The division of Engineering Materials at Linköping University, department of Management and Engineering, conducted a research project concerning Fatigue life of thermal barrier coatings during 2009. During this project equipment to provoke these fatigue failure by rapidly heating and cooling test subjects in cycles, was ordered.Design and manufacturing of the equipment was handled internally at LIU.The equipment was built using a furnace that is lowered and raised over the table where the test subject is placed. To keep the temperature of the furnace a lid slides in place to close the downward facing opening of the furnace when it is in the raised position. On this door there is nozzle that is used to cooling of the test subject by air.To make sure that the equipment can work independently you need an automation controller that can evaluate if movement can occur without danger of collisions. The control system also needs to monitor that all elements are performed according to plan.This degree project is based on a modular system from OPTO 22 and includes the configuration of a PLC that will be supplied with logic and a user interface.The degree project resulted in a graphic interface in which a user can set desired values for different parameters and get information about current values for them.

Abstract                - ?Mergers and acquisitions ? How does the integration process affect the result in mergers and acquisitions?Date:                              May 31st 2012Level:                             Master thesis in Business administration, 15 ECTSInstitution:                  School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, Mälardalen UniversityAuthors:                       Mikael Hansson              15th May 1984                                         Jani Timonen                   12th June 1983Title:                              Mergers and acquisitions ? How does the integration process affect the result in mergers and acquisitionsTutor:                             Staffan BoströmKeywords:                   Mergers, acquisitions, synergies, cultural, competitive advantage, integrating, stakeholder theory and institutional theoryResearch questions:                   How has the integration process affected the outcome of the acquisition of Jokab and what can ABB do differently in future acquisitions?Purpose:                       The purpose of this master thesis is to identify the factors that affect a merger or an acquisition and the factors that make the integration process a success or failure.Method:                       The method used in this study is based on systems theory, this means that reality is explained as objective and completely as possible. The study is qualitative in nature, in which a deeper understanding of the subject mergers and acquisitions wants to be achieved. The study uses an abductive approach and the data used was both from primary and secondary sources.Conclusion:     The result of the study shows that the integration process is influenced by several factors. The most important factors from the acquirer are to have a time schedule, clear communication and a person in charge of the integration process.

The overall aim of the study was to give an insight into the life of a girl attending a program for preparation for further studies. More explicitly it is the aim of this study to examine what line the girls take to and how they experience support in school and if the offered support is adjusted to the needs of the girls?.To capture the complexity of the girls? experiences a world view approach was used. To be able to take part of the girls? experiences, a qualitative survey method was chosen, built upon individual half structured interviews with six girls attending the last year of upper secondary school.

Mechanical relays are more and more being replaced with semiconductortechnology. In this thesis it is investigated if and how the larger loads couldbe controlled by transistors. The main part of this work aims to create andverify a solution that can control the starter motor, as well as protect it incase of any failure. The different malfunctions that the solution protectsagainst is high current, too high peak current, low current, maximum cranktime and minimum cool off time. The timers also protect indirectly againstoverheating of the starter engine.The transistors used are BTS555, from Infineon.

Problem: I dagens Sverige har det blivit ta?mligen enkelt att starta upp ett eget aktiebolag och till fo?ljd av detta har antalet konkurser o?kat. Konkursprediktion med hja?lp av finansiella nyckeltal a?r ett beforskat omra?de och stra?cker sig tillbaka till bo?rjan av 1960-talet. Altmans Z- scoremodeller a?r de mest tilla?mpade modellerna att fo?rutspa? en konkurs.

The purpose with this literature study was to investigate the possibilities for improvement of forage protein in dairy cows with focus on feeding strategies and conservation of forage protein. The utilization of forage protein in dairy cows is often not that efficient as it could be. The feed crude protein consists of both true proteins and non protein nitrogen. The digestion of proteins in the rumen depends on the protein degradation rate and the ability of the microbes to synthesize microbial protein. The microbes need a balance between carbohydrates that provide them with energy and proteins that are degradable in the rumen.

The cardiovascular system is one of the three major body systems. When an animal in a critical state arrives at the animal hospital, it is important to know the normal parameters in order to assess the patient?s cardiovascular status. Triage is a process where you considerate the patient?s condition instead of check in time, or other criteria.

