This research explored college students’ attitudes toward online romantic relationships and their intentions to develop this type of relationship. Borrowing elements from both social cognitive theory and the theory of reasoned action, this study introduced a model that combined perceptions of indirect past experiences, beliefs, attitudes and social norms and associations with people’s intentions to form romantic relationships over the Internet. Under the premise that people learn through observation, this study argued that when direct experience is lacking (as was the case with this sample), other sources of indirect experiences with online romantic relationships (perceptions of significant others’ past experiences and exposure to media messages about online romantic relationships) would relate to people’s beliefs about these relationships and their perceptions of what significant others think (social norms). Based on the theory of reasoned action, it was hypothesized that people’s beliefs about online relationships would then be related to their attitudes toward such relationships. Lastly, also under the framework of reasoned action, it was hypothesized that both attitudes and social norms would predict people’s intentions to form or develop romantic relationships over the Internet. The purpose of this study was thus to examine how well predictors from social cognitive theory and the theory of reasoned action explained intentions to form online romantic relationships. A pilot study was conducted to derive beliefs and attitudes toward online romantic relationships and to test the main instrument. In the main study, 226 college students with no prior direct experience forming online romantic relationships completed a web-based self-administered questionnaire. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to assess the relative importance and the strength among the different constructs. Results indicated that the overall model fit the data well. The final model accounted for 46% of the variance in people’s intentions to form online romantic relationships. Perceptions of friends’ and family’s past experiences with online romantic relationships were significantly related to people’s beliefs about these relationships. However, only friends’ past experiences was related to social norms. Exposure to media (news stories or ads about dating sites) was not related to either beliefs or social norms. Consistent with the theory of reasoned action, beliefs were strongly correlated with attitudes about online romantic relationships, and lastly, both attitudes and social norms emerged as instrumental factors in predicting participants’ intention to develop online romantic relationships. Overall, the findings confirmed the importance of integrating indirect past experiences in understanding people’s attitudes and intentions to form romantic relationships over the Internet. The theoretical and methodological implications of these results for the study and understanding of online romantic relationships are discussed.

Many known extra-solar giant planets lie close to their host stars. Around 60 have their semi-major axes smaller than 0.05 AU. In contrast to planets further out, the vast majority of these close-in planets have low eccentricity orbits. This suggests that their orbits have been circularized likely due to tidal dissipation inside the planets. These exoplanets share with our own Jupiter at least one trait in common: when they are subject to periodic tidal forcing, they behave like a lossy spring, with a tidal ``quality factor'', Q, of order 10^5. This parameter is the ratio between the energy in the tide and the energy dissipated per period. To explain this, a possible solution is resonantly forced internal oscillation. If the frequency of the tidal forcing happens to land on that of an internal eigenmode, this mode can be resonantly excited to a very large amplitude. The damping of such a mode inside the planet may explain the observed Q value. The only normal modes that fall in the frequency range of the tidal forcing (~ few days) are inertial modes, modes restored by the Coriolis force. We present a new numerical technique to solve for inertial modes in a convective, rotating sphere. This technique combines the use of an ellipsoidal coordinate system with a pseudo-spectral method to solve the partial differential equation that governs the inertial oscillations. We show that, this technique produces highly accurate solutions when the density profile is smooth. In particular, the lines of nodes are roughly parallel to the ellipsoidal coordinate axes. In particular, using these accurate solutions, we estimate the resultant tidal dissipation for giant planets, and find that turbulent dissipation of inertial modes in planets with smooth density profiles do not give rise to dissipation as strong as the one observed. We also study inertial modes in density profiles that exhibit discontinuities, as some recent models of Jupiter show. We found that, in this case, our method could not produce convergent solutions for the inertial modes. Additionally, we propose a way to observe inertial modes inside Saturn indirectly, by observing waves in its rings that may be excited by inertial modes inside Saturn.

