<p>I dagens hårda konkurrenssituation krävs det mer och mer av företags informations-system. Detta gör att fler och fler företag väljer att implementera ett integrerat affärs-system. Integreringen gör att företag får en enhetlig systemmiljö för hela företagets informationsbehandling. Implementeringen är dock en kostsam och tidskrävande process (Ekstrand, 1998). Mitt arbete behandlar frågeställningarna om varför företag väljer att implementera ett affärssystem, hur implementeringen förlöpte samt hur affärssystemet fungerar när implementeringen är färdig.</p><p>Bland de företag jag vände mig till så var den främsta anledningen till att företag installerar ett affärssystem att systemen är omfattande och integrerade.</p><p>Jag kom även till slutsatsen att det nästan är omöjligt att genomföra en implementering av ett affärssystem helt smärtfritt. Problemen beror dock inte alltid på affärssystemet utan på t.ex. dålig beredskap från företagens sida.</p><p>Sammanfattningsvis fick jag intrycket att de flesta företag är nöjda med sitt val av system och de som inte ännu såg nyttan med systemen trodde att de inom kort skulle göra det.</p>

Diese Diplomarbeit entstand in Kooperation mit Siemens Power Generation (Kraftwerkebau), EDV-Organisation. Die Arbeit enthält die Konzeption einer Dokumentationsrichtlinie für laufende betriebliche Informationssysteme, vorrangig Systeme der Firma SAP. Umgesetzt wird die Dokumentation mit der Software SAP Solution Manager. Ziel ist die Unterstützung der für die Systeme verantwortlichen Mitarbeiter. Zuerst werden die Grundlagen Dokumentenmanagement und Dokumentation behandelt. Es schließen sich analytische Vorarbeiten zur aktuellen Situation der Dokumentation an um anschließend auf dieser Grundlage ein Dokumentationskonzept zu entwickeln. Nach kurzer Beschreibung der zu Grunde liegenden Software SAP Solution Manager wird die Umsetzung des Dokumentationskonzepts in Form der entstandenen Richtlinie beschrieben. Im Anhang befindet sich unter anderem die vollständige Richtlinie, wie sie bei Siemens Power Generation als verbindlich erklärt wurde.

I compared the strength of bottom- up and top-down effects on insect herbivores along a natural salinity gradient in salt marsh communities in West - Central, Florida. I used a 2x2 factorial design with plots divided into four different treatments: 1) fertilizer applied to increase plant quality 2) sticky traps added to remove natural enemies (parasitoids) 3) fertilizer applied and sticky traps added and 4) control plots. These plots were placed on 7 different sites containing the salt marsh plant Borrichia frutescens along a natural stress salinity gradient. In each plot I determined the abundance of the sap sucker Pissonotus quadripustulatus, the gall maker Asphondylia borrichiae, spiders and the number of chewed leaves and bored stems. I also recorded leaf area, plant density, plant height and foliar nitrogen. Plants in fertilized plots exhibited increased height, density and leaf area.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

