Solar heat pump systems (SHPs) are systems that combine solar energy and heat pumps. SHPs have been investigated for several decades and have been proven to increase the share of renewable energy and reduce electric energy demand in residential heating applications. Many solar thermal heat pump systems have become market-available in recent years; however these systems are still not widely employed in the residential sector. This is due mainly to the high initial costs (investment and installation costs) of solar thermal heat pump systems, which limits their cost-effectiveness. Enhancing cost-effectiveness of solar thermal heat pump systems is necessary for a more effective and broader market penetration. In this thesis, solar thermal and photovoltaic systems combined with heat pumps for heating applications are treated. The overall aims of the thesis are to: 1) investigate techno-economics of SHPs and 2) investigate possible solutions for improving system performance of a reference solar thermal and heat pump system for residential heating applications. In the first part of the thesis, the influence of climatic boundary conditions on economic performance of SHPs has been investigated by means of: a) an economic comparison of SHPs found in the relevant literature and b) system simulations of the reference solar thermal heat pump system. In the second part of the thesis, potential solutions for improving system performance of the reference solar thermal heat pump system with limited change in system’ costs are investigated. A systematic approach was used for investigating cost-effectiveness of the system improvements in the reference system. Based on results of the cost-effectiveness analysis, some of the investigated system improvements were chosen for being included in the design of a novel solar thermal and air source heat pump system concept. The novel system was designed for a house standard with relatively high operating temperatures (55°C/45°C) in the space heating distribution system and for high space heating demand (123 kWh/m2·year). Finally, the thesis ends with a cost-effectiveness analysis of the novel system. / <p>QC 20170918</p> / MacSheep / iNSPiRe

M.Tech. (Industrial Design) / This study investigated the user’s perspective with reference to the regular use of the WonderbagTM retained-heat cooker in low-income communities in a South African context. This research addresses the limitations of the literature available to support the investigation of the design of a fabric retained-heat cooker from a user’s perspective. As with the WonderbagTM retained-heat cooker, products aimed at underserved low-income communities are often designed without the participation of the end-user. This research focuses on the user’s experience of the fabric retained-heat cooker and seeks to include the user in the process of improving the design of these products. Participatory action research and user-centred design were utilised as the chosen methodologies for this study. The history of retained-heat cookers has been reflected upon when considering the use of insulation materials and alternative fabric improvements. Methods of manufacture, material cost and usage have been considered as critical elements of the design process as well as the skill level of the existing users. Participants indicated their personal interest in the design and development of the prototype retained-heat cooker. They were intensively involved in the design process from the focus group discussion where their perceptions were elicited, right through to their testing of the final prototype. A final workshop concluded the last of three workshops where participants provided individual feedback in terms of their personal experiences of using the prototype retained-heat cooker. Participants were able to selectively customise their prototypes, which brought about a sense of ownership and pride that was not evident in their use of previous retained-heat cookers. Participants indicated personal interest in creating their own retained-heat cookers from the experience that they acquired during the research process. As a result of this experience, the participants believed that they could manufacture their own retained-heat cookers to sell within their community, which could provide income for themselves and other members of their community. The saving of energy in terms of the fuel required to complete the cooking process translated into a direct saving of money, which was highlighted as a recurring theme and identified benefit of retained-heat cooking. By encouraging the use of energy-efficient retained-heat cookers, low-income communities could directly benefit from spending less on fuel costs and more on other essentials.

Undergraduate pre-business students who had taken an introductory business statistics course three years ago were sent a questionnaire that, among several other questions, asked them about their views on the usefulness of the course. Students rated the introductory business statistics course as "moderately important" for their business education. They favored an integrated approach that covers both the statistical concepts and the computer software necessary to carry out the statistical analysis, and they had a strong preference for the Microsoft EXCEL software. Students thought that projects played an important role in introducing them to real-world applications of statistics, but they also mentioned several problems that arose with group-based work. Factors mentioned as having had an impact on teaching effectiveness are discussed in the last part of the paper. (author's abstract) / Series: Forschungsberichte / Institut für Statistik

The aim of this work is a detailed introduction to the theory of Lean six sigma management tool and verify its efficacy in practice on the individual case. Process to be improved in this work is recovery of overdue debts on english market of certain international company. Of the possible tools Lean six sigma methodologies were chosen the most suitable for a particular process and main causes of large amounts of overdue recievables were identified. As the best steps to improve the process were indentified sending statements of account to customers, improve communication quality and appealing for compliance maturity according to the rules of English banking system. With the methodology we achieved improvement on Sigma parametr on the researched process.

