Utvärdering av traktplanering på SCA Skog

This study is an analysis of a survey that harvester operators working for SCA Ångermanland Skogsförvaltning have been participating in. The purpose of this study is to try to show the harvester operators opinion about the forestry planning that SCA provides. Hopefully will this information lead to suggestion about what part of the forestry planning needs to be improved, if any is needed? Unfortunately only 30 / 60 questionnaire has been returned so no conclusion can be made, except about those who have answered the survey. The answers of the survey indicate a number of areas that needs to be improved. The marked routes needs to be more visible and the education about timber landings must be enhanced. A simple checklist about what needs to be written in the textdirective will be beneficial. If the exchange of information between SCA and the entrepreneurs is improved, the productivity of the harvesting group can be increased. The forestry planning has a key role in the pursuit for a high quality and effective forestry

Investigating Particle Cracking in Single- and Polycrystalline Nickel-Rich Cathodes using In Situ Impedance Spectroscopy

State-of-the-art Li-ion cathode materials are based on LiMO2 (M=Ni, Mn, Co) layered transition metal oxides (denoted NMC) with Ni-rich composition because of their high specific capacity. Yet, these materials suffer from poor capacity retention due to crack formation during de-/lithiation cycling. Particle cracking leads to exposure of new electrode surface which leads to Li-inventory loss, increased side reactions, and electric disconnection. Quantification of the extent of cracking is therefore desirable, especially during in situ whilst cycling of the Li-ion cell. Herein, we evaluate and improve an analytical methodology based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in order to estimate the changes in electrochemically active surface area of both poly- and single-crystalline Ni0.8Mn0.1Co0.1(NMC811) active materials. A transmission-line model (TLM) applied to both non-blocking and blocking electrode condition was utilized in order to deconvolute and interpret the acquired experimental data. Fits of the complex TLM equivalent-circuits to the impedance spectra was facilitated by developing a global stochastic iterative function based on local multivariate optimization. Impedance analysis during short- term cycling showed that the single-crystalline NMC811 suffered from less particle cracking and side reactions compared to polycrystalline NMC811, which was also confirmed from post-mortem gas adsorption analysis. A novel approach to estimate the extent of particle cracking in commercial Li-ion cells by utilizing an empirically strong positive correlation between the charge-transfer capacitance and resistance was proposed. The work presented herein demonstrates the unique prospects of the EIS methodology in the development and research of future rechargeable batterie

Outsourcing av ekonomifunktionen i små företag

Den hårdnande konkurrensen mellan företag och jakten efter kostnadsbesparingar har fått vissa företag att outsourca sina stödfunktioner vilket kan vara hela eller delar av ekonomifunktionen. Av mindre företag i Sverige outsourcar cirka ett av tre och andelen är i stigande enligt Exido(2007). Trenden gäller även för stora företag enligt Deloitte (2014). Genomgångna studier, framförallt studier av outsourcingrelationer mellan större företag, utförda antingen explicit på outsourcingrelationer eller det bredare begreppet interorganisatoriska relationer visar att det finns områden som är återkommande i forskningen. De benämns som nyckelområden i denna studie och är kontrakt, kontroll, relation, förtroende, kostnad, kvalitet och kompetens. Jag har beskrivit och analyserat fyra outsourcingrelationer där hela eller delar av ekonomifunktionen outsourcas från det outsourcande företagets synvinkel med syfte att undersöka om det finns nyckelområden som är viktigare än andra för att outsourcingen ska anses lyckad. Empiriska data har samlats in genom intervjuer med fyra personer i ledande befattningar hos outsourcande företag i Sundsvallsområdet. Resultatet tyder på att det finns nyckelområden som anses vara viktigare än andra vilket för respondenterna i denna studie är kompetens, framförallt, och kvalitet. Anledningen till att kompetens bedöms som det viktigaste nyckelområdet är att kompetens saknades internt och att den anses driva andra nyckelområden som t.ex. kvalitet. Det minst viktiga området för en lyckad outsourcingrelation visade sig vara kontraktet.The increasing competition between companies and the hunt for cost savings have driven some companies to choose outsourcing for a part of or all of the support functions within the financial function. For smaller companies in Sweden one out of three are outsourcing and the trend is increasing according to Exido (2007). The increasing trend also applies to big companies according to Deloitte (2014). Outsourcing studies reviewed, mainly studying the outsourcing relationship between big companies, either explicit on outsourcing relationships or the broader concept of interorganizational relationships have shown that there are areas of outsourcing relationships that are recurring in the field of research. These are referred to as key areas in this study and are contract, control, relationship, trust, cost, quality and competence. I have described and analysed four outsourcing relationships from the perspective of the company using outsourcing with the purpose to investigate whether there are key areas that are more important than others for the outsourcing to be deemed as successful. Empirical data have been collected through interviews with persons in management position at companies that use outsourcing in the Sundsvall area. The result of this study indicates that there are key areas that are more important than others for companies utilizing outsourcing. For the participants in this study these are foremost competence and secondly quality. The reason why competence is the most important key area is that the companies lacked internal competence and because competence is deemed to drive other key areas, e.g. quality. The least important key area for a successful outsourcing relationship turned out to be the contract

