| 1. |
- Bogren, Maria
(författare)
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EN UTOPISK IDÉ? : Medverkan på (o)lika villkor i utvecklingspartnerskap
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A utopian idea? Participation Under (Dis)Similar Conditions inDevelopment PartnershipsMaria Bogren Department of Social SciencesMid Sweden University, SE-831 25 Östersund, SwedenISSN 1652-8948, Mid Sweden University Licentiate Thesis 53;ISBN 978-91-86694-12-8 AbstractImportant societal issues nowadays do not get resolved through the care of the state; it is rather the case that solutions involve multiple actors. Such cooperation can be organized in partnership where actors from the public sector, private companies and non-profit organizations, for example, attempt to find solutions to a current societal issue. The target group affected by the problems can also be involved in the partnership. The aim of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding regarding cooperation in partnerships and especially the target group’s participation in partnerships. An idea regarding the target group’s participation stems from the European level to the national level and finally to the local level in a development partnership. I follow the local development partner-ship for two years with a view to examining the translation process of the idea regarding the target group’s participation. Data was collected through interviews, relevant documents and observation. What is more, the significance of the institutional surroundings regarding what happens in the partnership is discussed. The idea regarding the target group’s participation manifests itself on: a) how the target group should be represented; b) how it gains influence and c) how the role of the target group’s representatives should be shaped. The study shows that ideas change and adjust over time and also that the target group participates under different conditions compared to the rest of the representatives in the partnership. A way to strengthen the target group’s participation in the partnership can be through further organizing, thus increasing the legitimization level of the target group. Keywords: translation, target group, participation, public-private partnershipsSAMMANFATTNING Angelägna samhällsproblem får numera inte alltid sin lösning genom statens försorg utan istället involveras flera aktörer. Ett sådant samarbete kan organiseras i partnerskap där aktörer från exempelvis offentlig sektor, företag och ideella organisationer tillsammans försöker hitta lösningar på något aktuellt samhällsproblem. I partnerskapet kan även den målgrupp som berörs av problematiken involveras. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra till ökad förståelse när det gäller samverkan i partnerskap och speciellt när det gäller målgruppens medverkan i partnerskap. En idé om målgruppens medverkan följs från europeisk nivå, till nationell nivå och slutligen till lokal nivå i ett utvecklingspartnerskap. Jag följer det lokala utvecklingspartnerskapet under två års tid och använder dokumentstudier, intervjuer och observationer för att studera översättningsprocessen av idén om målgruppens medverkan. Dessutom diskuteras den institutionella omgivningens betydelse för det som händer i partnerskapet. Idén om målgruppens medverkan tar sig uttryck i idéer om hur målgruppen ska finnas representerad och hur den ska få inflytande samt hur rollen som målgruppsrepresentant ska utformas. Studien visar att idéerna förändras och anpassas över tid samt att målgruppen medverkar på olika villkor jämfört med övriga representanter i partnerskapet. Ett sätt att stärka målgruppens medverkan i partnerskapet kan vara genom ytterligare organisering för att på så sätt ge ökad legitimitet för målgruppen. Nyckelord: översättning, målgrupp, medverkan, privatoffentliga partnerskap
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| 2. |
- Abdalla, Suliman A
(författare)
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Architecture and circuit design of photon counting readout for X-ray imaging sensors
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Hybrid pixel array detectors for X-ray imaging are based on different technologies for sensor and readout electronics. The readout electronics are based on standard CMOS technologies that are experiencing continuously rapid improvements by means of down-scaling the feature sizes, which in turn lead to higher transistor densities, lower power consumption, and faster circuits. For pixel-array imaging sensors the improvements in CMOS technology opens up new possibilities of integrating more functionality in the pixels for local processing of the sensor data. However, new issues related to the tight integration of both analog and digital processing circuits within the small area of a pixel must also be evaluated. The advantages of down-scaling the CMOS technology can be utilized to increase the spatial resolution by reducing the pixel sizes. Recent