AbstractLean production has become one common concept within industries to make the work more effective and to meet today?s hard competition. A challenge for Chinese production is the threat from new low cost countries. It will become very difficult to succeed to produce to a lower cost than these countries; this led to that Chinese companies must develop new strategies, according to Lee and Zhou (2000). This will put China in front of new challenges and new strategies can be needed to retain their strong competitive advantages.

The reception and the study of the novel Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima has ? as always with the novels of Yukio Mishima ? focused on the writer himself according to his spectacular way of life and death. Opposite to the studies and the reception, this master thesis focuses on the novel itself by following two more or less hidden traces in the novel: the protagonist Kiyoaki and his attitude to responsibility and dreams. This examination deepens the novel, by showing how the mechanisms of its inherent complexity work. It has been made by freely applying Roland Barthes´ method ?rewriting the text?..

The craft of planners are planning for a better future. Knowledge about climate change, environment, health and availability effects the trend towards less car dependent societies in favour of public transport and active transport like walking and biking. This study takes place in Västerbotten, one of Sweden?s most north provinces with a population of 260 000 inhabitants. It is a sparsely populated area with two dominant cities, the other municipalities are largely unpopulated.

The purpose of my study is to investigate whether luck egalitarianism can be savedfrom its inability to draw a line between risks which can reasonably be expected to beavoided, and risk which can not. Such a demarcation is of particular importance forthis influential theory of distributive justice, since it serves to judge whether a personis entitled to compensation for a bad outcome of a taken risk, or not. Testing theintuitiveness and coherence of various contending principles for how to separateavoidable risks from unavoidable ones, I conclude that luck egalitarianism seemsunable to draw a clear line between the two kinds of risks. Instead the theory appearsto be dependent on conceptions of a 'normal life', making it remarkably vague.Furthermore, I argue that luck egalitarianism seems unable to manage without takingsufficientarian and utilitarian concerns into account, for the purpose of decidingwhich risks are avoidable, and which are not..

AbstractThe intention of our study was to examine the meaning of home of elderly women and men and how they experience their getting older. We also wanted to see how elderly women and men experience to receive home-help-service in their own home. The study was based on qualitative interviews with elderly women and men. The informants were five women and four men between the ages of 60-84 years. They all had everyday help from the home-help-service.

In this thesis I have chosen to study the use of crowdsourcing in Swedish archival institutions as well as the influence this methodic platform has on the work of modern archivists. This also raises the question whether the nature of the platform is in any way influenced by the attitude working professionals might have towards crowdsourcing as a legitimed working method. This investigation is based on case studies and interviews with archivists from select Swedish institutions and also the methodology of two now ongoing crowdsourcing projects.The theoretical framework on which this composition is based comes from the work of Gregory Asmolov and his work on crowdsourcing platforms and their functionality as tools of governing. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is applied to analyze how the method of crowdsourcing is utilised by archival institutions and influenced by their daily routine in conjunction with Governmentality as the chosen way of studying how these platforms might control their users.From the results of the performed case studies, two discourses emerged based on the view on quality concerning gathered information amongst the involved subjects. The first of these discourses places it´s trust and faith in users themselves where validity is of a lesser concern than the actual availability of information through the concept of ?wisdom of the crowds?.

The aim of this study is to have a deeper understanding about the motivations and the obstacles of an immigrant?s language learning. I have studied the problem with focus on integration and language learning. The study is principally based on deep interviews with Turkish immigrants. I have studied the question by means of a socio-cultural perspective of learning; Mead?s conceptions I, Me and the generalised other; Scheff?s conception, the social bonds and Freire?s conception, dialog and Asplund?s conception social responsiveness.

This report evaluates whether normal approximation or resampling is to prefer for estimating the distribution of the sample mean and functions of the sample mean. The evaluation relies on simulation studies. The observations of the sample are allowed to be differently distributed. In the case of sample means they are also allowed to be dependent.For sample means the two approximations behaves very similar. The most important component whether we have a good or a bad approximation is how good the approximations catch the variance of the true distribution.

This essay deals with development in Latin America. We have picked out some factors that the theories in development theory emphasize on. The first section of the study consists of a statistical analysis, were the main purposes are to study the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent and to choose which two countries we should focus on in the next section. The countries we decided to study were Costa Rica and Nicaragua, because these countries have shown very different levels of development. From this study we have concluded that political stability, economical investements and human investments are the most important factors when creating development..

Hur en text ska utformas och förmedlas om man vill att den ska bevaras i minnet hos mottagaren och vad som väcker emotioner är frågor som den här studien vill söka svar på. Ett bekvämlighetsurval har använts och deltagarna har läst och lyssnat till olika texter. Efter varje text besvarades en enkät. Resultatet visar att utförandet av text och uttryck är beroende på om vi ska läsa eller lyssna till den. Vidare har ett samband mellan upplevd emotion och upplevd minnesförmåga noterats.

Purpose:        The intention of this study is to distinguish if there is a correlation between mutual funds administration fee and their return. The study will also observe if there is a difference regarding the return between active and passive management fees.Method:        The study is founded on a deductive approach because the study is based on existing theories. Quantitative research based on statistical data has been used. A correlation analysis has been applied to determine if there is a correlation between the chosen variables.Conclusion:   The conclusion of the study is that active management of funds mainly do not give a higher return than passive management funds. Neither is the administration fee dependent on the risk a fund has..

 The current estimations in regards to the increase in environmental threats underline the importance of influencing individual behavior towards a more sustainable lifestyle. At the same time current trends show an increasing interest into ecologically produced foods around the world and that the consumption has seen a major rise in the 20th century. It is therefore of great importance that companies show their interest and commitment in order to offer and influence the consumer into choosing the environmentally sustainable alternative. Also, in order to properly reach out to the consumers, it is of outmost importance to map out their attitude towards these types of products. It is equally important, in order to fully realize the potential of successful positioning, to show an understanding for the underlying decision processes that dictates purchase.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether or not tattoos have an impact on perceived customer satisfaction. We constructed an experiment where a service worker's physical appearance was manipulated. Our result indicates no significant impact of tattoos on customer satisfaction. However, the thesis succeeds to replicate previous findings on the links between physical attractiveness, attitude and customer satisfaction, and creates a ground for further discussion on the subject of tattoos in a professional environment..

In this study the authors have explored the new phenomenon Web-TV and what attitude young adults in Stockholm have towards this media and the applied advertisement. Further the study includes search outs of other studies for the authors to draw parallels to compare their result to be able make conclusions. Finally, Web-TV is discussed how the commercial on Web-TV could be developed to be as responsive as possible regarding the consumers..

Hur en text ska utformas och förmedlas om man vill att den ska bevaras i minnet hos mottagaren och vad som väcker emotioner är frågor som den här studien vill söka svar på. Ett bekvämlighetsurval har använts och deltagarna har läst och lyssnat till olika texter. Efter varje text besvarades en enkät. Resultatet visar att utförandet av text och uttryck är beroende på om vi ska läsa eller lyssna till den. Vidare har ett samband mellan upplevd emotion och upplevd minnesförmåga noterats.