Abstract.The levels of dioxin and comparable substances rose to a large extent in our environment during the second half of the 20'Th century. This was the result of the synthesis of, and careless usage of these substances in cooling fluids, hydraulics, pesticides etc. Background levels of dioxins and furans in sealed samples prior to this era suggest that former sources of these substances existed. Salt glazing is a method of adding a smooth acid resistant exterior to stoneware ceramics. The technique has been in use since the 16'Th century, maybe even earlier than that.

Debate over Intellectual Property Rights ?IPRs? particularly patent and copyrights is mainly on forward-looking industries in computer software. As part of a trade deal reached in 1994, the member nations of the World Trade Organisation must adhere to a global agreement known as TRIPS, for the Trade- Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights.This study is to analyse the ethical conception of Intellectual Property Rights and in particular its implications on the developing countries in relation to TRIPS. The approach will be to analyse a broad philosophical theories of property to see if there is any justification for a software program to be treated as private property and also argue base on John Rawls two principles of justice in relation to TRIPS Agreement. Some reflections will be put on the use of open-source software by less developing countries.From the study it was asserted that, strong IPRs protection would hinder technological transfer and indigenous learning activities in the early stage of industrialisation when learning takes place through reverse engineering.

This is the project of making a stage design for Batboy ? the musical, a cooporation with a network of musical artists. The aim of the project was to create a space on stage that strengthens and expands the experience of the story told, and find design solutions that give an extra dimension to the story. The prerequisites for my work were partly defined from the produc¬tion, as were my limitations. In the cast of ten artists some were to play more than one role, often one of the opposite sex.

Background: The dependency on knowledge and competence today is more critical than earlier. Today, companies need to put more effort into identifying and filling knowledge gaps, which can be achieved through mergers and acquisitions. It is important that the companies succeed in coordinating their operations after this process of change. Out of a theoretical point of view it can be argued that companies need to balance between different coordination mechanisms that result in standardized and flexible coordination respectively. Purpose: The purpose of this Master Thesis is, in the context of a merger, to investigate and analyze which coordination mechanisms that are used in knowledge-intensive companies, how these coordination mechanisms are combined and what explains the chosen combination.

Background: Human beings have been living in the city of Gothenburg for thousands of years. The city was founded in the year 1621. During the years, it went from being an industrial city to later on, a city of events, education and business.Purpose: The purpose of this investigation is to find out what makes Gothenburg a good city for professional meetings and what should a good professional meeting include.Questions at issue:Why is the city of Gothenburg an attractive alterative for a business traveler?What makes Gothenburg a magnet for professional meetings?What elements should be included in the meeting?What can the meeting organizer do to achieve a wow-meeting?Method: The Authors have used a qualitative method where primary and secondary data have been useful. In this paper the authors have done personal, electronically and phone interviews to be able to answer the stating questions in the best possible way.

The purpose of this master thesis is to show how a chosen actor in form of the Swedish union organization IF Metall (the Swedish union for metal- and industrial workers) works with pro-reading activities. The project being scrutinized is the Read to me dad-project which aims at fathers who are not used to reading activities within the LO-group (the Swedish Trade Union Confederation). The methods used are interviews and literary studies. The theoretical background of my discussion is based on three education ideals. The neo-humanist ideal emphasizes the personal improvement through literature.

The Arctic region appears as a pristine remote environment, yet there is increasing evidence that it is greatly impacted by pollution such as lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg). In this environment deposition of Hg has increased threefold since the last industrial revolution. In this study five cryosolic soil profiles within non-sorted circles (NSC) in the Abisko region, northwest of Sweden, has been analyzed to improve our understanding regarding how pollutants are distributed within such type of soil. The soil samples have been analyzed with the use of X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF), for the measurements of the total concentrations of e.g. lead (Pb) and zirconium (Zr).

This thesis work includes studies and simulation how magnetization of the translator in a linear generator for wave power can be automated. The translator is the moving component in the generator that is "dressed" with permanent magnets. The translator is magnetized with rectangle-shaped permanent magnets that are today's strongest permanent magnet type of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB).Eight equivalent metal sheets are mounted around the translator. The plates have milled tracks where 106 permanent magnets per sheet are mounted. Today the assembling of the magnets is done by hand, which is a very tedious and time-consuming work.  This project presents investigations about the automation of the translator magnetization theoretically and simulation results are preformed in ABB's robot simulation software RobotStudio. Even robot-held tool was designed that enables the robot to be able to magnetize the translator in a simple manner.  The investment cost is roughly 1.5 million SEK. With an economic life-time of five years, the investment costs are estimated to 24000 SEK / month.  According to the calculations, this project is very motivated to implement, as it provides savings up to 17 000 SEK per translator which is 10.2 million SEK assuming that the robot cell is operating at full speed the whole year.According to this thesis work the result is a 4x9 meter cell with two industrial robots of the type ABB IRB6650S.The cycle time to magnetize one translator was calculated to about 10 hours.This prototype of project can possibly be implemented in a full-scale production line and performed according to the calculations and simulations presented in the report. Further work is suggested to improve the tool.Lyssna .