In this dissertation, I report on the design, implementation, and evaluation of my intervention for the revision of physics in a mainstream public secondary school in Singapore. This intervention was conducted over a one-year period, and involved students who were taking their GCE 'O' level physics examination after immersion in the intervention, which was conducted as part of their regular physics revision curriculum. Based on sociocultural theory, the intervention changed the practice of how physics revision was conducted in a particular secondary physics classroom. The intervention consisted of a computer-mediated collaborative problem-solving (CMCPS) component and a teacher-led prescriptive tutoring (PT) component. The CMCPS portion of the intervention required the students to follow basic 'ground rules' for computer-mediated problem-solving of physics questions with other students, while the PT portion saw the teacher prescriptively addressing students' misconceptions, misunderstandings, and other problem-solving difficulties as captured by the discussion logs during the CMCPS session. The intervention was evaluated in two stages. First, a small-scale (pilot) study which utilised a control group (CG)/alternate intervention group (AG)/experimental group (XG) with pre- and post-test research design was conducted in order to evaluate whether the intervention was effective in promoting improved learning outcomes of a small group of students. Given the success of the pilot study, a main study involving the entire class of students was conducted. This main study was evaluated by comparing the cohort's actual GCE 'O' level physics results with their expected grades (as given by the Singapore Ministry of Education based on the students' primary school's results). Also, the students' 'O' level physics results were compared with the average physics results obtained by previous cohorts. The quantitative data indicated that the intervention for physics revision appears to be effective in helping the entire class of students revise physics concepts, resulting in improved test scores, while the qualitative data indicated that the students' interest in physics had increased over time. The physics teacher also reflected that the intervention had provided her with much deeper insights into her students' mental models.

Background: This thesis aims to investigate if the use of mobile health (mHealth) applications have positive effects on health.   Objectives: This research are to provide an insight of how people are using mHealth applications but also provide an insight of the target group. Additionally, the thesis will provide an analysis of the proposed Structural Equation Model (SEM) to understand the influencing factors (constructs) for health improvement.    Method: In this research a Structural Equation Model (SEM) approach was used in which a questionnaire with closed ended questions related to each construct were provided to collect the data. The data were analyzed by the computer program IBM SPSS 25 and the SEM was made by the IBM SPSS AMOS 25.   Results: The proposed theoretical SEM model showed validity and the proposed hypotheses 1 and 2 were significant for this model. The corresponding contributed construct to improve health, were “Healthcare Service” and “mHealth App Behavior”. “New Technology” did not contribute to improvement of health directly, but it correlated strongly to “Healthcare Service” but also to “mHealth App Behavior”.   Conclusions: The target group was defined as a group of early adopters who used mobile health applications and more specifically, they used fitness apps to enhance health. People in the target group were high educated and had occupations which corresponded well with their education. Additionally, this group used their knowledge by reading and understanding health information when they needed healthcare service to improve health.  Keywords: Adoption, Health, mHealth, New Technology

