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.

This study aimed to investigate whether lambs show anticipatory behaviours in a holding pen prior to entering a known arena, whether the holding pen experience prior to the arena exposure affects their play expression in the arena and whether their behaviour (in home pen) is affected if arena access is denied. Twenty pair-housed male lambs (average 14 weeks old), were exposed, in chronological order, to five treatments. Holding pen treat-ment (HP-control): Each pair was led into a holding pen (2.7 m2) and remained there for 5 minutes before returning to their home pen (6 m2). Holding pen ? arena treatment (HP-A): Each pair was led into a holding pen for 5 min and then was allowed access into the arena (22 m2, containing two hanging chains, one ball and one platform) for 15 min before re-turning to their home pen.

This paper is about the new methods and metrics used in industry and business today striving for better revenues and larger market shares. It investigates the relations between the old fordistic and tayloristic way of manufacturing and compares it to the models used in industry today for being competitive, seeking to please customers and becoming more flexible. More specific the paper is about if Six Sigma and lean production are the key for succeeding these days. SKF:s factory in Gothenburg and other companies will make an example for how these methods are used in practice.The aim is to try to answer if these systems with inherited tools and methods are the right way to get the flexibility that is needed for being able to deliver the right goods to customers and market. For a company to be flexible decisions must be made fast and needed changes must be able to be done easy and without too large costs and investments.

Inspired by the current debate over the effectiveness of Public Relations (PR), the authors of the following thesis have sought to analyze how PR and advertising differ in terms of how they affect consumers. The subject of the thesis was chosen due to the lacking knowledge of how PR shapes consumer attitudes and intentions. The authors wish to upset the institutionalized myths which dominate in the PR-business. One example of such a myth is that the effectiveness of PR can be measured by the number of press releases an activity produces and that PR?s superiority over advertising is due to its higher trustworthiness.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine virtual reading groups, and which meaning the users perceive that the virtual reading groups offer. In addition, the study inquires which details can be improved to further amend the needs and wants among the users of virtual reading groups. Through these outlines, it is discussed how libraries and librarians can make use of virtual reading groups as a resource. The study is based upon qualitative interviews, consisting of asynchronous e-mail interviews with a total of sixteen members in two different virtual reading groups.

Introduction: Sleep is necessary for human survival. Difficulty sleeping occurs in about one in four adult person in Sweden, insomnia in every ten. There are several reasons for difficulty sleeping, where stress is one of the most common. The quality of life and health are affected negatively. Treatment with proven efficacy against insomnia is not only sleep medication, but also cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT.

 AbstractThe background for this study is that there were a great amount of buildings constructed in Sweden in the years 1965-1975 in a program designed to create one million apartments in a time-period of ten years. These buildings are now, somewhat forty years later in most cases in very poor condition and the need for renovation is great and urgent. This has become a growing problem and more and more voices are being heard pointing towards the vast and extremely expensive task of renovating these buildings. Lately, it has also been more and more important for buildings to be energy-efficient and sustainable environment friendly.In recent years there has been an atempt to solve these problems by renovating such buildings but at the same time making them very energy-efficient. This is in some cases being done by isolating the shell of the building and changing the ventilation-system and so forth.

Bakgrund och problematisering: Tjänsteföretag på konkurrensutsatta marknader motiveras att anpassa sina produkter utifrån kundernas efterfrågan där utvärdering och förbättring av en tjänsts kvalitet är ett tillvägagångsätt. Fallföretaget Vindsurfing.se studeras med en problembakgrund baserad på hur företag kan utvärdera kvalitet i sina tjänster och vilka positiva och negativa faktorer i produktionen av tjänsterna som går att identifiera utifrån kundernas uppfattningar.Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka den av konsumenterna upplevda kvaliteten på de nybörjarkurser som företaget Vindsurfing.se erbjuder. Detta för att identifiera olika faktorer med påverkan på kvaliteten som kan ligga till grund för utredning av hur verksamheten kan utvecklas i framtiden.Teori och modell: Litteraturgenomgång med utgångspunkt i begreppet service quality, dess definition, tillämpningar och mätinstrument. Nyckelmodeller är bl.a. Grönroos (1984) ?Service-Quality Model? och Parasuraman et al., (1985) ?Service-Gap-model?.

