The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund.

One of the city of Stockholm?s main objectives is to have a society completely free from fossil fuels. To achieve this, several investments regarding improvements in energy efficiency and renewable energy are currently being planned or implemented. One of these investments is a project called Hallbara Jarva which is located in the suburbs of Stockholm. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the prospects of an investment in photovoltaic cells from an energy-saving and economical point of view. The analysis is limited to three buildings within Hallbara Jarva and is intended for the property owner.  Solar energy is a type of renewable energy source and is commonly divided into solar heating and solar power.

In order to maintain a high safety level at a nuclear power plant it is important not only to measure the reliability of the components and systems of the plant, but also to investigate how the plant responds to human actions. One of the most hazardous situations in managing a power plant is fire occurring in critical areas. This study concerns the prospect of the local fire brigade to suppress a fire that has started in one of the most critical rooms for maintaining high reactor safety. The model created gives an indication on the possibilities of succeeding in suppressing a fire. In order to get a more reliable fire fighting the following advice are given:- Let the fire brigade go rounds in the plant together with the personnel, during which recommended fire suppressing methods are determined to avoid long preparation time in an actual situation.- Prepare rooms with two subsystems to make them partly with no voltage.- Give the fire brigade better feedback from actual events on nuclear power plants.- Education and training in suppressing fires in electrical equipment.The probabilistic safety assessment strives to be as realistic as possible.

Åmotfors Bruk AB (ÅBAB) has today an inefficient production of steam for the manufacturing of paper. Unpredictable energy prices and modernisation of the current equipment has been the underlying factors to invest in a thermal power plant, mainly driven by garbage. This facility will not only use the steam for paper production, it will also generate electricity through a steam turbine. Today, when a fault on the supplying line occurs which leads to disconnection of the external grid, all the support of electricity to Åmotfors Bruk (ÅB) will disappear. This will lead to major interruptions in the paper production, which will cause severe economical losses.

Problem StatementAfter the hurricane Gudrun in January 2005 EON Elnät Sverige AB started the project KRAFTTAG, were 17,000 km of the airborne power grid shall be replaced with cables underground. The transformers in the airborne power grid shall be dismounted, renovated if necessary and then conveyed to stations, of type kiosk.Additional new transformers, more than planned, have been bought. This is due to the dysfunctional transformer flow from the demolished power supply to projects, were the new power supply is built, the general picture is complicated, since the reconstruction involves other companies and many employees at E.ON.PurposeThe purpose of this master thesis is to map and understand the existing transformer flow. The objective is to make a recommendation on how to increase the level of E.ON? s transformer recycling.Methodthe authors have worked with a system approach, including both qualitative and quantitative data.

The intention of this thesis is, from a basic statistical viewpoint, to capture the relationship between the price of electricity and a sample of factors influencing the price. The thesis also aims at investigating whether knowledge about the relationship is useful when investing on Nord Pool. Tested factors are temperature, import, price of emission rights as well as a number of hydrological factors. The investigated period stretches from year 2000 until week 32 year 2007. The relevance of each factor was also evaluated yearly as well as for shorter periods in order to get a more comprehensive view of the relationship.

The aim of this study is to analyse the sexual power relations in contemporary urban novels of Swedish female writers.I have identified a discourse in these novels as a heteronormative matrix which power is ruled by norms and assumptions about normality in both the heterosexual and lesbian stories. For this purpose I have related to Ivar B. Neumanns theory that individuals always find a way to confront the discourse by three different strategies. These strategies are used in my study as tools to organise these novels, because it is possible to see that the protagonists find at least one of these strategy?s to her protest.The first strategy I studied was the docile.

Power Challenge är ett spelföretag som är beläget i Linköping. Nyligen slog de sig samman med det Karlskronabaserade Manager Zone. För ett drygt år sedan bestod Power Challenge av cirka fem anställda men har idag expanderat till omkring 50 personer. Företaget har utvecklat ett fotbollsspel som heter Power Soccer. För närvarande håller de på att, förutom att ständigt vidareutveckla fotbollsspelet, bland annat utveckla ett bilspel.Syftet med denna studie var att på något sätt försöka effektivisera rekryteringen av nya´spelare till fotbollsspelet Power Soccer.

