Background: The importance of creativity and innovation is frequently stressed in modern literature on management. The significance of innovation gives entrepreneurs the reason to prior to the commencement of a relationship with a venture capitalist, obtain necessary insights regarding the influences such a relationship may have, in terms of innovation. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to scrutinise the influence of venture capital firms on their portfolio companies regarding their ability to be innovative. Delimitations: The intent is to study the impact of a venture capitalist from the viewpoint of its portfolio companies. In other words, what the portfolio companies have perceived as changes is our main area of concern, rather than what the venture capitalist has perceived as change.

This thesis examines if commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) systems meet the needs in different types of organizations. This was investigated through a case study of a COTS system. The system is built for contact centers and used in different types of organizations. Contextual inquiries with users from six different organizations were held together with interviews with stakeholders of the system. This gave an understanding for how the system is used and the needs to be met in the different organizations were recognized.

Pharmaceuticals are environmental pollutants that are a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and very little is known about their ecological consequences. In this study growth, survival and behaviour (sociability, activity and boldness) of perch fry (Perca fluviatilis) were examined in order to study the possible effects of exposure to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug, Oxazepam, during embryonic development. The study tested following hypotheses: (1) perch growth is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; (2) early perch survival is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; and (3) boldness and activity increases while sociability decreases in perch fry exposed during embryonic development. Embryos of naturally spawned perch were exposed to water with two different concentrations of Oxazepam. The embryos were exposed during different parts (24-hour periods) of the embryonic development, because embryos may be more vulnerable at certain times during embryonic development and/or because the exposure at different times can produce different effects.

The purposes of this literature review were to study how nurses use intuition in health care, how these experiences are described by nurses and if you as a nurse can learn how to use your intuition. We also want to make nurses attentive of and give them the courage to use their intuition. The study is addressed to both nurs-ing students and practicing nurses. The method is a literature review based on nine scientific articles. The results implicate that nurses use their intuition to know how to do something, when additional measures needs to be done and which measures they are.

This study examines in which way literature is presented in four schoolbooks for the Swedish senior high school of today, compared to descriptions and selections in Swedish universities. The study covers two basic schoolbook categories used in the teaching of Swedish and comparative literature: anthologies and textbooks.The four anthologies structures and their joined canon are presented, and the text canon of 12 common writers is studied and compared to the corresponding text canon in the universities selection of texts to main courses in comparative literature. The four textbooks are analysed by close reading of the presentations of four different writers and their works, where the textbooks for the Swedish senior high school are viewed through the glass of literary guides used in Swedish universities.The study also analyses what literary perspective is present in the Swedish school principles for education in literature and display, through earlier didactic studies, a sketch of the classroom reality of education in literature.The study finds that the examined schoolbooks for the Swedish senior high school tend to, not only shorten the text length and amount of texts but also, simplify the selection and presentation of the writers production. This leads to certain fixed and, in some cases, almost stereotyped ?roles? that are assigned to the writers and limits their production.

Peat litter has been used in animal houses for a long time. Because of its good ability to absorb liquid and nutrients from the manure it can create a dry surface for animals and a valuable manure product. Through changes in agricultural practises the use of peat litter has diminished and is to a great extent replaced by straw, sawdust and cutter shavings although Sweden is rich in peat-findings. The aim of this work was to summarize the presented knowledge about the used of peat litter, techniques, advantages and disadvantages and to compare with other commonly used litter materials. Articles on peat litter have been searched for in magazines, databases and books at SLU library. Visits to peat industries, interviews with peat producers and with peat researchers contributed to the material. Peat is not a uniformly material.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how professionals, who work with psychosocialproblems among children, look at the impact of social factors on behavior that causes ADHDdiagnosis and at the relationship between social factors and the increased diagnosis that hasoccurred in recent years. To answer our purpose, we chose a qualitative approach byinterviewing six professionals who had different professional affiliations. We analyzed theresults using systems theory and attachment theory. The results showed that the professionalssaw various social factors that influenced the behaviors that cause ADHD diagnosis, particularlytroublesome growing environment and the school environment that requires greater cognitiveability and social skills of children today. They also saw that social factors could have an impacton the increase of diagnoses, particularly that the diagnosis can result in that the understandingchanges and that it is considered easier to get extra support at school with a diagnosis..

