During the last decades the fertility of dairy cows has declined in the same rate as the milk yield has increased. This is a result of the negative genetic correlation between milk yield and fertility, failure to show estrous signs and metabolic problems in the cow. The purpose of this review was to investigate the function of metabolites and hormones as markers for disturbances in fertility, health and production in the dairy cow. There are several metabolites that are suggested to indicate the cow?s energy balance.

The Swedish healthcare systems have over the past decades experienced a major reorganization that involves reduction of costs and cuts due to the financial problems that the public health system faced. Healthcare was criticized because it was considered to be bureaucratic and inefficient (Funck, 2007). The solution to this problem was to focus on other measures rather than the economic measures, such as modernizing the healthcare instead of cutting down. Implementing a balanced scorecard in a public sector as a hospital, perceived as failures. This is due to several factors such as communication, knowledge and expected time are not taken into consideration when implementing the scorecard.

I takt med att inköp har fått en allt mer betydande roll inom företag krävs det också att strategier för inköp utformas på ett sätt som möjliggör att de kan efterlevas och följas upp, framförallt när det rör sig om koncernövergripande strategier som kräver samordning. I dagsläget är det inköpsrådet på Saab som styr över och samordnar projekt och initiativ som sker inom inköp. Inköpsrådet ansvarar även för framtagandet av inköpsstrategier och arbetet utifrån dessa för hela koncernen. En första klassificering av Saabs leverantörer utefter Kraljics matris genomfördes år 2010 och i samband med detta har ett ökat intresse påvisats för att på ett differentierat sätt mäta och följa upp leverantörer. Syftet med studien är därmed att se vilka Key Performance Indicators (KPI:er) som är tillämpliga i en indelning av leverantörer enligt Kraljics matris, det vill säga om olika KPI:er är fördelaktiga för att genomföra mätning och uppföljning av olika typer av leverantörer enligt Kraljics matris.En betydande slutsats med indelning av KPI:er enligt Kraljics matris är att studien ska påvisa vilka mätetal som är mest väsentliga att ha vid uppföljning av leverantörer kopplade till respektive kvadrant i Kraljics matris.

The thesis presents an optimally designed kinematic structure for a new 6-DOF haptic devicebased on TAU configuration. The configuration of the TAU-2 proposed by Suleman Khan andKjell Andersson [1] was modified and its mobility was verified by using Grübler criterion tohave a 6 DOF. Analytical kinematic models for the inverse and forward kinematics weredeveloped for the haptic TAU configuration to determine a set of optimal design parameters.Kinematic performance indices such as volume of the workspace, kinematic isotropy and payload index, were defined based on the singular values of the Jacobian matrix. The Jacobianmatrix was scaled to homogenize the physical units. The Jacobian matrix dependent on theposition and orientation of the end-effector gives local isotropy and pay load index, so globaldesign indices were defined, which represent the performance of the mechanism in the wholeworkspace.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze the geographical distribution of everyday criminality in the town of Borlänge during the year 2002 and to analyze which measures to be taken in the physical social planning to decrease this everyday criminality there. The term everyday criminality is here to be understood as those categories of crime that appear most frequently in the records of reports to the police every year. Here two kinds of crime have been in focus, thefts from cars and office burglary.In fulfilling this aim two main questions have been answered. The first one is how the everyday criminality was distributed geographically in the town of Borlänge during the year 2002. The second one is which measures to be taken in the physical social planning to decrease this everyday criminality in the town of Borlänge.In order to answer the first question a spatial autocorrelation analysis, Local Moran LISA has been used.

Many participants in the Swedish timber market procure raw material from private forest owners. They often also offer forest services to ensure reforestation after final felling. Selling silviculture services can be a part of creating a long term relationship with the landowner for future timber purchases. The Swedish Forest Agency monitors forest rejuvenation results in the entire country. In the latest survey (2006 - 2008) the proportion of approved regeneration area was 78%.

Traditional product features such as price, quality and supply service have been extended and nowadays includes environmental aspects as well. It raises new and increasing demands on haulier companies. The transport sector is responsible for a large part of the pollutants causing today?s environmental problems. The business is being closely monitored and to operate environmental friendly is seen as one of the most important elements for the industry?s future development.

Due to increasing regulations regarding new diesel vehicles particulate matteremissions the new Scania truck, Scania Euro 6, has been equipped with a particulatefilter. This component effectively stores the particles in the exhaust gas but must becleaned in order to prevent itself from clogging. The filter is cleaned through aprocess named regeneration which is a thermodynamic process in which thetemperature of the filter is raised through fuel supplied to the exhaust gas.The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the development of improved controlstrategies of the temperature during the regeneration process through thedevelopment of model-based controllers. These controllers are designed in order tohave good performance in stationary as well as automatic regeneration.In order to develop these model-based controllers a model of the system isconstructed. The model is described as a linear thermodynamic grey-box model withflow varying parameters, showing good results in validation.The model provides a simulation environment during the controller design, which isfocused around the development of linear regulators with the exhaust gas mass flowas a scheduling variable whose size determines controllers? mode of operation.