There are several competing views on how to best utilize air power. Following his quantitative study of air power, Robert Pape developed a theory which focuses on undermining the target state's military strategy. According to Pape it is possible to explain the outcome as a result of military vulnerability. This essay seeks to determine if Pape's theory can predict the outcome of Operation Unified Protector. By using a mixed methods approach on four hypotheses, it will be determined if the operation was a successful case of coercion, if NATO acted according to Pape's model and whether this achieved the desired effects or not. The results reveal that the theory could not successfully predict the outcome of the conflict.

Bakgrund: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka effekten av sju dagars tillskott av betain (2,5 gram/dag) på prestationsförmågan i idrottsspecifika tester för manliga vältränade cykelatleter.Metod: Sex (n=6) manliga testpersoner (genomsnitt ± standardavvikelse ålder, 31,7 ± 10,2 år; längd, 188,2 ± 3,6 cm; kroppsvikt; 82,5 ± 7,6 kg; fettfri massa, 71,6 ± 7,3 kg) genomförde förtester bestående av fem counter movement jumps, fyra stycken 12 s wingate-sprinter med 2,5 minuters aktiv vila följt av fem ytterligare counter movement jumps. De blev sedan indelade slumpmässigt i betain- eller placebogrupper. Första testet etablerade basvärden och eftertest ?1? samt ?2? föregicks med antingen sju dagars tillskott med placebo (2,5 g maltodextrin plus 12,5 mg riboflavin) eller betain (2,5 g trimetylglycin plus 12,5 mg riboflavin). Riboflavin användes för att undanröja den fiskliknande doften som kan uppstå vid tillskott av betain.

This bachelor thesis project has been executed at Outotec Sweden AB in Skellefteå. Outotecs main business focus is selling mineral and metal processing technologies. A rest product from the metal process is particle-polluted gas and cyclone designs are today the most commonly used abatement device for particle control. A cyclone provides a simple design with high efficiency particle percolation by using air streams.The purpose of this work is to reduce the time it takes create new cyclone designs in Outotecs projects. An extensive construction work is needed for every new cyclone order due to new designs.

Aiming to contribute to the discourse on the sustainability of consociational democracy in plural societies, this case study provides an examination of Lebanon?s power sharing model. The study begins with an evaluation of the Taif Agreement. After acknowledging its effect on Lebanon?s consociational system the function and operation of Lijphart?s four consociational elements are analyzed.

The first of the dual purposes of this work has been to describe the research that has been done regarding the root causes of terrorism and second, using a general causal theory and examining the political dimensions of it, to discuss whether or not general causal theories (grand-theories) are helpful for researchers and policy-makers when reacting to social developments in the form of terrorism. The essay is a qualitative literature analysis and I have based my studies on mostly new books treating root causes of terrorism. I have concentrated on discussing international terrorism and how political dimensions may impact the occurence of this form of political violence. The conclusions I have made is that there is no widespread consensus among researchers and scholars as to what really causes terrorism. Neither can the general model examined in chapter 5 be used to predict when and where terrorism will occur next.

This thesis investigate how energy efficient measures has spread throughout the data centers in Sweden. These questions are put up against a theoretical use of such concepts such as green IT, technological evolution, large technical systems and knowledge dissemination. These theories are used to answer the questions that are encountered during the study, such as how green IT is approached, how big of a role environmental thinking has had in the evolvement of these new technologies. The study has been conducted in a longitudinal manner, it is an observation of the phenomenon that is data centers over a longer period of time. 23 non structured interviews spanning over 27.5 hours of recorded material have been conducted alongside a study of archived material.

In hydropower plants it is necessary to always have local power supply. Therefore, the plants are equipped with batteries as stationary back up power. Vattenfall Vattenkraft is using lead acid batteries but has been investigating alternatives to replace them. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of using Li-ion technology as back up power.The study showed that Li-ion batteries have many qualities. The Li-ion technology will decrease the space and maintenance demand.