Små och medelstora organisationer finner sig ofta vara aktörer på en mycket konkurrensutsatt marknad där det är avgörande att uppnå ständiga förbättringar för att förbli konkurrenskraftig. Six Sigma (även känt som Sex Sigma) är en mycket populär metod för processförbättring, med hög framgångsgrad, hos stora organisationer. Denna uppsats och examensarbete försöker utvärdera huruvida små och medelstora organisationer kan anamma Six Sigma. I strävan att utvärdera detta utfördes ett Six Sigma processförbättringsprojekt vid Ecolean AB i Helsingborg, Sverige. Fynden i denna studie antyder att Six Sigma kan anammas av små och medelstora organisationer.

Nilsson, P. (2005). Which manager qualities can be related to a health promotive leadership? A questionnaire study among managers at hospitals. (41 p.)AbstractPeople?s working life and individual health can be seen as strongly related to each other because people spend the most of their adult lives at their places of work.

There is an irregularity in the interregional migration in Sweden. An increasing proportion ofthe population is drawn to the metropolitan areas, which creates problems for the smallermunicipalities and towns when their population declines. At the same time, our whole societyis faced with a great challenge: we need to redirect towards a sustainable development, wherethe environmental issues are discussed and dealt with to secure that all present and futuregenerations are given equal opportunities to live a good life.The aim of this study is to, focusing mainly on the environmental dimension of thesustainability concept, examine the attractivity of housing with sustainability claims. Toanswer this, three research questions were used:? Was the migration motive to reduce their environmental impact a part of the decision tomove, among migrants who had moved to housing with sustainability claims?? If the motive was a part of the decision, how much impact did it have compared to othermigration motives?? Which factors in housing aiming at sustainability are considered important by peopleliving in housing with sustainability claims?The research questions have been answered using quantitative data, gained in the form of selfadministeredquestionnaires which were distributed in four different residential areas withsustainability claims in the county of Västra Götaland, Sweden.

Delia flies (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) are economically important pests in several horticultural crops. The control is commonly relying on chemical insecticides, though there are possibilities with biological control from the natural enemies in the field. An important natural enemy is the parasitic wasp, Trybliographa rapae Westwood (Hymenoptera: Figitidae) that lays eggs in the Delia fly larvae. The parasitoid larva and the host larva have a parallel development until the host dies within its puparium and an adult parasitoid emerges. The aim of this thesis was to understand the attraction to host- and food-associated plant volatiles of T. rapae, in order to enhance the effectiveness of the parasitic wasp as a biological control agent.

Post-anaesthetic myopathy (PAM) is a serious occasional complication of general anaesthesia in horses. It causes not only pain and suffering to the horse, but also suffering (trauma) to the owner with increased veterinary costs. In the worst case PAM can be fatal. The anaesthetic nurse must know which parameters have to be taken into consideration in the prevention of PAM, to be able to prevent it, and use that knowledge for the animals safety. The aim of this literature review was to investigate and make a presentation of the factors and measurements associated with PAM, with focus on how to monitor these measurements to prevent it from happening, and the advice a Veterinary nurse can give to the horse owner regarding this condition. According to literature there a few factors that greatly increase the risk of PAM, these include- hypotension, periods less than 60 mmHg significantly increases the risk.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the suitability of the three instruments SERVQUAL, SERVPERF and Zone of tolerance to measure service quality, from the respondents' perspective. This study has been carried out by a quantitative method in which respondents answered three questionnaires, which was based on the three instruments. The SERVQUAL instrument is a revised version based on criticism by Carman (1990). It is based on the five dimensions; reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility, with 22 items in which each dimension is associated with a number of items. SERVPERF is the instrument most similar to SERVQUAL and is also composed of the same five dimensions.

Glutathione (GSH) is a molecule that consists of three amino acids: glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine. GSH has several important functions: to protect cells from free radicals, reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. GSH exists in a reduced form, GSH, and in an oxidized dimeric form, glutationdisulfid, GSSG. The enzymes glutathionereductase (GR) catalyses the reduction of GSSG back to GSH. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) is required as a coenzyme in the reaction.

