In this dissertation, we propose using and analytically evaluate the predictive multicast polling scheme and the tree splitting algorithm for medium access control in interference dominating wireless access networks with random traffic and finite nodes. In an interference dominating wireless network, a receiver could simultaneously receive multiple packets from a variety of transmitters, as long as the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold. We concentrate on the case of in which the maximum queue size in a node is finite. We use discrete-time Markov chains, reward processes and regenerative processes to derive the throughput, the packet blocking probability, the average packet delay, and the average system size. We show that the system performance of the predictive multicast polling scheme can be significantly improved with a few additional buffers in the queues. Our study also shows that exact performance of the splitting algorithm depends on the total number of nodes in the networks. We verify our numerical results by rigorous mathematical proof and computer simulations.

<p><strong>Background & Problem discussion: </strong>Recently, there has been an increased interest in topics such as immigrant entrepreneurship. Considering that most of the research until now is done in America with American examples, it would be beneficial if such results are verified or refuted in other countries as well, such as Sweden (Brundin, Bögenhold and Sundin, 2001). Overall, businesses ran by immigrant entrepreneurs are creating job opportunities and encouraging Europe’s economy, even though exposed to limited immigration policies and unpleasant public opinion (Halkias et al., 2007). Immigrant entrepreneurs are not a new phenomenon in Sweden and according to Hammarstedt (2004) immigrant self-employment compared to native small-businesses has increased throughout the years, and therefore an important role in the integration of immigrants was made possible by the self-employment sector as a source of employment.</p><p>Rather than that, most of the research done in this topic by many researchers has been focused in factors triggering immigrant entrepreneurs to start a business, but less researchers were focused in understanding the challenges they face and strategies they adopt in order to survive.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this thesis is to <em>identify</em> challenges that immigrant entrepreneurs face while starting and running their businesses and <em>analyze</em> how they are interrelated and how do immigrant entrepreneurs <em>cope</em> with them in the setting of a medium-sized town in Sweden. Jönköping as a medium sized town in Sweden is our context.</p><p><strong>Theoretical framework: </strong>The literature used in this study covers studies conducted in different context such as: American, European and Swedish. The conducted studies involve case studies in different context done with immigrant entrepreneurs are mainly about the challenges they face and the strategies they adopt as solutions to those challenges. Such theory helped us identify common challenges among immigrant entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, considering that the existing literature does not explicitly discuss the role of the context (metropolitan, large city, medium-sized town, small (rural town), local community etc), we have to inquire especially into that and use our own data to build a supplementary theory.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The method used in this study is a qualitative approach but also with some minor elements of a quantitative approach (the use of the questionnaire during the interviews asked from the respondents to rank the challenges and therefore helped to find out the most significant challenge among them). Considering that generally our study followed a qualitative approach, we have conducted ‘face-to-face’ interviews. There were eight semi-structured interviews. All of the interviews were tape recorded.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings of this study showed that challenges faced by our respondents were: start-up finance, finance for growth, access to markets, lack of language skills, lack of marketing/sales skills, lack of management skills, access to technology, lack of education, lack of visitors to Jönköping, maintaining customers, Swede’s negative views on immigrant businesses, awareness of food among customers, and competition. However, the four most significant challenges among them were: access to markets, start-up finance, lack of language skills and finance for growth.</p><p>Besides that the findings show that the strategies that are adopted by immigrant entrepreneurs that we interviewed include the following: use of personal savings, use of personal networks, bank loan, enter low market barriers, scanning the market beforehand, asking help from their customers about language barriers or taking a language course before starting, among others.</p><p>The findings showed that the context is important to a great extent but besides context, in order for the immigrant venture to occur it matters to a great extent, who the individual entrepreneur is and what business idea he/she develops. In addition, they are key factors contributing not only to the immigrant venture occurrence, but also to the success of the business.</p>

