The purpose of this thesis is to present methods for visibility determination and to design and implement an application to demonstrate visibility determination in a 3D maze.

This thesis is focused on describing methods of computation of global illumination of 3D graphics scenes in real-time. First chapter contains brief introduction to the issue of global illumination (GI) computation, as well as quick summarisation of principles of most commonly used GI computation approaches. A method of visibility computing for indirect illumination, taking advantage of Imperfect Shadow Mapping, is introduced next. After closer examination of this method and prerequisite algorithms follows a description of its practical implementation, as well as of the structure of simple demonstrative application. Next chapter then contains testing and brief examination and evaluation of resulting program's behaviour. Finally, a possible method extension by means of virtual point light clustering is proposed.

This essay examines the relationship between language, identity, power and visibility in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019). This is achieved by applying post-colonial theories regarding double consciousness, and the construction of an Other. Theories put forward by Spivak and Fanon are also discussed in relation to this. By looking at how language is used, both by characters and author, we can see what an immense role language playes in the construction of identity and in the establishing of power.

In March 2018 the Swedish Social Democratic Party presented the election promise to ban faith-based schools. This election promise evoked strong reactions and gave rise to a debate about the role of religion in Swedish schools in many Swedish newspapers. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to explore what arguments that have been utilized in the debate about faith-based schools. Debate articles are here examined using argumentation analysis: Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen and Aftonbladet. The results conclude that the most common arguments in favor of a ban on faith-based schools are: segregation, religious indoctrination, and serious shortcomings in said schools. From the other side of the debate, in defense of faith-based schools, the most common arguments are the following: integration, freedom of religion and high-quality education. An additional aim is to study these arguments using Hjelm’s (2014) explanations of the “New Visibility of Religion”. The analysis reveals that the debate is informed by a secular norm where religion is viewed as something unwelcome in the public eye. The debate is informed by a conflict of how religion ought to be valued, and if it should be viewed as a resource or a problem. Advocates in favor of a ban on faith-based schools claim that these schools constitute a social problem in contemporary society. Defenders of faith-based school, on the other hand, view them as a resource and argue that there today is a great need for faith-based schools. Rather than discussing faith, this debate deals mainly with the question of what role religion should play in today’s society. Religion is visible because it can be good or bad, something that Hjelm (2014) refers to as the ”secular return of religion”. Neoliberal reforms have changed the Swedish School system, which in turn affects the debate. This debate ultimately reveals a conflict of aims regarding the purpose of the Swedish school system and where equality is put against freedom of choice.

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During the so-called ‘migration crisis’ of 2015, 51,338 Syrians applied for asylum in Sweden. First, Swedish politicians called for Swedes to ‘open their hearts’, public support was strong, and media coverage was full of possibilities and humanizing images. As the crisis developed, Sweden’s generous asylum legislation switched to the EU minimum, the political climate toughened and media’s positive frames soon shifted to discussing negative consequences. This degree project focuses on those least visible in the media’s representation of the migration crisis – refugee women. By using Chouliaraki and Zaborowski’s (2017) model ‘voice by narrative’, it answers the research question; How are refugee women from Syria represented in national and local Swedish newspapers?, as well as the following sub-questions: What news frames are used in texts where Syrian women are featured? In what ways are refugee women given visibility and space to speak? What types of representations, wording, and stereotypes are used? What differences can be found between 2015 and 2020, national and local newspapers? The project examines news frames, gendered representations, typical stereotypes, visibility, and space given to Syrian women in Swedish newspapers. It does so by content analysis of newspaper articles from three newspapers published in 2015 and 2020. The project uses theories of othering, intersectionality, and post-colonial power structures as well as literature on representations in European media during the migration crisis to understand representations, voice, and news frames in Swedish newspapers. The results indicated that refugee women are often silenced and spoken of instead of given space to speak. The most commonly used news frames among the analyzed texts were negative geopolitical and women were often decontextualized. Victimization and normalization were the most commonly used stereotypes assigned to refugee women. The majority of representations of refugee women were collective and the women were in many ways othered. Refugee women are othered, decontextualized, silenced, and collectivized, which will have its consequences as they are methods that limit refugee women’s status and position in society – maintaining their position as ‘others’ in Swedish society.

This study is the first randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the safety effect of high-visibility bicycle clothing. The hypothesis was that the number of cyclist accidents can be reduced by increasing the visibility of the cyclists. The study design was an RCT with 6793 volunteer cyclists – 3402 test cyclists (with a yellow jacket) and 3391 control cyclists (without the jacket). The safety effect of the jacket was analysed by comparing the number of self-reported accidents for the two groups. The accident rate (AR) (accidents per person month) for personal injury accidents (PIAs) for the test group was 47% lower than that of the control group. For accidents involving cyclists and motor vehicles, it was 55% lower. The study was non-blinded, and the number of reported single accidents was significantly lower in the test group than in the control group. This is likely a result of a response bias, since the bicycle jacket was not expected to affect the number of single accidents. To compensate for this bias, a separate analysis was carried out. This analysis reduced the effect of the jacket from 47% to 38%.

