The structural rationalization of rural firms in Sweden has led to many new creative ways of developing companies. The agriculture sector is characterized by the need of capital in form of buildings, labor and inventory. The rationalization process has led to free capacity in rural firms when new technology make buildings and inventory not longer necessary for the production process. To get a better cost coverage this free capacity can be used to start-up new business areas that help the rural firm to growth.The study aims to identify factors that motives entrepreneurs in rural firms to develop new business areas. The purpose is also to analyze driving forces that lies behind development of rural firms and the forces that support or not support development in rural firms.The study is built upon five cases that all can be categorized as firms with different size and orientation.

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.

The aim of this study about wind power planning in forest was to examine the factors and restrictions, which represent technical limitations, biodiversity, tourism and amount of energy for wind farms in Kronoberg County. Suitable areas for wind power were identified from the collected information about planning principles and potential conflicts. From the suitable areas the potential energy gain is calculated. Methods used were mainly a literature review, interviews with experts and practitioners, GIS analysis and a rough calculation of the energy gain. The section of information and facts describes in general wind power planning and possible conflicts.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to study how librarians experience reference work. We wanted to get a better understanding about librarians assignments through the study. We chose to limit the study to public libraries, and to the south of Sweden. The questions used in our study are: How do librarians interpret the conception of reference work? What values do librarians have concerning reference work? How do librarians experience reference work? How do librarians look at different roles in reference work? We chose to use a fenomenographically inspired method.

This Master Thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Silva Sweden AB. A companywhich manufactures products like compasses, pedometers, headlamps, hiking poles and otherequipment for the out door life and navigation. The purpose of the project has been toassemble methods and models which support user involvement in Silva?s design process.Thus, to increase the number of products with purchasing power, enhance product quality aswell as increase foundation for new product ideas.The focus through out the project has been to assemble a pallet with methods for userinvolvement and from this select a few methods that will fit the company. The purpose of thepallet is to be accessible for the company during their work of change with the design processthat has been going on and will be in the future.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether youth novels contained informationconcerning our society. We reviewed youth literature and its history in brief, including itscommencement and development from separate boys' and girls' novels to a common youthnovel after the Second World War.To obtain a clearer picture and a better understanding of youths, we read non-fiction, such asbooks, magazines and articles, concerning youth culture, its meaning and content. We decidedto review the period 1990-1994 more closely. We therefore set up selection criteria whichfinally resulted in 56 youth novels. We examined these novels to determine if and/or how theymatched the nine preselected areas that we felt were typical for the 1990's.

In Scandinavia, capercaillie are often associated with pine trees (Pinus sylvestris) in winter, with pine needles as the main diet. Few dietary studies have been conducted in Sweden and winter diet is subject to little debate. The interesting thing is that this "pine specialist? is also found in spruce (Picea abies) forest habitats where pine is scarce or unavailable. In many studies outside Sweden (primarily Central Europe) spruce is regularly observed in the winter diet, but I have found no reports on the selection of the diet in spruce forest areas in Sweden.

The aim of this study is to examine which factors in a traffic wardens? situation at work that promote and which that inhibit satisfaction at work. The aim of this study is also to examine if there are any differences in the work experiences for traffic wardens that work alone versus those who work in a team of two. The following questions are examined in the study:?Which factors promote and which factors inhibit the work situation for traffic wardens??Are there any differences between traffic wardens that work alone and those who work with another colleague?The selection consisted of eight traffic wardens, of which four of them work with another colleague while the other four work by themselves.

Norske Skog Jämtland AB is like many other companies in a situation where it has to increase its purchases to provide its industries with raw material. To increase the available amount of raw materials, many companies employ purchasers to cover larger areas. This study aims to find out how to handle the increasing competition for timber suppliers. An important input for defining such a strategy is to examine how the suppliers view their relation to the company today. For a company it is extremely important to have a good relation with the suppliers to secure long term supplies.

The study aims to increase understanding and knowledge of motivation; this by examining how the leader experiences her capability to promote employees' work motivation. Also, how employees perceive that the leader influence and enhance their work motivation. Interviews were conducted with a manager and two employees of a government agency in Sweden. The results demonstrate different opinions between manager and employees in the manager's ability to foster motivation in the everyday work. The leader thinks that she promotes her employees work positively and believes that she is giving her employees attention and appreciation.

Stress is commonly found in society today. This paper aims to examine how work performance, cooperation and team spirit are maintained in demanding work environments. By studying two departments in a public hospital that practises addiction care, our findings suggest the following: If the experienced stress is mainly connected to challenge stressors, it has a positive effect on work performance. By organising work through mechanistic and organic structure, the handling of qualitative and quantitative stress is facilitated. As a consequence, first and foremost cooperation can be maintained, but also work performance and team spirit.

In this work, a method was developed and evaluated for calculating the life of welds under the influence of fatigue loads from a vibration environment. Typically, a shaker table is used for testing a component against vibration loads. The shaker table creates a vibration environment that is defined in the frequency domain by a power spectrum.Similarly, a virtual vibration table can be used to calculate the same type of load environment, which can then be used to calculate the expected lifetime. The benefit of this method is that it can be used in design, as well as in simulation of tests before physical verification tests are carried out.Today there are methods for calculating fatigue life of non-welded base material, but since many components contain welded joints, there is a need to apply this method to those types as well. To achieve this, the thesis combines two different areas, which together provide a method for fatigue assessment of welds using a virtual shaker table.The methodology is carried out by modeling the component, and its welded joints, in a finite element program.

The aim of this study is to look at the way four teachers in, and five workbooks for, the course Svenska 1/A+B in upper-secondary schools include language varieties in their content. The research is based on qualitative and quantitative analyzes of the workbooks, where words and content are examined, and also interviews with the teachers who presents how they work with language varieties in their education. The results show that language varieties are accepted in school-education at the same time as they are, and have been, alienated in a way. The results also show that language varieties are less prioritized than other areas of education in the same subject..

This study was carried out at a company within the computer industry, a sector that is expanding and is facing scarcity of competent personnel. The purpose was to examine factors that are crucial for being an employer of choice. To get a profound picture of the employees' comprehension of their work situation, a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews with ten of the employees were conducted. To examine factors that are important for future employees a survey was created and handed out to fiftysix civil engineering students majoring in computer science. The results from the interviews showed that the organisation's culture was of great value to the employees.

The focus of our dissertation is masculinity which is often a topic of debate in today?s society concerning areas such as violence, sport and paternal leave. Male studies are a relatively new field which means there is a lot remaining to be explored. We have chosen to explore how social class reflects on male identity. The reason we have chosen social class as a variable is due to a focus in the general debate of identity amongst the social sciences towards identities formed through consumption in the world of global mass-media.