The business cycle of the wood flooring branch is currently high however that situation may not be sustainable. In a possible future weaker business climate, the importance of marketing becomes accentuated for firms that aim to maintain their sales levels. We can see trends that competition among the Swedish and foreign manufactures is already stepping up. The intent of this study is to establish marketing guidelines for floor- and molding manufacturers, so they can establish a clearer brand image in DIY retail outlets. By comparing the approach of sports- and DIY stores to brand and product placement, this study aims to bring new knowledge to the DIY branch for improved consumer and product handling.

This thesis has been carried out to the Technology Group at industrial plant Tube Mill2012, which belongs to the Sandvik AB. Technology Group is a unit that takes care ofall requirements and suggestions regarding investigations, test runs and designmodifications. The main objective is to identify and analyze the existing initializationprocess to see where improvement opportunities exist and to come up withsuggestions for improvement, supported by previous research and literature. Anextensive literature search and case study has been conducted to provide a solidfoundation to refer to during the work. Completing the interviews and the workshopgave a clear picture of their unstructured work and approach, how the lowrequirements on the received orders caused problems for the group as well as thelack of a standardized resource allocation method provides major delay factors.Solution proposal then became a very easy process model in five steps with all theinformation gathered in one place.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to study an electronic reference service from a user perspective. By qualitative interviews with eight students the thesis examines their information behaviour, why and when they use the service, the user?s experiences of the service and the communication with the librarian. The users have all used the Swedish electronic reference service Fråga biblioteket ? Forskningsbibliotek.

With the prospect of future construction on the Skutskär Pulp Mill property, Stora Enso Fine Paper has initiated an investigation of soil contaminants and a risk assessment of these contaminants. A soil and groundwater investigation has therefore been conducted on an open area of about 16 000 square meters, situated between the current wood room and digester house. To be able to integrate this study into an investigation for the whole industrial property, the study has been carried out as a phase 2 study according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency?s Methods of Inventories of Contaminated sites (MIFO).The site investigation has involved soil and groundwater sampling, together with the analysis of heavy metals and organic contaminants. The degree of hazard posed by the contaminants, the level of contamination, the potential for migration of the contaminants, as well as the degree to which protection of human health and the environment is required in the area, have been weighed together for an overall risk assessment of the area with regard to human health and the environment.The investigated area was built up by filling in the coastal waters.

This essay captures the process toward a democratic transition in South Africa and tempts on analyzing the efforts made by civil society before the negotiation with the government in the beginning of the 90´s. The method used is a case study.By applying the theory of Elisabeth Jean Wood about the importance of continued mobilization, I try to answer the question: to what extend did civil society influence the democratization process. The focus of the study lies on the years of intensified popular mobilization, from the start of the 80´s until the beginning of the 90´s.The results following this study shows that COSATU, Congress of South African Trade Unions) and ANC(African National Congress) played both a crucial role for the democratization process in South Africa. UDF, however played a role in the process, but not in the same significant way that COSATU and ANC..

During my final examination project, I have been working with a design process to develop a new set of candle lanterns for the company Sagaform AB. This company has a large and significant role on the Swedish interior design and retail market. The assignment was developed when the company stated that they would like to supplement and expand its existing range of products. The research and surveys I have done have helped me to create eight different concepts and one of them ready to compete with the existing candle lanterns on the market. The result of my concept proposal expected to be included in Sagaform?s 2013 spring catalogue. During the project I have developed 3D-rendered images, a physical model, and a solid foundation for making prototypes. The Balloon has an attractive design language that fits both every day and more festive events.

AbstractThe aim of this qualitative study was to investigate how parents of children diagnosed with Autism, Aspergers Syndrome or ADHD/ADD describe their experience of the Swedish welfare support system in written biographies. To answer this question a study of five biographies written by parents with children diagnosed with ADHD, Autism and Asperger Syndrome where made. The conclusion was that the social network itself is of great importance to the parents. Families with single parents experienced a less positive experience of the Swedish welfare support system than parents with a spouse. The study also reveiled that families with a supporting social network and a solid financial ground in combination had the best experience of the Swedish social welfare support system.

AbstractThe dependency of fossil fuels in the transport sector causes large emissions of carbondioxide. This problem can we reduce by using vehicle gas from digested solid manure and leftover of pasture. I have studied the potential for this in the county of Västernorrland. Thepurpose is to investigate how much vehicle gas that can be extracted.One central, large scale digestion and upgrade plant should be placed in Härnösand. Theamount of pasture and manure that is economical and practical available is enough to produce2,7-3,5 millions Nm3 vehicle gas.

