Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of environmental contaminants that have gained increasing attention due to their potential to bioaccumulate, environmental persistence and potential toxicity. PFASs have been found in surface water, sediment, air, soil, sludge and ice caps globally, as well as in wildlife and humans. Furthermore, PFASs have also been detected in drinking water, leading to raised concerns for human health, since drinking water is one of the most significant sources of PFASs for the general population. Conventional water treatment techniques have shown to be ineffective removing PFASs, highlighting the importance for further research to develop efficient removal techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate the removal efficiency of PFASs in water using two treatment techniques; granular activated carbon (GAC), type Filtrasorb 400®, and anion exchange (AE), type Purolite A-600. Additionally, the effect of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) on removal efficiency was studied.

Title: Strategies for competition ? a study of the Swedish contact lenses market.Authors: Pernilla AArskog and Annika Lange.Background: As a market gets more mature and the competition increases, it is more important for a company to apply the right strategic perspective. There are four fundamental strategic perspectives for a service-oriented business: a core product-, a price-, an image- and a service perspective. This study is a about service management and take its point from the theories from the Nordic School about strategies for competition, customer value, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty.Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to analyze and evaluate how the actors at the Swedish market of contact lenses should compete to gain further competitive advantages.Method: The study includes four qualitative interviews with two traditional opticians and two Internet based businesses, but also a survey with 106 contact lens users is included.Analysis: In the analyse part of this thesis it was concluded that the traditional opticians conception about their customer not agrees with what the customer evaluate as important. Many of the customers have thought about changing their optician, and besides that do not recommend their optician, and can there for not be categorize as loyal customers.

För att underlätta program-till-programkommunikation har SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) utvecklats. SOA har som mål att bidra med riktlinjer för att det ska bli lättare för två applikationer att kommunicera med varandra (Samtani & Sadhwani 2002a). Web Services är en standard som bygger på SOA-arkitekturen och det som gör Web Services speciellt är att tekniken ska vara plattforms- och språkoberoende (Clabby, 2003).Sun och Microsoft har utvecklat varsin plattform för utveckling av Web Services-applikationer. I denna rapport genomförs en litteraturstudie för att undersöka vilket stöd plattformarna har för utveckling av Web Services och för att ta reda på vilka skillnader som finns mellan plattformarna. Skillnaderna undersöks sedan för att se om de kan leda till problem då en användare vill integrera Web Services skrivna i olika plattformar.Resultatet i denna rapport visar att de båda plattformarna har ett bra stöd för att utveckla Web Service-applikationer.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera om förändringar i arbetet med rörelsekapital hade ett samband med lönsamheten i företag. Som mått på rörelsekapital används Cash Conversion Cycle och som mått på lönsamhet används ROA.Teoretiskt perspektiv: Den teoretiska referensramen består av teorier om Working Capital Management, Cash Conversion Cycle, Lean, Supply Chain Management och Supply Chain Finance.Metod: I denna uppsats används en kvantitativ metod där sekundärdata samlas in från årsredovisningar för 2005 och 2013. Denna data ligger till grund för fyra korrelationsanalyser. Den beroende variabeln i korrelationsanalyserna är ROA och defyra oberoende variablerna är Cash Conversion Cycle, dagar i lager, dagar som kundfordring och dagar som leverantörsskuld. Urvalet i denna studie består av svenska aktiebolag inom branschen tillverkning och industri med fler än 50 anställda.Empiri: Empirin består av fyra tabeller som presenterar de beräkningar som gjorts.Slutsats: Sambandet mellan förändring i Cash Conversion Cycle och förändring i ROA blev väldigt svagt positivt men inte signifikant.

This essay is a qualitative study about Swedish fire-fighters´ ideas of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds than Swedish. The problem in focus is why there are difficulties for those groups of people to be employed in the Swedish fire service. Can there be ideas of these groups which are not favourable for them? And if this is the case, can those ideas be explained by gender theory about construction of masculinity? The purpose is to investigate whether the absence of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds can be explained by the fire-fighters´ ideas of those groups. The study consisted of a one day observation and four one hour long interviews with fire-fighters from different positions within the Swedish fire service.

The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service.

Bauhaus har arbetat fram en ny affärsplan för 2011-2012 där ett internt mål är att bli ?bäst på service?. Ett steg på vägen är ett nytt utbildningsprogram som syftar till att göra medarbetarna mer kundfokuserade. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur personalen respektive ledningen upplever att Bauhaus satsning på nya utbildningar har tillfört större kundfokus inom företaget samt hur den interna kommunikationen skapar förutsättningar för att satsningen ska lyckas. Teoretiskt utgår studien ifrån vad som skapar tjänstekvalité samt hur företag kan påverka tjänstekvalitén.

