Does the country people live in affect the probability of them experiencing happiness? Can a country variable in an ordinal regression model be affected when microeconomic and macroeconomic factors are added to the model? The possible outcomes are either that the country variable affects less when the additional predictors are added to the model, or that they stay the same. The micro data is collected from the European Social Survey database, the macro data is collected from the World Bank. The country variable becomes less substantial when additional variables are added to the model. The variable with the most influence over expected happiness apart from the country variable is whether the individual often socializes with friends or not.

This thesis is an evaluation of a new design concept for statorfeets in Gallejaur hydro power plant. Founder of the work is Vattenfall AB Vattenkraft. During the 70- and 80´s nuclear power began to be phased in to the Swedish grid, which meant that hydropower became an important source of rules. The generators began running in so called intermittent operations instead of basic operations, which meant 300-600 start/stop per year instead of one-ten numbers start/stop per year. In order to deal with the thermal forces that arise at every start and stop suppliers began to mount so called sliding joints, which is to take advantage of these forces and maintain the stator shape.

This project includes development of new packaging for dry spices and an investigation of how to automate the production line. The preliminary investigations show needs of an environmental friendly packaging possible to re-close. After screening for suitable materials three concepts were developed, a stand-up pouch, a plastic jar and a metal can. The pouch was excluded in a concept choosing process. In this process it was also decided to further develop the metal can concept.

Högpresterande isolering är en typ av material som finns tillgängligt men inte används på den svenska marknaden i den utsträckning som de bör göra. I denna rapport kommer det högpresterande isoleringsmaterialet PIR att ligga i fokus och det jämförs främst med det traditionella isoleringsmaterialet cellplast men paralleller dras även till mineralullen.PIR- isoleringen har 40 % bättre värmekonduktivitet än cellplasten och detta innebär att materialet har bättre isoleringsförmåga som bidrar till tunnare konstruktioner. Isoleringen är därför idealiskt att använda för passiv-, lågenergi och nollenergihus. En annan egenskap som utmärker PIR- isoleringen är dess brandegenskaper som uppfyller en högre brandklass än cellplasten, trots att det är ett plastmaterial.PIR- isoleringen är ett dyrare material, dock sparas pengar in redan vid produktion då fukt- och vindskydd kan uteslutas i en konstruktion. Om högre energikrav ska uppfyllas kan pengar även sparas in på sikt genom lägre energikostnader..

I samband med ingenjörsutbildningen med inriktning produktutveckling vid högskolan i Borås, konstruerades ett formsprutningsverktyg åt firma Finstansteknik i Ulricehamn.Syftet vid konstruktion var framtagning av ny serie Foodboxes för fastfood som är en lockande alternativ till befintliga engångsförpackningar i termoplastmaterial som används i stor utsträckning idag.Formsprutningsverktyg konstruerades för massproduktion av olika formar engångshämtboxar.Med hänsyn tagen till kravspecifikationen har projektet inneburit närmare analyser inom material, design och konstruktion.Riktlinjerna för produkt designen var huvudsakligen miljövänlighet och upptagning av minsta möjliga plats vid exponering i butik.Designen kan redovisa minsta möjliga materialåtgång och en stabil konstruktion som kan återvändas, återvinnas, frysas, maskindiskas, värmas i micro och lätt staplas. Samtidig ökar efterfrågan på formsprutningsteknologi och formsprutade produkter som gör det möjligt att tillverka högkvalitativa former i kortare serielängder. Också ingår formsprutade produkter och komponenter en viktig del av vårt vardagsliv..

Nowadays naval units are participating in international missions, where new and in many cases tougher conditions will affect their propulsion. This essay deals with some of the now developed nanostructure coatings and gives a presentation of how the coatings could function on some exposed parts of the naval powertrain. The essay investigates the possibility that the coatings can be used as a protective layer that will reduce or prevent wear on selected parts of the naval powertrains. As a basis for the essay, nanotechnology is described, as well as different reasons that wear occurs and application techniques for coatings The conclusion is that nanostructured coatings can be applied and provide a much better result on hardness and wear resistance as of naval powertrains compared to micro-structural coatings, both for manufacturing and renovation. The essay presents a few examples of the military utility of the nanostructure coatings as well as suggestions for further research..

A pavement construction designed to cope with the different type of traffic loads; it is exposed to and at the same time it can resist the effect of the climate. A road structure consists of sub- and superstructure which is divided by a boundary known as terrace. During the construction of unbound layers (base course and sub-base course) in the superstructure, it is always ensured that the material meet the requirements for bearing capacity and the degree of compaction. These parameters are controlled by various laboratory tests and control methods. To obtain increased knowledge of the material and improve the quality of the compaction in the field, it is necessary to perform laboratory tests in order to determine material properties.A base course material 0/ 32 mm limestone from Gotland (Hejdeby) was investigated in this study.