<p><strong>Introduction. </strong>This bachelor thesis concerns the subject of IT Governance, how organizations prioritize and decides IT-related issues. The thesis will approach how Swedish Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises, which are considered successful, governs IT-related issues.</p><p><strong>Theoretical Framework. </strong>In order to conduct this research, the Governance Arrangement Matrix, created by MIT Sloan 2003, is applied which was also incorporated in a global study by Weill in 2003. The matrix involves five different decisions domains within IT and different corporate archetypes divided by stakeholder involvement.  The compiled data will thus be analyzed and mapped against Weill's study to derive the contemporary decision structure in Swedish SME's and create a comparison to map any alterations that might have occurred.</p><p><strong>Method. </strong>Through utilizing an online-survey and conducting telephone interviews, 108 responses from Swedish SME's provided the necessary data to map the contemporary decision-structure within IT in a deductive manner to both utilize quantitative and qualitative data, creating an understanding of the derived outcome. The analysis will provide an understanding for organizations to see the fit between business objectives and IT-usage, creating future possibilities for organizations to further optimizes their alignment between the business and IT. The main conclusions from this thesis could be summarized as follow:</p><p><strong>Results. </strong>The involvement of the board-of-directors has become more frequent, and with the inclusion of a Chief Information Officer, the collaboration throughout the corporate hierarchy enables a broader understanding of the impact of IT. Although that this approach was the most frequent selected archetype, the decisions relating to IT acquisitions and architecture, the majority of responses showed indications relating these areas to be decided by CIO/IT-department thus in conclusion: the knowledge that CIO/IT-departments has are sufficient to support the everyday business need.</p><p>Furthermore, the differences found between this research and the underlying study by Weill, indicates that IT is considered a multi-dimensional problem that needs constant supervision and that the view upon prioritizations and governance has been altered.</p>

<p>The aim of our research was to investigate if oat is capable of extracting cadmium to such extent that it is usable in decontaminating polluted soils. We grew oat in a hydroponic culture during 28 days in a controlled environment and a total of 30 plants were used. The nutrient solutions were contaminated with cadmium of ten different concentrations after seven days. After harvesting the plants, the roots were separated from the shoots, placed in separate containers and then turned to ashes. The cadmium content was measured three times per sample in an atomic absorption spectrometer.</p><p>Our results indicate that the ability of oat to extract cadmium from a solution is linearly dependent of the cadmium concentration of the solution. We also noted that the resistivity to cadmium of oat is limited. When the concentration of accessible cadmium ions exceeded 0,06mM, a significant difference of the shoot growth appeared. The results we obtained from shoots and roots show cadmium amounts much higher in the roots than the shoots. Despite this difference there were sufficient amounts of cadmium in the shoots to call oat a hyper accumulator. This means that oat fulfills one of the criteria of a phytoextractor.</p>

<p>Background: The Swedish food industry has changed dramatically during the last decades and to become and remain as a player has become a demanding task for several of the small and medium sized enterprises (SME). The trading blocs have increased the development of their own brand (DOB) and this has given the SME new competition but also the possibility to produce these products for the trading blocs. In addition to this the trading blocs have be-come more and more centralized and to strengthen their position in nego-tiations and other aspects which are important for the trading blocs.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how the trad-ing blocs, with their development of their own brand, affect the Swedish small and medium sized producers in the food industry. It is also to look into what kinds of strategies that are used by the SME in order to tackle the competition from the distributors own brands.</p><p>Method: To fulfill our purpose a qualitative approach has been used for this thesis. Seven different interviews have been done, either by phone or face to face, with the three largest trading blocs and with four the SME in Sweden, three producing and one distributing company.</p><p>Conclusion: The focus on low prices and the trading blocs’ stronger, central position on the market have made the competition more intense. To be or remain as a player on the market it is important for the SME to be a supplier to the trading blocs. However, since there are many players striving to become a supplier it is a tough situation and the price becomes an important factor. The trading blocs want low prices and keep pushing the suppliers to keep them low, or even lower them. This price focus is a major issue for the SME, and the DOB have become an important mean for the trading blocs to keep prices low. Due to scenarios like this it is very important for the SME to have strategies in place and the most common and most efficient is the bypass and flanking attack strategies. These two strategies are intense and keep the SME alert when it comes to product development and new innovations.</p>

