Achievements within the fields of computer- and telecommunication technology have led to a revolution when it comes to managing information. These achievements have made it possible to offer new services in healthcare, especially in telemedicine. New technology has become a complement to traditional care, thus partly compensating for insufficient time and resources. Telephone Linked Care (TLC) is a telecommunication technology that enables automated dialog counselling and monitoring of patients in their homes. During the last two decades numerous randomized controlled studies with TLC have demonstrated improvement among outpatients with chronic and health behaviour disorders.

Difficult calvings and stillborn calves are costly for the producer and lowering these frequencies can decrease the costs for the dairy operation. Each calving in the herd is registered by the farmer and stored in a central database. The information is used to monitor the level of calving-difficulties and stillborn calves in the herd and nationally. Monitoring of these registrations is important to detect possible changes. Breeding-value prediction for calving traits is based on the calving information in the database.

Volvo Human Monitoring (VHM) är ett pågående projekt på Volvo Personvagnar där dem bland annat mäter in- och utandning genom en mätutrustning, kallad respiratorisk induktans pletysmograf (RIP), som mäter förändringar av tvärsnittsarean av bröstkorg och buk. När föraren är i rörelse till exempel när hon svänger ändras tvärsnittsarean och en ?störning? i RIP-signalen kan uppkomma.Dessa störningar medför att vid analys av RIP-signalen måste stora manuella justeringar utföras, vilket är mycket tidskrävande, och utrustningens validitet för mätning av in- och utandning ifrågasätts.Syftet med denna studie var att effektivisera analysen av en RIP-signal som registrerats vid bilkörning. Målsättningen var att skapa ett nytt databearbetningsverktyg i Matlab som på ett automatiskt sätt kan detektera in- och utandning från en RIP-signal med högre validitet än det existerande databearbetningsverktyget.I studien utfördes tester på nio förare under bilkörning på landsväg, grusväg, motorväg och i stadstrafik. In- och utandning mättes med en RIP, en pneumotakograf med en tätt sluten ansiktsmask och ett termoelement som var placerad mellan näsa och mun som referensutrustning.Resultatet blev ett databearbetningsverktyg som automatiskt detekterar in- och utandning med högre validitet än det tidigare internutvecklade databearbetningsverktyg.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is a phase in the digital revolution connecting computing devices with each other bringing along new business opportunities for companies. Although being a fast growing field it has not been researched to any greater extent, particularly not within the academical literature. Consequently, information on how M2M can affect organisations seems strongly needed. This thesis uses three perspectives, derived from already recognised business benefits of M2M, as an aid to select proper theoretical tools to investigate the phenomenon. The purpose of this thesis is to gain knowledge of how an M2M adoption affects a firm?s organisation, customer offerings and customer relations.

this paper is a study on children's social interactions in role-play. The aim is to try to highlight how children with other develop social skills and how to further motivate children tosee, understand and manage their reality in role-play by highlighting the characteristics of afunctioning role-play. I would also highlight the importance of pedagogue´s role in relation tochildren's social skills in role-play. The purpose flows into these issues, what distinguishes afunctioning role-play? Can the children in role-play influence their thinking to developunderstanding of others and the environment and if so, how? What significance does pedagogue´s role in children's role-play? I used out of a qualitative methodology to carry out this investigation.

When constructing a building, a number of aspects must be harmonized in order for it to fulfill requirements ? a building must fulfill requirements such a load-bearing, conservation of energy and a good indoor environment by means of, among other things, moisture proofing .Moisture problems in buildings can affect health negatively. As we are increasingly staying in indoors, demands on a good indoor environment are higher.This work starts with examining moisture problems in slab-on-ground solutions, and then links the various scenarios to moisture problems in a concrete slab of a real building. The building with moisture problems is located in Årby by in Borlänge and moisture damage was found in the slab at an apartment adjoining wall.By reviewing literature written within the field of moisture problem, making hand calculations and modeling in the program Comsol Multiphysics, judgments are made to find explanations as to why the rise of moisture occurred in the building in Årby by.Generally, the following guidelines may be used to reduce the risk of moisture problems in slab-on-ground constructions:Drying of construction moisture before laying the floor material.Using draining layer beneath the slab, to prevent capillary suction.Using insulation under the slab, partly for comfort and to establish the temperature difference between the ground and the concrete slab.Avoid direct contact between the wood and concrete, due to degradation and fouling smells that normally occurs.If necessary, use additional vapor barrier.In addition to the above, there are various methods for moisture-proof and moisture-monitoring by design or by the method ByggaF suited for the entire construction process various events..

The purpose of this thesis is to study how preschool teachers can reach the goal of the swedish educational plan to prevent traditional gender roles for children ages 3-6 through drama in education.This is answered by four hypothesis based on Judith Butler's queer theory, George Herbert Mead's social psychological theory and Gavin Bolton and Dotothy Heathcotes drama pedagogical theories. The hypotheses are tested against four teachers' examples of their work.The hypotheses areHypothesis 1: By using the expert's mantle and active observation in teacher-in-role indrama educational exercises, we can see how the children internalize the heterosexualmatrix and the outline of the internalized other.Hypothesis 2: By using the "mistakes" that occur when children repeat performativeacts that do not fit with the heterosexual matrix, these other possible behaviors can bestrengthenedHypothesis 3: Through drama exercises that are not normative teachers can widen theheterosexual matrixHypothesis 4: Through drama pedagogical methods like teacher-in-role teachers canprovide possibilities of other performative acts and the creation of a more tolerantinternalized other.The analysis show that the respondents work within all these hypotheses in different ways and thathypotheses 2 is the one with the weakest support in the interwievs. The examples are also weakregarding the use of Boltons drama pedagogical methods, but that there are a number of othermethods in use.Some of the conclusions are that more theoretical knowledge in the preschool drama pedagogics tocounteract traditional gender roles and patterns, as well as the drama of educational theory need tobe linked to queer and social psychology research. There is also no monitoring of the long term effects of the work..

