The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service.

In the low-income countries of the world, rapid urbanization and decaying infrastructure results in an increasingly unsustainable situation when it comes to solid waste management. Often, the solution tends to focus on introducing technical advanced interventions based on the conditions of the high-income world. However, this thesis aims to ?nd site-speci?c solutions on solid waste management at a local scale. By taking in consideration of local conditions a customized approach is possible where the solution is not dependent on expensive structural changes.

This report tested the possibility of using induction as a mean for transferring data and power so that it can be implemented as a communication medium between a terminal and measuring head mounted in a measuring frame. This would eliminate the need for the cable bunches that are used today. For testing, signal generators were used to generateFSK-signals and were transferred with the help of inductors to the oscilloscope for signal detection, this to see how the coils used in the tests behaved. Simulations of a PLL were performed to see how good it could handle FSK-demodulation. With the help of a PLL IC and the simulations a working FSK-demodulator could be assembled.

The aim of this paper was to examine how social workers' comprehension of the need of financial aid exists in, and is influated by, the organisation they work in. To investigate this, we asked ourself questions concerning how the social worker view the way that the finicial aid-system and work surrounding it is formed, whether the social worker's understanding of the need of financial aid co-exists with the percieved common understanding of the work place (do the understandings coincide, do the social worker adjust his or her understanding or is it possible to have a separate understanding), whether the social worker feel that he or she have discretion to influence the organisation and how possible conflicts between different views are handled. We felt that a qualitative method would best help us answer these questions. We therefore interviewed seven social workers working in the same organisation. We then looked at our material from an organisational theory perspective, focusing on the individual in the organisation.We found that the social workers were socialised into the organisation and adapted the norms and values that existed there.

Concrete is one of the world?s most common construction materials and is composed of 70-80 % stone material. Today crushed stone is used as aggregate in concrete in order to replace natural aggregates due to strong environmental reasons. Stone crushing yields flaky material and in this thesis studies are made on the flaky particle shape and how it influence properties of concrete such as workability, rheology and strength. The concrete recipes used in this thesis have fixed values, the only variable is the flakiness of the crushed stone.

A lot of houses built during the Million Homes Programme are in need of major renovation. Today?s technology and materials are better than in the 60?s and 70?s. Both Swedish government and the European Union have set climate goals regarding energy consumption by 2020 and 2050. Achieving these goals would require better standards in buildings than the Building regulations demands, such as Umeå municipality?s construction requirements for new buildings.The report aims to investigate if a renovation of apartment buildings from the Million Homes Programme can reach Umeå municipality?s construction requirements.

The Swedish metropolitan politics have had the bottom-up perspective as a major principle to evolve the democratic participation in segregated areas. My objective was to investigate if a bottom-up perspective has been used as a method of evaluation in a sample of 10 evaluation reports made about democratic participation in Malmö.The key questions were; In the evaluations:- How was the bottom-up perspective and related concepts defined?- What criterias and theories were used?- What values surfaced?- What methods were used?- Has a critical approach been used?The method used is analysis using the theories of Critical Social Method by Alvesson & Deetz, Values in evaluation by House & Howe and Choices of perspective by Eliasson.None of the analysed evaluations have used participatorial methods. As participation is defined mainly statistically, the criterias are usually quantitative measurements, though the evaluators agree that democracy is a matter of quality. There is a common lack of theoretical basis of analysis and methodology description.

Since the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was discovered in the 1980s, the condom has scientifically proven to be the only technological device that can prevent transmission of the virus during sexual intercourse. This technical approach to the HIV has strongly emphasized that prevention is only possible if the condom is properly used. However, as a technological artifact the condom has shown that its use is laden with values. The question of values on condoms has brought in a heated debate on the moral justifications of its use. In Malawi, just as in other African countries, the Faith Community has rejected the Governmentsplea to promote condoms as the preventive measure against the virus.The Faith Community has emphasized on abstinence and mutual faithfulness as the only reliable means to the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

At nuclear power plants, electrical valve actuators are important for ensuring that the reactor core is water covered and the pressure in the reactor tank and containment is limited. The electrical actuators are provided with overload protection in case of drawing higher current then the motors are rated for. When safety manoeuvres are needed, the overload protection must not trig and cause the valve to stop before completing the manoeuvre. Analyses have showed that the current settings of the overload protection may cause an illegitimate trig at the worst theoretically possible accident. A new method has been developed with conservative assumptions and applies overload protections for all electrical valve actuators at the three reactors in Forsmark..

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in our homes. It is a place for social engagements, meetings between people and activity. How the kitchen looks today is a concept sprung from the Swedish kitchen standard of 1952. Eventhou this standard no longer exists it is a model of how kitchens are designed today. The kitchens most often sold today come from one of four major kitchen manufacturers in Sweden.My thesis investiges an alternative kitchen concept.

This paper deals with the use of Internet at Swedish public libraries. The author asks whether public libraries should or should not limit access to information available on the Internet. Starting from the American discussion, concerning Internet at public libraries, the author shows the Swedish attitudes. The paper demonstrates that many Swedish public libraries have adopted rules forbidding retrieval of certain kinds of information, such as hard-core pornography and racist propaganda. The persons in charge of such actions claim that public libraries should provide high-quality educational literature and should not spread mass-produced, provocative information.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka samband det finns mellan värderingar, föreställningar och normer kring miljön till agerande för ekologisk hållbarhet i det vardagliga livet. Vår hypotes var att det finns samband mellan affekter kring miljöns framtid och agerande till hållbar utveckling. För att söka svar på syftet och bekräfta hypotesen har enkäter med frågor gällande individens värderingar, föreställningar och normer om miljön samt frågor om miljömässigt agerande skickats ut via e-post till 119 deltagare i åldern 23-65 år. Svarsfrekvensen var på 59 procent. Resultatet visade att det fanns ett flertal starka samband mellan miljömässiga värderingar, föreställningar och normer till individens agerande och hypotesen om att det fanns samband mellan affekter och agerande för hållbar utveckling verifierades.

From an early age kids learn that their good performance and efforts will be rewarded. Unfortunately, not all leaders in the media industry are rewarded or given the same opportunities to exercise their communicative leadership, according to studies in media research. The aim of our study is to highlight female managers' experiences of their communicative leadership in the Swe-dish media industry. This study was based on qualitative interviews with four female respondents in management positions. The core of the study concerns female communicative leadership and interpersonal communication.

It is now increasingly common for organisations to work actively with HR issues. Furthermore, it is a constant top priority for organisations to remain profitable. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether so called soft HR values, as manager?s communication skills, has an actual impact on hard values in terms of costs for the organisation. Leadership is largely characterised by emotional communication, which together with personnel costs were the main focus of the research.

The Catalan movement of Independence is a well debated subject in Spanish news for the last decade. This thesis aims to examine what kind of identityarguments that spanish versus catalan newspapers make about the independence movement, in relation to nationalism and national identity. This is to deeper the understanding about the current complex situation in the Iberian Peninsula. The research shows that identityarguments about the independence movement presented by catalonian newspapers clearly put focus on identifying the ethnic and cultural reasons for the growing nationalism in the region, as well as discussing the political possibilities and obstacles of a sovereign Catalonia. In comparison, the identityarguments presented by spanish newspapers has another view of the situation, where the political aspect of the nationalistic catalan movement, identify the process as defying the Spanish Constitution and challenging the traditional historic unity of Spain.