This research explores the application of new information and communications technology in political marketing. As a representative of Web2.0, blog has changed the way of interaction between the media and users as well as that between media users. Blog makes it possible for information receivers transmit messages and express views from bottom-up. As blog develops globally with its users increased, it has become an increasingly important issue regarding how it can be used for political marketing. It is common that Taiwan¡¦s politicians are increasingly interested in developing their own blogs for marketing themselves and providing constituency service. This study aims to examine how mayor candidates take advantage of blog for campaign marketing. It tries to understand and describe the intention of political bloggers. It also explores the key success factors regarding how political candidates conduct campaign marketing using blog. By a literature review of the Internet development and evolution, digital democracy, political marketing and blogs, the author found out six dimensions and 35sub-dimensions for evaluation: content expression, interactivity, marketing and promotion, business model and friendliness of using. Through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) , the first-wave survey for bloggers results in the first-half sub-dimensions. The second-wave interview was conducted to seven experts in the field of political marketing, which results in the priority-setting of the sub-dimension factors. The result shows that political marketing using blog targets mainly on young and well-educated electorates. The reasons for their using blog include fast accumulation of political information, interaction with candidates, and support from others. It shows that friendliness of access, interaction, and business model are the top three concerns when establishing a campaign blog. They are followed by marketing and promotion, interface design, and content expression. This study will contribute to the understanding of using blog for political marketing both at theoretical and practicallevels.

Bakgrund: De onoterade företagen står för en betydande och ökande del av svenskt näringsliv. De små onoterade företagens utmärkande drag, vilka inte behandlas i traditionella värderingsmetoder (till exempel CAPM), kan få stor inverkan på det framräknade företagsvärdet varför det är viktigt att hitta modeller som på ett rättvisande sätt kan avspegla även de onoterade företagens unika egenskaper och risker. Brister i nuvarande modeller har lett till försök att utveckla nya modeller som bättre kan fånga de onoterade företagens riskexponering i kapitalkostnaden. En sådan modell är AHP-modellen (Analytical Hierarchy Process) som har arbetats fram och publicerats av Cotner & Fletcher i American Business Review år 2000. Syfte: Studien beskriver, testar och analyserar AHP-modellen samt andra alternativa modeller som används inom företagsvärderingsområdet för att skatta kapitalkostnaden för eget kapital i onoterade bolag. Två centrala frågor genomsyrar uppsatsen: 1) I vilka fall kan AHP-modellen eller andra alternativa modeller användas till grund för en extern värdering av onoterade företag? 2) Kan AHP-modellen utvecklas för att bli mer praktiskt tillämbar och vilka förändringar behöver göras i sådana fall? Genomförande: Studien skattar fram kapitalkostnader för eget kapital på två fallföretag med hjälp av de vanligaste modellerna inom värderingsområdet. Resultaten jämförs och analyseras sedan utifrån ett användbarhetsperspektiv. Slutsats: Endast få externa intressenter bör och kan använda sig av AHP-modellen som värderingsinstrument. Modellen präglas av hög komplexitet och subjektivitet, risk för mulitkolineäritet, matematisk inkonsekvens samt till viss mån felaktiga och ofullständiga riskfaktorer. En odiversifierad investerare kan i vissa fall använda modellen, förutsatt att ovan uppräknade fallgropar kan undvikas. För att undvika dessa har vi i uppsatsen föreslagit tre större och tre mindre förändringar av modellen. För övriga investerare rekommenderas metoderna bottom up i kombination med BCG-metoden. / Background: The unlisted companies compose a substantial and an increasingly important part of Swedish business. The small unlisted companies’ distinctive characteristics, which are not accounted for in traditional valuation methods (for example CAPM), could have great implications on the estimated company value. That is why it is so important to find and develop models and methods, which properly and correctly reflect the special characteristics of unlisted companies. The limitations and shortcomings in existing models have resulted in attempts to develop new models that better mirror the risk in unlisted companies. One such model is the AHP-model (Analytical Hierarchy Process), which in 2000 was developed and published by Cotner & Fletcher in American Business Review. Purpose: The study describes, tests and analyses the AHP-model as well as other alternative models used in company valuation in order to estimate the cost of equity in unlisted companies. Two central problems permeate the study: 1) In what cases could the AHP-model or other alternative models be used by an external investor to estimate the company value of an unlisted firm? 2) Could the AHP-model be developed further in order to become more practical and functional and what changes are needed in that case? Realization: The study estimates cost of equity for two case companies using the major models in the valuation area. The results are then compared and analysed from a user friendly perspective. Findings: Our conclusion is that only a very limited number of external investors should and can use the AHP-model as a valuation tool. The model is characterized by a high degree of complexity and subjectivity, risk for multicolinearity, mathematical inconsistency as well as incorrect and incomplete risk factors. An undiversified investor could, in some limited cases, use the model, assumed that the above mentioned pitfalls are avoided. In order to avoid those we have proposed three major and three minor changes in the model. For remaining investors we recommend the bottom up method in combination with the BCG-method.

