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- Nord, Catharina, 1956-
(författare)
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The visible patient. Hybridity and inpatient ward design in a Namibian context.
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Even if one is confident that the staff provide the bestpossible treatment, being admitted into hospital is still astressful situation. In recent decades, architecturalresearchers have elaborated on aspects of the patient'sperspective where the design of the physical environment maypositively enhance the healing experience. The emergingunderstanding reveals that this is not an issue to be solvedsimply by decorative design, for it entails the spatialinterpretation and integration of broader and deeper facets ofhuman response, within which suffering, empathy andprofessional care are embraced.This thesis elucidates the patients' use of space accordingto their cultural perceptions in two inpatient wards in aregional hospital in northwestern Namibia. The study appliescase study methodology with the focus on the interactionbetween patients, visitors and nursing staff in relation to thephysical environment.The theoretical basis within medical anthropologyconceptualises sickness as a cultural event in the dual notionillness and disease, signifying two ways of understandingsickness, the individual and the professional interpretations.The Foucauldian theory on discipline and space suggests thatthe biomedical discipline is spatially represented by themodern hospital, from which aspects of illness areexcluded.The results show that circumstances in the physicalenvironment highly influence the patients' illness experienceby possessing certain qualities or by the activities renderedpossible by spatial conditions. The two wards possess manymodern qualities adding to an enclosed and restrictingenvironment. Patients come from a culturally dynamic andchanging context where new approaches to healthcare andhospital physical space are generated. Whereas patients haveintegrated hospital-based biomedicine as a medical alternative,modern hospital space cannot accommodate certain patient needs.Patients, visitors and nursing staff negotiate space in orderto overcome spatial weaknesses. Family members' overnightaccommodation in the hospital, as well as their voluntarycontribution to patient care, are two important aspects whichare not spatially incorporated.An alternative ward design is suggested in which patients'and family members' active participation in the healing processis encouraged, with support from the nursing staff. The higherflexibility the design offers caters for the spatialintegration of future hybrid processes.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Mats B.
(författare)
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Hantering av osäkerhet i samband med investeringsbeslut – några metodansatser och exempel
- 2004
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Before you take a decision you can normally choose amongmany different alternatives. The alternatives can be rankeddepending on what net benefits they produce. The alternativewith the best net benefit is chosen. Within economicscost-benefit analysis may be used to decide which alternativeis likely to offer the best net benefit. Some time after the decision it may be found that theselected alternative turned out not to be as favourable asexpected. The reason is often that there are uncertainties inthe decision process. Sometimes this is not a major problemsince it is possible to change the decision or the costconsequences may be small. When the National Traffic Administrations make investmentslarge volumes of capital are involved. It is often difficult orvery expensive to change an investment when started. It istherefore essential to get an early knowledge about potentialuncertainties, which can affect the decision. Uncertainties canaccrue from incorrect input data. A reason for spreading ofuncertainties is the presence of dependencies among thevariables. The uncertainties are also usually dependent upontime. This thesis describes some methods to take uncertaintiesinto account in cost-benefit analysis before a decision istaken. The aim is both to identify the uncertainties and tooutline methods for coping with uncertainties. The methods rely on results in reliability theory and riskanalyses among others. Some statistical methods and discretedata models are also applied. The aim is to increase theprobability of selecting an alternative with high and stablenet benefits over a long time period. The cost-benefit estimates are divided into smaller parts tomake it possible to locate uncertainties. Descriptive andanalytical models are recommended for handling the cost-benefitstructure and the uncertainties found in its components.Dependencies among variables and, in particular, timedependencies are analysed. Throughout the thesis the various methods are applied to anexample referring to a road investment.
