Executive SummaryThis final thesis has examined the effects of an increased centralization and better coord­in­ation of the distribution logistics at ABB in Västerås. The company is today strongly decent­ralized and there is a minimum of collaboration between the 20 business units. This is why the questions were raised; how could the business units coordinate outbound logistic activities and what effects would that provide. The obj­ect­ive of this final thesis is to provide basic data for a future decision-making which desc­r­ibe these effects.The report has mapped out the factors that are important to ABB in an evaluation of their logistic activities and how the outbound logistics work today. The four factors are cost efficiency, delivery service, environmental impact and logistics capability.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze a group of participants (social workers, contact families and the young adults who had been given a contact family as children) and monitor their experience of the intervention contact family and its goals, contents and design. We also wanted to look into what goals and guidelines are available regarding the interventions design and contents. We also looked into parts of the intervention which the participants found most useful for them individually. The method we used in our study was qualitative interviews. We compared and analyzed our results to research made on the subject and the theoretical frame.

The time we live in now is significant for its many ways of spreading information- it is indeed the era of communication. The Internet is the main reason for this evolution, where you can reach out to any corner in the world in less then a second. Information is flowing over us and we get more and more used to being in a constant accessible state. The individual might spread his own word as he wishes. From a democratic point of view this should give a great opening for everyone into the public spheer.

The aim of this review is to assess the ethical implications of aquaculture, regarding fish welfare and environmental aspects. The aquaculture industry has grown substantially the last decades, both as a result of the over-fishing of wild fish populations, and because of the increasing consumer demand for fish meat. As the industry is growing, a significant amount of research on the subject is being conducted, monitoring the effects of aquaculture on the environment and on animal welfare. The areas of concern when it comes to animal welfare have here been divided into four different stages: breeding period; growth period; capturing and handling; and slaughter. Besides these stages, this report includes a chapter on the current evidence of fish sentience, since this issue is still being debated among biologists.

The rise in prevalence and severity of obesity and related diseases imposes increasing costs on society. The objective of this thesis is to discuss and estimate the possible effects of a so-called fat tax as a tool for minimizing these costs. Two alternatives for differentiation of the value-added tax (VAT) on food are compared. The first alternative is an increase of the VAT levied on food containing saturated fatty acids. The second alternative is a subsidy on fruit and vegetables in the form of a VAT at zero percent, instead of today?s twelve percent.

Increasing immigration to Sweden has transformed a culturally homogeneous society into a more heterogeneous one. As a consequence intercultural communication and interaction have been increasing. Child health care agencies have encountered these increases. The aim of this study was to examine what the health care professionals experienced and communicated in these intercultural environments. Eight interviews with child health care nurses were carried through at four child health care centers in the south of Sweden.

Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes for longlasting sequelae, among themloss in cognitive function, like aphasia. Aphasia effects the patients ability to understandand express themselves in speaking and writing. To be able to reach a good level of care,the careproviders and patients ought to have the same goals and values. This requires agood communication between the careproviders and patients. Which can be problematicfor the caregivers when they don't feel secure in their way of getting close to these patients.Aim: The purpose of this study was to illuminate caregivers experience of caring forpatients with the diagnosis aphasia following stroke.Method: This is a literature study where nine studies, with qualitative design, has beenanalyzed and compiled.

A pilot-study was used to investigate, types of assistance, assessed needs, outcomes and effects of special-needs assistance given to a subsample of compulsory school pupils in an effort to develop an evaluation strategy for identifying educational impacts of specific special-needs inputs.  Preliminary results indicate a tendency for postive outcomes for most pupils in the pilot group (n = 11) but also that many pupils have residual difficulties.  Pupils with residual difficulties mostly required special education asssitance with Maths, English or Swedish.  More pupils also needed support with behavioral difficulties.  More research and an expanding knowledge base is required in order to effectively evaluate outcomes of teacher support.  Schools need help in devising different methods of assistance and particularly for pupils with behavioral difficulties..