The civil war in Finland became a great political battle between the Swedish Social Demo- cratic Party (SAP) and the Swedish Social Democratic Left-Wing Party (SSV) during spring 1918. Few studies about Swedish media report have been published that has a connection to the Finnish civil war. This composition has compared three socialist newspapers – Folkets Dagblad Politiken (FDP), Norrskensflamman and Social-Demokraten – formation of opinion. In the Swedish parliament’s lower chamber a significant interpellation debate took place, which this composition compares with the newspapers, in order to identify if the debate affected the newspapers reports.This composition administers a qualitative method by the use of text analytical elements. This allows findings of differences in the media reports during February 1918. The newspapers media opinion and the lower chamber members’ statements’ has been studied throughout three aspects: which causalities they gave to the civil war, how they related to the Swedish government commitment to Finland and how they related to the national political “Finnish debate”. In general, the Left-Wing Party supported the Finnish social democrats rising, whereas the Swedish Social Democrats couldn’t authorize the rising. Instead they emphasized that they acted on the will of the Swedish population, by keeping Sweden out of the war.The differences between the Left-Wing Party and the Social Democrats were vast during the debate. One could understand this polemic by applying Gunnar Sjöbloms theoretical concept of how parties construct their political ambitions in a multiparty system. The Left-Wing was more idealistic in the debate, compared to the Social Democrats who were more practical. The Social Democrats was for the first time in Swedish history in a ministry cabinet, together with the Liberal Party. Thus the ambition for the SAP was to show their voters that the party was “governmental capable”. SAP couldn’t legitimize nor admit the Finnish rising, thus they accentuated the democratic inviolableness. SSVs’ more idealistic standpoint became clear when they supported the Finnish Social Democratic rising. Therefore, SAPs’ focus was to maximize their parliamentary influence, while SSVs’ focus was to realize their political, ideological program. Thus the parties’ had different political ambition, which became clear during the “Finland debate”.Keywords: Finnish civil war, SAP, SSV, Folkets Dagblad Politiken, Norrskensflamman, Social-Demokraten, formation of opinion.

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / Business organisations who have implemented the Systems Applications Product (SAP) are increasingly looking to get more value out of their investment. With increased pressure to be competitive in all aspects of the business, organisations are increasingly sceptical about information technology benefits and its associated high costs. This research will be conducted at various business organisations in South Africa, who deployed the SAP system. Jordan (2008:395) states that software is design intensive, symbolic, abstract and constrained by intellectual complexity more than by physical laws. The analogy can thus be drawn that the level of complexity underlines the business's ability to extract real value from the investment, and relies heavily upon the insight and understanding of the people responsible for the deployment and ongoing configuration and customisation of the system, in line with organisational processes and goals.

No description available.

Western riparian zones have undergone significant landscape changes over the past several decades, with introduced saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) as a crucial component of this transformation. Saltcedar, now a dominating presence along many western rivers, due to its high tolerance to drought, salinity and stress, is considered to be a high-water-use plant that can desiccate disturbed river systems. Where native and saltcedar plant communities occur together, it is important to understand water use patterns and the physiological responses of each species to environmental stress factors, as a way to project an eventual course of succession processes and management options at a given site. Stress and disturbance in the form of reduced stream flows and land use changes may influence these interactions. Understanding the conditions that allow for saltcedar dominance is critical in determining riparian water budgets, and developing effective management strategies. Sap flux sensors were used to measure the physiological response of co-occurring communities of saltcedar and native trees to these environmental stress factors during the pre-monsoon period in early summer, a time of maximum stress for riparian vegetation. The results suggest that native trees are still competitive with salt cedar so that a mixed plant community is likely to continue on the San Pedro River on the condition that current groundwater levels and river flows are maintained. If base flows and depth to groundwater continue to decline, this competitive balance between saltcedar and native trees likely could change.