<p>Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is established among a majority of small and medium sized companies in Kista Science City and seems to have a positive effect on organizational effectiveness. Kista Science City is Sweden’s largest corporate centre, with more companies and employees in a limited area than anywhere else in Europe. This study looks at the level of adoption of ERP functions, perceived organizational effectiveness and critical success factors. The most common use of ERP is for financial control and reporting, followed by order entry and purchasing. A significant relationship between the level of adoption and organizational effectiveness was found.</p><p>Although Enterprise Resource Planning has become an established phenomenon the investments in ERP software are far from fully utilized. Most companies have started to use ERP to integrate functional areas but few companies have moved to extended ERP (ERPII). The adoption of functionality for customer relationship management seems to have started, but the use of e-commerce, business intelligence and supply chain management is very low. Different reasons for the low level of adoption are discussed and it is suggested that the interrelationship between SMEs and ERP-consultants be investigated further. ERP-consultants are important change agents and knowledge transfers for ERP and one way to interpret the data is that ERP-consultants are caught in a negative spiral where they focus on installations and technical maintenance of core ERP, which prevents them from developing new, extended ERP competence.</p><p>An analysis of critical success factors showed that although technical competence was important socially oriented factors such as project teamwork and composition as well as communication had a greater effect on organizational effectiveness. Surprisingly enough, project management did not have any effect on organizational effectiveness. Common implementation methods for ERP focus on project management. It is suggested to further analyse if these methods could be improved by an increased adaptability to differences in company settings and requirements as well as through a better use of critical success factors. Organizational effectiveness can be measured in many ways and it was found that the success factors varied in terms of how they correlated with different measures.</p><p>In the next step, the doctorial thesis, it is suggested that a prototype environment is developed to stimulate an increased use of extended ERP among small and medium sized companies. Several actors, such as SMEs, consultants, vendors and students would be involved. The prototype environment could facilitate enhancements of implementation methods and reduction of implementation costs through the development of reusable objects such as add-on solutions, process maps and system configurations. It could also help small and medium sized companies to investigate the business benefits of ERP by increasing involvement and familiarity while on the same time decrease costs and risks.</p> / QC 20100713

<p>SAMMANFATTNING</p><p>Titel Dags att hålla för näsan? – en studie om doft som marknadsmedium</p><p>Time to keep your nose shut? – a study about aroma as marketing medium.</p><p>Seminariedatum veckodag den xx/1 2008</p><p>Författare Madelene Nordström</p><p>Handledare Magnus Rodell</p><p>Problem: Genom att problematisera begreppet ”medium” vill jag undersöka om doft är ett sådant. Jag studerar även på vilket sätt doft som ett medium kan påverka människans konsumtion?</p><p>Syfte: Jag vill påvisa att stimuli där jag har ”doft” som exempel, används som ett medium för att locka till konsumtion. Därför vill jag på en kritisk basis ge förståelse och insikt i hur doft används som marknadsföringsmedel i Sverige då det inte är ett självklart marknadsföringsmedel. Jag vill även utröna hur marknadsförare kan använda sig av doft för att stimulera kunden till köp.</p><p>Metod: Det teoretiska och metodologiska avsnittet bygger på tidigare forskning och verksamheter. Dels litteraturstudier som har ett naturvetenskapligt synsätt tillika ett humanistiskt synsätt för att få en stor omfångsapparat att arbeta med.</p><p>Jag har även intervjuat via telefon och mejl samt gjort en egen undersökning i Norrköpings Centrum för att se om butiker använder sig av doft för att locka till konsumtion.</p><p>Resultat: Vår hjärna är mottaglig för att ta emot doft på ett undermedvetet plan innan vi är medvetna om att vi har ”manipulerats”. Detta kan leda till att vi stannar kvar längre i en butik och i slutändan gör ett inköp som inte var planerat från början. Vårt luktsinne har en ”minnesbank” som gör att genom använda sig av doft i marknadsföring får våra sinnen att samarbeta och kalla fram minnen eller ge oss en upplevelsebaserad stund i butiken. Detta är något som går att utnyttja för att locka till konsumtion.</p><p>I Sverige förekommer doft i marknadsföring än så länge inte på ett utbrett plan. Men doftkonsulten Christina Gotzel spår att det kommer att en större marknad i framtiden. Därmed kommer företagen att vilja patentsätta sina unika dofter vilket idag är svårt att genomföra.</p>

