The problem of separating a non-rectangular foreground image from a background image is a classical problem in image processing and analysis, known as matting or keying. A common example is a film frame where an actor is extracted from the background to later be placed on a different background. Compositing of these objects against a new background is one of the most common operations in the creation of visual effects. When the original background is of non-constant color the matting becomes an under determined problem, for which a unique solution cannot be found. This thesis describes a framework for computing mattes from images with backgrounds of non-constant color, using Bayesian statistics.

A large part of the Iranian population resented the west, in particular USA and Great Britain, during the Islamic revolution in Iran 1979. The people were also resenting the adverse effects of the trumped up frame made in Iran. The last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was detested by many in Iran for its west-oriented regime. The resentment among many Iranians is a consequence of the violations of e.g. the lack of political and civil rights, there were no existing legal security in the society, there were no economic distribution and the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah violated the human rights.The resolution from an Iranian perspective for riot is not new, during the last centuries the abomination against the despotic kings have been existing varyingly and big riots have been raised.  The Islamic revolution in 1979 was new because the revolution added adverse effects of west, the population detested west and expressed it by protesting through demonstration.  The significance of the revolution in 1979 was also attributable to Islam.

The largest project at the AICG lab at Linköping University, Cognitive models for virtual characters, focuses on creating an agent architecture for intelligent, virtual characters. The goal is to create an agent that acts naturally and gives a realistic user experience. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and implement an appropriate learning model that fits the existing agent architecture using an agile project methodology. The model developed can be seen as an online unsupervised reinforcement learning model that enhances experiences through reward. The model is based on Maes model where new effects are created depending on whether the agent is fulfilling its goals or not.The model we have developed is based on constant monitoring of the system.

This thesis was carried out to give some background information to a report of SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) for the Swedish National Rail Administration (Banverket). The requested information was to provide basic data for an environmental impact assessment of the construction of the tunnel through Hallandsås. The aim with the thesis work was to discuss and quantify the leaching of nitrate and the emission of nitrous oxide from the soil at the groundwater level established through the tunnel project. The nitrogen related processes that could be affected were described and discussed. The different areas where a decreased groundwater level can cause changes in the nitrogen processes are the wet and moist areas.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is any connection between working hours, desired working hours and the worker ?s health. The study also aims to investigate if there are any differences over time. Earlier studies have shown that individuals need a balance in their life between worked hours and free time. This balance seems to be important for employees if they want to lead and remain a healthy lifestyle.

A research on how impulse buying can be stimulated in physical retail stores and see to what extent these stimuli also apply in an online setting. Furthermore, the effects of demographic characteristics on impulse buying behaviour online are taken in consideration..

This report is commissioned by the Water and Sewage Agency in The City of Mariehamn, Åland. The basic aim is to investigate positive or negative effects of a relocation of the sewage pipe from a wastewater treatment plant, Lotsbroverket. The environmental licence of Lotsbroverket is to be revised and The Environmental Appeal Board at Åland?s Government and Administrative Board has made demands that several possible locations in an outer water area should be examined. The present location of the sewage pipe is in Svibyviken, which has been classified as an ?inner water area?.The objective of this work is to study to which extent the nutrient loading from Lotsbroverket influence the environmental conditions in Svibyviken, and to investigate the suitability of different locations of the wastewater pipe from Lotsbroverket.The way a coastal area looks, i.e., its morphometry, determines to a large extent its ecological characteristics.

My main purpose with this paper of John Steinbecks Of mice and men is to both analyze the long-lived structures and the unique individual destinies of the novel. I employ the method of the historical Annales-movement and use three divided levels in my analysis to try to capture these high structures and low moments of humanity in Structure, Konjuncture and the Individuality. The first level, Structure, is used to see how long-lived almost invisible geographic structures set the human act of condition. The second level, Konjuncture, is easier to grasp in understanding of time and embraces for example economic structures as the industrialism. The last level of Individuality is the fastest in time and easiest to understand but in the long run also the least important.