Numerous aspects of job scheduling in manufacturing systems have been the focus of several studies in the past decades. However, human factors in manufacturing systems such as workers’ mental conditions are still neglected issues and have not received adequate attentions. Job boredom and mental fatigue are both aspects of workers’ mental condition. They affect work performances by increasing sick leave duration and decreasing work productivity. On the other hand, job rotation could be an alternative strategy to cope with such human issues at work. The benefits of job rotation for both employees and firms have been widely recognized in the literature. Although some studies found job rotation as a means to reduce workers' physical work-related traumas, they did not consider the effect of variable mental conditions on workers. Despite the proven importance of boredom and mental fatigue at the workplace, they have not been a combined precise objective of any job rotation problem in current literature. The study of mental conditions proposed in this paper attempts to extend the previous works by addressing new methods and developing a feasible solution to increase manufacturing productivity. A new job scheduling program has been designed specifically which combines a new job rotation model and a job assignment method.

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder that is commonly characterized as deterioration of intellectual process and emotional responses and affects 1% of any given population. SNPs are single nucleotide changes that take place in DNA sequences and establish the major percentage of genomic variations. In this study, our goal was to identify SNPs as genomic markers that are related with schizophrenia and investigate the genes and pathways that are identified through the analysis of SNPs. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) analyse the whole genome of case and control groups to identify genetic variations and search for related markers, like SNPs. GWASs are the most common method to investigate genetic causes of a complex disease such as v schizophrenia because regular linkage studies are not sufficient. Out of 909,622 SNPs analysis of the dbGAP Schizophrenia genotyping data identified 25,555 SNPs with a p-value 5x10-5. Next, combined p-value approach to identify associated genes and pathways and AHP based prioritization to select biologically relevant SNPs with high statistical association are used through METU-SNP software. 6,000 SNPs had an AHP score above 0.4, which mapped to 2,500 genes suggested to be associated with schizophrenia and related conditions. In addition to previously described neurological pathways, pathway and network analysis showed enrichment of two pathways. Melanogenesis and vascular smooth muscle contraction pathways were found to be highly associated with schizophrenia. We have also shown that these pathways can be organized in one biological network, which might have a role in the molecular etiology of schizophrenia. Overall analysis results revealed two novel candidate genes SOS1 and GUCY1B3 that have a possible relation with schizophrenia.

Numerous aspects of job scheduling in manufacturing systems have been the focus of several studies in the past decades. However, human factors in manufacturing systems such as workers’ mental conditions are still neglected issues and have not received adequate attentions. Job boredom and mental fatigue are both aspects of workers’ mental condition. They affect work performances by increasing sick leave duration and decreasing work productivity. On the other hand, job rotation could be an alternative strategy to cope with such human issues at work. The benefits of job rotation for both employees and firms have been widely recognized in the literature. Although some studies found job rotation as a means to reduce workers' physical work-related traumas, they did not consider the effect of variable mental conditions on workers. Despite the proven importance of boredom and mental fatigue at the workplace, they have not been a combined precise objective of any job rotation problem in current literature. The study of mental conditions proposed in this paper attempts to extend the previous works by addressing new methods and developing a feasible solution to increase manufacturing productivity. A new job scheduling program has been designed specifically which combines a new job rotation model and a job assignment method.

Flexible approaches for eliciting preferences of decision makers involved in a conflict are developed along with applications to real-world disputes. More specifically, two multiple criteria decision making approaches are proposed for capturing the relative preferences of a decision maker participating in a conflict situation. A case study in logistics concerned with the conflict arising over the expansion of port facilities on the west coast of North America as well as a transportation negotiation dispute are used to illustrate how these approaches can be integrated with the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution, a practical conflict analysis methodology. Ascertaining the preferences of the decision makers taking part in a conflict constitutes a key element in the construction of a formal conflict model. In practice, the relative preferences, which reflect each decision maker’s objectives or goals in a given situation, are rather difficult to obtain. The first method for preference elicitation is to integrate an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) preference ranking method with the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution. The AHP approach is used to elicit relative preferences of decision makers, and this preference information is then fed into a graph model for further stability analyses. The case study of the Canadian west coast port congestion conflict is investigated using this integrated model. Another approach is based on a fuzzy multiple criteria out-ranking technique called ELECTRE III. It is also employed for ranking states or possible scenarios in a conflict from most to least preferred, with ties allowed, by the decision maker according to his or her own value system. The model is applied to a transportation negotiation dispute between the two key parties consisting of shippers and carriers.

