The Swedish consumer electronic industry has recently experienced an increasingly intensive price war. The price war has forced some operators in the business to declare bankruptcy, as the only way to compete has been by driving down prices. A challenge that retail chains in the consumer electronics industry is facing is to increase their margins. If store personnel can success with upselling, the companies will increase their profits. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the sales people in the consumer electronic industry can influence the customer to buy a more expensive product and what the effects the upselling has on the customers' attitudes.

Pharmaceuticals are environmental pollutants that are a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and very little is known about their ecological consequences. In this study growth, survival and behaviour (sociability, activity and boldness) of perch fry (Perca fluviatilis) were examined in order to study the possible effects of exposure to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug, Oxazepam, during embryonic development. The study tested following hypotheses: (1) perch growth is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; (2) early perch survival is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; and (3) boldness and activity increases while sociability decreases in perch fry exposed during embryonic development. Embryos of naturally spawned perch were exposed to water with two different concentrations of Oxazepam. The embryos were exposed during different parts (24-hour periods) of the embryonic development, because embryos may be more vulnerable at certain times during embryonic development and/or because the exposure at different times can produce different effects.

Antalet personer med rörelsehinder förväntas öka i takt med att allt fler människor lever längre med sin funktionsnedsättning. För att öka självständigheten hos de rörelsehindrade måste nya innovativa hjälpmedel tas fram och redan befintliga hjälpmedel vidareutvecklas.Idén till projektet uppkom då en av projektdeltagarna under en längre tid har sett sin rullstolsburna familjemedlem hitta på egna lösningar vid matlagning på spisen i ett ickehandikappanpassat kök. Huvudsyftet med projektet har därför varit att lösa de problem som rullstolsanvändare kan ha vid matlagning på spisen, till exempel att de inte når eller ser. Målet har varit att ta fram en fungerande prototyp för att kunna utföra användartester. Det här för att säkerställa förbättrad ergonomi och möjlighet till ökad självständighet hosrullstolsanvändaren.Projektet resulterade i en användarvänlig fungerande prototyp.

AbstractTitle: To Market a Company with the Help of Nationality ? A study in how marketing and branding works and is being perceived when it focuses on nationalityAuthor: Frida HanssonSubject: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall semester 2010Length: 38 pagesTutor: Else NygrenAim: Companies and various corporations are always on the hunt for the next big thing in marketing. One idea to market themselves and give them a chance to separate themselves from the cluster of companies aspiring to take your costumers away could be to market themselves with nationality. To investigate why and how some company?s chose to market themselves with nationality, and also study how this kind of marketing is being perceived by customers and non ?costumers.

A flat organisation makes a horizontal career development possible, which means that it is more important to develop an individual?s knowledge base than to gain a higher title. This leads to a personal development, which motivates expats to stay. Since the responsibility of the career development mostly lies on expats themselves, companies should create conditions that make individual, internal job search possible. Like in IKEA:s case, it can be done through a strong and prestige less company culture, that penetrates the whole company.

This thesis is basically a design project aimed to find a safe and reliable automatic safety device, which is designed to be suitable for highly automated industrial situations. This device fits with ABB / Jokab Safety?s fence systems. These are built up around machines to create safety distances. The automatic protection device assist the operator in situations when loading or going in and out of the danger zone.

Abstract New methods, techniques and tools for the building industry are constantly being developed and improved and launched on the market. The problem in the building industry development is not that the products are not good enough. The problem is instead that the existing construction companies do not choose to use these innovations, instead they continue to employ the technologies they already possess and master. This leads to the fact that the construction industry is, in the public eye, beeing seen as a conservative industry. AquaVilla is a company that basically produces houseboats.

This paper presents a study of the computer game ?Minesweeper?. The aim of the game is to search through a rectangular area of mined squares without hitting any mines. By using a strategy based on making every operation as safe as possible, series of the game have been simulated. The size of the playground is four times four squares.

