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Denna undersökning syftar till att ta reda på hur kvinnliga och manliga karaktärer samt relationen mellan dem framställs i episka utdrag i läroböcker för gymnasiala svenskkurser. Därtill syftar undersökningen till att ta reda på hur dessa utdrag kan behandlas i litteratursamtal som en jämställdhetsfrämjande arbetsmetod i skolan. För undersökningen användes diskursanalys som metod och analysen genomfördes med ett genusperspektiv. Resultatet visade att totalt 29 utdrag i de nio läroböcker vi undersökt innehöll stereotypa framställningar av manliga och kvinnliga karaktärer som kan diskuteras i ett litteratursamtal för att främja jämställdhet. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att manliga karaktärer framställs som känslokalla och kvinnliga karaktärer som emotionellt instabila. Relationen mellan kvinnliga och manliga karaktärer framställs som ojämställd. Dessa framställningar förklaras genom de genusteoretiska begreppen dikotomi, genussystemet och den heterosexuella matrisen. Vidare visar resultatet att de olika läsarter som aktiveras i ett litteratursamtal möjliggör en jämställdhetsfrämjande arbetsmetod med de valda utdragen.
The aim of this study was to investigate emotions and emotion regulation of a downsizing in an industrial company. The sample consisted of persons who had experienced a downsizing but have kept the employment, within a same position or being transferred to another one. Data consisted of two focus group interviews, analysed by an inductive thematic analysis. The results have indicated that emotional reactions changed over time as well the emotional regulation did during the different phases. The groups differed in emotional reaction related to the time of decision regarding the retention of employment. One conclusion is that fast and accurate information during the different phases of a downsizing process may lead to more positive emotional reactions, which in consequence may result in a positive experience of the reduction process as a whole. The confidence in management increased across the time, due to its decisiveness during the process of downsizing.
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between innovation and system complexity, and suggest improvements for an organization to handle innovation and complexity better.
Method: The analysis was based on theoretical models about organizational structure, development models and knowledge management. The models were selected to highlight theoretical extremes rather than practical usefulness to avoid practical obstacles in the theoretic evaluations. The work progressed as a strategy development flow based on a model including four phases; analysis, objectives and recommendations, options and Implementation.
Result & Conclusions: To significantly improve how complexity and innovation are managed it isn't sufficient to focus on improvements in one part, such as processes. Organizational goals, external environment, organizational structure, development model, knowledge management and internal culture have to be considered and balanced to achieve significant improvements. For the organization studied it was clear that there was a difference in the official description of the organization and how it worked in practice.
Suggestions for future research: Metrics are important to measure value and improvement. Balanced metrics describing how well an organization is adapted to its goals and environment is an area for future work. The effect of Model-Based design on organizational structure is another interesting topic for further research.
Contribution of the thesis: The recommendations and objectives developed in this study can be used to improve an organization with respect to both internal and external environment.
Although musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and other health cornplaints are an occupational problem for ambulance personnel, there is a lack ofknowJedge regarding work-related factors associated with MSDs and other health cornplaints. The overall aim ofthis thesis was to investigate the relationships between occupational demands, individual characteristics and health-related outcornes among ambulance personnel.
A random sarnple of 234 female and 953 male ambulance personnel participated in a national questionnaire suTVey on work-related factors, and musculoskeletal and other health cornplaints. Physical demands was associated with activity limitation due to neck-shoulder and low-back complaints among the female personnel. Among the male personnel, physical demands was associated with low-back cornplaints and activity limitation due to low-back cornplaints. Psychological demands was significantly associated with neck-shoulder complaints, sleeping problerns, headache and stomach syrnptorns among both female and male ambulance personnel. Worry about work conditions was associated with musculoskeletal disorders and sleeping problerns, headache and stomach symptoms.
A local sample of 26 ambulance personnel was followed during a 24-hour work shift and for the next two work-free days. Subjective stress- and energy levels, and cortisol levels were measured at regular inteTYals, and heart rate was registered continuously by electrocardiogram (ECG). Autonomic reactivity to standardized tests before (pre-work) and at the end of the work shift (post-work) was also investigated. For the whole group, baseline values of heart rate were higher pre-work than post-work, but autonomic reactivity did not differ. lncreased reactivity to the mental test, modest deviation in heart rate variability (HRV) pattem during the Jate night hours at work and higher moming cortisol values during work than during leisure time were obseTVed in personnel with many health cornplaints, but not among their co-workers without or with few complaints. Ambulance personnel with many health complaints also reported higher psychological demands and tended to be more worried about work conditions.
Heart rate (HR), lactate level (LL) and perceived exertion (RPE) were investigated in 17 female and 48 male ambulance personnel during a simulated standardized work task "carry a loaded stretcher". The ambulance personnel had to carry the loaded stretcher (920 N) up and down three tlights of stairs twice. The high physiological strain (HR, LL, RPE) for the male, and near or at maximal strain for the female ambulance personnel, implied the importance to identify what kind of physical capacity is most important for ambulance personnel. Therefore, the explained variance of developed fatigue by tests of cardiorespiratory capacity, muscular strength and endurance, and coordination was investigated. The results showed that VO2max and isometric back endurance were important predictors for development of fatigue when carrying a loaded stretcher .
The influence of body size on the relationships between maximal strength and functional performance was investigated in a methodological study. The results confirm that the assessment ofphysical performance could be confounded by the body weight. Therefore, the models for explaining development of fatigue when carrying the loaded stretcher were adjusted for height and weight. lncluding height in the models significantly increased the exp1ained variance of accumulated lactate among female, but not among male personnel. Lactate levels were higher among short cornpared to tall female personnel. Weight had no effect on any of the models.
In conclusion, the national suTVey showed that self-reported physical demands was a risk factor of having MSDs, and that self-reported psychological demands and worry about work were important risk factors of having MSDs and other health complaints. Stress monitoring of ambulance personnel during work and leisure time showed that physiological and subjective stress markers did not show any differences between the 24-hour ambulance work shift and leisure time afterwards. However, ambulance personnel with many health cornplaints had certain physiological changes during the work shift in cornparison with the next two work-free days. The physiological and subjective responses during carrying a loaded stretcher, especially among the female ambulance personnel, showed that female and male ambulance personnel could be exposed to intemal exposures at different levels when performing the same work task. A better understanding of the relationships between occupational demands and health-related ou tcomes require further studies on age- and gender matched groups in long-term perspective studies.
This cross-sectional study on a random sample of 1,500 ambulance personnel investigated the relationships between self-reported work-related physical and psychosocial factors, worry about work conditions, and musculoskeletal disorders among female and male ambulance personnel. Three different outcomes, complaints, activity limitation, and sick leave, for the neck-shoulder and low-back region, respectively, were chosen. Among the female personnel, physical demands was significantly associated with activity limitation in the neck-shoulder (OR 4.13) and low-back region (OR 2.17), and psychological demands with neck-shoulder (OR 2.37) and low-back (OR 2.28) complaints. Among the male personnel, physical demands was significantly associated with low-back complaints (OR 1.41) and activity limitation (OR 1.62). Psychological demands and lack of social support were significantly associated with neck-shoulder complaints (OR 1.86 and OR 1.58, respectively) and activity limitation (OR 3.46 and OR 1.71) as well as activity limitation due to low-back complaints (OR 2.22 and OR 1.63). Worry about work conditions was independently associated with activity limitation due to low-back complaints among the female (OR 5.28), and to both neck-shoulder and low-back complaints (OR 1.79 and OR 2.04, respectively) and activity limitation (OR 2.32 and OR 1.95) among the male personnel. In conclusion, the association patterns between physical and psychological demands and MSDs suggest opportunities for intervention.
The role of body size has often been neglected in routine tests of muscle strength and movement performance. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that different types of functional movement performance require different normalisations in order to assess muscle strength. Twenty-one right-handed male university students were tested on the following functional movement tasks: vertical jump, standing soccer ball kick, seated medicine ball throw and standing maximal isometric lift. Isokinetic strength of active muscle \, groups was also recorded. The performance of the vertical jump and standing s9ccer ball kick demonstrated stronger relationship with the strength of active muscles normalised for body size, while the performance of the s~ated medicine ball throw and standing maximal
Iisometric lift demonstrated stronger relationship with the non- normalised strength.
It was concluded that the ability of performing functional movements based on overcoming gravitational and/or inertial resistance of subject's own body (such as keeping certain body postures, or various body movements) should be assessed by the tested muscle strength normalised for body size, while the functional performance based on muscle action performed against external objects (e.g. manual material handling, or lifting heavy objects) should be assessed by the non-normalised muscle strength. The obtained f"mdings proved to be in line with our recently proposed classification of muscle strength and functional movement tests based on the role of body size in the re~orded performance.
This study aimed at investigating the relationships between work-related psychosocial factors, worry about work conditions and health complaints (sleeping problems, headache and stomach symptoms) among female and male ambulance personnel. Out of 4000 ambulance personnel in Sweden, 1500 (300 female and 1200 male personnel) were randomly selected. They answered a questionnaire including items on self-reported health complaints, individual characteristics, work-related psychological demands, decision latitude, social support and worry about work conditions. Twenty-five per cent of the female and 20% of the male ambulance personnel reported two or more health complaints sometimes or often. According to the demand-control-support questionnaire, ambulance personnel reported a generally positive psychosocial work environment, although psychological demands were associated with sleeping problems, headache and stomach symptoms among both female and male ambulance personnel. Another factor that was significantly associated with health complaints among both genders was worry about work conditions. When worry about work conditions was added to the regression models, this variable took over the role from psychological demands as a predictor for health complaints among the female ambulance personnel. The prevalence of sleeping problems, headache and stomach symptoms were significantly associated with psychological demands among both female and male ambulance personnel. Notably, worry about work conditions seems to be an important risk factor for health complaints. This suggests that worry about work conditions should not be neglected when considering risk factors among ambulance personnel.
