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Dissertations
The university has its own doctoral programmes in Library and Information science, Resource Recovery and Textiles and Fashion. The latter has even a programme in artistic work and design. You can find most dissertations by the university staff here.
Latest dissertations from University of Borås
Zygomycetes and cellulose residuals: hydrolysis, cultivation and applications
Zygomycetes is a class of fungi living worldwide as saprobes, as part of mycorrhizae, and as parasites. Humans have used some zygomycetes for centuries in the production of traditional foods, e.g. Indonesian tempe. In the present thesis, the experimental focus was on two zygomycetes strains, Mucor indicus CCUG 22424 and Rhizopus sp. IT. One of the distinguishing features of M. indicus is its dimorphism. The different cell forms were influenced by the culturing conditions. After inoculation, when the initial spore concentration was high (6-8×106 spores/ml), yeast-like growth dominated under anaerobic conditions. With a smaller inoculum, yielding 1-2×105 spores/ml, and access to oxygen, filamentous forms dominated. Only negligible differences in ethanol yield (390-420 mg/g hexoses), productivity (3-5 g/l/h), and inhibitor tolerance were observed. Differential expressions of probably four genes were observed between the yeast-like and filamentous growth forms. Lignocelluloses are a suitable substrate for cultivating zygomycetes, as they occur in abundance, particularly since zygomycetes, unlike Saccharomyces cerevisiae, can utilise pentoses. Lignocelluloses require pretreatment to achieve efficient hydrolysis of the cellulose. N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) was tested for pretreatment of spruce and birch. Reducing wood chip size and/or prolonged pretreatment, promoted hydrolysis yield. Best yields were achieved from <2 mm chips and 5 h pretreatment. The hydrolysate was used for fermentation with M. indicus, resulting in 195 and 175 mg ethanol/g wood, and 103 and 86 mg fungal biomass/g wood, from spruce and birch respectively. Orange peel is another potential substrate. However, the hydrolysate contained 0.6 % (v/v) D-limonene, ten times higher than the concentration inhibiting S. cerevisiae. M. indicus was more resistant and successfully fermented the hydrolysate, producing 400 mg ethanol/g hexoses and 75 mg fungal biomass/g sugars. Both M. indicus and Rhizopus sp. grew in 1.0 % and 2.0 % D-limonene, although the latter was unable to grow in the hydrolysate. A third substrate was also used, spent sulphite liquor (SSL), which is a by-product from sulphite paper pulp mills. The SSL was diluted to 50 % and used for airlift cultivations of Rhizopus sp. In 1.0 vvm aeration, up to 340 mg biomass/g sugars was produced. Prolonged cultivations generally decreased the protein (from 500 to 300 mg/g) and lipid (from 70 to 20 mg/g) contents. In contrast, the cell wall fraction, measured as alkali-insoluble material (AIM), increased (160-280 mg/g), as did the glucosamine (GlcN) content (220-320 mg GlcN/g AIM). The produced fungal biomass could serve as animal feed, e.g. for fish.
Det läsande barnet: minnen av läspraktiker, 1900–1940
Swedish School of Library and Information Science
This thesis is a study of the cultural history of children’s reading. It is argued that it is important to apply a wider historical perspective to the contemporary debate on the rapid changes in children’s and young people’s reading habits, and that existing historical research rarely deals with reading as a practice, but rather with its institutional and textual conditions such as the school, the library system and children’s literature. The thesis thus aims to explore the practice of reading and its relations to historical circumstances. Through a close reading of 30 retrospective interviews conducted in the 1970’s and 80’s, the analysis deals with some of the experienced motives, inter- pretations, materialities and social dimensions of children’s reading practices experienced in the first decades of the 20th century. It offers a discussion of these practices as related to wider historical contexts. Theoretically, the analysis is in- spired by the conceptualizations of a ‘history of reading’ in the works of Roger Chartier, Robert Darnton and Jonathan Rose. It is concluded that even if the informants in principle had access to different models, motives and genres for reading, the practice of reading often had to take on the character of improvisation in contexts where material resources and soci- al sympathies for reading were lacking. Furthermore, in relation to the complex social tensions and dynamics surrounding reading, the practice may also be defined by its degree of legitimacy and/or autonomy in a given context. These results imply that further research and debate is needed on the con- nections between the value attributed to reading in relation to changing concepts of work and “usefulness”, on the collective historical experiences of cultural progression, and on issues of the identity of the modern children’s library.
The thesis is written in Swedish.
Doing research in primary school: information activities in project-based learning
by Lundh, Anna
Swedish School of Library and Information Science
The overarching aim for this thesis is to describe and illustrate how information literacies are enacted, and what opportunities for learning that children encounter, in the information activities in Swedish primary schools in the beginning of the 21st century. A starting-point is that information literacies are enacted in different ways in different settings. To describe what information literacied might imply in primary school is therefore treated as an empirical question.
The dissertation was publicly defended on Friday 21 Oktober 2011 at 13.15 in M402 at University of Borås.
Fria flickor före Pippi: Ester Blenda Nordström och Karin Michaëlis – Astrid Lindgrens föregångare
by Wahlström, Eva
Swedish School of Library and Information Science
The dissertation takes as a point of departure that 1945 is usually mentioned as a start for a new type of Swedish children’s literature. In the majority of handbooks in and reviews of the history of Swedish children’s literature this is repeated as a fact. A reason for this is that three famous authors of children’s literature in Swedish all had their breakthrough this year: Lennart Hellsing, Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren. They are regarded as the most important examples of the new type of children’s literature. Especially Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Långstrump [Pippi Longstocking] has been seen as a symbol for the free child and for the revolt against the adult world and the stiff rules of etiquette.
At the same time as 1945 has been assigned as the birth date for a new children’s literature the general view of the preceding period, between the two world wars, has been that it was stagnant and uninteresting. In this study, the hypothesis was that the new did not emerge from an empty space. After extensive reading of children’s literature from the time between the wars it was discovered that there were new tendencies in this literature similar to those ascribed to the literature from the period after 1945. A more detailed analysis was performed comparing Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Långstrump with works by the Swedish author Ester Blenda Nordström and the Danish author Karin Michaëlis’. The results show that the children’s literature produced between the wars was much more complex than previously stated and has several characteristics similar to the literature produced after 1945. As a consequence it seems necessary to modify the notion of 1945 as the definite starting point for the modern Swedish children’s book.
A comparative analysis of the three authors is used as verification in the thesis. The analysis use among others the theories of Bachtin about the “popular laugh culture” and shows that the main characters in the books by Nordström and Michaëlis to the same extent as Pippi Långstrump illustrates the norm-breaking and independent child. The similarities between the work of Astrid Lindgren and Nordström and Michaëlis are obvious in terms of content as well as in expressions and type of language. The main focus in this dissertation is a textual analysis against a background of social context analysis. The conclusions state that there clearly were predecessors to the work of Astrid Lindgren. To simply state that 1945 was the year when the modern children’s book was born thus no longer seems relevant.
Last updated: 2012-01-27