Detta examensarbete utfördes på lack- och tryckavdelningen på företaget Emballator Ulricehamns Bleck med målet att undersöka om det fanns brister och slöserier i det befintliga lacksortimentet. Efter en noggrann nulägesanalys som inkluderade bland annat genomgång av applicerbara datablad, arbetsplatsintroduktion och studiebesök hos en av företagets lackleverantörer genomfördes arbetet utan missöden. Nulägesanalysen resulterade i en översikt av dagens lacksortiment och efter det fortsatte arbetet med att ta fram en egenskapsmatris innehållande samtliga lacker i sortimentet. Efter att de lacker som föll inom författarens specifikation för dubbletter identifierats togs ett antal rekommendationer för hur företaget bör agera för att ha ett uppdaterat sortiment fram. Förutom detta har författaren tagit fram ett förslag på hur företaget skall testa sina insideslacker för att i framtiden ha möjligheten att undersöka om några av dessa kan tas ut ur sortimentet. / This degree project was performed in the coating and printing department at Emballator Ulricehamns Bleck. The task was to investigate if any waste and improvement opportunities in the lacquer range at Emballator Ulricehamns Bleck exist. A thorough analysis of the current situation including a review of applicable data, work place introduction and a visit to one of the company´s suppliers was made. This gave a good understanding of the current status. The result of the analysis was an overview of the lacquer range that helped the author to compile a characteristic matrix including all the products in the lacquer range. Following this the author identified products that could be specified as duplicates. Furthermore the degree project has resulted in 5 recommendations regarding future work with the design of the lacquer range. The last part of the project resulted in an analysis of today’s test schedule and a suggestion how to modify it for future needs.

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In today’s rapidly changing society company development and Continuous improvements are crucial to gain a competitive advantage on the global market. Through interviews this study investigated how two Chinese companies worked with Continuous improvements. The empirical findings were compared to the theoretical theories. The study showed that the biggest difference between western business and Chinese businesses was the organizational structure. The hierarchical organizational structure, since it hinders empowerment, was also the biggest barrier for Chinese companies to integrate further developmental work with Continuous improvements. Thus empowerment contributes to flexibility, innovation, employee development and increased communication processes.

The design, build, finance and operation of public infrastructure is becoming increasingly dependent on participation of the private sector. An imposing amount of investment involved in a public private partnership agreement places financial institutions in the role of major lenders. The complexity of these agreements creates a gap in the information flow between the public sector, the private sector and financial institutions as project participants. Additionally, the public sector decisions about the network improvement actions add to the complexity of these agreements. The objective of this research is to develop a method which will allow an assessment of the effect that network improvement actions have on the project’s financial feasibility. Three common financial instruments were analyzed: bank loans, bonds and real options. Emphasis of the financial feasibility assessment was on the price of the revenue risk, as the most important risk in public private partnership agreements. Results have shown that network improvement actions can have significant impact on the price of the revenue risk. The magnitude of the impact depends on the type of instrument and the position of the road link in the network.

