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.

During the past years Building Information Modelling (BIM), which is a digital way to work, has begun to spread amongst the parts of the construction process. At the construction phase the larger companies has started using the new way to work. This expansion has not been developed amongst smaller companies leading to the purpose of this report, to investigate in which ways the smaller companies can implement BIM by changing their way to work. The thesis is delimited to work preperations with the objective to define how the work preperations should be structured to enable the implementation of BIM. To achieve the objective of the report, information about the subject has been collected by interviews and literature studies.

North Western Kungsholmen in Stockholm is confronting big changes and Stockholmsstad is planning that the area will be an extended part of the existing structure in centralStockholm. Dwellings and offi ces are built and the population increase heavily. Th isresult in a need to look at how public green areas can develop and be designed. Th epurpose is to design a proposal for a master plan of S:t Göranområdets public greenareas. Exploateringskontoret, Stockholm stad, who has initialized the task, claim thatthere is a need of clarifying and shield the qualities in the green areas of today and howto create new green structure.The problem formulations which are current in this master thesis are:? Is there a need of a distinct identity for the green areas of S:t Göransområdet? If so,how is this created?? How can the green parks and nature areas inside S:t Göransområdet be improved anddevelop?? How can the connections between the green areas inside S:t Göransområdet beclarifi ed and how can they connect to the surroundings?To get inspiration and information for the design this thesis include a study of theincluding parts in the design process.

"One life in two worlds" is a qualitative study of Syriac boys constructs ethnic and religious identity in different social contexts.Based on these three questions: how do the boys describe the importance of the parents' cultural and religious background in relation to their own identity? How do the boys describe their experiences of being categorized in school? Which significance is given to religion and ethnicity when the boys describe their experiences in relation to home and school context?I did reach the aim of this essay which was to investigate by interviewing the Syrian boys how they construct or reconstruct ethnic and / or religious identity in relation to different social contexts with a focus on the home and the school.In this study, I assumed the qualitative method in which I interviewed six Syriac boys who attend grade nine. The starting point of the study was social constructivism. Therefore, knowledge in this study is seen as something that is constructed in language, social and cultural interactions. The reality and perspective of reality is socially constructed, meaning that knowledge is created through the interplay of common action.The results of this study show that all the informants are agreed that their parents' ethnic background has had and has great significance for their identity formation.

Relationship Marketing - will banks be able to handle higher consumer mobility in the private market?The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the factors that affect customer loyalty to the bank. Consumer mobility will probably increase as a result of political changes and pressures on the private banking market to become more competitive. This study was carried out using semi-structured interviews and were transcribed and analyzed with the help of models and theories centered on relationship marketing. The theories describe loyalty, the customer lifecycle and relationships between customers and organizations.

This thesis considers the problems associated with searches in insufficiently geographically tagged data. The thesis was carried out at Booli Search Technologies AB, a company developing a search engine for the Swedish real estate market.The aim of the thesis is to identify some areas of possible improvements of the company?s existing technical platform, perform a benchmarking among similar services, suggest possible solutions and lastly, build a prototype from one of the suggested solutions.The thesis starts out with defining the problems that the search engine faces: some areas are not possible to perform searches on, the users are not presented with the full search result that they expect, some results are placed incorrectly on the map associated with the search results and results are also not described with enough geographical information. These problems are due to the fact that the data retrieved at the indexing stage in the company?s information retrieval process are insufficient and incomplete.As a result of a benchmarking process and after discussing the results, severalinteresting solutions were identified.

This study was the foundation for an evaluation of an employment project in Sweden. The project offers occupations in carpentry as well as kitchen work for people with psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and other social difficulties. This studies purpose was to analyze the projects significance to its participants and also to distinguish weather the project influences the participant?s life in a professional or private way. The methodological tool was five qualitative interviews with the participants and three qualitative interviews with the employees.

