Presenting large amount of Multivariate Data is not a simple problem. When there are multiple correlated variables involved, it becomes difficult to comprehend data using traditional ways. Information Visualization techniques provide an interactive way to present and analyze such data. This thesis has been carried out at ABB Corporate Research, Västerås, Sweden. Use of Parallel Coordinates and Multiple Coordinated Views was has been suggested to realize interactive reporting and trending of Multivariate Data for ABB’s Network Manager SCADA system. A prototype was developed and an empirical study was conducted to evaluate the suggested design and test it for usability from an actual industry perspective. With the help of this prototype and the evaluations carried out, we are able to achieve stronger results regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the visualization techniques used. The results confirm that such interfaces are more effective, efficient and intuitive for filtering and analyzing Multivariate Data.

In the research of developing arbitrary and unique virtual views from a real- world scene, a prototype of an interactive relief texture mapping system capable of processing video using dynamic image-based rendering, is developed in this master thesis. The process of deriving depth from recorded video using binocular stereopsis is presented, together with how the depth information is adjusted to be able to manipulate the orientation of the original scene. When the scene depth is known, the recorded organic and dynamic objects can be seen from viewpoints not available in the original video.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Bakgrund: Patienter som vårdas inom intensivvården befinner sig ofta i en situation som präglas av snabba fysiologiska förändringar där patientens vitala funktioner kontinuerligt måste övervakas och registreras. I intensivvårdens komplexa miljö utgör dokumentationen en viktig del för att upprätthålla en hög patientsäkerhet. Syfte: Att undersöka intensivvårdssjuksköterskors uppfattning om dokumentation. Metod: En empirisk deskriptiv studie har genomförts. Fokusgruppintervjuer användes för att inhämta data. Materialet analyserades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Intensivvårdssjuksköterskor anser att dokumentationen fyller en viktig funktion för patientsäkerhet, som informationskälla samt för den egna professionen. Förutsättningar för dokumentationen kunde härledas till tid och organisation, datasystemens för- och nackdelar samt den kulturella påverkan som fanns på arbetsplatsen. Slutsats: Dokumentationen i omvårdnadsjournalen upplevs ofta som bristfällig. Studiens resultat att visat på ett flertal orsaker till detta; avsaknaden av funktionella datasystem, oklara riktlinjer samt ett lågt engagemang hos intensivvårdssjuksköterskor. Klinisk betydelse: Resultatet kan öka intensivvårdssjuksköterskor förståelse för dokumentationens betydelse. De förbättringsförslag som framkommer i studien kan användas för att utveckla dokumentationen inom intensivvården. / Background: Patients cared for in an intensive care unit often find themselves in a situation of rapid physiological changes where the patient´s vital signs must be continuously monitored and registered. In the complex environment of the intensive care units documentation is an important part of maintaining a high level of patient safety. Objective: To examine the intensive care nurse's views of documentation. Method: A descriptive empirical study has been conducted. Focus group interviews were used to collect data and the material was analysed by a qualitative content analysis. Results: Intensive care nurses consider documentation to play an important role for patient safety, as a source of information and for their own profession. They believe that the documentation is affected by time and organization, computer systems and the culture of the workplace. Conclusion: Documentation in the nursing records is often viewed as inadequate. Result of the study revealed a number of reasons for this; lack of functional computer systems, unclear guidelines and a low engagement of the intensive care nurses. Clinical significance: The result could increase intensive care nurses understanding of the importance of documentation. The suggestions for improvement that emerge from this study can be used to develop documentation within intensive care.

L'obésité est une maladie qui touche près de 15% de la population adulte en France. Elle est susceptible d'entraîner des complications sévères. L'obésité peut être considérée comme un stigmate et les représentations sociales des personnes en obésité sont discriminatoires. Les médecins partagent les représentations sociales communes. Le corps obèse fait rupture avec [l']idéal du corps confondu à la norme, et est une source de discrédit du corps hors normes. Les sujets en obésité subissent l'affichage de l'idéal du corps comme norme de corpulence mais aussi comme norme esthétique et comme signe de distinction morale. Ils sont pris dans un "dispositif" construit autour d'une injonction paradoxale : "consommez, soyez mince". / Obesity is a disease concerning around 15% of the French adult general population. It is usually associated with severe conditions. It can be considered as a sitgma and social views of obese persons are discriminatory. Practitioners do share those common views. The obese body breaks with an ideal body confounded with the standard, and is a cause of disgrace for the out-standard body. Patients with obesity endure the display of an ideal body as a norm of corpulence, but also as an esthetical norm and as a sign of moral distinction. They are caught in a "device" built around the paradox "consume, be thin".