The study concerns the history and development of hospitallibraries in Sweden in the beginning of the 1900 century.Focus is on the 1930 decade, the time of major expansionof the area. The study is based on study of literature, mainlyfrom articles but also from a few booklets from the time.The purpose of the study is to find out how the librarieswere described in the literature of the time and which goalsand tasks they had. It is also to make it possible to increaseunderstanding of the history of hospital libraries, using it asan inspirational source for development of today´s businessin a time of major change. The result of the study showsthat those goals and ideas are still valid and serve well as aninspirational basis for development of today´s hospitallibraries..

The study aims to reduce energy consumption in apartment buildings where individual metering and charging of heat is applied. The aim is to develop planning and design for individual metering and charging in apartment buildings.The study is based on literature review, interviews and case study that include analysis of existing documents. Interviews were carried out with the property developer and the involved consultants who planned the apartment building Yasuragi. To investigate the differences the condominium association has noted in heat consumption between flats, the debit values of the heat were used to discern which houses that were furthest from the average consumption. On these flats there were temperature measurements and thermal photo shoots made for discriminating behavior and possible construction techniques which could be the explanation for the heat spread.Boverket shows that the consumption of heat can be reduced by 10-20% after insertion of individual metering and charging in an apartment block.

In Sweden in January 2005, there is only one producer of organic broilers and none of organic turkeys. But there are, on the other hand, a few small-scale producers whose housing systems to some extent are similar to what is stipulated in the organic standards. The aims of this work are to investigate what housing systems are used by the Swedish small-scale producers of broilers and turkeys, what main challenges they are confronted with and if there is an interest and a possibility for a change-over to organic production. For the first part of this work a literature study was performed with the purpose of detecting the main health problems in conventional as well as smallscale production. A special focus was on coccidiosis and leg weakness as those were considered to be of particular importance. A study was made of Swedish small-scale poultry production units. In two groups of broilers from the same producer and in three flocks of turkeys the level of Eimeria oocysts in faeces and litter was investigated.

Background: Heart ischemia is a disease affected by behaviour, lifestyle and heredity. The disease is more common in the western world and the number of those who suffer increases. The mortality has reduced thanks to that medical resources and knowledge have approved. Purpose: The purpose of this study of the literature was to find out what patients experienced emotionally at an acute heart attack. Methods: A study of literature where scientific articles has been refereed and analyzed, then resulted into five categories presented in the result.

The background for my thesis is the fact that with rising electricity and oil prices it becomes interesting to calculate on alternative heating systems. I have chosen to calculate upon my parents? farm, which today heats the dwelling house with wood. This is very time-consuming work, time which could be spent on other work. The main objective for this study is to compare three different heating systems to decide how they differ considering effort and cost. The result from the calculations was that grain-heating system demanded the least amount of work, but the total cost was a little higher compared to chips heating. Chips heating required half as much work as today?s wood heating and had a little lower total costs compared with the corn heating. Which system to choose largely depends on how the own work is valued.

Holmen Skog is currently using a GPS-program called TraktInfo, originally developed within the company. They are now planning to switch to a new GPSprogram or allowing the contractors to buy other programs available from the logging equipment manufacturers. To be able to offer this flexibility, Holmen Skog needs to obtain information about the features offered by the different manufacturers in their specific programs, and also when the manufacturers are planning to start selling programs adapted to the new standard called StanFord2010. According to the study, the manufacturers are hesitant to StanFord2010 and there has also been a lack of clear signals from the customers and clients about what kind of different new features to include in the programs. The feature most frequently used by forest machine operators today is the option to keep record of the harvester?s path by creating a ?log plot?. This feature was not used to its full potential however, since only one out of eight of the forwarders included in the study had computers that were compatible with the harvester?s computer.

The purpose of this study is to the increase knowledge and understanding of the meeting between children with Arabian as native language and a Swedish school library. The study is made as a qualitative investigation built on interviews with eight-year-olds and eleven-year-olds. Only the childrens needs and views are considered. The study is centred on twelve key issues and aims to document the childrens thoughts and views of reading as well as their reading habits and their use of the school library. Through the childrens own words their evaluation of reading and literature, their abilities to assimilate the text and their de facto use of the books can be known.

Most often when developing a new system there is a need get a functioning testtool up and running. Including time, cost and resources the solution isn?t always obvious, developing your own or buy one ?of the shelf?. The purpose of this thesis is to study how a general testtool for executing functional tests should be designed to be reusable, be based on recognized knowledge and be able to fast and simple be customized for different types of systems. Key functions from the litterature is presented and used in the design of a testtool prototype.