The aim of the master thesis is to create and verify the control algorithm of a personal lift. First part of the thesis focuses on a literature review investigating the requirements for personal lifts. Based on the information found in the review, selected measures were implemented in the model so that it would be the most suitable to the requirements for personal lifts. A brief introduction of the lift and its norms is followed by a description of the programme and control algorithm, including the description of the used add-on instructions. Last part describes the visualization which is used to control the lift model. In addition to controlling, the visualization provides statistical data, the current status of the programme and information about the set parameters, inputs, outputs and faults.

The goals of this diploma thesis were to get acquainted with the model of the robotic arm Beta 6 from Merkur Company. Next design connections between control board and PLC from Rockwell Automation. Then design and realize Add-On instruction for movement in 3D space with appropriate visualization.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka rutiner kring elever med neuropsykiatriska anpassningar och kollegialt lärande med särskilt fokus på NPF-anpassning för gynnsam lärandemiljö. Denna studies frågeställningar söker svar på vilket sätt som skola och fritidshem kan ge en personlig utveckling för elever med diagnosen neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar (NPF) samt hur kollegialt lärande kan vara ett led i arbetet med NPF-anpassningar i skolan. Med ett fokus kring anpassningar och kollegialt lärande undersöks och analyseras verksamheternas möjligheter att vidareutveckla skolpersonal för att ge förutsättningar till en positiv studiemiljö för alla elever, men särskilt för de elever i behov av anpassningar. Teorianknytning i denna studie kan kopplas till den relationella pedagogiken. Studien har genomförts genom semistrukturerade intervjuer i fokusgrupper på två grundskolor med två lärare i varje grupp på respektive skola. En av skolorna var belägen i stadsmiljö och den andra skolan var belägen på landsorten i en närliggande kommun. Resultatet ger indikationer på den långvariga, men även direkta nyttan i elevernas mående av att få anpassningar i tidigt skede för att få positiv personlig utveckling. Studiens resultat pekar även på fördelarna med generella anpassningar i förebyggande syfte utifrån kollegialt lärande med lektionsstrukturer som ett mål. Sammanfattningsvis kan resultaten visa tecken på att det relationella arbetet i skola och fritidshem är av yttersta vikt för att bidra till en gynnsam lärandemiljö för alla elever inte enbart de elever med underliggande diagnoser.

The healthcare sector is still using paper transcripts for daily tasks that could very well be managed with digital solutions. One of the areas that can utilize digitization are health evaluation forms that patients fill out. This thesis addresses the implementation och the integration of a healthcare service. The product requires that the service’s back-end and database is further developed for later integration into Microsoft Outlook with an Office add-in. In addition, it provides a review on Office add-ins and the ideal API authorization method for the system. An agile methodology is adopted for project management and the chosen software development method is use case driven. To summarize the results, it can be determined that the use cases are successfully implemented and that relevant experience is collected for answering the various aspects regarding Office add-ins. The existing API authorization method was incorrectly implemented, but despite that, the API keys method is deemed suitable for the system. / Vårdsektorn använder sig fortfarande av pappersutskrifter i det dagligt arbetet som mycket väl kan hanteras med digitala lösningar. Ett område som kan ha användning av digitalisering är de självskattningsformulär som patienter fyller i. Detta examensarbete har för avsikt att behandla implementation och integration av en vårdtjänst. Implementationen kräver vidareutveckling av tjänstens backend och databas för att sedan kunna integrera den till Microsoft Outlook med ett Office add-in. Dessutom presenteras en recension av Office add-ins och den ideala methoden för att implementera API auktorisering i systemet. En agil metodik används för projekthantering och den valda mjukvaruutvecklingenmetoden är användarfallsdriven. För att summera resultaten kan det fastställas att samtliga användarfall är implementerade och att relevant erfarenhet är insamlad för att besvara rescensionsaspekterna kring Office add-ins. Den existerande metoden för API auktorisering var felaktigt implementerad, men trots det är det bedömt att API nycklar är lämpligt att använda i systemet.

