This essay is a case-study of a phenomenon called ?ostalgie? which could be described as GDR-nostalgia. ?Ostalgie? is a compound of the two German words ?ost? (east) and ?Nostalgie? (nostalgia.) It is, like a similar phenomenon referred to as ?communist nostalgia?, a type of nostalgia. However, if one were to define ?ostalgie? as ?communist nostalgia? important aspects of the phenomenon would be left out.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain understanding of how companies proactively can manage their reputation. The thesis analyzes three multinational companies in Sweden and uses two theoretical approaches - the reputation risk view and the reputation strengthening view - to gain an overall perspective of how companies work with their reputation. It focuses on investigating which key areas of reputation risk the focal companies identify and how they manage the reputation risks within these areas. Moreover, it examines which stakeholders the companies believe are most critical from a reputation point of view and in what ways the companies work with strengthening their reputation among those stakeholders. In order to find a general approach, the thesis investigates the similarities and differences that exist between the respective companies in the study.

The aim of this study was to develop and psychometrically evaluate an instrument for Measuring the impact from chronic pain on daily life. Traditionally psychometric evaluation is done with parametric methods even if the items are ordinal data. In this study the instrument to be developed is solely based on ordinal data, and the psychometrically evaluation is done with both traditional methods (i.e. parametric statistics) as well as with non-parametric methods. These two different ways of psychometrically evaluation are then compared with each other.

I samband med att mellanspänningsnätet kablifieras ökar också kraven vad gäller fellokalisering. För att hålla avbrottstiderna i nätet korta är effektiv felsökning erforderlig. Detta arbete syftar till att kartlägga och redogöra för begränsande faktorer som finns vid fellokalisering med fokus på pulsekometoden. Uppdraget utförs tillsammans med Vattenfall Eldistribution AB.Det har uppdagats problem gällande fellokalisering på mellanspänningskablar med pulsekometoden. Ett flertal faktorer bidrar till denna problematik.

Construction companies in Sweden have for recent years seen an increase in the numbers ofwarranty complaints associated with the market of resident buildings and the cost for this hasbeen measured to over 1.2 billion SEK per year. Working with poor quality cost as a way ofcreating insight about defects within the company?s processes is a method developed and usedby the manufacturing industry for decades, but have not yet reached the construction industry.This study has been performed in collaboration with a Swedish construction company, wherethe author has been stationed at the aftersales division for residential buildings. Owing tocircumstances, this published report has been made anonymous regarding the company whowill further on be namedthe Company. The Company is aware that warranty claims producegreat costs and has requested a way of putting cost and cause to specific claims in order ofreceiving a more specific cost view and to make the reuse of knowledge more efficient.

Bakgrund: Smärta och äldre personer är centrala delar i sjukvården. Smärta är en subjektiv upplevelse och påverkar en person både psykiskt och fysiskt. Smärta är komplext och det finns många anledningar till att smärta uppkommer. Många äldre personer i samhället får inte korrekt smärtlindring vilket kan bero på attityder och felaktiga bedömningar.  För att underlätta bedömningen av smärta finns det instrument som vårdpersonal kan ta hjälp av för att underlätta bedömningen av äldre personers smärta.Syfte: Att beskriva hur äldre personer upplever smärta och hur den handhas på vårdenheter.Metod: En litteraturöversikt som byggts på tio vetenskapliga artiklar. Artiklarna har hämtats från CINAHL complete.

This thesis work has been performed at Volvo Aero Corporation in Trollhättan, at the department of ?hot structures? involving aircraft engine GP7000. The purpose with the study was to investigate the possibility to reduce size of the forging of flanges on the rear turbine frame when purchasing. Thereto examine the parameters that affect the flanges motion during the manufacturing process. The goal was to provide Volvo Aero with foundation to later bring in slimmed forgings.

Construction companies in Sweden have for recent years seen an increase in the numbers ofwarranty complaints associated with the market of resident buildings and the cost for this hasbeen measured to over 1.2 billion SEK per year. Working with poor quality cost as a way ofcreating insight about defects within the company?s processes is a method developed and usedby the manufacturing industry for decades, but have not yet reached the construction industry.This study has been performed in collaboration with a Swedish construction company, wherethe author has been stationed at the aftersales division for residential buildings. Owing tocircumstances, this published report has been made anonymous regarding the company whowill further on be namedthe Company. The Company is aware that warranty claims producegreat costs and has requested a way of putting cost and cause to specific claims in order ofreceiving a more specific cost view and to make the reuse of knowledge more efficient.

In today?s genetic evaluation of Swedish beef cattle, mainly traits that are directly related to productivity are measured. However, other traits, such as temperament and mature cow weight affect the economy of the farmer, as well as the welfare of the animals. This thesis evaluates possible ways of Measuring new traits, with focus on temperament and mature weight of suckler cows. The goal is to examine the possible benefits of including these traits in the Swedish breeding scheme.

