<p>This thesis is an explorative excursion into the concept of place creation and place construction. It departures from the way place is discussed within both relational theory and humanistic geography. In pace with changes in the local economy and re-structure of the agricultural sector, the Swedish island, Öland, has gone through changes which has given new perspectives on place and the distinctiveness of single places. These changes have assigned new roles for single places and the processes of place creation and place construction takes new paths in these changes.</p><p>The study focuses on three major research questions:</p><p>• How is place created?</p><p>• How are processes of place creation manifested on Öland?</p><p>• What role does the distinctiveness of particular places have for tourism and entrepreneurship on the island Öland?</p><p>The approach to these questions is explorative. Place is studied as a concept which both reflects and influences processes of change in relation to other places and different actors, people and organizations. In this study, place creation is analyzed in relation to changing economic, social and cultural aspects. People’s actions in a certain place or in different places affect place transformation and creation of place just as changes in the national and global economy do. The different images people have of a certain place and their actions in this place are affected by relations to other places and cultural values, identities, global trends and the overall economy. This plays a vital role for place creation and how distinct places are constructed. This study explores these processes on Öland through three different projects or case studies. Methodologically, I have a qualitative approach to my research questions and the case studies are based on interviews, observations and analyses of marketing material, information material, texts and pictures.</p>

<p>A pre-school-based dietary survey, using seven-day records, focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews, was carried out in a suburban area of Stockholm. The overall objective was to investigate the individual food and nutrient intake of pre-school children at all meals during the day, as well as factors that might influence children’s intake. </p><p>The average energy and nutrient intake per day for the whole week was satisfactory for the 109 pre-school children, but the temporal distribution throughout the day was skewed. The energy and nutrient intakes of food at the pre-school were lower than recommended. This was, however, compensated for by meals eaten at home. The children had a more varied food intake during weekdays than weekend days. This study has not provided any evidence to support the selection of water versus milk as a preferable lunch beverage in terms of pre-school children's total milk consumption and general dietary quality. However, the dietary analyses showed that there could be a reason to limit pre-school children’s daily milk and fermented milk intake to half a litre, according to the existing guidelines. </p><p>The children associated food and eating with rules and norms. They did not categorise food as good or bad, as adults often do, but as "food" and "non-food"; for example, sweets were not food. The method used in this study, the focus group interview, was judged to be a useful tool for exploring how children think about and jointly reflect upon food. The role of the teacher had changed over the past years and they had not yet found a solid ground for integrating food and meals into their everyday work. </p>

This thesis is an explorative excursion into the concept of place creation and place construction. It departures from the way place is discussed within both relational theory and humanistic geography. In pace with changes in the local economy and re-structure of the agricultural sector, the Swedish island, Öland, has gone through changes which has given new perspectives on place and the distinctiveness of single places. These changes have assigned new roles for single places and the processes of place creation and place construction takes new paths in these changes. The study focuses on three major research questions: • How is place created? • How are processes of place creation manifested on Öland? • What role does the distinctiveness of particular places have for tourism and entrepreneurship on the island Öland? The approach to these questions is explorative. Place is studied as a concept which both reflects and influences processes of change in relation to other places and different actors, people and organizations. In this study, place creation is analyzed in relation to changing economic, social and cultural aspects. People’s actions in a certain place or in different places affect place transformation and creation of place just as changes in the national and global economy do. The different images people have of a certain place and their actions in this place are affected by relations to other places and cultural values, identities, global trends and the overall economy. This plays a vital role for place creation and how distinct places are constructed. This study explores these processes on Öland through three different projects or case studies. Methodologically, I have a qualitative approach to my research questions and the case studies are based on interviews, observations and analyses of marketing material, information material, texts and pictures.

A pre-school-based dietary survey, using seven-day records, focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews, was carried out in a suburban area of Stockholm. The overall objective was to investigate the individual food and nutrient intake of pre-school children at all meals during the day, as well as factors that might influence children’s intake. The average energy and nutrient intake per day for the whole week was satisfactory for the 109 pre-school children, but the temporal distribution throughout the day was skewed. The energy and nutrient intakes of food at the pre-school were lower than recommended. This was, however, compensated for by meals eaten at home. The children had a more varied food intake during weekdays than weekend days. This study has not provided any evidence to support the selection of water versus milk as a preferable lunch beverage in terms of pre-school children's total milk consumption and general dietary quality. However, the dietary analyses showed that there could be a reason to limit pre-school children’s daily milk and fermented milk intake to half a litre, according to the existing guidelines. The children associated food and eating with rules and norms. They did not categorise food as good or bad, as adults often do, but as "food" and "non-food"; for example, sweets were not food. The method used in this study, the focus group interview, was judged to be a useful tool for exploring how children think about and jointly reflect upon food. The role of the teacher had changed over the past years and they had not yet found a solid ground for integrating food and meals into their everyday work.