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- Beser Hugosson, Muriel, 1968-
(författare)
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Issues in Estimation and Application of Long Distance Travel Demand Models
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Forecasts of the demand for long distance travel areessential for many decisions, such as infrastructureinvestments, operators´management policies etc. Manyresearch issues are related to this field, and the purpose ofthis thesis is to contribute to some of them. Paper I Modellingchoice of flight and booking class–a study using Stated Preference and Revealed Preference data goes into theinteresting issue of modelling departure time and ticket typechoices. The data used in the estimation process were acombination of revealed preference (RP) data and statedpreference (SP) data. A model was developed to estimaterecapture and buyup to improve the SAS (Scandinavian AirlinesSystem) yield management system. Paper II Endogenoussegmentation applied to long distance business trips in Swedenis related to the possibilities of identifying market segmentsthat differ in travel behaviour. The procedure of endogenoussegmentation has been explored to identify different tastesegments in a population. The results indicate that the methodis an efficient way of identifying market segments andoutperforms the traditional manual segmentation when modelefficiency is the objective. The restrictive assumption of independent distributed randomcomponents in the logit model utility function can be relaxedby finding a suitable nesting structure. The task ofestablishing such structures, another crucial issue in traveldemand model development, is further analysed in papers IIIExploring the HEV model to improve nesting structures of modelsfor Swedish long distance private trips and paper IV Enhancingmodel structure and treatment of incomplete geocodes in SAMPERSlong distance models. In paper III a technique to identifyscale parameters for separate alternatives is used. Based onthis, different nesting structures are tested and the resultsare compared with the old mode choice model for long distancetrips in Sweden. This paper leads to paper IV, where similarnesting structures were tested on the long distance mode anddestination choice model in the SAMPERS system. Paper IV alsodeals with data problems, as the destination coding wasincomplete. A final model formulation, related to these issuesis suggested. To turn the view a bit beside the pure estimationtechniques and structures used in the estimation of differentmodels, paper V Quantifying uncertainties in the SAMPERS longdistance forecasting model system considers uncertaintiesrelated to the fact that models are estimated on a sample of apopulation. The bootstrap method, a computer intensivestatistical method, can be used to compute statistical measuresfor very complex systems, without being bound to an analyticalapproach. The bootstrap method is applied on the SAMPERSsystem, and numerical results are presented on different modelsystem output levels.
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| 8. |
- Burghout, Wilco, 1975-
(författare)
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Hybrid microscopic-mesoscopic traffic simulation
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Traffic simulation is an important tool for modelling the operations of dynamic traffic systems and helps analyse the causes and potential solutions of traffic problems such as congestion and traffic safety. Microscopic simulation models provide a detailed representation of the traffic process, which makes them most suitable for evaluation of complicated traffic facilities and Intelligent Transportation Systems that often consist of complex traffic management, safety and information systems. Macroscopic and mesoscopic models on the other hand, capture traffic dynamics in lesser detail, but are faster and easier to apply and calibrate than microscopic models. Therefore they are most suitable for modelling large networks, while microscopic models are usually applied to smaller areas. The objective of this thesis is to combine the strengths of both modelling approaches and diminish their individual weaknesses by constructing a hybrid mesoscopic-microscopic model that applies microscopic simulation to areas of specific interest, while simulating a surrounding network in lesser detail with a mesoscopic model. Earlier attempts at hybrid modelling have concentrated on integrating macroscopic and microscopic models and have proved difficult due to the large difference between the continuous-flow representation of traffic in macroscopic models and the detailed vehicle-and driver-behaviour represented in microscopic models. These problems are solved in this thesis by developing a mesoscopic vehicle-based and event-based model that avoids the (dis)aggregation problems of traffic flows at the inter-model boundaries. In addition, this thesis focuses on the general problems of consistency across the entire hybrid model. The requirements are identified that are important for a hybrid model to be consistent across the models at different levels of detail. These requirements vary from network and route-choice consistency to consistency of traffic dynamics across the boundaries of the micro- and mesoscopic submodels. An integration framework is proposed that satisfies these requirements. This integration framework has been implemented in a prototype hybrid model, MiMe, which is used to demonstrate the correctness of the solutions to the various integration issues. The hybrid model integrates MITSIMLab, a microscopic traffic simulation model, and Mezzo, the newly developed mesoscopic model. Both the hybrid model and the new Mezzo model are applied in a number of case studies, including a network in the North of Stockholm, which show their validity and applicability. The results are promising and support both the proposed integration architecture and the importance of integrating microscopic and mesoscopic models.
