This thesis examines the possible beneficial effects of a temporary cooperation between a national brand and a private brand. The main hypothesis suggests that if a national brand wants to make a category extension to a remote product category, it should be able to decrease its risk by affiliating itself with a private brand. The national brand should through such a brand alliance be able to borrow some of the flexible characteristics that a private brand possesses to increase its associations with the new category. The survey consisted of 800 questionnaires with different cooperations between a private brand (ICA) and two national brands (Tropicana and Bravo). These were handed out to students in the universities of Stockholm.

AbstractAim: The aim of this study was to investigate if treatment with ?dry needling? in myofascial triggerpoints (MTrPs) in the rotatorcuff muscles may affect impingement symptoms such as pain during provocative tests, shoulder mobility, and function. The research questions were: Does the value of pain change on the Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS) between before and after treatment? Do the positive provocative tests for impingement change between before and after treatment? Does the active shoulder mobility change between before and after treatment? Does the self-rated function change between before and after treatment?Method: The study was a prospective randomized intervention study and 19 persons with impingement symptoms (mean ± standard deviation; 58 ± 18 years, and shoulder pain duration 3.9 ± 1.6 months) were randomized into two groups. The groups were tested before, directly after and 3 weeks after treatment.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att utveckla en utrustning för test av larmsystem uppbyggda med CareTech?s Smart Call-produkter. Testutrustningen ska kunna upptäcka problem i kommunikationen mellan dessa enheter. Den ska också kunna mäta matningsspänningen till enheterna under en viss tid och visa om spänningen har varit lägre eller högre än tillåtna värden..

Inom disciplinen kognitiv ho?rselvetenskap tilla?mpas en integrerad ansats da?r taluppfattning beskrivs ur ba?de ett auditivt bottom-up-perspektiv och ett kognitivt top-down-perspektiv. Studien underso?kte hur taluppfattning varierar med, respektive utan top-down-sto?d och vad de kognitiva fo?rma?gorna uppma?rksamhet, minne och inhiberingsfo?rma?ga hade fo?r inverkan. Taluppfattningsfo?rma?ga utva?rderades med hja?lp av ett Speech-In-Noise-test (SIN-test) som bestod av tre deltest da?r enstaviga ord presenterades i en ofo?rdelaktig miljo? besta?ende av ro?ster som talande i mun pa? varandra.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka självförtroende och kroppsbild hos datorspelare, styrketränare och en kontrollgrupp. En webbenkät med manliga medlemmar på dator- och idrottsrelaterade internetforum genomfördes. Kontrollgruppen var medlemmar på dessa forum som varken styrketränade eller spelade datorspel. Skalorna Social physique anxiety scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale och Drive for muscularity scale administrerades. Resultatet visar att grupperna inte var signifikant skilda åt gällande social fysisk ångest eller självförtroende.

SammanfattningSyfte och frågeställningarSyftet med studien var att i ett test-retest utvärdera tillförlitligheten i den nyutvecklade kraftmätaren ISOP vad gäller isometrisk muskelkraft i handledens tre rörelseplan. Den frågeställning som låg till grund för studien var följande:Föreligger det någon signifikant skillnad i uppmätta värden vid upprepade mätningar av handledskraft vid två separata testtillfällen (s.k. ?test-retest?)?MetodEtt test-retest utfördes på 20 stycken testpersoner (tio kvinnor/tio män, ålder 28-48 år, medelvärde 38,6 år), utan tidigare hand- eller handledsskada. Åtta mätningar utfördes i sex olika handledsriktningar: flexion, extension, radialdeviation, ulnardeviation, pronation och supination av dominant hand samt flexion och extension av icke-dominant hand.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Swedish highereducation librarians mediate discovery tools to its users. Thisstudy aims to investigate higher education librarians? generalattitudes towards discovery tools, their perception ofstudents? discovery tool usage, and how they mediatediscovery tools to students through reference interviews anduser training. The empirical ground of this study is a semistructuredsurvey that was answered by 115 instructinglibrarians. The study concludes that although librariansgenerally have a critical attitude towards discovery tools theyalso think that the discovery tools serve a useful purpose,especially as a starting point in the information searchprocess.

The purpose of this study was to build a database for point-bearing piles in dense noncohesive soil, predominantly moraine. Further, the database was analysed and areas with difficult geotechnical conditions was identified.The database includes for point-bearing piles driven to refusal in moraine. Piles with mainly shaft friction have been excluded. Only concrete piles have been included. Geographically the database covers almost all geotechnical conditions of Sweden.

