This thesis is performed in collaboration with Kraftpowercon AB in Surte, Sweden. Focus has been on to identify the powerlosses in one of Kraftpowercons halfbridge DC-DC converters. First theoretical calculations are made, the calculations is verified with measurements of six different operation modes. In a later stage, methods like Soft switching and synchronous rectifying are proposed to increase the efficiency for the converter. To achieve softswitching for the halfbridge, the LLC resonant converter topologies are implemented and examined.

This Degree Project is carried through in association with Fototext in Guthenburg. The firmsees benefits using?Soft Proof? technology for both economic and time-saving. The reasonfor ?Soft Proofing? for internal/ external production is to estimate and controll documentswithout using digital or chemical printing output.The different technical solutions to ?Soft Proof?, knowledges and facts aboutColorManagement together with PDF-workflow is going to pattern for a correct succesfull?Soft Proofing? on the monitor.Acrobat 5 in association with Photoshop 6 are effectively used in ?Soft Proofing? technic.The advance and capacity of the graphical softwares which are explained in this reporthelps the users to begin to experiment with ?Soft Proof?.

This thesis? objective is to evaluate the recently proposed Shy (2002) approach of estimating consumer switching costs. We apply Shy?s method for estimating switching costs on the Swedish markets for bank deposits and telecommunications. The evaluation has been achieved by comparing estimated results to economic theories, related empirical studies, and our expectations.

This thesis focuses on Chinese?Swedish code-switching of bilingual children in Sweden. The purpose is to, through a case study, study what Chinese?Swedish code-switching looks like in daily conversations between bilingual children and their parents. Three main questions are formulated from the purpose of the thesis, foucusing on the types and frequencies of code-switching, the grammar of code-switching, and the motivation of code-switching.The linguistic material comes from voice recordings of naturally occurring conversations between three children and their parents, which are transcribed afterwards.

The aim with the literature study was to describe how persons with dementia and health care workers in the geriatric care experiences soft massage and to describe the derived effects for persons with dementia. Scientific articles were sampled from the databases: Medline (Pub Med), Cinahl and Psyc INFO. The main results of the study are presented in three parts: how persons with dementia experiences soft massage, health care workers experiences of giving soft massage and the health care workers descriptions on derived effects on persons with dementia. The results showed that persons with dementia experienced a positive reaction to soft massage and the health care workers did no longer feel helpless in their care service towards persons with dementia. The studies showed that soft massage decreased agitation, wandering, pain and sleeplessness.

According to many scholars America's soft power is in decline, a power resource whose importance has been increasing in world politics. This makes it interesting to examine if there is a difference between how Democratic and Republican administrations wield their soft power.This thesis is a hypothesis-testing study and the purpose is to test the hypothesis that Democratic administrations, to a greater extent than Republican, can create, utilize and defend soft power. My thesis is based on Joseph Nye's theory of soft power and the focus of this study is the aspects of the foreign policy resources. In order to measure this concept I have made my own operationalization where five different indicators serve as my guidance. I use the method of least likely-cases to select and motivate the administrations being tested, which gives me a comparative study of the Democratic administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton and the Republican administration of George H.

The question of whether there is soft law in international law has been as much the subject of contemporary debate as whether or not there is private legal authority in the international society. The legal boundaries seem to be blurred by the process of globalisation and the recent shift in international law. The traditional definition of international law has been outdated as new forms of treaties has introduced new subject of law to the judicial arena. At the same time a supplementary map of law has been added to the cartography of international law, soft law. These correlating processes have comprehensive political and legal consequences at both the international and national levels.

The thesis investigates how two of the world?s most powerful international actors, the US and the EU want to promote democracy and human rights. The aim is to compare how the US and the EU work in order to support a democratic development in the world. In order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis a qualitative text analysis was used. Since the aim is to compare the US and the EU I believe this method is beneficial.

This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

The purpose of this thesis is to map out and investigate how the banking sector affects a customer?s willingness to change bank, and what the switching costs are for a customer when making these changes. A case study was performed through qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and interviews. The qualitative part was carried out to create hypotheses. The hypotheses was tested in a quantitative survey to be able to either accepted or rejected these them.

The aim of this study is to investigate English teachers? communication when teaching English in grade three in Swedish schools. The investigation seeks to find out what language is, and why it is, dominant and how the proportions in the teachers? uses of English and Swedish in time are distributed. The study also describes what attitudes teachers have to the English language and if, if so how, two categories of strategies, namely body language and code switching are used.The study was performed in two steps with different methods for collection of qualitative empirical data.

Researchers today anticipate that in the near future, the majority of the owners of a smartphone will use it as a wallet, i.e. for contactless payment. The technology that enables contactless payment today is ?Near Field Communication? (NFC), which is increasingly embedded in smartphones. Applications like mobile payment between a phone and a terminal use NFC.

Denna rapport ingår som den avslutande delen av ett examensarbete på civilingenjörsprogrammet inom maskinteknik, vid Luleå tekniska universitet. Examensarbetet har utförts på uppdrag av Norma Precision AB och behandlar ett problem som internt benämns Soft brass. Soft brass är ett materialtillstånd som innebär att materialets sträckgräns är för låg. Detta medför att tändhatten lossnar vid avfyrning. Uppgiften bestod i att ge förslag på materialval och bearbetningsförfarande för patronhylsor, så att tillräcklig sträckgräns på färdiga hylsor kan uppnås.

Soft rubber flooring have gained in popularity over the last years. Rubber flooring al-lows cow to move more freely without slipping and improves claw and leg health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of a stepwise introduktion of soft flooring on cow`s placement in cow houses with robotic milking. A case study was carried out in a herd in northern Sweden with 41 cows. Observations were made every 15 minutes between 09.00 and 16.00 concering cow placement in cu-bicles, in cubicle alley, in feeding alley and in feeding alley with the head through feed-ing gate. One observation period was carried out per flooring alternativ: 1) all concrete slatted floor, 2) rubber slatted floor in feeding alley and concrete slatted floor in cubicle alley and 3) rubber slatted floors in feeding alley and solid rubber floors in cubicle alley. The study showed that 6 %-units fewer cows lay in the cubicles when the feeding alley surface was slatted rubber.

This Master thesis discusses the development of a virtual human soft tissue object for use in exercise applications of various medical procedures.The soft tissue object to be developed shall look like, feel like and behave as living human tissue. It shall give the user a realistic feeling of weight, softness and roughness, and shall behave in a correct way for exercise purposes. The soft tissue model is to be used in a three dimensional stereo graphic environment with haptic feedback. A prototype for practicing the procedure of inserting a catheter is built. The prototype is used to evaluate the potential of the virtual environment for medical exercise applications, and to assess the realism and usability of the soft tissue object.