Denna förstudie behandlar robotisering av en process som monterar två stiftade tåtar i en plastkontakt, detta bildar ett kablage. Idag monteras tåten till plastkontakten manuellt. Förstudien undersökte om robotisering är tekniskt möjlig och ekonomiskt försvarbar. Robotiseringen sker genom att en robot fattar tag i en stiftad tåt i stiftmaskinen med ett gripdon, sedan förs den stiftade tåten in i en plastkontakt med hjälp av roboten. Stiftmaskinen är en Schleuniger 67 cc. Simuleringar av två koncept genomfördes med en mock-up av maskinen och ligger som underlag för de uppskattade cykeltiderna för den robotiserade processen. Två laborationer genomfördes för att undersöka svårigheterna vid robotiseringen av processen och om det är tekniskt möjligt. Första laborationen bestod av att utforma ett gripdon som kunde hantera produkterna utan att skada dem. Andra laborationen gav underlag för ett uppskattat kvalitetsbyte för processen.  Första laborationen bestod av hur det konstruerade gripdonet skulle kunde fatta tag i den stiftade tåten utan att skada tåten eller ändra dess position eller orientering. Genomförandet av laborationen var i enlighet med ``try and fail`` metoden. Laborationen gav riktlinjer avseende på konstruktionen av gripdonet och vilket arbetstryck som är lämpligt för operationen. För högt arbetstryck resulterade i att gripdonet skadade tåten, för lågt arbetstryck resulterade i att friktionskraften mellan tåten och gripdonet blev för låg för att stiftet skulle föras in i kontakten. Andra laborationen bestod av att utröna ett approximativt värde av den robotiserade processens kvalitetsutbyte. I denna laboration utfördes 65 stycken försök till att bilda ett kablage med roboten och antalet godkända noterades. Resultatet från laborationen med de berörda produkterna som används idag vid montering av ett kablage gav kvalitetsutbytet 51%. Företaget som skall eventuellt investera har krav på att kvalitetsutbytet är 95% för att robotisering av processen skall genomföras. En omfattande analys av resultatet från denna laboration ger indikationer på att kravet kan uppnås med vidare produktutveckling av berörda produkter och gripdon.   En ekonomisk analys i form av en pay-off kalkyl ligger som underlag för att bedöma om robotiseringen är ekonomiskt försvarbar, och gav ett approximativt värde för hur mycket förädling av produkten som den robotiserade processen skall ta över från den manuella monteringen. Den förädling som görs av den robotiserade processen kallas i denna förstudie för automatiseringsgrad. Analys av pay-off kalkylen, produkterna samt resultat från laborationerna, anser författaren att robotisering av processen är teknisk möjligt och ekonomiskt försvarbart med de approximativa värdena för automatiseringsgrad på 22 % av den manuella monteringen och med 95% kvalitetsutbyte. / This pilot study investigated the robotization of a process that connects two pined conductors to a plastic contact and thereby forming a cabling. The pilot study examined if the process is technically possible and economically feasible to robotize. Today the pined conductors are attached to the cabling manually. Introduction of robotization is done so that a robot seizes one pined conductor at a time in the pin machine (Schleuniger 67) with a gripper and inserts same into the plastic contact. To determine if the process is technical possible to robotize two experiments were conducted with a gripper that was designed for this purpose. The purpose of the first was to investigate how the gripper could engage the pined conductor without damaging same or change its position or orientation. The experiment was carried out as a “try and fail” type. The experiment resulted in guidelines regarding the design of the gripper and which working pressure was recommendable for the process. A too high pressure could damage the pined conductor and a too low would cause the friction force between the conductor and the gripper to be too low to insert the pined conductor into the plastic contact. The goal of second experiment was to find an approximate value for the quality yield of the process (that is the number of approved cablings in %). In this experiment 65 attempts to form a cabling was performed and the number of approved cablings was checked and documented. The result from the experiment – using the present conductors and plastic components – was a quality approval rate of 51%. The company requires that the quality yield is higher than 95% in order to robotize the process. A thorough analysis of the result of the experiment and discussion with company representatives indicates that the required quality yield can be reached with some further development of the involved components and the gripper making the designs more “automation friendly”. A financial analysis was made using a pay-back calculation in order to determine when and if robotization is financially justified and resulted in an approximate value regarding how much of the value –added in the operation that is to be automated. This value-added that will be performed by the robot is defined as the degree of automation. The conclusion is that robotization (automation) is technically feasible with a degree of automation of 22% and a quality yield of 95%. This is based upon: the pay-back analysis, the present design of the used components and the result from the experiments.