The study aims to evaluate the understanding of value – based management (VBM) as a decision making tool, how it is embraced in all management levels and its impact on the performance of a petrochemical company. The application of VBM links business strategy, finance, performance management and management processes all together to create value. VBM is a powerful management framework with the aim to focus all managerial processes on shareholder value creation. It encourages employees at all levels within an organisation to focus on value creation. This study investigated VBM by means of literature study to formulate an understanding of how it can be used as a decision making tool in a petrochemical company. The VBM metrics were presented and some successes and failures of such metrics were considered to provide a better understanding of VBM implementation. A quantitative study was conducted through the use of a standardised questionnaire to collect primary data. The questionnaire was distributed to managers (from junior managers to senior managers) at Sasol. The completed questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity before it was analysed and specific constructs were developed from the literature review together with the respondents’ demographic profile. Even though most respondents indicated that they have not received adequate training and education on VBM, the results of the study indicate that there is a general knowledge and understanding of VBM and its principles in Sasol. After analysis the study provided practical recommendations to ensure that VBM is sustainably used as a decision making tool in a petrochemical company. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The study aims to evaluate the understanding of value – based management (VBM) as a decision making tool, how it is embraced in all management levels and its impact on the performance of a petrochemical company. The application of VBM links business strategy, finance, performance management and management processes all together to create value. VBM is a powerful management framework with the aim to focus all managerial processes on shareholder value creation. It encourages employees at all levels within an organisation to focus on value creation. This study investigated VBM by means of literature study to formulate an understanding of how it can be used as a decision making tool in a petrochemical company. The VBM metrics were presented and some successes and failures of such metrics were considered to provide a better understanding of VBM implementation. A quantitative study was conducted through the use of a standardised questionnaire to collect primary data. The questionnaire was distributed to managers (from junior managers to senior managers) at Sasol. The completed questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity before it was analysed and specific constructs were developed from the literature review together with the respondents’ demographic profile. Even though most respondents indicated that they have not received adequate training and education on VBM, the results of the study indicate that there is a general knowledge and understanding of VBM and its principles in Sasol. After analysis the study provided practical recommendations to ensure that VBM is sustainably used as a decision making tool in a petrochemical company. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Course/Level: 2FE23E, Bachelor DegreeAuthors: Linda Dürholt & Josefine MöllerSupervisor: Dan HalvarssonExaminer: Bertil HulténTitle: Add value within the trade of brokers – A studie about the brokers work with homestyling in their broker serviceKeywords: add value, services, experiences, brokers, homestylingBackground: The broker profession is included in the servicesector where the broker acts as a middleman between buyer and seller and their task is to add value to a real estate deal. If the broker lacks knowledge within a surtain field, he or she should refer to another person with this competence. Services that lays beyond the brokers ordinary work and competence, are often requested and therefore brokers use supplementary services. Homestyling is one of these supplementary services that is implemented since it can generate increased value.Research question: How does homestyling add value to the brokers service?Purpose: The purpose with this studie is to describe and analyse brokers work with homestyling in their service.Method: The qualitative studie was executed by single interviews with four different broker companies. The interviews were of a semi-structured form.Conclusion: Brokers have identified a way of creating value to their service by offering designed packages where the core service is combined with a number of supplementary services, where homestyling is one of them. How present the phenomenon has been over time within the different broker companies differ but all of them are today working with homestyling in a high extent. / Kurs/nivå: 2FE23E, KandidatuppsatsFörfattare: Linda Dürholt & Josefine MöllerHandledare: Dan HalvarssonExaminator: Bertil HulténTitel: Addera värde inom mäklarbranschen - En studie om mäklares arbete med homestyling i sin mäklartjänstNyckelord: värdeaddering, tjänster, upplevelser, mäklarbranschen, homestylingBakgrund: Mäklaryrket ingår i tjänstesektorn där mäklaren i fråga agerar mellanhand mellan köpare och säljare och har till uppgift att addera värde vid en bostadsaffär. Saknar fastighetsmäklaren kunskap inom ett visst område, bör denna hänvisa till någon som erhåller kompetensen. Ofta efterfrågas tjänster som ligger utanför mäklaruppdraget och mäklarens kompetens och därför använder mäklare tilläggstjänster som komplement. Homestyling är en tilläggstjänst som implementeras eftersom det kan generera ökat värde.Frågeställning: Hur adderar homestyling värde till mäklarens tjänst?Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och analysera mäklares arbete med homestyling i sin mäklartjänst.Metod: Den kvalitativa studien utfördes genom enskilda intervjuer med fyra olika mäklarföretag. Intervjuerna var av semi-strukturerad form.Slutsats: Mäklare har identifierat ett sätt att skapa värde till sin mäklartjänst genom att erbjuda utformade paket där kärntjänsten kombinerats med ett antal tilläggstjänster, varav homestyling är en. Hur aktuellt fenomenet varit i de olika mäklarbyråerna över tid skiljer sig åt men idag arbetar alla med homestyling i hög grad.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder has garnered controversy in the United States since it became a widely diagnosed disorder in American schoolchildren in the 1970s. Both diagnosis and treatment are sites of controversy. Some believe the disorder is a contrivance of parents and teachers who do not want to deal with hardly exceptional childhood difficulties, or a contrivance of pharmaceutical companies taking advantage of such parents and teachers. Others believe that a neurobiological basis for the disorder will eventually be discovered, and thus will legitimize both the diagnosis and the practice of prescribing medication for treatment. I utilize the Science, Technology, and Society approach of actor network theory to show that these multiple understandings of ADHD can coexist, since ADHD is a complex product of external and internal agents. This will demonstrate how cultural shifts and values cause parents, teachers, and doctors to evaluate childhood in a way that frames certain behaviors as harmful. I also evaluate how cultural values of medicalization center issues in the individual rather than in external factors, and assess the values that psychiatric treatment appeals to and whether they primarily serve the needs of children. I conclude that ADHD is a heavily context-dependent disorder, but that that does not delegitimize harmful effect on children who exhibit ADHD-associated behaviors. I also conclude that the current dominant medicalized approach to ADHD is not optimal because it focuses on only a few of the total factors that make ADHD a pathological disorder for children in the contemporary United States.