Prolonged computer use, especially if fatigue ensues, is associated with visual and musculoskeletal symptoms. The aim was to determine the time-course of perceived fatigue in the wrist, forearm, shoulder and eyes during a 60-min mouse task (painting rectangles), and whether object size and/or mouse use demands were of influence. Also, we investigated performance (number of rectangles painted), and whether perceived fatigue was paralleled by local muscle fatigue or tissue oxygenation. Ten women performed the task for three conditions (crossover design). At condition 1, rectangles were 45 × 25 mm, square paint cursor size 1.3 × 1.3 mm, and mousepointer movement ratio 1:26. At condition 2, the same cursor size and mousepointer movement ratio was used, but rectangles were smaller. At condition 3, the smaller rectangles were used, but the cursor size was also smaller and mousepointer movement ratio was 1:8. The results showed increased self-reported fatigue over time, with the observed increase greater for the eyes, but no change in physiological responses. Condition 2 resulted in higher performance and increased eye fatigue. Perceived fatigue in the muscles or physiological responses did not differ between conditions. In conclusion, computer work tasks imposing high visual and motor demands, and with high performance, seemed to have an influence on eye fatigue.
Objectives: The aim of the present study was to assess physiological and subjective stress markers during a 24-h ambulance work shift and during the next two work-free days, and relate these parameters to self-reported health complaints. Methods: Twenty-six ambulance personnel were followed during a 24-h work shift and during the next two work-free days with electrocardiogram, cortisol assessments and diary notes. The ambulance personnel also performed tests of autonomic reactivity before and at the end of the work shift. The subjects were categorized into two groups according to their number of health complaints. Results: In general, stress markers did not show differences between the work shift and leisure time. However, a modest deviation in heart rate variability pattern and higher morning cortisol values during work in comparison with work-free days were observed in personnel with many health complaints. Conclusions: Subjective and physiological characteristics of ambulance personnel did not indicate distinctive stress during the 24-h work shift. Relationships between frequent health complaints and specific work-related factors require further prospective studies.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of individually prescribed physical exercise programmes on development of fatigue during the carrying of a loaded stretcher up and down the stairs. Nineteen ambulance personnel performed the training for 1 year. Testing occurred before and after 1 year of the training. Both the training group (n = 19) and the control group (n = 15) were assessed for physical capacity and lactate concentration in blood and ratings of perceived exertion during carrying a stretcher on the stairs. When comparisons were made between those who had been training three times/week for 1 year and the control group, lactate concentration was significantly decreased. In conclusion, markers of fatigue during stretcher carrying can be reduced by the use of individually prescribed physical exercise programmes.
The overall aim was to study transgender persons' experiences of, and reactions upon, attitudes and social norms in relation to their gender identity. Another question that was relevant to answer was how transgender persons are affected by the hetero norm. The method used to collect data was through questionnaires published on the internet. The only requirement to participate was to be a transgender over 18 years old, and when the survey closed, 35 respondents had answered it. The questionnaire consisted of both quantitative and qualitative questions. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis.
The results indicate that transgender persons living conditions are largely affected by norms, and that they encounter a considerable amount of negative attitudes due to their gender identity. To "pass" as either man or woman turned out to be something that made it easier for transgender people to evade negative attitudes.
One hope is that this study can provide knowledge to different instances in the community to open up to be more open to critical thinking around norms.
The conclusion was that persons with a transgender identity are affected by societal norms and by heteronormativity. It takes a lot of courage to be able to be one self but everything boils down to how strong a person are and the availability of support and role models in the surrounding society.
Sammanfattning: Syftet med examensarbetet var att få en fördjupad förståelse över hur barn tänker matematik med fokus på subtraktion. Arbetet koncentrerades kring vilken uppfattning eleverna har om subtraktion i relation till addition, vilka subtraktionsstrategier de har samt om dessa skiljer sig utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Syftet var också att ta reda på hur subtraktion presenteras under de första skolåren, med hjälp av lärarintervjuer och läroboksanalyser. Tillvägagångssättet var således kvalitativa intervjuer med elever och lärare samt analys av skolornas läromedel.
Det jag kom fram till med arbetet var att elever ofta behärskar många strategier innan de börjar skolan men att de sedan utvecklas till att enbart använda en metod. Lärare har därför ett ansvar i klassrummet att pedagogiskt lägga upp ett arbetssätt som hjälper eleverna att etablera de strategier som de har och lära ut flera strategier. Den vanligaste subtraktionsstrategin för elever i tidiga år är att räkna med borttagningsmetoden.
Sweden is a long-term world reference country in terms of sustainable development. On the other hand, Barcelona has recently made great efforts in order to improve and to make society aware of the importance of environmental issues. Hence, it would be interesting to investigate if these efforts had succeeded in the waste's management in Barcelona compared to other leading European cities, and particularly to the case of Gävle.
In this work, the operation of the management of the urban solid wastes of the two cities is explained.
First, the objectives marked by Agenda 21 of each locality are exposed. Next, a theoretical perspective about management, generation of wastes and types of waste treatment is provided. In the following chapter, the results of the generation of wastes, selective collection and the treatments of the wastes are shown for both the cases of Barcelona and Gävle until the 2006.
Finally, the two cities are compared and the results obtained in the management of the wastes are discussed.
The conclusion in this study is that Barcelona has improved noticeable in terms of environmentally safe management of the wastes. This has happened thanks to the efforts of the city council and of the citizens.
But It is still necessary to make a major effort by the inhabitants of Barcelona.
PURPOSEThe main purpose of this research is to determine the consumer level approach of brand equity in Citibank N.A using empirical information based on its brand awareness. The awareness of a brand would show the level of the brand recognition. A telephone interview was conducted to explain the different aspects that constitute the recognition of brand equity and brand awareness of Citibank N.A-Cameroon in addition to its ads.
RESEARCH QUESTIONHow can Citibank N.A, Cameroon subsidiary, measure the level of its brand equity from its brand awareness?
RESEARCH APPROACH/METHODOLOGYIn order to answer the research question and achieve the research objective established for this research, a structured research method was required. In this research a qualitative research approach was applied to suit the content of the research. A telephone interview was conducted to give a qualitative view of this research.
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONSAwareness (aided, unaided), contributes to the recognition of brand equity. In the empirical part of the thesis brand recognition and awareness can be facilitated by Citibank-Cameroon subsidiary being participative in its social corporate responsibility plan to develop the community by planting trees and organizing football competition every summer holidays. This brand strategy has been used for several years to keep a positive brand image of the bank.
Syftet med studien var att få en djupare förståelse om på vilket sätt läshunden kan bidra till att förbättra barns läsförmåga. Studien använder sig av en metainspirerad innehållsanalys. Metaanalys användes för att samla in information till studien samt att kunna dra slutsatser om tidigare forskning. Innehållsanalys användes för att skapa teman och kodning, med hjälp av innehållsanalys kan man skapa en djupare mening med textens innehåll. Artiklarna från resultatdelen samlades in från vetenskapliga databaser där alla artiklar är peer-reviewe.
Studien undersöker på vilket sätt kan en läshund bidra till att positivt påverka barns läsförmåga? Är det hunden i sig som påverkar barnets läsförmåga eller är det miljön? Resultat visar på att läshunden påverkar barn positivt både psykiskt, fysiskt och socialt. Resultatet visar även på att det är läshunden som påverkar barnen positivt och inte miljön de vistas i under lästiden. Slutsatsen man kan dra av denna studie är att läshunden visar på en positiv påverkan på barn och har givit oss förståelse om på vilket sätt läshunden påverkar barnen.
The globalization has converted the world into a small global village; a village in which there is an ever high stream of contentions and competitions between organizations. In this scenario the most effective and beneficial maneuver for any organization is to create innovative ways in conducting business. This thesis deals with the role of leadership in the phenomena of organizational change and innovation. The leader as a person in charge or as a change agent can manage an organization or the process of organizational change more effectively and successfully if h/she is capable and competent. Rapid technological advancements, high expectations of customers, and ever changing market situations have compelled organizations to incessantly reassess and reevaluate how they work and to understand, adopt and implement changes in their business model in response of changing trends. Organizational change is a demand of the day, and needed for organizations to survive. Organizations now a days, well understand the importance of the matter, and are serious to prepare themselves not only the current, but also for the future trends to get the level of sustainable success, but Along with all of its implications and importance the process of organizational change is also a very complex and challenging. Research shows that 70 percent of organizational changes fail to get their goals. As leadership has a central role in evolution and cultivating an organization, the process of organizational change demands a very effective and highly competent leadership that is well capable to perceive the most desirable shape of an organization and address the issue of organizational change in most appropriate way. The analysis of literature reviewed and the results of real life cases of organizations which are studied for this thesis shows, that a leadership with the competencies of "Vision" and "Innovative Approach" along with other characteristics can prove more effective to conclude the complex phenomena of organizational change with success. Further the successful organizational change can leads to innovation for organization, which is the key of long term success and sustainability. This thesis as a result proposed a model which is derived from the leadership competencies, organizational change, and sustainable success and innovation literature. This model expresses relationship between successful organizational change and leadership on the basis of h/her characteristics, which are 'Vision" and "Innovative Approach". With the help of proposed model this relationship can be viewed graphically.