Outsourcing av ekonomifunktionen i små företag

Den hårdnande konkurrensen mellan företag och jakten efter kostnadsbesparingar har fått vissa företag att outsourca sina stödfunktioner vilket kan vara hela eller delar av ekonomifunktionen. Av mindre företag i Sverige outsourcar cirka ett av tre och andelen är i stigande enligt Exido(2007). Trenden gäller även för stora företag enligt Deloitte (2014). Genomgångna studier, framförallt studier av outsourcingrelationer mellan större företag, utförda antingen explicit på outsourcingrelationer eller det bredare begreppet interorganisatoriska relationer visar att det finns områden som är återkommande i forskningen. De benämns som nyckelområden i denna studie och är kontrakt, kontroll, relation, förtroende, kostnad, kvalitet och kompetens. Jag har beskrivit och analyserat fyra outsourcingrelationer där hela eller delar av ekonomifunktionen outsourcas från det outsourcande företagets synvinkel med syfte att undersöka om det finns nyckelområden som är viktigare än andra för att outsourcingen ska anses lyckad. Empiriska data har samlats in genom intervjuer med fyra personer i ledande befattningar hos outsourcande företag i Sundsvallsområdet. Resultatet tyder på att det finns nyckelområden som anses vara viktigare än andra vilket för respondenterna i denna studie är kompetens, framförallt, och kvalitet. Anledningen till att kompetens bedöms som det viktigaste nyckelområdet är att kompetens saknades internt och att den anses driva andra nyckelområden som t.ex. kvalitet. Det minst viktiga området för en lyckad outsourcingrelation visade sig vara kontraktet.The increasing competition between companies and the hunt for cost savings have driven some companies to choose outsourcing for a part of or all of the support functions within the financial function. For smaller companies in Sweden one out of three are outsourcing and the trend is increasing according to Exido (2007). The increasing trend also applies to big companies according to Deloitte (2014). Outsourcing studies reviewed, mainly studying the outsourcing relationship between big companies, either explicit on outsourcing relationships or the broader concept of interorganizational relationships have shown that there are areas of outsourcing relationships that are recurring in the field of research. These are referred to as key areas in this study and are contract, control, relationship, trust, cost, quality and competence. I have described and analysed four outsourcing relationships from the perspective of the company using outsourcing with the purpose to investigate whether there are key areas that are more important than others for the outsourcing to be deemed as successful. Empirical data have been collected through interviews with persons in management position at companies that use outsourcing in the Sundsvall area. The result of this study indicates that there are key areas that are more important than others for companies utilizing outsourcing. For the participants in this study these are foremost competence and secondly quality. The reason why competence is the most important key area is that the companies lacked internal competence and because competence is deemed to drive other key areas, e.g. quality. The least important key area for a successful outsourcing relationship turned out to be the contract

Multi-platform development of applications for mobile devices

This bachelor thesis has been performed at Combitech, a technology, development and management consultancy company. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the possibilities for multi-platform development of applications for mobile devices, as well as actually developing a simpler application using multi-platform development. The application is supposed to have functionality for sending an expression of interest for work and thesis work at Combitech, and should be available both as a native application for the Android and iOS operating systems as well as in the form of a web application. The thesis begins with an investigation of the possibilities for multi-platform development of applications for mobile devices. It is concluded that there is a wide range of available development frameworks that target several mobile platforms. It is decided that an HTML/CSS/JavaScript-based framework is most suited for the application to be developed. Therefore four HTML/CSS/JavaScript-based multi-platform development frameworks targetting mobile devices are analyzed more closely, namely jQuery Mobile, PhoneGap, Sencha Touch and Appcelerator Titanium. jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap are chosen to develop the application, and the thesis describes the development work as well as the resulting application. It is concluded that HTML/CSS/JavaScript-based frameworks can provide a nice touch screen optimized user interface that is consistent across platforms with e.g. jQuery Mobile, as well as access to native features and the possibility to package a web application as a native application with e.g. PhoneGap. It is also concluded that jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap can be used to create a modular application that, with well defined interfaces, can be run both as a web application and packaged as a native application on different mobile operating systems with no or minor changes to the code