Volvo Human Monitoring (VHM) is an ongoing project at Volvo Cars where they measure, amongst other parameters, inhalation and exhalation through a device called Respiratory Inductance Plethysmograph (RIP), on drivers. RIP measures changes in the cross-sectional area of the chest and abdomen. When the driver is in motion, such as when she is turning the vehicle, the cross-sectional area changes and noise in the RIP signal may arise.The noise results in a large number of manual adjustments in the analysis of the RIP signal, which is very time consuming and the validity of the device for measuring inhalation and exhalation is questioned.The purpose of this study was to improve the efficiency of the analysis of the RIP signal. The goal was to create a new data processing tool in Matlab that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation from a RIP signal with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.In this study, nine tests were performed on drivers while they were driving in different scenarios such as highway, country road and in city traffic. Inhalation and exhalation was measured using a RIP, a pneumotachograph with a tightly sealed facemask and a thermocouple placed between the nose and mouth, which was used as reference to the RIP.The result of this study was a data processing tool that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.

AbstractC-level essay in political science, by Frida Orlinder, spring semester 2008Supervisor: Susan Marton?Good contracting? ? A study of contracting in public procurement regarding the transportation of school children?Over the last decades models influenced by the market have been gaining influence in public administration all over the world. New Public Management has been presented as a theoretical ?shopping basket? from which concepts can be applied to the administration of municipal services. The purpose of this essay is to investigate in an explorative way how New Public Management (NPM) views contracting and the role of the internal customer in contracting.

Title: The Relationship between Internationalization and Firm Performance Seminar date: 5 June, 2008 Course: Masters thesis in Business Administration, Programme for Managing People, Knowledge and Change, 15 University Credit Points (15 ECTS). Authors: Cheng Hsun Chiang and Márton Pap Advisor: Dan Kärreman Key words: Internationalization, Performance, Multinationality, Degree of Internationalization (DOI), Country of Origin Purpose: To illuminate various crucial aspects of internationalization by systematically contrasting the different models of the multinationality-performance relationship and searching for underlying reasons. Methodology: Meta-analysis on previous theoretical and empirical research. Our emphasis in this paper has been put on the qualitative aspects of the previous research unlike many other conventional meta-analyses that focus on the comparison of the empirical data. Theoretical perspectives: Five main models have been developed by earlier studies to describe the relationship between internationalization and performance: positive linear, no or ambiguous relation, inverted U-shaped, standard U-shaped and S-shaped curve.

Information regarding cows grazing behaviour and time spent grazing can be of great interest to dairy farmers, since this information can indicate how well suited the pasture is to the cows. Feed intake at pasture is however challenging to measure. Automated systems for monitoring the behaviour of cows within dairy production have become increasingly important and relatively common. The aim of this study was to validate an activity measuring device (HOBO® G Logger Pendant Data Logger, USA), a triaxial accelerometer that registers the cow?s head positions during grazing, in order to see if cows? grazing behaviour on pasture could be distinguished from their non grazing behaviour.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how a bank?s features and internal factors have affected its choice of method in calculating the capital requirement.Theoretical and Empirical Method: The research strategy of this study has been of a qualitative nature with a deductive approach. The choice of method was depth interviews with respondents from a targeted sample of Swedish banks. These respondents were chosen based on the knowledge they possess as key employees in the capital requirement process and their involvement in choosing their banks? method for calculating the capital requirement.

The main purpose of the project was to identify potential environmentally harmful substances which can be leached from rubber asphalt. A method for analysing asphalt was developed and three rubber asphalt materials were analysed after being cryogrinded. One of the materials was also tested in a road machine made for testing of asphalt paving. The particles created in the machine were analysed in the same manner as the cryogrinded asphalt materials.The asphalt materials were leached by water during 24 hours. The leachates were extracted with dichloromethane, dried with sodium sulphate and concentrated to a small volume.

The existence for companies today consists of constant challenges with customers that want more individual products with high quality as quickly as possible. For a company to be able to have a short delivery time, it must also have a short production time. This makes streamlining and improvement of processes a big part of a company?s workThis thesis has been carried out together with the company Lasermax Roll Systems AB, a world-leading manufacturer of feeding, finishing and monitoring systems for high-speed digital printers. They manufacture their products according to the assembling for costumer order principle.The purpose with this thesis is to map and analyze, the assembling process and the test process at Lasermax Roll Systems AB.

Researchers today anticipate that in the near future, the majority of the owners of a smartphone will use it as a wallet, i.e. for contactless payment. The technology that enables contactless payment today is ?Near Field Communication? (NFC), which is increasingly embedded in smartphones. Applications like mobile payment between a phone and a terminal use NFC.