This master thesis studies how much the cycle time, i.e. the time it takes for an industrial robot to perform a given task, can be reduced if an extra degree of freedom (DOF) is added to the robot system. The extra DOF consists of a linear track, which is supposed to be used in an optimal way. The problem has been studied using simulations in the robot simulation tool RobotStudio. To be able to run an optimization in Matlab, with the RobotStudio simulation cycle time as the object function, communication between Matlab and RobotStudio has been set up with an interface written in Visual Basic.

AbstractThe purpose of this essay was to examine how young people who are about to graduate from high school define and value their future. We also wanted to se which emotions they associate with their future and what or who influences them in their choices in life.The questions for our study were:What does it mean for these youths to become an adult?What images do they have of future education, profession and unemployment?What or who influences the picture they have of their future?What kind of attitude do they have towards the future?We approached the research with a qualitative method and interviewed ten youths in high school. Our conclusion was that the youths had an ambivalent attitude towards becoming adults; it was scary and yet exciting. The youths had the impression that education was important in order get a good job and to avoid unemployment.

This degree project was conducted in collaboration with Gremo AB located in Ätran.The aim of the project was to develop a solution to secure quality and to help assemblingthe locknut holding the vertical hinge on the harvesters and foresters from Gremo.At this time the nut is assembled manually by the aid of an overhead crane. The nut istightened differently from time to time, and there was no specified torque to which it istightened. Another present problem was the locking washer which sometimes getsdamaged during assembly, when this happens the procedure has to be started over fromthe beginning. The current assembly procedure is very time consuming and lengthy forthe employees.Our task was to design a machine that could tighten the nut to a specified torque with amargin of error of ± 3%. The assembly procedure will be held simple and the timerequired at a minimum.The project started by developing several principle solutions, the one solution that bestmatched our specifications were developed to a primary solution.Today we have started manufacturing and assembling our prototype.

This study examines the state of criticism in the arts section of Sweden?s largest newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The study stems from raised concerns about the failing position of arts criticism, dubbed ?the crisis of criticism?. Through an overview it compares the arts section of February 1997 to the arts section of 2007.

Essay means attempt, and is a paper written based on self-experienced dilemmas, which the writer then returns to, reflect upon and discusses on the basis of literature and accepted theories. In this essay, I reflect upon my own professional role as a leisure-time pedagogue. The leisure-time pedagogue must provide activities that in different ways relate to the curriculum 2011. I have therefore a responsibility to influence the students' desire for knowledge. Focus of learning is different from the one in school, with an emphasis on informal learning.The dilemma is that I am unable to do any pedagogical work at the museum because of many conflicts.

There is much literature covering strategic change under different circumstances but very little concerning how companies act strategically under sudden and radical changes to market conditions. Based on three different events (the terrorist attack in the USA September 11th 2001, the Tjernobyl accident April 26th 1986 and the Islamic revolution in Iran 1979) with such radical changes as a result we chose three companies that were affected (SAS, Asea Atom and Atlas Copco). The result of the events that were studied in this thesis is extremely unusual to their character. The events themselves were sudden and of a temporary nature but the results were long term changes of market conditions. Through personal interviews the authors have tried to establish how the companies have perceived the events and how the top management has strategically handled the situation.

The aim of this study is to increase knowledge and understanding of free play or free fun time importance for children of age around five years in preschool, in order to promote children?s development and learning. The focus was on exploring and better understanding of teacher?s and educators? approach to the free fun play time as a tool in their educational work, and also about their own role in this context as well as analyzing of forms, rules and structures spontaneously created by groups of children having free play fun time. Another important moment of this study was to give more light on approaches to this issue in education theories by Piaget, Vygotsky and Freud among others.As to the practical experimental part of the study it has been performed at a preschool and kindergarten in a suburb at the outskirts of Stockholm, with four employed educators there and with groups of children of age around five.

AbstractThis thesis examines and discusses a sample of the medieval hypocausts (stone-heating ovens) in the Baltic area. The medieval construction is thoroughly explained as well as the antique hypocaust in order to establish a base for the following discussion. The medieval hypocaust has been almost forgotten for a long period of time. The last time someone dealt with this category of finds were in the 1960?s by Swedish archaeologist Iwar Andersson and in the 1970?s by Danish archaeologist Johannes Hertz.

Patients who undergo surgery receive general anaesthesia or any form of conduction anaesthesia during the operation. For most people it is strange, unexpected and for many something completely new to be a patient and undergo surgery. Awake conduction anaesthetic patients? experiences from the intraoperative period were little studied. The purpose of this study was to examine awake conduction anaesthesia patients? experiences.

The automotive industry is a highly competitive market characterised by low profit margins or huge losses. Cost reductions have been of top priority for all OEM?s (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and will continue to be so for many years to come. Beside cost reductions, reducing the time-to-market is of greatest importance to stay in the competition. OEM?s that are slow to market with products that neither matches customer expectations nor the products of their competitors, will soon loose market shares and see their economical performance falter.

Milk and milk consumption has been subject of discussion for a long time, and is still a hot topic. Recently, as study was published that observed a correlation between milk intake and increased risk of fractures and mortality. The authors proposed the milk?s content of D-galactose as the possible mechanism, since D-galactose is used indicated ageing in animal models. Therefore, this study aims to develop a method to determine the amount of galactose, glucose and lactose in milk and fermented milk and apply it on to dairy products on the Swedish market.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the underlying causes for the opening of Karlstad Public Library. In doing so a theory based on the actor/structure model within social theory is used. The structures and actors are intertwined and therefore need to be analysed together. To do so the theory poses a series of questions that needs to be answered. The method used is document analysis.

This paper presents an analysis of history textbooks used in schools in Sweden and Norway. The intention of the research was to study how the history textbooks describe communism and communistic dictatorship mainly during the cold war. The result of this study is that there were no big differences between Swedish and Norwegian history textbooks, but there are, however, some differences in how communism was described between the authors and also over time. Mostly, the books that were written in the post cold war period were somewhat more critical to communism in the eastern Europe (even thought they mainly handled with Stalin´s communism. And they also set quotationmark between Stalin´s communism and the nazi terror during World War two..

Alice Lyttkens (1897-1991) was a very popular author in Sweden during several decades in the middle of the twentieth century. She was most famous for her historical novels. During her first period as a novelist in the 1930s, however, she wrote contemporary fiction, reflecting the situation of contemporary Women. The traditional view of the two sexes as ?complementary? permeated the interwar period.

In 2010 mandatory audit was revoked for small and medium sized companies in Sweden. At the same time the authorization for accounting consultants was established with the aim of raising the knowledge and status of the profession. Even though The Swedish Companies Registration Office has discovered more errors in the accounting after the mandatory audit was eliminated, it especially concerns those companies who does not have neither an auditor or an accounting consultant. One of the reasons often mentioned to be audited is the auditors role when it comes to lending decisions. Our empirical studie show that the auditors most important function, being unbiased, is not what is of greatest importance for the credit institutions.Instead it was professional skills, and for small and medium enterprises (SME) it was consulting they requested the most.