The aim of the thesis is to derive a mathematical model of the engine and driveline in a passenger car, capable of describing the wheel speed disturbances related to the engine and driveline. The thesis is conducted in order to improve the disturbance cancelation algorithm in the indirect tire pressure monitoring system, TPI developed by NIRA Dynamics AB. The model consists of two parts, the model of the engine and the model of the driveline. The engine model uses an analytical cylinder pressure model capable of describing petrol and diesel engines. The model is a function of the crank angle, manifold pressure, manifold temperature and spark timing. The output is the pressure in the cylinder. This pressure is then used to calculate the torque generated on the crankshaft when the pressure acts on the piston. This torque is then applied in the driveline model. Both a two wheel and a four wheel driveline model are presented and they consist of a series of masses and dampers connected to each other with stiff springs. The result is a 14 and 19 degrees of freedom system of differential equations respectively. The model is then validated using measurements collected at LiU during two experiments. Measurements where conducted of the cylinder pressure of a four cylinder petrol engine and on the wheel speed of two different cars when driven in a test rig. The validation against this data is satisfactory and the simulations and measurements show good correlation. The model is then finally used to examine wheels speed disturbance phenomenon discovered in the huge database of test drives available at NIRA Dynamics AB. The effects of the drivelines natural frequencies are investigated and so is the difference between the disturbances on the wheel speed for a petrol and diesel engine. The main reasons for the different disturbance levels on the front and rear wheels in a four wheel drive are also discussed.

With a   growing human population, cities keep growing worldwide altering ecosystem   and thereby affecting the species living in these areas. Most studies of   urbanization and its effect on ecosystem have been conducted in the western   world and little is known about its effect in the neotropical part of the   world. I examined effects of fragment size, vegetation structure and   connectivity of urban green areas on bird species richness, mean abundance,   diversity and biomass in La Paz, Bolivia. Additionally, the effects of   different disturbance variables on bird community were evaluated. In total,   36 bird species were found in 24 fragment of varying size, connectivity and   level of disturbance. Bird species richness decreased with increasing   disturbance while connectivity and fragment size did not contribute   significantly to explain the variation in species richness at count point scale (p>0.005, multiple linear regression). At fragment   scale, however, species richness increased with fragment sizes,   which has been shown in other studies from neotrophical regions. Variation in   abundance, diversity or biomass could not be explained by connectivity,   fragment size or disturbance.     Furthermore, coverage of construction had a negative effect on species   richness while coverage of bushes and coverage of herbs were negatively   related to biomass and diversity, respectively. The composition of bird   species differed with size and disturbance of the fragments, so that more   omnivorous and granivorous species such as Zonotrichia capensis, Turdus chiguanco and Zenaida auriculata, were present in areas highly affected by human activities. Larger fragments,   less affected by human presence held a larger proportion of insectivorous   species.

