The purpose of this thesis is to examine the performance of different types of queries in the AltaVista query-based search engine. Thirty information needs have been collected from an ask-a-question service on the World Wide Web, which means that they are based on real users information needs. This is done to avoid partiality in the study. The author has invented different types of queries for each and every one of the information needs in accordance with the search syntax available for AltaVista. The types used are Boolean expressions, queries including proximity operators, phrases and queries directed towards a specific field.

Uppsatsens syfte är att visa hur Jean Rhys i sin roman Sargassohavet ifrågasätter de narrativa strategier och diskurser som avgör vilka romanpersoner och perspektiv som får komma till uttryck. Rhys gör detta bland annat genom att placera en icke-västerländsk kvinna, som dessutom påstås vara galen, i protagonistens position. På så vis legitimeras romanpersonens perspektiv och detta är ett sätt att låta den Andras röst få komma till uttryck, från det fria subjektets position.Rhys lyfter också fram att det alltid finns fler än en sida av en berättelse. Den mångstämmighet som kännetecknar romanen visar att en berättelse kan framföras från flera olika perspektiv; genom att utrymme ges åt flera röster försvåras en reducerande läsart av romanpersonerna. Romanens polyfoni är också ett sätt att belysa de olika positionerna i de konflikter som strukturerar romanen, exempelvis konflikten mellan det västerländska och det icke-västerländska, mellan kvinnor och män och mellan rationalitet och fantasi..

Abstract In my work, I have tried to define and clarify the conception of sustainability seen from my perspective as a landscape architect. With a basis in literature studies, I have analysed and commented on different applications, contents and meanings of sustainability and endurance. This compilation is based on how a number of writers, researchers and authorities consider the importance of integrating ecological, social and economic aspects of sustainability in city planning. My perspective has mainly been founded on the anthologies and compilations from the 80´s and 90´s where Per G. Berg and Björn Malbert acted as editors.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate international students? views regarding information seeking and use of information sources. A further aim is also to investigate the possible factors influencing information seeking in relation to everyday life for international students. Interviews were carried out with eight international students, 20-35 years old from three continents. They were to stay in Sweden for at least five months for the purpose of studying.

The main purpose of this Bachelor´s thesis is to investigate the visions chief librarians have for their public libraries. The world around us and our way of living is changing as the society is changing ever more rapidly. This evolvement also influences the public library, its role for society and individuals, its activities and its design. The question is how the public library can face these changes and what function and role it can get and make for itself in the future. Through qualitative interviews with five chief librarians our aim is to answer the main question of this thesis: What are the visions that chief librarians on public libraries have for the public library´s future? This study also contain the role the chief librarians give the public library of today and what they mean is necessary for their visions to be achieved.

Lattelement AB in Ornskoldsvik is one of the leading companies in Sweden in composite elements in walls, floors and roofs in particular. The company supplies elements to buildings located with a wide geographical variation, which means that the products are subjected to very different climate with regard to snow, wind and humidity. This places high demands and requires the elements to withstand large variable loads.The elements are made of lightweight beams with flanges of structural timber and beam webs made of OSB. These are bound together by nogging pieces with the same kind of structure. On top of the beams a nailed and glued plywood is added to absorb compressive forces and on the underside of the element a sheet of steel is added for tensile absorption.These elements are then attached to the building framework in different ways depending on the particular element height, loads and the structual supporting material of the frame work.

The main purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how high school students evaluate the quality of the information available on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. By doing quantitative research based on questionnaires we expected to find that the means for judging that students use in this situation are most frequently based on a text?s intrinsic qualities in the point of view of its content. It was also our presupposition that 18 and 19 year old high school graduates have received some education in information research and authoritative sources on the Internet.

The energy consumption continues to increase as the use of electronics and energy consuming equipment increases. The use of fossil fuels has to be phased out for this to be sustainable in the long run while the use of renewable energy continues to increase. A renewable energy source is solar energy but the production of heat and electricity are today very expensive compared to other energy sources and an important task for the solar energy market to grow is therefore to minimize the production cost of the solar collectors while increasing its efficiency to produce heat and/or electricity. One way to convert solar energy into heat is by using solar collectors and electricity can be produced by utilizing the produced heat, or by applying solar cells.This thesis aims to recommend a reflective material for the next generation solar collectors from Absolicon and to recommend a commercially available coating for the receiver tube of the solar collector. A market study has been carried out to investigate the cost-related aspects along with the optical and durable aspects for the optical material of the solar collector.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to deepen the understanding of the life, survival and canonising of a literary work. In order to do so I investigate how interpretations and evaluations of Doctor Glas 1905, by Hjalmar Söderberg 1869-1941, has developed throughout a century. The study is based on the reception-aesthetical theories of Hans Robert Jauss and Felix Vodicka, and Roman Ingardens theory of the concretizations of literary works. I have, in a phenomenological and hermeneutic way, studied the first reception and the echo of the work, in Sweden, in handbooks, articles, reference books and research. My conclusion is that Doctor Glas by time and different readers has continued to develop so that the work today can be conceived as more complex compared to when it was born, though early interpretations and evaluations still are alive.

