This thesis focuses on the mass media cover of ?Smart textiles?. The Swedish?smart? textiles are developed in Borås and are a mix of ordinary textile and new technology.  I analyse the article with a text analysis method, looking at themes and the language?s propositions in focus. Context and the actors in the articles are also important in the analysis.Many women occur as developers of the new smart technical product, a field often knowed as a typical male subject.

The purpose of this master thesis is to map and analyze the appropriate valuation approaches used for Intellectual Property rights and develope a model for valuing patents. This project has been executed on behalf of Electrolux?s Group Intellectual Property and is intended to be used for managerial purposes.Project limitations include patents that doesent concern technology oriented products and services, real option methods, financial forecasts, decisions concerning patents taken by the R&D division, patent applications in general and taking into account unexpected future management decisions regarding patents.Electrolux?s Intellextual Property team applies, manages and protects the groups Intellectual Property rights including patents, designs and trademarks. With an increased globalization and the rise of emerging markets, incentives have increased further to protect and safeguard the group?s innovations.Mainly there are three different valuations approaches for valuing intellectual property rights, these include the income based approach, cost base approach and market based approach.

The manufactory industry, due to decline in profit margins, is seeking new business opportunities by moving towards servitization and value-adding services in after-sales. We have therefore conducted a case study to investigate a manufacturing company in their current transformation towards servitization. By studying the management perspective, we aimed to understand how Information Technology, by adding value, could play a role in the transformation process. This study shows that information technology can take an integrating role, by supporting new value-adding services to provider and customer, as well as a co-creating role, where both provider and customer benefits by learning from each other, in the changing work process initiated by new services. The study has also shown that Information Technology, together with organization, information and people, are crucial components in the manufactory industry?s transformation towards servitization.  Furthermore, the study has also shown that the value chain has the potential to drastically change due to the value-adding that the information technology brings to the progress of servitization..

The purpose of our essay is to examine if variation exists in the way that auditors try their independence, this so called analysis-model. We will suggest some factors that influence the way auditors practise the analysis-model. The institutional theory predicts no differencies since the normative pressure could be expected to be severe. But we found that among other things people?s qualifications, personalities and audit firm?s size and age influence the way auditors try their independence.

As technology have continued to develop over the latest decades and become more advanced the pressure on the general citizens understanding of technology becomes a essential part to live in our society today. The transition have affected our society in great ways and have made a great impact on different groups, one of them being the elderly population in our society. The purpose of this study is to examine how the fast technological development in the latest decades have affected the elderly in our society. This from their perspective by gathering empirical data through semi-structured interviews with elderly people involved in the Agnes-project, a research project focused on improving the general quality of life for older people and increase their knowledge about technology. The study has shown that after the older peoples time involved in the Agnes-project their quality of life had improved in different areas. Areas such as increased cognitive activity, increased interest in new technology and an improvement in their communication with friends and family.

 Date: 2008-10-06Level: Bachelor thesis within Information Technology and business economics, 15p, EIK021Authors: Anna Karlsson, akn05009@student.mdh.seLena-Maria Lindström, llm05002@student.mdh.seMagnus Wretlund, mvd05001@student.seTutor: Marie Mörndal Title: Managing IT-incidents, a case study at ICAs IT department                            OperationsKeywords: IT-incident management, IT-incident management process, IT-incident, ITIL, CCTA Problem: An organization can benefit by having an established management process of handling IT-incidents. But how can this be achieved? Are there step-by-step procedures? What´s included in the management process of IT-incidents? Is the size of the organization relevant to which model is to be chosen? Can the work of the writers of this essay result in a recommendation of a specific model for IT-incident management? These questions lead to the following essay question; How are IT-incidents managed?Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and discuss how IT incidents can be managed.Method: The writers of this essay have performed a case study at ICA, a Swedish food retail company. Eleven interviews with nine different persons have been carried out. The interviews are analyzed in the chapter called Resultat och analys.Conclusion: Our conclusion is that there are both similarities and differences in Dept.

The purpose of this master thesis is to present a model that illuminates the important factors when deriving technical information from market data within a company. For companies to be able to become and stay competitive in the market, product quality is an important factor. Whilst good product quality leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty, lack of quality brings costs in service and replacements. To improve product quality, the developers need information and knowledge about what quality issues affect existing products. Most companies gather data from market about known issues, but in order eliminate known quality issues in new products; this data has to be transformed into information and knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the current status of fuel cell technology and to establish whether said technology is mature enough to be implemented into the Swedish Armed Forces. The question to be answered in this paper is as follows: Can hydrogen gas and fuel cells be used as an alternative source of energy within the Swedish Armed Forces?This paper is based on theoretical studies and reports from prior research done on fuel cells. By studying these facts a predictive answer has been obtained. The answer I have come to, is that the maturity of fuel cell technology is currently inadequate for the Swedish Armed Forces to implement, especially considering its harsh working conditions..