research indicates however that the bottleneck in reaching further spatial resolution in X-ray imaging sensors may not be limited by the circuit area occupied by the functions necessary in the pixels, but are instead related to problems associated with charge-sharing of charges generated by the sensor which are distributed over a neighbourhood of pixels and will limit the spatial resolution and lead to a distortion of the energy spectrum. In this thesis a mechanism to be implemented in the readout circuits is proposed in order to suppress the charge-sharing effects. The proposed architecture and its circuit implementation are evaluated with respect to circuit complexity (area) and power consumption. For a photon-counting pixel it is demonstrated that the complete pixel, with charge-sharing suppression mechanism, can be implemented using 300 transistors with an idle power consumption of 2.7μW in a 120nm CMOS technology operating with a 1.2V power supply. The improvements in CMOS technology can also be used for increasing the range of applications for X-ray imaging sensors. In this thesis, an architecture is proposed for multiple energy discrimination, called color X-ray imaging. The proposed solution is the result of balancing the circuit complexity and the image quality. The method is based on color sub-sampling with intensity biasing. For three-level energy discrimination, that corresponds to color imaging systems for visible light with R, G, and B color components, the increase in circuit complexity will be only 20% higher than that for the Bayer method but results in significantly better image quality. As the circuit complexity in the digital processing within each pixel is increased, the digitally induced noise may play an increasingly important role for the signal-to-noise ratio in the measurements. In this thesis an initial study is conducted regarding how the digital switching noise affects the analog amplifiers in the photon-counting pixel.
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| 3. |
- Abikari, Masoome
(författare)
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Young consumers’ emotions towards emerging e-banking technology : A multi-perspective approach
- 2024
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Banks appear to be interested in enhancing their effectiveness and efficiency by developing e-banking technology, i.e., the provision of banking products and services through electronic channels. However, the successful implementation of e-banking technology depends on how consumers perceive such technology and how they are probably provoked to adopt it. Considering emerging e-banking technologies, knowledge of the salient influential factors affecting consumer adoption is crucial for banks. Studies have analysed these factors from different perspectives, such as attribute- and barrier-based perspectives. Attribute-based factors pertain to the perceived or expected characteristics of e-banking technology, whereas barrier-based factors refer to factors that can hinder or delay the adoption of e-banking technology. Despite the absence of consensus on these factors, there is a predominant focus on the functional aspects of this technology, often neglecting the emotional experience of consumers. Consumers’ emotions in the e-banking context mainly refer to hedonic motivation, defined as positive emotions such as fun, pleasure, and enjoyment arising from the usage of e-banking technology. While examining hedonic motivation has provided valuable insights into the adoption of such technology, further studies are required to examine the relationship among consumers’ emotions, particularly negative ones arising from different kinds of appraisals. Accordingly, this thesis aims to examine the influence of consumers’ emotions towards emerging e-banking technology on their intention to adopt such technology, with a specific emphasis on negative emotions from attribute and barrier-based perspectives. Applying Structural equation modelling (SEM), the empirical results draw attention to the influential role of different types of negative emotions in the adoption of emerging e-banking technology. From the attribute-based perspective, the empirical results demonstrate an association between loss emotions and consumers’ behavioural intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology, through effort expectancy and performance expectancy. From a barrier-based perspective, the results indicate that deterrence emotions can be positively associated with consumers’ perceived risk. This, in turn, influences their behavioural intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology. The results also reveal the influence of deterrence emotions on consumers’ perceived risk, even in the presence of positive emotions. These results suggest the importance of considering various categories of negative emotions when examining consumers’ intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology.
