We have the tradition in Sweden to build villas and houses with a wooden framework. It has become natural for us because we have so much forest in our country. Building with wood has advantages, it is easy to process, but also disadvantages, as it is sensitive to moisture.Finland has long made use of the thermal blocks to build villas. It is a type of bricks that are a bit like a sandwich element, with a core of EPS and concrete on both sides of the core material. The concrete is hollow, so that after the walls has been bricked up you pour concrete into the hollow bricks.The issue of this report is to find out if concrete can be an alternative to wood as framework material in villas.

This report is the result of an evaluation of a project, conducted by five regional libraries. Through a training course the project should inspire small and medium sized enterprises to use modern information technology and Internet when searching for information. To evaluate the project, qualitative interviews were conducted with five librarians and quantitative questionnaires were distributed to all the course participants. The evaluation shows that the project goals were met, apart from the number of course participants, which was much lower than anticipated. It also shows that the project resulted in an increase in information technology and competence at the libraries, and that the course participants profit from their increased knowledge in their daily work..

This pilot study examined whether treatment with Vortex Process Technology (VPT) of the irrigation water used on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants had any effect on plant growth. In a block experiment, with two blocks comprising 12 vases containing 1 L water and two tomato plantlets, treatment in which, nutrient solution was based on Vortex-treated water was compared with an control using untreated water. All vases were kept in a static aerated culture system in a daylight chamber for four weeks. The results showed that the effect of the two blocks exceeded the effect of vortex treatment in terms of leaf area and weight of fresh and dry matter. Plant height, stem width and internodal length were significantly different in tomato plants grown in Vortex-processed water compared with the untreated control.

Where is technology heading? And how will our behaviors towards these new innovations look? This project questions the direction of ?beyond smart? products, through scenarios within our everyday life. The work is both critical and speculative. Speculative in the sense that it is speculating in how a future scenario with ?beyond smart? products would look like.

In the construction industry today there is a significant technological revolution goingon. New methods for automated processes and information management are developedcontinuously. Intense studies are currently taking place to ensure ways and means toembrace the new technology of BIM.At the present, environmental certification systems are considered cumbersome andchallenging. However, the increasing demands of sustainable development in the constructionindustry imply that the environmental certifications will not disappear. ThisMaster Thesis examines the possibilities to apply BIM technology within the field ofenvironmental certifications to streamline the processes.The applications that provide the best opportunities are:- To use BIM to be able to, during the design stage, dynamically evaluate the resultor score a certain building will achieve.- To avoid unnecessary work through collection of data for calculations directlyfrom a BIM-model.- To be able to automate certain time consuming calculations that are currentlyperformed manually.- To automatically examine the completed model to ensure that the demands arefulfilled.The possibilities to use BIM within these areas are however limited by the technologyitself.

The ever-evolving information technology gives users more opportunities, but also put higher demands on them. The digital agenda of the state and society clarifies the objectives and effects academic libraries? development. E-books influence the development of organizational, economic, legal and political perspectives. At the University Library in Gävle work is ongoing. The process is controlled by the acquisition policy which makes it clear that e-books should be purchased if possible.

This report is about how HDR (HighDynamicRange) can be created and used in combination with Tone mapping. This work has been carried out together with Kapsch TrafficCom AB in Jönköping.The objective of this project is to:Evaluate and investigate the effects given to pictures by HDR and tone mapping.Evaluate if the technology may lead to improvements in Kapsch?s systems.To construct a program which is able to handle some form of tone mapping or HDR-algorithm.These questions will be answered in this report:What kind of effects has HDR and tone mapping-algorithms on pictures?Can the HDR-technology give better data in Kapsch?s systems?The research method used in this report is called action research. This means the authors has investigated the technology by reading different documentations and by testing different algorithms to see what kind of result they give. The report describes some of the tests made to see if the technology is appropriate in Kapsch?s system.There is two smaller reports made by the authors which documenting some of the work.The first report describes the work with different settings for a camera to create pictures with HDR-quality.