This thesis processes the work of developing CPU code and GPU code for Thomas Kaijsers algorithm for calculating the kantorovich distance and the performance between the two is compared. Initially there is a rundown of the algorithm which calculates the kantorovich distance between two images. Thereafter we go through the CPU implementation followed by GPGPU written in CUDA. Then the results are presented. Lastly, an analysis about the results and a discussion with possible improvements is presented for possible future applications..

This thesis processes the work of developing CPU code and GPU code for Thomas Kaijsers algorithm for calculating the kantorovich distance and the performance between the two is compared. Initially there is a rundown of the algorithm which calculates the kantorovich distance between two images. Thereafter we go through the CPU implementation followed by GPGPU written in CUDA. Then the results are presented. Lastly, an analysis about the results and a discussion with possible improvements is presented for possible future applications..

Discussions about the democratic deficit of the European Union have gotten more intense and the criticism usually points towards a great gap between the citizens and the EU politics. In this study the political communication policy is being put under the scope to investigate to what extent the policy is designed to counter the democratic deficit, supported by the theory of deliberative democracy. The analysis examines three aspects of the deficit ? decentralization, participation and the distribution of information ? and makes research into the communicative measures that have been implemented. The importance for EU to make deliberation possible is stressed throughout the essay and in the conclusion I argue that improvements still need to be made.  .

Uppsatsens titel: Technology-to-Performance Chain: Game ModelInlämningsdatum: 2006-05-26Ämne/Kurs: INF 630 kandidatuppsats, 10 poängFörfattare: Marcus BjörckDennis JonovskiHandledare: Hans-Christian StoltzNyckelord: TPC, TTF, GameFlow, tid, upplevelseSyfte: Att ge spelutvecklare en grundläggande och överskådligmodell som är anpassningsbar inom spelutveckling.Metod: Vi har använt oss både av kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoderpå en grund som kan liknas vid en abduktiv ansats. Primärdatainsamlas genom en pilotstudie, en enkät samt två intervjuermed spelutvecklare från spelutvecklingsföretag.Teori: TPC och GameFlow ligger som underlag för vår teoretiskareferensram och grundar formandet av en ny modell vid namnTPC G. Vidare ger TPC G en gemensam bild av hur de tvåförstnämnda teorierna integreras med varandra.Empiri: Utifrån enkäten och intervjuerna har det framkommit attupplevelsen är det primära för användaren av datorspel och attdetta ger svar på hur bra egenskaperna kombineras i spelet.Resultatet av enkäten visar att många datorspelsanvändareupplever tidsåtgången som besvärande. Då tidsaspekten är enavgörande faktor för hur datorspelet uppfattas som helhetmedför detta problem även för spelutvecklare.Slutsatser: Genom att applicera TPC G hjälper systemutvecklingsmetodikspelutvecklare att uppfatta hela utvecklingsprocessentidigt i utvecklingsfasen. I modellen ses även tidsaspektensom en avgörande faktor där spelarnas och utvecklarnasuppfattning inte överensstämmer..

This thesis processes the work of developing CPU code and GPU code for Thomas Kaijsers algorithm for calculating the kantorovich distance and the performance between the two is compared. Initially there is a rundown of the algorithm which calculates the kantorovich distance between two images. Thereafter we go through the CPU implementation followed by GPGPU written in CUDA. Then the results are presented. Lastly, an analysis about the results and a discussion with possible improvements is presented for possible future applications..

Feedback is a tool that can be used to give students the confirmation of their accomplishments , helping them to increase understanding of the results of a performance and to alert students if change is required for future performance. Other studies and reports regarding clinical practice in education has shown that students feel that feedback has good impact on learning and positive effects such as enhanced self-confidence. Onboard training forms a major part of the education at the four-year nautical science education in Kalmar, in four years, one year is spent on board ships. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to find out how students at the four-year nautical science program in Kalmar felt that they receive feedback after completing on board training and how they wish that such feedback would be given. Six students were interviewed, three from grade one and three from grade three.

This Bachelor's thesis in Environmental Science studies the quality of an index of performance measurement of Swedish municipalities' sustainability governance offered by the environmental magazine Miljöaktuellt. Executed for six consecutive years, this evaluation is arguably the most comprehensive and widely spread local sustainability assessment in Sweden. Contextualizing this quantitative measurement tool in the paradigm of New Public Management, the research questions posed are: 'to what extent does the index employed by Miljöaktuellt correspond to the requirements of a set of quality criteria for sustainability assessment?' and 'is the index appropriate as a measure of, or a goal for, Swedish municipalities' internal sustainability efforts?' Through the perspective of evaluation theory, Miljöaktuellt's index is seen as a performance evaluation, thus categorizing this study as a meta-evaluation. Through a qualitative thematic approach, the index is analyzed using the 8 BellagioSTAMP-principles that were developed as tools for assessing quality of sustainability assessments as themes for the analysis.