INVESTERARES REAKTIONER PÅ SPELARÖVERGÅNGAR : En kvantitativ studie om hur spelarövergångar inom fotbollenpåverkar aktiepriset

Summorna som fotbollsklubbarna betalar för spelarförvärv har ökat avsevärt i modern tid. Inträdet av rika majoritetsägare med andra agendor än att vinstmaximera samt exponeringen sporten fått världen över har lett till att omsättningen nästan dubblerats mot för 10 år sedan. Incitamentet till att göra den här studien uppkom efter att övertid bevittnat de skenade transfersummorna och framför allt den ökade volymen av spelaövergångar. Med vetskap att några av de största klubbarna i världen också är börsnoterade började tankarna vandra mot hur investerare värderar dessa övergångar. Delar investerare den bilden av att förvärv inte alltid genomförs för den ekonomiska vinningens skull?Med dessa tankar kom författarna upp med följande problemformuleringar:Anser investerare att spelarövergångar är väsentlig information?Har investerares syn på spelarövergångar i europeiska börsnoterade fotbollsklubbar förändrats över tid?För att besvara dessa problemformuleringar har studien tillämpat en händelsestudie för att jämföra den förväntade avkastningen med den verkliga avkastningen efter att en spelarövergång inträffat. Den förväntade avkastningen har estimerats med hjälp av avkastningen det specifika aktieindexet haft på den börs där aktien finns noterad.Som alla kvantitativa studier som följer en deduktiv metod ligger en teori till grund som empiriskt ska undersökas. Genom den effektiva marknadshypotesen får vi en bild av vad som händer på marknaden då ny information blir tillgänglig. Genom att undersöka aktieavkastningen i samband med en spelarövergång bör därför ge en träffsäker förklaring på hur investerare värderar spelarövergångar.Vissa tendenser mellan avvikande avkastningar och övergångar har kunnat identifieras men, studien har inte kunnat presentera några statistiskt signifikanta avvikande avkastningar när det kommer till vare sig spelarköp eller spelarförsäljningar. Inte heller kan det sägas med någon statistisk säkerhet att investerare reagerar annorlunda på spelarövergångar idag än vad de tidigare gjor

Estimating divergence times from DNA sequences

The patterns of genetic variation within and among individuals and populations can be used to make inferences about the evolutionary forces that generated those patterns. Numerous population genetic approaches have been developed in order to infer evolutionary history. Here, we present the "Two-Two (TT)" and the "Two-Two-outgroup (TTo)" methods; two closely related approaches for estimating divergence time based in coalescent theory. They rely on sequence data from two haploid genomes (or a single diploid individual) from each of two populations. Under a simple population-divergence model, we derive the probabilities of the possible sample configurations. These probabilities form a set of equations that can be solved to obtain estimates of the model parameters, including population split times, directly from the sequence data. This transparent and computationally efficient approach to infer population divergence time makes it possible to estimate time scaled in generations (assuming a mutation rate), and not as a compound parameter of genetic drift. Using simulations under a range of demographic scenarios, we show that the method is relatively robust to migration and that the TTo method can alleviate biases that can appear from drastic ancestral population size changes. We illustrate the utility of the approaches with some examples, including estimating split times for pairs of human populations as well as providing further evidence for the complex relationship among Neandertals and Denisovans and their ancestors

Private haplotypes can reveal local adaptation

Background: Genome-wide scans for regions that demonstrate deviating patterns of genetic variation have become common approaches for finding genes targeted by selection. Several genomic patterns have been utilized for this purpose, including deviations in haplotype homozygosity, frequency spectra and genetic differentiation between populations. Results: We describe a novel approach based on the Maximum Frequency of Private Haplotypes - MFPH - to search for signals of recent population-specific selection. The MFPH statistic is straightforward to compute for phased SNP-and sequence-data. Using both simulated and empirical data, we show that MFPH can be a powerful statistic to detect recent population-specific selection, that it performs at the same level as other commonly used summary statistics (e.g. F-ST, iHS and XP-EHH), and that MFPH in some cases capture signals of selection that are missed by other statistics. For instance, in the Maasai, MFPH reveals a strong signal of selection in a region where other investigated statistics fail to pick up a clear signal that contains the genes DOCK3, MAPKAPK3 and CISH. This region has been suggested to affect height in many populations based on phenotype-genotype association studies. It has specifically been suggested to be targeted by selection in Pygmy groups, which are on the opposite end of the human height spectrum compared to the Maasai. Conclusions: From the analysis of both simulated and publicly available empirical data, we show that MFPH represents a summary statistic that can provide further insight concerning population-specific adaptation