Min utgångshypotes var att en minskad köttkonsumtion ger en minskad boskapsuppfödning. En boskapsuppfödning som idag tar i anspråk ca 70 procent av all jordbruksmark och 40 procent av den globala spannmålsproduktionen. Tanken var att en minskad boskapsuppfödning skulle bidra till en ökad tillgång på spannmål för människor och därmed en minskad svält. Men sambandet mellan svält och jordens resurser var inte så enkelt som jag hade förespeglat mig. Maktkoncentrationen som återfinns i matens distributionsled visade sig ha satt spelreglerna om tillgång och efterfrågan mer eller mindre ur spel. En ökad tillgång på mat genom en minskad köttkonsumtion och bättre resurshantering verkar därför inte påverka fattigdom och svält nämnvärt. Den nuvarande världshandeln visade sig också vara en bidragande orsak till fattigdom och svält då mat från nord, producerad med hjälp av statliga subventioner, konkurrerar ut lokalproducenter i syd. Den avgörande faktorn tycks vara människors tillgång på pengar. Inga pengar, ingen mat oavsett om maten finns i överflöd eller inte. Mina efterforskningar tyder på att de viktigaste faktorerna för att minska världssvälten är en förändring av den globala handeln för att därigenom öka de utsattas tillgång på kapital och självförsörjningsgrad samt en diskussion om vilket politiskt och ekonomiskt system som krävs för det.

Nerve injury is a serious clinical problem that has a direct impact on the quality of life. Nerve tissue engineering (NTE) is one of the most promising methods in human health care to restore the function of damaged neural tissues. The current state of the art involves the construction of a tissue engineered, nano or micropatterned 3-D nerve tube that has fibers or channels in the inside. The scope of this study is to construct a 3-D, biodegradable nerve tube which consists of an aligned, electrospun mat seeded with stem cells that is wrapped in a porous micropatterned film which contains support cells. In two separate approaches human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and mouse neural stem cells (NSCs) were used. In the design with the MSCs, the micropatterned exterior part of the nerve tube contained undifferentiated MSCs as support cells and this was wrapped around the fibers seeded with MSCs which were induced to neural differentiation. In the other case, NSCs differentiated into astrocytes were used as support cells seeded on the micropatterned film and the mat was loaded with undifferentiated NSCs. Differentiation into neural cells and astrocytes were shown with immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR. The neuron-like MSCs and NSCs were shown to express neural marker &amp / #946 / -Tubulin III whereas astrocytes expressed glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an astrocyte marker. RT-PCR showed that early neural markers, nestin and Nurr 1, were expressed at passage 4 by undifferentiated MSCs and by MSCs induced to neural differentiation, while these markers were not expressed in undifferentiated MSCs at passages 2 and 3. The cells aligned along the axis of the micropattern of the film and along the axis of the fiber on the fibrous mat. This behavior was also maintained after construct formation. MTS and confocal microscopy revealed that the cells were viable and homogeneously distributed over the two parts of the scaffold. This indicates that the construct has a potential to be tested in vivo for nerve tissue engineering purposes.

In this study, a typical mat foundation and structural loading pattern is considered. Three dimensional finite element analyses, PLAXIS 3D, is performed to determine the soil / foundation contact stress distribution, settlement distribution, distribution of modulus of subgrade reaction as a function of column spacing, stiffness of the soil and thickness of the foundation. A parametric study is performed to demonstrate the dependence of those distributions on various parameters. Moreover, a relationship between size of the foundation, deformation modulus of foundation soil and modulus of subgrade reaction is proposed. Depending on the variations in those parameters, obtained shear force and bending moment distributions are compared. Consistency between the resulting shear forces and bending moments of a typical foundation, modeled in two different three dimensional finite element programs, PLAXIS 3D and SAP 2000, is discussed. It is found that the variation in the aforementioned parameters cause different influences on contact stress distribution, settlement distribution, distribution of modulus of subgrade reaction. The importance of those variations in beforementioned parameters, under different situations is discussed. A relationship between modulus of subgrade reaction and deformation modulus of foundation soil is proposed.

