This paper presents techniques for speeding up commonly used algorithms forbounding volume (BV) computation, such as the AABB, sphere and k-DOP. Byexploiting the possibilities of parallelismin modern processors, the result exceedsthe expected theoretical result. The methods focus on data-level-parallelism(DLP) using Intel?s SSE instructions, for operations on 4 parallel independentsingle precision floating point values, with a theoretical speed-up factor of 4 ondata throughput. Still, a speed-up between 7?9 are shown in the computation ofAABBs and k-DOPs.

Enligt en enkätundersökning upplevde de flesta japanska mödrarna ängslan för att deras barn eventuellt skulle utsättas för grova våldsbrott trots liten risk. Begreppet anknytning och ?indulgent dependency? amae togs upp i föreliggande studie för att se om detta fe-nomen observerades generellt hos japanska mödrar. I föreliggande studie undersöktes fenomenet med en enkät för att se om barnaålder och typ av mödrars sysselsättning på-verkade graden av ängslan. Totalt 46 japanska mödrar med antingen ett 5 årigt eller ett 11 årigt barn deltog i undersökningen.

During several years we have been able to follow the victories and disappointments of Ludmila Engqvist through the scrutinising eye of the media. This essay will deal with how media?s picture perception of Ludmila Engqvist has changed by analysing articles from the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen from 1996 to 2001. Why and how the media?s picture has changed will be analysed through the perspectives of Ludmila Engqvist being an elite athlete, immigrant and woman.

Föreliggande rapport redovisar resultat från den svenska pilotstudien inom det internationella s.k. SINR-projektet (Societal Images of Natural Recovery). Detta projekt syftar till ökad kunskap om hur olika synsätt, hos allmänheten såväl som inom olika professionella grupper, påverkar människor möjligheter att komma tillrätta med olika former av missbruk. Som ett första steg i projektet har i hittills sex större städer i fem olika länder ett mindre antal svarande, representerande olika samhällsgrupper, tillfrågats om sin uppfattning om möjligheterna att på egen hand ta sig ur olika slag av missbruksproblem. Den svenska pilotstudien har, på uppdrag av FoU-enheten, av tre socionomstuderande vid Stockholms universitet i form av ett examensarbete.

Why is the e-revolution of the Swedish film distribution lingering? In attempting to answer that question, this qualitative study depicts the distribution market of Swedish film and its actors. Thirteen interviews with representatives of the industry have been conducted in search of an understanding of the current situation. Two important conclusions are made. One is that the strong interdependency between the actors of film distribution is inhibiting the acting space of those who seek change.

The aim of the thesis is to highlight external factors to explain why the EMU was created. The external factor considered here is the monetary policy of the United States, which often conflicted with European interests. The statistical data in the thesis, as well as previous research, show that even though the EU economically in many ways had become an equal partner of the US during the second half of the 20th century, the union still faced US influence and dependence.The results of the thesis can be explained with neorealist theories on power measured as an actor's distribution of capabilities and balancing of power. An actor that is equipped with the world's leading currency is more independent from others. Other actors, on the other hand, become increasingly dependent on the major currency and the policy of its owner.

This study investigates a method for identifying human capital and its effect on company valuation. We devise a measure for the efficiency of human capital based on the personnel cost. We include all companies listed in the financial and industry sector on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm in an attempt to examine human capital and its effect on firm valuation. Our results indicate that a higher efficiency of human capital has a positive effect on return on assets. However, we find that our measure can be interpreted in two ways; either as a firm?s level of human capital efficiency or its dependency on human capital, to achieve its net sales and revenue.

Tanzania is today one of the greatest aid recipients in the world, but still - after over 45 years of huge amounts of aid - one of the poorest and least developed countries. How can that be? Civil society is said to benefit the democratization process, but has not succeed in Tanzania. Has the extensive aid had any impact? Our purpose is to investigate this set of problems.We are using theories concerning civil society and aid in general, and the theoretical framework developed by Hadenius and Uggla ?Making Civil Society Work, Promoting Democratic Development: What Can States and Donors Do??, in particular.