The purpose of this thesis project was to study how different companies are working with LastTime Buy and through that study propose improved ways of working with this for Scania CVAB. The project aimed at studying the work processes from three different perspectives:decision models, quality aspects and liability aspects between companies.To study this, qualitative interviews with one or several representatives from differentcompanies that are affected by or involved in Last Time Buy were used. Representatives wereselected partly from Original Equipment Manufacturers, suppliers, component manufacturersand companies offering third part solutions for Last Time Buy. The companies also reflecteddifferent industries. The interviews aimed to create an understanding for the methods used atthe different companies but also the ways of thinking and the knowledge behind the choice ofthese working methods.The analysis shows that the Original Equipment Manufacturers used very similar decisionmodels for Last Time Buy, but that external factors or the company strategy made them reachdifferent results.

Today the individual ventilated cage system (IVC-system) is the most commonly used system when housing rodents. IVC systems are designed to control both supply and exhausted air at cage level, as well as temperature and relative humidity in the cages. This creates an optimal environment for the mouse and at the same time a protection against the risk of cross-infection between cages and the outside environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the health and welfare for two different strains of laboratory mice (NMRI nude mice and C57BL/6NCrl mice) in three different kinds of IVC-systems; Arrowmight, Allentown and Tecniplast. 108 mouse pups from each strain (in total 216 mice) were selected after weaning at an age of three weeks and tested during 5 weeks.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva hur patienter som opererats med total knäplastik upplevt sin postoperativa smärtbehandling under tiden de vistats på en vårdavdelning.Studien har genomförts som en kvalitativ intervjustudie och analyserats med hjälp av innehållsanalys. Resultatet presenteras utifrån fyra kategorier som framkom under analysen: aktivitet, smärta, smärtlindring och uppföljning. Resultatet visade att de flesta deltagarna upplevt sin postoperativa smärtbehandling som tillfredställande och att den smärta alla upplevt är den som uppkommit vid mobilisering. De första stegen vid uppstigande och framför allt böjning av knäet är det som framkallat störst smärta. Den smärtbehandling som majoriteten av deltagarna har upplevt som väldigt god är den kombinerade metoden med kyla och tryck, så kallad Cryo/Cuff.

The following study aims to investigate the environmental conditions of the harbor of Sk?rhamn, a small fishing community on the west coast of Sweden. The interest to do so rose as a newly built apartment residence failed to connect the sewage pipes of 18 apartments, causing the untreated sewage running into the sea. The parameters accounted for are the C/N ratio, total organic carbon (TOC) as well as total nitrogen present (TN) and ?13C in the top ten centimeters of a sediment core retrieved in the Sk?rhamn harbour.

Over the last 25 year IT development has greatly influenced the waycompanies are managed, the tremendous growth in the information society has made a huge amount of information extremely accessible. This has resulted in the problem of information overload where the large amount of information can affect the quality of a decision basis collected by a controller.The purpose of the study is to examine how a controller is affected by information overload and how this influences the decision basis. We intend to highlight the important elements to represent a high quality of information.A survey was conducted through a case study within a global affiliated company in the packaging industry. An adductive approach has been applied with a qualitative research method. Collected empirical material from interviews has been put into relation with existing theories.The case study indicates that there is no relationship between the problem of information overload and flawed decision basis.

Fuel pellets are a refined bio fuel mostly consisting of residues from sawmills and wood industry. At Rindi Västerdala AB's combined bio energy plant in Vansbro fuel pellets are produced, while the waste heat from the process is used for district heating. The pellets are produced from sawdust, wood shavings and dry wood chips that is dried, milled and pressed into small cylindrical rods. The advantage of refining the wood material in this manner is that the energy value is greater per unit volume and unit weight, thereby the cost of transportation per energy unit is reduced. Also, less storage space is needed.Pellet manufacturing is a complex process since many parameters affects the final results.

Operators and Internet service providers invest in broadband to be able to deliver new services that require higher data transmission rate. A way to make this possible is to use ADSL, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, as the access technology. To be able to handle this technology, the service providers should do a pre-qualification. Methods and tools are needed to analyze the local copper lines and decide if these qualify for ADSL with respect to service availability and possible bandwidth through the lines. This report brings up some methods for pre-qualification of ADSL, the important quality parameters and how to gather them from the available services today.