This study focus on how physical and virtual meeting places may promote collaboration between firms and academia for the development of innovations. A case study was conducted on a meeting place that aims to support collaboration for the development of innovations in eHealth between different actors in the Linnaeus region. Data was collected through 6 interviews, whereas 3 with scientists and 3 with entrepreneurs. The data was analyzed based on a theoretical framework based on different perspectives on collaboration and networks, meetings and interaction and, physical and virtual meeting places.The results show that the purpose for collaboration is to be included in a network with other actors in the same area, gain increased knowledge of the subject area and to acquire new external contacts. Furthermore, in order to support collaboration, physical meeting places have to organize effective and interesting meetings.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the primary motivation for studying abroad among students at Södertörn University, and also examine how the time studying abroad will affect the students on a personal level. The essay is based on a qualitative approach of ten interviews with students who have already completed an exchange program. With the help of the theoretical concepts of push and pull factors, motivation categories, human capital and previous research, the results and analysis showed a coherent pattern. It turns out that the majorities of students are primarily motivated by the opportunity to enjoy a nice nature, new environment and get to know new people. The time studying abroad mostly contributed to the student?s personal development and also gave an understanding of other people and different cultures.

This report deals with an IT solution for the fictive company, Nexus Consulting. It is a small company with four employees, dealing with economic policy. The company wishes to set up a complete network environment with antivirus, firewall, computers and servers. They want us to analyze and compare different outsourcing companies offering cloud services and then recommend which company would suit them best.In addition, the company wants to have a webpage containing essential information about them and the services that they offer their customers.The report describes, analyzes and compares three outsourcing companies offering complete cloud services where a practical solution proposal has been developed by the group.The network component is based on the Windows platform and the web part is coded in HTML and PHP.The report also discusses what cloud computing is and why so many companies choose to move to it..

This is an essay about health promotion and organisation development. The problem concerning all health issues that can be tied to work related illnesses has long been a problem in Sweden. For example did this problem alone cost the Swedish government 25 million crones a day between the years 2000-2001. This is a major issue and there is lots of money to save in this area. This is why we wanted to research how to promote health by changing the structure of the selected company.

En trend i den teknologiska utvecklingen på senare tid har varit att skapa en ökad rörlighet hos användaren. En bidragande faktor till detta är den snabba förbättringstakten hos de smartphones som i större utsträckning har funktionalitet som tidigare endast datorer hade. Detta har i sin tur förändrat de förväntningar slutanvändarna har på tjänsters tillgänglighet, vilket har lett till att produktiva mobila applikationer, appar, har funnit sin plats i vardagen.Denna studie är genomförd på Scanias Fleet Management-avdelning som erbjuder en webbaserad tjänst där åkerier kan administrera, övervaka och följa upp sina fordonsflottor. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om en förlängning av Scanias existerande webbtjänst till den mobila sfären är rätt steg att ta och vilka organisatoriska och tekniska utmaningar en ingång inom apputveckling ger upphov till. För att bemöta denna problematik har en omfattande kvalitativ undersökning genomförts där tre huvudgrupper av respondenter har intervjuats: jämförbara företag som har ställts inför liknande utmaningar, apputvecklingsföretag som har förståelse för appområdet samt Fleet Management-tjänstens existerande användare.

In relation to the development of IT-products it is very important that the software supplier is aware not only of the target group but also the field of application. Usability should characterize the whole IT-design process as, in relation to this context, design includes more than merely those aspects which are visible to and thus can be interpreted by the naked eye. The study examines the specific qualities and properties that substantiate the usability and the demands that a customer rightfully expects from an IT-product. The user and the customer are highlighted in the same context in order to demonstrate that it is through the customer that an IT-product is defined as being useful. Thus, from this perspective, the user and customer can be considered as being the same person.

In this report a new gear concept is evaluated using the magnetic finite element method (FEM)software MagNet and Ansys as well as the mechanical FEM software Abaqus. The gear conceptis evaluated in terms of maximum torque capability, torsional stiffness, gear ratio and efficiency.ABB Corporate Research has proposed a new gear concept which should be less expensive thangearboxes used today. The new concept is called aMagnetic Harmonic Traction Drive and usesthe principles of a harmonic drive gear to achieve a high reduction ratio. The gear conceptreplaces the wave generator used in traditional harmonic drives with magnets and uses tractioninstead of gear teeth to transfer the torque. The main components in the gearbox are the magnets,the flexspline, the magnetic portion and the circular spline.

