Quality Assurance in Service Procurement --- Total Quality and Total Quality Management refer to popular management philosophies in organizations these days. The purchasing department has an important part in the strive for organizational quality as several studies show corporate spend is significant and increasing. In this master thesis I study the actions companies take to ensure quality in service procurement. I argue that managing quality when sourcing services is particularly tricky, because of the special characteristics that belong to services. The purpose of the study is to examine whether different actions are taken to ensure the quality of different kinds of services.

Today?s media consumption and viewing behavior has led to an expansion in the marketand resulted in a media convergence. The competition gets fiercer with each player andthe outcome for the linear TV channels has to be to change in some way. This is aqualitative interview study with producers at Sweden?s leading children channel?Barnkanalen?, how they experience the adoption to this new media landscape.

This thesis describes a system for dealing with free surface fluid simulations, and the components needed in order to construct such a system. It builds upon recent research, but in a computer graphics context the amount of available literature is limited and difficult to implement. Because of this, the text aims at providing a solid foundation of the mathematics needed, at explaining in greater detail the steps needed to solve the problem, and lastly at improving some aspects of the animation process as it has been described in earlier works. The aim of the system itself is to provide visually plausible renditions of animated fluids in three dimensions in a manner that allows it to be usable in a visual effects production context. The novel features described include a generalized interaction layer providing greater control to artists, a new way of dealing with moving objects that interact with the fluid and a method for adding source and drain capabilities..

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att få en bild av hur eleverna ser på motivationen under matematiklektionerna, samt om eleverna upplever någon skillnad mellan låg- och mellanstadiet i matematikundervisningen vad gäller motivationen.I bakgrunden presenteras motivation utifrån några olika definitioner. Olika begrepp inom motivation så som inre och yttre motivation, prestationsmotivation och flow beskrivs samt att tre olika teorier belyses.Studien är gjord i Kalmar och sammanlagt har 23 elever intervjuats, 11 elever från årskurs 3 och 12 elever från årskurs 6.Resultatet visar på att det är olika faktorer som inverkar på elevernas motivation men att det framförallt är elevernas inre motivation som påverkar. För att eleverna ska uppleva matematiken mer motiverande krävs dock att det används mer praktiska uppgifter så som spel och lekar i undervisningen. De elever som medverkade i undersökningen upplevde att matematiken är mer motiverande på mellanstadiet då uppgifterna är mer utmanande och eleverna ser en användning av matematiken i det vardagliga livet..

This work studied the information flow and information handling among different parties. The study focused on how educational materials on national tests from The Swedish National Agency for Education is managed by school principals and teachers and how the information is passed on to students. The data material was based on observations and interviews at two different high schools. Six teachers and their classes and principals participated in the study. The Agency was also interviewed.

Dagvatten kallas det regn- och smältvatten som rinner av från hårdgjorda ytor i stadsmiljön. Detta vatten för ofta med sig stora mängder av föroreningar som tungmetaller, näringsämnen och oljerelaterade ämnen, vilka kan göra stor skada om de når recipienter. För att rena dagvattnet och därmed minska föroreningsbelastningen byggs det allt fler öppna dagvattensystem som t.ex. våtmarker och dammar. Studier har visat att dessa system har hög reningseffekt och dessutom är de kostnadseffektiva.

Climate changing is a growing problem for many countries and communities over the world. The cities has a huge work to deal with in their reforcements of their cities to be resilient ones. This thesis makes an effort to investigate and illuminate some of the problem the cities has to solve related to flooding, hazards, erosions, rising sea levels and crotches. This thesis will help to find solutions that international and national efforts has produced and handed out to each other. A lot of communities are charing their excellent tools that works for them.

This study has examined how social media has changed food companies way of holding contests. The study examines how food companies use contests with the help of social media and how they used to do the contests before the use of social media. We have also researched the users behaviours and opinions of companies contests on and outside of social media.In this study we have interviewed four people responsible for contests on the social media department on their respective food company. We also performed a survey that was published on Facebook and followed it up with interviews from two of the participants.This study has showed that contests on social media, as a technical aspect, have given new possibilities for the design of the contests. But there are still some unexplored areas around contests on Facebook and the companies do not know exactly what the users are demanding.

Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att ur ett patientperspektiv, belysa upplevelser av möten mellan patient, sjuksköterskan och vården på akutmottagningen. Data till litteraturstudien insamlades via databaserna Cinahl och studiens resultat bygger på 11 artiklar från tre länder som publicerats år 2000-2010. Resultatet i litteraturstudien visade att sex faktorer återkom; Respekt, kommunikation, kunskap och kompetens, tillgänglighet, helhet, och kontinuitet. Resultatet visade att patienter upplever en bristande respekt från vårdpersonal. Kommunikationen uppgavs ofta bristfällig eller inriktad på, för patienten icke relevanta saker.

FlexRay is a new communication protocol which is fast, reliable and flexible and therefore can meet the increasing demands on data communication in the vehicle industry. The protocol is developed by an industrial consortium containing among  others BMW, Daimler Chrysler, Motorola and Phillips. Today (May 2009) Hägglunds is using CAN for data transmission in their systems. CAN is getting obsolete and has difficulties in coping with the increasing flow of communication. In this report FlexRay and its communication capacity is studied.

The object of this essay is to discuss the relationship between the definition of the concept of gender equality and attitudes towards gender equality and their consequences for gender equality measures. The point of departure is feminist political theory and interviews about attitudes towards gender equality at a department at the University of Linköping. The conclusions of this study is that there are a wide range of definitions and attitudes, and these conceptions are not necessarily the same as those being pointed out in the official gender equality policy at the University of Linköping. In this study the opinions of measures for gender equality among the interviewed are widely spread. Some finding Swedish men and women already being equal and therefore there is no need for measures, since this would result in discrimination of men since women would gain advantages from being women.

This paper describes the development of a simulation model for the ambulance flow in the Västra Götalands-region of Sweden, and an analysis tool for the output of the simulation model. The aim of the simulation model was to be able to evaluate the outcome from changes in the ambulance operations, such as a reorganization of ambulances or an increase in intensity of the ambulance calls. This evaluation is meant to serve as decision support for the strategic planning of the ambulance operations. The analysis tool was developed to visualize the abundant geographical data produced by the simulation model in a meaningful way. The simulation model was validated against historical data which showed that the dispatch time for the highest prioritized ambulance calls corresponds well with historical data.

The purpose of the master thesis was to reflect and analyze music library activities and policies in the public libraries in the area around the city of Borås, in the south-western part of Sweden. With this thesis I also wanted to look at the interaction between the public libraries, the music school and the music associations in the same area. To investigate these matters, qualitative method was used in the form of interviews with seven librarians from seven different libraries and five representatives of different local music organizations. Other methods used were observations and source studies. The literature used discusses the role of the music department of public libraries as well as that of a music librarian working in a public library.

Syftet med föreliggande litteraturstudie var att beskriva hur sjuksköterskan upplever sitt bemötande av alkoholpåverkade ungdomar och sin kunskap om alkoholprevention. Studien belyser även påverkande faktorer till ungdomars alkoholkonsumtion. Metoden var en beskrivande litteraturstudie. Två undergrupper identifierades och 16 artiklar granskades sammanlagt. Resultatet visade att sjuksköterskor ansåg sig vara i behov av mer alkoholrelaterad utbildning för att kunna bemöta patienter på ett tillfredsställande sätt.

Titel: E-learning - en form för kompetensutveckling? Författare: Emely Andersson Helena Någård Handledare: Anders Nilsson Institution:Institutionen för Ekonomi och Management Blekinge Tekniska Högskolan Kurs: Magisterarbete i företagsekonomi, EFE 610 Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att kartlägga de faktorer som ligger till grund vid valet av e-learning som kompetensutvecklingsform samt vilka olika verktyg av e-learning som finns. Metod: Insamlingen av data har skett genom både personliga intervjuer och e-mail intervjuer med företag som använder någon form av e-learning i sin verksamhet. Vi har också varit i kontakt med sakkunniga som har erfarenhet av e-learning för att få ett bredare perspektiv på området. Slutsats: Slutsatsen vi har dragit är att det beror på flera olika faktorer om e-learning passar in i företaget och varje företag måste utvärdera dessa faktorer. Genom att titta på olika företag har vi hittat vissa gemensamma faktorer hos dessa företag. Huvudfaktorerna som har störst betydelse för om e-learning passar in i företaget är personalen, kostnaderna och vilka kunskaper det är som skall förmedlas.