With numerous applications in both military and civilian life, the demand for accurate 3D models of real world environments increases rapidly. Using an airborne laser scanner for the raw data acquisition and robust methods for data processing, the researchers at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) in Linköping hope to fully automate the modeling process.The work of this thesis has mainly been focused on three areas: ground estimation, image segmentation and classification. Procedures have in each of these areas been developed, leading to a new algorithm for ground estimation, a number of segmentation methods as well as a full comparison of various decision values for an object based classification. The ground estimation algorithm developed has yielded good results compared to the method based on active contours previously elaborated at FOI. The computational effort needed by the new method has been greatly reduced compared to the former, as performance, particularly in urban areas, has been improved.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how investments are justified in the Swedish data center industry, with a focus on cooling equipment. This is achieved through semi-structured interviews with 20 different interviewees. These interviewees represent different facets of the industry and facilitate an understanding of which factors, such as: investment costs, operating costs, reliability, environmental impact and the influence of external and internal actors, come into play and to which degree they impact the investment decision-making process. The results show that primarily low operating cost in the form of low energy consumption is the driving factor when it comes to the procurement of new equipment. A lower environmental impact is a positive side-effect of lower energy consumption.

SAAB Security and defense solutions i Järfälla har ett system som används av militären för övervakning av flygplan. Systemet visar på en datorskärm en karta över Europa där flygplanen visas med markeringar från data som samlats in av radars. Då data samlas in med en låg frekvens visas ytterligare en markering som kallas målspår. Dessa målspår beräknas fram med tunga matematiska beräkningar och sköts av datorns processor.Det finns ett önskemål om att flytta dessa beräkningar till datorns Grafikkort med hjälp av OpenCL och därmed frigöra processorns resurser. OpenCL har implementerats med två olika Java bindings och prestandaskillnader mellan dessa samt de ursprungliga beräkningarna har undersökts.

This master thesis reviews advances in detection and diagnosis of static friction (stiction) in control valves. Control valves suffering from stiction results in oscillating control loops which in turn decreases both the process stability and reliability. Perstorp AB sees a necessity to automatically detect stiction in valves before the effects of the malfunctioning valves have become too severe. This thesis presents an introduction to maintenance, control loops and how stiction in valves can affect performance of control loops.A selection of methods presented in the literature are introduced and examined using normal operating data from the site in Perstorp. Common for all selected methods is their intuitive ideas and that they are based on normal operating data and minimum amount of process knowledge.

This study deals with some contested issues regarding prehistoric cultural development in Amazonia and the colonial impact on the native inhabitants of the area. It focuses on the relation between groups belonging the language families of Tupí and Gê, on one hand, and the different ecological zones that they inhabit, on the other. GIS mapping is used to visualise the distribution and movements of these groups in relation to ecology and the impact of European colonization. GIS is shown to be a useful methodology for analysing historical data derived from written sources and maps. The results of these analyses are discussed in the light of different theoretical perspectives.

Bakgrund och problem: I takt med att allt mer information genereras har en problematik uppkommit kring hur man skall hantera denna i organisationernas IT-infrastruktur. Utbudssidan hävdar att deras nya lösningar kommer att revolutionera möjligheterna kring analys av alla olika former av data. Tillgång bättre information och förbättrade analysmöjligheter kan få stora konsekvenser för ekonomistyrningen förutsatt att det används på rätt sätt. Syfte: Vårt syfte är att identifiera och beskriva innebörden av begreppet Big Data samt hur de teknologier och verktyg som finns kan stödja ekonomistyrning. För att sätta området i ett större sammanhang har vi studerat begreppet utifrån tre aktörers perspektiv.

This thesis is a discourse theory analysis of two feminist anthologies - Det heter feminism! and F- ordet.  By analyzing these texts through the three categories feminism & feminists, gender equality & equality and sex/gender & sexuality I have raised questions about the feminist debate in Sweden in the 21st century.The discourse theory?s ideas of descriptions of reality and fixation of meaning lies as a foundation for this thesis. The concepts of social constructionism, post structuralism and essentialism/anti essentialism are central for the analysis as well as concepts connected to the three previously mentioned categories.The intention of this thesis is to describe and analyze a fraction of the Swedish feminist debate in the 21st century and discuss its meaning in a societal context. A number of conclusions were reached in the final discussion.

Very often the interesting variables are explained by several underlying variables and in statistical analyses it is common to study the relationship between variables and groups of variables. Because of this multivariate analysis is commonly used in both science and industry. There are two problem with both univariate and multivariate analyses. One is when the variables are correlated. The other is when the number variables of exceeds the number of observations which makes the matrices algebra used in the analysis impossible to execute.

