Nowadays business atmosphere is to constantly come up with new improvements, in order to become more competitive, or simply stay competitive.Lean manufacturing rose up few decades ago and is now famous for its radical improvements but also for its difficulty to implement. The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of how can Lean bring such important changes, but also what must be done in order to implement it.In order to solve the problem of this report, it was decided to conduct a quantitative research relying on a case study. The company chosen wants to implement Lean but does not really know how to achieve it, so it is a very good opportunity for this project to collaborate with it and see what can be done to implement Lean manufacturing.The results of this thesis demonstrate the need of implementing a philosophy, a way of thinking, rather than different production tools. People must also be prepared for long implementation, which can take between 5 to 10 years. One of the key factors for this implementation is the involvement and empowerment of workers, who will massively contribute to the change process by removing different kind of waste which slow down the processes.

Finding ones way in unknown and unfamiliar environments is a common task. A number of tools ranging from paper maps to location-based services have been introduced to assist human navigation. Undoubtedly, car navigation systems can be considered the most successful example of location based services that widely gained user acceptance. However the concept of car navigation is not always (perhaps rarely) suitable for pedestrian navigation. Moreover, precise localization of moving objects indoors is not possible due to the absence of an absolute positioning method such as GPS. These make accurate indoor tracking and navigation an interesting problem to explore. Many of the methods of spatial analysis popular in outdoor applications can be used indoors. In particular, generation of the indoor navigation network can be an effective solution for a) improving the navigation experience inside complex indoor structures and b) enhancing the analysis of the indoor tracking data collected with existing positioning solutions. Such building models should be based on a graph representation and consist of the number of ‘nodes’ and ‘edges’, where ‘nodes’ correspond to the central position of the room and ‘edge’ represents the medial axis of the hallway polygons, which physically connects these rooms. Similar node-links should be applied stairs and elevators to connect building floors. To generate this model, I selected the campus of University of Saskatchewan as the study area and presented a method that creates an indoor navigation network using ESRI ArcGIS products. First, the proposed method automatically extracts geometry and topology of campus buildings and computes the distances among all entities to calculate the shortest path between them. The system navigates through the University campus and it helps locating classrooms, offices, or facilities. The calculation of the route is based on the Dijkstra algorithm, but could employ any network navigation algorithm. To show the advantage of the generated network, I present results of a study conducted in conjunction with the department of Computer Science. An experiment that included 37 participants was designed to collect the tracking data on a university campus to demonstrate how the incorporation of the indoor navigation model can improve the analysis of the indoor movement data. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that the generated indoor network can be applied to raw positioning data in order to improve accuracy, as well as be employed as a stand-alone tool for enhancing of the route guidance on a university campus, and by extension any large indoor space consisting of individual or multiple buildings.

Summary Lacrosse is a developing sport in Sweden and the Netherlands at the moment. Both countries have their initiatives and are playing the game for approximately 12 to 15 years. They are competing at World- and European tournaments and trying their best to professionalize their leagues. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go for both countries before they can measure themselves with the top Lacrosse countries Canada and the USA. In these countries Lacrosse is played for many years, the level of professionalization and trainings methods are more developed and thereby maybe helpful to develop the level in Europe as well.   Aim During this research a comparison is made between the (different) approaches in the sport of Lacrosse, by the four ‘investigated countries’. Where does opportunities occur for developing Lacrosse in Sweden and the Netherlands? Main aim of this research is to find out where the possibilities are for the development of Lacrosse. Both Sweden and the Netherlands want to compete on a higher level of Lacrosse, but at the moment the knowledge about the sport is not sufficient enough.   Method During this research several sources are consulted for getting information. Seven semi-structured interviews were being held among Swedish and Dutch Lacrosse trainers. Besides these interviews the Canadian Lacrosse Federation was contacted by mail, and the Strategic Plan 2008 – 2012 was examined. Third source of collection information was by searching online databases for evidence-based researches.   Results The outcomes showed that there are many opportunities to start with the development of Lacrosse. Position specific Lacrosse training could provide more structured training design and thereby increasing the level of Lacrosse players. Coaches should be trained, and the federations should start professionalizing as well. Besides these results trainers spoke about the importance of starting a youth Lacrosse initiative.   Conclusion If the approach in Sweden and the Netherlands is compared to the level of Lacrosse in Canada both countries need to start putting actions into efforts. Both federations have good intentions but they both are unsure about how to start the development of Lacrosse.