The objective of this research was to determine the environmental and social factors that led to the shift of settlement patterning from agro-pastoral in the late Neolithic to hillort sites at the turn of the Early Bronze Age and why burial mounds (tumuli) were erected further than anticipated from corresponding hillort sites in the Shkodra Plain region in Northern Albania. Geospatial techniques were used to examine 168 tumuli and seven hillort sites. These were mapped to examine visibility, viewshed, slope, and potential prehistoric networks. Based on the landscape visibility GIS results, it was found that hillort sites and tumuli were part of an social landscape that thrived on trade. It was determinable that the shift of the social landscape was related to Northern trade routes and probable changes in paleo-lake levels. This new evidence provides insight to Albanian prehistoric culture and has implications to related studies in the Balkans.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur sjöbefälsstudenter tillämpar sjövägsreglerna vid risk för kollision under nedsatt sikt samt belysa vad besluten grundats på. Studien är kvalitativ och genomfördes med hjälp av ett förberedande frågeformulär, fallstudie och en avslutande gruppdiskussion. Studien utfördes genom en rekonstruktion av kollisionen mellan fartygen Tricolor och Kariba där fartyget Clary varit en bidragen orsak. För att bredda perspektivet i studien framförde respondenterna vid två separata simuleringar fartyget Kariba, som fick större delen av skulden samt Clary, som genom oaktsamhet bidragit till kollisionen. Resultatet visar att ungefär hälften av respondenterna tillämpar regelverket felaktigt och med ett för litet passageavstånd. Studien visar också att respondenterna använder sig av information från flera olika navigationstekniska hjälpmedel vid beslut. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how sea captain students apply COLREGs when there is a risk of collision and illustrate what the decisions are based on. The study is qualitative and was conducted using a preparatory questionnaire, case study and a concluding group discussion. The study was carried out through a reconstruction based on the collision between the vessels Tricolor and Kariba where the ship Clary was a contributing factor. In order to widen the perspective of the study the respondents navigated in two separate simulations the vessels Kariba, who received most of the blame and Clary who contributed to the collision through negligence. The result shows that about half of the respondents apply COLREGs incorrectly and with a small passage distance. The study also indicates that the respondents use information from different navigation technical aids to make a decision.

Driving safety has been an issue of great concern in the United States throughout the years. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA), in 2003 alone, there were 6,267,000 crashes in the U.S. from which 1,915,000 were injury crashes, including 38,764 fatal crashes and 43,220 human casualties. The U.S. Department of Transportation spends millions of dollars every year on research that aims to improve roadway safety and decrease the number of traffic collisions. In spring 2002, the Center for Advanced Traffic System Simulation (CATSS), at the University of Central Florida, acquired a sophisticated reconfigurable driving simulator. This simulator, which consists of a late model truck cab, or passenger vehicle cab, mounted on a motion base capable of operation with six degrees of freedom, is a great tool for traffic studies. Two applications of the simulator are to study the contribution of Light Truck Vehicles (LTVs) to potential rear-end collisions, the most common type of crashes, which account for about a third of the U.S. traffic crashes, and the involvement of Larger Size Vehicles (LSVs) in red light running. LTVs can obstruct horizontal visibility for the following car driver and has been a major issue, especially at unsignalized intersections. The sudden stop of an LTV, in the shadow of the blindness of the succeeding car driver, may deprive the following vehicle of a sufficient response time, leading to high probability of a rear-end collision. As for LSVs, they can obstruct the vertical visibility of the traffic light for the succeeding car driver on signalized intersection producing a potential red light running for the latter. Two sub-scenarios were developed in the UCF driving simulator for each the vertical and horizontal visibility blockage scenarios. The first sub-scenario is the base sub-scenario for both scenarios, where the simulator car follows a passenger car, and the second sub-scenario is the test sub-scenario, where the simulator car follows an LTV for the horizontal visibility blockage scenario and an LSV for the vertical visibility blockage scenario. A suggested solution for the vertical visibility blockage of the traffic light problem that consisted of adding a traffic signal pole on the right side of the road was also designed in the driving simulator. The results showed that LTVs produce more rear-end collisions at unsignalized intersections due to the horizontal visibility blockage and following car drivers' behavior. The results also showed that LSVs contribute significantly to red light running on signalized intersections and that the addition of a traffic signal pole on the right side of the road reduces the red light running probability.