Digital wallets have become a trendy topic, and a popular method of paying in physical stores. The aim of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of the attitude of Swedish consumers towards digital wallets Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. With the help of semi-structured interviews and previous research, users' attitudes could be more thoroughly established and the question asked for the study was answered. Factors that influence the user's attitude are based on previous research and theory. The factors that have been identified are usability, availability and security. With the help of the semi-structured interviews, it is possible to determine that most user's attitudes to the security of the services are poor. A poorer attitude to one or more factors will make the user's attitude to the whole of the services less favorable. The results also show that respondents feel some uncertainty when it comes to loss of account information. / Digitala plånböcker har blivit ett högaktuellt ämne, och en populär metod för att betala i fysiska butiker. Syftet med studien är att få en mer djupgående förståelse för svenska konsumenters inställning gentemot digitala plånböckerna Apple Pay och Samsung Pay. Med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer och tidigare forskning har användarnas inställning kunnat fastställas grundligare och frågeställningen för studien besvarats. Faktorer som påverkar användarens inställning är baserade på tidigare forskning samt teori. De faktorer som har identifierats är användarvänlighet , tillgänglighet samt säkerhet. Med hjälp av de semistrukturerade intervjuerna går det att fastställa att de flesta användares inställning till säkerheten i tjänsterna är dåliga. En sämre inställning till en eller flera faktorer, leder till att användarens inställningen till helheten av tjänsterna blir mindre bra. Resultatet visar även att respondenterna känner en viss osäkerhet när det kommer till förlust av kontoinformation.

Master of Engineering

The purposes of this study were to identify factors commonly used in teacher merit pay plans, to compare perceptions of administrators and teachers concerning these factors, and to determine the elements that should be used in a teacher merit pay plan. A review of the literature was conducted to identify factors commonly used in teacher merit pay plans. A questionnaire was utilized to gather data pertaining to the perceptions of administrators and teachers concerning these factors.

To meet the continued demand for educational reform, the state of Florida enacted legislation in 1998 that required school boards to base a portion of the salary for school administrators and instructional personnel on performance. Although ahead of the required statutory timeline, the School District of Lee County implemented a teacher performance pay plan during the 1998–1999 school year as a result of Florida's legislative direction. The problem of this study was to determine the perceptions of Southwest Florida school-based certified staff regarding the implementation of teacher performance pay in a school district where performance pay had been in operation for the five years prior to this study. The population of this study consisted of the certified school-based personnel employed by the School District of Lee County, Florida. A random sample of 1,000 members was selected from the instructional population. Additionally, this study included the entire population of 176 school-based administrators for an overall sample of 1,176 members. Participants were asked to complete the survey instrument, Teacher Performance Pay Attitudinal Survey designed by the researcher. This instrument was developed to fit the unique requirements and specific nature of this study. Although intended to motivate teachers, the teacher performance pay plan examined in this study was perceived by instructional staff and administrators as not motivating. Findings of this study also show that most teachers and other instructional respondents disagree that teacher performance pay provides an incentive to work harder toward improving student achievement. Additionally, a majority of the instructional respondents did not agree that performance pay encouraged them to participate in staff development or motivated them to change their instructional practice. Finally, most respondents, both instructional and administrative, did not agree that the current performance pay system was fair. These findings suggest that the performance pay program of the current study may have fallen short of its intended goal. This study also found many differences in perceptions of teacher performance pay among the demographic variables. These differences were particularly significant in several survey areas to include the respondent's years of experience, union status, and position. Findings in this study suggest that performance plan design should clearly connect the compensation reward to performance so that educators understand the performance level required. The findings of this study also suggest that improving the alignment between the performance pay plan and school goals should be a consideration in any future plan revision.

