The collection of equality data, and more specifically race and ethnicity data, as a means to prevent discrimination is a common practice in many countries around the world. Through anonymous and voluntary surveys people are regularly asked to self-identify according to a number of categories such as gender, age and ethnic background. In Sweden, however, we rely on the population register as the only source for gathering statistics in order to conduct research on different social groups. From the register you can access information regarding age, gender and geographics but no data can be collected concerning categories like sexual orientation, religious beliefs, disabilities, ethnicity and race. According to some, this creates an obstacle in the fight against racism, in that it is impossible to successfully fight oppression without knowing which people it affects and how. According to others, it is ethically indefensible and even racist to collect such information about individuals. In recent years several political proposals have been made from left wing parties calling for the introduction of equality statistics in Sweden. These proposals have been met by heavy criticism and some rare appraisal. Within the academic field, researchers Tobias Hübinette and the research group Methodological Laboratories represent two different positions in the discussion about equality data. This essay aims to examine these positions as well as the general debate in relation to theories about critical whiteness studies in a Swedish context, the historic evolution of the concept of race in Sweden and the Swedish ideology of colour blindness.

Freshwater bodies have been long observed to become browner within the northern hemisphere. This brownification, has made drinking water production difficult, since increased organic content in freshwaters requires higher dosages of chemicals during water treatment.  Changes in land use through increased industrial forestry, decreased sulphur deposition from reduced industrial emissions, changing patterns of hydrological and meteorological parameters resulting from climate change, including recently highlighted increase in iron concentrations have been proposed to explain brownification. Drained peat bogs are man-made source of brownifying substances, capable of causing brownification in the rivers and lakes where the water ends up. This research is aimed at investigating dissolved organic matter, total organic carbon, iron, phosphorous, nitrogen and colour in bog ditches draining into the Storån River and Lake Bolmen in southern Sweden, in order to answer these research questions: (1) What are the differences in the level of water quality parameters, pH, conductivity, temperature, DOM, TOC, total phosphorous, total nitrogen, Fe and colour, between bog ditches and Storån River? And what could be the outcome of Colour absorbance comparison, between bog ditches, Storån and lake Bolmen as a single control sample? (2) Is there any association among the different water quality parameters, pH, conductivity, temperature, DOM, TOC, total phosphorous, total nitrogen, Fe and colour within the bog ditch water? Water samples from bog ditches and their corresponding Storån River locations, were used in the analysis. DOM and flow showed significant differences, after statistical test for difference. Conductivity, DOM, total nitrogen and total phosphorous exhibited significant correlations with pH.  TOC also had a correlation with DOM., while colour correlated and depended strongly on Fe, within the bog ditches. Therefore, the bog ditch has behaved to contribute some amount of the brownification, found in Southern Swedish Lakes and Rivers. This knowledge might be useful in future, for more studies and control of Swedish fresh water brownification.

<p><strong>Apstrakt je obrađen tehnologijama za optičko prepoznavanje teksta (OCR).</strong></p><p>Nastajanje i inhibicija stvaranja melanoidina u nečistim rastvorima saharoze je ispitivana na uzorcima neafinisanog i afinisanog C produkta na 80 [&deg;C].</p><p>Utvrdjena je zavisnost obrazovanja bojenih materija tipa melanoidina od vremena reakcije, od sadržaja suve materije, kao i od sadržaja i vrste aminokiselina.<br />Smanjenje obojenosti rastvora zavisi od koncentracije natrikum-sulfita i matematički je definisano Baule-Mitscherlichovim krivama zasićenja. Maksimalni efekat odbojavanja koji se može postići iznosi 30 [%] na 560 [nm], odn. 20 [%] na 420 [nm], ne razlikuje se za rastvore neafinisanog i afinisanog C produkta, a ostaje nepromenjen u vremenu od 1620 [min].</p><p>Povećanje koncentracike vodonik-peroksida je praćeno porastom količine bojenih materija prevedenih u leuko oblike, i produžavanjem vremena oksidacije. U odsustvu slobodnog vodonik-peroksida dolazi do reverzije boje rastvora.<br />Smanjenje obojenosti rastvora neafinisanog i afinisanog C produkta je signifikantno veće pri uzastopnom delovanju oksidacionog i redukcionog sredstva od smanjenja obojenosti postignutog njihovim pojedinačnim delovanjem. Efekti uzajamnog delovanja se ne menjaju u ispitivanom vremenu.</p> / <p><strong>Abstract was processed by technology for Optical character recognition (OCR).</strong></p><p>Reaction and inhibition of melanoidine formation in inpure solutions of sucrose were investigated on affinated and unaffinated C sugar samples carried out on 80 [&deg;C].<br />Melanoidin type colour formation dependending on reaction time, dry matter content and content and variety on amino acids has been studied.<br />Colour decrease in solutions depended on concentration of sodium sulphite and was mathematically defined by Baule-Mitscherlich curve of saturation. Maximum effect of colour decrease wich can be obtained was 30 [%] at 560 [nm], and 20 [%] at 420 [nm] wavelength respectively, and without any difference between affinated and unaffinated C sugar solutions, but it has stayed unchanged during reaction time of 1620 [min]. Hydrogen peroxide concentration rise was followed by increasing amounts of colour compounds transferred in leuco forms and by prolonged oxidation time. Absence of free hydrogen peroxide has induced the reverse formation of colour solutions.</p><p>Colour decrease in unaffinated and affinated C sugar solution was significantly larger, during subsequent treatment of oxidizing and reducing compounds, than during separate reactions. During reaction time the mutual treatment effect was unchangeable.</p>

