The aim with this independent degree project of master thesis is to find what the user opinions of the intranet in a county council is. The paper seeks how the question about how the culture in the organisation was affected by the use of the intranet. An important part is to explore the expectations and acceptance of the intranet and get a picture of which functions and services support day-to-day work with good quality. One goal is to find out how the intranet users feel that the communication, information and usability can be developed.The focus group interview is a qualitative method that has been applied for gathering data from the respondents, who participate in the investigation from the county council. The used method is unstructured focus groups containing the three dominating categories of staff in the county council.

In two feeding experiments Bacillus induced priming of plant defense was tested for its effect against the generalist insect pest Spodoptera littoralis. The main hypothesis for the study was that Bacillus induced priming would enable the plant Arabidopsis thaliana to defend itself better against this insect herbivore since this priming seems to involve jasmonic acid, known to be important for plant defense to insects. A secondary objective of the study was to examine if any differences in a primed defense capability could be seen between different natural genetic variants (ecotypes) of A. thaliana reflecting habitat differences in pest pressure. The methods used for plant cultivation and Bacillus inoculation were aimed at reflecting conditions that can be expected in an agricultural cropping system. This meant that all plants were cultivated in soil, and the feeding experiments were conducted with the plants growing intact in the soil system.

The last few years a lot of media air time has been devoted to training, sports, health and weightloss on a more personal level then before. The new media arena is beeing used at its´ maximumto broadcast wievs on how we should eat, look, exercise and live. This thesis is trying to makebetter understanding on what people in general think is important when it comes to physicaltraining and motivation with the aid of digital media and IT systems. The thesis describes aworkshop that was conducted within the frames of Participatory Design and the outcome of thatworkshop. The workshop was conducted with a group of lead users (in this case instructors at avery large fitness center in Umeå, Sweden) and the main question was ?How can IT be used toachive a positive effect on physical exercise if motivation is the focus??.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this quantitative study was to investigate if stress, self-efficacy and life satisfaction varied with gender and age. The sample was selectively chosen in the municipality, country council, private sector and in the trade business. 237 participants were included in the study, of which 94 were men and 143 were women. Age was split in two categories: younger adults (18-40 years) and older adults (41-65 years). The results showed that there were correlations between the dependent variables: stress, self-efficacy and life satisfaction.

Eutrophication is an environmental problem that affects more than ten percent of Swedish lakes. Excess nutrients increase the growth of algae, and cause major problems in the ecosystem through oxygen-free bottoms, fish kills, and at worst dead bottoms. Agriculture accounts for 44% of human emissions of phosphorus to lakes and rivers. Leaching occurs of particle bound phosphorus and of dissolved phosphate. The amount of phosphate in the soil solution that may be leached is partly due to the prevailing pH in the soil solution. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the relationship between phosphate solubility and pH was affected by liming.

 This paper evaluates the effect of exchange rate risk on the sum of bilateral trade. To distinguish the effect between different types of countries, two groups are defined: advanced and developing economies. Economic theory on exchange rate risk and trade proposes ambiguous effects of increased volatility. However, the ex ante hypothesis is that developing economies are more sensitive to volatility. Contrarily to the hypothesis, the empirical results suggest that advanced economies would benefit up to twice as much from a removal of exchange rate risk.

Background: Energy drinks have been found in everyday-stores since 1997 and their popularity have increased over time. Consumtion of energy drinks takes place because of their ability to increase concentration and to decrease fatigue but also because of the popularity the drinks have got. Target groups for these stimulating beverages are adolescents and young adults. Energy drinks contain caffeine, taurine, glucuronolacton, carbohydrates and B-vitamins and voices have been raised about the eligibility for young people to ingest large quantities of these kinds of substances. Because of the properties of these substances it has become popular to mix energy drinks and alcoholic beverages to make up for the negative effects of alcohol and to be able to drink larger quantaties.Aim: The aim of this literature work was to investigate cognitive effects of the combination of caffeine in terms of energy drinks and alcohol and to determine if these effects could be harmful.Method: This literature work is based on five scientific articles retrieved from PubMed.

The United States use of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) or drones for targeted killings of terrorists has been on the rise in recent years and the method has become the core element of president Obamas strategy in the war against terror. This study examines the deterrent effect of targeted killings on terrorism using UCAV/drones as a method of counterterrorism. Building on the literature on counterterrorism, UCAV, targeted killings, deterrence theory and statistics on terrorism the study provides a case study of the CIA drone operations in Pakistan between the years 2004-2010. The goal has been to analyze drone operations and the extent of terrorism from the beginning of the drone campaign until 2010. This as a means of identifying possible trends in terrorism activity due to the occurrence of drone strikes.