The IEEE standard of decimal floating-point arithmetic was officially released in 2008. The new decimal floating-point (DFP) format and arithmetic can be applied to remedy the conversion error caused by representing decimal floating-point numbers in binary floating-point format and to improve the computing performance of the decimal processing in commercial and financial applications. Nowadays, many architectures and algorithms of individual arithmetic functions for decimal floating-point numbers are proposed and investigated (e.g., addition, multiplication, division, and square root). However, because of the less efficiency of representing decimal number in binary devices, the area consumption and performance of the DFP arithmetic units are not comparable with the binary counterparts. IBM proposed a binary fused multiply-add (FMA) function in the POWER series of processors in order to improve the performance of floating-point computations and to reduce the complexity of hardware design in reduced instruction set computing (RISC) systems. Such an instruction also has been approved to be suitable for efficiently implementing not only stand-alone addition and multiplication, but also division, square root, and other transcendental functions. Additionally, unconventional number systems including digit sets and encodings have displayed advantages on performance and area efficiency in many applications of computer arithmetic. In this research, by analyzing the typical binary floating-point FMA designs and the design strategy of unconventional number systems, ``a high performance decimal floating-point fused multiply-add (DFMA) with redundant internal encodings" was proposed. First, the fixed-point components inside the DFMA (i.e., addition and multiplication) were studied and investigated as the basis of the FMA architecture. The specific number systems were also applied to improve the basic decimal fixed-point arithmetic. The superiority of redundant number systems in stand-alone decimal fixed-point addition and multiplication has been proved by the synthesis results. Afterwards, a new DFMA architecture which exploits the specific redundant internal operands was proposed. Overall, the specific number system improved, not only the efficiency of the fixed-point addition and multiplication inside the FMA, but also the architecture and algorithms to build up the FMA itself. The functional division, square root, reciprocal, reciprocal square root, and many other functions, which exploit the Newton's or other similar methods, can benefit from the proposed DFMA architecture. With few necessary on-chip memory devices (e.g., Look-up tables) or even only software routines, these functions can be implemented on the basis of the hardwired FMA function. Therefore, the proposed DFMA can be implemented on chip solely as a key component to reduce the hardware cost. Additionally, our research on the decimal arithmetic with unconventional number systems expands the way of performing other high-performance decimal arithmetic (e.g., stand-alone division and square root) upon the basic binary devices (i.e., AND gate, OR gate, and binary full adder). The proposed techniques are also expected to be helpful to other non-binary based applications.

The purpose of this study was to determine, by means of a review of literature and empirical research, the impact of dietary interventions on the classroom health promotion of Foundation Phase learners with ADD. In order to reach this goal, it was imperative to illustrate the meaning of the concepts health, wellness, health promoting schools, nutrition and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The objective of the empirical research was to determine whether dietary interventions would promote the health of Foundation Phase learners with ADD in the classroom by focusing on decreasing their levels of hyperactivity, increasing their concentration and improving their social behaviour. In conclusion, the following are some of the findings of this study. Dietary interventions impacted positively on: the hyperactivity level of participating foundation phase learners with ADD in the classroom; the ability of participating foundation phase learners with ADD to concentrate in the classroom; and the social behaviour of participating foundation phase learners with ADD in the classroom. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.