This diploma thesis studies the structure of selected austenitic stainless steels which were fatigued at room and depressed temperatures. The theoretical part is divided into three parts. The first one defines the austenitic stainless steels with accent to their chemical composition and microstructure. Second part is dedicated to deformation-induced martensite formation. The third part shows the mechanisms and stages of damage due to cyclic straining. The experimental part is focused especially on the observing of microstructural changes by methods of colour metallography and their relation to stress-strain response of material under selected conditions of fatigue loading. Series of samples of 304 and 316L steels were prepared by colour etching and their microstructures were documented using optical microscopy. Then the semi-quantitative measurements of presence and morphology of deformation-induced martensite were done and the results were discussed and correlated with fatigue damage level.

Advancements in technology have rendered social media an indispensable means of social communication. However, among the vast amount of data exchanged between users, there is often limited space for meaningful conversation and the cultivation of deeper interpersonal connections. This dissertation adopts a research-through-design approach to explore the concept of Minimal Social Interaction Design, focusing on the use of colours as the primary tool for facilitating these interactions. The main objective of this project is to investigate: What meaning-making communication practices are produced or altered when using colour-based minimal social communication? To achieve this objective, the study involves an auto-ethnographic pre-study and three focus groups to examine minimal colour-based interactions among individuals and groups. Additionally, Drawing inspiration from the concepts of Calm and Slow Technology, this project includes the design and evaluation of an online platform dedicated to facilitating minimal colour-based social interactions. The qualitative data collected from the study indicates that by engaging in minimal colour-based interactions in different social contexts individuals would face both opportunities and challenges. These opportunities and challenges ultimately create a space for individuals to enhance their social awareness, engage in effective negotiation, deepen their understanding of their partners, and develop an intimate private language based on colours. / Teknikens framsteg har gjort sociala medier till ett oumbärligt verktyg för social kommunikation. Trots den enorma mängd data som utbyts mellan användare är det ofta begränsat utrymme för meningsfulla konversationer och kultivering av djupare och mer personliga relationer. I denna avhandling antas en forskning-genom-design-ansats för att utforska konceptet Minimal Social Interaction Design, med fokus på användningen av färger som det primära verktyget för att underlätta dessa interaktioner. Det primära målet med projektet är att undersöka: Vilka betydelseskapande kommunikationspraktiker uppstår eller förändras vid användning av färgbaserad minimal social kommunikation? Denna studie innefattar en auto-etnografisk förstudie med tre fokusgrupper för att undersöka minimala färgbaserade interaktioner bland individer och grupper. Därtill, med inspiration från koncepten Calm och Slow Technology, inkluderar projektet design och utvärdering av en online-plattform dedikerad till att underlätta minimala färgbaserade sociala interaktioner. De kvalitativa data som samlats in från studien indikerar att genom att deltaga i minimala färgbaserade interaktioner i olika sociala sammanhang så möter individer både möjligheter och utmaningar. Dessa möjligheter och utmaningar skapar i slutändan utrymme för individer att öka sin sociala medvetenhet, kunna förhandla effektivare, fördjupa sin förståelse för sina partners och utveckla ett intimt privat språk baserat på färger.