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| 4. |
- Ahlin, Karin
(författare)
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Approaching the intangible benefits of a boundary object
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today´s information society is constantly increasing the quantity of digital information that organisations have access to and depend on. Despite this dependency, few descriptions exist of the benefits which this digital information can provide the organisation with. Examples of what the organisation can use the information for include business intelligence or in a business process. The absence of such benefit descriptions results in missed opportunities in organisational management and a failure to cultivate the artefact. In terms of a practical operational work role, this means that the artefact just exists and that there are no decisions, communication and discussions connected to it. Earlier research about benefits in the Information Systems field is focused on describing the process of finding benefit factors from different IT investments and how these investments can be measured financially. The result of this was that it was only the measurable benefits that were taken into consideration. Later benefit management research has shown interest in the intangible benefit factors as well and added this as an activity in the evaluation process. Today´s view is that the benefit consists both of tangible and intangible benefit factors. This thesis emphasises benefit factors found by means of qualitative research in organisations producing Technical Information (TI). TI isinformation connected to goods and services and is a part of a product. The intangible benefit factors found which are connected to TI are semantic interoperability and knowledge. Semantic interoperability is beneficial both for the organisation and the individuals – in the first case exemplified by a uniform working process and in the second as efficiency in the internal communication. Knowledge also provides benefit both to the organisation and the individuals – the organisation can operate without depending on certain individuals and information gives the individuals mobility in their profession.The next part in the thesis discusses information management´simpact on benefit factors. In the case of an autocratic approach, it is the organisation that benefits most, whereas a decentralised management style provides the individual co-workers with a greater number of benefit factors. This proves that information management is an important and decisive ingredient, and that it affects benefit factors.One step in the direction of converting the intangible benefit factors into tangible ones is to visualise them. In this work the theoreticallens provided by a boundary object has been used. This lens adds a qualitative view on cross-boundary information and has efficiency approaches. These approaches are the syntactical, semantic andpragmatic. Via interpretations from the thesis´s two empirical cases, those approaches are "measured" by interpretations and visualised by the three leaves of a clover. This gives the opportunity to describewhat information efficiency, in this case connected to a positiveexpectation, can contribute to the organisation or the individuals. By this procedure, different cases or time aspects can be compared,thereby providing a basis for decision-making, communication and discussion. Future research in this area can be made in different directions – one is to investigate whether the intangible benefit factors can be turned into measurable ones. In this way, the internal organisation can be provided with better knowledge of the digital information's impact. Another research direction is to investigate how the passage of time affects the benefit factors that digital information gives the organisation.
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| 5. |
- Ahmad, Jawad, 1985-
(författare)
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Screen Printed Large Area Sensors for Pressure Distribution Monitoring in Wheelchairs
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A sedentary lifestyle can induce health related problems including pressure ulcers. Prolonged sitting inadequacies constitute a risk for pressure ulcer to many individuals, in particular people with disabilities and reduced mobility. The measurement of distributed pressure and detection of irregular sitting postures are essential in prevention of the risk of developing pressure ulcers.In this thesis, a screen-printed pressure sensor for a large area is presented, with the objective of measuring the distributed pressure of a seated person in a wheelchair. The conductors and interdigital patterns are printed with silver-based ink. A blend of a non-conductive and a low resistive ink is used for customized resistance for an optimal sensing range of the pressure sensor. The effect of moisture and temperature are realized in an environment chamber. For characterization, other key performance tests such as repeatability, drift and flexibility are carried out. The surface morphology is carried out for structural analysis of printed samples. The sensor data is acquired and processed using an 8-bit ATmega-2560 microcontroller and wirelessly transmitted to a PC for post-processing, storage and analysis. For real-time data presentation of distributed pressure points, a GUI has been developed to display the values obtained from the large area sensor. The detection of four sitting postures; forward leaning, backward leaning, left leaning and right leaning along with a normal sitting posture is attained. An analysis for stretchable printed tracks has been conducted to investigate the changes in electrical resistance using elongation tests, surface morphology and EDS. The optimal curing time and temperature were investigated to manufacture stretchable conductive tracks.In summary, the contributions in this thesis provides an effective approach regarding pressure distribution measurement and recognizing irregular sitting postures for wheelchair users.
