To achieve a working collaboration in a big, complex organization where there are vast requirements on both quality and profitability is not always an easy task. An example of this is the organization that was created in the Swedish railway industry following a series of deregulations during the past 25 years. A partial market in this organization is the railway maintenance. In order to achieve a working collaboration between actors in this organization the so-called Purchaser-provider model (PPM) is presently used for the procurement of rail maintenance projects. Previous research has shown that this market-based instrument has clear positive effects regarding the cost-efficiency but hinders the collaboration.

Skötsel av våra parker och andra gröna miljöer utgör en stor kostnad. Syftet med studien var att ta fram förslag på olika praktiska lösningar för att minimera tiden och kostnaden för skötsel av offentliga gröna miljöer och utforma dessa som ett antal råd till designers. Metoden som användes var en kombination av en litteraturstudie, där sökorden ?skötsel?, ?parkförvaltning?, ?park management?, ?low maintenance?och ?low maintenance park/garden? användes, och en undersökning där sex personer intervjuades. Det är viktigt att tänka igenom vilket mål man har med den yta som skall skötas om.

This study examines university employees? perception of their employment situation and career opportunities. By tradition, fixed term contracts are used in the Swedish research community due to dependency on insecure funding. There is a current debate that questions this use of insecure employments. The employments are said to negatively affect the university?s societal role and international competitiveness.

As the information society becomes increasingly flooded with digital images, the need for efficient image retrieval systems increases as well. To handle the vast amounts of data involved, the indexing process needs to be run automatically, using content-based descriptors extracted directly from the digital image, such as colour composition, shape and texture features. These content-based image retrieval systems are often slow and cumbersome, and can appear confusing to an ordinary user who does not understand the underlying mechanisms. One step towards more efficient and user-friendly retrieval systems might be to adjust the weight placed on various descriptors depending on which image category is being searched for. The results of this thesis show that certain categories of digital images would benefit from having extra weight assigned to colour, texture or shape features when searching for images of that category..

Context: Lip-to-Lift (L-t-L) is a bedside-method for measuring oral transit time at swallow. It was designed for a swallowing examination of persons on nursing homes where weight loss was noted in people with average L-t-L-time >5 seconds (Sandin, 2005). The measurement was validated and evaluated by Eriksson, Bremer Zerpe (2008).Objectives: The study objective was to examine L-t-L on a group of young adults without swallowing disorders and as to examine the inter- and intra-judgereliability of the measure.Questions:What is the L-t-L-time for young adults without swallowing disorders?Are there any gender differences regarding L-t-L-time?How high is the inter/intra-judge reliability of L-t-L?Method: Examination of L-t-L-time was carried out on 20 young adults, aged 19-27 years, without swallowing disorders after Sandin?s (2005) instructions. Measurements of 20 swallows per person were made.Results: The average L-t-L-time of young adults without deglutition-difficulties was 1.13 seconds (sd =.14).

This study aimed to describe children?s experience of living with overweight or obesity, by using a literature-review. The study includes eleven articles, data is from children between ages 5-15 year. The result occurring were in the areas; Quality of life and self-esteem, Social company, Body concept and weight reduction and Psychological unhealth. BMI above what is recommended gives a negative influence on quality of live and self-esteem.

The purpose of this project is to analyze earthing systems for houses. By practical measurements and theoretical analyzes consequences of possible faults, that can occur within the facility and in the low-voltage distribution network, is illustrated.  The reason for this project is that nowadays one has to arrange with a main equipotential bonding system for buildings. Apart from that, if necessary, bathrooms must be provided with a supplementary equipotential bonding system.The practical measurements verify that potential differences in facilities may be due to voltage drops in the PEN conductor between the origin of the electrical installation and the power transformer.Based on the theoretical analyzes of possible faults, it is considered that the requirement for  supplementary equipotential bonding systems for bathrooms in most cases can be questioned, when basic insulation, fault protection, residual current devise and main equipotential bonding system already provides an adequate level of protection.A PEN conductor loss may result in a situation where metallic parts attached to the equipotential bonding system starts working as earth electrodes. Equipotential bonding system may also increase the incidence of stray currents. If TN-C-S systems is provided with a local connection to earth a redundant system against PEN conductor loss is obtained.

