This project was aimed to study the degradation of polystyrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer (SBS). SBS is used to modify bitumen, the binder in asphalt. From earlier studies it is known that SBS degrades in bitumen, but the degradation products have not been identified. To be able to determine the long term effects of SBS in the environment, degradation products need to be identified. Polystyrene forms rigid blocks with polybutadiene as a rubbery matrix between the ridgid blocks.

In today?s fast growing and closely connected society, a reliable and energy efficient transportation system is more than ever desirable. Nowadays the significant part of the transportation sector?s energy demand is supplied by fossil fuels.Improving energy efficiency in combustion engines will result in reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. A modern internal combustion engine has an efficiency of 30-45 %, where the most energy loss occurs as result of heat losses in the exhaust and cooling systems.

Dynamiken i det moderna samhället gör att förutsättningarna för företag och organisationer ständigt förändras. Informationssystemen blir då väldigt viktiga för att företagen skall få rätt information i rätt tid. Även informationssystemen måste ibland förändras och kraven på ett nytt informationssystem anges i en kravspecifikation. Denna kravspecifikation upprättas i den del av systemutvecklingsarbetet som kallas för requirements engineering (RE).Denna rapport är ett examensarbete inom det systemvetenskapliga programmet vid Högskolan i Skövde. Författaren har tidigare arbetat som byggnadsingenjör i flera år och gör i detta arbete en jämförelse mellan byggbranschens kontraktshandlingar och systemutvecklingsområdets kravspecifikation.

The institution of Engineering Sciences at Uppsala University in cooperation with Umea? University is working on a project where they will examine the decision-making in extreme situations. A part of this project is to investigate leadership in high altitudes expeditions.This report will discusses the type of leadership used in high altitudes expeditions. Then, to examine how well you can use it in companies and organizations, and the ability to prevent company?s disasters with this kind of leadership.This is done by studying different company?s stories, where they gone bankrupt or fallen into a deep crisis.

The fast growing economy of India has experienced fundamental structural changes in recentyears. The share of the service sectors output has more than doubled since 1950 and is todayestimated to make up almost 60 percent of India?s total output. In terms of total employmentwe have not yet seen a similar transformation. The observed discrepancy between sectorialshares of employment and output in the service sector raises questions about sustainability.This report aims to investigate the capacity of the Indian service sector in terms ofemployment creation in order to answer the question whether the recent GDP growth withinthe service sector can be considered as ?jobless? or not.

In this thesis the construction of identity within the EU is discussed. A thesis problem in three dimensions is used to explain the purpose of the construction, its realization and the consequences of such identity. These aspects show the complexity of the problems related to identity construction on a structural level.By using a post-modern and a social constructivist theoretical approach identity is presented as socially constructed by discourse. The theory of discourse makes it possible to analyze the development of an identity forming discourse within the EU and its status today.With an approach inspired by critical theory, we use discourse analysis as a methodological tool to illustrate the ideas that govern discourse, and in what way it is related to the social reality.The analysis states that the purpose of identity constructing is the striving for legitimacy. Without identification, the legitimacy is threatened.

The failure of Structural Adjustment Programs and its neoliberal policies to effectively reduce poverty have led to the creation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) by The World Bank and International Monetary Fund. PRSP, connected to both the Comprehensive Development Strategy and the HIPC initiative, are built on the notion of national ownership and stakeholder participation and thereby expand potential conditionality to include matters of governance. This thesis examines the evolution of PRSP and how the process of participation affects national governance structures. By analyzing the role of rules and norms within the World Bank and IMF from a historical point of view the thesis explains why the participation process has developed the way it has. It concludes that neoliberal norms, still at heart within the World Bank and IMF, have an impact on the process of participation within nation states and thereby its governance structure.

Arbetet bygger på att de informationssystem som används idag men som blir allt äldre och därigenom inte klarar de krav som ställs på dem. Detta medför att informationssystemen måste migreras till modernare plattformar, då företagen dels inte klarar sig utan dess nuvarande funktionalitet och dels måste vidareutveckla systemen.Detta arbete tar upp olika sätt som detta kan genomföras på och vilka problem som kan komma att uppstå när detta sker. För att kunna undersöka detta så genomfördes ett antal migrationer. Språken som migrationen kommer att ske mellan är Visual Basic 6 och Visual Basic .net. Migrationerna kommer att ske med hjälp av ett migrationsverktyg, samt ett ramverk som i arbetet skräddarsys för just arbetets typ av migrationer.Det arbetet kommer fram till är att det sker problem vid användande av ett verktyg och även att det inte ger tillräckligt med respons på vad som gått snett under migrationerna..