De svenska insatsförbanden anpassas för de konflikter som är normgivande idag. Konceptuellt innebärdetta att doktriner och metoder måste utvecklas för att möta utvecklingen på dagens stridsfält. Denkonceptuella utvecklingen är förhållandevis billig jämfört med den tekniska, vilket innebär attförmågeutvecklingen mer anpassas till de materiella förutsättningarna som råder. Plattformar för CloseAir Support symboliserades under 80- och 90-talet av tungt beväpnade och särskilt anpassade flygplanoch helikoptrar som verkade i nära anslutning till markförbandens strid. Idag representeras dessaplattformar av andra flygsystem som sedan tidigare är utvecklade utifrån andra kravprofiler. Dennaobservation ligger till grund för undersökningen och formulerar därmed uppsatsens problem.Har innebörden av konceptet Close Air Support på senare tid förändrats och på så vis öppnat förandra typer av flygsystem att utöva detta koncept?Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur Close Air Support tillämpats under tre moderna operationer föratt därmed finna orsaker till hur konceptet utvecklats till vad det representerar idag. Dessutom syftaruppsatsen till att klarlägga begreppets innebörd och därmed bidra med kunskap inom konceptet förClose Air Support.Undersökningen analyserar Close Air Support historiska ursprung och teorierna bakom kombineradevapen. Denna analys lägger grunden till den fallstudie som omfattar tre militära operationergenomförda efter 1990. Studien fokuseras mot samordning, plattformar och operativ och taktisk effekt.Avslutande diskussion påvisar att samordning av Close Air Support tillämpats olika under de studeradeoperationerna. De förutsättningar som råder för dagens konflikter möjliggör att användningsområdenför olika vapensystem kan utökas. Detta är en av förklaringarna till varför andra typer avstridsflygsystem idag utnyttjas för Close Air Support. Studien har visat att CAS som koncept inteförändrats. Däremot har Close Air Support tillämpats olika beroende på de operativa förutsättningarnasom rådde inför respektive operationUppsatsen föreslår tre områden inom ämnet som kan vara föremål för djupare analys. / The Swedish Armed Forces are transforming to be able to conduct military operations in today’sstandard conflicts. To meet the demands that the new type of conflict represents the transformationrequires a development of new doctrines and tactical manuals. .Developments of new weapon systems are proportionately much more expensive than conceptualdevelopments. The armed forces’ combat capability must be adapted to existing military technologicalconditions. During the 1980s and 1990s Close Air Support aircrafts were represented by heavily armedand armoured fixed- and rotary-wing aircrafts which carried out CAS missions in close proximity tofriendly forces. These CAS platforms are today, more or less, represented by traditional fighter andstriker aircrafts. This observation will form the basis of this research and thereby formulate thescientific question.Has the significance of Close Air Support been changed and is it therefore made it possible to useother combat aircrafts for Close Air Support missions?The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Close Air Support has been put in practise in threemodern operations and to ascertain how this has developed the concept to what it is today.Furthermore the thesis will also clarify the significance of the concept and thereby contribute withknowledge to the concept of Close Air Support.The research will analyze the concept’s historical origin and the theory behind combined arms. Thisanalysis will form the basis for the following case studies, which comprise three military operationscarried out after 1990. The research will focus on coordination, platforms and operational and tacticaleffects.The final discussion will show that coordination of CAS has been executed differently during the threestudied operations. Today’s conflicts make it possible to use weapon systems in an extended role. Thiswill explain why different combat aircraft could be used in a CAS role. The research shows that theCAS concept hasn’t changed. However, CAS has been performed in different ways depending on theoperational circumstances within each operation.The thesis suggests three new research areas within the subject that could be appropriate for furtherexaminations. / Avdelning: ALB - Slutet Mag 3 C-upps. Hylla: Upps. ChP 06-08

Under första hälften av 2000-talet blev det aktuellt för svenska flygvapnet att öva för att utföraflygunderstöd till markförband, bl.a. genom skapande av ett s.k. ”accelerationsspår CAS”. Det harframkommit att utförande av CAS i den konflikt som för närvarande pågår i Afghanistan har tidvishaft svårt att förhålla sig till folkrätten på ett positivt sätt. Föreliggande uppsats syfte är attundersöka vilka åtgärder som nuvarande forskning förespråkar avseende nyttjande av CAS för attden ska bli utförd med så hög kvalitet som möjligt utifrån målval och målträff, och därigenom vadsom det svenska flygvapnet eventuellt kan vidta utifrån denna forskning för att minimera risken attinte följa folkrätten vid utövande av CAS under operationer vid internationella fredsfrämjandeinsatser. För att kunna uppnå syftet har tre delfrågor ställts och besvarats, dessa är vilkafolkrättsliga regler som är tillämpliga för svenska förband vid internationella fredsfrämjandeinsatser, vilka åtgärder är möjliga att vidta för att minska risken för oavsiktlig skada påcivilpersoner eller civil infrastruktur vid genomförande av CAS, samt vilka åtgärder bör detsvenska flygvapnet vidta för att minimera risken att bryta mot folkrätten vid genomförande avCAS under internationella fredsfrämjande insatser.Uppsatsen har kommit fram till att de åtgärder svenska flygvapnet bör vidta för att följa folkrättenär i ett utbildningshänseende träning i en verklighetstrogen och ändamålsenlig miljö med aktuellskarp ammunition samt moralisk och etisk varseblivning ur ett humanistiskt perspektiv. Ur ettverkanshänseende bör det finnas vapen med graderad verkan samt med hög precision och slutligenur ett kommunikationshänseende ska det vara god teknisk utrustning mellan pilot och FAC. / In the beginning of the 21st century, Sweden started to develop the capability to perform CAS insupport to ground troops. It has been clarified that CAS performed in the present Afghanistanconflict sometimes has been accused of not coinciding with international law. The purpose of thisthesis is to examine what measures the contemporary research advocate regarding the use of CASso it will be performed in the highest possible quality regarding target acquisition and target hit,and by that what the Swedish Air Force possibly could do in order to minimize the risk ofviolating international law when implementing CAS in international Peace Support Operations.The research is formed around three main questions. First, what international laws are applicableto Swedish units during an international operation? Second, what actions might be taken in orderto reduce the risk for unintended damage to civilians or civilian infrastructure when conductingCAS and finally what measures should the Swedish air force take to minimize the risk to violatethe international law while conducting CAS in peace support/peace keeping operations.The result of this research shows that the Swedish Air Force, in order to operate within theframework of international law, needs to conduct training in a similar and realistic environmentwith live ammunition. The training needs to be entailing a moral and ethical view from ahumanistic perspective. Furthermore, regarding the effect, there need to be weapons with bothnon-lethal to lethal effects with high precision. Finally, the communication between the pilots andthe Forward Air Controller (FAC) needs to be built upon technical equipment with high standard. / Avdelning: ALB – Slutet Mag. 3 C-upps. Hylla: Upps. ChP 07-09