Along with the development of technology, the cross-border trade is increasing and therefore there is a need for greater consumer protection. A good consumer protection creates a feeling of safety for the consumer and that by itself may help to increase cross-border trade. This is one of the reasons for why the EU has established regulatory framework for electronic commerce, for example the Directive2000/31/EC. The direc-tive strives to create a similar law for electronic commerce within the European Union. This paper?s main purpose is to ensure that the directive is implemented properly in Swedish law, and if there are other possible ways to achieve the objective, other than the ones that the Swedish legislator has chosen.

The guest harbor on Utö, Utö Gästhamn, is currently using electricity for heating all of the water used in the showers and taps. Because of the large amount of visitors, especially during the summer months, the hot water usage gets very high and that is also the case for the electrical bills. During the year of 2011 the cost of electricity for Utö Gästhamn reached a total of 257 500 kr. Out of these 257 500 kr approximately 142 000 kr, 55 % of the total cost, were because of the water heating.The report is the result of a cooperation with Skärgårdsstiftelsen, the Green Islands-project and Utö Gästhamn where the mutual goal is to dimension a solar energy system, to promote the sustainable development.Initially the different techniques for the solar energy system are researched. The techniques are plane solar collectors, evacuated tube collectors, pool collectors and photovoltaic cells.

 We have chosen to write our thesis within a transport company. The work was carried out at DHL activities in Uppsala. DHL is one of the leading transport companies worldwide. Our interest lies in more efficient and advanced transportation and terminals, as globalization and new trends require effective solutions.The aim of our work is to explain the need for information technology applications in road haulage and associated terminal operations. Furthermore, we analyses terminal and applied information technology.

Information technology development has in recent decades had a major impact on retailing.Discount supermarket chains began to offer customers the possibility to shop without therequirement to do this over the counter, instead the customer could help themselves buyingthe products they wanted. Retailing today has an even greater focus on the self service in thesupermarkets, recently many retailing chains has introduced self-checkout systems toincrease the profits and reduce staffing requirements. In the 1960?s the start for today's ecommercewas founded, however the development took off 30 years later in the beginning of1990. During the first years of 2000 the consumption on the Internet increased rapidly.

Social movements have long been valuable components of the struggle for a world with true justice. Along with the changing and modernization of society these movements also change, both in their actions as well as in the goals they want to accomplish. Technology is taking a greater part in many aspects of social life, creating new dimensions but also new social divides. This thesis examines how new social movements make themselves visible and affect the world around them through different kinds of networks. For the purpose of this study, we have chosen to study two social movements; the Zapatistas in Mexico, who have become known worldwide for carrying out the first informational revolution, and MoveOn.org, an American grassroots organization that struggles for increased democracy in the US.

The notion of firms interacting with technology is not new; these types of systems were already in place in the mid eighties. E-business users worked with connections between their inbound logistics and procurement systems, and suppliers? order-entry systems. When these connections were described for the first time the vertical links between two, or more, value chains in a value system received more attention in firm strategy. The design of the linkages in the value system was said to be a product of the need for coordination and relative bargaining power.

AbstractThe future of ethanol is depending on good solutions for the production. ENA energy power plant produces electrical power and district heating by heating biofuel. By building an integrated bioenergy plant surplus steam could be used to produce ethanol as fuel to vehicle.This would mean that ethanol is produced renewable energy and the energy for the process derives from the surplus of power.  ENA energy, MDH (the University of Mälardalen) and the energy authority has initiated a research project were different bioenergy combinations integrate with existing power plant.  As a part of the project which size an integrated factory should be to gain the best efficiency for the plant was investigated. Consideration will be taken to the cost of the production in order to be competitive to the price of imported ethanol.  Etanolens framtid vilar på bra lösningar för framställning.  I ENA energi kraftverk i Enköping produceras el och fjärrvärme genom eldning av biobränsle.  Genom att bygga ett integrerat bioenergikraftverk där skulle man kunna använda överskottsånga till att framställa etanol som fordonsbränsle.

We have the tradition in Sweden to build villas and houses with a wooden framework. It has become natural for us because we have so much forest in our country. Building with wood has advantages, it is easy to process, but also disadvantages, as it is sensitive to moisture.Finland has long made use of the thermal blocks to build villas. It is a type of bricks that are a bit like a sandwich element, with a core of EPS and concrete on both sides of the core material. The concrete is hollow, so that after the walls has been bricked up you pour concrete into the hollow bricks.The issue of this report is to find out if concrete can be an alternative to wood as framework material in villas.