In this report listed buildings, according to the Swedish Heritage Conservation Act, have been studied with a focus on cases where economical compensation has been given to the owner of the building and cases where the listing of the building has been appealed by the owner. In order for a building to become listed it needs to be particularly valuable from a cultural and historical standpoint. The listed buildings are protected through a list of regulations that determines which parts of the building can or cannot be changed, what methods and materials should be used for changes and repairs, and how the building should be maintained. These regulations should as far as possible be formulated in agreement with the owner, but a building can become listed against the owners will. To decrease the damage this causes the owner he can in some cases have the right to economical compensation. There is also a possibility for the owner to appeal the listing of the building.

Bark-stripping by red deer (Cervus elaphus) cause extensive damage to economically valuable spruce trees (Picea abies) in Swedish forests. The underlying causes for bark-stripping are not fully understood, and the frequency and severity of damage unpredictably differ between regions. In this study, I investigated if landscape structure (e.g. agricultural dominated landscape opposed to forest dominated landscape), forage availability, population density and disturbance (e.g. roads and settlements) affect bark-stripping frequency.

Who is integrating school-holiday home? It is for the teachers, recreational pedagogue or the students? How do the students think and act to keep the different activities apart?My purpose was to study how children sort the day between school and recreational home interactions. The issues were: How do they distinguish between the different activities during the day?  See the students their stay after school program as part of the school day? Who decides whether you have to go to school, and whether you have to go to after school program? And do you really have to?I have interviewed six students at an elementary school, based from a phenomenographic perspective, I've used myself of issues that students have been able to respond from a school perspective and after-school perspective. My interview questions have been comparative in nature, where the same question have given different answers depending on whether the question focused on school or the afterschool program.

This qualitative study examines the participation that older people have in their own home care by exploring experiences of care workers. We will investigate to see if there are limitations due to financial implications in the sector. Modern day care of the elderly in Sweden is facing increasing pressures to both show cost savings whilst maintaining the same levels of service within the community. It is becoming more essential for older people to participate in their own care for the sake of their health and well-being. The method that we used for data collection was qualitative interviews.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how preschool pedagogues in Stockholm and in Tornedalen speak about and relate to creative activities. By qualitative interviews in two geographically distant areas, one minority culture and one majority culture, I have collected information from six pedagogues, three in each area. Values in, and the significance of culture in creative activities have been the main focus. From this study I conclude that all pedagogues agreed upon the creative activity having an extensive role in the preschool work. The role of the individual pedagogue within the creative activity is multiple and dependent on where, when and how the activity is carried out.

SecRePac is a household appliance that simplifies sorting of packaging such as milk, juice and yogurt containers. By shredding the packages SecRePac reduces its volume uptake both in the home and at the recycling station. This leads to minimization of both transports to the recycling stations and truck transport for emptying the containers at the recycling station.The greenhouse effect deteriorates and becomes worse and worse leading to extreme climate changes and natural disasters such as floods as an example. Carbon dioxide emissions are the major reason for this and at least 30 percent of all these emissions come directly from transports. In the EU carbon emissions has decreased in the past few years.

The purpose of this study was to depict some elderly people?s experiences of personal safety alarms. Furthermore, the aim was to look into whether there is any difference in experience between men and women and depending on their level of care. Using a qualitative method, semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight elderly people; six women and two men. The main questions of the study were: How do the elderly people experience the practical use of personal safety alarms? In what ways, if any, do the elderly people experience that the personal safety alarm has changed their daily life? In what ways do the elderly people experience that the personal safety alarm effects their ability to stay in their own home? A cognitive perspective was mainly used to analyze the results.

In this literature review the cemetery is studied in its role as a public space in an urban context. To be able to scrutinize the cemetery?s relationship to the public domain in the future, the cemetery?s background and history is studied in the beginning of the essay. The cemetery?s connection to the church, as well as a variety of other factors such as economic, architecture, hygienic aspects and different ideals has influenced the cemetery to be the place it is today.