Background: Companies and organizations of today spend large amounts of money on IT-based business solutions. Such business solutions normally include business- consulting and software-creation (IT-related services). Due to the rapid development of the technology within this field of business the IT-customers find it difficult to select among potential suppliers on objective grounds.Purpose: To increase the understanding for the professionl approach of the people involved in the sales- and purchase process of IT-related services in a business-to-business context. The study is taking the buyers'as well as the sellers'perspective into account when analyzing the process. Method: The empirical findings were collected from eight companies in Linköping and Stockholm.

The acquisition process as an object for research and empirical studies have increased in importance during the past decade. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate this process further. This was done by reviewing previous research covering the area of mergers and acquisitions. Seven key factors that should be considered in an acquisition process emerged; acquisition project management, planning, communication between the acquirer and the potential target, goal alignment within management, company-cultures, a trade-off between a certain speed in integrating the companies and consideration of the employees, and finally the follow-up. These factors have been shown to increase the likelihood of value creation in acquisitions.

Enligt statistik föreligger det en högre frekvens av tonårsfödslar i detta specifika brukssamhälle i jämförelse med en närliggande mellanstorstad.  Det existerar ofta en speciell bruksanda i brukssamhällen där arbete många gånger föredras framför utbildning. Uppmuntrar denna mentalitet till att skaffa barn i ung ålder och vilken betydelse och påverkan har mödrarnas ålder vid barnafödande? Skapar tonårsmammorna sin identitet genom att reproducera mödrarnas livsstil? För att ta reda på detta har fem tonårsmammor blivit intervjuade och fått lämna sin livsberättelse. Intervjufrågorna var uppdelade i tematisk ordning för att få en följsam berättelse. En professionell person som är anställd i en stödgrupp på orten har blivit intervjuad för att få en nyanserad bild av tonårsmammornas situation.

The vision of this thesis was to create a concept that can be used as a base for amachine construction. The purpose of this project was to use different methods todevelop a concept that on the best way meets the sat up requirements. This projecthas been divided into three stages/parts; principle, primary and the final solutionstage.This thesis has been conducted in collaboration with Västkustägg AB. It is aconstruction project designed to construct a machine that will automatically putlabels on the egg packages. Västkust AB wanted to automate this process.

This examination work is performed at the institution of industrial economy and production at Jonkoping technical university, for JELD-WEN Door Solutions plant in Forserum.Today the focus in the company is on to reduce their inventories binding of capitals as well as inventory of products and that includes to get a good control of the supply and handling of material which is of great importance.JELD-WEN Door Solutions is one of the worlds leading producers of windows and doors and the head-office is located in Oregon, USA.A great number of wooden doors are manufactured by the company in varying of constructions, classifications and performance.The production of the plant in Forserum has a project- and customer focus manufacturing where only internal doors are produced. The overall market they are concentrated on is to different institution such as schools, hospitals etc.The purpose of this work is to investigate possibilities to improvement of material- and production control at JELD-WEN. The report will handle the master production schedule to and from the production divisions within manufacturing industry. Focus will be on the way for information- and material flows from arrival, transport within the company and further on to customers.Further a map of the flow was performed which gave a clearer picture of the connection between the flow of information- and material for the manufacturing process. On the basis of the mapping of the flow, the group discovered that the flow of material had some improvement potential.

En fungerade erfarenhetsåterföring leder till effektivare och lönsammare processer. Det är isynnerhet viktigt för Skanska och Ikeas industrialiserade bostadskoncept BoKlok, där sammatyp av arbeten ständigt upprepar sig. Skanska har ett verktyg för erfarenhetsåterföring somde kallar Normallägen och beskriver olika arbetsmoment i text och video. Arbetet pågårmed att utvidga innehållet för Normallägen och i dagsläget finns inga för markarbeten inomBoKlok.Syftet är att undersöka hur erfarenhetsåterföringen fungerar idag och vad som fungerarmindre bra i projekten. Finns det erfarenheter som kan användas som underlag till framtidaNormallägen.Arbetet bygger på intervjuer, litteraturstudier och information från Skanska och BoKloksintranät.Resultaten visar att den erfarenhetsåterföring som sker idag oftast är muntlig mellanarbetsledningen på olika projekt och där kunskapen är personrelaterad.

Uppsatsens syfte var att studera industriellt köpbeteende för branschen för prefabricerade trähus. En teoretisk studie har därför genomförts där köpsituationer och dess påverkan på köpprocessen, köpbeslutsgruppen samt kriterier för val av leverantör studerats. Datainsamling har skett genom telefonintervjuer med tre av Sveriges fyra största byggföretag, intervjuerna har genomförts med personer med god kunskap när det gäller inköp av prefabricerade trähus på dessa företag. Resultatet av vår uppsats visar att den den vanligaste köpsituationen för företag som köper prefabricerade trähus är nya köp men att det även förekommer direkta återköp främst genom avrop på ramavtal. De personer som ingår i köpbeslutsgruppen är initiativtagare, användare, köpare, influerare, beslutsfattare och informationsbevakare, vilket överensstämmer med teorin.