As the information society becomes increasingly flooded with digital images, the need for efficient image retrieval systems increases as well. To handle the vast amounts of data involved, the indexing process needs to be run automatically, using content-based descriptors extracted directly from the digital image, such as colour composition, shape and texture features. These content-based image retrieval systems are often slow and cumbersome, and can appear confusing to an ordinary user who does not understand the underlying mechanisms. One step towards more efficient and user-friendly retrieval systems might be to adjust the weight placed on various descriptors depending on which image category is being searched for. The results of this thesis show that certain categories of digital images would benefit from having extra weight assigned to colour, texture or shape features when searching for images of that category..

Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is an intracellular enzyme involved in ?the salvage pathway? where the uncomplete parts of DNA are transformed into DNA precursors. The expression of TK1 is cell cykle specific, with the highest level during S-phase when DNA-synthesis is most active. One kind of TK1 is present in serum and an increase in TK1 activity in serum is due to either the level of DNA synthesis in the body or the number of cells dying in a state of replication. This can be used and is used as a marker for prognosis and evaluation of treatment in human patients with leukemia and lymphoma.

In a comparing survey this thesis investigatesclassification systems for dams in Sweden, Norway,Finland, Switzerland, Canada and USA. Theinvestigation is aiming at an understanding of howpotential consequences of a dam failure are takeninto account when classifying dams. Furthermore,the significance of the classification, regarding therequirements on the dam owner and surveillanceauthorities concerning dam safety is considered andreviewed. The thesis is pointing out similarities anddifferences in the line of dam safety.The survey of dam safety is firstly based upon legalrequirements in the different countries andsecondly on guidelines regarding dam safety. Damowners generally are ultimately responsible for thesafety of their dam, and often have their ownroutines regarding how this safety is to be achieved.In this thesis, however, the legal requirements aremainly focused upon.The investigation has resulted in an outlining ofeight areas, where the classification systems in thevarious countries have been compared.

I samhällsdebatten om hur det hållbara samhället ska uppnås framhålls idag allt oftare individens bidrag till miljöproblemen samt dennes ansvar för sina handlingar och dess konsekvenser. Hur individbeteenden bäst förändras råder det dock delvis delade meningar om, och i den debatten står Ecological Citizenship-teorin för en syn på långvariga beteendeförändringar som styrda av vår inre motivation. Man antar ett samband mellan individens medvetenhet om miljökonsekvenserna av sina handlingar och dess beteende, och att detta samband förmedlas via en positiv attityd till individens personliga miljöansvar. Det är dessa samband som studeras i denna uppsats, med hjälp av statistisk analysmetod undersöks miljömedvetenhetens direkta och indirekta effekter dels på aggregerat miljöbeteende, och dels på tre olika typer av miljöbeteenden, nämligen resurssparande beteenden, transportbeteenden samt konsumentbeteenden.Resultaten av studien visar på att en indirekt effekt av miljömedvetenhet på aggregerat miljöbeteende via attityd till ansvar mycket riktigt föreligger, en dryg tredjedel av den totala effekten av miljömedvetenhet går vägen via ansvar. För de tre undergrupperna av miljöbeteenden framträder resurssparande beteenden som mest påverkade av både miljömedvetenhet och attityd till ansvar, men det är för transportbeteenden som den indirekta effekten utgör störst andel av den totala effekten.

Respiratory disease with airway inflammation as main characteristic is common in the horse. It is a syndrome that is not yet fully understood. The etiology, pathogenesis and classification into different disease states are subjects for discussion and under continuous revision. Despite a number of modern techniques, the diagnostic procedure is challenging. There is no test considered to be gold standard when diagnosing these diseases.

Kenya is a country of 35 million people and is situated in Eastern Africa. 70% of thepopulation works within the agricultural sector and for many of them food insecurity is amajor problem. Maize and beans are today the staple food for many households. Goodfarming conditions enable two harvests per year and a potential maize yield of 4-5 tons perhectare.A major problem for many farmers in this area is the increase of the weed striga. The weedcauses severe yield losses, and has a major economic impact on smallholders.

