| 1. |
- Ayas, Ebru, 1977-
(författare)
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Engineering Feelings of Quality
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is an increasing emphasis on developing systematical research approaches for design of products that appeal to people’s emotions and values. This thesis proposes methodological developments for investigating people’s subjective emotional needs and values towards quality and explores interactions of related physical design attributes for product design.The overall aim of the licentiate thesis is to gain an understanding on Affective engineering of products through exploring the concept of quality feeling and to develop methodological approaches for this. Quality feeling can be described as a holistic concept considering individuals’ perceptions, expectations, experiences, physical and psychological expressions for a product or service. Affective Engineering methodology aims at translating human psychological processes, such as feelings and emotions, into appropriate product design attributes, such as size, shape, and surface characteristics.The thesis presents three methodological approaches when evaluating products for affective engineering and one approach for an interactive product design support system development.The first study presented deals with feelings of quality for reach truck operator’s cabin components. Components that would convey to give a higher total quality feeling were identified and improvement opportunities were prioritized. The second study presented is based on developing an interactive affective design and decision support system software for design of the steering wheel from drivers’ individual and shared preferences. In the third study affective values arising from judgments for important feelings of quality is the study basis. The author presents research on identifying interactions of design attributes for affective values in waiting areas of primary health care services.Further, a new approach for applying Affective Engineering in design of complex contexts is proposed.The proposed approach aims to handle contexts where feelings and design attributes have complex interactions for products and services that give almost an infinite number of design alternatives that are difficult to handle in traditional Kansei Engineering studies. With this thesis also an interactive product design and decision support system software is developed for steering wheel design and proposed for educational and industrial use. The proposed system works based on linking product design attributes to human feelings by applying Genetic algorithms and provides potential basis for future product development and improvements.This thesis has also contributed with affective design recommendations applicable for vehicle cabins and waiting areas in primary health care. Moreover, a number of existing methods in Affective Engineering have been tested and methodological experience is drawn, including advantages, disadvantages and limitations of using these methods.
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| 2. |
- Olstam, Johan, 1979-
(författare)
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A model for simulation and generation of surrounding vehicles in driving simulators
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Driving simulators are used to conduct experiments on for example driver behavior, road design, and vehicle characteristics. The results of the experiments often depend on the traffic conditions. One example is the evaluation of cellular phones and how they affect driving behavior. It is clear that the ability to use phones when driving depends on traffic intensity and composition, and that realistic experiments in driving simulators therefore has to include surrounding traffic.This thesis describes a model that generates and simulates surrounding vehicles for a driving simulator. The proposed model generates a traffic stream, corresponding to a given target flow and simulates realistic interactions between vehicles. The model is built on established techniques for time-driven microscopic simulation of traffic and uses an approach of only simulating the closest neighborhood of the driving simulator vehicle. In our model this closest neighborhood is divided into one inner region and two outer regions. Vehicles in the inner region are simulated according to advanced behavioral models while vehicles in the outer regions are updated according to a less time-consuming model. The presented work includes a new framework for generating and simulating vehicles within a moving area. It also includes the development of enhanced models for car-following and overtaking and a simple mesoscopic traffic model.The developed model has been integrated and tested within the VTI Driving simulator III. A driving simulator experiment has been performed in order to check if the participants observe the behavior of the simulated vehicles as realistic or not. The results were promising but they also indicated that enhancements could be made. The model has also been validated on the number of vehicles that catches up with the driving simulator vehicle and vice versa. The agreement is good for active and passive catch-ups on rural roads and for passive catch-ups on freeways, but less good for active catch-ups on freeways.