A free and flexible business environment attracts international organisations to those markets that have big growth potential and high profit margins. To penetrate emerging markets is of great interest to any international organisation. The situation gets more intense if it is in the field of telecommunications. Telecommunications (telecoms) and information technology (IT) are generically known as the information and communication technologies (ICT) industries. ICT is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and is also considered among the biggest markets in terms of customer base, growth and profitability. The competition is very high in such markets, so relatively unique, attractive and extraordinary business strategies are usually practiced by these companies. The situation may create an atmosphere of upheavals and uncertainties in such markets. Extraordinary or unethical business policies can not only affect the business of other organisations, but also has some after-effects on societies and the mindset of target nations and market ethics. Organisations are very much engaged with society and work in the social environment, therefore the socio-cultural components is of great importance when designing business strategies. Exploring the facts about emerging markets and by analysing the case of Chinese company Huawei in the Pakistani telecom market, this thesis gives investigates and assess the success factor of this Chinese company. This thesis highlights the upheaval factors of emerging markets, by analysing the role of cultural interests and the mindsets of target nations for organisations planning their strategies
Vi lever i en värld där människor rör sig mellan länder, där kulturella referenser möts, påverkar, sammanflätas och utvecklas med andra och där den ökade globaliseringen gör att jordens befolkning kommer allt närmre varandra. Samtidigt finns nationsgränser varigenom det upprätthålls och produceras normer och värderingar och därigenom riktlinjer för vad som kan ta sig uttryck samt på vilket sätt. Ökad migration till följd av flykt ifrån krig och förföljelse, en önskan om att leva under bättre levnadsvillkor, ökade försörjningsmöjligheter samt möjlighet att leva nära familj och släktingar har stor påverkan på den etniska sammansättningen i många länder. Som ett resultat av detta träffas människor med skilda uppfattningar och idéer, regelbundet möts människor som tänker olika, som ser olika ut och som lever på skilda sätt. Samhällen vari denna process äger rum förändras genom denna kontakt men även utifrån de bilder som överförs via media. Sveriges lagar styrs inte utifrån några religiösa betingelser men det finns fortfarande religiösa inslag i samhällsstrukturen som vilar på en kristen trosåskådning. Sedan invandringen till Sverige ifrån länder med muslimsk majoritet ökat har islam och muslimer kommit att omdebatteras trots att de utgör en minoritet i landet. Människors uppfattningar påverkas bland annat utifrån det massmedier väljer att förmedla, utgångspunkten för denna studie är att utforska de retoriska konstruktioner som förmedlas genom mediet tidning, specifikt Vestmanlands läns tidning, i sammanhang där islam och/eller muslimer omnämns. Genom att analysera ett 40-tal artiklar i tidningen kommer vi åskådliggöra vilka formuleringar, benämningar och ordval som används och som vi menar konstruerar bilder av den verklighet som skribenter och läsare är en del av. Vi kom fram till att vi på daglig basis försöker utmåla andra grupper än den egna med ondska, detta är problematiskt. Vi identifierar andra individer och grupper med ondskefulla värderingar och därigenom separerar vi oss själva från dem. Det är bland annat detta som får oss att känna ett inkluderande och därmed rättfärdigas avståndstagandet gentemot den andra gruppen vilket i sin tur leder till ökad polarisering. Resultatet visar på att den aktuella diskursen om muslimer och islam bibehålls genom att stereotypa uppfattningar repeteras och bekräftas i det massmediala rummet. Dessa uppfattningar vilar många gånger på ovetenskapliga belägg, det som framförs kan vara rena åsiktsyttringar med syfte till att sälja lösa artiklar
The number of vehicles has increased significantly in recent years, which causeshigh density in traffic and further problems like accidents and road congestions.A solution regarding to this problem is vehicle-to-vehicle communication, wherevehicles are able to communicate with their neighboring vehicles even in the absenceof a central base station, to provide safer and more efficient roads and toincrease passenger safety.The goal of this thesis is to investigate basic physical layer parameters of ainter-vehicle communication system, like emission power, spectral emission, errorvector magnitude, guard interval, ramp-up/down time, and third order interceptpoint. I also studied the intelligent transportation system's channel layout inEurope, how the interference of other systems are working in co-channel and adjacentchannels, and some proposals to use the allocated frequency bands. On theother hand, the fundamentals of OFDM transmission and definitions of OFDMkey parameters in IEEE 802.11p are investigated.The focus of this work is on the measurement of transmitter frontend parametersof a new testbed designed and fabricated in order to be used at inter-vehiclecommunication based on IEEE 802.11p.
BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic status (SES) can greatly affect the clinical outcome of medical problems. We sought to assess the in-hospital mortality of patients with the acute coronary syndrome (ACS) according to their SES.
METHODS: All patients admitted to Tehran Heart Center due to 1(st)-time ACS between March 2004 and August 2011 were assessed. The patients who were illiterate/lowly educated (≤5 years attained education) and were unemployed were considered low-SES patients and those who were employed and had high educational levels (>5 years attained education) were regarded as high-SES patients. Demographic, clinical, paraclinical, and in-hospital medical progress data were recorded. Death during the course of hospitalization was considered the end point, and the impact of SES on in-hospital mortality was evaluated.
RESULTS: A total of 6246 hospitalized patients (3290 low SES and 2956 high SES) were included (mean age = 60.3 ± 12.1 years, male = 2772 [44.4%]). Among them, 79 (1.26%) patients died. Univariable analysis showed a significantly higher mortality rate in the low-SES group (1.9% vs. 0.6%; P < 0.001). After adjustment for possible cofounders, SES still showed a significant effect on the in-hospital mortality of the ACS patients in that the high-SES patients had a lower in-hospital mortality rate (odds ratio: 0.304, 95% confidence interval: 0.094-0.980; P = 0.046).
CONCLUSIONS: This study found that patients with low SES were at a higher risk of in-hospital mortality due to the ACS. Furthermore, the results suggest the need for increased availability of jobs as well as improved levels of education as preventive measures to curb the unfolding deaths owing to coronary artery syndrome.
Diverse ethnic groups may differ regarding the risk factors and severity of coronary artery disease (CAD). This study sought to assess the association between ethnicity and CAD risk and severity in six major Iranian ethnic groups.
In this study, 20,165 documented coronary artery disease patients who underwent coronary angiography at a tertiary referral heart center were recruited. The demographic, laboratory, clinical, and risk factor data of all the patients were retrieved. The Gensini score (an indicator of CAD severity) was calculated for all, and the risk factors and severity of CAD were compared between the ethnical groups, using adjusted standardized residuals, Kruskal–Wallis test, and multivariable regression analysis.
The mean age of the participants (14,131 [70.1%] men and 6034 [29.9%] women) was 60.7 ± 10.8 years. The Fars (8.7%) and Gilak (8.6%) ethnic groups had the highest prevalence of ≥4 simultaneous risk factors. The mean Gensini score was the highest for the Gilaks (77.1 ± 55.9) and the lowest among the Lors (67.5 ± 52.8). The multivariable regression analysis showed that the Gilaks had the worst severity (β 0.056, 95% CI 0.009 to 0.102; P = 0.018), followed by the Torks (β 0.032, 95% CI 0.005 to 0.059; P = 0.020). Meanwhile, the Lors showed the lowest severity (β −0.087, 95% CI −0.146 to −0.027; P = 0.004).
This study found that there was heterogeneity in CAD severity and a diverse distribution in its well-known traditional risk factors among major Iranian ethnic groups.
Background: Given gender differences in the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), the present study sought to investigate these dissimilarities amongst patients who underwent angiography at a major, tertiary heart hospital in Iran. Methods: Between 2005 and 2010, 44,820 patients who underwent coronary angiography were enrolled in a registry. Pre-procedural data such as demographics, CAD risk factors, presenting symptoms, and laboratory tests, as well as postprocedural data were collected. The data were, subsequently, compared between the men and women. Results: Out of the 44,820 patients (16,378 women), who underwent coronary angiography, 37,358 patients (11,995 women) had CAD. Amongst the CAD patients, the females were not only significantly older, less educated, and more overweight than were the males but also had higher levels of triglyceride, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, highdensity lipoprotein, and fasting blood sugar (P< 0.001). Of all the risk factors, hypertension and diabetes mellitus showed the strongest association in our female CAD patients (OR=3.45, 95%CI: 3.28-3.61 and OR=2.37, 95%CI: 2.26- 2.48, respectively). Acute coronary syndrome was more prevalent in the men (76.1% vs. 68.6%, P< 0.001), and chronic stable angina was more frequent in the females (31.4% vs. 23.9%, P< 0.001). With respect to post-procedural recommendations, the frequency of recommendations for non-invasive modalities was higher in the females (20.1% vs. 18.6%, P< 0.001). Conclusion: Hypertension and diabetes mellitus had the strongest association with CAD in our female patients. In the extensive CAD patients, medical treatment was recommended to the women more often.
Indoor Positioning Systems lokaliserar människor och objekt inomhus med hjälp av minst tre kända referenspunkter. System för inomhuspositionering som använder kända referenspunkter kallas anchor-based lokalisering medan de som beräknar deras positioner själva kallas anchor-free lokalisering. Syftet med detta arbete är att utveckla en algoritm som är anpassad efter ett anchor-free lokaliseringssystem. Den ska vara oberoende av nätverksuppkopplingen, hårdvaran och hur avstånden mellan mottagare och sensorer beräknats. Utgångspunkten för algoritmen är enbart avstånd mellan en mottagare och tre sensorer vilket kan beskrivas som arbetets huvudsakliga problem.