The project was performed in collaboration with Husqvarna, one of the world?s leading manufacturer in the market of electric outdoor products. The report is a thesis work of a bachelor mechanical engineer program, in the field product development and design.The project is a study of the development opportunities within drive belt for a gear driven gearbox to one of Husqvarnas petrol powered hedge trimmers. A big part of the project was also to find combinations of materials for all components in the gearbox, to reduce weight and maintain or improve the performance of the system. Belt drive was of interest to investigate as an alternative solution to the current design that can reduce wear on the system at a performance test performed in the company before the product is released to market.

Background: People are individuals who react differently when confronted with unexpected events. To miscarry is nature?s own way of sorting out the foetuses which could never become a fully grown child. The loss can without help be difficult to handle and can impact the couple negatively towards future pregnancies. The nursing staff ought to familiarize themselves with the experience, encounter their feelings and identify their needs.

Due to higher standards of living around the world, greater industries and larger infrastructures causes an increase of the global energy consumption. This harvest of energy puts a great stress on the global environment. With this development, it becomes increasingly important to utilize energy resources in the best possible way.Fans are components that are often used in the industry and in households. A common problem is that the fan is oversized. An oversized fan causes an excessive flow, which has to be adjusted in order to achieve the correct flow.

There are several factors influencing the profitability of production with sheep. Two of the most important factors are ewe fertility and lamb survival. Also growth capacity of the lambs is important. This paper aims to review correlations between the ewe?s fertility and maternal behavior and lamb survival.

AimThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of MotVikt´s obesity-treatment program on eight severely obese subjects, concerning Body Mass Index, Waist-Circumference and Weight after three and a half months and Sense of Coherence, Body Image and Self-experienced Health after three months. The question in focus was: Did MotVikt´s obesity-treatment program have any effects concerning the factors mentioned above?MetodInformation was collected with questionnaires that were filled out by the eight subjects, three men and five women, who participated in MotVikt´s last round of treatment. Data concerning waist-circumference, weight and BMI were provided by MotVikt. The questionnaires that were used to get information about Sense of Coherence, Body Image and Self-Experienced health were SOC-29, BSQ and IQOLA SF-36.ResultatThe average BMI in the group has decreased with 2,9 kg/m2, from 39,7 till 36,8.

AimThe specific questions in the theoretic part were:What is contained in the terms "balance and balance skill" and how can this skill be measured?The specific questions in the empirical part were:How does balance skill in different age categories of children correlate with biological and physiological parameters such as age, gender, body height, weight and level of physical activity?MethodsLiterature search based on books and scientific papers related to the questions posed above. Selection was made at libraries and on?line through "Pubmed". Specific search words were used.

In this study I have compared two systems of handling TMR, self-propelled/ self loading mixers and conventional towed mixers, what has been investigated is the time for filling, mixing and feeding TMR as well as maintenance and fuel consumption. The background of this study is the structural rationalization within the Swedish milk production that has put focus on efficiency and reducing of costs. Forage and labour are the two biggest costs in milk production today. The study has been performed by visiting three farms and with a stopwatch measured the times for filling, mixing and feeding TMR. At the time for the visits, the users have been interviewed regarding maintenance and fuel consumption. They have also had an opportunity to give comments of how they experience the mixers. The result of the study after processing is that the average stock in the study can save 74000 SEK a year by reducing time for filling, mixing and feeding TMR to cows with a self propelled/ self loading mixer . The conclusion I can make of this study is that it?s not the size of the stock that decides whether it?s interesting to invest in a self propelled/ self loading mixer, but the presumptions on the farms, for instance forage logistics and mechanical equipment..

This thesis concerns the Swedish credit card market to a younger public and specifically Nordea as a card editor. The purpose is to investigate whether a Swedish bank can, and want to build long term relationships with a young public through credit cards, and if so, how they do this.The theoretical background formulated by researchers Bendapundi and Berry consists of four key factors of relationship maintenance; trust, dependency, dedication and constraint. These key factors are also assembled in an analytical framework. The empirical findings mainly consist of interviews with three employees at Nordea. They describe a recent segmentation of the bank?s customers with the issuing of a new credit card; Mastercard Silver.