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| 6. |
- Ahmad, Naeem
(författare)
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Modelling and optimization of sky surveillance visual sensor network
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A Visual Sensor Network (VSN) is a distributed system of a largenumber of camera sensor nodes. The main components of a camera sensornode are image sensor, embedded processor, wireless transceiver and energysupply. The major difference between a VSN and an ordinary sensor networkis that a VSN generates two dimensional data in the form of an image, whichcan be exploited in many useful applications. Some of the potentialapplication examples of VSNs include environment monitoring, surveillance,structural monitoring, traffic monitoring, and industrial automation.However, the VSNs also raise new challenges. They generate large amount ofdata which require higher processing powers, large bandwidth requirementsand more energy resources but the main constraint is that the VSN nodes arelimited in these resources.This research focuses on the development of a VSN model to track thelarge birds such as Golden Eagle in the sky. The model explores a number ofcamera sensors along with optics such as lens of suitable focal length whichensures a minimum required resolution of a bird, flying at the highestaltitude. The combination of a camera sensor and a lens formulate amonitoring node. The camera node model is used to optimize the placementof the nodes for full coverage of a given area above a required lower altitude.The model also presents the solution to minimize the cost (number of sensornodes) to fully cover a given area between the two required extremes, higherand lower altitudes, in terms of camera sensor, lens focal length, camera nodeplacement and actual number of nodes for sky surveillance.The area covered by a VSN can be increased by increasing the highermonitoring altitude and/or decreasing the lower monitoring altitude.However, it also increases the cost of the VSN. The desirable objective is toincrease the covered area but decrease the cost. This objective is achieved byusing optimization techniques to design a heterogeneous VSN. The core ideais to divide a given monitoring range of altitudes into a number of sub-rangesof altitudes. The sub-ranges of monitoring altitudes are covered by individualsub VSNs, the VSN1 covers the lower sub-range of altitudes, the VSN2 coversthe next higher sub-range of altitudes and so on, such that a minimum cost isused to monitor a given area.To verify the concepts, developed to design the VSN model, and theoptimization techniques to decrease the VSN cost, the measurements areperformed with actual cameras and optics. The laptop machines are used withthe camera nodes as data storage and analysis platforms. The area coverage ismeasured at the desired lower altitude limits of homogeneous as well asheterogeneous VSNs and verified for 100% coverage. Similarly, the minimumresolution is measured at the desired higher altitude limits of homogeneous aswell as heterogeneous VSNs to ensure that the models are able to track thebird at these highest altitudes.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Alfredsson, Jon
(författare)
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Performance of Digital Floating-Gate Circuits Operating at Subthreshold Power Supply Voltages
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- All who is involved in electronic design knows that one of the critical issues in today’s electronic is the power consumption. Designers are always looking for new approaches in order to reduce currents while still retain performance. Floating-gate (FGMOS) circuits have previously been shown to be a promising technique to improve speed and still keep the power consumption low when power supply is reduced below subthreshold voltage for the transistors. In this thesis, the goal is to determine how good floating-gate circuits can be compared to conventional static CMOS when the circuits are working in subthreshold. The most interesting performance parameters are speed and power consumption and specifically the Energy-Delay Product (EDP) that is a combination of those two. To get a view over how the performance varies and how good the FGMOS circuits are at their best case, the circuits have been designed and simulated for best case performance. The investigation also includes trade-offs with speed and power consumption for better performance, how to select floating-gate capacitances, how a large circuit fan-in will affect performance and also the influence of different kinds of refresh circuits. The first simulations of the FGMOS circuits in a 0.13 μm process have several interesting results. First of all, in the best case it is shown that FGMOS has potential to achieve up to 260 times in better EDP-performance compared to CMOS at 150 mV power supply. Continuing with simulations of FGMOS capacitances shows that minimum floating-gate capacitance can be as small as 400 fF and more realistic performance shows that EDP is 37 times better for FGMOS (with parasitic capacitances included). Other aspects of FGMOS design have been to look at how refresh circuits will affect performance (semi-floating-gate circuits) and how a larger fan-in will change noise margin and EDP. It turns out that refresh circuits with the same transistor size does not give a noticeable change in performance while an increase of 8 times in size will give between 5 and 10 times wors EDP. When it comes to fan-in the simulations shows that a maximum fan-in of 5 is possible at 250 mV supply and it decrease to 3 when supply voltage is reduced to 150 mV. Finally, it should be kept in mind that tuning the performance of FGMOS circuits with trade-offs and by changing the floating-gate voltages to achieve results like the ones stated above will also always affect the noise margins, NM, of the circuits. As a consequence of this, the NM will sometimes be so close to 1 that a fabricated circuit with that NM may not be as functional as simulations suggests. The probability to design functional FGMOS circuits in subthreshold does not seem to be a problem though.
