The disconnect between assumptions regarding computer users interactions made by software engineers and the actual interactions do, for various reasons, not always match. Gathering actual usage data from user interfaces can enable software designers to make better educated decisions. By buildning a prototype for collecting such data from a diagnosis tool for the automotive industry this project has shown not only how to benefit from the data but also how to perform the work. The data is 1 600 sessions consisting of 26 000 individual events. From this it has shown that available tools can assist in rudimentary questions regarding usage.

Employee turnover can cost an organization a significant amount of money. In addition, retention of employees can beneficial towards to an organization as it e.g. allows to save costs related torecruitment and training of new employees. The fast food industry is recognized as an industry which employs low-skilled employees and is especially in the United States known to be prone to high employee turnover. With regards to Europe, only little information is available in the field of low-skilled employee retention in the fast food industry.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how investments are justified in the Swedish data center industry, with a focus on cooling equipment. This is achieved through semi-structured interviews with 20 different interviewees. These interviewees represent different facets of the industry and facilitate an understanding of which factors, such as: investment costs, operating costs, reliability, environmental impact and the influence of external and internal actors, come into play and to which degree they impact the investment decision-making process. The results show that primarily low operating cost in the form of low energy consumption is the driving factor when it comes to the procurement of new equipment. A lower environmental impact is a positive side-effect of lower energy consumption.

Clearcutting systems have been the dominating silvicultural approach during the last decades in the Nordic countries. While economically rational, it is also leading to a trivialisation of the flora and fauna, and may result in negative reactions of people in urban settings. As a consequence of this, and a more diversified view on which goods and services forests should deliver, there is an increasing interest in broadening the range of silvicultural methods that are used. The term continuous cover forestry (CCF) represents a suite of methods that have gained increasing interest in the Nordic countries. In CCF a considerable amount of the trees are left after harvest to favour values that require a continuity of tree-covered areas. There are thus hopes that this method will meet the needs for maintaining biodiversity and satisfy social and cultural values.

The cost of transportation has strongly increased in the recent years, transportations which are a major part for the construction companies. Skanska Asphalt which is a part of Skanska Sverige AB has noticed that there are significant cost savings to be made with the purchasing of transports. The transports in this case is about asphalt, where the costs are about 10% of the outsourcing business turnover. The purpose of this thesis is to study the working practice that Skanska Asphalt are using today in controlling and time-writing, for the asphalt transportations. Resulting in recommendations on how to improve the working practice at Skanska Asphalt.This study was conducted with the help of a number of interviews with Skanska?s employees and with suppliers of transportation to describe the practices which are being used in during the asphalt transportation.

As the European Landscape Convention is brought into action, planning in Sweden has got to become increasingly considerate of the landscape and its character. To render this possible, a basic requirement is that we find a functional method for analysis. The Landscape is a synthesis of the interplay between place and man. It is made up of our physical environment and shows the result of our actions throughout history. Our surroundings affect us in many ways, financially as well as emotionally. This is why an analysis of the landscape has to be inclusive of many types of information. I have performed a landscape analysis, according to the British Landscape Character Assessment-method, in Svedala kommun.

Abstract This study aims with a pragmatic approach to investigate the learning about how to solve simple equations, and what the teacher can do to help the student. Four questions asked are: (i) How and why will learning take place? (ii) What will complicate learning? (iii) How to support and facilitate learning? (iv) Is it possible to identify an influence between identity and learning? To answer these questions a qualitative study in elementary school is done. The results of the investigation are compared with previous research, and an interview with the teacher is presented. The recorded lessons are analyzed with PEA (practical epistemology analysis), and letters from the students with the Ecological Systems Theory of Bronfenbrenner.

Questions concerning the Cultural Heritage must be integrated in social planning.Therefore there is a need for adequate methods for cultural environmental analysis, toreceive knowledge that is relevant in an integrated conservation. The thesis is a review ofmethods for cultural environmental analysis and discusses the qualifications necessary fora method in order to receive adequate information as well as it discusses what kind ofinformation to be considered relevant. The thesis also analyzes a specific method forcultural environmental analysis in order to exam if it has got the qualifications concludedas necessary if it is to be used in an integrated conservation. The conclusion is that amethod for cultural environmental analysis should collect information about the entireenvironment (integrated information about nature and culture, in a historical perspectiveand how it is today), about social structures, physical remains (buildings etc) and what thecollected information tell about the history of the studied area, as well as what is importantin the landscape of today. Information about how the environment should be treated in thefuture is also of importance.

In the new media society, social media has become an important part of many organizations' daily lives. Organizations, whether public or private, must be where their audience is and many times, these can be found on social media channels like Facebook. Leading researchers in the fields of crisis communication and relationship management believe that social media is a great tool for managing relationships between an organization and its' public, whether it's before, during or after a crisis.The purpose of this study is to examine how the Karlstad municipality use Facebook to manage civic relations before, during and after a crisis. The municipality's approach will be compared to the citizens' experiences of the municipality's communication in different stages of a crisis.The theoretical framework used in this essay is the research on crisis communication and relationship management. How these two frameworks can be integrated with social media like Facebook, is an important part of understanding how the Karlstad municipality make use of Facebook to manage civic relations and communicate before, during and after a crisis.The empirical study consists of a qualitative interview, two qualitative content analysis and an online survey.

This master?s thesis is a remote sensing study of an area-based method used to detect forest in need of thinning by use of laser data and field samples. Only pine-dominated forest has been included in the study and height limits were set to match empirical restrictions. The study area was in the municipality of Älvsbyn (Latitude 65° 40´ N, Longitude 21° 00´ E), in northern Sweden.The Swedish authority Lantmäteriet is currently laser scanning most parts of Sweden, providing new opportunities and applications. The primary aim of the national laser scanning is to create a new elevation model, useful in consequence analysis of climate changes.

The purpose with this thesis was to study the special pedagogical perspectives that stood out in documents written by the special teachers in preschool. In order to maintain the thesis research questions a text analysis was carried out on the document ?Handledningssamtal? that was used by the special teachers in their contact with the teachers in preschool. The documents were analyzed based in the special educational perspectives and the results and measures from the analysis were divided into three levels; individual, group and organizational level. Finally a study of the connection between the analysis and the measures was carried out and the result was reported in a typology schedule inspired by earlier research.

This paper deals with the question of when hill forts ? or enclosed mountains ? were built and to what purpose, by examining two enclosed mountains (RAÄ 78 and 79) in Grödinge parish in the province of Södermanland. A phosphate analysis was conducted to trace anthropogenic activities. The analysis showed only a slight elevation of phosphate content in the soil. A histogram indicated that the elevations were not normally distributed, which could suggest that they were caused by anthropogenic activities.

This thesis of 15 hp has been implemented at Halmstad University, in collaboration with Saab Dynamics in Linköping. Saab Dynamics is a company operating in the defence industry where competition is tough. This necessitates new ways to increase efficiency in the company, which is the basis for this thesis. Saab Dynamics wants to introduce simulation driven design. Since Saab Dynamics engineers have little experience of simulation, required a user methodology with clear guidelines.

AbstractToday, too many construction projects are delayed and deviates from the budget. Agood project management is the basis for successful construction project. The mostcommon planning methods in the construction industry is currently Gantt chart andCPM. The problem with these is that focus is only at the time of the project anddoesn?t handle the budget.

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.