This thesis focuses on deadbeat disturbance rejection for discrete-time linear multi-agent systems. The multi-agent systems, on which Spieser and Shams’ decentralized deadbeat output regulation problem is based, are extended by including disturbance agents. Specifically, we assume that there are one or more disturbance agents interacting with the plant agents in some known manner. The disturbance signals are assumed to be unmeasured and, for simplicity, constant. Control agents are introduced to interact with the plant agents, and each control agent is assigned a target plant agent. The goal is to drive the outputs of all plant agents to zero in finite time, despite the presence of the disturbances. In the decentralized deadbeat output regulation problem, two analysis schemes were introduced: targeting analysis, which is used to determine whether or not control laws can be found to regulate, not all the agents, but only the target agents; and growing analysis, which is used to determine the behaviour of all the non-target agents when the control laws are applied. In this thesis these two analyses are adopted to the deadbeat disturbance rejection problem. A new necessary condition for successful disturbance rejection is derived, namely that a control agent must be connected to the same plant agent to which a disturbance agent is connected. This result puts a bound on the minimum number of control agents and constraints the locations of control agents. Then, given the premise that both targeting and growing analyses succeed in the special case where the disturbances are all ignored, a new control approach is proposed for the linear case based on the idea of integral control and the regulation methods of Spieser and Shams. Preliminary studies show that this approach is also suitable for some nonlinear systems.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund:De senaste åren har förekomsten av sömnstörning ökat. I Sverige anses det numera vara ett av våra stora folkhälsoproblem. Sömnstörning har visat sig vara mer förekommande hos individer med samtidig sjukdom än hos den allmänna populationen. Brist på sömn medför ofta dagtidssymtom vilka påverkar individens tillvaro. Sjuksköterskan är ofta, främst på sjukhus, den första som möter patienters problem gällande sömn. Det är således viktigt att sjuksköterskan besitter adekvat kunskap om hur dessa problem kan yttra sig och vilka konsekvenser de kan medföra individen. Syfte:Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva patienters upplevelser av sömnstörning vid samtidig sjukdom. Metod: Vald metod för denna studie är en litteraturöversikt. Studien inkluderar åtta vetenskapliga artiklar av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ ansats. Resultat: I analysen framkommer fyra kategorier; Upplevelsen om vad som bidrar till sömnstörning, Trötthet och sömnighet, Förändringar i den sociala tillvaron och Förändringar i sinnesstämning. Olika somatiska, psykologiska, aktivitetsrelaterade och miljömässiga faktorer upplevs bidra till sömnstörning. I majoriteten av artiklarna beskriver patienter trötthet och sömnighet som symtom vilka medför konsekvenser i livet. Mellanmänskliga relationer påverkas och patienterna känner hjälplöshet och hopplöshet i sin situation. De tappar lättare humöret vilket upplevs försämra deras förmåga att hantera svårigheter som uppkommer i det dagliga livet. Diskussion: Diskussionen bearbetas utifrån teorin om livsvärldsperspektivet. De förändringar som patienterna genomgår vid sömnstörning och samtidig sjukdom påverkar deras livsvärld och hela deras existens. Då livsvärlden är högst personlig och unik för varje människa, bör sjuksköterskan vara lyhörd inför patientens egen beskrivning av sin livsvärld och sina upplevelser. Detta för att skapa förståelse kring hur patienten hanterar sin sömnstörning och hur den påverkar dennes liv. / Abstract Background: In recent years the prevalence of sleep disturbance has increased. It is currently regarded as one of the major public health problems in Sweden. Sleep disturbance has also been shown to be more common among individuals with concurrent disease than among the general population. Lack of sleep is often associated with daytime symptoms which severely affect the individuals’ situation. In the case of hospitalization, the nurse is often the first to encounter patients sleep problems. This means that it is important for the nurse to have adequate knowledge of how such problems express themselves and what consequences they may bring. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the patients’ experience of sleep disturbance during concurrent disease. Method: The chosen method for this study is a literary survey. The study includes eight scientific articles of both qualitative and quantitative design. Result: Four categories emerged from the analysis; The experience about what contributes to sleep disturbance, Tiredness and sleepiness, Changes in social life and Changes in mood. Patients experience that somatic, psychological, activity-related and environmental factors contribute to sleep disturbance. In the majority of articles, patients describe tiredness and sleepiness as symptoms which have consequences in life. Patients experience that sleep disturbance results in a change in interpersonal relationships. They also experience feelings of helplessness and hopelessness due to their situation. They easily lose their temper and they feel that this impairs their ability to handle problems that occur in their daily lives. Discussion: The discussion is processed through the theory of the life-world perspective. The changes that patients undergo during sleep disturbance and concurrent disease will affect their life-world and their very existence. Though the life-world is highly personal and unique to each person, the nurse should be sensitive to the patient’s own description of his/hers life-world and his/hers experiences. This is to create an understanding of how patients manage their sleep disturbance and how it affects his/her life.

With rapidly disappearing natural areas due to development and fragmentation, public lands provide important habitat for birds. However, the increasing use of public lands for recreation may decrease the value of these areas for bird use. Human disturbance can damage birds in many ways, including disrupting foraging or social behavior, increasing nest predation, interfering with parent-offspring and pair bonds, increasing nesting failures, and reducing the viability of fledglings. Additionally, birds may perceive humans as predators and leave an area, and the resulting decline in species abundance resembles the effects of habitat loss. Increased human outdoor activity has created the need for information regarding the effects of human disturbance on birds. I investigated the effects of human disturbance on birds in Bastrop State Park (BSP) in central Texas in 1998 and 1999. A wide variety of people use much of BSP, and many areas within the park experience significant amounts of disturbance from people and vehicles, particularly in campgrounds. I evaluated the effects of various types of human disturbance on the presence of 20 avian species, including seven neotropical migratory species. Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura), Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), and Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra), were sensitive to human presence, and Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata), and Downy Woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens) occurred in lower abundances in sites with higher numbers of vehicles. However, other species (e.g., American Crow [Corvus brachyrhynchos], Black-and-white Warbler [Mniotilta varia], Pileated Woodpecker [Dryocopus pileatus], Red-eyed Vireo [Vireo olivaceus], Ruby-throated Hummingbird [Archilochus colubris], White-eyed Vireo [Vireo griseus], and Yellow-billed Cuckoo [Coccyzus americanus]) tolerated humans, vehicles, or both. Neotropical migratory species did not show higher sensitivity to disturbance when compared to resident species, and forest interior species were not more sensitive than edge species. My results indicate that some species, including migrants, can become habituated to human presence in protected areas with low harassment and low-intensity, predictable disturbances. Management recommendations for BSP include protecting habitat, minimizing human disturbance in some areas, providing buffer zones between humandominated zones and sites containing vulnerable species, and softening edges in campgrounds.