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| 3. |
- Alenljung, Beatrice
(författare)
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Decision-making in the Requirements Engineering Process : A Human-centred Approach
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Complex decision-making is a prominent aspect of requirements engineering and the need for improved decision support for requirements engineers has been identified by a number of authors. A first step toward better decision support in requirements engineering is to understand decision-makers’ complex decision situations. To gain a holistic perspective of the decision situation from a decision-makers perspective, a decision situation framework has been created. The framework evolved through a literature analysis of decision support systems and decision-making theories. The decision situation of requirements engineers has been studied at Ericsson Microwave Systems and is described in this thesis. Aspects of decision situations are decision matters, decision-making activities, and decision processes. Another aspect of decision situations is the factors that affect the decision-maker. A number of interrelated factors have been identified. Each factor consists of problems and these are related to decision-making theories. The consequences of this for requirements engineering decision support, represented as a list that consists of desirable high-level characteristics, are also discussed.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Holsmark, Rickard, 1970-
(författare)
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Deadlock Free Routing in Mesh Networks on Chip with Regions
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is a seemingly endless miniaturization of electronic components, which has enabled designers to build sophisticated computing structureson silicon chips. Consequently, electronic systems are continuously improving with new and more advanced functionalities. Design complexity ofthese Systems on Chip (SoC) is reduced by the use of pre-designed cores. However, several problems related to the interconnection of coresremain. Network on Chip (NoC) is a new SoC design paradigm, which targets the interconnect problems using classical network concepts. Still,SoC cores show large variance in size and functionality, whereas several NoC benefits relate to regularity and homogeneity. This thesis studies some network aspects which are characteristic to NoC systems. One is the issue of area wastage in NoC due to cores of varioussizes. We elaborate on using oversized regions in regular mesh NoC and identify several new design possibilities. Adverse effects of regions oncommunication are outlined and evaluated by simulation. Deadlock freedom is an important region issue, since it affects both the usability and performance of routing algorithms. The concept of faultyblocks, used in deadlock free fault-tolerant routing algorithms has similarities with rectangular regions. We have improved and adopted one suchalgorithm to provide deadlock free routing in NoC with regions. This work also offers a methodology for designing topology agnostic, deadlockfree, highly adaptive application specific routing algorithms. The methodology exploits information about communication among tasks of anapplication. This is used in the analysis of deadlock freedom, such that fewer deadlock preventing routing restrictions are required. A comparative study of the two proposed routing algorithms shows that the application specific algorithm gives significantly higher performance.But, the fault-tolerant algorithm may be preferred for systems requiring support for general communication. Several extensions to our work areproposed, for example in areas such as core mapping and efficient routing algorithms. The region concept can be extended for supporting reuse ofa pre-designed NoC as a component in a larger hierarchical NoC.
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| 6. |
- Svedjemo, Gustaf, 1958-
(författare)
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Ontology as Conceptual Schema when Modelling Historical Maps for Database Storage
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sweden has an enormous treasure in its vast number of large-scale historical maps from a period of 400 years made for different purposes, that we call map series. The maps are also very time and regional dependent with respect to their concepts. A large scanning project by Lantmäteriverket will make most of these maps available as raster images. In many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, like history, human geography and archaeology, historical maps are of great importance as a source of information. They are used frequently in different studies for a variety of problems. A full and systematic analyse of this material from a database perspective has so far not been conducted. During the last decade or two, it has been more and more common to use data from historical maps in GIS-analysis. In this thesis a novel approach to model these maps is tested. The method is based on the modelling of each map series as its own ontology, thus focusing on the unique concepts of each map series. The scope of this work is a map series covering the province of Gotland produced during the period 1693-1705. These maps have extensive text descriptions concerned with different aspects of the mapped features. Via a code marking system they are attached to the maps. In this thesis a semantic analysis and an ontology over all the concepts found in the maps and text descriptions are presented. In our project we model the maps as close to the original structure as possible with a very data oriented view. Furthermore; we demonstrate how this ontology can be used as a conceptual schema for a logical E/R database schema. The Ontology is described in terms of the Protégé meta-model and the E/R schema in UML. The mapping between the two is a set of elementary rules, which are easy for a human to comprehend, but hard to automate. The E/R schema is implemented in a demonstration system. Examples of some different applications which are feasibly to perform by the system are presented. These examples go beyond the traditional use of historical maps in GIS today
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| 7. |
- Ahlström, Christer, 1977-
(författare)
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Processing of the Phonocardiographic Signal : methods for the intelligent stethoscope
- 2006
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Phonocardiographic signals contain bioacoustic information reflecting the operation of the heart. Normally there are two heart sounds, and additional sounds indicate disease. If a third heart sound is present it could be a sign of heart failure whereas a murmur indicates defective valves or an orifice in the septal wall. The primary aim of this thesis is to use signal processing tools to improve the diagnostic value of this information. More specifically, three different methods have been developed:• A nonlinear change detection method has been applied to automatically detect heart sounds. The first and the second heart sounds can be found using recurrence times of the first kind while the third heart sound can be found using recurrence times of the second kind. Most third heart sound occurrences were detected (98 %), but the amount of false extra detections was rather high (7 % of the heart cycles).• Heart sounds obscure the interpretation of lung sounds. A new method based on nonlinear prediction has been developed to remove this undesired disturbance. High similarity was obtained when comparing actual lung sounds with lung sounds after removal of heart sounds.• Analysis methods such as Shannon energy, wavelets and recurrence quantification analysis were used to extract information from the phonocardiographic signal. The most prominent features, determined by a feature selection method, were used to create a new feature set for heart murmur classification. The classification result was 86 % when separating patients with aortic stenosis, mitral insufficiency and physiological murmurs.The derived methods give reasonable results, and they all provide a step forward in the quest for an intelligent stethoscope, a universal phonocardiography tool able to enhance auscultation by improving sound quality, emphasizing abnormal events in the heart cycle and distinguishing different heart murmurs.