Algoritmen implementerades i Java med en simulering som återspeglar positioneringen i en perfekt miljö och sedan testas på en Android-applikation. Simuleringen tillåter användaren att rita ut flera mätpunkter som skapar en rutt. Dessa mätpunkter utnyttjas för att dynamiskt lokalisera referenspunkterna och mätpunkterna genom att hitta ett minsta avstånd mellan sensorerna. Dessa avstånd kan beskrivas som sidorna för en referenstriangel som möjliggör att ett koordinatsystem kan spännas upp.
Resultatet av den empiriska studien visade en felmarginal mellan 0,3-6 m utan signalstörningar, vilket inte var tillräckligt noggrant. Efter att algoritmen implementerats lades fokus på en korrigering som kan itereras igenom för att uppskatta bättre mätvärden för referenstriangeln. Korrigeringen gav positiva resultat med lägre felmarginal. Arbetet kan vidareutvecklas genom att implementeras i ett verkligt IPS-system och algoritmen kan förbättras genom att skapa utökade funktioner som kan hantera fler än tre beacons.
Sedentary behavior in children is positively associated with an increased risk of both obesity and insulin resistance. Children spend a considerable portion of their awake time in sedentary behavior; however, the pattern of accumulation is not known. Thus the objective of this study was to describe the patterning of sedentary behavior of children at and away from school.
Design and Methods:
The patterns of sedentary time in a sample of 53 children (28 girls) aged 10-12 years during school-term time were examined. Children wore an accelerometer for 1 week. Total sedentary time, prolonged sequences (bouts) of sedentary time, and frequency of active interruptions to sedentary were examined on school days and weekends and within school time and non-school time on school days.
The data did not support our hypothesis that children accumulated more sedentary time on school days when compared with weekend days (mean [SD]: 64.4% [5.3] vs. 64.9% [9.0], P = 0.686). However, when comparing school time with non-school time on school days, children accumulated more sedentary time at school (66.8% [7.3] vs. 62.4% [5.2], P < 0.001) and spent more time at school in sustained sedentary sequences, that is, uninterrupted sedentary time for 30 min or more (75.6 min [45.8] vs. 45.0 min [26.8], P < 0.002). The children also recorded less breaks per sedentary hour within school time when compared with non-school time (8.9 h−1 vs. 10.2 h−1, P < 0.001).
Reducing total sedentary time spent both in and out of school remains an important challenge. Interrupting sedentary time more often in the "working" (school) day could also reap important musculoskeletal and metabolic health rewards for children.
Objective: The IFRSs are getting more popularity all over the world. IAS 39 is one of the most sophisticated standards included in the IFRS jurisdiction, which mainly addresses the recognition and measurement of financial instruments and hedge accounting. When these instruments had been off-balance sheet hidden, accounting scandals were the consequences. Capturing these risky instruments in the body of the financial statements, according to IAS 39, implies diverse accounting choices where the selection is tied to managers' judgment.
The Swedish GAAPs have been criticized in the literature of being less conservative than the US GAAPs. Sweden as an EU member has mandated the adoption of IFRSs in the consolidated financial statements of all listed companies, since 2005. No published research has studied the effect of IAS 39 diverse accounting practices on de facto harmonization and comparability in Sweden. The current study fills this gap in the literature, and goes beyond to investigate whether the selected accounting choices are associated with the industry sectors.
Methods: A sample of 50 companies listed in NASDAQ, Stockholm in the financial and the industrial sectors is selected. Secondary data are obtained from the 2007 annual reports of the selected companies. Six accounting practice categories are detected under the standard. Herfindahl (H) index and Chi- square test are applied on the data.
Results: The results show a relatively low harmonization and comparability in most of the accounting practices, and variation in associations between accounting practices and sectors. This infers to the risk of producing non-comparable financial statements that may distort the value of accounting numbers, the content of financial statements and negatively affect market participants.
Conclusion: Much effort is still needed to enhance de facto harmonization and comparability of financial reporting. Further research is also motivated in order to develop a harmonization theory that support standard setters in revising the existing standard to eliminate inconsistencies in accounting choice selection and enhance comparability.
Studiens syfte var att undersöka fritidspedagogens arbetssätt med nyanlända barn i fritidshem.
The global share from buildings towards energy usage in residential and commercial buildings have been increasing constantly reaching between 20% to 40% in developed countries and has overtook the other major sectors: industrial and transportation. Energy demand reduction in the building sector is important for Sweden to achieve national energy aims for reduced energy use in the future. For this reason, energy efficiency measures in buildings today is one of the main objective for energy policy towards 2020 goals.
This project moves on the same path to find energy efficiency potential in Fridhemsskolan buildings in Gävle, Sweden by performing energy audit using IDA-ICE software to simulate energy performance for the buildings under study. In addition, measurements have been made on three of the school buildings named Hus 1, Hus 2 and Hus 3.
The results include different energy efficiency retrofits on each building and economic analysis of these retrofits for each building individually and for the whole buildings together. The presented measures are reducing working hours of the ventilation system in Hus 2, change of CAV system with VAV system in (Hus 1 and Hus 2) and lights changing to LED, s efficient lights and building envelope improvement which includes walls and roof extra insulation and windows replacement.
Replacement of the CAV system in Hus 1 and Hus 2 were not economically beneficial when considering their high cost compared to energy reduction that can be achieved by applying them. On the other hand, energy retrofits analysis showed that combination of the following energy efficiency measures is the most effective and profitable: extra insulation (walls and roof), windows replacement and lights change to LED in the three buildings. In addition to these measure is reducing running hours of the ventilation system in Hus 2.
Implementation of the recommended energy efficiency measures will save 120, 737 kWh/ year of the district heating and 21, 962 kWh/year electricity consumption with capital investment of 417, 396 SEK and 98, 957 SEK/ year cost saving with payback period of 4.2 years. These figures represent 40.3% and 18.1% reduction in district heating and electricity energy use respectively.
Since reducing working hours of ventilation system measure has no capital investment and have the highest figure of energy reduction it reduces payback period significantly. In case the amount of money saved by this measure doesn't consider; payback period for the other measures which require capital investment will be 13.5 years and the energy saving in terms of cost will be 30, 874 SEK/ year.
Site-leasehold right is a form of access to a property. This means that the owner of the property, usually a municipality or the state, let a site-leaseholder use the property against an annual ground rent. A ground rent is determined by a site-leasehold agreement between the owner of the property and the site-leaseholder. The fixed ground rents are for a period of 10 or 20 years. Long periods of rents combined with a real estate market with rising prices means that the ground rent at a new period of ground rent can be increased considerably. The site-leaseholder may well choose to redeem their long lease. To buy the freehold of a site-leasehold means that the site-leaseholder acquires the property of the property owner and form a new single-family real estate. The purpose of the study is to provide a better understanding and knowledge of the site lessee facing the decision to retain the site-leasehold or redeem it. The goal of the project is to provide knowledge about when the economic viability of redeeming a siteleasehold may be deemed attained. Another goal is based on the site-leaseholders perspectives consider to highlighting the underlying reasons why a single-family siteleasehold redeemed. The study is limited to detached single-family site-leaseholds in three geographical areas in the municipality of Gävle. The economic viability of redeeming single-family site-leasehold examined from the site-leasehold executiver's decision to sell or retain the site-leasehold. To examine more closely why a site lessee chooses to redeem the siteleasehold conducted qualitative telephone interviews. From the results based on the study, it can be concluded that it is likely to be economically justified to redeem a single-family site-leasehold on the price of acquiring the plot is equal to or less than the amount that symbolizes the breaking point of economic viability. Of the respondents surveyed for the study the single biggest reason for why a site lessee chooses to redeem his site-leasehold was because of the uncertainty arising from the developments around the ground rent.
En stor del av Sveriges bebyggelse har byggts mellan 1965 och 1974 eftersom det rådde stor bostadsbrist i Sverige. Regeringen beslutade att en miljon bostäder skulle uppföras under denna tid, det s.k. miljonprogrammet. Det byggdes bostäder i varierande former och storlekar för att bygga bort bostadsbristen. Storskaligheten och en stor grad av upprepning av identiska hus är kännetecken för miljonprogrammets bebyggelser. Nu är det dags att renovera dessa byggnader. I och med att dessa byggnader är av allmänt intresse då de speglar en del av Sveriges arkitekturhistoria ställer kommunerna vissa krav vid renovering av dem. Det kommunala företaget Gavlegårdarna i Gävle tar initiativ till att utveckla bygglovsprocessen för sådana bebyggelser. Detta görs för att reducera tiden för framställande av ett godkänt bygglov samt effektivisera och underlätta kommunikationen med kommunen under hela projektet. För att kunna bevara dessa byggnader i högsta möjliga mån har Gavlegårdarna utarbetat en effektiviseringsprocess genom att hyra in en extern bevarandeexpert för att fungera som en bro mellan företaget och kommunen samt för att kunna dela med sig av sina erfarenheter gällande bevarandet av det eventuella området. Dessutom har Gavlegårdarna låtit kommunen vara med från ett tidigt skede, d.v.s. redan från den första presentationen av förslaget. Därmed har kommunen fått vara med och medverka i förslaget, redan innan bygglovsansökan.
Detta examensarbete tar upp konsekvenserna av de nya tillagda rutinerna och hur de har påverkat bygglovsansökningsprocessen för Nya Nordostprojektet. Genom att intervjua de inblandade aktörerna i det undersökta projektet har slutsatsen dragits att dessa rutiner har bidragit till att processen bedrivits mer effektivt jämfört med företagets tidigare projekt. Därutöver visar denna uppsats hur hyresgästerna har engagerat sig i det eventuella arbetet. Enkätundersökning har utförts för att kunna höra hyresgästernas åsikt.
