The aim of this master thesis is to evaluate the performance of the content-based image retrieval system ImBrowse from a semantic point of view. Evaluation of retrieval performance is a problem in content-based image retrieval (CBIR). There are many different methods for measuring the performance of content-based image retrieval systems, but no common way for performing the evaluation. The main focus is on image retrieval regarding the extraction of the visual features in the image, from three semantic levels. The thesis tries to elucidate the semantic gap, which is the problem when the systems extraction of the visual features from the image and the user?s interpretation of that same information do not correspond.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to understand public library users' perceptions of librarians' attitudes to users and professional knowledge. The purpose was also to investigate the relative importance to the user of pleasant or a knowledgeable librarian. As a theoretical framework we use theory from business economy where the experience of the user is in focus. Answers were sought to the following questions: How do users perceive librarians attitudes to users? How do users perceive librarians professional knowledge? How do users want to be treated by public librarians? What kind of knowledge should public librarians have, according to users? We interviewed twelve students in university education that are users of public libraries.

This Master thesis has been carried out at Scania CV AB in Södertälje, in collaboration withKTH, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. The focus of this Master thesis isSetBased Concurrent Engineering(SBCE), with the purpose of answering the questions: what isSBCE, how does it work, and for what purposes is it applied.It was early established thatSBCE is often included as a part of Lean product development,which in its turn is often related to Toyota?s way of working. TheSBCE method includesworking with multiple solutions in parallel, eliminating weak alternatives throughout thewhole process. In opposite to a conventional product development process, where it iscommon one at an early stage tries to identify and choose the most promising alternative.Despite the appearance ofSBCE as a resource consuming method, figures from Toyotaindicates the opposite, thatSBCE is in fact a very effective way of working compared to othermore traditional methods.The process of this Master thesis was divided into three phases.

The study concerns the history and development of hospitallibraries in Sweden in the beginning of the 1900 century.Focus is on the 1930 decade, the time of major expansionof the area. The study is based on study of literature, mainlyfrom articles but also from a few booklets from the time.The purpose of the study is to find out how the librarieswere described in the literature of the time and which goalsand tasks they had. It is also to make it possible to increaseunderstanding of the history of hospital libraries, using it asan inspirational source for development of today´s businessin a time of major change. The result of the study showsthat those goals and ideas are still valid and serve well as aninspirational basis for development of today´s hospitallibraries..

In this project a simulator has been developed (in C++) with the purpose of illustrating how changes in environmental regulations, tax levels and other policy measures affect the composition of an energy system. The aim of the project was to investigate how energy companies? investment strategies are affected when changes in economic and environmental conditions occur. A standard scenario has been created based on current Swedish conditions, but the user can create new scenarios and set parameters freely. The user is tasked with building power plants to supply the city/region with district heating and electricity during a pre-set number of years. When the simulation is finished the result is graded in the following categories: economy, environment and quality. To evaluate the simulator three scenarios were created (?early 20th century?, ?reduced environmental control? and ?future?) in addition to the standard scenario and these were compared with each other by examining how a select group of power plants perform under the given conditions.

The aim of this thesis is to find out how users and libraries are constructed at public library websites in Sweden from a web 2.0 perspective. We discuss the development of public libraries in Swedish history and the change from an system oriented perspective to a individual oriented perspective and how these perspectives correspond to needs of the library user. We also discuss the concept of web 2.0 and library 2.0. These concepts are open for different interpretations. Some writers believe that web 2.0 and library 2.0 is something radically new and that it will change the public libraries, while other writers claim that these concepts is just a marketing plan.

Since Internet has become a more important and more certain source of information the user require greater and more demands than ever before on the layout and function of different web pages. When search engines gives us the opportunity to millions of hits in just a fraction of a second it?s essential to optimize the structure and architecture, which forms the foundations of all the content. In a time when a company?s digital footprint plays an important role for the costumer and the transmitter it?s of utmost importance to have a steady, well-structured foundation to build new platforms of information on.But how do you manage to build a good foundation? Some of the most important key elements in Information architecture are Organizing, Navigation, Search and Labeling.The aim of this study was to create guidelines for a user-friendlier interface, by analyzing the principals and gathered data.