Past research has examined body image and eating-related outcomes of exposure to mass media. This research has generally found that such exposure is a significant risk factor for body image disturbance and disordered eating. However, a causal relationship has not yet been firmly established. Several theories, including objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), have attempted to explain this relationship with some success. The current study had two primary goals. First, it was designed to further explore the potential causal relationship between mass media exposure and body image and affect disturbance. Second, it attempted to go beyond individuals' body image and explore how exposure to objectifying media influences people's judgments of others. Briefly, the results revealed that exposure to media that objectify women was related to state body image disturbance, anger, and anxiety. Gender and internalization of cultural appearance ideals frequently played an important role in these relationships. Exposure to objectifying media did not predict participants' judgments of women's competence or attractiveness. However, interesting gender differences were observed.

Approximately two thirds of the world’s land is directly supporting human population contributing to an accumulation of disturbed habitats. This dissertation investigates the impact of human mediated habitat disturbance, in introduced Eucalyptus plantations, on community diversity and population divergence using Brazilian Cerrado lizards as a model. Data was collected along a gradient from undisturbed cerrado to disturbed Eucalyptus plantations. Community diversity differences and indicator species were identified. Furthermore, the role of phenotypic divergences were determined based on populations able to persist in disturbed habitats. Dispersal, food availability (body condition), competition and predation (caudal autotomy) were tested as potential mechanisms driving phenotypic divergences. Additionally, I investigated phylogenetic community structure differences between habitats to test for a phylogenetic signal to disturbance. The evidence showed community diversity indices were significantly lower in Eucalyptus plantations with a decrease along the cerrado– Eucalyptus gradient. Furthermore, 29 % of the Cerrado species suffered local extinctions in the disturbed habitat and of these 80 % are endemic species. One indicator species was identified for the disturbed habitat and seven species were identified for the undisturbed habitat. Species able to persist in both habitats demonstrated morphological trait divergences. These species showed short dispersal distances with only two individuals dispersing between habitats indicating a mechanism driving the observed phenotypic divergences. Another mechanism is body condition, which was higher in the disturbed habitats, reflecting increased food availability possibly due to the decreased abundances. Caudal autotomy showed no difference between the habitats indicating that competition and predation are not driving phenotypic divergences. Phylogenetic community structure demonstrated a phylogenetic signal to disturbance. The undisturbed habitat consists of communities with more closely related species compared to the disturbed habitat: indicating evolutionary forces such as habitat filtering as the stronger process structuring these communities. Whereas, disturbed communities are structured by ecological forces such as competition. This research provides information for the preservation and maintenance of the Cerrado biodiversity and has an even broader impact since habitat change caused by human activities touches a plethora of ecosystems. / text

The goal of this study was to examine the perceptions of disability, parental rights, roles, and advocacy actions of Mexican American parents with elementary-aged children classified as having an emotional disturbance. It explored parents’ understanding of their child’s disability, knowledge of their educational rights, and their perceived roles in special education. It also examined how parents ensure their children’s needs are met by the special education system. Six parents from five elementary schools in a Texas urban school district were interviewed. In addition to data gathered from the semi-structured interviews, data was also collected through direct observation of parent participation in ARD (Admission, Review, and Dismissal) meetings and a review of the students’ special education file for documentation of parent participation, such as questions, input, and concerns given by parents. Inductive coding was used to analyze the data. Findings generated by the study revealed that despite the complexity of the special education system, parents educated and empowered themselves to ensure their children’s needs were met. They constructed various understandings of their children’s disability, perceiving it to be a genetic illness, gender specific (“boys will be boys”), or the result of having an absent parent. In regards to the parents’ understanding of their rights in the special education process, parents had a general understanding or limited awareness of these rights. Parents also perceived themselves in a variety of roles, from advocate to educator to caretaker, within the special education system. Parents engaged in a number of actions to ensure their children’s needs were met; they questioned the special education process, maintained high expectations, met with administrators, researched their rights, and pursued outside resources. Contrary to previous research that suggested low rates of parent participation in special education, the parents in this study actively participated in their children’s special education. These findings contributed to the limited research in this area, providing valuable insight into the perceptions of Mexican American parents of children classified as emotionally disturbed. / text

