Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur nätverksarbetet inom socialtjänsten upplevdes ur ett brukarperspektiv i en medelstor kommun i Sverige. I den studerade kommunen användes nätverksarbete som en insats för barn och ungdomar aktuella inom socialtjänsten. Nätverksarbetet innebar en samverkan mellan de privata och de professionella aktörerna för att uppnå hållbara lösningar för ungdomarna och deras familjer. Studien genomfördes kvalitativt via åtta intervjuer med föräldrar till barn och ungdomar aktuella inom socialtjänsten där nätverksarbetet hade genomförts som en insats. I resultatredovisningen och analysen har systemteori och de salutogena perspektivets tre begrepp; begriplighet, hanterbarhet och meningsfullhet samt empowerment används.

Chalmers University of Technology today have numerous computers which are never powereddown, at the same time there is a need for more computation power for researchers.Hence, we have investigated the possibility to use the computers for computing power andsecondly, if there is no work to be done, to put them into power saving mode.We have made a thorough study where we compared different distributing systems andin the end HTCondor was chosen as the best to implement. HTCondor is an excellent systemfor opportunistic use of computing power, i.e. make use of computers that no one elseis currently using. The system is used at several universities around the world with goodresults and would be excellent at Chalmers, where there is a need for such a system.Our implementation shows that HTCondor is well capable of handling unused computingpower. HTCondor can handle most file types that may be run on the system.

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate changes within four discourses identified in the curriculum material of the Swedish library education in Borås Bibliotekarielinjen dating from 1977 and 1985 and its successor Library and Information Science Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap dating from 1995, 1999. My method used is a text analytic method primarily derived from the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, yet with addition of tools from the critical discourse analysis of Fairclough. By identifying three floating signifiers within the material, i.e information, library, and librarian, and thereafter identifying their fixation, a pattern of resemblance and diversity in the fixating signs appeared between different courses of the curriculum dating from 1999. Hence I could establish an order of discourse consisting of four library discourses, a knowledge organisation discourse, a user discourse, a society discourse and a management discourse. Using this discursive order as a pattern, I could trace these four discourses back in time within the material dating from 1995, 1985 and 1977.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how public library users consider the knowledge of the librarians and to examine what the users expect from the librarians. To begin with, we contemplate our own view of the librarians, their knowledge and what help we expect at the library. Realising that we do not expect particularly much from librarians, although we have studied to become librarians for two years, we assume that the regular library user does not expect much either. This assumption resulted in our decision to investigate this particular question.

The aim of this thesis is to describe passage retrieval (PR), with basis in results from various empirical experiments, and to critically investigate different approaches in PR. The main questions to be answered in the thesis are: (1) What characterizes PR? (2) What approaches have been proposed? (3) How well do the approaches work in experimental information retrieval (IR)? PR is a research topic in information retrieval, which instead of retrieving the fulltext of documents, that can lead to information overload for the user, tries to retrieve the most relevant passages in the documents. This technique was investigated studying a number of central articles in the research field. PR can be divided into three different types of approaches based on the segmentation of the documents.

LKAB och FAB (Fastighets AB Malmfälten) tillsammans med samhället i Malmfälten står idag inför en unik situation där bostäder måste flyttas eller rivas på grund av gruvans riskområde som breder ut sig. Detta har resulterat i att FAB planerar att bygga nya hyreslägenheter. Det är viktigt för LKAB och FAB att de bygger lägenheter vilka är långsiktigt hållbara och som hyresgästerna uppskattar samt efterfrågar. Vi har utifrån denna situation utvecklat vårt syfte som är att öka förståelsen för hur företag kan vinna order på marknaden vid introduktion av nya produkter. För att svara på syftet har vi genomfört en fallstudie genom intervjuer, en observation samt tagit del av enkätsvar.

The web has evolved much through the years. From being a place where author and reader were clearly distinguished, it now invites everyone to take part in the development of both content and technology. Social services are central in what is called Web 2.0. Wikis, blogs and folksonomies are all examples of how the users and their communities are key to the development of services. Collaborative writing, tags and API:s are central.