The main focus of this study was to investigate how Swedish military veterans experience that events during an international service affect them after completed mission. This also includes the contact with their relatives. Secondly, this study deals with the course of the crisis, personal defense mechanisms, cumulative stress and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).The study was performed using a qualitative method and comprises individual interviews with six Swedish veterans. The responders were all men of different military positions, who participated in one or more international missions during 1993 to 2011.The results of this study show that, according to the veterans, the return back home is the most strenuous part of an international mission. With all the new experiences that an international service brings fresh in their memories, it is hard to re-adjust to the life of a civilian.In connection with the return back home, different degrees of stress reactions were also commonly seen, for example sleep disturbance, restlessness and exhaustion.

Sweden has had statutory audit, which also includes a management audit, for all companies since 1988. A legislative proposal now suggests that the statutory audit shall be abolished for all small and medium sized companies starting on July 1, 2010. The aim for this master?s thesis is therefore to study how the service of auditing will be affected by the legislative proposal. To answer the research question the authors have taken on a qualitative approach and fifteen interviews with representatives for different Swedish auditing firms have been completed.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the ongoing controversy surrounding the Internet, the phenomena of digitalization and file sharing will affect the music industry in the form of the ?big five? labels. Furthermore the thesis aims to present a recipe of strategies for the companies? survival by studying their situation through a theoretical perspective in conjunction with a comparative analysis with industries facing the digitalization challenge. The theoretical contribution lies in the strategic perspective at an industry level.

The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service.

The purpose of this study is to describe the traceability of products that protect against counterfeiting and examine how protection against counterfeit products have been developed to date, and to display the opportunity to streamline the protection of products and brands.Nowadays, in the global world, it is getting increasingly more difficult to track the products. Especially for the last link in the chain, which in most cases is the customer and who is constantly exposed to risks. This report deals with the possibilities of preventing and detecting counterfeit products. Fake products are not unusual in an historical perspective. It has been common with counterfeits ever since the Middle Ages continuously until today. Forgers have become more skillful and they are successful in most industries. Many of the fake products are of poor quality and can be downright dangerous to the customer.To answer the question, the author used a qualitative collection method.

Information technology and globalization has led to an increasing competition and service production has been more and more independent of locations. This has made a market of outsourced telephone costumer service possible. Due to high establishment the market has been saturated and with that price has sunk. Customer companies have the last few years got more negative to outsourcing of their telephone customer service as they through operating the customer service internally want to get closer to their customers.In the empirical study the writers try to figure out which companies the callcenters should try to aim towards to get long and profitable cooperation. This will be done through deducing guiding principles from theories about how different factors around companies costumer service should look like.

This Bachelor-paper is an investigation of organisational flexibility in Swedish andPolish television companies. The essay is based on four main questions which is thananalysed by looking at different categories that defines a flexible organisationalstructure.The questions are:? What is the internal and external perceived judgment about the TV-channelsorganisational flexibility?? What are the differences regarding Public service channels in Sweden andPoland as well as the differences between commercial channels?? What are the differences regarding public service- and commercial TVchannelsin Sweden as well as in Poland? Which of the companies are considered being the stronger and the weakest inan organisational flexibility point of view?In order to answer these questions have we used following main theories.? Readiness for business process reengineering - Abdolvand, N. & Albadvi, A.& Ferdowsi, Z (2008)? Decisionprocess - Jacobsen D.I.

Bakgrund: Flera stora produktionsföretag har börjat använda sig av utvecklingsprogram för sina leverantörerna för att sprida beprövade tanke- och arbetssätt och därigenom erhålla förbättrade prestationer av leverantörerna. Denna utveckling har i flera fall visat sig ge positiva förändringar på leverantörernas prestationer men det har varit svårt för kundföretagen att få kännedom om vad som verkligen har hänt i leverantörernas verksamheter. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utreda vilka effekter som eftersträvas och erhålls när stora produktionsföretag, genom utvecklingsprogram, bedriver leverantörsutveckling. Genomförande: Data och information har insamlats genom personliga intervjuer hos personer från ett stort produktionsföretag samt ett tvärsnitt av tre leverantörsföretags personal. Resultat: Studien visar på att bakomliggande motiv till leverantörsutveckling är stabilitet i flödet, långsiktiga leverantörsrelationer, optimala processer och upprätthållandet av kontinuerliga förändring.