Research where personality in animals is studied is becoming more and more common. In this area there are different concepts like behavioural syndrome and animal personality and they usually talk about consistency in behaviour over time and situations. This consistent individual behaviour can be used as an indicator of how individuals can handle and adjust to new situations in the environment. Because of this, personality studies in animals are very important in animal welfare. In this study personality in dairy cattle in lose housing were studied.

This bachelor thesis examines the relation between countries? degree of economic freedom and their economic performance. Economic freedom as a concept is defined as the degree of market economy within a nation.The variable of measure that is used is the Frasier institute Economic freedom of the world index (EFI). The paper is built upon the Solow growth model and is extended by incorporation of additional variables; among which of course economic freedom. The study is performed through regression analysis, based on the neoclassical model both on rich countries, poor countries and on all investigated countries.Two investigations are performed: i) the impact from economic freedom on countries level of GDP per capita and ii) the impact from economic freedom on the growth rate in GDP per capita.The finding is that economic freedom can be seen as a relevant determinant of differences in GDP per capita growth rates between nations.

One of the biggest changes which have affected businesses during the last ten years is the accelerating speed at which Internet technology and e-commerce has developed. If Internet earlier was used in the purpose to entertain it is now accepted as an essential business tool and companies are investing more of its resources in e-commerce activities. Everyone ?has to be on the net? today but that implies a challenge in matching e-solutions to the company?s business goals. It is necessary to have clear goals, carry out research and plan a strategy in order to operate an optimal e-commerce website for the company?s needs.The purpose with this dissertation was to see how well companies adjust to new demands in the rapidly changing e-environment.

This paper deals with institutional and structural factors' influence on democratic transition in limited multiparty regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Comparing the cases Kenya and Tanzania, of which the former has made a transition to democracy and the latter has not, this paper reaches the conclusion that political traditions, the coalescing of the opposition, and the elites ability to learn from the electoral process is essential for a transition to democracy. In the specific cases, the harshness of the Moi regime and the Tanzanian vision of national unity may possibly carry some explanatory power, alongside the pressure from international actors.These results have been reached through the application of a comparative case study, where democratic transition constitutes the dependent variable. It should be noted that a harsh definition of the term transition has been applied, according to which the incumbents actual loss of an election is a necessary indicator for transition. However, the Freedom House and Polity scores have been brought up as complement of this definition.

The objective of this study is to examine the sustainability of recovering industrial wasteheat from several heat sources in a foundry constructed in a plant belonging to ITT Waterand Wastewater in Emmaboda, Sweden. A triple bottom line perspective will be appliedto achieve this objective. The triple bottom line approach takes into account ecologicaland social performance in addition to financial performance. The technology forrecovering the waste heat is a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) which is aconstruction consisting of 140 vertical boreholes, 150 meters deep with an internal spaceof four meters.The calculated amount of energy for storage is approximately 3800 MWh annually. Ofthis amount 2500 MWh are expected to be utilized, while storage losses accounts for theremaining part.

As a result of global competition, companies within the automotive industry are required to improve their production systems to achieve sustainable and competitive production. To attain operational excellence, companies have adopted concepts like lean and World Class Manufacturing (WCM).In order to deliver, companies need to increase the availability and reliability of production equipment. This demands focus on both operational and strategic maintenance, and efficient equipment acquisition and management. The main objective of this thesis is to identify processes and success factors that are necessary for improved maintenance performance. By conducting a case study and by performing a literature review, the following has been studied: 1) how companies within the automotive industry work with maintenance and maintenance strategies, 2) implementation of maintenance strategies, and 3) new acquisition and spare parts management for maintenance. The results show that basic maintenance concepts and related terms are well defined in the literature.

More efficient energy consumption is essential to secure a sustainable future, not least within the building and real estate sector which answers for approximately 40 % of the EU countries total energy consumption. One part of EU: s work to reduce the energy consumption is the directive on energy performance of buildings which among other things have lead to stricter demands on energy performance in new and renovated buildings.One of the difficulties with making buildings more energy effective is that it often demands big investments and although it results in lower operating costs the extent of these savings and therefore also the repayment time can be difficult to decide beforehand. To make it interesting for property owners and also tenants to invest in energy efficient buildings powerful incentives are needed. Favorable loans to energy efficiency projects are one example of governmental instruments that have been tested in other European countries with good results.Reduced operating costs appear to be the main incentive for property owners to make their buildings more energy efficient. The best result of an energy efficiency project is usually achieved by cooperation between property owners and tenants but in order to make that interesting it is important that both parts can profit from the savings.