Improvements in GPS tracking technologies have resulted in the collection of high resolution movement datasets for a range of wildlife species. In combination with new high resolution remote sensing products, researchers now have the ability to ask complex questions regarding animal movement in heterogeneous landscapes. However, there currently exists a dearth of analytical approaches to combine movement data with environmental variables. Developing methods to examine wildlife movement-environment interactions are particularly relevant given our unprecedented access to high resolution data; however, the analytical and technical challenges of integrating two disparate data types have yet to be effectively overcome. In the analyses presented in this thesis, I examine current approaches for linking wildlife movement to the physical environment, and introduce a data-driven method for examining wildlife movement-environment interactions. The first analysis consists of a review of existing tools in wildlife movement analysis, specifically tools supported within R statistical software, to highlight any existing methodological opportunities and limitations associated with relating movement to landscape features. The review highlights R’s strengths as an integrated toolbox for exploratory analyses, and the current lack of applications for linking high density telemetry datasets with environmental variables. AdehabitatLT was the most functional package available, offering the greatest variety of analysis options. Due to the comprehensive nature of adehabitatLT, I recommend that future method development be implemented through its package specific framework. Extending the first analysis, the second portion of this research introduces a data-driven method, based in semivariogram modelling, for quantifying wildlife movement patterns relative to linear features. The semivariogram-based method is applied to grizzly bear telemetry data to quantify how grizzly bear movement patterns change in relation to roads. The semivariogram-based method demonstrated that the bears’ spatial scale of response ranged from 35 m- 90 m from roads but varied by age, sex, and season. Applying the scales of response to link near-road movement patterns to survival and mortality, revealed that bears that were killed displayed less-risk adverse movements near roads than bears that survived (i.e., longer step lengths and more day light movements around roads). Given this pattern, my data suggest a minimum vegetation buffer of 90 m to serve as screening cover along roadsides to help mitigate the effects of roads on grizzly bear populations in west-central Alberta, Canada. Through the development of data-driven methods in wildlife movement analysis, I can realize the full potential of high resolution telemetry datasets. Data-driven methods reduce the subjectivity within movement analyses, providing more relevant measures of wildlife response to environment. The semivariogram-based method can identify definitive zones of influence around linear disturbance features in any wildlife system, thereby, providing managers with spatially explicit, data-driven insights to reduce impacts on wildlife in multi-use landscapes. / Graduate

This thesis explores the relationship between water infrastructure, ecological change, and the politics of planning in New Orleans and the Mississippi River Delta, USA. Complex assemblages of water control infrastructure have been embedded in the delta over the last several centuries in an effort to keep its cities protected from floodwaters and maintain its waterways as standardized conduits for maritime transportation. This thesis investigates the historical development of these infrastructural interventions in the delta’s dynamics, and shows how the region’s eco-hydrology is ensnared in the politics and materiality of pipes, pumps, canals, locks, and levees. These historical entanglements complicate contemporary efforts to enact large-scale ecosystem restoration, even while the delta’s landscape is rapidly eroding into the sea. This historical approach is extended into the present through an examination of how waterway standards established at so-called chokepoints in the global maritime transportation system (the Panama Canal, for example) become embedded and contested in coastal landscapes and port cities worldwide. Turning towards urban ecology, the thesis examines socioecological responses to the flooding following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with a special focus on how infrastructure failures, flooding intensity, and land abandonment are driving changing vegetation patterns in New Orleans over the past decade. The thesis contributes new conceptual language for grappling with the systemic relations bound up in water infrastructure, and develops one of the first studies describing urban ecosystem responses to prolonged flooding and post-disaster land management. This provides insights into the impending planning challenges facing New Orleans and coastal cities globally, where rising sea levels are bringing about renewed attention to how infrastructure is implicated in patterns of ecological change, hazard exposure, resilience, and social inequality. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Accepted. Paper 5: Manuscript.</p>