There are widespread discussions about the use of retouched models in media, ranging from bloggers to legal decision-makers. Research shows that there are negative psychological effects on especially females being exposed to idealized, retouched model images. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of using retouched models in advertising from a marketing perspective, based on attitudes, perceived quality and purchase intentions.Based on theories about attractiveness, halo-effects and social comparison, an experimental study was done, investigating the different responses on above mentioned parameters to advertisements showing either retouched model images or non-retouched model images. Initially it was also tested if the retouched models were seen as more attractive than the non-retouched models. The results showed almost no differences between the reactions to the advertisements with retouched models compared to the advertisements with non-retouched models, when all respondent groups were analyzed together.

Our premiss in this study is the escalating competition in the swedish newspaper market, which have become an issue regarding smaller editions for the newspapers, and some scientist have claimed that this has brought an sensational touch to their news. With this in mind, we have studied if a sensational touch is brought to the two biggest Swedish newspapersAftonbladet?s and Expressen?s first pages. Our purpose with the study is to look into the newspapers development regarding a more sensational newsworthiness on the front page over time. The use of quotes, images and news themes is indicators to measure the development.Trough a content analysis from three different years, 1972, 1992 and 2012 we have measured the data with the computer program SPSS.

The aim of   the study has been to examine the duality that I seemed to find in Karin   Broos works, primarily on the basis of her renditions of nature. The   objective is to study the duality on various plans and to examine which   traces of Intertextuality that may exist.In the study of the duality   I have taken note of how nature is presented in terms of style and form, as   well as that I have seeked cultural references pictorial and symbolic. I have   also examined the images with reference to Intertextuality. The following   questions has been applied during the work:  How is nature produced in the paintings?  What place occupies nature in relation to the people, in the works?  What is being communicated by nature's participation in the works?As a method, and as a   tool for analysis and interpretation of selected works, I have chosen to use   Panofskys iconological interpretative method. As a guide to seek relations of   intertextuality the theories of  Julia   Kristeva has been useful, which  includes thoughts  that new images are created or re-created   in relation to other images all the time and in new contexts.As a result of the   study I have found some kind of expression of balance, though it did not   seemed to look that way from the beginning.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the Greek expression Logos found in the Gospel of John, to discover if it is possible to expand the term in such a way that female, male and gender neutral imagery of God can be generated from it. This is done by enumerating the wide range of meanings that logos can concur, found in the different contexts of the Christian Bible and within Hellenism, including Gnostic texts. These different meanings of logos are examined in order to see in what way they can generate new images of God as related to the purpose. The results show that it is indeed achievable to produce such images from Logos, a term that has chiefly been regarded as a masculine one. This is mainly based on the fact that many of Logos qualities can be said to be gender neutral in terms of being widely described as superhuman; it is among other attributes called light, life and eternal.

Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is a convenient way to enable contactless identification which does not require any physical nor optical contact. As with any radio-based communication the signal can be intercepted, thus making the technology vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. Interception of communication is not the only threat. Since RFID tags might contain personal information or information that will grant the owner access to secure areas, skimming and spoofing attacks are also major threats against this technology. In this thesis report,  the perspective of an adversary is portrayed in an RFID-enabled environment by presenting where RFID is used and how it could be abused.

Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is a convenient way to enable contactless identification which does not require any physical nor optical contact. As with any radio-based communication the signal can be intercepted, thus making the technology vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. Interception of communication is not the only threat. Since RFID tags might contain personal information or information that will grant the owner access to secure areas, skimming and spoofing attacks are also major threats against this technology. In this thesis report,  the perspective of an adversary is portrayed in an RFID-enabled environment by presenting where RFID is used and how it could be abused.

"The choreography of fear" is a discourse-analysis study which focus at how young men speaks about fear, threat and violence in the public everyday life. The study adopts socialcontructionism as theoretical approach and also uses theories about gender, hegemony masculinity, fear as a social constructed phenomenon and moral-panic. The study is based on qualitative interview whit young men in age 18-30 and the method is mainly discourse-psychology. The section of Analysis discuss subjects as what and whom the young men consider to be a threat and which areas in the public space they consider to be dangerous and how they choose to handle the menace. The Analysis also focuses on how the informants speak about fear, how they define fear and what they consider arouse fear..

Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is a convenient way to enable contactless identification which does not require any physical nor optical contact. As with any radio-based communication the signal can be intercepted, thus making the technology vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. Interception of communication is not the only threat. Since RFID tags might contain personal information or information that will grant the owner access to secure areas, skimming and spoofing attacks are also major threats against this technology. In this thesis report,  the perspective of an adversary is portrayed in an RFID-enabled environment by presenting where RFID is used and how it could be abused.

Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is a convenient way to enable contactless identification which does not require any physical nor optical contact. As with any radio-based communication the signal can be intercepted, thus making the technology vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. Interception of communication is not the only threat. Since RFID tags might contain personal information or information that will grant the owner access to secure areas, skimming and spoofing attacks are also major threats against this technology. In this thesis report,  the perspective of an adversary is portrayed in an RFID-enabled environment by presenting where RFID is used and how it could be abused.

This thesis describes new methods for automatic crack detection in pavements. Cracks in pavements can be used as an early indication for the need of reparation.Automatic crack detection is preferable compared to manual inventory; the repeatability can be better, the inventory can be done at a higher speed and can be done without interruption of the traffic.The automatic and semi-automatic crack detection systems that exist today use Image Analysis methods. There are today powerful methods available in the area of Computer Vision. These methods work in higher dimensions with greater complexity and generate measures of local signal properties, while Image Analyses methods for crack detection use morphological operations on binary images.Methods for digitalizing video data on VHS-cassettes and stitching images from nearby frames have been developed.Four methods for crack detection have been evaluated, and two of them have been used to form a crack detection and classification program implemented in the calculation program Matlab.One image set was used during the implementation and another image set was used for validation. The crack detection system did perform correct detection on 99.2 percent when analysing the images which were used during implementation.

This report describes the procedure in which we accomplished our task, which was to implement a present algorithm. This was made using C++. The algorithm is developed by Sasan Gooran, who is our examiner in this project. The algorithm uses an iterative method to produce the halftoned images. The reason for this project is to speed up the existing program which is made in Matlab.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine librarian images and stereotypes in Swedish and American fiction, and to discover if there are any differences between these. The images and stereotypes are also compared to those revealed in previous research. The study is based on ten novels. Five of these are written by Swedish authors and portrays Swedish librarians.

This essay examines Finnish artist Iiu Susiraja?s self-portraits in relation to Western traditions and tropes of the genre from the 20th century until today. I use an iconological/iconographic model to describe and to further interpret the images. The purpose is to find out which norms and conventions, within the art sphere and society as a whole, that Susiraja?s images reproduce or revolt against.

This study is a semi-­structured, qualitative depth-­interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-­audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non­-audit services from its signing auditor.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine librarian images and stereotypes in Swedish and American fiction, and to discover if there are any differences between these. The images and stereotypes are also compared to those revealed in previous research. The study is based on ten novels. Five of these are written by Swedish authors and portrays Swedish librarians.