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This master thesis deals with two case studies in environmental archaeology and battlefield archaeology focusing on two major events in the late history of the Swedish coastal town Umeå and its nearby village Sävar. Established in the early 1600's, Umeå was known for its export of timber and import of cereals. The town has suffered from numerous fires, the fire in 1888 being the most devastating. Few written records of the town remain from before the 1900's. The latest war in Sweden's history is documented in historical sources and took place at Krutbrånet, Sävar where the Swedish troops suffered defeat against the russian forces in 1809. The old port in Umeå has not been previously excavated archaeologically and only a small part of the battlefield area at Krutbrånet has been surveyed. Neither of the sites have yet been protected sites under Swedish heritage conservation act. The purpose of these two case studies is to present new research results from these two sites.In the first case study, archaeobotany and soil chemistry methods were used to analyse soil samples from undisturbed cultural layers in a construction trench at the old port of Umeå. A thick burnt layer consisted of charcoal, oats and weeds, suggesting storage and possibly intended as food for horses. Oat and pea were radiocarbon dated to most likely late 1800's which places the burned layer with oats to the big city fire in 1888. The area could have intact cultural layers that are important to investigate for understanding the  unknown history of Umeås old port.The basis for the second case study is the material evidence of lead musket bullets found during a small field survey at Krutbrånet, conducted in 2010. The bullets were studied using X-ray Fluorescence together with spatial analysis to determine if troop nationality could be possible to distinguish based on composition, characteristics and spatial positions. The results revealed bullets  in varied sizes and composed of lead but also alloys of copper, antimony and tin that appear in mixed quantities spread in all the studied areas of the battlefield. Field surveys of uninvestigated areas at Krutbrånet are needed to understand the context of the studied material and of troop formations. Further studies could also be isotope analyses to determine the origins of the oats and bullets.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xvii, 239 p. : ill. (some col.), map (part col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Dice is one of Sweden's largest game manufacturers. They have produced a game series called “Battlefield”, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, releasing it gradually over the years. In order to create a game some form of work structure is required. In this essay we discover what the Dice work process looks like today and how it has changed over the years. Game development is progressing and market changes require game developers to constantly adapt to the current situation. To investigate this issue, we conducted intensive interviews with two wellestablished game developers from the Dice enterprise, as well as done further investigation and a small interview to confirm the results. We have individually drawn conclusions and created theories based on previous research and self-reflection. Hopefully our results will be applied by future studies, as well as by those interested in games and the related work process.

Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) applications often exhibit the pattern of adaptive mesh applications. Adaptive mesh algorithm starts with a coarse base-level grid structure covering entire computational domain. As the computation intensified, individual grid points are tagged for refinement. Such tagged grid points are dynamically overlayed with finer grid points. Similarly if the level of refinement in a cell is greater than required, all such regions are replaced with coarser grids. These refinements proceed recursively. We have developed an object-oriented framework enabling time-stepped adaptive mesh application developers to convert their sequential applications to MPI applications in few easy steps. We present in this thesis our positive experience converting such application using our framework. In addition to the MPI support, framework does the grid expansion/contraction and load balancing making the application developer’s life easier.

With the birth of “virtual worlds,” created a new space for social norms to evolve and change within a subset community. This thesis focuses on toxicity within the virtual world of EA DICE’s Battlefield V title. The goal of this research is to understand toxicity on a micro scale inside the world of Battlefield V from a gaming anthropological perspective. Along with understanding what toxicity looked like within the virtual world ofBattlefield V, the thesis obtained data for how the community and EA DICE employees perceived toxicity. This research has components of interviews with these members of the communities/staff as well as a netnography of the virtual world of Battlefield V gameplay. Findings and analysis were categorized under the themes of toxic language, power/freedom, virtual world creation, and gender toxicity. Battlefield V toxicity is ever evolving and shaped by player techne (player actions). Player chat consumes the majority of toxicity and therefore diving into toxic language was vital. Understanding the player perspective of power and freedom while gaming was just the first step as the thesis also dove into the developer’s perspective and analyzed the interviews with the backbone of Malaby’s (2009) contingency concepts to see how the developers have a large role to play when it comes to toxicity in games, even if they may not realize it. Just as in the “real world” the virtual world of Battlefield V also had a major theme of gender discrimination winessed and discussed via both community members and staff members of EA DICE. Overall, the goal of this research was not to find out if toxicity was “good” or “bad” but to simply shed more light on the complex topic within virtual worlds and open up research for other anthropologists to do further research on the topic.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This research improves the realism of an electronic warfare (EW) environment involving dynamic motion of assets and transmitters. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) continues to be used to place assets in such a manner where they can communicate with the largest number of highest priority transmitters. This new research accomplishes improvement in three areas. First, the previously stationary assets and transmitters are given a velocity component, allowing them to change positions over time. Because the assets now have a starting position and velocity, they require time to reach the PSO solution. In order to optimally assign each asset to move in the direction of a PSO solution location, a graph-based method is implemented. This encompasses the second area of research. The graph algorithm runs in O(n^3) time and consumes less than 0.2% of the total measured computation time to find a solution. Transmitter location updates prompt a recalculation of the PSO, causing the assets to change their assignments and trajectories every second. The computation required to ensure accuracy with this behavior is less than 0.5% of the total computation time. The final area of research is the completion of algorithmic performance analysis. A scenario with 3 assets and 30 transmitters only requires an average of 147ms to update all relevant information in a single time interval of one second. Analysis conducted on the data collected in this process indicates that more than 95% of the time providing automatic updates is spent with PSO calculations. Recommendations on minimizing the impact of the PSO are also provided in this research.