ABSTRACTNowadays the importance of environmental logistics is increasing while organizations are trying to pay more attention to their transport activities. Since PNL is a famous logistics company in Nordic countries and transport activates are done by sub contractors they intend to make sound environmental choices by assessing their suppliers from environmental performance in order to identify the best suppliers which is comply with the PNL environmental policy.In this project the survey study and questionnaire has been made in order to evaluate the supplier performance from environmental perspective. At first the investigation has been made for improving the previous questionnaire which was made by PNL. Some parts were revised according to researchers‟ knowledge, reliable references and suggestion of environmental consultant. Lots of study has been made in order to find the most importing effects that can affect environmentalism. Obtained results from questionnaire were analyzed and appropriate suggestions were given in order to enlighten the significant importance of environmental issues.Due to complexity of decision making environment, the applicable and reliable method should be applied to cope with complexity and the factors that can affect the objective while simplifying the process. Analytical Hierarchy process has been applied for this project in order to change the qualitative situation into quantitative manner to rate the suppliers based on their performance.The first step in AHP process is constructing hierarchy in two or more level for evaluating the alternatives. The goal of the project is environmental performance .Second level is criteria which has been made according to literature and the importance of them while the suggestions of consultant has been applied as well. Third level is sub criteria which are questions of questionnaire and finally the forth level include alternative which is suppliers.Next step in AHP process is weighting criteria and sub criteria and making pair wise comparison between them. Procedure of weighting is done by researchers and managers from PNL in order to decrease the subjectivity of decision making process. The result from suppliers has been investigated and points were given to them according to their performance and ability regarding environmental logistics.Sensitivity analysis was made for analyzing the result from AHP in order to investigate the responsiveness of the result.Key words: Logistics, Environmentalism, AHP Method, Supplier Assessment, Survey Study.

Maintenance has had a tremendous impact on company’s proficiency to optimize its production system in order to meet its long term objectives. Generally, a production system in which maintenance is not given attention may easily lead to the system producing defective product as a result of machine defect. The purpose of this thesis is to utilized tools and methods to analyze the impact of maintenance implementation in a production system. The analytical Hierarchy process was utilized to filter the defining factors and sub-factors considered to be related to the life length and performance of production equipment in the research which was carried out at SCA Packaging Sweden AB. Various cost associated with these factors were analyzed using the cost breakdown structure, an element of life cycle cost analysis. Finally, economic evaluation of the filtered factors was performed to show the benefits associated with implementing maintenance. The result shows that while investment on maintenance implementation might be a cost at the earlier stage of implementation because it is hard to measure and follow up its impact on company’s business. Nevertheless, its role in improving company productivity profitability is indispensable. Thus, maintenance is a profit centre rather than a cost centre.

Fire plays an important role in forest ecosystem management depending on the dual character of it. It should be managed and supervised effectively. In this particular study, the study area was located in the north part of Gävleborg County in Sweden, which is in a high- latitude region. Seven factors, divided into natural factors and human caused factors, were extracted from digital elevation model (DEM), classified land use map and feature shape files provided by National Land Survey of Sweden (Lantmäteriet). Two different weighting schemes for the factors were determined by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. With the help of ArcGIS 9.3 and Erdas 9.3, two classified result maps were obtained, where forest fire risk ranks were shown as five classes, very low, low, moderate, high and very high. The 43 fire incidents in the year 2007 and 2008 recorded by Global Fire Management System were used to evaluate the results. The results show that the higher rank the region is, the larger is the probability for forest fire risk and higher the risk to spread the fire. Furthermore, according to the occurrence time of the fire incidents, the period of time from end of May to beginning of June was generalized as a dangerous period for forest fire risk in this study area. After analyzing and discussing, even if there might be some uncertainties caused by variable selection, resolution problem and weighting schemes, the results were generally reliable.

Core enterprise is the center of Green Supply Chain (GSC) and it helps partners to meet the environmental standards and to improve GSC’s performance. However there are two questions for core enterprise when it establishes GSC: What roles do core enterprise play in GSC? How does core enterprise improve GSC’s performance? What criterions are considered when core enterprise chooses partners in GSC?   In order to answer these questions, this paper will use following methods: firstly, Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Analytic network process (ANP) have be used to study on three research companies (IKEA, TOYOTA and Apple); Secondly, six interviews with research companies’ employees.   After case study, the results show that when core enterprise chooses partners, it will draw up some criterions and sub-standards for partners to fulfill. Furthermore, core enterprise plays the roles as GSC’s builder, director, coordinator, and designer in the system.   Finally, this paper answered the research questions: Firstly, in order to improve the performance of GSC, core enterprise should direct all partners in GSC to save materials and recycle waste in each link of GSC. Secondly, core enterprise can use four criterions to choose partners. These criterions are: environmental management performance, product-related elements, production-service levels, and enterprise culture.