This thesis discusses and analyses the existence of two different perspectives, a social and a technical one, in Library and Information Science (LIS). Most of the time the division between these perspectives seems to result in research only using either of them. This can be a problem when studying complex phenomena. We therefore see a need for a metatheory that unites the social and the technical. By presenting and analysing all doctoral dissertations published at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) 1993-2005, we try to detect and critically discuss the dichotomy between the two perspectives.

This bachelor thesis examines the activities and values associated with automation and technical development at four Swedish research libraries. It does so by applying textual analysis to annual reports and job advertisements from the respective libraries. The study also questions whether some assumptions of automation have changed or remain over time, and includes a short historical discussion in relation to the contemporary analysis. As an added perspective it introduces the methods and philosophies of French sociologist Bruno Latour. The author reflects on the merits of Latour in research of library automation.

This bachelor thesis is a study in the analysis of paintings with focus on the technical exami-nation within the framework of ATSR. ATSR is a methodology based on an interdisciplinary study with the aim of putting the object in its context.The study is based on questions concerning which information the object can give, how we access this information and how it can be put in a larger context. My thesis contains three major parts. First a short overview of methods of analysis used in this form of investigation is presented. This is followed by two case studies which exemplify the technical investigation.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine relevance of the proposition made by new insitutionalists about institutional and technical environment. This proposition originaly made by Meyer & Rowan (1977) has two core assumptions: The first is that all organizations are controlled by combinations of types of demands; technical demands for efficient production and institutional demands to adept to cultural and normative expectations. The second assumption is that there exists a few organizations dominated almost entirely by one typy of demand. Organizations dominated by institutional demands are said to live in an institutional environment, while technical organizations is said operate in a technical environment. This thesis has examined if these assumptions are still applicable in describing organizational interaction with the environment.

This essay is a study that takes interest in technical and technological change essential to philosophy of science. What is shown is the importance of an active attitude towards this change, by the articulation of the question: Does technical development lead to new ontological questions for science? - and by the answer that such questions do appear.It is clear that passive assumptions in this matter might prohibit science in the proceeding search for truth.By examples of ways in which technical development helps and challenges science, it is concluded that scrutiny of the relationship between technical development and ontological suppositions and hypotheses within science is well motivated..

More than half of the implemented IT-projects go over budget, deadline or simply fail. The processes in an IT-project requires technical competence to be present among the project participants to ensure the achievement of business goals and to make organisations competitive. The success of an IT-project largely depends on the project manager which makes it interesting to further investigate what impact the project manager?s technical competence has on the project. Previous research shows differing opinions whether technical competence is considered important for the project manager to be successful or not.

HemoCue AB is a multinational corporation targeted on manufacturing point-of-care analysisinstruments for medical treatment. Their main product, the DM 201, is outdated and has bigissues gaining new market shares. For example, no medical treatment center in Sweden usesDM 201 frequently. The project of developing a new instrument to replace it was assignedtwo students at the development engineering program at Halmstad University. The projectalso included integration of the new platform for DM 202 to HemoCue AB:s remainingproducts.The project began by defining the different technical areas concerned.

This paper presents the results of a workplace study of two smaller companies in the design industry. The core issue has been to investigate the companies use of technical tools and to what extent social praxis influence the daily work. The methods used are based on a qualitative analysis of interviews and observations. Various kind of work procedures, such as verbal and computerized, have been identified, but the most important occurrence was how spontaneous conversations between employees required certain flexibility, since the actors repeatedly were required to change focus and quickly perceive different information. For that reason, a thesis has been defined regarding how the use of spontaneous communication put an indirect need of a flexible working environment and also how this lead to more significant participation and exchange of information, as well as more awareness at the companies..

To conclude this year?s introductory course in Mechatronics the students, in groups of 6,constructed a prototype based on the technical requirements established by the course teachers.This year they consisted of the following: two wheels only, active balancing, remote controlledand able to stop when crossing a pre-determined marker on the ground. The project lasted for 7weeks and the result is a working prototype and this report.The report reviews the chosen solution, subsystems and the finished prototype as well assuggestions for improvements, discussion and analysis.The prototype constructed embodied most of the group?s earlier individual technical specialtiesand consists of the following: a flywheel for balancing, ultrasound for angle measurement, areflective photomicrosensor to detect the marker and Bluetooth for the hand control..

