Research has concluded that meaningless differentiation with trivial attributes sometimes can be a successful strategy. However, the effect varies with respect to certain aspects such as the price of the product and the decision context. How the characteristics of the consumer influence the effect of trivial attributes has until now been unknown. This thesis investigates how the consumer?s level of knowledge and personal involvement influence the effects of trivial attributes on product preferences and product attitudes.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether Suzanne Retzinger?s linguistic cues for shame and verbal behaviors for hiding shame could be used to measure shame in surveys based on Thomas Scheff?s theory of shame. I created a measurement instrument consisting of 30 statements, which were all meant to measure general shame.The instrument was administrated to 180 respondents studying at Karlstad University, of whom 4 respondents were removed from the data set due to lack of standardization. With the polytomous rasch model used for the analysis, data from 176 respondents were analyzed, of whom 124 respondents were female and 52 were male.The result showed that the measurement instrument?s statements should not be used together because the analysis indicated multidimensionality.

The student project Elba at KTH started in 2011 and is a project where a battery driven prototype car is developed. The vehicle competes in Eco Shell Marathon in Rotterdam, Holland. In this competition the vehicle that travels a certain distance including several starts and stops with the lowest energy consumption wins. To minimize the consumption is therefore very important, which requires knowledge of the vehicles energy losses.A vehicle's energy losses depends on several factors and can be divided into the powertrain efficiency and the driving resistance. The driving resistance can then be divided in to rolling and air resistance, if smaller losses like vibrations are ignored.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to develop an understanding of why non-users do not use public libraries by studying their information and culture habits and their relationship to public libraries. One of the motivating factors behind this choice is the lack of earlier research on the subject, particularly qualitative research. The theoretical framework is stratified into three associated levels with Brenda Dervin?s sense-making theory on an individual level, Marianne Andersson?s and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the roles of public libraries on an institutional level and Pierre Bourdieu?s theoretical apparatus on a social level.

Catecholamines are stress hormones that are produced and released by a rare tumor called pheochromocytoma. This tumor can cause hypertension which if undiagnosed and untreated leads to death. Since good therapy is available, it is important to find the tumor in time. The most common way to diagnose the tumor is measurement of the biochemical markers; catecholamines and their metabolites, methylated catecholamines.After observation that almost all normetanephrine results for women were higher than the upper reference limit and therefore pathological, the accuracy of the present reference intervals was questioned. Therefore new reference intervals for both urinary catecholamines and methylated catecholamines were developed by analysis of 46 samples using HPLC.

This thesis is about practising on a different level to get an insight to what techniques might work for me as a double bass player. It is about discovering how to use your brain into playing at your best level. I practised both talking and singing to myself and read a lot about thinking and hearing not only the music but every note before playing. The thesis idea came from not having a technique that worked for me while practising alone. I wondered why it is such a difference between what we do at the lessons and what I do when practising by myself..

During my practice as a teacher trainee at an upper secondary school it became clear to me that many pupils had difficulties with mathematics. I was surprised to find that many pupils seemed to get stuck on the level of attainment for the senior level of the nine-year compulsory school. As I have not studied anything about difficulties in Mathematics during my training to become a qualified teacher, I would like to get to know more about this.After studying research done on this subject I made the following approach to the problem:? What fields regarding Mathematics do the pupils themselves find most difficult?? What factors have been contributory causes to these problems?? What are the factors that have helped pupils with difficulties in Mathematics to reach the goals for the syllabuses in Mathematics?The answers to my questionnaire and interviews resulted in the following conclusions:? Pupils find theory of equation and conversion of units as most difficult at senior level of the nine-year compulsory school.? Teaching should be done in special instruction groups to give the pupil the opportunity to develop his/her skills on an individual level.? Pupils find it hard to deal with all moments in Mathematics during the time given for each course.? The pace for teaching Mathematics is too high according to the pupils.? Pupils wish for instructions on a lower level.? There is often a lack of contact between teacher and pupil.? The teacher should use more time to help the pupil receive good self-confidence and increase the motivation for instructions in Mathematics..