Forskningsrön tyder på att organisatoriska och sociala faktorer är den största anledningen till att 90 % av implementeringarna av ERP-system misslyckas. Förespråkarna för involvering av användarna för lyckad implementering är många. I denna studie har vi belyst en fallstudie i en relativt liten livsmedelsorganisation där det har studerats vikten av kommunikation och kommunikationsrutiner för att ta till sig ett nytt system samt hur detta har påverkat organisationens anställdas acceptans gentemot det ERP-system de implementerat. Denna studie visar att om kommunikation innefattar kunskapsförvaltning och kunskapsspridning kring det ERP-system som implementeras kan det innebära större acceptans hos användarna, då de får förståelse för varför saker och ting sker samt varför deras arbetsuppgifter ser ut som de gör, en kontext kring sina aktiviteter. Vi fann att kommunikationssättet, det vill säga huruvida den var formell och rutinartad eller informell, inte påverkar utfallet av användarnas acceptans gentemot ERP-systemet, så länge kontexten för aktiviteten förmedlas.

Många och gedigna studier har visat på hastighetens betydelse för trafikolyckors uppkomst och skadegrad. Som ett led i Nollvisionen sattsar Vägverket på olika typer av ISA-system (Intelligent Stöd för Anpassning av hastighet) för att hjälpa förarna att hålla hastighetsgränsen. Denna studie är ett led i utvärderingen av det storskaliga fältförsök med aktiv gaspedal som under ett år bedrivits i Lund. Studien inriktar sig på att undersöka testförarnas acceptans av systemet. I arbetet har även ingått att utforma en modell för hur acceptansen bildas.

Aktuell forskning har visat att psykologiska faktorer spelar en viktig roll för upplevelsen av långvarig smärta. Denna studie undersökte effekterna av en KBT-behandling bestående av introceptiv exponering och avslappning för patienter med långvarig smärta. Studien använde en single-subject design där sex smärtpatienter genomgick en sex veckor lång individuell behandling. De variabler studien undersökte var i första hand förändringar gällande grad av acceptans samt upplevd smärtintensitet, i andra hand förändringar gällande smärtrelaterad ångest, rörelserädsla, katastroftankar samt funktion. Deltagande i behandlingen var förknippat med ökad acceptans, förbättrad funktion, minskad smärtintensitet, minskad smärtrelaterad ångest, mindre katastroftankar samt minskad rörelserädsla.

A new material model, for the FE-program ADINA, has been verified against twoexperiments. One unreinforced concrete beam and one reinforced concrete beam.The model, DF-concrete, has the possibility to estimate true concrete. However theresults indicate that in order to be sure that the estimations are true, there ought tobe data from the true concrete to verify against.Two FE-models have simulated the behavior of a ring-shaped part of the nuclearcontainment vessel. The results from the first, frictionless, model agree with similarsimulations and hand calculations for high pressures in the containment vessel. Thesimulations of the nuclear containment vessel show cracking in the concrete after10-11 bars of over pressurization.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how libraries use thetools and ideas from library 2.0 in their reading promotionwork. We also want to include how librarians motivate thisuse and whatever merits and faults they encounter. We haveperformed document studies and interviews which we thenanalyzed with qualitative content analysis. Our theoreticframework in this study which we also used as a part of ourcoding scheme in the analysis was a model over the conceptlibrary 2.0 developed by Holmberg, Huvila, Kronquist-Bergand Widén-Wulff. This model describes seven aspects oflibrary 2.0 which is users, participation, library and libraryservice, web and web 2.0, social aspects, technology andinteractivity.

Problems:How would a decision model that takes into account more aspects and dimensions than just the financial aspect look for smaller service compa-nies? What aspects are important to consider in such a decision model?Purpose:The purpose of this master thesis is to develop a decision model based on previous research, to improve decision making in smaller service com-panies ? by considering perspectives that traditional investment calcula-tions ignore.Method:The study was qualitative and was based on both primary and secondary data. As data collection method for the development of the model we used literature search on previous research. The study?s primary data consisted of responses from five smaller service companies.

Through geopolitical theory this thesis explores how conflicts within states can be read and understood according to an analytical model determining one or several possible causes for the conflict.  The model is created by the author and reflects geopolitical theory by giving three possible explanations to an intrastate conflict: culture, economy or territorial construction. The aim of the thesis is testing this model on two selectively chosen case studies ? i.e. two intrastate conflicts ? namely: the upcoming referendum in Scotland and the terror attack at Tiananmen Square in China.