Fetma och övervikt är ett allt mer vanligt problem över hela världen och därav ökar även överviktskirurgin. Gastric bypass är den vanligaste metoden i Sverige och ses som ett redskap för viktminskning. För att bibehålla viktminskningen spelar andra faktorer än operationen en roll hos patienterna. Studiens syfte var att finna framgångsfaktorer vid en bibehållen viktminskning postoperativt. Metoden var av fenomenologisk narrativ karaktär och datainsamlingen skedde med hjälp av intervjuer.

This Master thesis discusses the development of a virtual human soft tissue object for use in exercise applications of various medical procedures.The soft tissue object to be developed shall look like, feel like and behave as living human tissue. It shall give the user a realistic feeling of weight, softness and roughness, and shall behave in a correct way for exercise purposes. The soft tissue model is to be used in a three dimensional stereo graphic environment with haptic feedback. A prototype for practicing the procedure of inserting a catheter is built. The prototype is used to evaluate the potential of the virtual environment for medical exercise applications, and to assess the realism and usability of the soft tissue object.

The forecast ability of four well-known exchange rate models for theSwedish krona is tested in this thesis. The models that are tested arethe purchase power parity, the real interest differential model, thesticky-price model and a productivity model. In addition to thebenchmark, the random walk, they are also compared to each other.They are all tested on three different horizons one quarter, two quartersand four quarters. The mean squared forecast error criteria and thedirection of change criteria are used for evaluation of the forecastability. Only in a couple of cases are the forecast ability of thetheoretical based models significant better than the random walk..

Syftet med denna studie var att uttyda faktorer som bidrar till en långvarig beteendeförändring. Beteendeförändringar är i regel svåra att vidmakthålla och forskning har visat att ett flertal faktorer krävs för att nå ett långvarigt ihållande. Exempel på faktorer var känsla av sammanhang, kunskap, självkänsla, självtillit, reflektion, medvetenhet, motivation och gruppstöd. En fallstudie har genomförts på en viktminskningsgrupp för att se resultatet ett år efter deltagandet. Fem personer svarade på postenkäterna som skickades ut i uppföljningen.

Den här rapporten behandlar ett system som använder en databas som lagringsplats för loggar. En bra metod för att hämta ut dessa loggar saknades och databasdesignen behövde förbättras för sökningar i loggarna. En applikation för att hämta och söka i loggposter från databasen skapades. En undersökning om hur databasdesignen kunde förbättras genomfördes också. Båda delarna gjordes i ett projekt för att de hörde ihop.

The Smart Grid technology has during the last decade been established as a way to create a greater flexibility on the electricity grid that will be needed as the development moves towards an increased share of renewable primary energy sources in the electricity production. One part of the Smart Grid technology is the ability to shift loads in time, to adapt to either price or emissions, known as Demand Response. This project, which was conducted at KTH in collaboration with the consulting corporation Capgemini, examines the economic, environmental and social aspects of the Demand Response technology. In the project, three household products are used in a model that derives the potential savings in costs and emissions of CO2e. The results show that the actual savings measured in SEK are small, but that the savings measured in percent can be as high as 20 percent. Reduction of CO2e emissions is slightly lower.

By comparing the experience off interaction in a life world with a drug habit and a life world without a drug habit you might find how they differ. We asked four former drug abusers in four semi structured interviews to describe their experiences off interaction under these two circumstances. The difference between the two life worlds when it comes to interaction is that in the drug abusing life world our informants describe that communicative action has to stand back for a more goal oriented action. In the drug free life world, communicative action on the other hand is experienced as the most important action. The difference is about wether interaction is goal oriented or oriented at understanding.

This thesis discusses the 2007 elections in Kenya, and its aftermath. The aim is to examine whether or not ethnicity played a major role in the outbreak of violence that followed the referendum. As well as different theories and discussions on ethnicity, I will also try to explain the course of events by using theories of increased civil violence during a democratic transition, and the fact that weak political institutions can cause violence. My conclusion is that ethnicity has played a part in the violence, but is too simple to blame the events following the election on just that. A number of different factors all contributed to the outbreak, but all to a different extent.