This master thesis was carried out at ELFA, one of the largest catalogue distributors of electronics in northern Europe. ELFA offers a wide selection of products such as Measuring instruments, fuses and screwdrivers. The master thesis handles the possibilities of an increase in the internal flow of products. The background to this problem is ELFA?s acquisition of two new companies, which brought the product range in the warehouse from 55 000 to 80 000 products.

Title: A Business Perspective on Reducing the Climate Impact from Tetra Paks Transportations of Goods. Authors: Pär BerglundSebastian Lyngström Supervisors: Lars J Nilsson, Environmental and Energy Systems, Lund UniversityNils Månsson, Department of Business Administration, Lund University Problem Analysis: Increased awareness concerning climate change will put pressure on companies to reduce their climate impact. Problems arise when trying to reduce the impact from transportations due to companies? limited control on forwarding agents and difficulties Measuring the emissions. Purpose: From a business perspective, this report will enable a reduction of the climate impact that arises from Tetra Paks transportation of goods.

Native spider silk is an attractive lightweight natural polymeric material with a unique combination of strength, extendibility and flexibility. Synthetic, recombinant spider silk is an attractive biomaterial with several possible fields of application. When a foreign material is introduced to blood, this can for example cause unwanted coagulation and complement activation. The aim of this study was to investigate if coatings of heparin or albumin could improve the blood compatibility of films of recombinant spider silk and to develop an initial method to do so. Hypothetically, objects like pacemakers, stents and dental implants could be covered with spider silk films of high blood compatibility to reduce potentially harmful foreign body reactions caused by the immune defense. Increased blood compatibility would likely lead to improvements for both the individual patients and the society thanks to reduced load on healthcare institutions. Our objective was to assess the blood compatibility of both functionalized and non-functionalized recombinant spider silk by evaluating coagulation and activation of the complement system of the immune defense. Coagulation was evaluated visually on glass slides and complement activation was analyzed by Measuring the concentration of the complement system mediator C3a in blood samples that had been exposed to the different materials. This study introduces a non-toxic and easy performed method of improving the blood compatibility of recombinant spider silk films by adding a heparin coating. Heparin coated surfaces had statistically significantly higher blood compatibility than uncoated surfaces. The effects of albumin coating of films were less clear compared to the results of heparin coated films. Complement activation could not be evaluated because of high activation in all samples prior contact with the materials that were included in the study..

Syftet med studien är att granska personalens erfarenheter av tidmätning och IT-baserad planering inom en enhet i hemtjänsten i en storstadskommun. Mina frågeställningar är som följer.? Hur upplever personalen IT-planerad schemaläggning och tidsregistrering i sitt arbete?? Hur påverkas hemtjänstens personalgrupper?Utifrån ett semistrukturerat frågeformulär har hemtjänstpersonal under intervjuer berättat om sina erfarenheter om IT-baserad arbetsplanering och tidmätning. Intervjuresultatet har jag analyserat med hjälp av Ingrid Nilsson Motevasels (2002) idealtyper, kollektivisten och den autonome samt Harry Bravermans (1977) redogörelse av Taylors principer om scientific management. Personalens upplevelse efter införandet av IT-planering och tidmätning av utförd hjälp i hemmet beskrivs ur ett personalperspektiv.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how an instrument originally developed for Measuring changes toward lean thinking inservice organizations in general should be adjusted in order to be of use in service organizations within the healthcare sector, andin hospital organizations in specific. The adjustments are suggested based on difficulties specifically arising when implementinglean within the healthcare sector.Thesis starting point is a pre-existing lean assessment instrument developed for service organizations in general. The thesis appliesa qualitative method and integrates literature from the health care sector and lean production movement with the expertise of tenacademics and practitioners in order to find difficulties associated with the implementation of lean within the healthcare sector.These difficulties then lie as the substratum for the adjustments suggested to be made on the instrument.The thesis finds that lean, as a philosophy, does not differ between service organizations in general and service organizationswithin healthcare settings. However, due to deficits in the general understanding of lean some adaptions on the instrument mustbe made. First, some words associated with production must be changed to words associated with healthcare.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the suitability of the three instruments SERVQUAL, SERVPERF and Zone of tolerance to measure service quality, from the respondents' perspective. This study has been carried out by a quantitative method in which respondents answered three questionnaires, which was based on the three instruments. The SERVQUAL instrument is a revised version based on criticism by Carman (1990). It is based on the five dimensions; reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility, with 22 items in which each dimension is associated with a number of items. SERVPERF is the instrument most similar to SERVQUAL and is also composed of the same five dimensions.