The aim of this study was to use stories from three people who previously lived in homelessness to increase the knowledge of the social network's impact on the process of exiting homelessness. In order to answer our questions, whether the social network facilitated or hindered the way out of homelessness, we have used a narrative method to take advantage of these person's life stories. As a theoretical perspective, we used the ecology of human development, based on the idea that human development occurs in interaction with their environment at different levels. Results showed those interviewees' networks had a significant impact on their path out of homelessness and that these relationships both facilitated and hindered this process. At the same time, these relationships affected our interviewees in different ways and were found in various areas of life, which indicates that there is more than one way out of homelessness.

Using a feministic perspective and a critical approach, my purpose is to discuss bibliographic classification, a central aspect of Library and Information Science. More specifically, my aim is to demonstrate the norms and the dominating thoughts regarding the organization and representation of knowledge, subjects, and social categories in classification systems. I review previous research involving critical approaches to classification. These show that classification systems are a reflection of the context in which they are created, with the result that universal assumptions can be questioned. Some studies also present problems inherent in hierarchical structures.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to study the effects that geographical distance have on the control systems in a scattered organization and how this, ultimately, affects the employees in terms of loyalty and motivation. In order to do this, a case study has been conducted on a multinational travel group and its local branches in Thailand. The study is based on a selected number of theories focusing mainly on control systems in multinational contexts as well as on theories regarding communication and autonomy. The conclusion of the study is that geographical distance has led to a rather large autonomy for the local branches and that the headquarter to a large extent rely more on formal control.

This study aims to examine play as a phenomena from a phenomenological approach. This I do by discussing a dominant approach to play, an perspective which is reproduced in the context of pre-school and in where the play and learning is in single focus. Using alternative perspective on play, mainly by Gadamer and Bakthtins philosophical thoughts about the feast or the carnival, contents differ significantly from educational or developmental psychology perspectives. I open up for an understanding of what play as ontology can be understood as, and thereby enable second readings. I illustrate this thought by an empirical example from a pre-school context which where created alongside with the children in the study.

Background: Corporations are established and organized in order to create economic values for their owners and the main aim of every business enterprise is to be profitable and satisfy the financial expectations of their shareholders. However, corporate social responsibility focuses on the ethical aspects of corporate business in order to achieve the balance between the profitability and social responsibility. Nongovernmental organizations through their activities promote the respect for human rights and environmental care within the corporate world. Purpose and Scope: To make an in-depth study about the role of nongovernmental organizations regarding corporate social responsibility in order to increase the understanding of corporate social responsibility. Methodology: We used literature research for our thesis and we analysed the secondary data related to the corporate social responsibility.

When investigating mechanical problems it is often more convenient to deal with scalars rather than vectors. In this project methods stemming from the field of analytical mechanics, which lets one derive the equations of motion using scalar quantities instead of vectors, have been used. Two mechanical problems were investigated, a double pendulum with a spring and particles orbit in a sphere. The equations of motion of the two systems were derived with the assistance of computer algebra, using Maple and the external package Sophia. The systems were investigated with regard to periodicity and conserved quantities..

Food-poisoning is a major health problem and an estimated half a million Swedes are food-poisoned annually, with acute gastroenteritis as a consequence. One of the major causes of contaminated foods is related to food- and waterborne viruses. To be able to trace back the source of contaminant, the method of detecting viruses must be specific and sensitive. No standardized method for detecting foods for sapovirus exists today. The aim of the work described in this bachelor thesis is to implement and opti-mize a real-time RT-PCR method for the detection of all genogroups of human sapovirus in foods.

Computer animated faces have found their way into a wide variety of areas. Starting from entertainment like computer games, through television and films to user interfaces using ?talking heads?. Animated faces are also becoming popular in web applications in form of human-like assistants or newsreaders. This thesis presents a few aspects of dealing with human face animations, namely: editing, playing and transmitting such animations.

More frequent and intensified rainfalls are expected to occur due to climate change in the nearfuture. This together with a higher proportion of paved areas increases the pressure on today?sstorm water systems (Risinger, 2014; Boverket, 2013; Stahre, 2006). Traditional storm watersystems (i.e. underground pipe systems) have during last decades started to be questioned(Olshammar & Baresel, 2012).