Research on community management conducted in the past has used primarily examples and case studies within large corporations. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) also need to be included in community management, exploring the ways in which they deal with community management and if the large company theories on the subject can be applied to them. In an attempt to respond to this gap in community management we respond to the question of how do small and medium-sized companies utilize communities to communicate successfully to their consumers? During our work, we noted that SMEs were facing two phases when dealing with community management. A strategic step, where the company has to define its goals, its targets, the means it will invest and the tools it will use to deal with community management. The second phase being an operational step includes the creation of communities and the management of them. In the strategic step, we pointed out questions which companies have to address before starting community management including the benefits that the company expects from the community, the amount it will invest in it and the tools the company will use. In the operational step, five main principles were highlighted as commonly used by SMEs to communicate through communities: (1) promotion of an Ideal, (2) uniting around shared interests, (3) the use of the myth as a gathering factor, (4) the importance of the community involvement in the company, and (5) the physical interaction between community members and the brand. Additionally, we found that SMEs have two main advantages when it comes to collaborating with customers/fans that large businesses did not have: proximity and flexibility. However, we found that it was difficult for small companies to find competent people working in the community management field. This lack of knowledge within SMEs appeared to be the primary reason why most brand communities failed. Therefore, in this thesis we aimed to point out good habits in terms of community management in order for SMEs to possess a basic knowledge, thus enabling them to benefit from their advantages of proximity and flexibility, which are a result of by their size and is essential for community management.

I den här uppsatsen har jag gjort en närläsning av Martin Heideggers ”On the way to Language” (”Unterwegs zur Sprache”) skriven år 1959. Boken som var Heideggers sista verk är en dialog mellan Heidegger och en japan som spelas av honom själv i syfte reflektera. Uppsatsen behandlar bokens tema om hur något främmande oss själva (som är vi själva) kan mötas eller inte mötas genom ett språk. Jag har i och med Heidegger sett på ett språks fara och begränsningar liksom dess möjligheter och vägar till kunskap via dialogformen och den estetiska yttringen poesi. Väst mötte öst och tack vare det såg Heidegger inte bara det att det fanns ett nästan gemensamt metafysiskt fält inom det estetiska men också på vilket vis som dessa sätt kunde yttra sig, bl.a. via konsten, poesin, via hintar och det talade. Det gemensamma för ordets fenomen estetik inom väst och begreppet Iki inom öst diskuterades och jämfördes. Vidare jämfördes även det gemensamma ordet för språk och det som jag kom fram till var att det japanskas vokabulär var en mycket öppnare än den i väst då ett ord i öst betydde en hel rad med ord i väst. Raden ord inom det japanska begreppet kunde översättas närmast intill en poetisk versrad. Heidegger jämförde de japanska begreppen med bl.a. sina egna Hölderlin läsningar och vidare den japanska estetiken, bl.a. inom teatern, med sina egna tankar om konst och på vilket vis transcendens är möjlig via dessa fenomen. Det estetiska sågs på så vis via språket som visade var vi fick möjligheten att vara ett kunskaps budbärare liksom dess användare samtidigt. I jämförelse med den japanska estetiken som yttrades både som poetiska innebörder av ord liksom gester i form av hintar som gav den närvarande människan en knuff på den mörka väg som ledde oss mot ljusglimtarna: kunskap och fantasi, m.a.o. en ständig transcendens. Jag har i min analys försökt att beskriva vad det estetiska innebär för Heidegger. Det som jag kom fram till som var gemensamt för både Heidegger som hans simulerade samtalspartner japanen var det att de delade en tomhet i grunden. Denna tomhet yttrade sig som ångest hos Heidegger medan den hos japanen yttrade sig som ett ingenting. Jag såg att Heidegger behövde japanen för att kunna se hintar av sig själv och på så vis kunna reflektera över sig själv och sina tankar. Tomheten beskrev de bägge m.a.o. via språket och dialogformen som gav dem begränsningar och möjligheter att på ett hermeneutiskt vis tala om någonting som inte finns men är paradoxalt nog mycket närvarande.

