The purpose with this study was to investigate how the behaviour and physiological parameters differ between high ranked and low ranked cows, and between cows in an automatic milking system verses conventional milking parlour. The study was carried out at the Kungsängen research Centre, Department of animal nutrition an management, Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, Uppsala. Twelve cows, the six highest and the six lowest in social rank were selected from the automatic milking system for the experiment. Ten cows, the five highest and five lowest in social rank were selected from the conventional system. Blood samples were taken during milking and resting.

The Ericsson R380 is a so-called smartphone, combining an advanced mobile phone with a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). To evaluate the usability of the Ericsson R380 and benchmark it against the Nokia 9110 Communicator and the Motorola A6188 Accompli, a repeated measurements experiment was performed. 18 subjects (10 men and 8 women) with no previous experience of any of the interfaces participated. Half of the subjects had extensive experience from using Ericsson mobile phones and half of the subjects had extensive experience from using Nokia mobile phones. A set of 9 tasks to be solved on each interface was presented to the subjects.

Several studies have examined the effects of perceived justice of preferential treatments to customers, but few have studied these effects when customers have different input. The purpose of the study is therefore to enhance the knowledge and understanding of the effects of preferential treatments to customers with varying input. More specifically, the study focuses on how perceived justice, customer satisfaction and loyalty are affected depending on the customer's input and received treatment. An experimental study with 263 respondents showed that the perceived justice and loyalty intentions among both the receiver and the non-receiver of the preferential treatment were of highest level when it was given to a customer with large input. Customer satisfaction however, was found to be of highest level when customers themselves received preferential treatment, regardless of the size of their input.

This report is the result of a thesis performed at Westermo Industrial Ltd with its headquarters in Stora Sundby and it sums up the author's studies for University Engineering in Innovation, Production and Logistics at Mälardalen University.The main goal of the thesis was to identify problems and suggest actions that lead to the reduction of the repair time from 3 weeks to 2 weeks. The key questions that were answered in order to achieve the thesis objectives are: What are the biggest challenges that make the repair process time last for 3 weeks? What are the necessary means and measures in order to reduce the repair length to 2 weeks? The author adjusted the work to the Swedish repairs, repair issues that arise from sell unit Westermo Data Communications AB with its office in Västerås and performed the status report by mapping the repair process, through using observations, interviews and bibliography research studies. A flow map of four sub-processes (Inbound Delivery, BackOffice, Repair Department, and Logistics) was made and each section was observed, where also the employees were interviewed. Data that has been collected was analysed by the author and the decision to execute a workshop that affects Repair Department and Logistics was made.

Breaking through the clutter and getting consumers? attention is a constant battle for marketers. Could consumer magazines be the solution to the problem? It is not a new marketing method but consumer magazines do not look like traditional marketing and they offer consumers value. Since these are qualities that could increase consumers? will to take part of commercial messages, it might be a method that deserves more attention.

The aim of this project was to design a furniture that raises thoughts and curiosity about how to relate to people you share furniture with. Luova, a changing piece of furniture for public spaces is a bench where the user can choose the degree of social interaction. Furniture for public spaces has a diverse audience ranging from children to adults. Some come alone, others in group. Some are sitting down for a short time while others stay for longer.

A subject that is being discussed often these days is the question about the pupils own responsibility for and influence over his or hers education. Therefore, we wanted to study what taking responsibility for ones education is, according to teachers and pupils. We interviewed pupils between the ages of nine and fifteen, and asked them what taking responsibility for their own education meant to them. We also interviewed their teachers and asked them how they perceived that the pupils own responsibility-taking worked. We used informants from two different schools, a big school in a city and a small school located in the countryside.

The first purpose of this thesis is to investigate if, how, and why the perceived collective identity in the town of Karlskrona has changed. Collective identities can due to their socially constructed nature change rapidly in light of new collective experiences. The reason for suspecting such a change in Karlskrona is the immense impact that the change in the global economy, according to Saskia Sassen, has on cities. By interviewing politicians and media representatives from Karlskrona the perceived identity is drawn. The second purpose of this thesis will then be to test if the identity as it is perceived by Karlskronas habitants differ from the one that town officials present through city marketing.

One of the most important components of a harvester is the crane. Most harvester cranes are only possible to pivot (or horizontally rotate) at the crane pillar. Cranab in Vindeln, Sweden, has developed a new type of harvester crane which has an extra pivot point on the outer boom. This makes it possible to reach around residual trees, easing thinning work in dense stands. The aim of the study was to analyze if the use of a pivoting outer boom (POB) crane gave an increase in thinning production and if there were any differences in time consumption between the work elements for the POB crane and a conventional crane. A Valmet 911.3 equipped with a POB crane was used in the study.

This is a result of a diploma work in construction engineering. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nature of the productivity in a given project and how the Skanska productivity tools were used in this project.Interviews were held among workers and management to get some answers on what affected the work and its productivity. The result of the thesis showed that the productivity tools as propulsion analysis and ?goal cards?, were not used to a wide extent in this project. Furthermore there was almost no feedback for the one who made the calculation and the offer for the project, which might affect the results on projects negatively in the future.Within the project there was a lot of waiting time which affected the productivity.

Teenagers are the group that spends most money on clothing. When choosing clothes, the so called internal and external signals could affect the perceived quality of the teenagers. The external signals are for example price, brand and place of purchase while the internal signals are the physical composition of the product as for example garment and size. The perceived quality is the attributes that the teenagers perceive that the specific article of clothing has. Today?s marketing, within the fashion line, is mostly to present the design of the product and aim the marketing for curtain segments and to keep a distance to others that are not within the segment group.

ABSTRACTMy degree project has resulted in the improvement of the guidance in the dental center?s entrance. The patients will now find it easier to understand and find the environment?s various functions, which is the reception, registration, payment, and waiting rooms. Norrbottens läns landsting has a concept ?hälsofrämjande väntrum? that provides guidelines for how they want their patients to experience their waiting rooms.

Trust is a concept used throughout our daily lives. We give trust to friends, colleagues and strangers. We also give trust to the technical artifacts we use in our everyday lives. We must also rely on the services we use to work the way we expect them to. There is plenty of research on trust in e-commerce and online banking on website based platforms.

The purpose of this investigation is to come across the associations of consumers who are being exposed to a brand extension from a different product category. Moreover, our aim is to contribute to the knowledge of how consumers respond to these extended products, by investigating the influence of the parent brand. To fulfill our purpose, this study was conducted through qualitative interviews with consumers. In order to carry out our investigation and analyze our findings the following theoretical framework has been used: Customer-based equity, Parent brand affect and Perceived fit. Our data was collected through ten semi-structured interviews including consumers of Fiat and Marlboro brand extensions.

From a time where employees often remained at one company until retirement, globalization and changed employment patterns have created a more mobile labor market in the last years. In an effort to expand the connection between organization and employee a rising interest in corporate alumni networks has emerged. Previous research has shown that conditions for such networks are formed through employees social identification, perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship and can be shaped by company's HR practices.This paper aims to examine two case companies' perceived benefits through alumni relations as well as their HR prac-tices, in order to increase understanding surrounding the relationship between the two areas. Further the study intends to draw conclusions about the role of corporate alumni networks in the creation of the received benefits.The study indicates that HR practices, through the creation of an organizational citizenship behavior, can influence the conditions for beneficial alumni relations. Results show that some expected benefits of alumni relations can be re-ceived through strong citizenship.