There is a need for productivities data and data for different types of machines for comminution of logging residues. The lack of data and studies on GROT comminution makes it difficult to evaluate different chains for handling of residue fuels and make system analyses.Four types of machines with three different working principles were compared at six studies during winter conditions. Three to eleven trials during 9.5 to 30.7 minutes were made on each machine. Samples from the produced material at each study were sieved to determine the size distribution of the comminuted material. Samples were also taken from the studies for determination of moisture content.

In scientific investigations on how organizations can learn from their mistakes the perspective is usually that of the social engineer; the object is to prevent human errors through modeling the system in a certain way. The aim of this paper is to explore the learning process from a different standpoint than those usually applied in organizational learning and error theory. By studying the learning process in Swedish health care I seek to discover how theoretical presumptions affect the outcome in terms of what we actually learn. The theoretical framework draws on two major discussions in contemporary political science; the question of structure and agency and the question of whether to focus on formal or informal structures when explaining organizational behavior.The investigation shows that Swedish health care tend to understand human errors as a result of formal organizational structure. Such a view leads to insufficient explanations to why errors occur but is useful in producing preventative measures.

This paper studies the research foundations created in 1994 from the former wage earners? funds out of a portfolio management point of view. Firstly it describes the seven largest foundations and their different portfolio management structures. Secondly it analyses the performance of these foundations measured as the intercept, Jensen?s a, in a linear regression of the excess returns of a portfolio versus a proxy for the market, as well as the Sharpe-ratio.

Mergers between companies has become more and more common in Sweden and in the rest of the world with the motive to increase the competitive strength in the current markets and has an important role within organisational development of companies. When organisations merger there is not only buildings and objects that are put together but also their individual organisational structures, people, values and cultures. This can be a difficult process and can affect many people in how they think conscious as well as unconscious, feel and react.The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how employees are affected following a merger when changes in the organisational culture come up, and how these changes are expressed.This thesis is delimited to investigate only one company, Skruf Snus AB and only focus on their business and employees in the region of Stockholm. The thesis contains a qualitative investigation with semi structured interviews that has been carried out with eight employees at Skruf Snus AB. The thesis is partly based on a model of Schein which describes the different levels in organisational culture and partly on some theories about reactions to change in relation to the integration between the employees following a merger.The results of the investigation indicate that with a merger the whole organisational culture is affected and therefore also the employees.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how employees in the financial sector perceive the leadership behaviors of middle managers, and if these perceptions differ depending on the manager's gender and if so, in what way. The study is based on a social constructivist perspective and theories of gendered organizational structures. It is based on 15 semi-structured interviews with employees who have either female or male middle managers from different companies in the Swedish financial sector. The results show that gender often acts as a framework for how leadership is evaluated and understood. Female middle managers are frequently associated with relationship-oriented qualities.

Detta arbete handlar om beteendeinriktad biometri och artificiella neuronnät av typen feedforward och hur de tillsammans kan användas för att verifiera användare. Det har av tidigare arbete bekräftats att det är möjligt att verifiera användare, men tidigare resultat har däremot inte utfört tester med avseende på avvikelser i data (beteende) och dess inverkan på verifieringen. Det är detta som utgör det huvudsakliga målet för detta arbete, nämligen att undersöka hur avvikelser i data påverkar verifiering och utifrån det också undersöka neuronnätens noggrannhet vid verifiering..

Vårt syfte med denna uppsats är att bidra till en ökad kunskap om begreppet edutainment samt att vi vill undersöka begreppets applicerbarhet inom turism. Vi vill dessutom utifrån ett kundperspektiv undersöka om och isåfall hur edutainment i ett turismsammanhang kan relateras till människors identitetsskapande process. Med hjälp av den kvalitativa metod vi använt oss av i vårt insamlande av empiriskt material, har vi i vårt arbetssätt tagit vår utgångspunkt i teorin. På så vis har vi genom triangulering i form av en överblickande analys av skriftligt material, kvalitativa intervjuer och en i viss mån kvalitativ enkätundersökning, ämnat ta reda på om teorin går att urskilja i ett empiriskt exempel, varpå vi valt arrangerade dansresor med fokus på salsa. Resenärer efterfrågar idag upplevelsebaserade och kunskapsalstrande nöjesresor, varpå vi menar att begreppet edutainment mer än väl kan appliceras i turismsammanhang.