This study aimed to explore how 31 collage students' cognitive performance and their ability to create false memories were affected by the exposure of an extraneous background noise. The studies main hypotheses were based on previous research on how extraneous noise affect the cognitive ability and the creation of false memories: 1) that an extraneous background noise increases the ability to create false memories, 2) that an extraneous background noise impairs the learning of cognitive information, 3) that an extraneous background noise contributes to an increased representation of fictional words, 4) that an extraneous background noise impedes the ability to understand speech . The results showed a tendency in which false memories increased in the condition without background noise, a result which goes in the opposite direction of the hypothesis. Furthermore, the result supported the hypothesis that the extraneous background noise impairs the learning of cognitive information. The results also showed that there was no effect between the conditions regarding the representation of fictional information.

Abstract Integrated mental training is a method that entails a systematic and long-term training of mental processes (thoughts, images, emotions) that aims to enhance performance as well as gratify feelings and improve thought processes. This training develops an alternative system of control by using substitute state of consciousness and self-hypnosis. The method is concerned with both mindfulness and performance approaches, which is crucial in order to feel and function better. The intent of this study is to highlight the experience of the different steps of integrated mental training to gain an understanding of how, where, and when changes occur. To achieve the objective of this study, a qualitative empirical method was used.

The aim of this study is to examine the perception of work of young men and women. A central problem that the study focus on is how young men and women value work, what do they expect to get out of work, and what are their experiences of work. The study also examines what work value and work mean for them. Eight young men and women between the ages of 22-25, currently working in different field, were interviewed. The individuals interviewed had different educational backgrounds.

Bakgrund: Prestationsmätning syftar till att implementera ett företags strategi. För att lyckas med det krävs tillgång till relevant information för att ta rätt beslut. Nya alternativa organisationsformer som shared service centres har lett till en ökad efterfrågan på ny anpassad ekonomistyrning. En förfrågan om att utvärdera P2P-processens prestationsmätningssystem på IKEA AB, Finance Services ledde till utvärderingsstudien.Syfte: Syftet med utvärderingsstudien är att utveckla en modell med dimensioner, för att analysera prestationsmätningssystem på shared service centres. Analysmodellen kommer appliceras på P2P-processen inom IKEA AB, Finance Services.

The purpose of this study is to conduce to the understanding of what challenges the HRdepartmentfaces in the work with the psychosocial work environment in nonprofit organizationsin Sweden. A particular focus in the study is on how the certain features of the nonprofit sectoraffect and tend to contribute to these challenges. In both Swedish and International research thereappears to be a lack of studies that deal with the psychosocial work environment in the nonprofitsector, which is one of the main reasons for this study. International research show, among otherthings, that employees in this sector have a higher degree of work satisfaction than in othersectors. Especially, they value the sense of making a contribution to the society, to get feedbackon their work performance as well as they expect a high level of co-determination.

Abstract Integrated mental training is a method that entails a systematic and long-term training of mental processes (thoughts, images, emotions) that aims to enhance performance as well as gratify feelings and improve thought processes. This training develops an alternative system of control by using substitute state of consciousness and self-hypnosis. The method is concerned with both mindfulness and performance approaches, which is crucial in order to feel and function better. The intent of this study is to highlight the experience of the different steps of integrated mental training to gain an understanding of how, where, and when changes occur. To achieve the objective of this study, a qualitative empirical method was used.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) has been claimed to be the single most reliable indicator of firm growth and has gained wide adoption among companies in a broad range of industries. This is despite a lack of rigorous scientific testing. The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive strength of the question "How likely are you to recommend [.] to your friends and colleagues " that the metric is based on: how well does it actually predict future consumer behavior Furthermore, the report aims to create a greater understanding of the factors that explain a person's word of mouth (WOM) intention and which behaviours cause that intention to change. A longitudinal study was conducted of 304 consumers' WOM intention regarding two non-carbonated drinks and their subsequent WOM and purchase behavior. The analyses show that the behaviors are captured by the metric to some extent.

The purpose of this essay is on the one hand to study Sub-Saharan Africa from a comparative perspective to analyze different explanations to democratization and on the other hand to compare the democratization of the most interesting cases found. To fulfil the purpose, the essay is divided into a quantitative and a qualitative part. The quantitative part starts from four different theories of democratization and thus has a deductive theory testing approach. We intend to use four theories: the modernization theory, the theory of stable institutions as a prerequisite for democratization, political culture and ethnic diversity as an obstacle for democratization, to test how they correspond with the democratic situation in Africa, and at the same time find deviant cases. The second part of the study takes its start from an inductive perspective and examines institutions and citizens of the deviant cases.