Efter millenniumskiftet uppfattas det som närmast ”rätt” att moderna framtidsinriktade verksamheter, stora som små, bör arbeta med kvalitetsstyrning[1].  Åtgärder inom kvalitetsstyrning innebär att moderera och justera tillverkningsprocessen så att de producerade enheterna håller sig till en standard[2]. Företag ställs ständigt inför flera olika alternativ om hur de kan förändra sitt arbetssätt, och öppna sig för att ta till sig olika kvalitetshöjande koncept. Dessa ska leda till att organisationen och dess processer blir mer effektiva och produktiva, för att i sin tur sänka kostnader, maximera vinsten, bemöta kundernas efterfråga, och kunna leverera billigare produkter av högre kvalitet på ett snabbare och enklare sätt. Dessa koncept blir en förutsättning för att företag ska växa och kunna konkurrera på en allt mer konkurrenskraftig företagsmarknad. Motsvarande 10-30% av företagens kostnader beror på kvalitetsbrister (brister inom processerna på produktionen som har inverkan på tid, resultat och effektivitet). Det blir till slut ohållbart för företag som vill växa[3]. Företag tillämpar därför olika välkända koncept, såsom ”Scientific Management” för att höja sin kvalité. Detta examensarbete syftar till att kartlägga den norska livsmedelsproducentens Best Foods verksamhet i fabriken i Sandvika, Norge. Arbetet avser även att jämföra verksamheten med de principer som utgör Scientific Management. Uppsatsens datainsamling baserar sig på en fallstudie byggd på intervjuer med Best Foods ledning och anställda, samt på observationer i Best Foods lokaler. Vidare datainsamling har skett via relaterade internetsidor, artiklar samt litteratur. Vid fördjupade studier med berörda parter för datainsamling har mailkontakt använts. Slutsatsen visar att ledningen omedvetet arbetar efter flera av Scientific Management principer, det vill säga ledningen styr företaget enligt det som anses gynna företaget mest, vilket visar sig få stöd av många av Scientific Managements principer. [1] Røvik Kjell Arne (2000) [2] Bokföringstips [3] Sörqvist Lars (2001)

With the development of the wireless communication system, the antenna has been widely used as an important tool in data transmission. However, there are many characteristic parameters for antenna need to be calculated by complex calculation. For example the mutual input impedance of dipole antenna, the Directivity coefficient and the Gain coefficient. Therefore, it is quite practically hard to implement by hand, especially for student who was studying on it. In order to solve this problem, this thesis has establishes the calculation procedure for the complex parameters of antenna by using MATLAB software.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study examined the prevalence of information epidemics in the physics literature. The primary interest was to find out whether outliers observed on time series charts of literatures are due to information epidemics, whether these epidemics are widespread occurrences in physics, whether literatures showing such rapid growth arise mainly due to the influence of an important work and, if so, what characterizes these literatures. Information epidemics were defined as spurts of growth in the literature of a field that reflect a sudden excitement and increase in activity. It was hypothesized that information epidemics are common occurrences in the growth of the physics literature and that outliers observed during the growth of a field are caused by influential works that attract new workers into it and cause them to publish extensively. Growth spurts where information epidemics lead to a permanent change and the emergence of a new subspecialty are termed knowledge epidemics. / The monthly number of abstracts indexed by each chapter of Physics Abstracts between 1977 and 1987 was plotted on a time series chart and an envelope of +/-3 standard deviations was fitted around the regression line. All spikes that crossed the envelope were considered to be outliers and thus potential information epidemics. The abstracts contained in each outlier were identified in the Science Citation Index and analyzed for spread (corporate sources of authors) and impact (citations). / Results show that information epidemics exist, but they are not widespread. Only four information epidemics were identified in the data. They are in chapters 2 (mathematical methods), 36 (clusters), 73 (heterostructures) and 74 (superconductivity). Only the growth in superconductivity can be considered to be a knowledge epidemic. All four arose due to new instrumentation and/or cheaper materials and are examples of puzzle-generating and enabling science. A second major result was that information epidemics are caused by as well as carried forward by groups of influential works. Third, increased activity in a given field is accompanied by an increase in conference papers. On the other hand, the journal literature of a given field is sufficient to represent the direction of literature, growth accurately. / This work confirms and extends the epidemic model for the growth of literatures by demonstrating that not only does the contagion effect exist in physics but that there is also a catalyst effect present. It provides a statistical description for the growth and decline of fields of research.

No description available.

No description available.

This research is concerned with the question of performance in scientific research, and focusses on the potential of Adaption-Innovation theory (Kirton, 1976) for providing insights into individual innovativeness. Using empirical data from four large research organisations, a taxonomy of scientists is developed using the Kirton Adaption-Innovation (KAI) inventory. This taxonomy breaks new ground in its use of the sub-scales of KAI. It shows that the use of the total KAI scale, as in previous research in the literature, is a conflation which conceals important insights. The research also breaks new ground in its conceptualisation of research performance. Two dimensions of performance are hypothesised: creative performance and skills performance. The evidence suggests that the distinction is meaningful and that the two dimensions are essentially orthogonal. The taxonomy developed in this research identifies four types of scientists according to their location on the '0' and 'E' sub-scales of the KAI. It is in the distinction between two types possessing similar mid-range KAI scores that the research makes a notable contribution to the literature. These two types are shown to be very different in terms of their performance, job satisfaction and other characteristics. It is through these insights that the research offers the prospect of an instrument of value in the deployment of research scientists. Finally, concerns about the conceptual status of the KAI are developed. The KAI is critically reviewed, and the evidence presented seriously challenges the claim that the KAI is purely a measure of cognitive style. Criticism is focussed on the 0 sub-scale which, it is argued, contains items measuring level of cognitive ability. A refined KAI is developed and evaluated using a sample of post-graduate students of management. It is demonstrated that sub-scales can be derived which are more homogeneous conceptually and give nearly orthogonal measures.

No description available.

No description available.

Representing the human body ??? science as social meaning adopts and develops systemic functional social semiotics to analyse the popular science texts, The Human Body, Superhuman, Human Instinct, Brain Story, The Secret Life of Twins and How to Build a Human. These are predominantly produced through the resources of the Wellcome Trust and/or the BBC/TLC (The Learning Channel), and feature celebrity doctors (Robert Winston) or scientists (Susan Greenfield) as presenters. Adopting a modified and expanded systemic functional semiotics derived from Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, 2001), it is argued that these texts share a logic that displaces social/historical time (including broader historical and social struggles) by constructing the apparent timelessness of middle-class families, by metaphor and abstraction. Central to the temporalities of these programmes is the notion of ???going back??? to the familial in which conscious (patriarchal) time is seen as ???male??? and the unconscious timeless is seen as ???female???. Second, the penetrative digital modes of the programmes imagine different, if conventional, genders, emphasising the interior and inertial female. The popular medical science discourses highlighted in the analysis constitute an unconscious set of taken-for-granted socio-political contexts in which medical and bioscientific knowledge is paraded and celebrated. Narrative resolution of the contradictions inherent in the contextual refrain of contemporary global capitalism is largely achieved through time by the semiotic realisation of ???going back??? to evolutionary, genetic, and (hence to) essential time and to abstracted spatial metaphors. The production origins (British, multi-national) of the factual science documentary prefigure or pre-structure the genre???s conservative colonising discourse around gender, ???race??? and evolution that are developed as social, political or even military metaphors.