The title of the essay is “I associate Stockholm with career focused, that you want to become something. That you’re not satisfied with the predetermined way of life that we are in Skellefteå” and is written by Erika Lundström and Josefin Möller. The purpose of this essay is to examine how the place of residence affects the individuals identity. The study is based on ten qualitative interviews with individuals residing and growing up in two different communities called Skellefteå kommun and Stockholms kommun in Sweden. A number of theories within identity creation, from for example Bauman (2004) and Pripp (2001), are used to understand the phenomena. The results demonstrate that the respondents experience a pride in living in each community. The respondents attitudes are reflected by their place of residence and how they experiences expectations to live by the community valuations to fit in. The respondents from Stockholms kommun experienced an expectation to have an education and a growing career while the respondents from Skellefteå kommun experienced an expectation to start a family and have a stable job. Their own identity is strengthened when the respondents talks about themselves in a relation to the other community which creates a kind of power imbalance between the communities. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur individens identitet och självbild påverkas av bostadsorten. Studiens empiri har samlats in genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med tio individer uppväxta och bosatta i Stockholms kommun samt Skellefteå kommun. Ett flertal teorier om identitetsskapande, från exempelvis Bauman (2004) och Pripp (2001), har använts för att förstå fenomenet. Resultatet av studien visar hur intervjupersonerna upplever en stolthet över att bo i respektive kommun, samt att individens identitetsskapande påverkas av förväntningarna som är kopplade till platsen. Intervjupersonerna från Stockholms kommun upplevde en förväntning på att ha en utbildning och en växande karriär, medan intervjupersonerna från Skellefteå kommun upplevde en förväntning på att bilda familj tidigt samt ha ett stabilt arbete. Den egna identiteten stärktes när intervjupersonerna talade om sig själva i relation till den andra gruppen, vilket skapar en slags maktobalans mellan de två kommunerna.

This research develops a methodology for determining farm scale land managementunits (LMUs) using soil sampling data, high resolution digital multi-spectral imagery (DMSI) and a digital elevation model (DEM). The LMUs are zones within a paddock suitable for precision agriculture which are managed according to their productive capabilities. Soil sampling and analysis are crucial in depicting landscape characteristics, but costly. Data based on DMSI and DEM is available cheaply and at high resolution.The design and implementation of a two-stage methodology using a spatiallyweighted multivariate classification, for delineating LMUs is described. Utilising data on physical and chemical soil properties collected at 250 sampling locations within a 1780ha farm in Western Australia, the methodology initially classifies sampling points into LMUs based on a spatially weighted similarity matrix. The second stage delineates higher resolution LMU boundaries using DMSI and topographic variables derived from a DEM on a 10m grid across the study area. The method groups sample points and pixels with respect to their characteristics and their spatial relationships, thus forming contiguous, homogenous LMUs that can be adopted in precision agricultural applications. The methodology combines readily available and relatively cheap high resolution data sets with soil properties sampled at low resolution. This minimises cost while still forming LMUs at high resolution.The allocation of pixels to LMUs based on their DMSI and topographic variables has been verified. Yield differences between the LMUs have also been analysed. The results indicate the potential of the approach for precision agriculture and the importance of continued research in this area.

Les convertisseurs analogiques-numériques fondés sur le principe de la modulation §¢ sont capables de fonctionner à des résolutions très élevés. L'utilisation en interne d'un CAN et d'un CNA multibit permet de réduire le taux de suréchantillonnage, les contraintes imposées par les circuits actifs, amé- liore la stabilité de la boucle du modulateur, mais rend celui-ci très sensible aux imperfections des composants du convertisseur numérique analogique (CNA) interne situé dans le chemin de retour. Les erreurs statiques dues aux non idéalités des circuits constitutifs de ce CNA peuvent être corrigées au moyen de techniques d'appariement dynamique des composants (DEM). Ce travail de thèse est consacré entre autre à l'étude théorique de ces techniques de correction des défauts des cellules des CNA multibits. Après avoir rappelé le principe de la conversion §¢ d'une part, et les différentes sources d'erreurs dominantes dans le cas multibit d'autre part, les techniques d'appariement existantes sont analysées et comparées. Nous soulignons les avantages, les inconvénients, et les domaines d'applications préférentiels de chacune. Le coeur du travail consiste en la proposition de quatre nouvelles techniques d'appariement dynamique. Les deux premières dérivent de la méthode de la moyenne des données (DWA), l'une pour le cas passe-bas du premier ordre, l'autre dans le cas passe-bande du second ordre. Les deux dernières propositions (appelées MDEM et STDEM) dérivent des deux algorithmes de tri (SDEM) et d'arborescence (TDEM) : elles conviennent à une mise en forme des erreurs d'ordre élevé et sont destinées aux applications passe-bas et passe-bande de haute performance. Ces quatre méthodes proposées ont été mises en équation et leurs performances confirmées par diverses simulations. Une implantation des algorithmes MDEM et STDEM a été faite au niveau cellule standard jusqu'à l'étape finale de routage en technologie CMOS 0.35 ¹m. L'ensemble des résultats des simulations au niveau système et au niveau transistor conforme l'avantage des techniques développées dans ce travail en termes de surface occupée et aussi de fréquence maximale d'application, si on les compare avec les algorithmes conventionnels de SDEM. Dans une dernière partie, les erreurs dynamiques du CNA, en particulier l'effet de la gigue d'horloge, le glitch, la dissymétrie des temps de transition, l'injection de charge (CFT) et la métastabilité du quantificateur sont également analysés. A l'issue de ces réflexions, une nouvelle cellule de CNA incluant un bloc limitant la plage dynamique de la commande d'entrée (SRD) est proposée. Elle possède une structure de remise à zéro partielle (semi-RZ) qui permet de bénéficier à la fois de l'avantage de la cellule RZ et non RZ. De plus, l'effet du retard du bloc de DEM est compensé par une modification dans l'architecture convenant aux applications passe-bande haute fréquence.