Syfte: Studien syftar till att förstå hur B2B-företag kan förbättra kommunikationen av sitt hållbarhetsarbete. Frågeställningar: 1. Hur har hållbarhetskommunikationen sett ut de senaste tio åren? 2. Hur kommunicerar B2B-företag ut informationen i hållbarhetsredovisningen till medarbetare och kunder? 3. Vilka förbättringsmöjligheter finns för intern och extern hållbarhetskommunikation? Metod: För att besvara studiens syfte har en kvalitativ ansats använts. Elva djupintervjuer har genomförts med specialister på hållbarhetskommunikation och svenska B2B-företag med framstående hållbarhetsarbeten. Resultat: Kommunikationen av företags hållbarhetsarbete har förändrats eftersom hållbarhet utvecklats från ett tråkigt måste till att betraktas som något lönsamt. Detta beror bland annat på att engagemang och efterfrågan ökat från både medarbetare och kunder. Informationen i hållbarhetsredovisningen kommuniceras ut, men hållbarhetsredovisningen i sig är inte den främsta kommunikationskanalen. Respondenterna understryker att det är mer väsentligt att hållbarhetsinformationen kommuniceras vid aktuell tidpunkt samt bit för bit under året. Slutsats: B2B-företag borde bli mer transparenta samt kommunicera aktuell och väsentlig hållbarhetsinformation. De gynnas även av att samarbeta för att öka genomslagskraften med gemensamma hållbara initiativ. Ett annat förbättringsområde är den interna kommunikationen som med fördel skulle kunna bli mer tvåvägs, detta då den interna hållbarhetsdialogen är en väsentlig del för att integrera hållbarhet i verksamheten. Med hållbarhet integrerat i verksamheten och i strategin presenterar företag ett hållbart budskap i samtliga processer med kunden. / Purpose: The aim of the paper is to understand how B2B companies can improve the communication of their CSR activities. Problem 1. How has the CSR communication changed during the last ten years? 2. How do companies communicate the information in the CSR report to employees and customers? 3. Which potential improvements exist for internal and external CSR communication? Methodology: In order to answer the purpose of the paper a qualitative approach has been used. Eleven interviews have been conducted with B2B companies with achievements in CSR activities as well as specialists in CSR communication. Results: The communication of a company’s CSR activities has change. Earlier CSR has been perceived as something boring but today it is seen as profitable. Among other things, this is because the commitment and demand from both employees and customers has increased. The information from the CSR report is being communicated, but the report itself is not the primary channel of communication. The respondents emphasize that the CSR information should be communicated in the current time and piece by piece during the year. Conclusion: B2B companies should be more transparent and communicate current and essential information. Also, they could cooperate to increase the collective power in order to reach a sustainable level. Moreover, companies could improve their two-way communication since the internal CSR dialogue is a vital part in order to make CSR integrated in the company. If CSR is integrated in the company and strategy, it enables for the customers to perceive a sustainable message.

Measurement of elastic properties (thermal expansion and magnetostriction) under (multi)extreme conditions is a difficult task. In the vicinity of the room temperature or above it an abundance of methods is available, with decreasing temperature and adding magnetic field and/or hydrostatic pressure their number is limited. Dilatometric cells (either planparaller or tilted plate design) provide superior sensitivity in low temperatures and applied magnetic fields, however, cannot be used in hydrostatic cell. Common choice for the measurement of thermal expansion under hydrostatic pressure are methods based on strain-gauges, with mediocre sensitivity and more importantly a difficult or even impossible usage at very low temperatures (T ≲ 3 K). Measurement of magnetic properties (especially magnetization) under (multi)extreme conditions is also a difficult task. In the vicinity of temperature 2 K and above it an abundance of methods is available, with decreasing temperature and adding magnetic field and/or hydrostatic pressure their number is limited. VSM system provides great sensitivity, but can not be used under 2 K and hydrostatic pressure. MPMS aparature provides pressure up to 9 GPa (diamond pressure cell), but still we can not apply lower temperatures than 2 K. Our aim is to develop a simple yet sensitive...

