Title: The life is too soft to accord in to tariffs: an essay about youth and families with children who are recipients of economic support, their experience of their financial situation and the reception towards the social welfare.Author: Ana Becovic & Kerstin Olsson         Supervisor: Erik WesserInstitution: Humanvetenskapliga institutionen, Högskolan i KalmarType of Essay: Degree project, 15 ECTS                     Date: December 2008The aim for our study has been to examine how youth and families who are recipients of economic support on long term basis experience their contact with social welfare. The starting point for the question at issue has been the client's experience of their financial situation the reception and expectations towards the social welfare.In our B-level study we carried out qualitative interviews with social welfare officers to find out how they applied the "child perspective" in granting financial support and to what extent they felt that they succeeded in meeting the need of the client. The conclusion was that there is still room for improvement in this field and particularly a wish to focus more on the child's situation and development. The officers told us that they tried to pay closer attention to the child's situation through asking about the children and by visiting the families at home.They expressed awareness of the importance to a child's well being the financial situation of their family. They also expressed the need for the child to be able to take part in leisure time activities and having an active social life.In this study our research method is based on qualitative interviews.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the surrounding world and the library with respect to the library?s need to provide a Library 2.0 web site. We also explore the relationship between the physical and the virtual library. Our research objects are the public libraries of Stockholm and the Umeå region, that maintain the web sites Biblioteket.se and minabibliotek.se respectively. By applying Dorte Skot-Hansen's theory of rationales we found that the Stockholm public library is acting in accordance with the experience rationale, whereas the libraries of Umeå are influenced by the instrumental rationale.

The purpose of the following essay has been to identify four men?s momentums of their volunteer access to treatment for their disruptive gender-based violence. The questions that have been asked in the entrance of this field have been divided into the following questions: (i) is it possible to identify the processes of change that leads to turning points into the interviewed men's treatment of violence, (ii) how do the interviewed men, themselves, reflect on their turning points into treatment, and (iii) are there other, implicit, interpretations and analyzes of men's access into treatment that I can discern in their stories? As a point of departure of the analysis one theoretical perspective has been used to explain and analyze men?s access to treatment, the sociological life course perspective, focusing on the concept of turning points.The method to approach this field has been qualitative interviews with a life story oriented approach which means that, focus has been to let the four interviewed men describe their lives from early childhood to their adulthood and from their histories identify contingent processes to their access of treatment. The study resulted in a division of two parts, one part consisting the processes that have been identified by the men?s stories of present tense of violent outbursts.

Byggproduktionen är, på grund av sina invecklade arbetsmoment och dynamiska arbetsplatser, drabbad av svåra informations- och kommunikationsproblem. Veidekke Sverige AB använder sig av virtuellt byggandet (VDC) för att lösa dessa hinder i utförandet av sina projekt. VDC tillämpar flera olika informations- och kommunikationstekniker (ICT) och har visat sig vara lönsamt vid projektering. Under projektering med VDC samlas alla beslutsbehöriga parter i ett interaktivt rum där information förmedlas snabbt och effektiv med hjälp av olika visualiseringstekniker. Då VDC saknar liknande arbetsmetoder som kan tillämpas i produktionen, används fortfarande traditionella informations- och kommunikationsprinciper.Genom ett samarbete med Veidekke implementerades ett ICT-program i ett bostadsprojekt för att undersöka hur dess funktioner påverkade de rådande informations- och kommunikations-problem.

In today?s society, safety in a workplace is an important factor to any organization. Focus on improving the working conditions by making them safer through technology is taking us into a time where we rely on technology to keep us safe. How well developed the technology may be, it is still not enough to keep us entirely from harm. Human error will always be a factor in the human interaction with a workplace.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to clarify and evaluate the concept of scenario planning.Methodology: Our research methodology has a qualitative approach and uses deductive reasoning. The theoretical field of strategy formulation has been reviewed and in specific the concept scenario planning was unravelled and mapped. Thereafter, our model was tested in a case study where the empirical data was collected through personal interviews. Theoretical field: Literature and articles from the strategic management field have been reviewed with a focus on strategy formulation, scenario planning and Williamson?s theory for the creation of a portfolio for strategic options.Empirical base: Personal interviews and secondary sources such as financial reports, articles mainly from industry media and articles found in the databases ELIN and Affärsdata.Analysis: The analysis work constitutes the testing of our model for scenario planning, integrated into Williamson?s portfolio of strategic options for the future.Result: The work has resulted in a clarified model of scenario planning with links to strategic management schools.

