The largest project at the AICG lab at Linköping University, Cognitive models for virtual characters, focuses on creating an agent architecture for intelligent, virtual characters. The goal is to create an agent that acts naturally and gives a realistic user experience. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and implement an appropriate learning model that fits the existing agent architecture using an agile project methodology. The model developed can be seen as an online unsupervised reinforcement learning model that enhances experiences through reward. The model is based on Maes model where new effects are created depending on whether the agent is fulfilling its goals or not.The model we have developed is based on constant monitoring of the system.

Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) is a common broadleaved species throughout Europe, however often of minor interest to the forest sector. There is currently a lack of research on sycamore maple, and some of its characteristics have throughout history contributed to a negative reputation in both literature and the forest society. Since broadleaved species in general are of great importance to the forest sector in Europe and presumably of enhanced significance in the future, deepened research is needed and particularly Swedish. With a desire to hopefully increase the interest for sycamore maple, was the objective of the study to examine the current status of the sycamore stands in southern Sweden. The study was carried out both as a survey with inventory field work and as a literature study. Parts of the latter mentioned is also presented in the introduction. The study shows that the majority of the sycamore stands in Sweden are growing well, producing fairly high qualities and volumes.

In this qualitative study the authors explores, by studying several quality-development models what quality in leadership is. The models are: Total Quality Management; SIQ?s model for customer-oriented organizational development; the EFQM excellence model; the ISO 9000:2000 standard; and Six Sigma. These models will be compared from Deming?s list for upper management; the Situational Leadership Theory; and the Contingency Theory.

Caso Skanska is an incident that occurred in Argentina and regarded corruption and bribes to government officials. This study investigates how this incident could occur and how it can be explained. The theoretical framework used is the dynamic interaction model, stakeholder theory, embeddedness theory, the political perspective and corruption theory. The method used is qualitative and it consists of data gathered through semi-structured interviews in Sweden and Argentina as well as other sources of written information of relevance for the study. The authors conclude that Caso Skanska could occur due to the lack of strong institutions as well as transparency.

The Swedish society and welfare model are under constant changes anddevelopment. One of the core areas in this welfare model is the social policy. By analysing the changing role of the organizations in the civil society on a local level with a theoretical typology changes in the roles can be noted. These changes can with a model for ideal types raice questions about bigger changes concerning issues of legitimacy and accountablility. I uses qualitative method including interviews with actors on the local level, earlier reseach in the field and public documents.

This paper examines the concept of heritage and which factors that determines how we evaluate and select what should be considered cultural heritage. This has been examined using a qualitative study involving interviews with seven people working within different parts of the cultural heritage sector. The purpose was to get a picture of what the public sector?s cultural heritage consists of and why so. The research question was: What gives the status of cultural heritage? This was examined by looking at further questions: What defines the concept of cultural heritage? Who decides what should be considered cultural heritage? What is significant when discussing cultural heritage? One conclusion is that the concept itself is experienced as diffuse but that the meaning can be summarized as the traces we leave behind to be preserved by future generations.

The following study explores the relation between psychosocial work environment and individual health. The purpose is to examine how female employees in the occupational health sector experience their own psychosocial work environment, focusing on different influencing factors in both the workplace and their private life regarding the employees own health. The study applies a hermeneutic approach in which qualitative interviews constitute the empirical data. Previous research on this particular subject has focused on the following themes: the combination of work-family life, demand/control model and flexibility in the workplace in relation to health and stress. The theoretical framework used in this study integrates relevant concepts, specifically SOC, poor leadership and flexibility.

The purpose of this study was to identify the way in which history textbooks from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s used for grades 7-9 depicts World War II from a eurocentric perspective. A qualitative textual analysis was used to achieve the purpose. Three history textbooks from each decade was included in the study, also comparisons have been made to see any changes over time. The study used John M. Hobson matrix describing how the Occident and the Orient are defined from a eurocentric perspective.

This report describes how we made a dynamic website combined with staticalweb pages and a web shop for the Swedish company Tyger & Ting.The employer Tyger & Ting wish to run a working web shop on their site butthey want to keep their old system of updating pages with their old applicationfrom Intellyweb1, which creates statical HTML pages.The goal of this exam paper has been to learn to create a functional web shopwith user friendly layout and appealing design and also to take orders andfulfill wishes from a real employer.The report is describing how Intellyweb?s application and its statical web pageshas been implemented on a dynamic web page. The report does also describehow this site has been build and how the problems with the coding have beensolved. The coding has been made with HTML, PHP and MySQL. CSS hasalso been used.

