Steam was used as a site preparation method to eliminate unwanted bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) in the boreal forest. The efficiency of steam to suppress bilberry was compared with prescribed burning and cutting the bilberry. Different combinations of steaming and/or cutting the bilberry were set up to investigate in which way steaming and cutting influenced the sprouting and regrowth of bilberry. The regrowth of the bilberry vegetation was monitored for 40 month. Steam was most efficient in suppressing bilberry.

With the end of the Cold War the number of conflicts where the United Nations have intervened has increased dramatically. This has entailed a need for a burden-sharing between the UN and regional organizations regarding management of conflicts. The aim of this study is to make a comparative analysis of the effectiveness and the efficiency in the efforts undertaken by ECOWAS and the UN during the civil war in Sierra Leone, through using theories on conflict resolution and the advantages of regional organizations in conflict resolution.My conclusion is that both ECOWAS and the UN were quite successful in managing the conflict and had an impact on the resolution of the war, although both peace operations suffered from internal problems. ECOWAS was effective in managing the conflict and in its mediating efforts as an insider from the region. The UN was more efficient in managing to attain their goals.

The Smart Grids development is driven by forces concerning safe electrictransmission done in an energy efficient way. Vattenfall Eldistribution AB has a visionto transform their electricity network into Smart Grids. To invest in Smart Grids theyhave a need to show their customers what advantages they will get from thedevelopment. This led to the formulation of this dissertation project where the aim isto identify products and services related to Smart Grids that will increase thecustomer satisfaction for Vattenfall Eldistributions private customers.The project started with a mapping of existing products and services on the Swedishelectricity market. From the mapping several development possibilities for VattenfallEldistribution were identified.

Due to an increasing global market with a growing competition and an escalating technologydevelopment the demands on companies today are increasing. To maximise the output fromtheir recourses they need to be more efficient. The research on product development and how toensure the efficiencies in the process are extensive and companies could by adapting andimplementing the result of this research use its benefits.This master thesis is made for Knightec AB with the aims that through interviews anddiscussions with three companies investigate, collate, justify and give proposals for productdevelopment process together with supporting methods and procedures for technical projectmanagement. Besides Knightec AB three other companies located in Sweden has beenparticipating in this study. Through semi structured interviews and discussions in focus groupsinformation from the three involved companies were obtained.

The relatively new phenomenon of daily deals has had an amazing explosion of growth during recent years. The concept relies on offering deeply discounted products and services that a number of customers must buy in order to acquire this discounted service. Companies spend valuable resources on marketing to get customers but the effects of daily deals on the brand do not have empirical evidence. What is the customers' attitude towards companies that communicate through daily deals How is their intention to buy from that company affected This is what is the main purpose of this study. To examine how customers perceive a company, in terms of attitude toward the brand and buying intentions, when the company markets through daily deals compared to more traditional promotion.

With increased milkproduction in our dairy cattle, comes a risk for a reduced fertility. Studies performed on animals and humans have shown that it is possible to manipulate the oestrous cycle through exposure to pheromones. This means that pheromones could potentionally be used to make reproduction more efficient. To evaluate the bioactivity of the substances in question, there is need for a bioassay. In insects, pheromones can induce a changed cardiac activity.

This project was started within the Market-Design programme of Elforsk, with the aim of developing representative test systems of Swedish distribution networks. Using such test systems as a basis for reliability and customer interruption cost calculations makes it feasible to analyse the network tariff regulation of Swedish power  istribution companies. In particular, it enables studies of the incentives for companies to invest in system reliability. Until now, the available test systems are either not representative of Swedish conditions, or too small in scale and limited in function.Within this project we have created two test systems. In order to represent the diversity of actual Swedish distribution networks, we have created one test system for urban environments and another for rural environments.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är utvärdera Deloittes avdelning Clients & Markets aktiviteter, det vill säga deras strategiska åtgärder och definierade arbetsområden, efter hur viktiga de är i förhållande till varandra för Deloittes framtida framgång. Metod: För att nå vårt syfte tar vi hjälp av intellektuellt kapital-teori, innovationsteori och Corporate Entrepreneurship-teori. Vi delar in aktiviteterna i fyra olika kategorier av intellektuellt kapital; humankapital, strukturkapital, kundkapital och innovationskapital och utgår från denna uppdelning när vi sedan i avgör, tillsammans med information om Deloittes vision, vilken av aktiviteterna som är viktigast för Deloittes framtida framgång. I analysen använder vi oss av vår egen modell, The IC Inventory Model. Uppsatsen är av kvalitativ och abduktiv karaktär.