An intact complement system including the complement receptors 1 and 2 (CR1/2) is crucial for the generation of a normal antibody response in animals and humans. Moreover, activation of the classical pathway is thought to be important since deficiency in complement components C1q, C2, C4 or C3 lead to impaired antibody responses. The classical pathway is mainly initiated by antibodies bound to their antigen. It is unclear how classical pathway activation can be crucial for primary antibody responses since the levels of specific antibodies are very low in naïve animals. It has been hypothesized that natural IgM, with high enough affinity, can initiate the classical pathway after immunization. To test this, we generated the knock-in mouse strain Cμ13, producing IgM unable to activate complement. Surprisingly, the antibody response against SRBC and KLH in Cµ13 mice was normal. Thus, the importance of classical pathway activation and natural IgM in antibody responses is not dependent on the ability of IgM to activate complement. SIGN-R1, SAP and CRP are other known activators of the classical pathway, but mice lacking these also had normal antibody responses. Complement activation leads to the generation of C3 split products which are ligands for CR1/2. In mice, CR1/2 are expressed on B cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDC), but it is unclear on which cell-type expression of CR1/2 is needed for the generation of a normal antibody response. Some reports argue that increased antigen retention by CR1/2+ FDC would increase the effective antigen concentration, giving more effective B-cell stimulation. In contrast, several mechanisms involving CR1/2 on B cells are suggested. First, marginal zone B cells could transport complement-coated antigen or IC via CR1/2 into the follicle. Second, different ways of co-crosslinking the B-cell receptor with CR1/2, lowering the threshold for B-cell activation, have been proposed. Finally, CR1/2 on B cells are shown in vitro to facilitate endocytosis and thereby presentation of antigen to T cells. We show that abrogated antibody responses in mice lacking CR1/2 are not due to lack of CR1/2-mediated antigen presentation to T cells. Chimeric mice with CR1/2 expression on both B cells and FDC, on neither B cells nor FDC, or on either B cells or FDC, were generated. The antibody response against SRBC was completely dependent of CR1/2-expression on FDC. However, when this requirement was fulfilled, B cells without expression of CR1/2 were equally efficient antibody producers as wildtype B cells. Antigen-specific IgM together with its antigen can enhance the antibody response to that antigen and CR1/2-expression is crucial for the enhancement. We show that the response to IgM in complex with SRBC is dependent on CR1/2 expression on both B cells and FDC.

This paper is aiming to discover the conditions and processes that facilitate and influence an efficient knowledge transfer in knowledge networks such as the inter-organizational SAP network SAPSA. Knowledge is a strategically important source for companies, not only because it fosters internal growth, but also because it leads to competitive advantage. In the last years the importance of knowledge networking has considerably increased and especially inter-organizational learning is considered to present a factor having critical influence on the success of a company. Through the participation in networks individuals are able to trade their knowledge and information with others experiences, ideas and expertise. Knowledge sharing and networking should hence be considered a highly social process, which is influenced by various factors and conditions. Through interviews with the different members and participative observation in the focus groups of the SAPSA network the importance and effect, these facilitating conditions were evaluated, drawing valuable conclusions on how to enhance the knowledge sharing process. It was found that the main problem of SAPSA was the low activity in the focus groups, which had a negative influence on the knowledge sharing processes. The problem however was not that the members did not consider knowledge networking per se as useful, in contrast almost all respondents regarded knowledge networking as highly beneficial stressed the advantages of knowledge sharing. This led to the assumption that the problem had to lie in the implementation of the knowledge sharing process. It furthermore was detected that for sharing different kinds of knowledge such as tacit and explicit knowledge, different forms of meeting proved to be more efficient than others and that form of knowledge and the conversion mode should be taken into consideration when deciding on the type of meeting. Various conditions were found to have impact on the efficiency of the knowledge sharing process, such as an optimal group size, the level of trust and commitment and the composition of a group and knowledge base. Furthermore communication was regarded to present an important issue having a big impact on the quality of the knowledge exchange. Management support from SAPSA and the respective user companies proved to be essential in order to increase motivation and commitment in the focus groups. Some strategic changes were considered to have a positive influence on the knowledge networking processes within SAPSA. The establishment of a clear consistent vision capturing all the different groups within the network would provide benefits in order to be able to motivate members to participate. Here the focus should lie on the decision makers, since those were the ones to have the ability to set incentives and provide resources for the users. In this process the difficulties to measure the positive outcomes of knowledge networking and the subsequent danger of an underinvestment into knowledge networking should be taken into consideration. SAPSA should increase their influence on the focus groups and provide more guidance, in order to assure the quality of the knowledge exchange in the meetings. A new communication strategy should be developed with focus on an Internet based forum, where users and management could interact with each other. Further research in other knowledge networks is necessary in order to increase the transferability of the gained results.