This thesis deals with the development and evaluation of blind discrete cosine transform-based watermarking algorithms for copyright protection of digital still images using handwritten signatures and mobile phone numbers. The new algorithms take into account the perceptual capacity of each low frequency coefficients inside the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) blocks before embedding the watermark information. They are suitable for grey-scale and colour images. Handwritten signatures are used instead of pseudo random numbers. The watermark is inserted in the green channel of the RGB colour images and the luminance channel of the YCrCb images. Mobile phone numbers are used as watermarks for images captured by mobile phone cameras. The information is embedded multiple-times and a shuffling scheme is applied to ensure that no spatial correlation exists between the original host image and the multiple watermark copies. Multiple embedding will increase the robustness of the watermark against attacks since each watermark will be individually reconstructed and verified before applying an averaging process. The averaging process has managed to reduce the amount of errors of the extracted information. The developed watermarking methods are shown to be robust against JPEG compression, removal attack, additive noise, cropping, scaling, small degrees of rotation, affine, contrast enhancements, low-pass, median filtering and Stirmark attacks. The algorithms have been examined using a library of approximately 40 colour images of size 512 512 with 24 bits per pixel and their grey-scale versions. Several evaluation techniques were used in the experiment with different watermarking strengths and different signature sizes. These include the peak signal to noise ratio, normalized correlation and structural similarity index measurements. The performance of the proposed algorithms has been compared to other algorithms and better invisibility qualities with stronger robustness have been achieved.

This thesis aims to create a system using colour markings for Volvo’s autonomous wheel loaders which determines their restricted area and operation using sensors available on the machine. The wheel loader shall be able to interpret and distinguish different colours of spray paint, and depending on the colour, act accordingly. Six different colours are evaluated across two different colour types to find the most suitable ones for the system. Multiple tests are presented throughout the thesis to find the approach with the most optimal performance that meets the system's requirements. The system is evaluated in various weather conditions to determine how the weather affects the performance of the system. The thesis also compares two different line-following approaches, where one is based on edge detection using Canny Edge and Hough transform, and the other uses histogram analysis and sliding window search, to distinguish and track the colour markings. While the wheel loader is in operation, it collects GPS coordinates to create a map of the path taken by the wheel loader and the location of various tasks. The evaluation shows that red, green and blue in fluorescent colour type are the most suitable colours for such a system. The line-following algorithm that utilises perspective warp, histogram and a sliding window search was the most prominent for accurate line detection and tracking. Furthermore, the evaluation showed that the performance of the system was affected depending on the weather condition.

Das Kunstobjekt aus Carbonbeton soll vor dem Gebäude des Instituts für Massivbau der RWTH Aachen stehen. Forschung, Wissenschaft und große Innovationen sind wichtigster Baustein unserer Zukunft. Das Kunstobjekt kann ein Denkmal für Forschung und Wissenschaft sein. Die natürliche Farbe von Carbonbeton ist grau, und das Grau deprimiert uns besonders im Winter. Daher sollte die Farbe des Carbonbetons verändert werden, genau wie das Denkmal in fröhlichen Farben, um alle Leute zu erfreuen und zu erfrischen, um die Umgebung zu verschönern. Das Rot versprüht die Frühlingsstimmung, die Offenheit, Ehrlichkeit und Kraft des Kampfgeists der Wissenschaftler*innen. Das Blau wirkt beruhigend, verströmt die Ruhe, die Gelassenheit und unendliche Weite der Forschungsbereiche der Wissenschaftler*innen. Das Gelb verbreitet die Heiterkeit, den Optimismus und den Mut der Wissenschaftler*innen. Das Zusammentreffen der Farben bildet ein Elysium der Wissenschaftler*innen. Das Strahlen der Farben vertreibt die Depression der Rückschläge der Forschung der Wissenschaftler*innen.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Horticulture)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The South African Avocado Industry has recently announced plans to expand exports into new markets, such as the United States (US). As a requirement for these markets, fruit of high quality must be stored at ultra-low temperature to mitigate phytosanitary risks. However, ‘Hass’ avocado fruit are susceptible to chilling injury when stored at temperatures below 3°C. Moreover, CI development resulted in uneven ripening and disease infestation due to damaged cell membranes. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) on quality maintenance of 'Hass' avocado fruit during ultra-low cold storage. Matured ‘Hass’ avocado fruit were harvested at commercial dry matter (22%). The experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design (CRD) with eight replications per treatment. Treatment concentrations for methyl jasmonate (MeJA) were 0 (control), 10 and 100 μmol•L−1 , while those for salicylic acid (SA) were 0 (control), 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 mM. After treatments, fruit were stored at 2°C for 31 days and thereafter, ripened at ambient temperature (±25°C) until fully ripe. During ripening, fruit were evaluated for weight loss, exocarp colour, firmness, chilling injury, as well as physiological (vascular browning) and pathological disorders (fruit rot). In this study, dipping fruit in MeJA solution significantly (P < 0.05) reduced ‘Hass’ avocado fruit firmness loss. Moreover, MeJA showed a significant effect (P < 0.05) on hue angle (h°) but did not significantly affect (P > 0.05) visual colour rating, chroma (C*), lightness (L*) and weight loss. The results showed that ‘Hass’ avocado fruit treated with 10 μmol•L−1 MeJA reduced weight loss when compared with 100 μmol•L−1 MeJA from day 2 to day 8 of ripening. Overall results showed a visual change in ‘Hass’ avocado fruit exocarp colour, with eye colour changing from rating 1 (emerald-green) to 3 (olive- green) for control and fruit treated with MeJA throughout the ripening days. Furthermore, MeJA reduced ‘Hass’ avocado fruit external chilling injury, physiological and pathological disorders. With respect to SA treatments, the result showed that dipping fruit at 1.0 and 2.0 mM SA had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on reducing firmness loss during ripening. Salicylic acid (1.0 mM) reduced and alleviated ‘Hass’ avocado fruit external chilling injury during ultra-low cold storage. Furthermore, result showed that 1.0 and 2.0 mM SA treatments had significant affect (P < 0.05) on firmness loss. Moreover, a significant effect was observed on visual colour and C* but did not affect (P > 0.05) L* and h°. Fruit treated with SA showed poor exocarp colour development with extended exposure to ultra-low cold storage, as a result, developed chilling symptoms. The treatment of ‘Hass’ avocado fruit with 1.0 mM SA inhibited the incidence of fruit rot and vascular browning when compared with control and fruit treated with 2.0 and 3.0 mM SA. In conclusion, 10 and 100 μmol•L−1 MeJA and 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 mM SA effectively preserved ‘Hass’ avocado fruit quality during storage at ultra-low temperature. / Agricultural Sector Education Training Authority (AgriSeta) and National Research Foundation (NRF)