Il y a presque trente ans, un des probl??mes les plus difficiles de la physique moderne voyait le jour: la supraconductivit?? ?? haute temp??rature critique dans les cuprates. Depuis, l'hypoth??se nomm??e mod??le Hubbard est rapidement devenu un des candidats les plus prometteurs ?? en d??tenir la solution. Dans ce contexte, ce m??moire pr??sente des travaux de calculs num??riques sur les phases de la mati??re pr??dites par le mod??le de Hubbard. Le projet poursuit notamment deux objectifs. En premier lieu, on consid??re un couplage interplan dans le mod??le, ce qui le rend plus r??aliste que sa version 2D habituelle. Et en deuxi??me lieu, on laisse les phases antiferromagn??tique et supraconductrice coexister avec en plus une autre phase supraconductrice de type pi-triplet. Plus de d??tails sur le contexte et ces deux objectifs sont pr??sent??s au chapitre 1 et le mod??le de Hubbard est d??taill?? au chapitre 2. Pour obtenir des solutions num??riques au mod??le, les m??thodes utilis??es sont la th??orie de champ moyen dynamique sur amas (CDMFT) et l'approximation de l'amas variationnel (VCA). Ces m??thodes ainsi que le formalisme n??cessaire pour les aborder sont pr??sent??s au chapitre trois. Notons qu'on utilise ces m??thodes pour amas avec des m??thodes de diagonalisation exacte qui ne feront pas partie de la discussion. Enfin, le dernier chapitre pr??sente tous les r??sultats obtenus avec ce projet, qui m??nent ?? deux conclusions principales. Premi??rement, le couplage tridimensionnel tel qu'ajout?? n'a pas fait ressortir de tendance nette dans les r??sultats. Cela indique une de deux choses: soit les effets interplans sont n??gligeables dans le mod??le de Hubbard, soit il faudra les inclure d'une fa??on plus compl??te dans le futur. Deuxi??mement, on observe que la phase pi-triplet appara??t lorsqu'il y a coexistence entre l'antiferromagn??tisme et la supraconductivit?? dans le mod??le mais que ces deux derni??res phases se nuisent fortement l'une ?? l'autre, confirmant qu'il y a comp??tition de phases.

Cette recherche s???attarde ?? comprendre l???effet des diff??rents param??tres sur la mise en forme courb??e de conduits en mat??riaux composites thermodurcissables pour y d??terminer les meilleurs param??tres ?? utiliser dans le but de r??duire les bris et de conserver le plus possible la forme ainsi cr????e. Parmi ceux-ci, il est question des param??tres de fabrications du conduit, de sa polym??risation, de son r??chauffement avant la mise en forme courb??e et de sa mise en forme elle-m??me. Pour comprendre l???effet des diff??rents param??tres, des tests m??caniques (traction, compression), thermom??caniques (DSC, DMA) et de relaxation de contrainte ?? l???aide d???une instrumentation avec des jauges de d??formation sont effectu??s. Ceux-ci r??v??lent des ajustements ?? apporter pour permettre un meilleur contr??le du proc??d??. Entre autres, le taux de polym??risation, l???angle d???orientation des fibres et la temp??rature de mise en forme sont les principaux facteurs importants pris en compte. En effet, la recherche r??v??le que plus la temp??rature de mise en forme courb??e est pr??s de la temp??rature de transition vitreuse du composite moins la forme courb??e ?? tendance ?? se conserver. Cela est similaire avec l???orientation des fibres, plus elles sont orient??es circonf??rentiellement plus ce probl??me est de taille. De plus, le taux de polym??risation a un impact consid??rable sur la d??formation maximale et sur la rigidit?? ?? haute temp??rature.

Cette recherche s???attarde ?? comprendre l???effet des diff??rents param??tres sur la mise en forme courb??e de conduits en mat??riaux composites thermodurcissables pour y d??terminer les meilleurs param??tres ?? utiliser dans le but de r??duire les bris et de conserver le plus possible la forme ainsi cr????e. Parmi ceux-ci, il est question des param??tres de fabrications du conduit, de sa polym??risation, de son r??chauffement avant la mise en forme courb??e et de sa mise en forme elle-m??me. Pour comprendre l???effet des diff??rents param??tres, des tests m??caniques (traction, compression), thermom??caniques (DSC, DMA) et de relaxation de contrainte ?? l???aide d???une instrumentation avec des jauges de d??formation sont effectu??s. Ceux-ci r??v??lent des ajustements ?? apporter pour permettre un meilleur contr??le du proc??d??. Entre autres, le taux de polym??risation, l???angle d???orientation des fibres et la temp??rature de mise en forme sont les principaux facteurs importants pris en compte. En effet, la recherche r??v??le que plus la temp??rature de mise en forme courb??e est pr??s de la temp??rature de transition vitreuse du composite moins la forme courb??e ?? tendance ?? se conserver. Cela est similaire avec l???orientation des fibres, plus elles sont orient??es circonf??rentiellement plus ce probl??me est de taille. De plus, le taux de polym??risation a un impact consid??rable sur la d??formation maximale et sur la rigidit?? ?? haute temp??rature.