This report is the result of a thesis as been implemented during the spring term 2009 atthe University of Gävle.The company Bruks produces mobile chippers which are used for chipping loggingslash, roundwood and parts of trees. The chipper is powered by a separate diesel engineand the chipper can be assembled on trucks, trailers or some other carrier vehicles.When the chip has passed the chipper drum, the chip is collected in an integrated binwhich is mounted on the vehicles frame with dumping yokes. When these dumpingyokes were designed they were probably created with large material dimensions. Theaim with the degree project is hence to study the strengths of materials and, if possible,to suggest an arrangement that can decrease the total weight on the dumping yoke onBruks´ mobile chippers 805 CT.The CAD-program Pro/ENGINEER was used during the project for outlining the 2Ddrawings,as distributed of constructors on Bruks, to solid 3D-parts. The three-dimensionalassembly from Pro/ENGINEER was transferred to Pro/MECHANICA.

My Finnish grandfather had a passion for architecture, eventhough he wasn?t an architect. In the end of the 1950s he builta wooden summerhouse on a lot outside of a small villagecalled Lempäälä, close to the city of Tampere. Today the lotbelongs to my mother. Every time I visit our summerhouse, itmakes me want to do as my grandfather did ? to build a smallhouse next to it.My project is a proposal for a wooden house on mymothers lot.

This paper has bearing on the subject of foreign policy analysis and decision-making,but is nonetheless important to peace and conflict studies due to its emphasis onnuclear weapons and deterrence.I have constructed a theoretical framework for the analysis of foreign policydecision-making that I set out to test on a crucial case. The framework iscrosscutting, and takes into consideration four levels of analysis: the system-,regional-, state-, and individual level. It is centred on a key decision maker, andapplies a cognitive approach for determining his or hers belief system through whichthe inputs from the other levels are filtered in order for the decision maker toconstruct a perception of reality, from which the decision is then formulated within.The framework is applied to North Korean and its leader Kim Jong Il. It sets outto explain his behaviour in the matter of their claimed nuclear weapons program, andhis decision to conduct a nuclear weapons-test, getting inside his head trying to figureout why he chose to do it and for what reasons.The conclusion indicates that the basic structure of the framework and its generalapplicability is sound, but that it needs further testing in order to make it perfectly solid..

Ökad användning av byggtekniken massivträ kan ge ett positivt bidrag till hållbart byggande. Utvecklingen inom datornavigerad bearbetning ger massivträ möjligheten att rationalisera byggproduktionen inom trä. Tekniken ligger rätt i tiden och kommer att värderas allt högre då den tillvaratar materialets karaktäristiska egenskaper.Utvecklingen av massivträ har resulterat i teknikvarianter av hur virke kan sammanfogas till solida element. Ett behov har funnits av en marknadsjämförelse mellan befintliga principer där studien förtydligar grundläggande skillnader för intresserade byggaktörer. Problemfrågan för denna studie har varit: vilka principer för sammanfogning av trä till plattelement inom massivträ är mest fördelaktiga? Detta sett utifrån faktorerna produktionskostnad, hållfasthet och ekologiska övervägningar.För att förtydliga den undersökta byggmetodens nytta i ett vidare perspektiv har det presenterats en allmän beskrivning av massivträ.

Evaporation is a part of the chemical recovery department at wood pulping mills. The purpose of evaporation is to remove water from the black liquor, which makes the liquor combustible. The process is very energy demanding, and having a well-functioning model of the system is of greatest interest. The model can then be used to study energy consumption and to test different control strategies. Two models have been developed during the master thesis.

How do we match our education with the needs of the construction line of business and the requirementsof the Swedish National Agency for education? Is there something that we have to change?In this study I have asked our former students about their opinion of our education and I have also asked them to give me their view on what a good teacher is like. I have been able to benefit a lot from their answers in my efforts to be that good teacher. This survey took place at Facebook.The answers showed that we carry on a piece of solid workmanship. But you can always improve, try harder.

Den här rapporten är en sammanställning av ett gestaltningsarbete där ett bostadshus i 5 våningar projekterats fram. Huset i fråga har anpassats till att kunna byggas med prefabricerade volymelement och enbart i stommaterialet trä. Prefabricerade volymelement är färdigbyggda rumsenheter, tillverkade på fabrik. Dessa kan vara så pass färdigställda att de levereras till en byggarbetsplats med färdig fasad och fast inredning. Eftersom arbetet baserats på volymelementsbyggande, har projektering skett efter de villkor och den byggteknik som då tillämpas.