This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

This study examined how users interact with a smartphone while in a learning situation based on videos via smartphones as a learning tool, and how this interaction and phenomena is experienced. The five test subject were separately given the same task that they were to solve using video instructions that were picked out and given to them. After finishing the task the subjects were observed while they demonstrated how they completed the task. After the observation the subject were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The results show that the user experience of this phenomena is based on more pragmatic values than we could find in earlier studies, i.e.

This paper considers the roles of critics, newspapers and magazines, in the process ofdescribing computer games and video games as either technical objects or products intendedfor entertainment.The making and ?using? of computer games and videogames originates in small groups ofpeople possessing a lot of knowledge in computers, during a time when these kinds of deviceswere very expensive. But now, the gaming culture has grown and almost anyone in oursociety can own and play a video game. For that reason, one could ask the questions ?are thegames and the people who plays them still parts of a ?technical culture??? and ?do we needsome kind of prior knowledge to fully understand the videogame critics??The critics represent ?the official idea? of what a videogame is, how it works and if it is worthplaying.

This thesis deals with classification of the subject field history of medicine. The two classification systems SAB and NLM are compared in order to find out which one is the most adequate to organize a small collection of history of medicine. SAB and NLM are the two most commonly used classification systems in medical libraries in Sweden today. NLM classification system specializes in medicine and SAB is a universal classification system. Our purpose with this study is to find out the pros and cons of each system, whether the systems treat the subject history of medicine in a satisfactory way and what kind of classification system that is better for this assignment, a specific one or a general one.

The purpose of this essay is to study the film culture in South Africa in a national cinema-context, focusing on the relationship between anti-apartheid film from 1974-1994 and the film in South Africa today. By pitching the South Africa-specific works of Lucia Saks and Jacqueline Maingard against the over-arching debate on national cinema as formulated by, amongst others, Stephen Crofts and Andrew Higson, this study aims to find whether or not a specific South African national cinema have existed, and exists today, or not. The study finds that an underground culture of documentaries and short films made by and for the black population has been in place since the apartheid, and the distribution method on video and television is still being used to reach the black population today. By re-examining the concepts of both the national, and of national cinema to also include film on video and television, the study shows that South Africa has indeed a film culture that can be called a national cinema..

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the ways in which emotion regulation and mood affects risk taking when it comes to decision making competence. Emotion regulation is an essential part of the attachment process, the development of an autonomous self and functional stress coping systems. Research indicates that there is a relation between a distorted emotion regulation and some psychological disorders like depression, PTSD, anxiety disorders and borderline (or instable emotional personality disorder). There is a definite need to analyze the relation between emotion regulation and decision making competence since it is relatively unexplored. A digital questionnaire was distributed amongst the participants.

In the future network-based Swedish Defence (NBD), attaining information superiority will be of great importance. This will be achieved by a network of networks where decision-makers, information- and weapon-systems are linked together. As a part of the development of NBD, we have performed a study of user interface design for a future network-based tool package for analysis of sensor systems, referred to as the C2SR-system. This thesis was performed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB, Sensor and Information Networks, during the autumn 2002. A pre-study concerning the requirements of usability, trustworthiness and functionality of a user interface for the C2SR-system was performed.

Real-time systems are required to answer to external stimuli within a specified time-period. For this to be possible, the systems behaviour must be predictable. The use of active databases in real-time systems introduces unpredictability in the system, e.g. due to their use of active rules. The behaviour in active databases is usually specified in ECA-rules.

Bachelor thesis, Controller, Program of Master of Science in Business and Economics, School of Business and Economics at Linneaus University in Växjö, Sweden, Course Code: 2FE13E:3, Spring 2012 Authors: Jacob Cedergren, Adam Pettersson, Hampus SkelterwijkSupervisor: Anders JerrelingTitle: The ERP-systems impact of the management control - a case study of VIDA AB Original Title: Affärssystemens påverkan på ekonomistyrningen - en fallstudie på VIDA ABBackground: New technology has given businesses new opportunities to use and store information and the current information systems has changed the way of working in more or less all sectors and operations. ERP-systems have been one of the most important IT innovations in the past decade. The potential of a properly implemented ERP-system is great because it has got the ability to link the company?s different areas together. Despite its many advantages, there are several examples of cases where the acquisition and implementation has been a total failure.

This study has examined if importation of waste for energy recovery can reduce the climate impacts of Waste Management Systems. Using Systems Analysis this study will try to examine the complex waste systems in a systematical and strictly logical way to see how these systems interact and affect each other. Specifically examining the climate impact of waste management systems in England. The traditional way of handling waste in England is through Landfills. Land filling leads to emissions of the greenhouse gas Methane. The EU has put in place a landfill directive that is supposed to lead the member states away from land filling as a method of waste management. Today in Sweden there is a competition for the waste available for incineration. The worsening economical situation together with less product packaging and an increase in source separation leads to a lack of waste available for incineration.

This paper describes how files and information can be shared in organisations and workplaces. We studied and compared the traditional file sharing in Microsoft Active Directory and the Social file sharing that comes with Microsoft SharePoint Sites. We used qualitative studies based on interviews with system administrators, management and by our own observations to acquire the necessary data. Using independent research, we were able to analyze the data and show the general difference between the traditional and the social file sharing systems. Social file sharing enables the user to easily store and share files in a flexible online environment.

In this report statistics concerning the reliability of sprinkler systems from seven countries has been analysed. The objective of the report has been to determine the reliability of sprinkler systems in Sweden and to present suggestions on measures to increase the reliability. The main conclusion that has been drawn is that the reliability of sprinkler systems in Sweden is 92 percent according to the analysis of Swedish statistics, and that this figure finds support in statistics from other countries. Further results are that the quality of design, installation, maintenance and inspection of sprinkler has to be improved and that the Swedish incident report has to be revised..

The thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Master Flow AB, Västervik owned by the EWEBE Group. The company produces and sells hot runner systems that are tailor made for the customers.The problem that MasterFlow AB has encountered is in the construction of complex hot runner systems in SolidWorks. With several different lengths, fronts and endcaps that builds the nozzles of the hot runner systems, is affecting the problems for MasterFlow AB. The purpose of this work is to automate the design of hot runner systems so it does not overload the CAD-system SolidWorks.To gain an understanding of the problem, there have been several studies and observations at the company, where the focus has been on how the work is done with the design of hot runner systems. By using help from the corporate management, enough information has been collected to find a solution to these problems.The implementation of design automation has been based on a flowchart that was created.

When constructing a new house many questions appear, from architecture to decisions regarding installations. Sweden is situated in a cold part of the planet and questions regarding which heating system to install face everyone who decides to build a new house. This thesis describes a construction solution of a villa in Kiruna. The extended essay analyzes which heating system is most suitable for the construction. The options are geothermal, district and pellet heating systems.

 Conversation Analysis (CA) is a tool to facilitate analysis of everyday conversations. A small number of studies have used CA as an intervention for people with aphasia and have seen positive effects as an outcome of the intervention. The authors of the present study have not found any other studies where CA was used as an intervention in other target groups. The purpose of this study was to investigate if CA may be used in intervention with an adolescent who uses Bliss. The main participants in the present study, which the intervention was based upon, were a sixteen year old girl who communicates through Bliss, and her assistant.