This thesis explores the possibilities of avoiding the issues generally associated with compression of noisy imagery, through the usage of vector quantization. By utilizing the learning aspects of vector quantization, image processing operations such as noise reduction could be implemented in a straightforward way. Several techniques are presented and evaluated. A direct comparison shows that for noisy imagery, vector quantization, in spite of it's simplicity, has clear advantages over MPEG-4 encoding.

The process of reading a modernist poem is just as much a process of deconstructing it: the language is designed to make meaning through inefficient means, like the aforementioned fragmentation and assemblage. The reader must decode the text. This is what I want to extract as a point of entry to my videogame analysis. The process of reading is not unlike the process of playing. Instead of linguistic structures, a player must navigate a game‟s internal rule system. The pleasure for both the reader and player comes from decoding the poem and game, respectively. I am not making claims that relationships between modernist poetry and videogames are inherent or innate. Similarly, I am not providing a framework to apply one medium to the other. Instead I want to investigate how each medium uses its affordances to take advantage of its potential for creative expression. I do not consider poetry or literature to be superior to videogames, nor am I invoking the argument that videogames should imitate earlier media. My goal is to compare specific modernist poems and videogames to see how each medium makes meaning through its respective processes.

<p>The 3:12-provisions are part of a legal system specified for owners of close corporations (companies owned and managed by a small group of businesspeople), for taxation of capi-tal gains and dividend. The reason for special rules for the taxation of these owners is to prevent them from transforming their income, to only be subject of the lower taxation of capital gains, instead of income of service. Since the rules were put in force, they have been subject to several changes. The most recent changes took effect on the 1 January 2006. They involve a higher importance for the rule of salary-based taxation. The rule of salary-based taxation means that compensation paid out to employees may increase the part of a company owner’s income which is taxed at the lower taxation of capital gains. The salary-base is calculated including compensation paid out in cash to employees based within the area of the European Economic Community.</p><p>When applying the rule several problems in the interpretation arise. Questions concerning whether the part of per diem and allowance for expenses, which are subject to taxation, should be considered compensation paid out in cash, as well as whether board members are to be considered as employees. In addition, it is not certain how to deal with salaries in subsidiaries, which are trading companies, and salaries paid to employees outside of the European Economic Community.</p> / <p>3:12-reglerna utgör en del av ett skattesystem för beskattning av kapitalvinst och utdelning för fåmansföretagsdelägare. Anledningen till att dessa skall beskattas enligt särskilda regler är att förhindra inkomstomvandling, så att exempelvis tjänsteinkomster inte beskattas som kapitalinkomster, och därmed med en lägre skattesats.</p><p>Sedan regelverkets tillkomst har flera förändringar skett. De senaste förändringarna trädde i kraft den 1 januari 2006, och innebär bl.a. att löneunderlaget får en ökad betydelse vid be-skattning av fåmansföretagsdelägare. Löneunderlagsregeln innebär att ersättningar utbetal-da till arbetstagare får öka den delen av fåmansföretagsdelägarens inkomster som beskattas som inkomst av kapital, och därför till en lägre skattesats än inkomst av tjänst.</p><p>I löneunderlaget ingår kontanta ersättningar utbetalda till arbetstagare inom EES-området. Denna bestämmelse innebär flera tolkningssvårigheter vid dess tillämpning. Frågor uppstår om den skattepliktiga delen av kostnadsersättningar och traktamenten skall räknas som en kontant utbetald ersättning, samt om styrelseledamöter räknas som arbetstagare. Dessutom är rättsläget osäkert vad gäller löner utbetalade i dotterbolag som är handelsbolag, och löner utbetalade till arbetstagare utanför EES-området. Vad gäller den senaste är det troligt att löneunderlagsregeln står i strid med EG-rätten.</p><p>Det finns inte något klart och tydligt svar att finna för dessa tolkningsproblem varken i lag-text, förarbete, praxis eller doktrin. Rättsläget vid tillämpningen av löneunderlagsregeln är därför osäkert. Eftersom bestämmelsen utgör en sådan viktig del vid beskattning av få-mansföretagare är det anmärkningsvärt att lagstiftaren inte lade mer vikt vid att utforma re-geln på ett annat sätt.</p>