n this dissertation a comparison of two evolutionary methods for evolving ANNs for robot control is made. The methods compared are SANE with enforced sub-population and delta-coding, and marker-based encoding. In an attempt to speed up evolution, marker-based encoding is extended with delta-coding. The task selected for comparison is the hunter-prey task. This task requires the robot controller to posess some form of memory as the prey can move out of sensor range.

A growing issue in the construction industry is how production can become moreefficient by using logistical solutions. Companies can minimize the cost of a project byreducing the time to perform the work.The purpose of this report was to examine the logistics related to pipe trenches forSIAAB. The report's focus has been on solving problems and planning that wouldfacilitate the work of the project Vaksala-Lunda Etapp 3.The case study consists of interviews with SIAAB's employees and an observationwhere the progress of a traditional pipe trench has been documented using checklists.Questions to the report?s case study come from the theoretical part, which is basedon literature on construction management and logistics in general. The observationlasted five weeks and the biggest time-consuming events that affected the pipe trenchduring this time, has received most attention.

AbstractThis research is about pre-school children?s conceptions of the river and the water environment. The aim of this study was to apply a new teaching method based on the outside learning, as well as to test the method and see if it works, i.e. if children get more knowledge this way compared to ordinary methods like teaching in the class-room which involves showing pictures and discussion of them.The main questions in this study were how children get new knowledge through outside learning and how effective this learning method is, i.e. how much they noticed and learned about the river and the water environment as a result of that outside observation.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att utvärdera Swedbank Markets aktieindexobligationer, SPAX, och ta fram optimala portföljen över de senaste tio åren. Den ska även fungera som ett bidrag till debatten kring aktieindexobligationer. Metod: Denna studiens huvudsakliga arbete bestod i att samla in och bearbeta den stora mängd data som krävdes för dess genomförande. Ett arbete som bedrevs genom olika databaser och över Internet. Därefter användes den teoretiska referensramen som tagits fram för att utföra beräkningar på dessa data, vars resultat sedan även sammanställdes och analyserades.

The essay is written at the request of Nyköping municipality park management by PatRadestedt who wanted a design proposal for one of the five courtyards at the Tessin Schoolin Nyköping. The Tessin School is located 2 miles from the center of Nyköping and the schoolhouses approximately 900 students. To make a design proposal for the courtyard that lies atthe canteen I decided from the outset that I wanted to take some of the Tessin SchoolStudents' opinions and wishes regarding their own outdoor spaces. I had a workshop witheight students from the arts program with the image orientation in which they had to drawand tell them what they wanted to do in the courtyard. The outcome of the workshop, Iused to move forward in my future work with a concept that fit into the environment, wethen apply it in my final design proposal.

The post-modern western city is going through two central changes in the organization of paid labour. One is the switch from production of goods to production of services, and the other is the increasing rift between well-paid labour with permanent jobs, and temporarily employed workers with low wages. Both of these processes are rasified and gendered, and strike harder against women, young persons and people of emigrant background. The flexible capitalism creates an informalization of the economy, breaking with earlier regulations of the labour markets, in which workers also need to find informal strategies in their individual and collective struggles. In this paper, I search for these ?new? experiences of living and working in late capitalist society, by doing open interviews with three women of Latin-American origin, working without official permission (without documents) in the informal economy of Stockholm.

This thesis aims to examine how the quality of data that is entered into and retrieved from a corporate group's ERP and Data Warehouse systems can be improved. The corporate group has already taken several measures that will improve the quality of data. For instance the corporate group has updated and merged the previous ERP systems into one. At the same time the corporate group adjusted the settings in the updated ERP system, so that it will be harder to register incorrect data in the ERP system. With regards to the processes and routines, the studied department has efficient written routines and processes.