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| 8. |
- Ahlström, Petter, 1970-
(författare)
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Affärsstrategier för seniorbostadsmarknaden
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Den demografiska utvecklingen i Sverige går mot en befolkningssammansättning med allt högre medelålder. Enligt svenska befolkningsprognoser kommer nästan var fjärde svensk år 2025 att vara över 65 år. Den äldre andelen av befolkningen utgör en välbeställd grupp med relativt stora realekonomiska tillgångar. Attitydundersökningar på morgondagens pensionärer talar för att denna grupp ställer högre krav på boendeutformning, kringservice, vård och omsorg än tidigare generationer. Flera studier visar på en ökad betalningsvilja och betalningsförmåga för alternativa service- och boendeformer. Samtidigt försöker olika marknadsaktörer att positionera ett produkt- och tjänsteutbud inom en bostadsmarknadens nischer, här definierad som seniorbostadsmarknaden. På seniorbostadsmarknaden har ett särskilt segment identifierats där utöver seniorboende även service-, vård- och omsorgsrelaterade kringtjänster bjuds ut. Mot den bakgrunden har avhandlingens problemställning formulerats enligt följande: vad skapar en stark marknadsposition för en aktör på seniorbostadsmarknaden med integrerad service, vård och omsorg?Utgångspunkten har varit ett sannolikt scenario där privata initiativ i allt större utsträckning kommer att bidra till framtida boendelösningar riktade till samhällets seniora och äldrebefolkningsgrupper. Syftet med avhandlingen har varit dels att identifiera de framgångsfaktorer som kan antas ligger till grund för en stark marknadsposition, dels att skapa en typologi över olika affärsstrategier. Genom en branschanalys har det i avhandlingen påvisats att seniorbostadsmarknaden är en nischmarknad med marginell omfattning. Avhandlingens empiriska undersökning har designats som en fältstudie. Fältstudien har i sin tur bl.a. genomförts i form av en förstudie och en intervjustudie. Intervjustudien ägde rum under hösten 2004 med platsbesök och intervjuer av verksamhetsföreträdare för elva utvalda fallstudieorganisationer. Utifrån ett antal i förhand uppställda kriterier har marknadsaktörernas framgångsfaktorer identifierats. Den bearbetnings- och analysmodell som konstruerats för detta syfte och som använts för att analysera fältstudiens empiri är baserad på studier inom strategiområdet. Modellen har bl.a. inspirerats av forskare som Miles & Snow (1978), Porter (1980) och Gupta & Govindarajan (1984). Vidare bygger den på antagandena om resursers och kompetensers betydelse för strategiformuleringen. Service management, och då särskilt tjänsters sammansättning, är ett annat område som beaktas. Analysmodellen har byggts upp kring fem dimensioner: omgivning, strategi, resurser, tjänstekoncept och konkurrens. De identifierade framgångsfaktorerna har baserats på intervjustudiens två mest framgångsrika aktörer. Resultatet har formulerats i ett antal strategiska vägval vilka kan sammanfattas i begreppen: differentiering, fokus, integration, samverkan, kontroll, verksamhetsutveckling, kärnkompetens och resurser. I avhandlingen påvisas att aktörer som bedriver framgångsrik verksamhet på seniorbostadsmarknaden till stora delar följer det Porter (1980) definierat som en differentieringsstrategi med fokus. Avhandlingen har också utmynnat i en affärsstrategisk typologi för seniorbostadsmarknaden. Dessa tentativa slutsatser har formulerats i fyra strategiska idealtyper: förvaltare, konceptbyggare, entreprenörer och idealister.