The aim of the study was to see how men and women taken into custody care byLVM were described in the sentences through a gender perspective. The aim wasalso to lay more focus on young substance abusers and see in which extent youngsubstance abusers are judged to institutional care through custody care by LVM.Through a documentary study of 77 LVM sentences in Småland in Sweden, theintention of the study was to see whether women and men are judged and treatedequally or if gender makes a difference and in which way the judgement is different?The questions are in witch extent men and women are judged to institutional carethrough custody care by LVM and how the social indication LVM 4 § 3 b) are usedin the sentences when it is younger men and women that are substance abusers. Thestudy also covered a survey about how women and men are described in the sentencethrough a gender perspective and more focus is laid on younger substance abusersunder 30 years old. The methodological approaches that were used in the study areboth qualitative and quantitative with focus on the qualitative method.

Vi lever i en värld där teknikutvecklingen går allt snabbare och till synes exponentiellt och oförtröttligt kommer att fortsätta öka. Hur detta påverkar Försvarsmaktens val av tekniknivå för framtida sensorförmåga för artillerilokalisering kopplat mot operativa krav, interoperabilitet och ekonomi blir extra intressant när radartekniken befinner sig i ett generationsskifte. Beprövad teknik, internationella och militära krav på en artillerilokaliseringsradar ställs mot ny radarantennteknik, svensk forskning och utveckling av Aktiva Elektroniskt Styrda Antenner (AESA).Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida ny teknik är ett nödvändigt tekniksteg för artillerilokalisering eller är "gårdagens" teknik lika bra eller kanske till och med bättre i vissa användningsområden och situationer? Är AESA ett nödvändigt tekniksteg för artillerilokalisering?Metoden för uppsatsen är en jämförande litteraturstudie d.v.s. en kvalitativ textanalys utifrån en given teoriram.

The purpose of our study is to examine how parents experienced their participation and their involvement in a solution-focused parenting group. The parenting groups are a part of the social welfare system in a town in south of Sweden. The study is conducted as a qualitative study with focus groups. 11 parents have participated. The study´s theoretical framework considers solution focused theory, social constructionism and process within groups.In the study we found that participants generally perceived their participation as positive and that they received confirmation by meeting other parents in the same situation.

Semi-natural grasslands have a high biodiversity and host ecologically and economically valuable ecosystems and species. Restoration on these types of land is often done by removing trees and scrubs, mowing, grazing, changing the soil by removing nutrition or changing the structure of the ground. Another way of restoration is planting seeds of common grassland plants. By comparing 18 scientific publications I investigated if the restoration was affecting the plants in a positive way and if the effect was similar for insects. By comparing the publications, time seemed to have an important effect on insects. They needed time to recolonize restored areas.

This thesis has been focused around the Diels Alder reaction with the goal to design an enzyme catalyzed reaction pathway. To achieve this goal computer aided enzyme design was utilized. Common traditional methods of computational chemistry (B3LYP, MP2) do not do well when calculating reaction barriers or even reaction energies for the Diels Alder reaction. New calcu- lation methods were developed and tested. This was the focus of the first part of the thesis, by choosing a small system, extensive and heavy calculations could be done with CBS-QB3.

This paper examines family owned tourism businesses with a special focus on succession. In Nordic countries tourism has been widely promoted and used in rural development as a replacement economy for ?traditional? livelihoods based on rural production. Because the tourism and hospitality industry, especially in rural areas, is dominated by family enterprises, the topic of succession is of great relevance for tourism and tourism destinations. This paper looks at family businesses? special characteristics, challenges and advantages in terms of ownership structure, lifestyle, motivations, employees and destination impact.

This essay analyses the existence of a literary tendency in Sweden the last decade, which shares many similarities with magical realism. The study includes the work of three writers: Majgull Axelsson with Aprilhäxan; John Ajvide Lindquist with Hanteringen av odöda and Låt den rätte komma in; and finally a short story of Alejandro Leiva Wegner, ?Elixir?.Focus for this work is to expose how these writers use supernatural events/people as a strategy to create a new identity and to effect social criticism, strategies that are common to magical realism.The aim of this work is therefore to clarify generalities about magical realism as a genre and give it a place in Swedish literature and in a changing Swedish society. Furthermore this essay defines a unique term for the genre as adapted to the Swedish reader and with some characteristics of its own: ?övernaturlig realism? (supernatural realism)..