The Department of Forest Products and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has received means from Vinnova for a preliminary study of the organisation of logging work of today and how a better logging organisation should be brought about. This thesis reports results from qualitative interviews with nine forest machine contractors regarding the situation of their companies. The interviews have been analysed with respect to the genesis of the companies, which tasks they perform or that they could consider perform-ing, business relationships of the companies, relationships between the different partners of the companies, and the state of competition experienced by the contractors. The companies have developed either from the contractor previously being machine operator employee or from that the contractor in making has owned a machine and needed work. Their primary business is mechanised logging.

StoraEnso decided in year 2002 to build a pulp mill in the province of Guangxi, southernChina, and also establish eucalyptus plantations to provide it with raw material. By 2010StoraEnso controls about 90 000 of planned 120 000 ha, out of 75 000 ha is already plantedwith Eucalyptus.By using better genetic material, improve the tending, selecting the sites more careful and byusing a proper fertilization regime StoraEnso hopes to increase the mean annual incrementfrom today?s 25 m3/ha, on bark, to 35 m3/ha. This study is one part in this work to increase themean annual increment in the plantation.This master thesis is the forth in a series, that has followed up a fertilization trial that startedin spring 2006 when the trial was laid out and treatments decided. The aim with the trial is toexamine the production potential of Eucalyptus urophylla in Guangxi, southern China.

Mapping a process enables a greater understanding of the work, and is standard to evaluate and improve a process. This thesis is conducted at Test Bed Mechanical Design at Scania in Södertälje. Test Bed Construction is a complex process, characterized by a large amount of creative work, technical challenges and coordination between different people and different organizational functions.The aim of the thesis was to identify the Test Bed Construction Process and to develop a visual model of the workflow that also served as support for the engineers in their daily work. During the mapping process, comparisons were made with previous research in lean product development to identify process improvement.A literature review on process mapping and process visualisation resulted in a method for process mapping. The study showed that research on process visualisation is neither structured nor well defined.

Bakgrund: I dagens samhälle har varumärken kommit att spela en allt större roll för såväl konsumenter som företag. Varumärken fungerar som en ledsagare i individers sökande efter identitet och samtidigt som en gemensam nämnare eller tillhörighetsfaktor inom olika subkulturer. Företag kan med hjälp av symboliska värden sända ut signaler som stämmer överens med olika individers värderingar och på så sätt attrahera konsumenter och samtidigt ringa in en önskad målgrupp. Dock kan även det motsatta inträffa, det vill säga en annan grupp än den tänkta målgruppen kan komma att adoptera ett företags varumärke och göra detta till en del av gruppens image.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera och åskådliggöra hur en subkultur kan påverka det symboliska värdet av ett varumärke.Genomförande: För att uppnå syftet har det verkliga fenomenet hip-hopkulturens adoption av varumärket Adidas valts att empiriskt undersökas. Detta utifrån kvalitativa intervjuer gjorda med respondenter från hip-hopkulturen så som bland andra gruppen Latin Kings och Infinite Mass, tillsammans med personer från företaget Adidas, samt analyschefen på MTV Nordic Networks och radioproducenten Stefan Wermelin.Resultat: Denna undersökning visar bland annat på att en subkultur kan påverka det symboliska värdet på ett varumärke genom att inte enbart ta till sig de symboliska karaktärer varumärket står för, utan även överföra subkulturens värderingar på varumärkets image.

In today?s World is climate change an important and hot topic. Climate scenarios for Sweden show a warmer climate, especially during the autumn, winter and spring. The same climate scenarios also show that the precipitation will increase during this part of the year, however, during the summer the opposite is expected to occur. The purpose of this essay is to examine how future climate change will affect Stockholm especially the expected increase in precipitation, which may lead to a rising level of the Lake Mälaren. During 2000/2001 was Stockholm hit by a flood. This flood nearly resulted in major consequences and showed that there were significant risks for the city of Stockholm and increasing precipitation will result in even more water in the drainage systems of Lake Mälaren. The results presented here show that it is important to increase the drainage capacity of Lake Mälaren in order to reduce the risks of flooding in the central parts of Stockholm.

Syftet var att med en enkätstudie undersöka om det fanns någon upplevd skillnad mellan två produktionsflöden inom stålindustrin gällande arbetsrelaterad stress och tillfredsställelse. Val av flöde baserades på sjukfrånvarostatistiken då flöde 1 hade en högre korttidssjukfrånvaro än i flöde 2. Studien syftade även till att undersöka om det fanns någon mätbar skillnad mellan yngre och äldre arbetstagares arbetsrelaterade stress och tillfredsställelse.Resultaten visade en signifikans för delmåttet rolltydlighet där de äldre deltagarna skattade rolltydligheten högre än de yngre deltagarna. Resultaten visade också signifikans för arbetstillfredsställelse för delmåtten belysning, ljud, smuts och temperatur där deltagarna i flöde 2 var mer nöjda än i flöde 1. De yngre jämfört med de äldre visade sig uppleva mer psykosocialt stöd och deltagarna i flöde 1 upplevde sig ha en högre grad av autonomi än deltagarna i flöde 2, äldre deltagare upplevde sig även ha en bättre autonomi än de yngre deltagarna.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how customers, by interacting with each other, can communicate and create the image of a brand. We find this topic to be relevant since there are no previous studies conducted concerning the customers influence on the brand image. Our ambition has been to describe in what ways and to what extent the customer can affect and influence the brand image by communicating with other customers. To fulfill our purposed we have targeted three important questions which are:? In which ways can the customer affect the communicated image of a brand?? To what extent can the customer influence the brand image and the perceived value?? Who has control over the brand, the customer or the company?For this study we have used a qualitative approach in which we have conducted eight personal interviews with brand consultants and the editor of the magazine Dagens Media which has given us the foundation for our analysis.