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- Bäckman, Johan, 1967-
(författare)
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Railway Safety - Risks and Economics
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Safety analysis is a process involving several techniques.The purpose of this thesis is to test and develop methodssuitable for the safety analysis of railway risks and railwaysafety measures. Safety analysis is a process comprisingproblem identification, risk estimation, valuation of safetyand economic analysis. The main steps are described in separatechapters, each of which includes a discussion of the methodsand a review of previous research, followed by the contributionof this author. Although the safety analysis proceduredescribed can be used for analysing railway safety, it has suchgeneral foundations that it can be used wherever safety isimportant and wherever safety measures are evaluated. Itcombines cost benefit analysis with criteria for thedistribution and the absolute levels of risk.Risks are estimated with both statistical and risk analysismethods. Historical data on railway accidents are analysed andstatistical models fitted to describe trends in accident ratesand consequences. A risk analysis model is developed usingfault tree and event tree techniques, together with Monte Carlosimulation, to calculate risks for passenger train derailments.The results are compared with the statistical analysis ofhistorical data.People's valuation of safety in different contexts isanalysed, with relative values estimated in awillingness-to-pay study. A combination of focus groups andindividual questionnaires is used. Two different methods areused to estimate the value of safety and the results arecompared. Comparisons are also made with other studies.Different approaches for safety analysis and methods foreconomic analysis of safety are reviewed. Cost-benefit analysisas a decision criterion is discussed and a study on theeconomic effectsof a traffic control system is presented.There are several results of the work. Historical data showsa decrease in the accident rate. The average consequence ofeach accident has not changed over time. The risk analysismodel produces comparable results and enables analysis ofvarious safety measures. The valuation study shows that peopleprefer the prevention of small-scale accidents over theprevention of larger, catastrophic accidents. There are onlysmall differences in the valuation of safety in differentcontexts.
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| 10. |
- Börjesson, Maria
(författare)
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Communication technology and travel demand models
- 2003
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Transportation planners have traditionally focused onphysical travel only, and disregarded the fact that other modesof communication may influence travel demand. However, moderntelecommunications are rapidly increasing the accessibility toactivities that previously only could be reached by physicaltransportation. This development calls for methods to analyseinteractions between telecommunications and transport systems.The objective of this thesis is to accomplish a betterunderstanding of if and how impacts of information technologycould be implemented in travel demand models. An important partof this issue is to investigate what kind of data that isneeded.This thesis also aims at investigating whether theCommunication Survey, KOM, collected by Swedish Institute forTransport and Communications, SIKA, can be used to improvetransport modelling with respect to how moderntelecommunications influence travel demand. KOM is a one-daytravel and communication diary survey, including information onthe respondents telecommuting habits as well as socio-economicstatus. One problem was the small sample size in KOM, whichmade the analyses uncertain. Since KOM is collected on a yearlybasis, it is still possible to apply similar analysis methodswithin a few years, using a larger data set, which might enableextended analyses. The small sample in KOM available to date isbest suited for general descriptive analyses of communicationpatterns in Sweden. The main conclusions of the paper aretherefore connected to the methods and future datacollection.The thesis includes three papers. The first paper tested amodel approach that assumes substitution between travel andnon-travel based communication, using the KOM database. Traveldemand models are in general constructed as nested logit modelswith frequency, mode and destination choice levels. In thepaper, non-travel based modes of communication were included inthe choice set of such a model. The non-travel based modes ofcommunication considered were Internet (and e-mail), ordinarymail and telephone contacts. The model was developed for postand bank activities only, since that was the only activity forwhich the numbers of contacts and trips were large enough toallow model estimation. Several conclusions could be drawn.Describing the utility of the non-travel based alternatives isdifficult and needs more research. The analysisis also verysensitive to how activities are defined. It is furtheressential that the data collection is more process orientedthan traditional cross-sectional data is when analysing traveland telecommunications interactions. That is, habits ofperforming particular activities, including both trips anddifferent types of contacts, must be studied. The second andthird papers investigate telecommuting. As a first step toreach the goal of forecasting telecommuting, the second paperexamined the characteristics of current telecommuters by use ofKOM. This was mainly accomplished by estimating a telecommutingadoption model of logit type. However, only 122 employees outof 7578 actually telecommutes full days at home. Thesetelecommuters work primarily in information- and service-basedindustrial sectors concerned with computers, finance orcommunication. The difficulties in describing the utility ofthe telecommunications based alternatives (representing”no travel”) concerned also the telecommutingadoption model. Also impacts on travel from telecommuting wereinvestigated. Comparing the average commuting distance showedthat employees who exclusively telecommute full days havelonger commuting distances than others, but that othertelecommuters do not have longer average commuting distances.Telecommuting in general does not seem to be influenced by lowaccessibility to the labour market.The third paper used data collected from a working sitewithin the company Ericsson, located in the office district ofNacka Strand in Stockholm during the autumn 2002. Thetelecommuting frequency was substantially higher at Ericssonthan in the workforce as a whole. The propensity to adopttelecommuting was modelled as a function of socio-economicvariables and access to technical equipment, work tasksuitability and management attitudes, as perceived by theemployees. The focuswas to identify tools that the company canuse to promote telecommuting, and to find incentives for thecompany to promote telecommuting. Technical equipment, suitablework tasks and managers attitude were identified as constraintsfor telecommuting. The employees also perceived that theybecame more efficient and saved time when telecommuting.
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