The overall aim with this study is to elucidate outdoor education as an education method and on the basis of that illustration to examine active educators vision on it as a way to motivate students' learning. This study is based on a literature component and a qualitative study through interviews five teachers.The results of the interviews show how to interpret the motivation and how to work with students' motivation. As well as outdoor education as part of the activity.  The interviews show the importance of outdoor education can be to increase students'motivation for learning. They also show the importance of outdoor education is for student learning and test scores have shown the effectiveness of student learning through outdoor education.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate if the robotized welding method FSW (Friction Stir Welding) could be applied for joining a rotating structure in an aero engine at Volvo Aero Corporation. FSW is expected to introduce less defects than today?s welding methods and could therefore be suitable for critical aero components. The material is the nickel based alloy Inconel 718, however a material experimentation is outside the scope of this report.The main goal of this study is to verify if the ESAB ROSIO robot based FSW-system has a suitable work space to be able to weld the rotating structure, and if the welding tool has accessibility to the joints. The FSW-process needs a rigid fixture, and a number of fix-ture concepts are presented based on a proposed weld sequence.

Nuclear power production carries potential risks both for the environment and for the work force. Different safety measures are employed and they stem from local rules as well as from regulatory authorities. This work describes the development of a safety promoting tool at Forsmark Power Plant, one of Sweden?s three Nuclear power plants. We describe the development of a computer based system for Pre-Job Briefing and Post-Job Debriefing.

Learning organizations and organizational development are interesting subjects that does not examine municipal organizations and private organizations an equal amount.  Furthermore, there exists little research on the effects of competence development for individuals in a leadership role within organizations. Because of this, we wanted to examine the impact of competence development in business modeling and how it affected local government activities. Competence development is used by organizations to develop their business and achieve a greater competitive advantage, but does competence development for individuals in a leadership role lead to organizational development? This paper examines competence development in the form of a business modeling course via the Bitstreamproject and the effects that occur within three municipalities as a result of the competence development. By interviewing three participants and four coworkers within different municipalities and studied the data from the Bitstream project, we can not conclude that competence development within business modeling leads to organizational development, only that it exists a tendency for it.

The design of buildings is today considered to be crucial for obtaining sustainable development. Research concerning sustainable building is considered to be a Swedish area of strength and development projects as Hammarby Sjöstad and Bo01 are often pointed out as Swedish prime examples of sustainable building. Some still argue though, that that these projects should not be presented as sustainable, due to its incompetence to meet their objectives. This contradiction has attracted my curiosity. By doing this study I hope to gain understanding about the difficulties Bo01 and Hammarby Sjöstad are surrounded with and its significance for sustainable development.

The purpose of this study is to examine how pre-school teachers think about the importance of circle time in regard to the child's language and social development from a sociocultural perspective. Furthermore the study will include what role the educators? have during the circle time.To answer our purpose we have chosen the following question:What is the role of the teachers in the circle time?What are the teacher?s thoughts about the circle time?s importance to children's social development?What are the teacher?s thoughts about the circle time?s importance to children's language development?The study is constructed on qualitative methods, where we conducted structured interviews with six preschool teachers and observed their circle time to collect our empirical material. The study is also based on Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective which says that all learning takes place through relations and interaction with other people in the cultural context you are in. The results have shown that pre-school teachers are aware of the circle time?s importance to children?s development, and purposely plan the circle time to give children the opportunity to develop both socially and linguistically skills..

Since the demands from authorities regarding lower energy consumption havebecome increasingly strict, this puts new pressure on designers and builders, who notonly have to ensure an esthetically pleasing building, but also make sure it issufficiently efficient to pass under new laws and regulations.This thesis takes into consideration a wide range of various parameters and theireffect on a building?s energy consumption. For this evaluation a computer softwarecomparison between the two programs Autodesk Ecotect Analysis and AutodeskProject Vasari was performed.Autodesk Ecotect Analysis is better suited for studies made on individual factors whileAutodesk Project Vasari is better used in experiments regarding the geometricalshape of the stucture itself.The results from the two different software tools used, give us both differences andsimilarities. For instance, both software programs produced the same resultsregarding the importance of the windows of the buildings to ensure a highly energyefficient building, both when it comes to the windows size and their U-value..

AbstractTitle: ?A more humane and equal world? A consumers view on corporate social responsibility and the internet based apparel commerce.Author: Fanny Bergström & Isabelle BlancMentor: Emma SvenssonPurpose: The purpose of this thesis was to examine the attitudes and experiences of consumers in relation to Internet based commerce and corporate social responsibility. The study is based on the following questions; 1. How do costumers perceive Internet based companies and their work with CSR-questions? 2.