Examensarbetet har genomförts på ett lager med fokus på deras lagerautomater, där verksamheten hanterar artiklar för industrin. Projektet har följt PDCA-metoden. Företaget har fått in flera kundreklamationer som kan kopplas till deras område för lagerautomater, där största andelen av reklamationerna handlar om att kunder fått fel antal artiklar skickade till sig. Majoriteten av dessa reklamationer gäller mindre ordrar, där kunden beställt mellan 1-10 st artiklar. I projektet kom det fram att den nuvarande rutinbeskrivningen inte stämde överens med operatörernas arbetssätt. I nulägesanalysen undersöktes området vid lagerautomaterna (LA) med hjälp av Ishikawa-diagram och 5 varför. Där valdes tre orsaker till problemet ut, ​otydlig rutinbeskrivning​ , ​otydlig kontroll av antal artiklar​ samt ​otydlig skärm vid LA. Utifrån analysen har ett förbättringsförslag som direkt lösning tagits fram, i form av en ny rutinbeskrivning som utformats med hjälp av operatörer vid lagerautomaterna. Detta för att få med relevant och viktig information, vilket ökar chansen till att operatörerna faktiskt följer rutinen. I rutinbeskrivningen ingår en kontroll av antal artiklar som innebär att operatören räknar antalet artiklar en gång till vid ordrar på 1-10 st artiklar.  Syftet med rutinbeskrivningen är att få operatörerna att arbeta efter ett standardiserat arbetssätt för att minska variationen i kvaliteten och uppmärksamma avvikelser p.g.a felplock. Kontrollen ska direkt minska omfattningen av problemet, men förväntas på sikt inte behövas. Vid projektets slut resulterade den nya rutinbeskrivningen i en förbättrad leveranskvalitet, med fokus på fel antal, med 77 % vilket överträffade projektmålet på 30 %. / This bachelor thesis has been carried out at a warehouse focusing on their automated storage and retrieval machines (ASRM). These warehouse operations handle items for the industry. The project has followed the PDCA method. The company has received several customer complaints that can be linked to this area, where the largest proportion of complaints are from customers receiving the wrong number of items. The majority of these complaints concern small orders, where the customer has ordered between 1-10 items.  The conducted study showed that the current routine description did not match the operators' working methods. In the present situation analysis, which comprised Ishikawa diagrams and 5 why, the study focused on three causes of the problem, ​Unclear routine description​ , ​Unclear control of number of articles ​ and ​Unclear screen on the ASRM​ .  Based on the analysis, a new routine description was outlined together with operators at the warehouse to provide relevant and important information, which increases the change that the operators actually follow the routine. The new routine description includes a control of the number of articles, which means that the operator counts the number of articles again for orders of between 1-10 items.  The purpose of the new routine description is to get the operators to work according to a standardized routine to reduce the variation in quality and pay attention to deviations caused by picking errors. The control should directly reduce the extent of the problem, but is not expected to be necessary in the long term. At the end of the project, the new routine description resulted in improved delivery quality, focusing on the wrong number, by 77 % which surpassed the project goal of 30 %.

Background: Digitalization and digital technologies are of significance to management consultant firms since they influence them and force them to reshape and improve their business processes. For that purpose, firms can use Business Process Improvements methods, such as process mapping, benchmarking and maturity models. The authors identified multiple gaps in literature which this thesis aims to address. One gap was the lack of literature focusing on the industry of professional service firms, like management consultant firms. Another gap was on a standardized management consulting process, and the knowledge of how digital technologies are being used within it. There was also a lack of knowledge about what performance improvements management consulting firms can expect when using digital technologies in their management consulting process. Lastly, there is no digital maturity model that is focused towards management consultant firms, that can identify management consultant firms' level of digital maturity. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore, describe and explain digital technologies used within a standardized management consulting process, expected performance improvements through the use of digital technologies and the levels of digital maturity through a maturity model for management consultant firms. Method: A qualitative study with an exploratory and explanatory research strategy was used. An abductive approach was applied for this multiple case study, which was based on semi-structured interviews with nine different Case Firms. Findings and Conclusion: The results of the study developed a standardized management consulting process including following activities; initial contact, background research, current status assessment, present project plan, developing solution, closing project by implementing solution and follow up, feedback and lessons learned. Across the standardized consulting process, the firms used technology types of artificial intelligence, analytical applications, cloud computing, automation and web-based applications. The digital technologies are used for collecting information, collaborative presentations, communicating, collaborating to develop consulting solutions, storing and managing documents, managing projects, tracking time, analysing information, developing and sharing insights, and customer relationship management. Seven key categories of performance were identified, which could be improved through the use of digital technologies. The categories include improved knowledge transfer, increased efficiency, measurable value based impact to client, increased quality of consulting, increased competitive advantage, improved knowledge management, increased client reaction and satisfaction. Each of these categories of performance improvements can be further categorized into improvements of efficiency and effectiveness for the consulting process. Improvements in efficiency relate to improvements in the utilization of resources. Improvements in effectiveness relate to improvements in quality of the resulting client solution. The study defined four levels of digital maturity for management consultant firms, including researchers, beginners, adopters and leaders. The key dimensions for assessing their digital maturity include culture, strategy, organization and operations, technology and insights. Across the dimensions there are 15 sub-dimensions and 52 statements for self-assessing digital maturity. The maturity model may be applied by future management consultant firms for benchmarking position within the industry and identifying gaps, opportunities and vision for improvement in their own consulting process and performance through leveraging digital technologies.