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| 9. |
- An, Siwen
(författare)
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X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry for Environmental Applications
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Heavy metal contamination in environmental applications is particularly important because of its potential impact on associated ecosystems and human health. At present, monitoring of heavy metals is usually done by taking and preparing samples for off-line laboratory measurements. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis is a powerful and widely used tool for determining the elemental composition and concentration of chemical species in materials. This project is a feasibility study for the possibility of on-line XRF systems for continuousand direct analysis of industrial processes and environmental emissions.The feasibility of such measurements depends on the accuracy with which the concentration can be measured within a given response time. Therefore, this project is focused on investigating possible background suppression of the XRF spectrum. First, an XRF setup has been built, and its capability has been compared to a commercial scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). The qualitative analysis and semi-quantitative analysis of heavy metal contamination in fly ash was performed and compared. Due to minimal sample preparation, the developed XRF system is suitable for in-situ measurements. A series of experiments was performed to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectra achieved from chromium contaminated liquid samples. The most significant factor turned out to be the primary X-ray source filter. Numerical simulation models have been developed in the Monte Carlo N-particle radiation transport code (MCNP), to calculate the X-ray fluorescence intensities and the detection limit for chromium in liquid samples. The experimental results agree with the results predicted by the simulation model, hence the model is used for optimization of the XRF system. Further, XRF mapping of chemical element distributions on a microscopic level has been obtained by using both X-ray scanning microscopy and full-field projection microscopy. The resultingdata from these microscopy measurements can guide further comprehensive environmental and industrial monitoring missions by providing additional spatial distribution information.In conclusion, the first research contribution presented in this thesis is the demonstration of the possibility to perform in-situ XRF measurements of chromium contamination in leachate with a limit of detection below the legal environmental limits. The second is the demonstration of XRF mapping on amicroscopy level, where a polycapillary X-ray optics setup achieves a similar intensity as a geometrically corresponding pinhole optics setup.
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Henrik
(författare)
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Development of Process Technology for Photon Radiation Measurement Applications
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents work related to new types of photo detectors and their applications. The focus has been on the development of process technology and methods by means of experimentation and measurements. The overall aim has been to develop and improve photon radiation measurement applications which are possible to manufacture using standard Si processing technology. A new type of position sensitive detector that has switching possibilities based on the MOS principle has been fabricated and characterized. The influence of mechanical stress on the linearity of position sensitive detectors has been investigated. The results show that mechanical stress arising, for example, by the mounting of detectors in capsules can have an impact on device performance. Under normal circumstances these effects are rather small, but are considered to be worthwhile taking into account. Electroless deposition of Nickel including various dopants in porous silicon was performed to manufacture electrical contacts for this interesting material. After heat treatment it was confirmed by X-ray diffraction that Nickel silicide had been formed and I-V measurements show that different contacts exhibit Ohmic and rectifying behaviour. Spectrometers are used extensively in the process and food industry to measure both the chemical content and the amount of substances used during manufacturing. These instruments are often rather bulky and costly, though the trend is towards smaller and more portable equipment. A spectrometer based on an array of Fabry-Perot interferometers mounted close to an array detector is shown to be a viable option for the manufacture of a very compact device. Such a device has minimal intermediate optics and it may be possible, in the future, for it to be developed and completely integrated with a detector array into a single unit.
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