An often encountered problem when implementing a mass flow regulator in a rolling mill is the one with measurement of speed. The most widely used solution is to fit a pulse counter to a wheel that is in contact with the strip. Common problems with this design are for instance scratch marks on the strip and problems with the flatness measuring system.  One way of circumventing the aforementioned problems would be a non-contact measuring system. The market of today only offers systems based on the Doppler principle.This report evaluates three different systems for non-contact speed measurement. Important areas in the evaluation have been the ability to operate under normal rolling conditions, integration in existing control system and how well the sensor can be fitted to the rolling mill.

An often encountered problem when implementing a mass flow regulator in a rolling mill is the one with measurement of speed. The most widely used solution is to fit a pulse counter to a wheel that is in contact with the strip. Common problems with this design are for instance scratch marks on the strip and problems with the flatness measuring system.  One way of circumventing the aforementioned problems would be a non-contact measuring system. The market of today only offers systems based on the Doppler principle.This report evaluates three different systems for non-contact speed measurement. Important areas in the evaluation have been the ability to operate under normal rolling conditions, integration in existing control system and how well the sensor can be fitted to the rolling mill.

The use of spread spectrum signals has increased dramatically in military applications. Finding methods for detecting and positioning of these signals have become interesting research areas for signal intelligence purposes. One method is to measure the time difference of arrival (TDOA) that occurs when two receivers are synchronous and spatially separated. Based on the TDOA-technique an audio-demonstrator has been developed and implemented. This report describes the theory for how sound received in microphones can be used to extract information about the transmitter?s position from the measured time difference.

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.

When performing studies that test the reactions of horses in different situations, important information may be available about the horse?s reactivity level. With information from these tests, accidents and dangerous situations may be prevented. When the behaviours from tests are compared with race performance it may be possible to evaluate if some behaviours are more desirable at the race track than others. The aim of this study was to see if behavioural responses correlated with physiological parameters (heart rate, cortisol), the trainer?s opinions and actual race performance.

At present day there are several different methods for measuring of paved surfaces.The most common methods today are measuring with a total station, the GlobalNavigation Satellite System (GNSS) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). Recently thedevelopment of unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones, has increasedexponentially and today there are several ways of using drones for measuring surfacesby photographing and laser scanning.This thesis contains a comparison between the methods terrestrial laser scanning(TLS), and unmanned aerial vehicle photogrammetry (UAV). The measurements havebeen applied on two different test surfaces, one of asphalt and one of gravel. Thepurpose of the comparison is to investigate whether the airborne photogrammetry isequivalent accurate in its height levels as the terrestrial laser scanning. For thecomparison to be more extensive, these two methods have not only been comparedin precision but also in the areas of ease of use and economy.The precision was analyzed by comparing the height levels in randomly placed controlpoints on the test surfaces.

With a strong company culture an organisation has relationships with their clients on an organizational level rather than on an individual. This simplifies the ability to change team members in order to enforce creativity and keep clients on a long-term basis. In turn the final product/service improves, which creates long-term relationships. Additionally, relationships on a personal level due to social activities helps Solberg detect early warnings-signs of eventual dissatisfaction from the client?s point of view.

A film can attract all kinds of emotions and moods of the audience through its audiovisual communications and cinematic expression, in which music plays a significant role in both understanding and interpretation of film content.It is interesting to explore the musical significance and the emotional aspect of the film out of a media and communications perspective and visual communications perspective because it?s a subject that belongs to the communications of scientific discipline as film is a media text which is working both as communicative and as audio-visual medium with its expressive aspects.The purpose of this bachelor?s paper is to increase and deepen the understanding of music's function and significant role in context with its reinforcing sense of visual expression in film. More specifically, it aims to explore the musical value of the expressive aspect of the media text in form of film musical Les Misérables (2012), which has been transmedialised from the novel of the same name, referring to the sound, music and song in relation to the film's visual expression.The research questions are at the core of the essay study: "how is music used to reinforce the cinematic visual expression?" and "how can music signify the narrative and highlight the emotional aspect of the film?" The theoretical framework is based on some of the key scholars assumptions such as Michel Chion (1994) and Claudia Gorbman (1987), who share the same theoretical views that the soundtrack seems powerful when it expresses its participation in a scene?s emotional moods as the music follows the scene?s rhythm, the image?s flow and contributes emotional and musical codes of emotions and expressions. According to Chion sound and image interact together to tell a story where sound enrich the image with expressive and informative values.