The ability to tackle NP-hard problems has been greatly extended by the introduction of Metaheuristics (see Blum & Roli (2003)) for a summary of most Metaheuristics, general problem-independent optimisation algorithms extending the hill-climbing local search approach to escape local minima. One of these algorithms is Iterated Local Search (ILS) (Lourenco et al., 2002; Stützle, 1999a, p. 25ff), a recent easy to implement but powerful algorithm with results comparable or superior to other state-of-the-art methods for many combinatorial optimisation problems, among them the Traveling Salesman (TSP) and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). ILS iteratively samples local minima by modifying the current local minimum and restartinga local search porcedure on this modified solution. This thesis will show how ILS can be implemented for MSA.

This thesis consider alternatives for heating and cooling planned office buildings at Arlanda airport. The thesis is divided into three parts where the third part is a shorter synthesis of the two first. In the first part the energy demands of the buildings are modelled in a computer program. Two different building models are created, one more conventional and one with good energy properties. The results shows that with proper construction and ventilation systems etc.

This report is about logistic efficiency in companies without own production. The authors have interviewed employees working at two companies, Telias store in Skärholmen and Orion Diagnostica AB. The purpose of the report is to find out which logistic functions the two companies are using to create efficiency.Today?s markets are more global. Different parts of a product can be made in different parts of the world.

This thesis is a cultural theoretical case study of the art project (O)önskad samhällsförbättring.Via an analysis of the project, that is based on theories of power, resistance and contemporaryurban development, it examines the construction of urban space, its impact on public art including the ability of art to initiate evolvement of the urban public space.The last decades art has plaid an important role in what is called the creative city; to become attractive nodal points of the global economy, larger cities increasingly invest in art,culture and creative industry. Simultaneously the urban public space is limited to activitiesand expressions of art that are presumed to create economic growth. This introduces animpression of what is allowed and what is not allowed, possible and not possible, wished andnot wished which, as a consequence, evolves the public space. The events during the artproject and the reactions that followed enlightened these limitations. This tells a story, not only about the structuring process of the local urban space, but also important changes that are created as a simultaneous effect at different levels in society, as well locally as globally.

Aim: The nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, raised global criticism against nuclear power. In Sweden, the criticism has not been very visible and the government now allows a renewal of the nuclear power plants. The purpose with the study is to have a closer look on how Swedes in position of power motivate their positive attitude to nuclear power and how they conduct themselves to each other and to their opponents. The rhetorical perspective will be in focus for the analysing.Method: Four different artifacts represented by Swedes in position of power having a positiveattitude to nuclear power were chosen. Three rhetorical theories (the rhetorical arena, stasis andethos, pathos and logos) were used with the research question in focus.Result & Conclusions: The analyses resulted in conclusions about the strategies used by the participants such as: the importance of contexts, meaning for example that the greenhouse effect legitimizes nuclear power as a source of energy with important benefits.

The trend of social media is a global hit and now both individuals, businesses, celebrities and politicianshave their own social media pages, which means that the visibility increases and focus lies on what'swritten and published by the person. Mediated communication are everywhere around us and affects theway we communicate with each other and also the way we look at ourselves and most importantly how weportray ourselves. The individual's perspective has become a relevant issue with the rapid moderndevelopment. One's cultural identity can be seen as a life-long project.The purpose of this paper is to do an in-depth text analysis to examine how Swedish politicians constituteand construct identities, with a focus on "the self" and the "mediatization self" on the micro-blog Twitter.The theoretical ground for this study is from a discourse analysis point of view that focus on ?the self? andthe ?meditization self?.

The democratic conditions in national states have change radically at the same time as the society has changed. Because of social and economic globalization processes, the states and government has lost power for the benefit of transnational and global institutions. That affects the democracy since the nation state earlier defined the domain of citizenship. At the same time, citizens? confidence towards political parties and politicians has gone down.

This study deals with sustainability reporting in three governmental and three non-governmental Swedish companies in different industries. With increasing demands from the society regarding company?s CSR - Corporate social responsibility, the perspective of accounting gets broader and covers even non-financial information to meet not only the owners? demands but also others stakeholders' requirements. Sustainability has become an important tool for creating company?s business value and a positive sustainable external image.