With the advent of powerful multimedia capable mobile phones, the market for mobile services is flourishing. Zenterio AB's Halfpipe Active Desktop is a complete distributed mobile service platform a with a powerful server and platform-independent client. The communication between the client and server takes place over a GPRS-capable mobile network. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a secure communications protocol for use between the Halfpipe Active Desktop client and server. This is done by determining requirements, analyzing candidate protocols and then by designing the final protocol.

Requirements engineering is a widespread topic in the research field of informatics. However, there is little research regarding lack of requirements documentation and how it is perceived. The same applies for how requirements engineering in retrospect can be implemented. This is a debated issue on blogs and forums but it has not been reflected in the research area.Therefore, this study concerns research questions regarding how the developers, testers and requirements analyst experience the lack of requirements documentation and how requirements engineering in retrospect can be implemented.To answer these questions, data collection has been conducted through qualitative interviews with individuals affected by this problem in their everyday work.This study has provided an explanation of how the problem is perceived and what the consequences are, both direct and indirect. The impacts are divided into three categories and are presented as, emotional consequences, system implications and consequences regarding re source consumption.

Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) is a way to graphically draw a diagram of a business process. A BPMN diagram consists of several so-called flow objects. These are interconnected in the graph through sequence  flows. BPMN models are merely graphical representations of business process and there is a need to simulate these diagrams for different purposes. The simulation that now is available for BPMN is that the model is evaluated by checking if it is correct.

In organizations today Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming a common means to try to gain legitimacy and credibility for their business. A successful CSR strategy has the potential to generate positive outcomes for a company and reaching out to stakeholders about the corporation?s contribution in the field is an important part of the work. In this study I examine how the employees at Max Hamburgare receive the corporation?s efforts within sustainability, how it is perceived and what this means to the employees.

Requirements engineering is a widespread topic in the research field of informatics. However, there is little research regarding lack of requirements documentation and how it is perceived. The same applies for how requirements engineering in retrospect can be implemented. This is a debated issue on blogs and forums but it has not been reflected in the research area.Therefore, this study concerns research questions regarding how the developers, testers and requirements analyst experience the lack of requirements documentation and how requirements engineering in retrospect can be implemented.To answer these questions, data collection has been conducted through qualitative interviews with individuals affected by this problem in their everyday work.This study has provided an explanation of how the problem is perceived and what the consequences are, both direct and indirect. The impacts are divided into three categories and are presented as, emotional consequences, system implications and consequences regarding re source consumption.

Mergers and acquisitions are common phenomenon in today´s society in order to increase shareholder value. Two years ago a fusion of Sweden´s two largest companies in the industry of real estate took place and even though three out of four mergers and acquisitions financially fail this certain case turned out highly successful. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the organizational structure and the management control have been designed and characterized the organizational performance and furthermore what are the success factors of the integration. By studying an acquisition and its potential effects on organizational structure and management control parallel to a model that describes the best practice guidelines for managers to successfully deliver value from their acquisitions, it can be shown that an acquisition has direct effects both on the acquirer and the acquired company and thus the new organizational structure. The main results, thus, is that through active leadership, increased specialization, and more decentralized and thus efficient management control a new organization has emerged consisting of the best features of two separate worlds..

För att utvärdera effekterna av psykoterapeutisk behandling av obestitasopererade finns det ett behov av psykologiska mätinstrument med goda psykometriska egenskaper. Acceptanceand Commitment therapy (ACT) är en behandlingsmetod som har visat sig effektiv för gruppen obesitasopererade. Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Weight-related Difficulties (AAQ-W) är ett formulär som används som utfallsmått i behandlingen. För attundersöka AAQ-Ws psykometriska egenskaper genomfördes reliabilitetsmätning med upprepad mätning samt beräkning av intern konsistens. Validiteten i AAQ-W testades genom samtidig mätning av mer etablerade mått samt en faktoranalys.