As the information society becomes increasingly flooded with digital images, the need for efficient image retrieval systems increases as well. To handle the vast amounts of data involved, the indexing process needs to be run automatically, using content-based descriptors extracted directly from the digital image, such as colour composition, shape and texture features. These content-based image retrieval systems are often slow and cumbersome, and can appear confusing to an ordinary user who does not understand the underlying mechanisms. One step towards more efficient and user-friendly retrieval systems might be to adjust the weight placed on various descriptors depending on which image category is being searched for. The results of this thesis show that certain categories of digital images would benefit from having extra weight assigned to colour, texture or shape features when searching for images of that category..

This study has examined if importation of waste for energy recovery can reduce the climate impacts of Waste Management Systems. Using Systems Analysis this study will try to examine the complex waste systems in a systematical and strictly logical way to see how these systems interact and affect each other. Specifically examining the climate impact of waste management systems in England. The traditional way of handling waste in England is through Landfills. Land filling leads to emissions of the greenhouse gas Methane. The EU has put in place a landfill directive that is supposed to lead the member states away from land filling as a method of waste management. Today in Sweden there is a competition for the waste available for incineration. The worsening economical situation together with less product packaging and an increase in source separation leads to a lack of waste available for incineration.

The purpose of this ideology critical study is to investigate the hidden content in the reform Gy11 and compare it with the concept new public management. After the clarification of the hidden content, we compare the structure of the organization in Swedish high schools with the structure in public sector called new public management. The main questions of this study are the following: Is it possible to see the foundation of new public management in the Swedish high schools when it comes to the views of knowledge and the formation of goals? Which similarities can we find when we look at the organization new public management and the Swedish high school?The result showed many similarities, both regarding the views of knowledge and the formations of goals. The structure of new public management has been largely implemented in the Swedish high schools and the schools now focus more on instrumental knowledge rather than universal knowledge based on understanding.This is not surprising due to the social progress.

The world is changing and the business context is no exception. One of the clearest tendencies is a tougher business climate with harder competition due to increased international trade and the expansion of the e-business. At the same time the customers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. The last decades have also meant that tougher and more frequent demands are being aimed at the businesses from a wider variety of stakeholders; demands regarding how environmental issues, social responsibilities and business ethics should be dealt with. All of the above have driven companies towards implementation of different management systems to be able to cope with the demands as well as to ensure that these issues are being dealt with in an efficient and effective manner.

An increasingly globalized market is leading to hard competition among manufacturing companies, which means that they are forced to become more customer focused to survive in the market. A Customer Relationship Management system is a system that will be of assistance to help companies succeed in building long term relationships with their customers. Best of Breed and ERP-based are two types of CRM systems. The study has focused on analyzing and examine the need for CRM systems at manufacturing companies. Our question formulation has been:? What need do businesses want to satisfy with a Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?? Are there any differences in the use of Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?In this study, we have chosen to carry out interviews and quantitative surveys with manufacturing companies to get their view of CRM-systems.

This is an empirical study based on Physical Education and health (PE) teachers' experiences and builds on, for the study, significant literature. The study is about PE teachers? consideration of gender in the assessment as well as in the selection of lesson content. Semi-structured interviews were employed as method for the data collecting process. Four teachers were interviewed, teachers of PE in elementary and upper secondary school with varied length of professional experience and ages.

This thesis studies the concept of balance in the management control systems (MCS) of a small Swedish company within the IT-sector. The aim is to evaluate the importance of balance and dynamics in MCS and investigate which factors affect them. The frameworks used are Simons (1994) four levers of control, and the five-factor model for balance and dynamics by Mundy (2010). The small IT company - the object of the case study - has grown extensively in the last years and needs to develop more formal MCS without losing efficiency and creativity in their fast-moving industry. The case study reveals that balancing MCS is important also in smaller companies with less formal MCS.

