first brochure is from Visit Småland, the second from Vetlanda municipality and the third from Värnamo municipality. With the rise of globalization one of the consequences has been the increased opportunity for tourists to visit places all over the world, which also resulted in a greater competition between places than before. One reaction to this has been the increased marketing of each place unique characteristics in the tourist brochures.

The European history of bath has its roots in the Greek culture about 2500 years ago. In every Greek town was situated at least one center of culture, a gymnasium, that contained bath establishements, areas for physical training, restaurants, librarys and readingrooms. Already 400 B.C. Hippokrates, founder of the art of healing, spoke for the waters important qualities in medical treatements. After the Greeks the Romans overtook and maintained the polished manners of bathing, and thanks to them the culture spread to the north of Europe. During the middleages the art of swimming was well respected among soldiers and knights, and was frequently practised in tournament games and competitions. At the same time the bathhouses were developed in the towns of Europe.

The daily travel, and especially travel between home and work i.e. commuting, is increasing every passing year. More than 90 000 people commute from their home municipality to work in Gothenburg. One of the aims of the regions of Västra Götaland and Halland is to interconnect municipalities and towns within the region, thereby creating growth, faster freight and passenger transports as well as a more attractive business climate. However, while the goal is to create growth, there are several municipalities in the study region with negative ongoing trends.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka faktorer och orsaker som kunde ha spelat en betydande roll i Taiwans demokratisering efter andra världskriget. De demokratiseringsteorier som vi fördjupar oss i är välkända men är skrivet utifrån ett Taiwanesiskt perspektiv. Var det den snabba moderniseringen som påskyndande Taiwans demokratisering? Eller var det enskilda individer med makt som kunde påverka Taiwans utveckling åt det positiva hållet. Inte direkt av välvilja utan istället på grund av att dessa individer ville överleva och var därmed tvungna att införa reformer.

Mobility Management is about affecting and changing the demand of mobility. It?s not about what traditional planning?s been focused on; to supply for the demand. The demand of mobility is created by us humans since the traffic exists of us. That means that Mobility Management is about changing our needs.

The employment structure consists of different sectors, whose share of the total employment rate is all part of an economic structural conversion according to this thesis applied theoretical approach. A structural conversion, which consist of recurring crises, such as the financial crises in the early 1990s. This crisis and its effect on the Swedish economy is well-documented, while the shortage regarding the effect on a smaller scale, in a local and regional context, provides this thesis purpose. More specifically, a comparison between the two neighbouring towns of Malm? and Lund, will constitute the local contexts in this research.

This essay captures the process toward a democratic transition in South Africa and tempts on analyzing the efforts made by civil society before the negotiation with the government in the beginning of the 90´s. The method used is a case study.By applying the theory of Elisabeth Jean Wood about the importance of continued mobilization, I try to answer the question: to what extend did civil society influence the democratization process. The focus of the study lies on the years of intensified popular mobilization, from the start of the 80´s until the beginning of the 90´s.The results following this study shows that COSATU, Congress of South African Trade Unions) and ANC(African National Congress) played both a crucial role for the democratization process in South Africa. UDF, however played a role in the process, but not in the same significant way that COSATU and ANC..