Websites today only offer simpler form of Technical analysis and are not fun to use, therefore student decided to build a website that makes Technical analysis a bit more fun by giving user possibility to experiment with settings for technical indicators and also see clear visible results from analysis. Student decided to build website in ASP.NET. Technical indicators for this project only consist of those who give buy and sell-signals via cross-over, no divergence or pattern finding.This project has three questions that define this project. It?s important that there is good functionality so that performing an analysis is perceived as simple, one question is therefore; what functionality for website is needed in order for analysis to be perceived as more simple?Technical analysis is a pretty complex subject and demands an interface that is perceived as easy to understand and easy to use, it?s therefore important that the interface is well designed, second question is therefore; how should the interface be designed to be user-friendly?When systems grow large they often become hard to develop and later on unmaintainable because of the accumulated complexity and dependency between classes, the code is a mess, the last question is therefore; how can the systems complexity be eased with object-oriented design principles?Jakob Nielsens ten heuristics for User Interface Design were used as inspiration for designing the interface for the website.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if there are environments that use some kind of central authentication system within institutions/schools. The hypothesis is that an institution not using a form of central authentication service has more need for maintenance and as such is considered a higher cost for the organization. The gathering of data has been done through interviews with technical personal at Blekinge Tekniska Högskola and Linköpings Universitet. Based on the technical background of the authors, and the system limited to discussing Windows and UNIX operating systems, a discussion and analysis of the systems working today has been done, with emphasize on the hypothesis..

Trading based on Technical analysis has its roots in the U.S. financial industry where it has long been common practice, in Sweden however the trading style has not had the same impact. Based on the results from the preliminary study we believe this is about to change and that the topic therefore requires further studying. Several online stockbrokers today provide information and tools for Technical analysis to their clients. As the list of indicators to use for creating strategies is so immense it is interesting for an investor to know what actually could be the basis for a profitable investment strategy.

The purpose of this study is to examine sex/gender relations amongst staff in public libraries who have taken part in projects related to information technology. This is done through e-mail surveys and telephone interviews with staff who have participated in the development of the two library websites Mina bibliotek and Biblioteket.se regarding their experiences. The theoretical basis for the analysis is two gender theoretical perspectives with reference to technology. The first perspective is represented by Yvonne Hirdman?s theory concerning the gender system, in which women and men are kept apart and in which there is always a hierarchy where men are higher up, and Hanna Westberg-Wohlgemuth?s theory concerning sex marking of job-tasks.

Transportation of oil and gas by the Sea characterizes challenges from a safety viewpoint. In this type of transportation, different sizes of special tankers carrying oil and gas. The marine transportation of these scarce natural riches is involved with risks and hazards, which may lead to many losses; for instance, wasting oil and gas, injuries of people, damaging ships and properties, and damaging environment. The main purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the risks, hazards, and accidents during transportation of oil and gas (mainly Crude Oil, liquefied petroleum gas, and Liquefied natural gas) by the Sea with concentrating on transport safety. Hence, a better understanding of these risks and hazards can contribute to decrease of addressed losses.This study is carried out on risks associated with maritime transportation of oil and gas starting with describing the general casual chain (dealing with causes, incidents, accidents and consequences/causalities), continuing with describing risk analysis techniques (including event tree analysis and fault tree analysis) and risk control measures/options, and finally implementing aforesaid investigations on real data from two areas; namely UK territorial waters and the Baltic Sea.In this study, the results of analyzing data from 1991 to 2010 in UK territorial waters revealed that collision and grounding were two most common accidents in terms of crude oil tankers, LPG and LNG carriers in which 44% of all accidents were equally divided between collision and grounding.

Solar energy is the one most talked about among energy sources due to its huge potential amongst renewable energy technologies. A greater use of the solar energy may be the solution to today's climate threats. Normally there are two different types of solar technologies, solar cells and solar thermal collectors. Solar cells convert solar energy in to electricity whilst solar thermal collectors convert solar energy into heat, which can be used to heat hot water for households. This goal of this study has been to investigate the possibility of implementing solar energy into the energy system of Kista Galleria, one of Sweden's foremost venues.