Hot och våld är vanligt förekommande inom psykiatrisk slutenvård och utgör ett betydande problem både för patienter som vårdas och för de sjuksköterskor som arbetar inom psykiatrisk verksamhet. Det finns ett ansvar hos sjuksköterskor inom psykiatrisk vård att hantera situationer med patienter där inslag av hot och direkt våld är en realitet utan att tillfoga patienten onödigt lidande. Det krävs kunskap och erfarenhet men också en förståelse inför patientens situation och egna upplevelser. Forskning som rör arbetsmiljön inom psykiatrisk slutenvård visar på att förekomst av hot och våld kan innebära relativa arbetsmiljöproblem för de sjuksköterskor som arbetar där. Detta kan resultera i psykosociala problem och med minskad arbetsglädje som följd.

Due to the wide usage of different databases administrated by the Swedish government to keep control over its citizen?s the issue has arisen concerning if this information is subject for other purposes then originally acknowledged. Executives induced in recruitment for labour has over the years extended their need for information accumulated by these systems. Especially data from the criminal records registry are now being used as a normal step in the employment process among a vastly growing spectrum of enterprises and businesses all over the country. This thesis aims to illuminate the subject by grasp to what extent the described behaviour can be considered legally accepted according to the law or if these actions are inflicting with the foundational juridical principles that has to be ensured by the Swedish government due to our constitutional law.A strict jurisprudential method has been applied throughout the entire thesis to ensure the reliability of the results. The diversity of sources has gently been put together to assure the overall quality.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine reviewswritten by users in library online catalogs, online bookstoresand on the web community LibraryThing, in order todetermine whether there are any differences in the way usersreview books, and whether these differences might explainwhy libraries experience difficulties in getting their users toreview books. At the core of web 2.0 and library 2.0concepts lies the thought of user participation, and largerlibraries have sought to implement systems for reviewingand tagging items in the catalog in ways similar to onlinebookstores and other websites.By analyzing the contents of user reviews, however, thisthesis shows that users express themselves differentlydepending on what kinds of literature they review, and inwhat context. Most notably, user reviews of ?the Classics? orcanonized literature recognizes the high status of suchliterature, while users reviewing popular fiction expressthemselves in a way that admits that the reviewed titles areconsidered less valuable. There are also signs that booksreviewed at online bookstores are seen as products ormerchandise, while the reviews at the library to a greaterdegree treat the books as works of literature.The conclusion reached in this thesis suggests that there maybe a relation between the image of the library as a defenderof high culture and the perceived status of literary works,causing users to become hesitant to review books, feelingthat they do not have the knowledge to describe or reviewthem ?correctly?..

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the accessibility for persons with disabilities to service, materials, and the library building in one Swedish public library, and also to see what guides the development of accessibility at this library. In order to do this we have studied guidelines and political documents to se how this library responds to them. To our case study, data have also been collected by qualitative interviews, and observation of what this library offers impaired persons at the library?s web site, in special materials, facilities, and the functionality of the library building.

The following article consists of two parts; one part is about house construction and the other is a specialization about radon. The house construction part describes how to project a house from start. It contains the conformation of the house, the installations needed, calculations considering the strength of the construction, energy calculation and what materials were chosen. Calculations considering the costs of building and operate the house has been carried out. The result showed that the house would cost approximately two million Swedish kroner to build and thirteen thousand kronor a year to operate.

How do you do co-operation between government agencies? It is a wide spread view that there can be quite a few hitches in co-operation between agencies. In later years this idea has spread to the media where there has been negative coverage of the social service agencies. This generally applies to cases where children suffer because the right assistance takes too long to co-ordinate or does not get co-ordinated at all between schools, healthcare and social services. The social welfare law dictates that it is the social welfare office duty to co-ordinate the government agencies for the child?s best interest.