With a changing climate, we can expect higher temperatures and more precipitation in Sweden.As the temperature increases, new weed species are expected to migrate in from more southerlylatitudes, resulting in requests for new techniques for weed control. In addition, we might see agreater number of weed species and higher biomass production due to increased concentrationof CO2 in the atmosphere.Increased understanding of the biology of specific weed species will become more importantin future weed control. This will help to control the weeds more efficiently. Higher prices onpesticides and a public demand for reduced use of pesticides make growers more inclined to usemechanical weed control on a larger scale and to a greater extent prevent weed establishmentbefore sowing. A well-planned crop rotation is the most important preventive measure, whichmight also include delayed sowing, and dark harrowing and sowing.Research takes place on many levels within the weed area and several alternative methodsare being developed.

During the last decade a number of studies have been published that investigate how the most fundamental aspect of political organization, the regime type, affects population health. The results unanimously show that citizens of democracies live longer and healthier lives than citizens of non-democracies. Many explanations for this have been suggested, among these are that democracies redistribute more and invest more in salutogenic resources, and that the tendency of dictatorships to control the media negatively affects the ability to spread information crucial to public health. When these mechanisms are controlled for, however, it turns out that democracy has a large residual correlation with for example life expectancy, which suggests that other mechanisms are also involved.In this paper two new mechanisms regarding the possible psychosocially mediated health effects of the regime type are investigated, namely political repression, and the possible negative effects this might have on the levels of chronic stress, and autonomy, which connects to a large previous literature in social epidemiology. In the paper an ecological cross-country design is used and country-level data, provided mainly by the World Bank and Freedom House, is analyzed with a simple multiple OLS-regression model.

Pharmaceuticals are environmental pollutants that are a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and very little is known about their ecological consequences. In this study growth, survival and behaviour (sociability, activity and boldness) of perch fry (Perca fluviatilis) were examined in order to study the possible effects of exposure to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug, Oxazepam, during embryonic development. The study tested following hypotheses: (1) perch growth is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; (2) early perch survival is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; and (3) boldness and activity increases while sociability decreases in perch fry exposed during embryonic development. Embryos of naturally spawned perch were exposed to water with two different concentrations of Oxazepam. The embryos were exposed during different parts (24-hour periods) of the embryonic development, because embryos may be more vulnerable at certain times during embryonic development and/or because the exposure at different times can produce different effects.

In Sweden the breeding organization for the Swedish Warmblood horse uses a traditional scoring system when evaluating horses. The horse is scored subjectively in relation to how good each trait is in relation to the breeding objective. Other countries, for example the Netherlands, instead use a linear scoring system. The linear scoring system evaluates the horse on a scale between two, for the breed, biological extremes which makes the evaluation more objective since the judges personal values does not influence as much. The breeding organization for the Swedish Warmblood is today planning a change towards a linear scoring system.

The aim of this essay was to investigate how social workers, within chosen Social services districts in the northwest of Skåne, work with children placed in foster care. Our purpose was to investigate the interaction between the child and the foster home from the perspective of the Ecology of Human Development. Our questions were:* How do the social worker prepare the child and the foster home before a placement?* What kind of support is offered to the foster home with the purpose of supporting the child?* How do the social worker make the childs contact with the biological parents easier?* To what degree does the social worker work on strengthening the child's network?* Which factors do the social worker decide the allocation of support?* What do the social worker think affects the work with the foster home from a society level?To answer our question we have interviewed nine social workers. We found that the social workers were generally good at perceiving how the micro- and meso-systems, and to a certain extent the exo-system, influenced the foster child.

The aim of this study was; from a group of boys and girls description and interpretation of interaction with other young people, personnel and the environment of the youth centre illuminate how the social gender are constructed and maintained at the youth centre. In this study we have tried to analyse the phenomena from an intersectionalistic perspective. Except gender, the analytic category social class have been tried to capture. Our theoretical standing point is social constructivism. Institutionalized structures in our society are constructed by humans, gender is not only a biological construction it is also a man created construction.

The aim of this study was to explore transsexuals? identity formation and experiences related to cross-sex hormone treatment, as well as to become absorbed in the narrative approach. To be able to participate in transsexuals? identity formation, life stories were well suited as a theoretical approach. Life stories can be seen as socially situated actions according to Mishler, where individuals? identity formation can be seen as both identity performances and identity claims.