Abstract Governments have regarded the electricity industry as a leading industrial sector throughout the history. Because of its strategic importance to industrial development, its impacts on the social and environmental issues and its natural monopoly characteristics, it has been seen necessary to regulate electricity industry effectively. However, in the mid 1980s it was realised that even though transmission and distribution networks are natural monopolies, the scale economies in electricity production at the generating unit level had exhausted at a unit size of about 500 MW. This meant that supply and generation had become potentially competitive activities. In Finland the new Electricity Market Act (EMA) came into force in 1.11.1995. According to it the production and supply of electricity became deregulated and competition was introduced to the industry. The main aim of the law was to improve efficiency. This dissertation analyses, both theoretically and empirically, the impacts of deregulation to the Finnish electricity markets. In chapter two we discuss on the grounds and incentives of the deregulation processes that have been carried out in different countries. We also determine the crucial factors in order succeed in the deregulation process. According to our view the success depend on the number of active players in the wholesale market, the rules of the bidding procedure, the organisation of the demand side operation, the neutrality of transmission grid, the structure of production technologies and the ownership structure of the industry. In chapter three we theoretically model the profit maximising behaviour of the Finnish electricity companies based on different stages of vertical integration and on different stage of competition. According to our results the profit maximising pricing rules of distribution units is dependent on the stage of integration and on the stage of competition. The separated distribution company maximises profits by setting the distribution price equal to the long-run marginal costs plus mark-up determined by price elasticity of demand. The integrated distribution unit has to take also the impacts on the supply unit into account when setting the distribution price. Chapter four considers the consequences of deregulation to the wholesale price of electricity and the market structure of the industry. It is interesting to question whether deregulation in some circumstances may lead to higher prices instead of lower ones. The relationship between the Cournot equilibrium on the one hand and Bertrand equilibrium on the other will be quantitatively explored. The results indicate that deregulation can result in a significant price increase and output decrease in Finland if there occurs Cournot type of competition. In chapter five we consider alternative pricing policies for a regulated distribution company and empirically analyse is it possible to achieve welfare improvements by changing the prevalent price structure to the more efficient one. We use four different pricing methods which are marginal cost pricing, fully distributed cost pricing (FDC), Ramsey pricing and optimal two-part tariffs. The results indicate that it is possible to improve welfare quite markedly by switching from the existing pricing principles to more efficient ones. The resulting welfare is highest if we use the first best prices based on marginal costs or optimal two-part tariffs.

The motivation of my dissertation is to improve two weaknesses of Random Forests. One, the failure to detect genetic interactions between two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in higher dimensions when the interacting SNPs both have weak main effects and two, the difficulty of interpretation in comparison to parametric methods such as logistic regression, linear discriminant analysis, and linear regression. We focus on detecting pairwise SNP interactions in genome case-control studies. We determine the best parameter settings to optimize the detection of SNP interactions and improve the efficiency of Random Forests and present an efficient filtering method. The filtering method is compared to leading methods and is shown that it is computationally faster with good detection power. Random Forests allows us to identify clusters, outliers, and important features for subgroups of observations through the visualization of the proximities. We improve the interpretation of Random Forests through the proximities. The result of the new proximities are asymmetric, and the appropriate visualization requires an asymmetric model for interpretation. We propose a new visualization technique for asymmetric data and compare it to existing approaches.

Master of Science / Department of Architectural Engineering / Charles L. Burton / An energy analysis was performed on a Midwestern residence to evaluate its performance based on energy use. A model of the actual house was replicated using eQuest and adjusted until its projected utility bills matched the actual yearly bills. This model was used to gauge how potential improvements made to the envelope and HVAC systems lowered the energy use. The results were documented after each improvement the feasible options were considered. The top alternatives were then combined to see how much money could be saved through renovating an existing home or through constructing a new residence. The overall goal of this report was to use the resulting improvement data as a reference for homeowners or home builders who are interested in conserving energy and money through residential improvements.