This Masters thesis work describes a comparison between two different methods for estimation of the down channel (base station to mobile subscriber) in Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The first estimation method, Optimal Feed-forward Channel Estimation (OFCE), is a conventional method that bases the estimates on data that is known to both sender and receiver, so called pilots. The second method, Decision Directed Channel Estimation (DDCE), is an elaboration of OFCE. It also uses user data for estimation. Simulations show that DDCE, in comparison to OFCE, does not attain an improvement in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) for high bit error rates (BER). An improvement is only seen when the BER becomes much lower than what is common in real situations. In conclusion DDCE is complicated, involves many mathematical operations and gives insignificant improvement of SNR when BER takes common values. It is legitimate to question if it is possible to use the method in a real mobile phone system..

This thesis examines which function the information technology may have in thechildren's library, with the example from two library computer programmes. One is anexpert system, Hedvig, which will help children to choose and to find books, and theother is a computer game, The mysterious signs, that will teach children library user education.The main question is: What conceptions do the project-leaders, the children'slibrarians and the children have concerning the function of these two programmes in thechildren's library?The study is based upon qualitative interviews with two projects-leaders, fourlibrarians, three computer programmers and twenty-eight children.The theoretical material consists of examples on other library computer programmesfor children developed in Denmark and USA, some American studies in children'sabilities to use computerized information retrieval systems, and studies concerningchildren's relations to computers.The adult's conceptions of the computer programmes are divided into categories asfollows: Democracy, aspect of sex, complement, marketing, reading promotion,development of competence, information technology development, pedagogics, adulteducational activities, compensation and armusement, pedagogics, usefulness,effectiveness and information. These categories shall be seen as the conclusions of the thesis..

Self- determination and autonomy of elderly people living in long- stay care homes is the forefront of discussion in the media and in society today. It examines the extent to which elderly people actually have the opportunity for self- determination and to what extent they have an impact and influence in their daily lives. A suitable way to look at how the quality of long ?stay care looks like is too look at the extent to which the user has self- determination. The aim of our study was to examine how self-determination appears in long- stay care homes. We also talk about in what way the officials perceive self- determination and how elderly identify and perceive their right to self- determination and the importance it has for the individual. The essay has been made with the help of interviews and surveys on a number of long-stay care homes in Skåne.

This qualitative study is based upon interviews with librarians. It investigates the librarians? opinions on material adapted for disabled people and examines strategies used to market user friendly services for the disabled. The study explores librarians? views about streaming directly on the internet.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how some university students, who are using the libraries extensively, use and experience the public and the university library and what they expect from the two different library types. I also compare their expectations with the different tasks and aims of the two library types. To answer this I have interviewed seven students at the department of history of literature at Göteborg University. I have also studied some literature and research related to this subject, for example user studies about students and libraries and the information behaviour of distance students.

This pilot study investigates possible treatment effects and participants' experience in an internet-based treatment of specicfic phobia. Changes in self-reported phobic fear were examined in a series of case studies and changes in attitudes towards avoidance and approach strategies were examined at group level. Seventeen DSM-IV diagnosed patients with specific phobia participated and 10 out of these completed the treatment.The results show that 80 % of the completing participants were clinically improved after the treatment and that the completing participants were significantly more negative towards avoidance strategies after the treatment. The evaluation of the disposition and user-friendliness of the treatment showed that the participants' overall view of the treatment was positive. The main advantage perceived was the flexible nature of the treatment, while the main disadvantages were the high level of motivation and discipline required from the participants.

The subject of this master thesis is co-operation between archives, libraries and museums. The purpose is twofold: 1 To map out activities within the area to get an overall picture. The mapping is done by studies of documents and consists of international outlooks and an overview of national and regional projects and reports; 2 To investigate how leaders of the respective institutions within the various regions of Sweden apprehend co-operation between the three sectors. The empirical study is accomplished by inquiries and is mainly qualitative. An intermediate purpose of this essay is to try using grounded theory to treat and analyse the gathered material.

The purpose of this study is to find out how and to what extent doctors use the hospital library?s collection of print and electronic medical journals. Major changes have the last years occurred in the journal collection. The journals are very costly and little is known about the user satisfaction with them. Therefore it?s important to examine how satisfied the users are with the collection and how they utilize it.