Det har visat sig att de nya rutinerna har effektiviserat tiden för bygglovsansöknings-processen. Tiden har förkortats jämförts med Gavlegårdarnas övriga projekt. Fördröjning i tid kostar företaget mer pengar. Dessutom har den förbättrade kommunikationen underlättat för båda parter att ta emot klagomål lättare och acceptera det. Det bidrar till att kommande problem kan lösas smidigare. Undersökningen har även visat att i projekt som Nya Nordost tas inte stor hänsyn till hyresgästernas åsikter, då byggherren redan är styrd från kommunen, vilket försvårar att flera kan vara med och välja. Ett annat resultat av denna undersökning var att de intervjuade personerna hade olika åsikter om bevarandet gällande Nordost. De flesta tyckte att Nordost ej var värt att bevara. Undersökningen visade även att hyresgästerna inte har engagerat sig lika mycket i bevarandet av gamla byggnader jämfört med att bo i ett modernare och nyrenoverat område.
In many applications of image processing there is a need to extract the solid background which it is usually sky for outdoor images. In our application we present this solution. We developed an automatic algorithm for detection and extraction of sky regions in the color image based on color classification. In which the input image should be in the RGB color space and the blue color is detected and classified. Then the color image is transformed to the binary form and the connected regions are extracted separately. The connected regions are then sorted in a descending order according to the biggest area and the biggest region is identified. Then we merged all objects that have similar sky properties. Experimental results showed that our proposed algorithm can produce good results compared to other existing algorithms.
Aim To study the leadership and management skills of first-line managers (FLMs) of elderly care and their work environment in Egypt and Sweden. Background FLMs in Egypt and Sweden are directly responsible for staff and quality of care. However, FLMs in Sweden, in elderly care, have smaller units/organizations to manage than do their colleagues in Egypt. Furthermore, family care of the elderly has been the norm in Egypt, but in recent years institutional care has increased, whereas in Sweden, residential living homes have existed for a longer period. Methods A convenience sample of FLMs, 49 from Egypt and 49 from Sweden, answered a questionnaire measuring leadership and management skills, structural and psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and psychosomatic health. Results In both countries, FLMs' perceptions of their leadership and management skills and psychological empowerment were quite high, whereas scores for job satisfaction and psychosomatic health were lower. FLMs had higher values in several factors/study variables in Egypt compared with in Sweden. Conclusion and implications The work environment, both in Egypt and Sweden, needs to be improved to increase FLMs' job satisfaction and decrease stress. The cultural differences and levels of management have an effect on the differences between the two countries.
Vårt syfte är att ta reda på vilka marknadsföringsstrategier och marknadsföringsmodeller som föreskrivs i teorin, som RE/MAX använder sig av i Sverige i dagsläget samt att komma fram till vilka marknadsföringsverktyg som de kan utveckla för att vinna större marknadsandelar.
Svenska medborgare har anslutit sig till terrororganisationen Daish. Många av dessa individer kommer från Göteborg. Syftet med denna forskning är att undersöka hur det kom sig att göte-borgare är överrepresenterade bland svenska Daish-medlemmar. Många av Daish-resenärerna har återvänt till Göteborg. I denna forskning undersöks också Göteborg stads strategi för åter-vändande Daish-medlemmar och hur radikaliseringsprocessen ser ut för individer som ansluter sig till våldsbejakande extremism.
I denna uppsats tillämpade vi kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Materialet i uppsatsen grundar sig på intervjuer med två göteborgare som har anslutit sig till Daish och sedan återvänt till Göteborg. Intervjuer har också hållits med tre poliser och två so-cialarbetare som arbetar mot våldsbejakande extremism i Göteborg.
Resultaten visar att Göteborg sticker ut i listan bland Sveriges särskilt utsatta om-råden, och att orsaken till att Göteborg är överrepresenterat beror på segregation och utanför-skap. Resultaten visar att vissa stadsdelar i Göteborg har hög arbetslöshet, låg utbildning och dåliga skolresultat. Klyftan mellan utsatta områden och övriga Göteborg växer. Invånarna i dessa områden upplever detta som orättvist, diskriminerande samt att det väcker frustration. Undersökningen visar att klyftan utnyttjas av individer med religiös, klan eller patriarkal makt som ersätter den demokratiska strukturen i de segregerade stadsdelarna. Terrororganisationen Daish är en av aktörerna som har utnyttjat övriga samhällets frånvaro i utsatta stadsdelar. In-formanterna påpekar att Daish-rekryterare överöser religiös propaganda på individer som redan är frustrerade på samhället.
Meal at school is a part of the school studies and it is important for health, but is also a prerequisite for both learning and enjoyment. The school meal can provide students an opportunity to recover from their studies but sometimes students perceive the meal situation as stressful. It is important that the food environment at school works well for school children, so they do not have to rush during the meal and they can get the opportunity to eat in peace. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students perceive lunch break at school. If they feel they get enough time to eat and how they feel during the meal situation in the school restaurant. The research approach of this study was qualitative and the method of data collection was focus groups. Data were analyzed as a content analysis. The aim of the study were secondary school students in grade 7 and 9, one class from each grade was selected. The study was conducted at a secondary school in a municipality in Sweden with approximately 210 000 inhabitants. The results of the study show that students at secondary school feel they have enough time to eat lunch, but the lunch break is too short. The meal environment in the school restaurant is perceived as very messy and stressful. The meal situation was experienced as more stressful at grade 7 students than 9th grade students. The conclusion was that students need longer lunch break and meal environment is perceived as stressful.
Presently there is no standard for the evaluation of measurement uncertainties for terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) despite the fact that the instrument has been on the market and used for a long time. Since the manufacturer's specifications do not always correspond with reality, it is important to have knowledge about how well the instrument performs. Numerous studies over the past decade have applied different approaches to estimate the measurement uncertainties on various TLS.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the measurement uncertainties of the TLS Leica ScanStation C10 with the multi station Leica Nova MS50 under two different weather conditions. The uncertainty was calculated using ISO 17123-5:2012, which is an international standard developed for acquiring measurement uncertainties of total stations, to investigate whether this standard could also be applicable for TLS. The survey, which took place outdoor at the University of Gävle, was carried out by scanning targets that were set up in a triangle formation from three stations. Both spheres and HDS-targets were scanned with the TLS while the MS50 only scanned spheres. The targets were scanned four times from each instrument setup. Cyclone was used to find the coordinates on the center of the targets which were used to calculate the uncertainties according to the ISO-standard. The results showed that the 3D-uncertainty of C10 with HDS-target and spheres were 2.9 mm and 3.5 mm during sunny conditions and 1.1 mm and 1.4 mm during cloudy conditions, respectively. In the case of the MS50, the uncertainty was 3.0 mm during sunny and 3.7 mm during cloudy conditions. MS50 demonstrated a higher 3D-uncertainty in both weather conditions due to high uncertainty in the vertical direction. In addition, a chi-two-test carried out on the TLS showed that the calculated uncertainty in plane and height did not significantly deviate from the manufacturer's specified uncertainty when using HDS-targets during cloudy conditions. Furthermore, it was found in the F-test that there was a significant difference in plane and height between two scans with the same instrument and target type in different weather conditions. MS50 did not show any significant difference at all. The results of this study showed that there will be a significantly lower uncertainty when scanning in cloudy conditions. Our conclusion is that it is possible to apply the standard to calculate the measurement uncertainties on TLS and ISO should consider using the same standard for TLS as the total station.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Disney princesses have been portrayed and how has it changed over time. I watched nine Disney films with a total of nine different princesses. I wanted to see if there are any stereotypical roles that fit in with female Disney princesses and also wanted to see when this change took place over how they were portrayed in the meantime. As a method, I have used qualitative content analysis. I chose different properties and categories that I was looking for in the movies. These categories and properties contain different stereotypical characters and chores that the princesses perform in their homes. This study has used the theories stereotypes and earlier research by Disney Princess. The conclusion was that there was a clear difference between the older and newer films. In the first films, the princesses only dreamed of finding their dream prince, but in newer films she had other goals and dreams than finding a man. The princesses in the first films were very stereotypical women and in newer films the princesses are braver and more independent.
Aim: To investigate the impact of national culture on the process of managing change and innovation in the sector of higher education and identify what kind of environmental factors could produce a moderating effect on the cultural impact.
Method: Inductive method and qualitative approach were used. With the purpose of collecting qualitative data, 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees of Faculty of Education and Business Studies in University of Gävle, Sweden.
Results & Conclusions: The study suggests that any innovation is a change, while change is always a process and, thus, should be managed as such. Authors draw attention from the process of management of innovation itself towards managing through manipulating by such an influencer as national culture. At the same time authors point out that not everything can be explained on the basis of culture providing a range of potential factors that can strongly moderate the impact of culture.
Suggestions for future research: Current research is limited by the choice of country, sector of economy, number of studied cases, etc. Investigation of cultural impact on change and innovation management in universities of other countries or the choice of another economic sector would open opportunities for further research.
Contribution of the thesis: During the study the authors verified a part of the suggested hypotheses demonstrating the strength of the impact that national culture produces on management of change and innovation. Moderating effect of different environmental factors such as employee's age and position within organizational structure, governmental policies in the sphere of higher education, type of organizational structure and type of leadership, was demonstrated. Authors come up with implications of managing the process of change and innovation through manipulation of cultural impact.
Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur fem förskollärare arbetar med ett interkulturellt arbetssätt inom en mångkulturellt förskoleverksamhet.