Post-traumatic stress, while not unique to war, results from normal human reactions to combat. Historically, civilizations provided communal rituals to support and treat returning warriors. We do not. When combat stress reactions adversely affect normal functioning, we label them Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, implying something wrong with the sufferer, when in reality what is wrong is war itself. Not all veterans develop diagnosable PTSD or seek treatment, but all deal with post-traumatic stress. Complex, with moral, societal, and spiritual dimensions, combat stress manifests physically and emotionally. Veteran support should address both. Battlefields are places to contemplate the nature of war and martial sacrifice, and to experience emotional empathy with those who fought there. The ground itself is the link to this empathy. Battlefield landscapes can be designed to help veterans process their responses to combat, recognize them as normal human reactions inherent to the warrior experience, and participate in meaningful communalization experiences to aid in social reintegration. These concepts were applied at Fredericksburg, Virginia, resulting in a 26-mile battlefield trail linking experientially important sites and ending at an outdoor amphitheater. The trail offers the stress-relieving benefits of exercise. It also allows veterans to examine their own experiences in the context of others' and prepares them for communal experiences at the culminating public space. Pilgrimage on hallowed battlefield ground helps veterans tell themselves their own story. Telling that story to others allows the community to share the burden of peace and helps veterans complete their warrior's journey home. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The objectives of this study were to determine the loading of dead and down forest fuels in 6 forest cover types on the upper Coastal Plain of Virginia, specifically in the Richmond National Battlefield Park, and to determine the relationships between the fuels and the vegetation. The forest fuels and vegetation were sampled in stands of the following cover types: pine, oak-pine, mixed hardwood-pine, oak, mixed hardwood, and oak-mixed hardwood. The planar intersect method was utilized to quantify the woody fuels. and the forest floor was sampled in fixed area plots. The weight. volume, depth. and species of fuel particles was determined for each stand sampled in the Park, and this information was combined for an estimate of fuel loading by cover type. The overstory trees were sampled within prism plots, and the understory was sampled in fixed area plots. Standard forestry information was collected for each sampled stand, and estimates of species dominance, density, frequency and importance were determined. In general, the fuel loading was not different between the six cover types as determined with ANOVA procedures. due to the large variation of loads within each. The loading of certain sizes of fuel particles were different between a few cover types, due to both the influence of the overstory species and the site they had occupied. For example, the 1-hr. time-lag branch fuel loading was significantly greater in the oak cover type than in the pine or mixed hardwood cover types. Another significant difference was in the forest floor loads: the mixed hardwood cover type had a lighter forest floor than the pine or oak-pine cover types. This was most likely due to the higher quality of sites upon which the mixed hardwood stand were found, and the higher palatability of litter produced by these species, which would favor the decomposition of litter more than conditions found in the pine or oak-pine cover types. To quantify relationships between the fuel loads and forest vegetation and site characteristics, Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were calculated between all the variables. Many significant relationships were found, though all but one correlation coefficient was under 0.51: total forest floor load and forest floor depth had a correlation coefficient of 0.75. Forest and site variables significantly related to fuel loadings were tested for their predictive value with multiple regression statistics. The resulting set of regressions had low coefficients of determination and varying levels of precision; their usefulness would depend on the level of sampling intensity and precision one would want to expend to get an estimate of fuel loading in a stand. If a rough estimate requiring little time in the field is desirable, then these regressions would be useful. / Master of Science

This examination will analyze the possibility of using the game Battlefield 1 while teaching history. Throughout the analysis, Battlefield 1s campaign which is called War Stories will be analyzed together with the introduction of the game which is called Prologue. The analysis of the campaign will be to check how the campaign uses history and what potential historical consciousness can a player of the game obtain. After these two are analyzed, there will be ananalysis on the possibility of using the Prologue and the War Stories while teaching history. In order to analyze the Prologue and the War Stories use of history and historical consciousness, Peter Aronsson and Klas-Göran Karlsson’s theories on how history can be used and their ideas on historical consciousness will be present. A reason for analyzing the Prologue and War Storiesis to see if there is a possibility to use a game that is about World War 1 in the classroom. There are five different War Stories and each one will be analyzed to see how it uses history and if it raises a potential historical consciousness for the player who plays the game. The method for this examination is that the Prologue and the five War Stories will be analyzed through the framework of professor Martin A. Wainwright’s seven thematic units. The Prologue and the War Stories use history in different ways such as an existential way of using history and they raise potential historical awareness on how World War 1 potentially looked like. They also raise knowledge on historical places, figures and weapons such as Lawrence of Arabia and the iconic British tank Mark V. There is a possibility of using the Prologue and War Stories during history lessons, but the main thing for that regards to time and knowledge by the teacher. You have to have time to teach pupils on the game and its mechanics and also the knowledge for how the game is played. This research field regarding videogames and education is not a developed field, and therefore there is a lack of an analysis model for using videogames while teaching. Hopefully, this examination will contribute the research field, so it gets more developed regarding videogames and education.