Background: Last year (2006) has been a year when the environmental issues figured more often in the media, and the environmental awareness among common people increased. Environmental climate reports have lately been on the headline all over the world. As a result of the increasing population in the world, it?s becoming more important to be aware of the environment. To do that, it is important to maximize the efficiency in the work with the environment.

Background: Practical blood flow restriction (pBFR) combined with resistance training has been proven to facilitate muscle strength despite training at low intensity. However, research investigating the effects of long-term pBFR-training and its periodization with strength training (ST) at a higher intensity is lacking, as well as the effects of occlusion training on blood lactate levels (BLL) over time.Purpose: To compare the effects of 2 weeks of pBFR training followed by 2 weeks of ST (BFR-ST) with 2 weeks of ST followed by 2 weeks of pBFR training (ST-BFR) on anaerobic performace and BLL.Method: 5 adults (age 23 ± 2 years) with a minimum of 1 year of ST experience were recruited and randomized into BFR-ST (n=2) or ST-BFR (n=3). Anaerobic performance was measured using a 30-s Wingate-test and BLL samples were collected <1 and 5 minutes post-Wingate. Data and samples were collected before the intervention and after the 2 protocols.Results: No differences were seen between groups in anaerobic output or BLL after 4 weeks of training (p>0,1 for all values). A decrease in time to peak power (tPP) were seen in both groups with an advantage for BFR-ST (-37 ± 8 %) over ST-BFR (-27 ± 22 %).

Journalists and communication managers are becoming more professional and to reach out to its stakeholders in society today, organizations must work strategically with communication, to enter the news. Many make use of press releases to provide journalists with information, hoping to influence what is published on the news. With a background in the medial change that occurs is the purpose of this study to elucidate and problematize which role press releases has for newsrooms and for organizations today and in the future. A qualitative interview study has been used, and communication managers from three organizations and journalists from three newsrooms has been interviewed. The study has been combined with a quantitative pilot study of selected press releases and articles from the selected organizations.

Communication is essential for the survival of an organization. The management formulates strategies to ensure thatthe organization will get to where they want it to go. The strategy is then communicated to the co-workers through the line manager. But who is to say that the co-worker experience the message the same way as the line manager or the management for that matter? The purpose of this study is toinvestigate how the middle managers at Southern Älvsborg Hospital experience strategic internal communication andfurther how they communicate with their co-workers.Through a case study approach, the case being the communication of the hospitals research strategy, I conducted 13 interviews.I analyzed the material from the interviews using a hermeneutical approach and I used an interpretative approach to get a deeper understanding.

The use of Power Line Communication, PLC, as a communication solution for Automated Meter Reading, AMR, is popular by utilities in Sweden and other parts of the world due to demands of accurate and fast meter reading. However the use of the electrical grid as a communication medium is complex and sometimes problematic. This report handles some of the issues and problems that are important to understand when using the grid as a communications medium. Focus is mainly on investigating high frequency distortion in the Kristianstad power grid own by C4energi caused by a frequency converter. Measurements on site are done to investigate signal damping in the grid, different configurations for the frequency converter and signal strength of the PLC-system.

Music has always been an important form of communication and it can be found in many different contexts including aesthetical, cultural and emotional forms. In the globalized society of today music can be distributed fast through radio, TV, CD: s and the Internet. For many people consumption of music is an important part of the daily life and it can contribute to shape an individual?s attitudes and personality.The main purpose of this study is to find out whether there are any differences between men and women?s musical preferences. I will apply an explorative approach using qualitative interviews to describe what causes the differences.

In this paper the authors aim to examine the effects on consumers using different strategies in a campaign within social marketing. A model by Evans et al (1996) has been used in order to see the different steps in which advertising catches the viewers? attention and eventually leads to action or purchasing. However, in the case of this thesis, the intention of the chosen campaign is to change the consumers? attitudes and behavior towards alcohol.