Safe operation of a large synchronous power system as Nordel is not an easy task.There are several aspects to take into consideration. This thesis focuses on the problems due to voltage collapses in a transmission system.The ability to foresee an upcoming collapse is vital to maintain stable operation of the grid. The grid operator at Svenska Kraftnät (SvK) uses the computer program SPICA to predict the maximum transfer limit at specified transfer sections. SPICA uses actual states from the grid to predict the transfer limitation, and a quarter later a renewed estimate is produced and so on. This means that the operator can se his transfer limits vary every fifteen minutes.Our task in this project is to validate the accuracy of the limitations obtained by SPICA.

The Chinese government´s aim to be self-sufficient in food production in combination with the increased food consumption in China has put high pressure on the productivity within the Chinese agricultural sector (He j et al, 2010). In order to increase the productivity, modernization and adoption of new farming techniques are essential. The opportunity to adopt and import foreign technology has lately been possible in China, as more authority and decision rights have been given to the individual farmers and the country has opened up for foreign trade (Zheng, 2012 & Fan, 1991). A more open Chinese market enables new opportunities for foreign agricultural companies to expand their businesses by introducing their products to Chinese farmers. But to succeed with this strategy the Chinese farmers must be willing to adopt these, for them new innovations. Minimum tillage is a tillage practice used worldwide that is suitable in northern China where drought and erosion are the main problems in the crop production (pers.com., Arvidsson, 2012). Potential users? opinion of new innovations such as minimum tillage is closely related to adoption (Rogers, 2003).

This master thesis is about the collaboration between the custom dairy heifer grower and thedairy producer.The custom dairy heifer grower is a rather unusual strategy of reproductive management inSweden compared to other countries like U.S. and Denmark where the specialization withindairy production gone much further. In these countries the research also has reached muchfurther within this type of industry. However in Sweden there has been research made in thearea of collaboration, but then only within collaborations in the industries of crop production,dairy production and pork meat.The down going trend of profitability within dairy production together with poor profitabilityin the beef industry could partly remedy if more collaborations around heifer contractingwould arise. But since the industry still is of a rare kind in Sweden the knowledge about howthese types of collaborative arrangements works and their contracts are put together is poor.By that the aim of this master thesis is formulated as follows: "how is usually thecollaborative arrangement between the dairy producer and custom dairy heifer growerdesigned".

St. John?s wort extract is composed of a large number of components, about 150, but the most studied and interesting substance are hyperforin and hypericin. The herb is very popular and it is known for its pharmacological efficacy in numerous disorders. It is used for treatment of mild to moderated depression as an alternative to synthetic antidepressants.

The aim of this Master´s thesis is to explore how public libraries in a successful way can work in projects with young people. It intends to point out different factors that in a legible way affect the accomplishment and outcome of the project. Another purpose of the study is to uncover the various approaches existing within the projects towards young people and to find out why it is seen as important to work with youngsters, considering the hard work that it requires and the reluctance of the young to visit the library. The examination is based upon eight different and fulfilled projects. Information about these has been received through project descriptions, project reports and documents describing applications for economical benefits.

This study is made in cooperation with Setragroup AB. Setra is Sweden?s biggest sawmilling company with a turnover of almost 6 billion SEK. 45% of the produced volume goes to the Swedish market where the customers are the DIY-sector and industrial customers. Setra as well as the other Swedish sawmilling companies operate in a very competitive environment.

For a few decades, the wild boars are established over large areas in southern and centralSweden. Where they cause problems in terms of damage to crops in the agriculturelandscape, where rooting, browsing and trampling, but also damage to the crop when wildboars chosen daily rest in the cultivated fields. Along with the growing number of wildboars the rate of car accident with wild boars has also increased.Here I examined the daily rests of wild boar (Sus scrofa) sows in southern Sweden, todetermine the factors which the wild boars sows choose for daily rest. By determining whatfactors are important in this selection of daily rests, we may be able to make managementmeasures to reduce the damage wild boars make in the agriculture landscape by attractingthem to places where they do less economic damage and accidents on roads.In this study I have examined 123 daily rest positions from 14 different individual wildboar sows fitted with GPS collared in Southern Sweden, Skåne County in Christinehof,Högestad Kronovalls estate. Data was collared over the years 2004-2006 during the periodfrom June 1 to September 30.

Until 2020, 49% of Sweden's use of energy must derive from renewable sources. Greenhouse gases must as well decline with 40% compared to 1990 as a part of Sweden's 16 environmental objectives. Biogas is part of the effort to achieve these objectives, but as the demand for biogas increases, more substrates are needed to meet the demand. The purpose is to investigate the conditions for pea residue as substrate by performing lab-scale mesophilic digestion with different fractions and notch lengths and then to summarize pea residue as a substrate for biogas production. During anaerobic digestion, 1000 ml bottles were used as reactors for digestion.