Syftet med denna studie var att få en ökad kunskap och förståelse för betydelsen av andliga upplevelser för att kunna bryta ett beroende, samt vad andliga upplevelser betyder för att lyckas hålla sig drogfri. Den frågeställning som studien utgick ifrån var: Hur beskriver ett mindre urval av intervjupersoner sina erfarenheter av andliga upplevelser för att kunna bryta ett beroende, samt för att kunna kvarstå i drogfrihet? Datainsamlingen bestod av fyra djupintervjuer med personer med egna erfarenheter på området andlighet och beroende. Studien följde således en kvalitativ design och utgick från en hermeneutisk vetenskapsfilosofisk position. De viktigaste resultaten visade på att erfarenheten av andliga upplevelser hos intervjupersonerna har haft stor betydelse för att kunna bryta ett beroende samt att kunna kvarstå i drogfrihet.

Background;Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disease characterized by airway obstruction. Common signs of COPD are the slow process and shortness of breath on exertion. The most important treatment is to quit smoking. Most nurses, regardless of where they work, will meet these patients, often when the patients are having respiratory disorders. Aim;the aim of this study was to illuminate how patients with COPD describe the daily life based on how he/she experience and cope with the disease.

I have studied how network in a broad sense can affect decision-making. The primary purpose is to see if the political initiative somewhere disappears when it comes to understand the relations between power, actors and politics. The study discuss in a theoretical area that concerns the reliability in neoinstitutionalism to use as an analytical instrument. Some criticism is given to the theoretical standpoint in the sense that there is no power perspective included in the theory. I include a discussion about a concept of power, which I include to the theory.

This thesis concerns the Swedish credit card market to a younger public and specifically Nordea as a card editor. The purpose is to investigate whether a Swedish bank can, and want to build long term relationships with a young public through credit cards, and if so, how they do this.The theoretical background formulated by researchers Bendapundi and Berry consists of four key factors of relationship maintenance; trust, dependency, dedication and constraint. These key factors are also assembled in an analytical framework. The empirical findings mainly consist of interviews with three employees at Nordea. They describe a recent segmentation of the bank?s customers with the issuing of a new credit card; Mastercard Silver.

Some researchers claim that we are witnessing the advancement of becoming a network society, and in spite of the different problems associated with the network form of organization, many cities still choose to engage in different types of networks. On account of that the aim of the study is to examine which expectations Swedish member cities of the network Eurotowns might have, and if their actions in the initial period of engagement in Eurotowns mainly could be explained by ?Logic of Consequentiality? or ?Logic of Appropriateness?.A qualitative research method was used and a major part of the empirical material consists of the information given by the interviewees.Regarding the expectations Swedish member cities have on Eurotowns, the result showed that five main areas could be identified mutual resource exchange, activities, breadth, security and meeting place. The results also showed that the actions of Swedish member cities may vary between ?Logic of Consequentiality?, ?Logic of Appropriateness? or a combination of the both logics.Furthermore the study also provides empirical evidence supporting the previously theoretical criticism expressed regarding the central assumption that the strategic actions of an actor can be regarded as a direct consequence of the mutual resource dependency..

The purpose of this study was to examine the foreign news flow in Sweden´s largest news agency TT. Since TT has an important position as a news provider to most of Sweden´s local and national news outlets, it was important to examine exactly what their news stories consisted of.The theoretical background of this study consist of theories of news values, agenda setting, dependency theory and the theory about the ?news shadow? a lack of coverage leads to.In our quantitative study we have looked at 506 articles taken from the TT news flow during two weeks In November 2013. We have studied which continents and countries the news origins from, who have supplied the text, the topics of the news, which one gets to speak in the text and what general tone the story has.The study shows that the supply of news follows the criteria of news values. It also shows that in some regions of the world the coverage is almost nonexistent.

Upplands Väsby municipality has a vision that podcars in the future will become an effective alternative in public transport, with reduced car-dependency as a result. The system would also attract new inhabitants and businesses to the municipality.This report deals with various issues that podcar stations may face. Also, suggestions for possible track laying at the stations and station design are presented. Two areas are investigated. Eds allé which is a neighborhood that is planned for housing and where the station may be planned into the cityscape from the start.