The goal of this paper is to find out how solar cells can improve energy efficiency on-board M/S Sydfart. The paper is based on a number of energy measurements on board the M/S Sydfart. The solar surface is calculated by measuring the available space for installing solar panels. Global radiation data is taken from STRÃ…NG's database, the data is then used to calculate the theoretical power produced by the solar cells. Energy efficiency is analysed in two ways.

This qualitative study involves the implementation of Lean and Kaizen methods in a Swedish service industry. Lean philosophy is based on a method to achieve more with less. In practical terms this means that the use of an organization's resources is improved. The origin of Lean is the Toyota Production System. Now, Kaizen methods give managers and employees a better more efficient system to reach their goals within the organization or company.

Inom det företagsekonomiska ämnesområdet har Johanson och Vahlnes Uppsalamodell sedan 1970-talet varit en dominerande teori vad gäller företags internationaliseringsprocesser. Enligt denna teori bör företag gradvis expandera internationellt och inhämta kunskap om utländska marknader innan en expansion genomförs. I kontrast till denna har på senare år Born Global, en teori som ifrågasätter Uppsalamodellen, vunnit mark. Detta då det har blivit allt vanligare att företag redan initialt expanderar till avlägsna marknader utan att inneha den kunskap som Uppsalamodellen förespråkar. Då Uppsalamodellen fokuserar på vinstdrivande tillverkande företag är syftet med denna uppsats att analysera Uppsalamodellens relevans i förhållande till de icke vinstdrivande tjänsteorienterade hjälporganisationerna Läkare Utan Gränser och Läkarmissionen, vilka kan anses vara exempel på Born Globalföretag.

The purpose of this study is to examine the medial depiction of Muslims in the case of Pastor Terry Jones' intention to burn the Quran. Our study is based on theoretical framework regarding an alleged clash of civilizations, how that leads to global conflicts and controls the world politics. It?s also based on the western way of characterize Muslims as violent, irrational human beings, and how mass media have a tendency to depict Muslims as ?the others?. The questions we aim to seek answers to are: How were Muslims portrayed in CNN's and Al-Jazeera's reporting regarding Terry Jones plan to burn the Quran? Which discourses exist about Muslims in each news channel and what are the main differences between them? The qualitative method used is a critical discourse analysis on empirical data consistently of twelve articles.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att göra en jämförelse mellan studenter som läser det första respektive det sista året på socialpsykologiskt program på högskolan i Skövde ideras attityder mot hemlösa och tro på att världen är rättvis. Ett ytterligare syfte var att ta reda på om det fanns ett samband mellan attityder mot hemlösa och tro på att världen är rättvis. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten i uppsatsen var perspektivet socialkognition, med relevanta begrepp som attityder, stereotyper och fördomar samt Lerner´s teori (1980) om tron på en rättvis värld. Metoden som användes var kvantitativ och utfördes genom två enkäter; Attitudes Toward Homelessness Inventory (Kingree & Daves, 1997) och The Global Belief in a Just World Scale (Lipkus, 1991). Den statistiska bearbetningen skedde med hjälp av statistikdataverktyget PASW Statistics 17.

The global wood pellet market has seen a rapid growth after the adoption of the Kyoto protocol and the renewable energy incentives created within the European Union. The global consumption of wood pellets reached 13,5 million tonnes in 2010 and several experts estimate the consumption to be between 35-50 million tonnes by 2020. These forescasts raise the questions which regions that can supply this vast amount of wood pellets and what the conditions are for producing it. This study evaluates the conditions for wood pellet production and export from British Columbia, on Canada?s west coast, focusing on existing industry structure, raw material supply and the distribution chain.

The concept of vulnerability is the capacity or the sensitivity to become damaged. Vulnerability are characterized by one or more of the following terms; a system´s sensitivity to exposure to shock, stress or interference, the state of the system in relations to a threshold of damages, and the system´s ability to adapt to the changing circumstances. Vulnerability in this study is referring to the sensitivity of the circumstances that lead to sustainable livelihood that can´t be maintain and that there is an inability to cope with and manage stress. The choice of making a study in this area is based on that action needs to be taken to moderate the vulnerable aspects of society, in this respect in relations to storms. Analyzes of the social vulnerability to climate change or natural events is needed for effective actions.