<p>High speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) used in, e.g., read channel and ultra wideband (UWB) applications are often based on a flash topology. The read channel applications is the intended application of this work, where a part of the work covers the design of two different types of 6-bit flash ADCs. Another field of application is UWB receivers.</p><p>To optimize the performance of the whole system and derive the specifications for the sub-blocks of the system it is often desired to use a topdown design methodology. To facilitate the top-down design methodology the ADCs are modeled on behavioral level. The models are simulated in MATLAB®. The results are used to verify the functionality of the proposed circuit topologies and serve as a base to the circuit design phase.</p><p>The first flash ADC has a conventional topology. It has a resistor net connected to a number of latched comparators, but its thermometer-tobinary encoder is based on 2-to-1 multiplexers buffered with inverters. This gives a compact encoder with a regular structure and short critical path. The main disadvantage is the code dependent timing difference between the encoder outputs introduced by this topology. The ADC was simulated on schematic level in Cadence® using the foundry provided transistor models. The design obtained a maximum sampling frequency of 1 GHz, an effective resolution bandwidth of 390 MHz, and a power consumption of 170 mW.</p><p>The purpose of the second ADC is to demonstrate the concept of introducing dynamic element matching (DEM) into the reference net of a flash ADC. This design yields information about the performance improvements the DEM gives, and what the trade-offs are when introducing DEM. Behavioral level simulations indicate that the SFDR is improved by 11 dB when introducing DEM, but the settling time of the reference net with DEM will now limit the conversion speed of the converter. Further, the maximum input frequency is limited by the total resistance in the reference net, which gets increased in this topology. The total resistance is the total switch on-resistance plus the total resistance of the resistors. To increase the conversion speed and the maximum input frequency a new DEM topology is proposed in this work, which reduces the number of switches introduced into the reference net compared with earlier proposed DEM topologies. The transistor level simulations in Cadence® of the flash ADC with DEM indicates that the SFDR improves by 6 dB compared with when not using DEM, and is expected to improve more if more samples are used in the simulation. This was not possible in the current simulations due to the long simulation time. The improved SFDR is however traded for an increased chip area and a reduction of the maximum sampling frequency to 550 MHzfor this converter. The average power consumption is 92 mW.</p><p>A goal of this work is to evaluate a 130 nm partially depleted silicon-oninsulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology with respect to analog circuit implementation. The converters are therefore implemented in this technology. When writing this the ADCs are still being manufactured. Since the technology evaluation will be based on the measurement results the final results of the evaluation are not included in this thesis. The conclusions regarding the SOI CMOS technology are therefore based on a literature study of published scientific papers in the SOI area, information extracted during the design phase of the ADCs, and from the transistor level circuit simulations. These inputs indicate that to fully utilize the potential performance advantages of the SOI CMOS technology the partially depleted SOI CMOS technology should be exchanged for a fully depleted SOI CMOS technology. The manufacturing difficulties regarding the control of the thin-film thickness must however first be solved before the exchange can be done.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2005:68.