Studien har utgått från ett teoretiskt perspektiv på interkulturellt arbetssätt och den teoretiska ansatsen utgörs av ett interkulturellt perspektiv. Interkulturalitet handlar om möten mellan människor från skilda kulturer och en ömsesidig förståelse dem emellan. Skilda kulturer innebär exempelvis att man har olika modersmål, seder och levnadsregler. Jag har gjort en kvalitativ undersökning, där jag har intervjuat fem förskollärare i två förskolor.
Resultatet visar att förskollärarna hade en liknande syn på interkulturellt arbetssätt och att faktorer som förhållningssätt, arbetsmiljö och lärandemiljö bidrar till att barnen på förskolan ska känna sig mer trygga, nyfikna och motiverade. Därutöver visar resultatet på förskollärares behov av vidare utbildning i frågor som rör barns kultur och modersmål. Betydelsen av att arbeta med utgångspunkt i olika språk i förskoleverksamheten är ytterligare en tendens som framkommer i resultatet. En slutsats som kan formuleras med grund i undersökningens resultat är att förskoleverksamhet som tar tillvara och har sin grund i flera modersmål bidrar till att barn blir sedda, respekterade och motiverade att lära sig.
Title: Technology and Consumers' Experiences in Fashion Physical Stores: The Case of Sweden
Level: Master Thesis in Business Administration
Author: Meron Kebede Abebaw; Willard Kingstone Matukuta
Supervisor: Agneta Sundström, PhD
Examiner: Maria Fregidou-Malama, PhD
Date: May, 2018
Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze whether in-store digital technology in fashion retailers are used to change the customers' shopping experience and behavior.
Method: This study chooses qualitative research and used both primary and secondary data collection as method.
Results and conclusions: This study have reached to conclude that: with the current advances in technology, physical stores can use in-store technology to give customers a new experience; physical stores perceive that using in-store digital technology will change customers shopping experience. Also, marketing mix inputs and technology affect customers' behavior.
Suggestions for future research: For future research, how smart fitting rooms may influence the customer experience in the physical store will be important to study. Researchers can also consider understanding customer responses to in-store technology. Finally, a customer's perspective to both suggestions should improve the knowledge on whether digital solutions are preferred in in-store shopping or not.
Contributions of the thesis: This thesis contributes to the current state of theories on in-store technology by showing atmosphere has effect on customers' experiences and behavior in addition to the marketing mix. On the managerial perspective, analyzing the installation of this technology will enable to identify its effect on customers' experiences and behavior. In addition, on the societal perspective, the behavior of customers will help in motivating younger generation to utilize this in-store technology.
This study examines outdoor education in mathematics at an international school under the IB PYP curriculum. Students spend most of their time indoors with the exception of lunch recess. Outdoor education provides a new and different way for both teachers and students to get fresh air. Research indicates that children who spend more time outdoors suffer less from allergies and other health problems. In the study, teachers and parents were given questionnaires, and three mathematics lessons were conducted outdoors. Students were later interviewed in groups. Most parents and teachers were positive to the idea of academic outdoor lessons in any subject. Teachers saw some difficulties implementing it because of time, weather and behavioural problems with students outside. Furthermore, they agreed that children should spend more time outside and that the children's health might benefit. Most of the students enjoyed the outdoor mathematics lessons. They were positive towards outdoor education in any subject.
Bakgrund: Psykisk ohälsa ökar i Sverige och innefattar oika psykiska diagnoser och ohälsotillstånd som påverkats av samhällets olika uppfattningar om psykisk ohälsa. Schizofreni är en psykossjukdom som hör till psykisk ohälsa och de vanligaste symtomen för schizofreni är vanföreställningar och hallucinationer. Patienter med schizofreni behöver vård och stöd.
Syftet: Syftet med studien var att beskriva sjuksköterskor inom psykiatrisk verksamhets attityder och erfarenheter i mötet med patienter med schizofreni samt att beskriva de inkluderade artiklarnas undersökningsgrupper.
Metod: En litteraturstudie med deskriptiv design innehållande tolv vetenskapliga artiklar som söktes i databaserna Cinahl och PsycINFO.
Huvudresultat: Resultatet visade att sjuksköterskor beskrev att de hade positiva och negativa attityder mot patienter som har schizofreni. Sjuksköterskorna beskrev att de hade fått nya erfarenheter av att se hur patienter med schizofrenis vardag såg ut och hur självständiga patienterna kan vara. Andra sjukksöterskor menade att patienter med schizofreni bör vårdas på sjukhus för att de ska få den vård och behandling som de kan behöva. Undersökningsgruppen i studien var sjuksköterskor inom den psykiatriska verksamheten. I studien diskuteras de inkluderade artiklarnas undersökningsgrupps ålder, kön samt yrkestitel.
Slutsats: Sjuksköterskorna i de inkluderande artiklarna hade delade meningar om attityder till patienter med schizofreni. Majoriteten av sjuksköterskorna menar att patienter med schizofreni behöver rätt vård,utbildning och stöd från sjukvårdspersonal och familj för att kunna hantera sin livssituation och fullfölja sin behandling.
One of major concerns in gas turbine industry is to reduce emissions. Tow kind of approaches could be identified in the industry to reduce emissions, namely Primary Emission Reduction approach and Secondary Emission Reduction approach. The primary approach concerns emission prevention in combustion, while secondary approach is all about emission cleanup before releasing to the atmosphere.
Combustion flame temperature highly influences on emissions specially NOx formation. NOx emission is lower when the combustor operates close to lean flammability limit. Incorporating catalyst to combustor is one of methods to extend flammability limit. Heat and Power Division at KTH-Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden has developed a test facility to test performances of catalyst in combustion.
The combustion test facility available at Heat & Power Davison at KTH, consists of high pressure air compressor and air flow control system, air preheating unit and control system, fuel flow control system, combustor unit, and exhaust gas analyzer system. But lack of proper user interface to control and monitor the operation of the test facility through a computer work station was a major concern from experimenters.
The purpose of the thesis work is to design and construction of supervisory control and data acquisition system for the full scale catalytic combustion test facility. Labview 2012 is used as the main platform for implementing data acquisition and control system for the test facility. Thermocouples, pressure transducer signals, air flow meter signal are connected to Keithley 2701 data acquisition system and then connected to the computer. Fuel flow controllers are directly connected to the computer via serial port. Air flow control actuator signal is given through ADAM digital to analogue converter.
Developed GUI is more convenient for users in terms of easy control of air flow, fuel flow and gas sampling probe systems, and monitoring of temperature, pressure measurements and exhaust gas species systems. And also GUI provides web interface to select correct conversion factor, and also to view live data recording. The developed GUI can be accessed through online to monitor the operation.


text:
KDE Makes Second 4.8 Release Candidate Available
Today KDE released the second release candidate for its renewed Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing new and old functionality. Please give this release another good round of testing to help us release a rock-solid 4.8 later this month.
Some 4.8 highlights are:
Bugs can be reported using KDE's Bugzilla.
RC2 definitely looks better than RC1, some really bad bugs, such as kmix crashing when pulseaudio is enabled (default on most distributions by now) seem to be gone. Also dolphin seems to be a little bit less crashy by now.
However, amaroks plasma parts are still broken since a kdelibs commit shortly before RC1, so if this stays in until release, I think a lot of users will have problems.
Thank you for your ongoing good work, however, a better QA system as discussed on the release team mailing list is imho necessary, so that some bugs don't make it into an official release.
By Anonymous at Thu, 2012/01/05 - 12:25pm
Our QA system are our users
a better QA system as discussed on the release team mailing list is imho necessary, so that some bugs don't make it into an official release.
There are many ways how you could test, be it Project Neon or Unstable repo on openSUSE.
By Martin Gräßlin at Thu, 2012/01/05 - 8:07pm
he still has a point
I don't think having more ways to test should fix it all. Stuff slips in between the releases that shouldn't have to be there. If the process is somewhat broken, adding more testers is not the solution.
You can take this QA stuff for granted, mention it's "early stuff", "still a .0" release instead of .1 or .2 release or "users should report bugs" and what not else. However, the point remains that we can all look honestly to ourselves, and ask the question: "How can we do better?"
On so many levels you'd be surprised with what creative solutions your mind can come when you let it ask the question (and ponder about the answers), instead of letting your mind think about "why it is like this, period.". In both cases, you'll find answers. One is more productive though. :)
Hence, I'm really happy to read these discussions about a QA process, and whole hearty welcome it to improve the releases.
By Anonymous at Thu, 2012/01/05 - 10:15pm
Hi Martin
Being on gentoo with live ebuilds, submitting about 3-5 bug reports per release, I think I would be one of them.
However, some bugs I reported tend to be happily ignored for quite a while, and then fixed after the release, having everybody using binary distributions to wait for a bit until the fixes come in.
That's what should happen _before_ a release, and yes, that would mean breaking the release schedule.
By Anonymous at Fri, 2012/01/06 - 12:12pm
I agree, but ...
>This QA system has to come from our users. Only if users test and
The other thing is that I get the feeling even though bugs and regressions are reported during the test cycle they are not always really taken care of. I assume this has some this has something to do with the lack of manpower in some parts of KDE which are not so much maintained. But nevertheless it is sometimes frustraiting as user. Lateley especially with Kmail. Although many bugs are fixed now, this is what should happened during a limited testing cycle and should have never made it into a release (at least not without Kmail1 as an alternative along).
By Mark at Fri, 2012/01/06 - 3:18pm
Use Project Neon
If you are using Kubuntu, you can use Project Neon to get daily builds. It is so important to get bugs reported in a timely manner, that is best the same day as the bug is introduced. The longer the difference between bug introduced and bug reported, the more difficult it gets to find it and fix it.