This study takes its starting point in ongoing changes and differences in the global power dynamics. The liberal rules-based world order that has been acknowledged for governing the world with the US as the hegemon of power has been strongly challenged during the last decades. Russia?s invasion of Ukraine can be seen as an example of ongoing changes in the world order, with Russia as a challenger to the US as the hegemon of power. The changes and instability that this has led to for Sweden's national security situation can be seen as a concrete example of how ongoing changes in the world order affect Sweden?s foreign policy.

Vid högvolymsproduktion av konsumentelektronik är testtid, mätnogrannhet och fabriksgolvsutrymme synonymt med kostnader. Detta har gjort att man på sektionen Test Engineering vid Ericsson Mobile Communications fabrik i Linköping tagit fram ett testkoncept, kallat Pelle-konceptet, där datorkraft och mätutrustning flyttas in i små utrymmessnåla testfixturer anpassade för både robotiserade produktionslinor och manuella. Det nya testkonceptet saknade på våren 1998 ett generellt mät- och stimulikort för mobiltelefoner vilket specificerades och konstruerades  under sommren och hösten 1998 av författaren och Stefan Lantz. I rapporten beskrivs arbetet med att specificera kortets funktionsblock samt detaljkonstruktion av de funktionsblock som författaren ansvarat för. Rapporten ger även en inblick i designarbetet och dess svårigheter för ett mät- och stimulikort med många olika funktionsblock på en mycket begränsad yta, samt de problem som uppstår i många projekt till följd av förändrade krav, missupfattningar, kommunikationsmissar och saknad dokumentation..

Foreign invested SMEs have recently become increasingly interested in China. The enterprises are in this report categorized as second wave companies since they follow the footsteps of previous pioneers, of which mostly were larger companies. The ambitions of the SMEs are either to sell products on the ever expanding Chinese market or to utilize the potential of low cost production for global markets. The existing literature is fragmented and solely based on the experience of larger companies. We believe that SMEs are facing new and different challenges, and thus a new generic theoretical frame work is desirable.

In what way has the ethnic housing segregation changed from the 1970´s until today and has the politics concerning these matters dealt with the ethnic segregation as a phenomenon that occur due to free choices of ethnic groups or as a stigmatization and marginalization of ethnic groups? To be able to find out what actual changes there are to be seen in the political measures regarding the ethnic housing segregation from the 70´s until today, I have made a discoursive investigation of some of the states official investigations from each of the decades. I chose to focus on a qualitative analysis and my theoretical framework consists of theories considering grouprights as well as structural and cultural explanations.I realize that the changes have been proportionately high retorically, but the actual changes have not been that obvious. I find a retorical development that has changed from the idea of the great impact of the immigrant in the ethnic segregation process, at the same time as huge differences between groups emerge, to establish a gap between us an them and a stigmatization of ethnic groups. The development somehow seems to have reconnected to the first stage.

The purpose of this work is to design and construct a device able to measure the mechanical attrition of oxygen carrier particles. Those particles are used in chemical looping combustion and in the present situation there is a lack of knowledge in how the attrition process work and in which extension. To find already tested solutions trying to answering this problem a literature study wascarried out and the best solution found was the so called Grace-Davison Jet-Cup method. This method is supposed to emulate the attrition caused by a cyclone separator and its advantages are that it is possible to use small test amounts, 5-10 g, and a thirty minutes long test will be enough to acquire useable results. An device was designed based on the Jet-Cup method with some slight modifications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyse the private researchers encounter with the Royal Library, national library of Sweden. The main focus is on answering the two questions: who is the private researcher and what is his/her impression of the Royal Library? These questions are answered from the vantage point of the following theoretical perspectives: library anxiety, Bourdieu, library architecture, gender studies and service management. The methods used are qualitative interviews, and textual analysis using the printout of these taped interviews along with notes and an earlier user study as material. The conclusions are that barriers with staff is the most frequent factor of library anxiety in the private researcher at the Royal Library, and mechanical barriers the least frequent.

During the development of microwave based sensors such as radar target seekers, input signals are needed to verify the performance of the system. Therefore, a channel board has been developed by previous thesis projects at Saab Bofors Dynamics. It uses a technique called Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM). The purpose of this board is to sample and digitally store radio frequency signals in order to reconstruct them after a certain delay.The aim of this thesis project was to use the channel board named above to construct a portable instrument for generation of stimuli signals. This assignment has been divided into two tasks: firstly, to construct and put together the hardware components and secondly, to implement a graphical user interface for the instrument.