The purpose of this development project is to create a model for working with a high school project in Electrical and Energy Program. It should be conducted in a form like companies do according to the goals from The Swedish National Agency for Education. In order to fully perform this we use the concept of Young Entrepreneurship. The model is created according to the new conditions from The National Electrical Safety Board. There is now an exception saying that a student during education is released from the demand of employment that is the normal procedure where you are under supervision from a certified electrician. During the project there has been theoretical and practical examinations in order to clear out the advantages and disadvantages using this model, but also to examine whether it is useful in the future and to what extent it can be used. The result indicates that the model is useful and fulfills the goals from The Swedish National Agency for Education but that the model has its limitations and difficulties.

In Sweden there is no legal regulation for the obligations and responsibilities between the contracting parties within the construction, civil engineering and installation sector. To clarify uncertainties regarding the liability, actors from theses sectors have agreed upon a voluntary regulation, called the General Conditions of Contract.When insurance companies want to enter the Swedish construction insurance market, they face a regulatory framework that not only regulates the construction market, it also imposes requirements on terms and conditions that must be included in the construction insurance. These terms are perceived as ambiguities and create difficulties and inhibit the ability for these insurance companies to offer competitive insurances. One of the terms that create these difficulties is the guarantee period, which is period of time starting from handing over the construction project to the employer, during this period the contractor still has the responsibility for the construction project. The guarantee period regulated by the General Condition of Contracts differs from the international use of the term both in length and in content.

The public sector in Sweden outsources its core business to a very large extent, whileinsisting on running its IT operations internally in a traditional way. IT as a service ingeneral and cloud computing in particular has become incredibly popular in recentyears, offering cost efficiency and greater ability for the business to concentrate on itscore activities, which is why it should be a promising alternative to the traditional wayof running IT internally. To achieve an understanding of why IT as a service has yetto take off in the public sector, a study of its use of IT/IS, what the effect of IT as aservice is, and the opportunities and challenges that cloud computing represents, isnecessary.The study, which was conducted using a qualitative hermeneutic approach, was initiatedby a literature review, followed by six in-depth interviews with five respondents,all of which hold many years of experience in the area. The outcome of the interviewsindicated that IT as a service should represent a promising and feasible way of reachinghigher levels of cost control, and a greater focus on core activities. Furthermore,the results indicated that Swedish legislation along with a high level of businesscomplexitymight be reasons for the low amount of IT as a service in the public sector.Through careful analysis and examination of the business? current situation, as well ascomprehensive knowledge of Swedish legislation with regards to the implications ofLagen om offentlig upphandling, the public sector can avoid IT as a service becomingmore expensive and more complicated than necessary, and achieve cost efficiencyalong with a greater focus on its core activities through it.Future research could examine the possibility of a framework for the integration ofcloud services within the public sector?s IT/IS environment, and whether there is aspecific size of a cloud implementation at which it?s more cost efficient to go withtraditional IT operations..

Title: Relationship building and management ? Aligning the Advertising Agency-Client Relationship Seminar date: 2006-01-13 Course: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration 10 Swedish credits. Authors: Ryan Eriksson, Louise Hagströmer, Peter Irinarchos. Advisors: Christer Kedström, Catharina Norén. Keywords: Relationship building and management, Transaction cost, Network theory, Resource based theory and Advertising agency.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and specify the characteristics of servicescapes in the hotel industry and its role when building a brand. Further, the aim is to put forward how Management in this sector strategically utilizes the location to manage the staff in order to help build a strong lasting brand. To fulfill our purpose we have targeted one overall question - What purpose does servicescape have when building a solid brand name in the hotel sector?In today?s society brands play an integral part in influencing our buying behavior and are now considered to be a new business tool to communicate a business trough. Also services have become a widespread phenomenon, which is seen as a competitive tool not only for companies in the service sector.

We have ourselves met misunderstandings about the tasks of librarians. The general opinion is that librarians are positioned behind the charging desk or are putting books on shelves. Other tasks are invisible and unknown to the public. The aim for this study is to explore the tasks that a selection of Swedish librarians does. The questions we have answered are: what do the librarians themselves claim to work with, which competences are necessary for this job, what does our study show regarding the librarian as generalist or specialist and finally; can the tasks that we find in our study help to understand the conceptions profession and status in relation to librarians.