The aim of the paper is to discuss the way that the online job banks send resumes to businesses for job seekers, and most businesses and job seekers have chosen online job banks as channel management for job wanted due to the rapid development of information technology for recent years. What businesses find employees and job seekers find jobs through the online job banks can be classified into two kinds, one is active candidates for the job, and another is matching pair by the online job banks. The online job banks help job seekers to send resumes to businesses by means of both ways, and how the online job banks send resumes to businesses for job seekers will affect the outcome. Therefore, this paper focuses on original way of sending resumes used by the online job banks, and also uses Gale-Shapley algorithm to devise different way of sending resumes which the online job banks possibly use in the future and consequently by comparing two ways of sending resumes, it can analyze what ways of sending resumes can be adopted by the online job banks under different situations.

Escalation of right-of-way (ROW) costs have been shown to be a prime contributor to project cost escalation in the highway industry. Two problems contribute to ROW cost escalation: 1) the ROW cost estimation and cost estimate management process generally lacks structure and definition as compared to other areas of cost estimation; and 2) there is a lack of integration and communication between those responsible for ROW cost estimating and those responsible for general project cost estimating. The research for this thesis was preceded by a literature review to establish the basis for the study. Data collection was completed through interviews of seven state highway agencies (SHAs) and two local public agencies (LPAs). The findings of the research are presented in a set of ROW flowcharts which document the steps, inputs, and outputs of the ROW cost estimation and cost estimate management process. Three ROW cost estimates and a cost management process take place throughout project development. An effort was made from the onset of the research to relate the ROW cost estimating and cost estimate management process to the first four project development phases (planning, programming. preliminary design, and final design). There are five flowcharts produced as a result of this research: 1) an agency-level flowchart showing all cost estimates and the interaction of ROW with the project development process; 2) a conceptual ROW cost estimating flowchart which depicts the required steps during planning; 3) a baseline ROW cost estimating flowchart which depicts the required steps during programming; 4) an update ROW cost estimating flowchart which depicts the required steps during preliminary design to include a cost estimate management loop; and 5) a ROW cost management flowchart which depicts the required steps during final design. Although selected SHA contacts provided input following the development of the flowcharts, the flowcharts were only validated to a limited extent due to time and budget constraints. These flowcharts attempt to address the two contributing problems to ROW cost escalation by providing structure to the ROW cost estimation process and by developing the ROW process flowcharts linked to the project development process. Based on the input provided by SHA contacts, the flowcharts appear to have the potential to provide guidance to SHAs in improving the accuracy of ROW cost estimates through addressing these two problems.

