Want to help making the world a better place? Do it with HypOCycle!HypOCycle is a bachelor thesis that started in September 2007. The project is owned byLars-Johan Hjertz and Erik Westerlund.HypOCycle is probably the only bike in the world that has a linear pedal movement. Themovement comes from a new engine technique that hasn?t even been brought to themarket yet.

 This degree project aims at developing a concept for how to use solar energy to pump up water. The target audience is people living in areas where the functioning of the electricity and water network is absent. In these areas, the hand-powered water pump is the most common technology. The degree project's goal is to find an economically viable alternative to the time consuming hand-powered water pumps. The power comes from solar energy.

One of the environmental problems today in seas, lakes and streams is eutrophication. This is often caused by nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) that leak from agricultural areas. A measure to partly prevent the nutrient discharge is to construct or restore wetlands.In order to control the efficiency of nutrient reduction of existing wetlands in the county, the administrative board in Västra Götaland wants to find different criterias for reference wetlands. These reference wetlands should represent other wetlands and be used in future evaluations of reduction of nutrients and design of constructed wetlands. According to the administrative board in Västra Götaland the reference wetlands should have a catchment area of about 50 hectare consisting of at least 70 % arable land, to represent wetlands created to remove nutrients.

Background and problem:Theory and literature in the field of board recruitment are limited. The theory and literature that existed focused primarily on the recruitment of senior management and CEO. It was identified that no one had examined the factors that influence the recruitment of board members. The underlying factors might cause the board recruitment is not done from a purely efficiency perspective and therefore it is of interest to be examined.Purpose:The purpose of this thesis is to examine and give an insight into the underlying factors affecting the choice of new directors in large Swedish companies.Method:The thesis has had a deductive approach and been based on existing theory and literature to explain the factors that affect board recruitment. The study was quantitative and the sample consisted of all the major Swedish listed companies.Results and conclusions:The survey indicated that board members ethnicity and number of other board assignments were factors that influenced the board recruitment.

During the last decades the importance of IT has increased for businesses all over the world. It has transferred from only being used in administrative purposes to become more integrated to the core business. Due to the financial crisis in 2009 and increasing globalization, IT is facing the challenge of lower costs and increased efficiency. This requires IT-departments to embrace new strategies in order to fulfill these new tougher demands.Lean is a business development concept that aims to lower costs through more effective processes by removing all activities that does not create any value from the end customer?s perspective.

This thesis is the final part of bachelors program of Nuclear Engineering at UppsalaUniversity (program code KKI1). The work has been carried out in cooperation withForsmark Kraftgrupp AB. The topic studied deals with possible improvements ofefficiency at the planning department at block 2 in Forsmark i.e. FMP2.FMP2 plans and coordinates over 3,000 operations which is carried out during theannual overhaul of block 2 in Forsmark. Inspections, fuel replacement and repairs areincluded in the annual overhaul.

With a larger awareness of the climate changes and increasing electricity prices, energy efficiency measures in the industry have become more common. By rationalize the activity and by the same time decrease the emission of greenhouse gases the company can both save money and reduce negative environmental impact. For the Swedish industries the electricity price have traditional been relative low, which has resulted in a considerable larger usage than other European countries. By a deregulation of the European electricity market the electricity price will level off between the countries, which will cause a higher electricity price in Sweden than we are use to. To prevent that the Swedish industry don?t lose competitiveness against the other European countries, it will require energy efficiency activities in all different forms.ABB Sweden has decided to decrease their total energy usage with five percent in two years.

Automatic rumination measuring can be applied as a health indicator in dairy farming but is also highly desirable for research purposes. This study aimed to validate the technical functionality of the product RuminActTM, which employ acoustics to monitor rumination duration. The time budget of high yielding cows was studied and possible differences in rumination time between 13 rations were interpreted. Further the study examined what affects daily rumination and rumination efficiency. The validation was performed with direct observations that were compared to the automatically recorded rumination durations.

Partner in a close company is taxed under special rules for private companies. This is to avoid a fiscal revenue conversion. Partner as having a major influence in the company and take out what is really earned income as dividends and thus be taxed at a significantly lower rate. The purpose of the close company rules is that a partner in labor income is taxed in the same way that an employee?s income.The problem that arises when one partner in a closely held company leave a shareholders contribution to the company which aims to raise the threshold for the shares discussed in this paper.