The other thing is that I get the feeling even though bugs and regressions are reported during the test cycle they are not always really taken care of.
By Martin Gräßlin at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 8:05am
Christmas holidays
It was lots of fun to watch the commit mailing list between boxing day and new year's eve -- all kinds of projects suddenly doubled or tripled their commit rate. Vacation! Holidays! Delicious hacking time!
For Krita we went from four to one release critical bugs in those five days, not to mention many, many other bug fixes!
Because, yes, most of us have a job these days, or our universities want us to finally hurry up a bit.
By Boudewijn Rempt at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 10:57am
Even when the user report
Even when the user report bugs it is not always fixed becouse lag of man power. Kde 4 still have a lot of known problem with Multi-Screen-Setup and it looks like it will take a long time to fix:
At this moment in time I am depending on Multi-Screen-Setup since I have 2 graphics cards to power my 3 screens. For my kde 4 is still to buggy to use on daily basis.
By Anonymous at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 6:49am
Multi-Screen is working fine
First of all: to not confuse users please talk about Multi-Head or Separate X Server per screen. The multi-screen modes our users know (xrandr/twinview) is working fine!
You already brought up Multi-Head in the dot story for beta 2. Repeating this in each release note won't make your feature get implemented: the opposite is the case. I explained to you and others why we won't add Multi-Head support and this is not a bug, but missing features!
I will return to kde 4 when either Multi-Screen-Setup is working nicly again (it did in KDE 3 days)
By Martin Gräßlin at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 8:01am
if xrandr and twinview is
if xrandr and twinview is working fine it must be me how are unable to configure it correctly and therefor I could use some help.
As described in the bug report it was unmaintained, eg it was still present bu noone would like to fix bug in it (or I am wrong again).
So we have different understanding of what a bug is bug I can accept it is call semi-missing features (some part is there but other part is stil broken).
My point of the prevous post was not to get people to fix it but to highligt that even that users contribute with information it will not necessarily be fixed.
Sorry for my onw incompitent makeing mu onw point clear, fixing semi-missing features, and settup xrandr and twinview using to cards.
By Anonymous at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 12:45pm
Complain to X not to KDE
XRandR support for multiple cards is missing in X. Nothing we can do about. XRandR/TwinView with one card is working wonderful.
But Multi-Head is just a different story. These are not bugs, but missing features. KDE never supported Multi-Head properly. So no matter how much you point to this bug report, it doesn't change the situation. And even if we consider these to be bugs, it is not relevant as it affects only a very small group of our userbase. We fix important bugs first and Multi-Head support is not on our priority list.
By Martin Gräßlin at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 2:30pm
You are wrong
That kind of minset is bad and it's what it's hurting us as a community, I suggest you take some time to think about it.
I know users should also play their role and contribute more. That's another problem.
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 6:13am
did you already report the
did you already report the bug to Xorg?
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 1:27pm
These are missing features and no bugs
Please don't make the mistake to think that a missing feature is a bug. KDE had never properly supported Multi-Head. The feature "Multi-Head" is just missing. A non-existing feature is not a bug. The fact that there is some code for Multi-Head does not mean that the feature exists or is supported. If you disagree in that point then there is only the solution of removing all the broken and unsupported Multi-Head related code.
Adding support for Multi-Head is by that an implementation of a new feature and not bug fixing. This means the rules for implementing new features applies and not those for bug fixing.
Features are mostly implemented if they are important for the goals of the project and what the developers want to achieve. Another possibility is that someone implements it "to scratch his own itch".
In case of Multi-Head I am sorry to say and as I wrote before that it is not any priority of the current development team. Multi-Head has a very limited use case and we have to decide carefully where to spend the limited resources for. Multi-Head is considering our userbase quite unimportant. Also nobody of the development team uses a Multi-Head setup and at least I consider it as a bad choice for user setups (there are special cases where it makes sense).
Over the last four years I have been involved with KWin only one user drafted a patch to improve the situation. This shows quite nicely that even the users demanding the support do not care about it - or do not exist.
If you are unhappy that support for Multi-Head is not implemented properly, you will have to implement it. Don't expect that spare time developers implement features completely useless for themselves. If you are not able to implement it yourself there is still the possibility to contract developers to implement it.
By Martin Gräßlin at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 9:11pm
Multiple/single cards.
PS: About the three/four monitors. I'm just curious and, just to be clear, the whole posting has no polemic intent. Just trying to figure out how the multimonitor stuff works.
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/18 - 11:38am
where to get an answer
dot.kde.org is primarily for news. There are other sites that are better for the kind of information you want.
By Carl Symons at Wed, 2012/01/18 - 5:48pm
KDE forums are intended for KDE users to get and give support.
Posting your request for assistance at forum.kde.org will be more fruitful than bringing up an issue repeatedly in Dot comments or in bug comments. Complaining about KDE and bad-mouthing developers makes the issue less attractive to work on.
Adding extraneous and duplicate information only makes it more difficult to address real issues.
There is a clear, reasoned statement in comment #1 in the cited bug report that this is not a high priority. Further complaining and additional duplicate bug reports are pointless. Actually they get in the way of progress.
For people who are sincere about improving KDE quality and want to do something constructive, please visit http://community.kde.org/Getinvolved Click on "Development". Under "Tasks", there is information about working with bugs. Major technical skill is not necessarily required.
By Carl Symons at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 5:09pm
Re: Bugs
> Also dolphin seems to be a little bit less crashy by now.
Please report any Dolphin crashes that occur with RC2 to bugs.kde.org. I'm not aware currently of any crash that is related to the new view-engine that has not been fixed yet with RC2. Of course this does not mean that there are no issues left but "a little bit less crashy" is not enough information for us developers to be aware how to reproduce the crashes and to fix them ;-) Thanks!
By Peter Penz at Thu, 2012/01/05 - 8:55pm
Hi Peter,
Thanks, I reported all bugs I found with dolphin so far, and you fixed many of them. You even implemented some of my feature requests, so I am quite happy. So thank you very much for your good work, and yes, I will keep submitting them every time I have the chance to.
By Anonymous at Fri, 2012/01/06 - 12:14pm
Dolphis is not crashing that
Dolphis is not crashing that much but it's not saving any setting.
By Bobby at Fri, 2012/01/06 - 4:06pm
What Amarok plasma parts are broken?
I'm running KDE 4.8 RC2 and I don't see any breakage with Amarok. What are you experiencing?
By Ernesto Manríquez at Fri, 2012/01/06 - 11:04pm
Looking quite forward to KDE
Looking quite forward to KDE 4.8, thanks for all your hard work!
Two small things:
1. It's KSecretsService, although KSecretService sounds cooler ;-)
2. I wish KDE would start using "release candidate" as being an actual candidate for release. This RC is not something you would consider simply renaming to 4.8, so it's by definition not a release candidate except in name. KDE has this strange tradition of calling late betas "release candidates", which has the effect that there are no actual candidates for release except the actual release. Just a pet peeve of mine.
By Haakon Nilsen at Thu, 2012/01/05 - 7:32pm
> KDE has this strange
> KDE has this strange tradition of calling late betas "release
Yes, I really second that!
This way more than one nasty or stupid bug slipped in and although often fixed soon afterwards all users of binary packages had to rely on their packagers to incorporate a hotfix, which never always happens for all available distributions.
From a user's point of view, that's a rather unsatisfying situation.
By Anonymous at Thu, 2012/01/12 - 10:34pm
KDE 4.8 RC2, netbook interface (Acer Aspire One, openSUSE 12.1)
Snappy response, finally giving netbook interface elegance, all generally working well.
Thank you
My big question remains about my desktop and kmail 4.8 - generally resisting upgrade from openSUSE 11.4, kmail 4.4.10 - not much information around.
Does anyone know the current state of play?
By Anonymous at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 12:15pm
I think kmail 4.8 is now good
I think kmail 4.8 is now good enough, especially as it no longer tries to convert your old config which was prone to failure, but imports it instead. It's a bit more work but a lot safer. Take a backup, a deep breath and go for it. I'm using 4.7.4 now, and it finally works for me, but only after completely clearing out my old config and re-importing all my mail.
By odysseus at Sat, 2012/01/07 - 5:32pm
can u test kleopatra?
when adding gnupg signatures the owner-trust was not changeable. (disabled ok butten).
By Anonymous at Sun, 2012/01/08 - 1:29pm

subset: commoncrawl


text:
About wool
The soft and fluffy fabric wool is extremely versatile, and it has several possibilities, which other materials such as cotton lacks. That is at least one good reason why you should go for a new woolen piece of menswear.
First, wool can both be woven into thick fabrics with a rich texture, and it can be woven into silky-like threads and appear in a very fine texture. No matter which forms, wool has a special texture that you cannot find in any other materials and it almost give you a special 3D-effect, which personalizes your look and style.
Second, wool is very good when it is cold outside and you need to hold your warmth, and even thin wool styles add warmth to you. Therefore, a woolen piece of clothing is a perfect choice for fall and winter times.
Third, wool pieces hold their shape, allowing you to keep you woolen pieces in many years if they are properly treated. Compared to other materials, such as cotton, the same feature is not seen, and you will have to replace your cotton sweater more often with a new than your wool sweater.
Forth, wool is highly water resistant because of the protective material lanolin, which is a natural part of wool. This means that the wool fibers can absorb the water before it starts to leak, and wool is therefore also widely used in men's outerwear.
Remember to read our guide on wool care & maintenance.