Between 1893 and 1941, the understanding of the Milky Way galaxy within the American culture changed from a sphere to a spiral and Earth's location within it changed from the center to the periphery. These changes were based primarily upon scientific theories developed at Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California. This dissertation is an "astrosophy" that traces the history of changing depictions of the Milky Way in selected published sources and identifies key individuals, theories and technologies involved. It also demonstrates why the accepted depictions of the universe envisioned at Mount Wilson were cultural-scientific products created, in part, as the result of place. Southern California became the hearth of a culture that justified its superiority based upon its unique climate. Clear skies, remarkable visibility, and a perceived existence of intense natural light became the basis for the promotion of Mount Wilson as the premier location for astronomical observations. Conservation, en plein air paintings, and the concept of paysage moralis are Southern Californian cultural products of the early 1900s that promoted an idealized society capable of exceptional intellectual endeavors and scientific accomplishments. The efforts of astronomers Hale, Shapley, Adams, Hubble and Ritchey resulted in the changing American understanding of the universe. This dissertation reveals how the diverse social interactions of these astronomers intersected Arroyo Seco meetings, women's organizations, the Valley Hunt Club elites, and philanthropic groups that comprised the schizophrenic culture of Pasadena. Their astronomical theories are compared to other aspects of the Southern Californian culture revealed in the writings of Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West and John Fante. The desire of astronomers to gain prestige from their discoveries is compared to competition in the creative processes of Hollywood. The theories created by astronomers and the films of the motion picture industry relied upon establishing an accepted second space within the minds of their audiences. By the end of the study period, the universe accepted by most Americans was a "California Universe". It was not a discovery of pure science, but rather a culturalscientific product of the Mount Wilson astronomers, the Pasadena community and the landscape and culture of Southern California.

Ni50.6Ti49.4 single and Ni52Ti48 polycrystalline shape memory alloy samples were subjected to aging under a uniaxial stress, to form a single Ni4Ti3 precipitate variant and to investigate the effects of single versus multi-variant coherent precipitates on the shape memory characteristics including two-way shape memory effect (TWSME). Shape memory and superelasticity properties along with the effects of stress and temperature on the transformation temperatures, strain, hysteresis, dimensional stability, and R-phase formation were investigated. This was accomplished through the use of isobaric thermal cycling and superelasticity experiments and various microscopy techniques that included transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy, and optical microcopy. The results showed that it is feasible to use constrained aging to bias R-phase martensite variants upon cooling from austenite without any external stress, however, accomplishing this with B19’martensite was much harder as complete TWSME was only found in the Ni50.6Ti49.4 single crystalline sample oriented along the [112] direction. The onset of irrecoverable strain corresponded to the R-phase temperature hysteresis increase in the single crystalline samples regardless of the aging conditions. Through TEM analysis it was discovered that [112] and [114] twins were found in austenite due to plastic deformation of martensite during the superelasticity experiments. Since [112] twins are theoretically impossible to form in austenite, and since martensite was plastically deformed, [112] austenite twins were attributed to the transformation of compound twins in martensite, in particular [113] martensite twins formed during the plastic deformation of martensite, into austenite twins. In the Ni52Ti48 polycrystalline samples, a compressive R-phase variant was biased through constrained aging under 100 and 200 MPa uniaxial tensile stresses at 400°C and 450°C. Aging, in all conditions, produced a high density of Ni4Ti3 precipitates that was most likely responsible for the small transformation strain observed, less that 2%, upon transformation to martensite. In the future, samples with compositions between 50.8 and 51.5 Ni atomic percent, in addition to altered solution and aging heat treatments as compared to those used in this study should be investigated as it is believed that samples with these compositions will yield better and consistent TWSME responses through constrained aging.

Since Taiwan joined the WTO (World Trade Organization), Taiwan¡¦s agriculture confronted with great challenges. Taiwan government plans for the fishery into three expanded directions. Those are traditional fishery, breed fishery, and recreation fishery. Recreational fishery offers a wide range of recreations, including pond angling, touring of the sea bottom, and various types of sport fishing such as trolling and angling. The ¡¥Blue High Way¡¦ is a kind of the recreation fisheries. The ¡¥Blue High Way¡¦ in Dan-shui is the first line across Taipei country, Ji-long, Yi-lan, and Hua-lian. This dissertation will discuss the sustainable development strategies for the Dan-shui blue high way. This dissertation uses the dominant-less dominant design method. The qualitative data will be taken as the main result, and the quantitative data will be an auxiliary to the main result. The qualitative data were be collected by visiting government official, blue high way businessmen, residenters, and sightseers. The quantitative data derived from mail questionnaire that use the Delphi Method.