The purpose of this thesis is to identify the factors that drive efficiency and effectiveness in technical development projects performed at A?F?s department of product development. In addition to identifying and analyzing these factors, the thesis also analyzes what needs to be taken in to account in order to implement a measurement system that is able to both monitor and control the identified factors.The thesis has been performed in a qualitative manner. It is based on interviews with people from several different technological companies, within different lines of business, all of which are customers to A?F?s department of product development.The results show that there are seven critical factors for project efficiency and effectiveness.

In this thesis we study the development of post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) in the Swedish equity market from 2000 to 2009. By forming portfolios based on the stock price reaction to quarterly reporting we show that the characteristics of PEAD have changed. We demonstrate that negatively surprising companies show a positive drift during a holding period of six months sufficiently large to render the trading strategy unprofitable. This development holds from 2005 and onwards and these results contradict many a study which finds the same portfolio construction to be indeed profitable. We argue that this development is a trend that will not only affect our study but future studies as well..

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the accessibility for persons with disabilities to service, materials, and the library building in one Swedish public library, and also to see what guides the development of accessibility at this library. In order to do this we have studied guidelines and political documents to se how this library responds to them. To our case study, data have also been collected by qualitative interviews, and observation of what this library offers impaired persons at the library?s web site, in special materials, facilities, and the functionality of the library building.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate the role of link collections in Swedish public libraries mediation of Internet resources. The study is focusing on the effects on the contents and the structure in the link collections when the target group is immigrant users. This is done through literature studies completed with an examination of two link collections containing multi-cultural and multi-lingual material and qualitative interviews with the two librarians who are in charge of the collections. The major questions raised in this study are: What function do the link collections have for the public libraries? What is the difference in working with traditional, printed material compared to the work with Internet resources? And how are the selection of Internet resources and the structure of the link collections affected when the collection is intended for immigrant users? The main results are that link collections in public libraries can give a concrete form to political guidelines.

Aid effectiveness is a reoccuring theme in the social sciences. Maybe rightfully so, as development is slow in many parts of the developing world. Core literature on the matter seems to suggest that aid effectiveness is contingent on recipients? level of corruption. Assuming this to be true, I examine the EU?s disbursements of Official Development Assistance over the past decade by running regressions: is there a relationship between the level of aid received, and a country?s level of corruption? As the EU is one of the largest donors of foreign aid globally, and has the power to shape the global foreign aid agenda, this question puts to the test whether the EU is leading the way, or rather is an obstacle in front.

I den här rapporten utvärderas ett antal olika collaborative filtering algoritmer för att ta reda på vilken av dess som lämpar sig bäst för att implementera åt PlanEatSmile i en PHP/MySQL-miljö. Målet är att hitta en algoritm som klarar av att skapa rekommendationer i realtid och med hög precision. Därtill är det viktigt att algoritmen ska kunna skapa rekommendationer åt nya användare (cold-start-problemet) samt att algoritmen ska skala väl när sajten växer.De algoritmer som undersöks är user-based collaborative filtering, item-based collaborative filtering och tendencies collaborative filtering. Samtliga algoritmer undersöks i två versioner. En version som utgår ifrån receptbetyget och en version som omvandlar receptbetygen till  ingrediensbetyg.Algoritmerna testas på data insamlat genom en enkät för att avgöra deras precision.

The study´s purpose is to investigate the underlying norms of how the concepts of language development and learning, used in the preschool curriculum. Knowledge of the concepts underlying norms can help to make visible what approach preschool teacher is expected to have to children's language, in relation to development and learning. The results of the study may in turn provide a picture of societal norms on children in preschool and a deeper understanding of the importance of preschool to review and analyze the content of the curriculum, then it is not a foregone conclusion.Theoretical basis is curriculum theory, which involves studying curricula in order to create a knowledge of a society and its cultural, social and economic demands. Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis is used as a method, in order to achieve the study´s intention and answer the questions at issues in the study. The critical discourse analysis considers that the discourse is creating the social world through language.The results of the study show that there is a language in the curriculum as normatively may influence preschool teacher.

