Volvo Human Monitoring (VHM) is an ongoing project at Volvo Cars where they measure, amongst other parameters, inhalation and exhalation through a device called Respiratory Inductance Plethysmograph (RIP), on drivers. RIP measures changes in the cross-sectional area of the chest and abdomen. When the driver is in motion, such as when she is turning the vehicle, the cross-sectional area changes and noise in the RIP signal may arise.The noise results in a large number of manual adjustments in the analysis of the RIP signal, which is very time consuming and the validity of the device for measuring inhalation and exhalation is questioned.The purpose of this study was to improve the efficiency of the analysis of the RIP signal. The goal was to create a new data processing tool in Matlab that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation from a RIP signal with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.In this study, nine tests were performed on drivers while they were driving in different scenarios such as highway, country road and in city traffic. Inhalation and exhalation was measured using a RIP, a pneumotachograph with a tightly sealed facemask and a thermocouple placed between the nose and mouth, which was used as reference to the RIP.The result of this study was a data processing tool that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.

AbstractC-level essay in political science, by Frida Orlinder, spring semester 2008Supervisor: Susan Marton?Good contracting? ? A study of contracting in public procurement regarding the transportation of school children?Over the last decades models influenced by the market have been gaining influence in public administration all over the world. New Public Management has been presented as a theoretical ?shopping basket? from which concepts can be applied to the administration of municipal services. The purpose of this essay is to investigate in an explorative way how New Public Management (NPM) views contracting and the role of the internal customer in contracting.

Information regarding cows grazing behaviour and time spent grazing can be of great interest to dairy farmers, since this information can indicate how well suited the pasture is to the cows. Feed intake at pasture is however challenging to measure. Automated systems for monitoring the behaviour of cows within dairy production have become increasingly important and relatively common. The aim of this study was to validate an activity measuring device (HOBO® G Logger Pendant Data Logger, USA), a triaxial accelerometer that registers the cow?s head positions during grazing, in order to see if cows? grazing behaviour on pasture could be distinguished from their non grazing behaviour.

The main purpose of the project was to identify potential environmentally harmful substances which can be leached from rubber asphalt. A method for analysing asphalt was developed and three rubber asphalt materials were analysed after being cryogrinded. One of the materials was also tested in a road machine made for testing of asphalt paving. The particles created in the machine were analysed in the same manner as the cryogrinded asphalt materials.The asphalt materials were leached by water during 24 hours. The leachates were extracted with dichloromethane, dried with sodium sulphate and concentrated to a small volume.

The existence for companies today consists of constant challenges with customers that want more individual products with high quality as quickly as possible. For a company to be able to have a short delivery time, it must also have a short production time. This makes streamlining and improvement of processes a big part of a company?s workThis thesis has been carried out together with the company Lasermax Roll Systems AB, a world-leading manufacturer of feeding, finishing and monitoring systems for high-speed digital printers. They manufacture their products according to the assembling for costumer order principle.The purpose with this thesis is to map and analyze, the assembling process and the test process at Lasermax Roll Systems AB.

The existence for companies today consists of constant challenges with customers that want more individual products with high quality as quickly as possible. For a company to be able to have a short delivery time, it must also have a short production time. This makes streamlining and improvement of processes a big part of a company?s workThis thesis has been carried out together with the company Lasermax Roll Systems AB, a world-leading manufacturer of feeding, finishing and monitoring systems for high-speed digital printers. They manufacture their products according to the assembling for costumer order principle.The purpose with this thesis is to map and analyze, the assembling process and the test process at Lasermax Roll Systems AB.

Biogas is an expanding sector within the broad field of agriculture and animal production. Small-scale biogas offers local combined power and heating production and the substrate is transformed into high-quality biological fertilizer. This bachelor thesis focuses on a pig farm in south-western Sweden, where biogas is produced from pig manure, evaluates and suggests ways of optimizing the process and investigates whether investing in an upgrading plant would be a feasible and more cost-efficient option. The results show that the biogas plant is working well, although the production differs from the original plans. This shows in turn that planning and examining the basic conditions before making the investment is of great importance, as well as monitoring and keeping detailed statistics of the running process.