The impact of the distribution in the soil volume of two farm manures on the net mineralization and immobilization processes of nitrogen were studied in an incubation experiment. Cattle slurry and broiler litter were placed in the soil with three procedures for incorporation including placement on top of the soil (TOP), in the middle of the soil (MID) and mixed homogenously with the soil (MIX). During the two weeks of incubation, few significant differences in net mineralization were seen between TOP, MID and MIX. However, there was a tendency that MIX led to a larger net immobilization of N than placement at one point (TOP and MID). This is also the result in the literature.

This paper replicates a test performed by Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), which identifies a kink in the frequency distribution of earnings for companies listed on American stock exchanges. Their claim, that the kink is evidence of earnings management, has however been dismissed as a methodical consequence. To address this concern, this paper not only replicates the test in general, but also performs tests on a split sample, where founding family-owned companies are separated from the others, since earlier research has shown that founding family ownership is correlated with less earnings management. The results are in line with the findings of Burgstahler and Dichev, with a significant kink in the frequency distribution in the general test. The findings also show that the significance of the kink increases in the non-family-owned sample, while it disappears in the family-owned sample.

The main topic of this thesis is to evaluate the impact on the usability of web pages when using responsive web design, a concept for developing web pages whose design adapts to the screen size being used. This is done by creating a responsive prototype based on an existing web site. A number of usability tests are conducted on the two versions of the site in order to compare the time to complete the tests and to observe the behaviour of the test participants. The tests are conducted on desktop as well as on mobile devices with varying screen size.The number of test participants was relatively low, and so the quantitative result is not statistically valid. However, the conclusion is that the most effective combination is to use either of the sites on desktop format.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka och jämföra motivationen hos amatör- och elitfotbollsspelare mot bakgrund av ålder, prestationsnivå och attribuering. Följande frågeställningar har besvarats: (1) Skiljer sig motivationen åt mellan elitidrottare och amatöridrottare? (2) Attribuerar elitidrottare och amatöridrottare olika? (3) Påverkar ålder motivationen? Försökspersoner (n=32) i ett amatörlag (n=16) och ett elitlag (n=16) fick fylla i en enkät, uppbyggd av Sport Motivation Scale och Attribution Theory. Ett oberoende t-test och ett korrelationstest utfördes. En signifikant skillnad upptäcktes mellan amatör och elit på kategorierna Inre Motivation och Amotivation.

Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet i den här studien har varit att undersöka hur fysiologiska och upplevelsebaserade variabler skiljer sig vid känd, okänd och oväntad arbetstid samt i förhållande till mentala färdigheter. För att uppnå syftet undersöktes följande frågor. Hur påverkas fysiologiska och upplevelsebaserade variabler vid känd, okänd och oväntad arbetstid? Vilket samband finns det mellan mentala färdigheter och de fysiologiska respektive upplevelsebaserade variablerna?Metod: Avsikten är att upprepa tidigare studier men med nya parametrar. Testpersonerna var uthållighetstränade (57,1 ml/kg/min ±3,7SD) män med en medelålder på 37 år (±3,8SD).

The introduced lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) occupies more than 650 000 hectares in Sweden. There are some differences between lodgepole pine and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests which could affect bird assemblages, for example differences in canopy density and ground vegetation. Birds were surveyed in 14 localities in northern Sweden, each characterized by one middle-aged stand of lodgepole pine next to a stand of Scots pine. The two paired stands in each locality were planted by the forestry company SCA at the same time and in similar environment to evaluate the potential of lodgepole pine in Sweden. In those 14 localities, one to three point count stations were established in both the lodgepole pine and the Scots pine stand, depending on the size of the area.

Purpose - To analyze the relationship between supply chain management maturity, supply chain performance and financial performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME:s).Design/methodology/approach - The data comprises 15 SME:s that participated in a local logistic study in Gävleborgs län. The levels of supply chain mature within these firms were based upon an interview study and the financial performance of the firms was then examined using financial reports-based data.Findings -The results of this study indicate that there is a strong relationship between SCM maturity and SC performance in SMEs, some relationships between SCM maturity and financial performance, as well as some relationships between SC performance and financial performance. This means that if firms use maturity indicators in the SCOR areas to improve their processes, they will most likely achieve a positive effect on supply chain performance and probably also on financial performance. The result implies that the supply chain maturities in these firms are higher than expected with no one at the adHoc level.While this study is based on a rather small number of participating firms, it would be valuable to further test the significance of the indicated correlations between SCM maturity and performance in a large-scale survey.Research limitations/Implications - The research is an attempt to understand supply chain maturity and it´s implication on financial performance. Developing supply chain maturity is an opportunity for a company to gain superior performance.