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| 9. |
- Ahsan, Naveed, 1974-
(författare)
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Programmable and Tunable Circuits for Flexible RF Front Ends
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Most of today’s microwave circuits are designed for specific function and specialneed. There is a growing trend to have flexible and reconfigurable circuits. Circuitsthat can be digitally programmed to achieve various functions based on specific needs. Realization of high frequency circuit blocks that can be dynamically reconfigured toachieve the desired performance seems to be challenging. However, with recentadvances in many areas of technology these demands can now be met.Two concepts have been investigated in this thesis. The initial part presents thefeasibility of a flexible and programmable circuit (PROMFA) that can be utilized formultifunctional systems operating at microwave frequencies. Design details andPROMFA implementation is presented. This concept is based on an array of genericcells, which consists of a matrix of analog building blocks that can be dynamicallyreconfigured. Either each matrix element can be programmed independently or severalelements can be programmed collectively to achieve a specific function. The PROMFA circuit can therefore realize more complex functions, such as filters oroscillators. Realization of a flexible RF circuit based on generic cells is a new concept.In order to validate the idea, a test chip has been fabricated in a 0.2μm GaAs process, ED02AH from OMMICTM. Simulated and measured results are presented along withsome key applications like implementation of a widely tunable band pass filter and anactive corporate feed network.The later part of the thesis covers the design and implementation of tunable andwideband highly linear LNAs that can be very useful for multistandard terminals suchas software defined radio (SDR). One of the key components in the design of a flexibleradio is low noise amplifier (LNA). Considering a multimode and multiband radiofront end, the LNA must provide adequate performance within a large frequency band.Optimization of LNA performance for a single frequency band is not suitable for thisapplication. There are two possible solutions for multiband and multimode radio frontends (a) Narrowband tunable LNAs (b) Wideband highly linear LNAs. A dual bandtunable LNA MMIC has been fabricated in 0.2μm GaAs process. A self tuningtechnique has also been proposed for the optimization of this LNA. This thesis alsopresents the design of a novel highly linear current mode LNA that can be used forwideband RF front ends for multistandard applications. Technology process for thiscircuit is 90nm CMOS.
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| 10. |
- Al Haji, Ghazwan
(författare)
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Towards a Road Safety Development Index (RSDI) : Development of an International Index to Measure Road Safety Performance
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim. This study suggests a set of methodologies to combine different indicators of road safety into a single index. The RSDI is a simple and quick composite index, which may become a significant measurement in comparing, ranking and determining road safety levels in different countries and regions worldwide. Design. One particular concern in designing a Road Safety Development Index (RSDI) is to come up with a comprehensive set of exposure and risk indicators which includes as far as possible the main parameters in road safety related to human-vehicle-road and country patterns instead of considering few and isolated indicators such as accident rates. The RSDI gives a broad picture compared to the traditional models in road safety. Challenges. The differences in definitions, non-collection of data, no reliability of data and underreporting are problems for the construction of RSDI. In addition, the index should be as relevant as possible for different countries of the world, especially in developing countries.Empirical study. This study empirically compares the road safety situation and trends between ten Southeast Asian countries and Sweden for the period 1994- 2003. Methodologies. Eleven indicators are chosen in RSDI, which have been categorised in nine dimensions. Four main approaches (objective and subjective) are used to calculate RSDI and determine which one is the best. One approach uses equal weights for all indicators and countries, whereas the other approaches give different weights depending on the importance of indicators.Findings. The thesis examines the RSDI for the ten ASEAN countries and Sweden in 2003. The results from this study indicate a remarkable difference between ASEAN countries even at the same level of motorisation. Singapore and Brunei seem to have the best RSDI record among the ASEAN countries according to the indicators used, while Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam show lower RSDI records. Conclusions. The RSDI results seem very promising and worth testing further applications with bigger samples of countries and from different parts of the world.
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