Most of the portable electronic devices use a battery as a primary power source. Nowadays, when the applications are becoming smaller and smaller and more power efficient, the designer needs to concentrate more on reducing power consumption, using secondary power sources and introducing power storage devices. Multiple power source availability and a power storage device on the board will make the applications much more useful and efficient in everyday use. This thesis proposes a power supply unit (PSU) for wireless sensor platforms which is capable of supplying a sensor node with energy from multiple sources, as well as status information from the PSU. Present power storage devices, like electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) and batteries, have become more and more common as their characteristics have developed.

This bachelor thesis in business economics raises the topic about Corporate Responsibility (CR), this topic is currently being discussed in a variety of channels and today an increasing number of companies are involved in corporate responsibility. How do Skanska work with sustainability and why are they doing this? It is also important to see the results of the work with sustainability will lead to. We will go into more depth in one of Skanska's projects, project M25, to investigate the CR strategies they use and see how they actually work with sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how and why Skanska is working to implement CR policies in their operations and more specifically from the M25 project in order to achieve sustainable business development.

This thesis is about the idea of public transport and the discussions stirred in the media during changes in ownership. More specifically it is a study of the historical situation of Stockholm, Sweden, where the periods chosen are the 1910s, 1960s and 1990s.During the 1910s Stockholm?s first and largest tram company was taken over by thecity, and a period of public ownership began, which in the 1960s changed form whenthe county council took over the city?s principal authority and formed the politicallyadministered company SL (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, Greater Stockholm LocalTransit Company). Between these periods the word kollektivtrafik (public transport)was established in the Swedish language. This study describes and compares the ideasconcerning the phenomenon of public transport.The aim of the study is to analyse the ideas, values and ideals concerning public transport in the media, defined as newspapers.

The quest to determine if non-human animals have emotional lives similar to man goes a long way back and is yet to result in a clear answer. The aim of this particular literature study is to determine whether or not the African elephant may host feelings of empathy and display altruistic behaviour. In search for an answer to this question, scientists have chosen to first evaluate the cognitive abilities of said species. They have done this through the testing of tool use, mirror self-recognition, memory and the ability to coordinate with another when performing a task etc. It is generally thought, that in order for complex emotion to exist within an individual, cognition, as an awareness of the self and others, must first be present.

Sweden's drinking water quality is considered to be high partly due to a high quality of the raw water and a well developed sewage infrastructure. Despite this, there is water contamination that could be prevented by installation of a sophisticated early warning system. Some of the major players in the production of drinking water have already invested in different types of early warning systems to ensure drinking water of high quality. There are various forms of early warning systems where automatic monitoring of E. Coli is an interesting alternative.

I denna studie undersöks följderna av en revisionsrapport kring det kommunala uppföljningsansvaret i Stockholms stad. I rapporten, som är från 2009, ger stadens revisorer rekommendationer för hur arbetet med att följa upp ungdomar 16-19 år kan effektiviseras. Revisorerna anser bland annat att kommunstyrelsen bör utarbeta ett förslag till kommunfullmäktige om hur innebörden av det kommunala uppföljningsansvaret kan förtydligas. Revisorerna påpekar vidare att det finns behov av att utveckla samverkansformer mellan olika aktörer för att ungdomarna ska kunna erbjudas mer än enbart utbildning. Detta är vad ungdomarna i dagsläget erbjuds, genom Gymnasieslussen, men ingen söker aktivt upp de individer som tackar nej till utbildning eller inte nås.Studiens resultat visar att kommunstyrelsen inte följt revisorernas rekommendation om att ge fullmäktige underlag för ett förtydligande.

Resin-top disease is a rust fungi that occurs both as a host alternating form, Cronartium flaccidum G. Winter., and as a non-host alternating form, Peridermium pini Pers. The host alternating form can use a variety of hosts but the most commonly used species in the boreal forest is Melampyrum sylvaticum. In Scandinavia the Resin-top disease infect Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L. The fungus infects the needles through the stomata and then grows through the branch to the stem where it strangulates the vessels transporting water and nutrition to the treetop, which kills the top.

In the western world, strokes are the third most common cause of death, hitting mainly the elderly population. Smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and overweight are known risk factors for causing strokes. Previous studies show that an increased level of particulate matter, PM, is also related to an increased number of strokes. The population in this study consists of patients over 65 years old who live in Malmö. Levels of particulate matter were measured from October 2004 to April 2005 at a central outdoor monitoring site in Malmö.