<p>Namibia is a country where the official language has been English since independence in 1990. There are different national languages in the country and a majority of the people do not have English as a mother tongue. Nevertheless, the language of instruction from fourth grade and onwards is indeed English. Consequently, for the majority of the population the education is in their second language. What this essay explores is the role English as a second language has as a medium of instruction and the implications it may have. It is a minor field study that was carried out with the help of a scholarship from SIDA (Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation) and it took place in a school in Northern Namibia, April and May 2007. It is a qualitative study that explores the use of English among teachers and students as well as the transition from mother tongue instruction to English instruction and the implications that this can have for the quality of education. The reality of the Namibian students that have to study and perform in a second language is questioned and discussed from pedagogical and linguistic points of view. The results show that most pupils do not speak English before starting fourth grade. Furthermore, the sudden transition from mother tongue to English instruction creates some descent in the participation of the pupils and possibly in the learning, not only of the new language but also of the content subjects. As far as the teachers concern, there are positive but ambiguous opinions among them concerning English as a medium of instruction.</p>

In Offsetdruckanlagen wird neben der Druckfarbe eine im wesentlichen aus Wasser bestehende Flüssigkeit, sog. Feuchtmittel, auf das Papier übertragen. Diese Feuchtigkeit verbleibt nicht an der Oberfläche des Bedruckstoffes, sondern dringt unter der Wirkung von Kapillarkräften in den Kernbereich der porösen Struktur ein. Der zeitliche Verlauf dieses kapillaren Transportvorganges übt insofern einen entscheidenden Einfluß auf die Druckqualität aus, als eine schnelle Entfeuchtung der Oberflächenzone die Voraussetzung für eine vollständige Farbannahme beim sukzessiven mehrfarbigen Bedrucken darstellt. Darüber hinaus hängen feuchtigkeitsbedingte Änderungen des für die Gesamtstruktur maßgeblichen Deformationsverhaltens von der Geschwindigkeit ab, mit welcher sich die Flüssigkeit über den Querschnitt verteilt. In dieser Arbeit wird auf der Grundlage einer mischungstheoretischen Axiomatik ein Modell zur Beschreibung des kapillaren Flüssigkeitstransportes in Papier vorgeschlagen, dessen Homogenisierungsgrad einerseits den wesentlichen Einflüssen des Porenraumes auf das Transportverhalten Rechnung trägt, andererseits Einzelheiten nur soweit einbezieht, als sie sich einer Identifikation erschließen. Ein wesentliches Merkmal des strukturübergreifend formulierten Ansatzes besteht in der Einführung von Volumenanteilen für die Konstituierenden des als Mehrphasenkörper betrachteten teilgesättigten porösen Mediums. In Bezug auf die Formulierung eines makroskopischen Bewegungsgesetzes für den teilgesättigten Flüssigkeitstransport sowie hinsichtlich der Annahmen, welche die konstitutiven Beziehungen betreffen, wird auf den MUSKATschen Ansatz zurückgegriffen, wie er sich auf den Gebieten der Hydrologie bzw. der Bodenphysik bewährt hat. Mit der Vernachlässigbarkeit des Schwerkrafteinflusses sowie der Annahme einer kompressionsfreien Verdrängung der im Porenraum enthaltenen Luft ergeben sich gegenüber einem allgemeinen Zweiphasentransportproblem Vereinfachungen in der mathematischen Beschreibung: Die von der Luftströmung entkoppelte Betrachtung der Flüssigkeitsbewegung mündet in eine Transportgleichung vom Typ einer nichtlinearen Wärmeleitungsgleichung. Zur Lösung dieser parabolischen Differentialgleichung für das Anfangs-Randwert-Problem, wie es den obengenannten Ausbreitungsvorgang beschreibt, wurde das Heat-Transfer-Tool des kommerziellen Finite-Element-Programms MARC eingesetzt. Auf der Grundlage experimentell ermittelter Porengrößenverteilungsdichten gelang eine näherungsweise Bestimmung der Transportkoeffizienten sowie der konstitutiven Beziehungen.

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