The debate on the future of Nuclear power in Sweden has increased with the discussion on global warming. The uncertainty of fossil fuel- and carbonprices the latest years has aroused considerable interest in Nuclear from power companies, industry and politicians. Nuclear power plants have negligible CO2 emissions and are not directly affected by increased price of emission rights and fossil fuels. The future power production needs to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases to become sustainable. The purpose of this study is to examine the value for power producers to have the option to invest in Nuclear power and how a Nuclear power venture would affect future electricity prices. The study uses two methods, a traditional cash flow model and real option analysis, to estimate the value of Nuclear power.

The ability to handle potentially dangerous and hostile situations on a military vesselrequires that the equipment works effectively with the personnel that use it. It is importantthat this equipment can be used by different people. An operator on a military vesselshall be able to handle information about hostile threats, navigation and the steering ofunmanned vehicles. A operator console should therefore be constructed in such a waythat the operator can handle a large flow of information. And the information given bythe technical system should be displayed correctly to facilitate the operators ability tohandle and interpret the information correctly, in order for the operator to make thecorrect decision at any given moment.

The survival of hatchery reared smolts is generally low after release. To get a better understanding of what variables affecting migration success, Atlantic salmon smolts were studied during their out-migration in the old river channel in the lower part of river Umeälven. The area consists of shifting habitat and complex structures which causes difficulties for smolt on their migration out to sea. The aim of this study was to try to determine the effects of feed restriction, fin conditions and different physical barriers in the river, on the migratory behavior of Atlantic salmon smolts in the river Umeälven. The river was divided into six different sections using acoustic receivers strategically deployed along the river. Two-year old hatchery-reared smolts (n=150), in three different weight classes, were tagged with acoustic transmitters.

This masters thesis concerns a modeling project performed at Volvo Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The main purpose of the project has been to develop a physical model of the climate in construction vehicles that later on can be used in the development of an electronic climate controller. The focus of the work has been on one type of wheel loader and one type of excavator. The temperature inside the compartment has been set equal to the notion climate. With physical theories about air flow and heat transfer in respect, relations between the components in the climate unit and the compartment has been calculated.

Booth for operational planning of harvesting and for long term planning, data is today collected manually. Intensive objective field inventories are usually too expensive. To enhance optimisation of timber flow from forest to industry Moore efficient methods for measuring tree stems of standing trees are needed. The performance of terrestrial laser scanners have improved and these could possibly be used within forestry in the future. The objective of this study was to validate how a terrestrial laser scanner could be used to measure stem diameter, and to test how the errors depend on distance from the scanner and tree species. Two plots (one pine and one spruce) were used for this study.

Within media and communications studies, questions of taste have often been associated with the dichotomy of high versus popular culture. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has also used mass media products in his studies of class determined tastes and dispositions. In this paper the author uses the theoretical framwork of Bourdieu to examine aspects of social class and legitimate taste in the interior design magazine "Sköna Hem", a market leading magazine within it's genre of lifestyle magazines in Sweden. A specific type of feature article, where a real-life home is portrayed, is studied using the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough. The homes portrayed are predominantly affluent and display elements of conspicuous consumtion as mediated through legitimate taste and cultural capital.

År 2008 var 43 miljoner barn under fem år diagnostiserade med fetma. Fetma anses som en kronisk/långvarig sjukdom och ett folkhälsoproblem med behov av förebyggande arbete för att förhindra framtida konsekvenser. För beräkning av kroppsfett används Body Mass index (BMI). BMI är det mått som används världen runt och räknas genom att dividera kroppsvikt i kilogram med längd i meter i kvadrat. Att ungdomarna drabbas av fetma beror främst på dåliga matvanor, obegränsad tillgång till kalorier i form av kolhydrater och fett ofta i kombination med mindre fysisk aktivitet.

Comfort analyses regarding human induced vibrationsIt is not too common among civil engineers in Sweden to perform comfort analyses considering the vibrations caused by human activities. In addition, the Swedish standards lack requirements to be used for comfort analyses in design of floor-systems. The demand for large spans in combination with slender slabs, is today a reason to investigate the floor-system constructions, in order to prevent disturbing vibrations and oscillations.The purpose of this thesis is to create a guide for how a comfort analysis, considering vibrations, should be implemented. Göran Svedenbjörk who is an expert in structural dynamics has been interviewed where he presents his latest project Värtaterminalen and answers some questions about vibrations due to human activities.Floor-systems, consisting of concrete slabs supported by steel or concrete beams, have been investigated with simulations in the finite element program Abaqus. In the simulations, the influence of various factors on the natural frequency of floor-systems and the acceleration level caused by dynamic loads, is studied.