text:
Who is driving your limoPosted by carbon black limos, Jun 29 2010, 04:40 PM
When hiring a limousine in Perth one of the most important things to consider is who will be driving you the owner driver or the employee. The service you receive may differ a lot between the two one has the customers interest at heart the other has his or hers paycheck. Imagine hiring Perth limo and its the limo drivers first job. You want to be able to sit back relax and enjoy your Perth limousine experience without having to explain where you are going to some novice driver or arrive late to your destination .
Its far better to be driven by an owner than be driven by a part time driver. Professionalism and experience go along way. A fully trained experienced chauffeur understands your needs and requirements is flexible and have an impeccable knowledge of Perth.
These days it seems everyone wants to be a Perth limousine operator and their lack of knowledge and experience shows in the service they deliver
A bad operator can ruin your Perth limousine experience A great one can make your experience a memorable and enjoyable one
If you are hiring a limo in Perth it is worth asking who will be driving you.
Do they own the car or just drive it?
How long have they been a chauffeur?
Have they had any formal training as a chauffeur?
Do they have police clearance to work with children?
Do they have all the appropriate license endorsements?
Many people overlook this and hire a Perth limo on cheap price alone. All too often cheap prices equal cheap service.
As we are Perth limousine operators ourselves we know the costs involved in operating a reputable limousine company.
If there cutting corners in the way they operate their business are they cutting corners on the road?
Lately the horror stories we hear of bad service, poor vehicle presentation, rude drivers, limousines being late or not arriving at all and double booking or late cancelations have become far too common.
When hiring a Perth limousine choose carefully and do your research
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Mercedes limobus factsPosted by carbon black limos, Jun 29 2010, 04:37 PM
The new Mercedes limo vans have taken off and there seems to be some confusion regarding them
So here are some facts about them for you
Each and every limovan is custom built and no two are alike. Many limousine companies use generic photos the first limovan built in Australia which happens to be the most published and awarded limovan in Australia they also advertise the features fitted to this limo bus Be sure the limobus you are going to hire is the one that is being advertised
Other things that many limousine companies advertise is the fact that you can stand up, mingle and dance inside the limo bus Yes its true the limovans have a enormous amount of interior space and the ability to stand up inside what they fail to tell you about is that it is illegal and you can only do this when the limovan is parked and not on the road it is also very unsafe to do this while the limobus is moving Its a offence not to wear a seatbelt in a limousine and it puts your safety at risk as you are standing in a moving vehicle if there happens to be sudden braking or a unfortunate accident. Mercedes limo vans are fitted with the latest safety features including E.C.S (electronic stability) moving and dancing around in these vehicles while travelling greatly affects the vehicles braking, handling and stability.
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Perthlimobus Perth's premier limovan companyPosted by carbon black limos, Jun 29 2010, 04:34 PM
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Our operations centre is there to answer your call 24/7 whether you need a quote or a ride.
We invite you to sample the Perth limo bus difference.
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Hiring a Perth limoPosted by carbon black limos, Jun 29 2010, 04:31 PM
A limousine service makes any special occasion exciting.
Choosing the best limo service for your needs can be a little daunting as there are a lot of things to take into consideration. Here are some suggestions about how to hire the perfect limousine for you. When choosing a limo you will need to know several things how many people will be using the limo, the type of celebration, how many hours do you require the limousine for and where will you be travelling to
Choosing the correct limousine for your occasion makes all the difference, regardless of your choice of limo you need to have one with plenty of room and adequate seating. Imagine hiring a limousine that is too small to accommodate all of your party.
Your next consideration is price and service, great service and high end limousines are not cheap, prices and service does vary between limousine companies When you start comparison shopping for limos be sure you are comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges the bottom line should be the best service and limousine for your budget Be sure to choose a flexible limo company who will tailor their services to meet your specific requirements
You should get a package deal if your hiring a limousine for a school ball or a wedding in a typical package deal there will be a preset amount of hours the limousines is hired for
But be aware of cheap prices, cheap prices often mean cheap service also recently some companies are quoting cheap prices to get bookings then continue to quote for the same day and time at higher rates When they get a booking for the higher rate they cancel the other job leaving the customer without a limo
An important point to remember is that early reservations are suggested for special events, especially if they are big occasions like weddings, school balls and concerts
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Perth concert, event and party limosPosted by carbon black limos, Jun 29 2010, 04:29 PM
Perth limo bus events concert and party limos gives you a rock star experience
Going to see your favorite artist, brought your concert tickets, going to watch your favorite sporting team, birthday, hens night or party, got all your friends together, now how are you going to get there? Perth limo bus events, concert and party limousine hire is the answer. Start your night in a luxury limousine and travel like a VIP. Our immaculately presented limos set the mood for a great night. We can create a playlist for you or bring your own IPod or music DVD of your favorite artist sit back and get ready to party. No parking hassles or public transport. At the end of the night your Perth limo bus event, concert and party limo will be there waiting for you to take you home safely or drop you off at a location of your choice.
Perth party limos are a fantastic way to surprise a loved one
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Perth Airport limousine servicePosted by carbon black limos, Jun 29 2010, 04:27 PM
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Perth Airport Pick up Service
Perth limo bus Perth airport transfers chauffeured limousines will greet you upon your arrival in the terminal , assist you with baggage and escort you to your waiting Perth airport limousine safely transporting you to your Perth hotel or destination of choice. We can also remain with our vehicle at the curbside for those who need no luggage service.
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Cutting corners in limo servicePosted by carbon black limos, Jul 5 2006, 06:24 PM
Is cutting corners good for customers or bad
A common practice in the Perth limo industry of late seems to be to charge the cheapest rate possible to get the job, sure its great for the customer they get a limo for peanuts but are they getting value for money and true service or not. Theres an old saying pay peanuts get monkeys.
Perths a great place plenty of opportunity and as of late many want to be entrepreneurs have entered the limousine industry because they see it as easy money but fail to realize what it takes to be a professional limousine operator that delivers quality service time and again. They fail to do their research and fail when it comes to providing a true and proper chauffeured limousine service.
A cheap price or a sales gimmick is usually a good indication of the type of service you will receive
Cheap price cheap service. If the offers to good to be true then it usually is.
Limousines are not cheap vehicles to own and operate its a 24/7 business that requires total dedication to deliver exceptional service. Owning and operating a limousine business is not a job its a lifestyle and for many reputable limo companies we love our work and enjoy sharing in our customers special moments while they travel in our limos. For us seeing a happy couple on their wedding day, a group of kids all excited on their school ball night or a group of friends having a great time on a night out is the true reward in our business it makes all the hard work worthwhile .
Unfortunately some operators dont see the limousine industry this way.
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What is a Limo vanPosted by carbon black limos, Jul 5 2006, 06:21 PM
Limo vans are the latest in design and innovation when it comes to limousines in Australia
Limo vans have been around for many years in the USA and Europe and now have taken off in Australia with the first limo van built and in service in Perth Western Australia
Why are these limos so popular?
Limovans have a huge interior space, more than a stretched limousine with the ability to walk in and sit down, plenty of leg room and full height seats provide a superior level of comfort the immense amount of room inside the limo allows the builders to create luxurious interiors of various designs and specifications. All limovans in Perth may look similar on the outside but are totally different inside with no two alike. The first limo van built in Australia has had many articles published about it and won many awards for its interior design, features and lighting. The limovans in Perth for hire vary in design from high end luxury limousines to a party bus design, audio and visual components also vary in these limousines
Who has a limovan?
Snoop Dog has a limovan built by West Coast Customs it is his mobile recording studio
Madonna has a limovan as a mobile salon
Guy Ritchie has a limovan as a mobile home theatre
Next time you want to travel in luxury consider a limovan
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What's your limo riding onPosted by carbon black limos, Jul 5 2006, 06:18 PM
My partner was talking to a customer about our limovan the other day and they happen to mention they liked the fact that our van didnt look like an up market trades van from the outside because of all the chrome accessories and the 18 inch rims. I posted a blog about passenger safety while travelling in Perth limo vans and the comment about the rims and all the dramas that went into sourcing them reminded me of the safety factor about them and why it was a lot of trouble to source the right ones. All Perth limousines have to pass an inspection for roadworthy and part of the requirements is that the vehicle has the correct load rated rims and tires for that limo. Dont get me wrong I love bling and bigger the better. Some limos in Perth however are fitted with rims and tires that are not load rated for that vehicle. When we sourced the 18s there was only 2 manufactures in the world that specially made a custom rim load rated, tested and approved by the vehicle manufacturer to fit a sprinter van, both of which are located in Europe. Then we had to source tires which was easily done locally, but to suit the vehicle 18s again was the largest available. So when looking at limousine hire its just another thing to consider sure big rims look great but are they safe. Remember do your research before you hire. Visit My Website


text:
The Packard Panther was a concept car built in 1954 to point towards the future of a company that barely had one. Packard released a series of concept cars in the 50s in an attempt to project what was next for the company and inspire car buyers.
Unfortunately no amount of concept cars could save Packard, the last car was built with the Packard nameplate in 1959—a few years after the last "real" Packard of the company's own design rolled off the assembly line. Even so, it's hard not to applaud Packard's design efforts when looking at the very unique Panther concept.
Although four Packard Panther concept cars were built, the example seen here on the floor of what we believe to be the 1954 New York International Auto Show is the first one built and features an earlier taillight design. All 4 Panthers featured the company's 359ci straight eight but the first two were also fitted with a McCulloch supercharger which bumped the engine's output to 275 horsepower.
Amazingly all four Panthers are still believed to exist with one example selling at auction in 2009 for $700,000.