In recent years there has been growing enthusiasm among researchers for the promotion of online learning communities designed to support professional learning in preservice teacher education. The primary purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the role of such an online community in supporting student teacher learning during the school placement in a Chinese Normal University, and hence to enrich the understanding of student teachers’ learning experiences in an online ecology. The study’s subjects included a cohort of 42 student teachers enrolled on a four-year preservice teacher education programme, along with two university supervisors at one of China’s teacher-training universities. Primary data were collected from six weeks of online threaded discussions and from semi-structured group interviews. Supplementary data were taken from an end-of-school-placement evaluation and web-tracking logs. Data analysis has been informed and illuminated by the theoretical proposition of communities of practice. The findings of the study indicate that the online learning community is a valuable resource for supporting student teachers both personally and professionally. Findings suggest that online communication not only helps student teachers tackle immediate teaching concerns and technical problems, but, more importantly, provides them with opportunities to reflect collectively, to co-construct new teaching ideas, and to gain professional discourse competence through articulating and negotiating their evolving thoughts on teaching as a profession. In this regard, student teachers are found to be more comfortable with online self-disclosure of their personal and professional encounters and critiquing each other than they are with face-to-face communication. The research also shows that university supervisors experience mixed feelings about the fact that student teachers are more able to take ownership of their learning and therefore become less dependent on supervisor guidance as time wears on. Furthermore, these findings provide evidence suggestive of a possibly reciprocal relationship between Chinese view of learning and the building of online learning communities. Based on the results of the study, I provide recommendations as to how the significance of the school placement can be reinforced in fostering distributed student teachers’ professional growth. The results also contribute to a better understanding of the key factors in the design and implementation of effective online learning communities within preservice teacher education in China. Finally, the analytical approach used in this study provides fresh methodological insight into an alternative means of analysing online postings. It thus contributes both to the theorisation of learning communities in the context of computer-mediated communication, and to the further development of concepts drawn from the communities of practice literature.

Victor Hugo is well known as a poet, a playwright and a novelist, but until recently he has not been recognized as a philosopher; for many years critics have admired the literary output of the man, but criticized the apparent contradictions and inconsistencies of his thought. Further studies have, however, revealed the true nature of Hugo's philosophy, and shown it to comprise a well thought out and coherent system. One of the most important themes in Hugo's work is that of human progress. In Les Misérables, Hugo's great novelistic masterpiece, he develops this theme and explores various of its aspects, treating at the same time many vital components of his philosophy. In examining the theme of progress in Les Misérables we have therefore sought to explore Hugo's ideology, as expressed in the novel, and to relate it to general nineteenth century currents of thought. This first necessitated a study of Hugo's religious beliefs, including his experiments with spiritualism and his belief in reincarnation and the hierarchy of beings. We then established the close relationship which exists between the poet's religious beliefs and his faith in the doctrine of progress Armed with an understanding of these basic principles, we then undertook a close textual analysis of the novel, examining Hugo's belief in the perfectibility of man and the perfectibility of society. Having laid the groundwork in Chapter I, we were therefore ready, in Chapter II, to study Hugo's belief in the progress of the individual : after looking at his portrayal of each level of the hierarchy of beings, we then looked at the various elements involved in the "progress" of the human soul, as illustrated by the characters in the novel. Then, in the third chapter, we approached the broader question of the progress of society and of Hugo's view of historical, political, social, economic and scientific progress. This in-depth study of one aspect of Victor Hugo's great novel thus led us to an understanding of the author's world-view, and of his conception of the relationship between man, God and the universe. It is a deeply religious, unique, and fundamentally optimistic philosophy, presented in a highly poetic manner. Although we may not accept all of Hugo's arguments, it is hard not to be stirred nonetheless by this thought-provoking work. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

M.A. (Philosophy) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Performs a rhetorical analysis of several zines that deal with gender and sexual identity and outlines some shared aesthetics and ethos of zines and zinesters, then connects the rhetorical and stylistic choices of zinesters to their searches for political and personal identity.

Konfliktprediktering handlar om att bedöma risken för våld i ett geografiskt område vid en given tid. Uppgiften lämpar sig bra för datorer som med hjälp av matematiska modeller kan hitta mönster i stora mängder data. Att prediktera konflikthändelser går att göra med olika metoder. Syftet med studien var att utvärdera multilayer perceptron (MLP), en typ av artificiella neuronnät, som metod för konfliktprediktering i relation till två andra metoder. I studien beskrivs hur MLP-neuronnätet konstruerades och hur prestationsmått togs fram för dess prediktioner. De värdena jämfördes senare med prestationsmått från andra studier för de två andra metoderna. Prediktionerna grundade sig på data om konflikthändelser, samt ekonomiska och demografiska faktorer för länder i världen. Jämförelsen visade att MLP är användbar som metod för konfliktprediktering och hade, under de förutsättningar som rådde, i viktiga avseenden högre prediktiv förmåga än de andra metoderna. Studien presenterar även fyra faktorer som kan påverka vilken modelleringsmetod som en modellerare borde använda för konfliktprediktering.