Managers operating within the dynamic society of today are said to rely on intuition when effective and quick decisions are to be made. This skill or phenomenon has aroused an interest within the academic world of management whom has explored intuition, its relation to decision making and its influencing factors, especially in the private sector. Intuitive decision making is however not isolated solely to this sector but also involved in decision making associated to the public sector. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to investigate whether managers at the hospital Akademiska in Uppsala involve intuition in decision making and to what extent the factors time, amount of information, individual experience and decision complexity influence the intuition.The theoretical framework includes academic research regarding how intuition and rationality affect decisions, the concept of intuition and factors influencing the intuitiveness of decision making. Furthermore the theoretical discussion explores intuition connected to leadership, negative aspects of intuitive decisions and a comparison between different factors that separates public and private sector in terms of decision making.

Swedish school children exhibit deteriorating knowledge results in terms of reading comprehension. Previous research shows that a method to increase the level of knowledge is the use of evidence-based learning techniques. Test based learning generates what is commonly referred to as a test effect, which proved to strengthen the relationship between learning and memory, as well as being applicable to various test formats. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether test based learning, in terms of learning english words leads to increased performance in a reading comprehension test, more specifically a cloze test. The study was based on a within-group design and was conducted three times over four weeks.

This study examines if the prediction of cardiovascular disease in hypertensive patients can be improved upon when renal function and microalbuminuria are added to the classical risk factors The predictive capability of a model is measured by discrimination, calibration, reclassification and Harrell's C.The results are ambigious. In most cases, microalbuminuria should be included in the model, but the results regarding the other measures of renal function are varied. Therefore, the selection of risk factors to include in the model depends on which measure of prediction one prioritizes..

Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease, induced by an immune mediated reaction in the small intestine after ingestion of gluten and related prolamines. There is a strong genetic linkage and most important are the genes that encodes for HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8. The European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) has developed new guidelines for investigation of CD in children and adolescents, which include genotyping for HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8. Therefore, the clinical microbiological laboratory in Västmanland wants to introduce a method for analysis of these genes. Microarray is a newly developed method for determination of the alleles HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 that encodes for the ?- and ?-subunits of the HLA-molecules.

ABSTRACTBackground: After general anesthesia the cognitive ability is temporarily impaired. Cognitive recovery is necessary for the patient to be able to assimilate the information that she / he gets postoperatively. It also increases the patient safety. There are few methods to estimate and assess the patient's cognitive recovery before and after anesthesia. The purpose of this study is to test the usefulness of the instrument PQRS and to assess the patients cognitive recovery after anesthesia.

Background:Life-cycle costing (LCC) is an investment calculation that takes intoaccount operating costs throughout the investee lifecycle. LCC calculations are mainly usedto evaluate investments that have no revenue side. Attempts to apply the LCC calculations forbuilding-related investments have occurred since the 1980s. Despite the advantages ofusing LCC calculations, use has not passed through in full. The main obstacles have beenidentified as a lack of relevant input data, and insufficient experience of workingwith LCC calculations.

Male piglets have been castrated for centuries to avoid contamination of their meat with boar taint, a strongly unpleasant odour that makes the meat inedible. Today boar taint can be prohib-ited by vaccination against gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) using Improvac®. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of vaccination on growth performance and behaviour of vaccinated male pigs compared to surgically castrated male pigs. The effect of two feeding regimes, restricted (SLU-norm) and semi ad libitum, was also included in the study. At birth, pigs (n=206) were randomly allocated to the two treatment groups; surgically castrated and vaccination.

A comparative thesis to study precious metals impact on a portfolio, during a long period of time, from the fourth quarter of 1986 to the third quarter of 2012. Five different portfolios are compared; three of the portfolios containing one of the following precious metals, gold, silver and platinum, the fourth portfolio contain all precious metals and shares, and the fifth portfolio containing only shares which is represented of OMXS30. This is done to determine the portfolio that generates the most return in relation to the least risk with the help of historical prices. Sharpe ratio is used to measure the profitability of precious metals by measuring the yield relative to the total risk. The study also measures precious metals correlation with shares..