Thesis--School of Advanced Airpower Studies. / Title from title screen (viewed Oct. 27, 2003). "June 1993." Includes bibliographical references.

Föreliggande studie syftar till att undersöka och analysera vilka utbildningsmässiga och organisatoriska förutsättningar som socialarbetarna upplever att det finns för att tillgodose stödbehoven för den som upplevt våld i en HBT-relation. Syftet är vidare att undersöka och analysera socialarbetarnas beskrivningar och föreställningar kring begreppen makt, normer och värderingar kopplat till det praktiska arbetet med våld i HBT-relationer. Studien har en fenomenografisk ansats och bygger på intervjuer med socialarbetare som arbetar med våld i nära relation. Maktperspektiv har använts som teoretisk referensram i studien. Av resultatet framkommer att både de egna och samhällets normer och värderingar har stor påverkan på bemötandet i det praktiska arbetet. Socialarbetarna framhåller vikten av reviderade riktlinjer och handlingsplaner då de utgör en trygghet i det dagliga arbetet. Att HBT-personer är en osynlig grupp är socialarbetarna överens om då endast en av våra informanter har erfarenhet av att ha träffat personer som upplevt våld i HBT-relationer. Socialarbetarna framhåller vikten av att vara könsneutral i sitt bemötande samtidigt som det är viktigt att föra en kritisk diskussion inom organisationen för att synliggöra målgruppen. Sammanfattningsvis påvisar resultatet i vår studie att makt förekommer både på individ-, organisations- samt samhällsnivå när det gäller socialt arbete med våld i HBT-relationer. / The objective of the study at hand is to analyze and study which educational and organizational conditions the social workers believe exist in order for them to meet the need for support for those who have experienced violence in an LGBT-relationship. Furthermore, the purpose is to investigate and analyze the social workers' descriptions and notions of the terms "power", "norms" and "values" in conjunction with the practical work with violence in LGBT-relationships. The study has a phenomenographical approach and is based on interviews with social workers who work with violence in close relationships. In the study, we have used the perspective of power as a theoretical frame of reference. The result shows that personal as well as the society's norms and values have a great influence on how the clients are treated in the practical work carried out. The social workers accentuate the importance of revised policies and action plans, since they make a good support in the daily work. The fact that LGBT-persons are a neglected group, the socialworkers agree upon, since only one of our informants have experience of meeting people who have been subjected to violence in LGBT-relationships. The social workers stress the importance of being gender-neutral in their approach, at the same time as it is crucial to keep a scrutinizing discussion within the organization, in order to make this group visible. To sum up, the result in our study shows that power is present in both individual, organisational and community levels, when it comes to social work regarding violence in LGBT-relationships.

Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close stands out from the nationalistic-toned American “9/11 novels”. It depicts the story of a young boy and his grandparents who are left with the aftermath of losing a loved one in the attack on the twin towers. However, the complexity of the three main characters and the depth of their individual and common traumas make the novel go beyond the usual nationalistic 9/11 narrative and focus on the personal and, consequently, the national trauma.  This essay analyses the possibility of coping with and recovering from trauma through communication. Dominick LaCapra’s trauma theory notions of “working through” and “acting out”, as well as other traumatic memory research highlight the necessity of utterance in order to overcome trauma and to attempt an existence beyond it. In the instance of the three traumatized characters of the novel, the confessional language is entangled, broken and sometimes muted. This makes the recovery difficult in the case of the grandparents, almost impossible for the character of Grandpa. When it comes to the young boy, Oskar Schell, a more successful communication seems to open up the possibility of mental healing. These personal traumas are a reflection of a broader American trauma where an obsessive “rememoration” of the September 11 events and one-sided, revenge loaded public discourse do not seem to facilitate the national healing process. On all these levels, personal and community, the need and the difficult attempt to communicate the trauma of 9/11 does not necessarily grant recovery from it, but it facilitates a desired “working though” process.