An increasing number of peole are resisting the attraction of living around nature and opting instead to spend their lives in cities. Parks and green areas play an important part in our well-being and we become fascinated with the diversity of nature, in which we find a peacefulness that is unique. Amongst other things, being surrounded by nature can reduce high blood presure, lower the production of stress hormones and stimulate the mind and our ability to concentrate. It is therefore vitally important to entice city residents to parks and green areas to improve their physical and mental well-being. Previous research has shown that humans are seeking for certain characteristics in the parks and green areas which they are visiting.

TitleFactors for success : a study of school libraries at compulsory schools and how to integrate them in the educationAbstractThis Master's thesis aims to identify success factors for the integration of school libraries in the education. The search for factors are concentrated to three areas: control documents for the school and school library, the Principal and organisation and the collaboration of librarians and teachers.The method consists of three parts: a documetary study, a questionnaire survey and interviews. The documentary study aimed to reveal how concrete control documents for schools and school libraries are concerning pupils' information literacy and school libraries. The questionnaire survey gave a general view of the situation of school libraries in Skåne and to help identify two suitable objects for closer examination. Gunnesboskolan and Rönnowskolan were chosen, and the principals, the school librarians and teachers representing different subjects were interviewed.Our results indicate that there are important factors in all three areas examined.

Productivity of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) was studied on 12 sites in coastal areas of northern Sweden. On each site, sample plots were placed in adjacent Norway spruce and Scots pine stands with similar ages in between. Basal area, tree height, Site Index, volume production, simulated maximum mean annual increment (MAImax) and tree vitality were compared for the two species. Average basal area at the time of measurement was 30.4% larger for Scots pine stands than for Norway spruce stands. The difference between the two species in basal area increment during the last 10 years was related to stand age.

Wermland was affected by the Spanish flu like the Swedish national average, about a half percentage of Wermlands population would lose their lives to the flu during the autumn 1918. The flu has for many fallen into oblivion. This oblivion is so wide spread that it´s possible to talk about a "collective forgetfulness". The society have selected to remember 1918 for "when the guns went quiet on the western front" and not for the millions who died from the treacherous Spanish flu. The world had already suffered enough from the four years of war that had been fought, thus the victims of the flu would be honored but would soon fade in to oblivion.  When you investigate deeper you get the picture that the national average don´t do Wermland and its cities or rural areas any justice when a large variations seems to occur within regional areas.

During the summer of 2005 more than 80 million articles of clothing from China, were being held in European harbours. This was a consequence of a striking increase of imported textile and clothing articles from China since the turn of the year, which was the time when all quantitative restrictions were extincted on these products. To protect its own market, the EU therefore reintroduced import quotes in the beginning of the summer. China?s accession agreement to the WTO comprehends a number of unique provisional regulations which are exceptional for the country and in conjunction with clauses and exceptions within the GATT and WTO these regulations enabled new restrictions on the trade with textiles and clothings.

English abstractTitle: Islam and the limitations of the public will of choice.The purpose of this paper have been to investigate how three modern Islamic theorists view the limitations of the public free will of choice based upon their interpretation of the Islamic theology and doctrine.The paper focuses to highlight how all three chosen Islamic theorist interpret the Islamic doctrine based upon my elected theses and more specifically pinpoint were the free will of choice ends, and Islam as a religion starts to take hegemony. The paper?s aim is to further an understanding that in the modern world and as a effect of increased literacy, Islam has been somewhat inclined to split into several Islamisms, based upon the variety of fatwa?s on the Islamic doctrine that is available online. Therefore it remains to the modern day Muslim, to individually decide whether they choose to follow the message of the Holy revelation in the Quran or trust a mufti?s fatwa in their everyday life as a Muslim.The material used and analyzed in this paper is prime source material.

This thesis aimed to investigate how a rising sea level would affect the livable area of the island Fongafale, Tuvalu. Through the IPCC stabilization scenarios it was examined which areas of the island that would be affected by flooding. The local population?s perceptions of the effects of climate change were studied to see how the consequences of a world-wide problem such as global warming affect people's lives. The paper clarified the Tuvaluans place in the discussion of climate refugees, explained IPCC's work and described the results of previous studies concerning people in Fongafales perceptions and concerns about climate-related changes.