This qualitative case study, made with four companies, looks closer at how more effective information management, with the help of IT-systems, affect companies market communication and relations to customers and suppliers. Customer Relationship Management perspective is used and Enterprise Resource Planning-systems are the ground for new technology change. The main conclusions are that new technology affects the outcome of companies? relationships towards their customers and suppliers and that the processes and activities between the involved parties are more closely linked. Also involving your suppliers and external actors makes the information handling more effective and companies that do so most likely have a competitive advantage..

The climate issue is a significant question, and the problem is mainly caused by human activities. Everyone can help to counteract the enhanced Greenhouse effect by reducing the amounts of energy they use and by not consuming more products then they need.Schools are some of societies many consumers and therefore contribute to the Greenhouse effect. The School also has an important task; to teach and disseminate knowledge and information about the climate and the environment. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, Skolverket, must all schools regularly consider the environment and sustainable development throughout the entire education process. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many schools in Sweden today.One of many tools that can be used to coordinate environmental work and initiatives, and also to make it more efficient, is environmental management systems.

The law firm industry has during the last years met new demanding conditions and one tool to handle these new conditions has been to implement a Knowledge Management system. Large investments have been made in these Knowledge Management systems but the implementations have met many challenges from within the organizations.With a multiple study, based on interviews with Knowledge Management Managers included in a Knowledge Management network, this thesis aims to study the challenges with Knowledge Management and the underlying causes. The result, based on McDermott's theories shows challenges within technical, personal, social and management areas where the law firm need to shift a focus from Information to Knowledge Management, create a culture of trust and integration and use the informal powerbase.The causes for these challenges are found in the base of Mintzbergs theories of Professional bureaucracy where the Knowledge Management is affected by strong self-regulated individualist, a divided organizational structure and industry conditions..

Workers are more demanding than ever and stay a shorter amount of time within the same organization. For this reason we wanted to look further into how organizations work with motivation in order to create success in Knowledge Intensive Firms. The complexity of knowledge workers formed the base for our interest within the subject. The purpose of our thesis is to reflect upon what is written about the motivational effects of recruitment and reward strategies in Knowledge Intensive Firms. Further our essay is based on an abductive advocacy.

This study aims to investigate how small scale manufacturing companies reason around an implementation of a PLM-system, as well as the suitability of these systems compared to larger companies. The study is built on a qualitative method. Initially, secondary data was gathered through books, articles and reports. Primary data was gathered through four interviews. Two interviews were performed with PLM resellers, one interview was performed with a PLM developer, and one interview was performed with a small scale manufacturing company that opted to not implement a PLM-system.The results imply that overall differences between larger and smaller companies exist in regard to the need of PLM systems.

Handling materials and packaging, which is the focus of this study, requires efficient logistics, both internally and between companies. To achieve an efficient material flow, good information systems, whose role is to collect, store, process and distribute information, are required. The assumption that packagings are handled in an efficient manner is currently not a matter of course, when many companies do not prioritize the internal management of the package.The purpose of this report was to investigate how medium-sized businesses working with distribution and handling of spare parts packaging can improve their internal management of packaging. In order to answer the purpose, we have used an abductive process and a qualitative data collection. The study had Logistic Center Ljungby (LCL) at Electrolux Laundry Systems (ELS) as a case company and two other respondents, Nibe in Markaryd and Enertech in Ljungby.

The climate issue is a significant question, and the problem is mainly caused by human activities. Everyone can help to counteract the enhanced Greenhouse effect by reducing the amounts of energy they use and by not consuming more products then they need.Schools are some of societies many consumers and therefore contribute to the Greenhouse effect. The School also has an important task; to teach and disseminate knowledge and information about the climate and the environment. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, Skolverket, must all schools regularly consider the environment and sustainable development throughout the entire education process. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many schools in Sweden today.One of many tools that can be used to coordinate environmental work and initiatives, and also to make it more efficient, is environmental management systems.

More frequent and intensified rainfalls are expected to occur due to climate change in the nearfuture. This together with a higher proportion of paved areas increases the pressure on today?sstorm water systems (Risinger, 2014; Boverket, 2013; Stahre, 2006). Traditional storm watersystems (i.e. underground pipe systems) have during last decades started to be questioned(Olshammar & Baresel, 2012).