According to the curriculum for the Swedish preschool system, children?s development and learning should be documented and analyzed in order to evaluate and develop the preschool quality. Social criticism is directed to some of the methods of documentation for assessing the children´s individual knowledge development. The purpose of this study was to examine how, what and why some teachers use documentation in preschool. I wanted to examine which methods preschool teachers used when they documented the children and what they focused on.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate how a group of academic librarians perceive distance learners as a user group. We have in our study been influenced by phenomenography, which is both a set of theoretical assumptions and a methodology. The theoretical frame of reference consists of Carol Kuhlthaus different levels of education and Michael Buckland´s information barriers. Using a qualitative method consisting of nine interviews with academic librarians and structural factor such as academic library policies, we have been able to conduct our study. The results of the study are presented in grouped categories of quotations that reflect various perceptions.

The current debate regarding organizational strategies for sustainabledevelopment is influenced by the theory of global governance. Decentralizedstructures of the global society are taken to use in the realization of a sustainabledevelopment. New roles of transnational networks and partnerships raisesquestions of the ability of global governance to co-ordinate and implement longtermsolutions without assistance from centralized and hierarchic structures basedon government. The aim for this thesis is to illustrate the current conditions forwell-functioning networks of sustainable development and examine therelationship between global governance and government. Issues of participation,decision making and compliance are examined by a case study of the Marrakechprocess, a global process to support the implementation of sustainableconsumption and production.

Tourism has been an expanding market since the first travel agency started in the middle of the 18?Th century, and today it is a global industry, with intensified competition and high demands from the customers. Product development is therefore one of the most important aspects for successful companies, and scientists also agree that the first stages in product development are the most critical. This essay is focusing on those stages, regarding product development on travel agencies, and the research question is as follows: How are new tourism destinations developed and what is the difference in working process between small and big travel agencies? The empirical research consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with two big and two small travel agencies.

In this thesis, input data for energy performance calculations on commercialpremises have been studied. In energy performance calculations, where internal heat gain parameters are unknown, template values that, in a reasonable way represent the activity in the room, are necessary. These values can be used as input data for whole-year calculations, or for calculations on shorter periods of time.The purpose of the Sveby project is to create standardized work practice in energy issues for the construction industry. The work in this thesis is conducted to correlate with the purpose of the Sveby project, with aims of contributing with information and guidelines for the continuing work with commercial premises.In this report, suggestions for template values for internal gains parameters, based on research and calculations in the field are presented. Suggestions on how these can be implemented in a user-friendly way for two energy performance calculation software are also given, VIP Energy and IDA ICE.

Den tekniska utvecklingen driver fram allt mer avancerade datorsystem. Samtidigt ställs allt större krav på stabilitet och flexibilitet i de operativsystem som ska användas på dessa system. De senaste årtiondena har micro kernel arkitekturen varit föremål för intensiv forskning och det finns idag ett flertal operativsystem på marknaden som använder denna arkitektur. Traditionella monolitiska operativsystem är relativt resurskrävande system som ofta anklagats för att sakna struktur. Micro kernel baserade system är en lösning på detta problem där man bantat ner kernel till så lite som ett tiotal kilobyte och flyttar ut tjänster som normalt ligger i kernel till user space.

Abstrakt Under vårt kandidatarbete arbetade vi under 20 veckor med att utveckla ett webbaserat spel riktat mot Facebook. Vi använde Agile/Scrum som projektmetod för vårt arbete och förändrade metoden och utvecklade verkyg för att effektivisera den för vårt syfte. Vi kom fram till att det är svårt att göra ett socialt spel och att det viktigaste i produktionen är att se till att det finns en tydlig koppling mellan spelarnas interaktion med varandra och den grundläggande spelmekaniken. Vi tappade fokus under utvecklingen och lärde oss den hårda vägen vikten av att planera realistiskt och börja ifrån grunden när man utvecklar ett spel. Spelet vi skapade använder sig av slumpässigt genererad terräng, är skrivet i JavaScript och utspelar sig i en viktoriansk miljö.

Banking systems in India is quite popular and it needs some more changes to reach all the customers. Lack of the service is main problem in Indian baking system. If the common person wants to open the account, it take?s little bit high cost and banks are not near the people location. Due to the Lack of service, people do not want to be a customer of the bank.