For a long time Lean has been a well-known concept among manufacturers. Theinterest of understanding Lean and the ability to implement it is common amongcompanies. The concept of Lean, used in the right way, can help companies to reducetheir lead times, their complexity and increase the efficiency of the working processes(Hyer och Wemmerlöv, 2002). Unfortunately the work towards increased efficiencyhas primarily been focused on manufacturing and plant work, resulting in that Leanhas been adjusted to these areas. The conclusion of this is that companies don´tprioritize to improve processes such as administrative ones.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka sambandet mellan rörelsekapital och   lönsamhet för företag i olika storleksklasser på svenska maskintillverkande företag.Metod: Studien baseras på en kvantitativ metod för att undersöka rörelsekapitalets samband med lönsamheten. Datan som användes i studien hämtades från retriever business och uträkningarna gjordes i Microsoft Office Excel. Variablerna storlek på företag, utvecklingsfas och rörelsekapitalspolicy användes för att kategorisera datan i flertalet tester.Teori: Studiens rörelsekapitalsmått var kassacykeln och lönsamhetsmåttet var bruttovinstmarginalen.Resultat: Studiens resultat visade att det inte fanns något samband mellan rörelsekapital och lönsamhet i 13 av de 24 undersökningarna.Slutsats: Studiens slutsats är att sambandet mellan rörelsekapital och lönsamhet skiljer sig åt hos företag i olika storleksklasser på svenska maskintillverkande företag..

The forestry companies? operational planning process is these days dependent on reliable, efficient and user-friendly computer-based support systems. This study is an evaluation of Holmen Skog's current computer-based systems. The aim of this study is to: ? investigate the work pattern of the production managers when using the information system to plan the harvesting operation; ? investigate the efficiency and user friendliness of the information system with the different work patterns and to find the strengths, weaknesses and bottlenecks in the current system; ? find out if the type of object, the volume, the area of the harvesting object affects the time and work pattern; ? examine how this type of study is met by the employees and what factors that is critical to avoid feelings of intrusion. The conclusions of the study were: ? there is a large variation between the work patterns of the production managers and the time spend to perform the operational planning; ? the mainframe computer system used by Holmen Skog is clear, has short response times, is robust and conveys relevant information; ? the computer systems are however divided in many subsystems.

This literature review aims to investigate, expose and explain August Strindberg's religious position in his partly autobiographical work Inferno, published in Swedish in 1897, in relation to Peter Berger's socialization theory. Strindberg says in the beginning of Inferno that he goes from being an atheist, occultist and Swedenborgian to finally return to his ancestral religion, Christianity. This is questionable, as Strindberg seems to be religious in its atheistic era, and occultist during his Christian period. Strindberg's own religious views seem not always match what he portrays, compared to what he writes in his correspondence and diary entries. This literature review aims to highlight the influences of Strindberg affected to clarify his religiosity which is implicitly and explicitly depicted in Inferno.

A common perception is that fungicide treatments increases yield, but that the nitrogen of the particular grain is diluted so that the overall removal of grain nitrogen from the field remains unchanged. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that a healthy crop reduces the risk of nutrient loss from agricultural land. The results from genotype and plant protection trials often show constant nitrogen content in the grain, although the yield has been increased. Results from such experiments are therefore processed in order to confirm this and show that it is no statistically significant difference between the protein content (and also nitrogen content) in crops which have undergone fungicide treatment compared to crops which remained untreated. The trials processed have been carried out in the southernmost part of Sweden and are distinguished to concern winter wheat production.The explanation to the results is that a healthy crop is able to maintain the biological functions of the plant in a more efficient way than a crop damaged by a fungal infection.

During my practice as a teacher trainee at an upper secondary school it became clear to me that many pupils had difficulties with mathematics. I was surprised to find that many pupils seemed to get stuck on the level of attainment for the senior level of the nine-year compulsory school. As I have not studied anything about difficulties in Mathematics during my training to become a qualified teacher, I would like to get to know more about this.After studying research done on this subject I made the following approach to the problem:? What fields regarding Mathematics do the pupils themselves find most difficult?? What factors have been contributory causes to these problems?? What are the factors that have helped pupils with difficulties in Mathematics to reach the goals for the syllabuses in Mathematics?The answers to my questionnaire and interviews resulted in the following conclusions:? Pupils find theory of equation and conversion of units as most difficult at senior level of the nine-year compulsory school.? Teaching should be done in special instruction groups to give the pupil the opportunity to develop his/her skills on an individual level.? Pupils find it hard to deal with all moments in Mathematics during the time given for each course.? The pace for teaching Mathematics is too high according to the pupils.? Pupils wish for instructions on a lower level.? There is often a lack of contact between teacher and pupil.? The teacher should use more time to help the pupil receive good self-confidence and increase the motivation for instructions in Mathematics..