This report is the result of a master thesis carried out by the author, student at the Royal Instituteof Technology(KTH). The task was performed as a product development process at a companycalled Ameibo AB, located in Stockholm. It is the final task of the studies at the Master'sprogramme Design and Product Realization. The report is structured in a chronological order anddescribes the methods used, the implementation of these methods and a presentation of theresults given from these studies.Ameibo is a company located in Stockholm, distributing films on the internet. The aim of thismaster thesis was to investigate the possibilities of entering the market for portable devices.

An increasingly globalized market is leading to hard competition among manufacturing companies, which means that they are forced to become more customer focused to survive in the market. A Customer Relationship Management system is a system that will be of assistance to help companies succeed in building long term relationships with their customers. Best of Breed and ERP-based are two types of CRM systems. The study has focused on analyzing and examine the need for CRM systems at manufacturing companies. Our question formulation has been:? What need do businesses want to satisfy with a Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?? Are there any differences in the use of Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?In this study, we have chosen to carry out interviews and quantitative surveys with manufacturing companies to get their view of CRM-systems.

Augmented reality is an interesting technology which has increased in popularity the last couple of years. Even though we see more and more of this technology the use of it doesn?t match up to its true potential. This paper aims to investigate the possibilities of this technology and illustrate how companies can use it in their business to reach out to customers in a new and exciting way. The study consists of three parts.

During the past decade, consumer health information-centers have been developed at the hospital libraries in Sweden in order to meet the increasing demand from patients and their relatives concerning consumer health information. In 1993, the hospital libraries in Falun, Västervik and Karlstad launched a consumer health information database called PION. The aim of this Master's thesis is two-fold. My first aim is to describe and discuss the principles of user-oriented evaluation. In my attempt to convey the theoretical discussion into the everyday life of librarianship, my second and most important aim is to conduct a user-oriented evaluation of the database PION.

Background: The need for structured practice has in recent years appeared in connection with the request for a more evidence-based nursing. In psychiatric care with its complex disabilities, it is important to have methods to identify these. Research has demonstrated the importance of patient participation in nursing that has been shown to affect their mental health. It is essential to get to know how patients with mental illness are capable of involvement in their life situation. The ICF emerged as a useful theoretical framework for development of questionnaires of patient participation.Aim: The aim of the present pilotstudy was to develop and test a questionnaire for participation, based on ICF.

The main purpose of this study was to examine how preschool teachers are working to promote each child's language development and whether they can ensure that they do that. Therefore I wanted to find out what a good language development implies for each teacher, how they work to promote each child's language development in daily practice, how they measure the actual language development and also what conditions the teachers have, to engage in a language development way to work. For the study, I chose a qualitative method, with structured interviews and all together I interviewed six preschool teachers, within the same organization in a suburb close to Stockholm.  The results showed that there is an ambiguity, among the preschool teachers, in what a good language development means, but it can be stated that they do have a language development way to work even if it needs to be developed. Further on, it has emerged that the teachers have the tools to measure children's language development, although they do not have the conditions yet to use the method to the fullest. About the preschool teachers own conditions in order to operate in a language development way to work, I concluded that they have a strong foundation to build on, but they still have much work ahead of them.

The purpose of my study is to examine how four teachers reflect on free play and controlled play in preschool. What are their reflects concerning free play, controlled play and children?s development and education. The main focus of this research is the experiences of the teachers and I compare their perspectives against each other regarding free and controlled play.To be able to realize this study, I propose the following questions:What kind of vision does the teacher have concerning free play and controlled play?According to the teacher, how does playing affect the children?Which development areas are affected by participating in the play?This is a qualitative study, based on interviews with four teachers from two different preschools.

This essay covers the subject of children with language disorders. We are two educators writing an experience-based essay on our preschool experiences and the literature with the subject of speaking disorders and verbal development. The main focus of this essay is how educators can recognize and stimulate children with language disorder. The starting point in the essay is two experience-based events from preschool which tells of two different boys, aged three and four. Both boys have some kind of verbal disorder and one of them also has Down´s syndrome.