The thesis aims to analyze strategic, cultural and structural aspects of Grameen Bank and its micro-credit project, in order to identify key success factors. A case study was performed with an inductive and qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews. The data was collected by field observations and interviews on site in Dhaka, Bangladesh and surrounding areas.The main conclusion is that the critical success factor of Grameen Bank is the relationship focus, guiding and aligning its strategy, culture and structure. Also, local offices have been observed to utilize practices not permitted by the bank?s management, ultimately increasing the organizational efficiency..

The present study aims to examine how teachers write polemical articles. This genre often occurs in national standardized tests in Swedish schools. The study seeks to analyze argumentative structures in the articles. It also categorizes assessment notes written by the teachers in response to each others? articles, by interpreting response texts.    The examination shows that there is uncertainty among the teachers about how to create structures in argumentative text types.

The aim of this paper was to describe hindering and facilitating factors in the transition from upper secondary school and employment for a person with Asperger?s syndrome. In the process we used general systems theory and made semi-structured interviews with five persons in the network of institutions and associations working with the individual. Our findings showed that the hindering and facilitating factors were basically the same depending of the environmental adjustments. The interviews highlighted the following factors: the recent general unemployment rate in Sweden, selfawareness of the individual and the surrounding environment?s knowledge of the individual?s impairment in relation to Asperger?s syndrome.

I studien testades 35 psykoterapeutstudenter för att undersöka sambandet mellan empati och förmågan att känna igen mikrouttryck. Empati mättes med självskattningsformuläret Interpersonal Reactivity Index vars subskalor mätte följande aspekter av empati: perspektivtagande, fantasi, empatisk omsorg samt personlig oro. Förmåga att känna igen mikrouttryck testades med Micro Expression Training Tool. Resultatet visade ett signifikant positivt samband mellan empati och förmåga att känna igen mikrouttryck. Signifikant positivt samband fanns även mellan subskalan perspektivtagande och förmåga att känna igen mikrouttryck, medan subskalorna fantasi, empatisk omsorg samt personlig oro inte korrelerade med förmåga att känna igen mikrouttryck.

The purpose of this research is to examine some historical aspects of Robert Putnam?s thesisabout voluntary associations and social capital. According to a micro perspective theory ofsocial capital the trust and reciprocity required and created by associations is important toexplain the disparity between institutional performance and socioeconomic development ofsocieties. The social patterns governing this therefore set a precedent for the future. Using themutual sickness benefit societies in Sweden as variable for voluntary associations around1884, the essay discusses the possible links between social capital, associations and long termeconomic development.

The purpose of this study explains the relationship between corporate governance and the auditor's role in Swedish family firms with the definitions micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this relationship is affected by the firms strategy. The study is based on a survey sent out to 3000 Swedish SMEs, of which 280 responses from family firms could be used. Our findings showed that the auditor in the family firms didn?t have a specific role or contributed added value to the firm, and that the strategy didn?t affect the outcome. Furthermore, we found correlation between the perceptions of the auditor's role and added value depending on the family firms type of corporate governance.

The company LightLift Esystems AB manufactures patented motorized lift systems for the illumination of halls with high ceilings. The company wants a new design for singular heavy lights in order to be more competitive.This project consists of the development of the new design under the requirements and specifications imposed by the company. The new design must support lights up to 300kg and keep the overall dimensions as low as possible without modifying the driving unit.This document contains all the designing steps followed to reach the final solution as well as the material selection, manufacturing process and assembly of all the parts that form it.The solution obtained shows to be very competitive with other alternative products, since this new design triples their maximum load capacity while the dimensions are very similar.In this context, the optical appearance was also very important to the company and so it was another main objective of this project. From an aesthetical point of view, the final solution proves to be very compact and versatile since it can either be hidden behind a false ceiling or covered by a plastic case that gives the design a very nice look.Finally, the solution achieved fulfils all the requirements and specification previously imposed. It is reliable, compact, cheap to manufacture, easy to assembly and it has a good optical appearance. .

The company Somas, Säffle, has assigned Fredrik Kjellin the project of finding out how ?KVTF DN250?, one of their own valves, reacts on cutting forces under production. They wish to know if and then how much it?s possible to minimize the wall thickness of the valve with neither plastic nor to big elastic deformations caused by processing.The most critical processes have been identified as rough lathing. The study has shown that the marginal for a wall thickness of two millimeters, to fall short of the yield stress in the most critical process, is good.