Inom en stor del av all systemutveckling sker testerna av systemet som sista punkt innan systemet sjösätts. Testdriven utveckling är en systemutvecklingsmetod där testerna istället skrivs först och också är det som driver utvecklingen framåt.Metoden höjs till skyarna av vissa och avfärdas omedelbart som onödigt omständig av andra. Vi vill med denna uppsats undersöka hur det ser ut i verkligheten och vilka faktorer som påverkar användandet, inlärningen och inställningen till testdriven utveckling.Vi genomförde intervjuer på tre stycken Örebrobaserade organisationer och tittade utifrån ramverket method-in-action på vilka faktorer som påverkade användningen och varför.Vi fann att utvecklarna närmade sig testdriven utveckling på väldigt olika sätt och grundade sin inställning mycket beroende på tidigare erfarenhet och inlärning ? oavsett hur lång eller kort den varit. Utvecklarna förväntas ofta bedriva självstudier utanför arbetstid ? något som inte alltid funkar som kunskaputvecklingsform då tiden utanför jobbet ser olika ut beroende på var i livet man är.

This thesis is an attempt to study how a library that is driven by a contractor works. How allinvolved parts can cooperate. The main method used, is qualitative interviews. The authorshave made a survey at the public library in Järna in Södertälje county, where Boktjänst i JärnaAB has the business on contract since 1991.Following areas have been studied: organisation and assignment; librarysphere of activity andservices; the relations to the main library, and the vision for the future of the library.Some of the conclusions drawn by the authors are that when tenders are invited for a job, thelocal conditions must be taken into consideration. To have the same employer for the wholelibrary staff are likely to simplify the matters.

AbstractThe project "Sound and Play" have been implemented in collaboration with the toy company BRIO in Malmo. The purpose of the project was to examine whether and how BRIO in the future could develop toys around sound for Toddlers.The problem formulations that would be answered after completion of the project was "How could BRIO broaden its product range with the help of audio toys?", "How can you combine toys and sounds in an interesting way for children?", "How do you create a toy with sound that is fun for the child, but not annoying for parents?". Currently BRIO only has two toys with sound in this age group.The expression of the toy was going to be a mix of classic and cool and the overall feeling of the toy was going to be explorative and arouse curiosity in the child. This feeling would be communicated through simplicity and joy.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine the fanzine, a form of amateur publication, in Sweden, both in the traditional paper form and the more recent electronic form. It deals with what is distinctive about the fanzine as a publication and also as a social and cultural product. It also looks upon how the fanzine uses the Internet and the new possibilities it brings. The people behind 18 fanzines, 10 electronic and 8 in paper, have answered a questionnaire about how they produce, publish, distribute and promote their fanzines, what they think about the fanzine as a mode of expression, and how they use the Internet. The masters thesis uses theories within cultural studies as a theoretical approach to the fanzine.

According to the Swedish preschool policy documents all children should have the same opportunities to develop their early language skills regardless of their social background. The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers work with children's early literacy and language development with focus on reading aloud. The reason is to investigate how the preschool teachers work to create an environment that stimulates children's literacy and language development. Another intention is to study how often reading aloud occurs in the children's home environment and what the preschool teachers thoughts are about that. The study is based on interviews with four preschool teachers and surveys that were answered by parents.

The purpose of my study is to investigate teacher?s perceptions of their mission in the preschool class, and how they work to promote children?s written language development. What methods and working methods they use to awaken curiosity and motivate children to read and write. I am using the qualitative research method to get answers to my questions. I have made four qualitative interviews with four teachers in preschool classes from different schools.My questions are:What conceptions does teachers have about their mission in a preschool class?What different methods and approaches does teachers use to stimulate and wake children?s curiosity for reading and writing development?The theoretical basis for my study is the socio-cultural perspective, where learning occurs in interaction.

Personal trainer is a profession that has grown strongly in recent decades, and has become increasingly common in the labor market within the health sector due to the widespread and growing interest in health and self- improvement. Further more, personal training is a great example of occupations with a close interaction between producer and consumer. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and if so how, personal trainers experience that the relationship with the clients affects their own personal development. This by finding out what impact the profession has had on the personality, what impact the relationship with the clients has affected the leadership, and last what impact the relationship with the clients have had on the personality based on social and mental aspects. Based on the purpose of the study qualitative method was chosen and data was collected with qualitative interviews.