Thesis (M.Sc.( Agriculture (Horticulture)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Avocado fruit ‘Hass’ exocarp changes colour from green to purple and black during ripening. However, uniform purple or black exocarp colour is not achieved during ripening, leading to consumers' rejection of fruit for not meeting quality standards. Avocado ‘Hass’ fruit harvested early remain green or develop a multicoloured appearance, concurrently devaluing their commercial value; and, therefore, unattractive to consumers. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the role of sucrose and calcium postharvest pulsing on early matured ‘Hass’ avocado exocarp colour change during ripening. In this study, early matured ‘Hass’ avocado fruit were harvested from Halls and Sons, Mataffin farm (25°25’39.13” S, 30°55’52.84” E), Nelspruit, South Africa with 10 cm pedicel at commercial dry matter content (22%). Thereafter, the fruit were transported to the University of Mpumalanga laboratory. In the laboratory, the study was divided into two experiments: Experiment 1 ‘Hass’ fruit were continuously infused through the pedicel with different sucrose concentrations; 0 (control), 0.2 and 0.5 mM L-1. Experiment 2 fruit were infused with different calcium chloride (CaCl2) concentrations; 0 (control), 2 and 3 mM L-1. In both experiments, treated and untreated fruit were stored at 5.5°C for 28 days. After removal from cold storage, fruit were ripened at room temperature (±25°C) and evaluated every other day for firmness, subjective colour (visual colour), objective colour parameters (lightness-L*, chroma-C* and hue angle- h°), external chilling injury and ripening percentage. The results showed that Su (0.2 mM L-1) pulsing extended the ripening period by one day, corresponding with maintained fruit firmness. Furthermore, Su (0.2 mM L-1) treated fruit reduced the ‘Hass’ avocado fruit chilling injury index (CII) during cold storage. With respect to colour change, Su (0.5 mM L-1) treated fruit developed purple colour when compared with Su (0.2 mM L-1), which only developed to olive colour on the final ripening day (day 6). In addition, the results showed that all sucrose concentrations had a significant decreasing effect (P < 0.05) on objective colour parameters (L*, C* and h°) and increasing visual colour rating. With respect to CaCl2 treatments, fruit firmness decline was significantly delayed, which resulted in extended ripening time. Moreover, CaCl2 (2 and 3 mM L-1) significantly decreased (P < 0.05) pericarp objective colour parameters (L*, C* and h°) and increased visual colour rating and developed purple colour on the final ripening day (days 6 and 8, respectively). In addition, pulsing with CaCl2 (2 and 3 mM L-1) concentration reduced chilling injury during storage compared with control fruit. In conclusion, the results of this study indicated that Su and CaCl2 applied as postharvest treatments may contribute to avocado colour development by increasing anthocyanin accumulation. However, future research is required to investigate whether these treatments affect anthocyanin biosynthesis at the gene level.