Thesis (MComm)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is becoming increasingly common for lessees to receive contributions from lessors towards leasehold improvements costs. A lessee will be entitled to claim an allowance in terms of section 11(g), where expenditure has actually been incurred in pursuance of an obligation in terms of a lease agreement, and the property is used for the production of income. Obstacles arise where the lessee either receives a payment or benefit, in cash or otherwise from the lessor, either as consideration for the lessee to effect the improvements or as inducement for the lessee to enter into the lease agreement. The nature of these payments or benefits received by the lessee for income tax purposes needs to be assessed with reference to the general principles laid down by the South African courts in respect of the “gross income” definition and international case law dealing with the income tax treatment of similar payments made by the lessor to the lessee. Factors also need to be identified, which should be taken into account to assess the income tax nature of these payments or benefits. The terms of the agreement in terms of which such payments or benefits are made should clearly state the purpose thereof, and a conclusive answer will depend on the particular circumstances and facts of each case. The interaction between a payment or benefit received by a lessee and the availability of a leasehold improvements allowance in terms of section 11(g) is a complex matter and it remains to be seen how South African courts will deal with these issues. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Dit raak toenemend algemeen dat huurders ʼn bydrae tot huur verbetering koste vanaf verhuurders ontvang. ʼn Huurder sal geregtig wees om ʼn artikel 11(g) toelaag te eis, waar onkostes werklik aangegaan is ter voldoening aan ʼn verpligting ingevolge die huurooreenkoms en die eiendom word gebruik vir die voortbrenging van inkomste. Struikelblokke ontstaan waar die huurder ʼn bedrag of voordeel, in kontant of andersins ontvang vanaf die verhuurder, as vergoeding vir die aanbring van verbeteringe of as beweegrede om die huurooreenkoms te sluit. Die inkomstebelastingaard van hierdie bedrae of voordele ontvang moet beoordeel word met verwysing na die algemene beginsels ontwikkel deur die Suid-Afrikaanse howe met betrekking tot die “bruto inkomste” definisie en internasionale hofsake wat handel met die inkomstebelastinghantering van soortgelyke betalings vanaf die verhuurder aan die huurder. Faktore moet ook identifiseer word wat inag geneem moet word ten einde die aard van hierdie bedrae of voordele vas te stel. Die terme van die ooreenkoms ingevolge waarvan die bedrag of voordeel ontvang word, moet duidelik die doel daarvan uiteensit. ʼn Beslissende antwoord sal afhang van die spesifieke omstandighede en feite van elke geval. Die interaksie tussen ʼn betaling of voordeel ontvang deur die huurder en die beskikbaarheid van ʼn huurverbeteringe toelaag ingevolge artikel 11(g) is ʼn komplekse onderwerp en daar sal nog gesien moet word hoe die Suid-Afrikaanse howe hierdie kwessies sal hanteer.

Continous improvements (ständiga förbättringar, framöver förkortat CI) har under senare år fått ett stort fokus inom svenska organisationer – först inom tillverknings-industrin och senare inom tjänstesektorn och offentlig sektor. Breddningen av verksamheter som fokuserar på dessa små, kontinuerliga förbättringar innebär också att det även är komplexa, kunskapsintensiva organisationer som använder sig av CI. Majoriteten av den forskning som utförts inom områden relaterade till CI gäller standardiserade och styrda arbetsuppgifter. Utifrån ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv har jag därför valt att studera hur arbetet med CI utformas i en kunskapsintensiv organisation. Hur förhåller sig utformningen av CI då jämfört med de ideal som finns i befintlig litteratur? Som metod för datainsamlingen har jag använt mig av repertory-grid som är en variant av halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet från den studerade organisationen och deras arbete med CI visar på en stor överensstämmelse med tidigare forskning. Det är dock några områden som avviker, framförallt när det gäller lärande och reflektion. I idealfallet är CI ett systematiskt, kontinuerligt och kumulativt arbetssätt som bygger på medarbetarnas engagemang. I en kunskapsintensiv organisation är det framförallt den kumulativa delen som inte uppfylls.

The healthcare industry, and more specifically the nursing home sector, is changing operations and services due to a healthcare mandates and enactment of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Such changes are termed quality assurance performance improvements (QAPI), to receive government subsidies and indemnification compensations. The purpose of this single case study was to explore effective strategies implemented by 4 healthcare leaders to comply with QAPI regulations. Total quality management theory was the conceptual framework used in this study. Data were collected through semistructured, open-ended, face-to-face interviews with 4 participants who serve in a management capacity at an organization located in northwest Missouri. Member checking was used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretation of the participants' responses. The emergent themes from the study were (a) quality planning using systematic and strategic approaches, (b) quality control using business instruments and tools to measure performance and progress, (c) quality assurance through internal and external systematic analysis, and (d) quality improvements using an integrated systems approach. The implications for positive social change include the potential optimization of care provided to consumers in nursing homes by identifying best practices and strategies healthcare and business professionals have used to modify their business processes and operations.