Producing a building is a long and complex process. It consists of several parts, from the feasibility study and design stage onto the construction and finally the management of the building. The design process is a critical part of the process where construction plans are made. The quality of the plans affect the production phase in great extent and faulty plans can pose a risk for extra costs for all parts in the process. The cost of producing dwellings has increased the last years and the detail design process is one of many phases where improvements can mean cost savings within the whole building process.This report aims to point at parts within the detail design process which could be more efficient, regarding communication, follow-up and time planning, and to give suggestions for improvements.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and fluxes in forest ecosystems are influenced by natural and human disturbances. In the tropical regions the highest impacts on disturbance in forest C cycles are related to human activities such as conversion of natural lands to cropland and pasture areas and to forest plantations. The disturbances in the forest C cycles will release CO2 emissions to the atmosphere triggering global warming. In this study the focus was set in subtropical soils in Brazil, south extreme region of Bahia. The aim of the study was to investigate whether reforestation of Eucalyptus plantations under former pasture areas will help mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration.

This is a Minor field study addressing the current situation in Vientiane, Laos where focus lies on the green structures past, present and future. The city of Vientiane is growing rapidly and as a result of this there is a increasing development. The once peaceful capital known for it?s lush and green environment is standing in a crossroad where important decision must be made to preserve valuable areas. During 8 weeks inventories and observations where made resulting into a proposal for future development. The proposal is divided into three parts. The urban fringe and surrounding landscape are still quite undeveloped and have a great potential of green wedges etc. The city of Vientiane and the green network linking important recreational, commercial and cultural places. Detailed proposal over certain green objects such as parks and squares..

This master thesis deals with computer game classics and a possible computer game canon. It looks closer at four computer game genres - adventure, RPG, action and strategy - in order to discern which games are considered classics and what characterizes them. To answer the first question a quantitative research method was used. 675 computer game reviews from 5 Internetsites were examined in order to see which games are mentioned most often in this context and therefore might be considered classics. To answer the second question a qualitative research method was used.

Forests affect its visitors in many positive ways. It is the acknowledgement of this fact that has prompted an EU-LIFE sponsored project entitled ?Urban forests for mankind?. It aims to lure or welcome more citizens near urban forests to experience nature in its many forms. In Sweden, three municipalities have decided to take the lead in this effort. Huddinge district, Haninge district, and the Royal Djurgården Administration in conjunction with The National Board of Forestry in Mälardalen are in the midst of this four year project (2001-2005).

This thesis deals with numerical simulation of earth pressure against tubular bridges in the software Plaxis. Plaxis is a FEM (Finite Element Method) software based on numerical calculations for which approximate solutions are developed through an iterative process. The program is specifically designed for soil and rock mechanical tests, such as voltage and deformation calculations in soil.The Royal Institute of Technology conducted in 2005, field tests on tubular bridges of corrugated steel, which was part of Ersa Bayoglu Fleners PhD (Bayoglu Flener, 2009). She studied how two different tubular bridges deformed during installation and filling. Tests and measurements were made during filling.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine values expressed towards the Swedish literary award Augustpriset in a selection of articles from Swedish newspapers published between the years 2000-2007. The questions posed in the study are: What types of values concerning Augustpriset are expressed in a selection of cultural journalistic articles? How is the relationship between intellectual culture and commercial culture reflected in the articles? How are positive and negative standpoints justified? How can Augustpriset and the journalists be understood as parts of intraconversion on the literary field? The study?s qualitative textual analysis is theoretically based on Pierre Bourdieu?s theory of the literary field. The method used for analysing the articles is idea analysis using dimensions constructed from Bourdieu?s description of two polarities, the intellectual and the commercial, of the literary field.

This master?s thesis report is a summary of the analysis performed together with ITAB Shop Concept located in Jönköping, Sweden. As a last element of the Master?s program at the School of Engineering, this 20 point level D thesis project has been the final work to bring my education to an end.ITAB Shop Concept expressed an aspiration that the Shop Counter Program B10/B11 should undergo an analysis to point out and possibly lead to improvement.Through interviews and data collection proposals for possible improvements has been drawn up and the analysis points out current deficiencies. By following the idea generation, proposals to solutions for every individual problem is presented.

The landscape can be something that you rest your eyes on, something that goes quickly past outside the windscreen or the place for the daily work. To me, landscape is everything around us ? the city, the field and the forest. But what is landscape for you? What does the idea of the landscape stand for? How does our view of the landscape become influenced of the place where we grow up? And the differences between peoples different views of the landscape ? what does they depend on? My point of the view for this paper is that the landscape ideals mostly depend on the landscape where you grow up and that it depends less on the differences between the individuals. As a landscape architect the idea of the landscape is the essential. The more we learn, the more we realize how complex it is, but deep down we always have our own experiences and memories and that shapes our personalities.