During the period 1905 to 1940 it was possible to get a loan from the state to buy land and build a small farm or a house in rural areas. This loan act and its effects have been studied earlier in different ways, but never as a total study for a geographic region. The region Malmöhus Län has been chosen. The purpose of this paper is to study in which parts of the area loans were taken and who sold the land that was used for these purposes. Earlier studies have looked at a larger geographical area for some specific years.

In urban planning and design today interventions tend to take place in already existing areas and inevitably effect also surrounding areas. The many parties involved in any change leads to a demand for a shared language around these areas. This thesis aim to, through understanding and communicating a site, Stora Södergatan in Lund Sweden, inspire to a novel way of looking at an urban site preceding design- or planning interventions. Based on a theoretical framework where site is considered as a relational construct, material as well as immaterial, a framework for site thinking is constructed. Further, with theory of representation, the communication of the site is emphasized and accounted for as part of the framework.

During later years coaching has gained popularity. Coaching offers help to learn rather than to teach and enables optimal performance. The method that builds consciousness, strengthens choices and leads to change in the wanted direction, can deduce to some of history's most successful educationalists. A coaching area steadily increasing is business- and executive coaching. The overall purpose with this paper is to explain what coaching is generally speaking, with specific focus on business- and executive coaching.

International media groups and the freedom of speech are two issues that have been questioned during the last years when large media groups control a large amount of public-oriented information. The masters thesis at hand considers three debates that illuminate Bonniers and AB Mariebergs hereinafter referred to as the Bonnier Media Group positions on the media market. The objective of such a study is to establish in the face of the theory on hegemonia, for example from which factors the media actors deduce their argumentation when discussing the above-mentioned topic and the meaning of such a discussion in our time. The thesis also discusses whether freedom of speech and free opinion are affected by the increasing power of the Bonnier Media Group and if they, as a result, have diminished their own cultural and liberal assets, features that are firmly associated with the company. I conclude that various features have come to change the media market during the last years.

Fire has historically been of great ecological importance in the boreal forests of Sweden. The forest fire regime has, however, varied between different parts of the country. The objective of this thesis is therefore to investigate the fire history in Fulufjället National Park and, on this basis, give suggestions for future fire management. The reconstruction of fire history was done by cross-dating fire scars in samples taken from living and dead Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Local fire chronologies were established at 17 points in the forests in and around Fulufjället National Park by cross-dating fire scars on 54 samples. The oldest year-ring dated from year 968.

Compulsive gambling has lately become a more common and serious issue in our society. The number of compulsive gamblers is constantly increasing alongside the growth of the gambling industry and the consequences of compulsive gambling include both economical and social disasters. Every addiction has a start, and so does compulsive gambling, which is why we chose to perform a survey in order to determine the possible causes to why individuals are drawn to gambling and what leads them into compulsive gambling, and also during which circumstances do they find the strength and will to come out of their addiction to gambling. The theories that are used in this paper include globalization, socialization, Bauman´s consumption society and empowerment, alongside the six phases of gambling by Custer and Milts, describing the way in and the way out of compulsive gambling. This survey is one of the qualitative kind, which means that the chosen theories are connected to the ten interviews that were done with gamblers of various kinds.

Several scenarios point toward a future where we are far more people on Earth than today, where most of those people will live in cities and where oil no longer dominates in the transport systems and in agriculture as an energy source and where less energy will be available to us. The report investigates what areas in traditional ecological knowledge that can contribute to the transition that follows a future with less energy and establishes three areas with the potential of becoming important: areaspecific biological knowledge in societies that are more dependent upon its surrounding environment and its natural prerequisitesthe local management of these biological resources, which often means a fair sharing and sustainable handling of the resources and which has been observed in Nobel price awarded Elinor Ostrom?s researchthe world views that lie behind how the environment is considered and managed, world views that can inspire and point toward how we in the future should formulate world views that do not give the destructive modern management of the environment It is also noted that the magnitude of the city living in the future is a historical news and that very little research has been done in how traditional knowledge can be transferred into this kind of living..

The housing estates in the outskirts of Sandviken, consist of relatively large scale apartment buildings. This report, that is a B.A. thesis at 10 Swedish university points, aims to investigate and describe the opportunities to improve safety and security for inhabitants in Norra Björksätra. The purpose with this report is to make Norra Björksätra to a more attractive place to live in, by changing the negative trends in the area. Since demolition of at least some of the houses could be of current interest in some years; the purpose is also to investigate whether demolition or renewal of the area is the best solution.