How does one estimate the value of an individual's time? One possible way is to estimate how much a person is willing to pay for time savings. The majority of transportation studies have used stated preference surveys to estimate an individual's willingness to pay (WTP) for travel time savings. However, stated preferences approaches are subject to hypothetical bias since they elicit WTP for hypothetical outcomes instead of real outcomes. One study used a revealed preference approach in a natural experiment to elicit WTP for travel time savings but the data was for a non-recurring event, which was not replicable. The purpose of this pilot study is to explore new methods, using procedures from a replicable field experiment, to elicit individual WTP for travel time savings. By using a revealed preference approach in an experimental setting, we address the legitimate concern over hypothetical bias while allowing the experimental methods and resulting data set to be replicated in other settings. The results show that the proposed field experiment is feasible, and that a sample of college students places a value of $22.43 on an hour of time. This estimated value is significantly greater than zero. We also find that individual WTP for travel time savings is significantly larger than the average wage rate, and that this WTP varies significantly across certain demographics. We conclude by reviewing the simplifying assumptions made within the study and offer extensions of how our data set can be replicated in the future for more complete analysis.

Federal, state, and local government agencies are promoting merit pay systems that are tied to student achievement. The main problem facing governments, school districts, and educators is that money is hard to come by in the current market and choosing where to spend merit pay monies to receive a maximum rate of return on the investment realized in increased student achievement is difficult to determine. This study did explore the student achievement results of third, fourth, and fifth grade state certified, graduate degreed, and National Board Certified teachers in Brevard and Seminole County Public Schools as compared to those of other teachers within and across these schools. The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of state certified, graduate degreed, and National Board Certified teachers. For this study teacher effectiveness was defined by their students' Lexile Framework for Reading scores from the 2008-2009 school year. The hypothesis is that the Lexile Framework for Reading data demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference between the learning gains of the students between groups. Overall, the findings indicate that there was a statistically significant difference between the learning gains of the students between groups; however, that change could not be attributed to the factor of teacher category. Specific teacher education levels or certifications did not make any difference in the learning gains as measured by the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), among 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students in Brevard or Seminole County Public Schools.

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This master’s thesis looks at how Rome paid its soldiers and the impact of this payment on the Roman economy. The research will make a significant contribution to the classics field in its focused exploration of how Roman soldiers were paid, the payment sources and how these payments contributed to the Roman Empire's vast military operations. This thesis will further analyze how the payment of soldiers impacted Rome’s inflation during the Republic and Augustan and Flavian periods of the early Empire. The author uses numismatic evidence to support his arguments. In chapter 1, the author uses research by Duncan-Jones and Michael Crawford’s hoard evidence to support the line of inquiry on how much it cost to pay the Roman army. In chapter 2, the author argues for and provides support on using Dutch excavation findings to illustrate the types of coins used and when they were used to pay the Roman military. Previously, scholars relied on excavations in German forts along the main part of the Rhine for such evidence. The author’s use of numismatic evidence in this unique way provides further support that the use of the denarius was the government's standard currency. He includes pictures of similar coins from the McMaster Museum of Art’s Bruce Brace Coin Collection to help the reader visualize the currency. Finally, in chapter 3, the author looks at the economic impact of such massive payments to pay Rome’s ever-expanding army. There, he uses numismatic evidence to look at issues of debasement, inflation and the bi-metallic standard. Again, he returns to the Dutch fort excavations for additional evidence on debasement. In each chapter, the author looks at the socioeconomic impacts of these issues on the soldiers, especially the foot soldiers, and asks the question of how Rome valued its army. From this thesis, readers will gain insight into how paying the military negatively impacted Rome’s economy. The inflation that resulted had a significant impact on Roman culture, and this thesis focuses on the specific impact on Roman soldiers. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This master’s thesis looks at how Rome paid its soldiers and the impact of this payment on its economy. The research will help our field to explore how soldiers were paid, where the money came from and how these payments to its vast military operations impacted Rome’s inflation during the Republic and Augustan and Flavian periods of the early Empire. The author uses numismatic evidence in a unique way to support his arguments on issues including the costs of paying the army, the use of the denarius as the government's standard currency and the impact on the economy of such massive payments, including its association with debasement, inflation and the bi-metallic standard. In each chapter, the author looks at the socioeconomic impacts of these issues on the soldiers, especially the foot soldiers, and asks the question of how Rome valued its army.