Asphalt mixture compaction is an important procedure of asphalt mixture construction and can significantly affect the performance of asphalt pavement. Many laboratory compaction methods (or devices), have been developed to study the asphalt mixture compaction. Nevertheless, the whole process from the selection of aggregate to laboratory compaction is still time-consuming and requires significant human and material resources. In order to better understand asphalt mixture compaction, some researchers began to use finite element method (FEM) to study and analyze mixture compaction. However, FEM is a continuum approach and lacks the ability to take into account the slippage and interlocking of aggregates during compaction. Discrete Element Method (DEM) is a discontinuum analysis method, which can simulate the deformation process of joint systems or discrete particle assembly under quasi-static and dynamic condition. Therefore, it can overcome the shortcomings of FEM and is a more effective tool than FEM to simulate asphalt mixture compaction. In this study, an open source 3D DEM code implemented with the C++ programming language was modified and applied to simulate the compaction of hot-mix asphalt (HMA). A viscoelastic contact model was developed in the DEM code and was verified through comparison with well established analytical solutions. The input parameters of the newly developed contact model were obtained through nonlinear regression analysis of dynamic modulus test results. Two commonly used compaction methods (Superpave gyratory compaction and asphalt vibratory compaction) and one linear kneading compaction based on APA machine were simulated using the DEM code, and the DEM compaction models were verified through the comparison between the DEM predicted results and the laboratory measured test results. The air voids distribution within the asphalt specimens was also analyzed by post processing virtual DEM compaction digital specimens and the level of heterogeneity of the air void distribution within the specimens in the vertical and lateral directions was studied. The DEM simulation results in this study were in a relatively good agreement with the experimental data and previous research results, which demonstrates that the DEM is a feasible method to simulate asphalt mixture compaction under different loading conditions and, with further research, it could be a potentially helpful tool for asphalt mix design by reducing the number of physical compactions in the laboratory.

In this thesis, fractured rock masses are treated asequivalent continua for large-scale analyses of rockengineering projects. Systematic developments are made for thedetermination of equivalent mechanical and hydraulic propertiesof fractured rock masses using a hybrid discrete fracturenetwork - distinct element method (DFN-DEM) approach. Thedetermined equivalent properties are then used for a far-fieldfinite element analysis of the thermo-mechanical impacts on thestress, deformation and permeability of fractured rockssurrounding a hypothetical geological repository of nuclearwaste. The geological data were extracted from the results ofan extensive site investigation programme at Sellafield, UK,conducted by Nirex UK Ltd. The scale dependencies of the hydraulic and mechanicalproperties were investigated by using multiple realizations ofthe fracture system geometry with increasing model sizes untilproperly defined hydraulic and mechanical representativeelementary volumes (REVs) were reached. The validity of thesecond order permeability tensor and the fourth-ordermechanical compliance tensor were tested for continuum analysesat larger scales. The REV was determined to be around 5 m formechanical and hydraulic data in this study. Analysis of the stress-dependent mechanical and hydraulicproperties shows that the effect of rock stresses is crucial.The elastic moduli increase significantly with the increase ofstress and an empirical equation of stress-dependent elasticmodulus is suggested based on results of numerical experiments.Calculations of the Poisson's ratios suggest greater valuesthan are normally assumed in practice. Depending on the stateof stress, permeability decreases or increases with increasingcompressive stress. Stress-induced flow channeling effect iscaptured by numerical modeling for the first time and detailedmechanisms of shear dilation of fractures are provided. Basedon the numerical experiments, a set of empirical equations wassuggested for the stress-dependent permeability, consideringboth normal deformation and shear dilation of fractures. Thermo-mechanical impact on the performance of ahypothetical repository at a far-field scale (5 km by 1 km) wasinvestigated with the stress-dependent equivalent propertiesdetermined at the REV scale. This analysis shows thatmechanical responses vary significantly depending on how themechanical properties were determined. The change ofpermeability due to the thermal loading is, however, notsignificant in this particular case. The thesis provides a framework for systematic analysis oflarge-scale engineering applications in fractured rock masses,such as geological repositories of nuclear wastes. Keyword:Fractured rock masses, Equivalent Continuum,Discrete Fracture Network (DFN), Distinct Element Method (DEM),Finite Element Method (FEM), Nuclear Waste Disposal, CoupledThermo-Hydro-Mechanical Processes

In this thesis, the effects of size and stress on permeability, deformability and strength of fractured rock masses are investigated. A comparison study was carried out to examine the effects of considering, or not considering, the correlation between distributions of fracture apertures and fracture trace lengths on the hydro-mechanical behavior of fractured rocks. The basic concepts used are the fundamental principles of the general theory of elasticity, Representative Elementary Volume (REV), the tensor of equivalent permeability, and the strength criteria of the fractured rocks. Due to the size and stress dependence of the hydro-mechanical properties of rock fractures, the overall effective (or equivalent) hydro-mechanical properties of the fractured rocks are also size and stress-dependent. However, such dependence cannot be readily investigated in laboratory using small samples, and so numerical modeling becomes a necessary tool for estimating their impacts. In this study, a closed-form relation is established for representing the correlation between a truncated lognormal distribution of fracture apertures and a truncated power law distribution of trace lengths, as obtained from field mapping. Furthermore, a new nonlinear algorithm is developed for predicting the relationship between normal stress and normal displacement of fractures, based on the Bandis model and the correlation between aperture and length. A large number of stochastic Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) models of varying sizes were extracted from some generated large-sized parent realizations based on a realistic fracture system description from a site investigation programme at Sellafield, UK, for calculating the REV of hydro-mechanical properties of fractured rocks. Rotated DFN models were also generated and used for evaluation of the distributions of directional permeabilities, such that tensors of equivalent permeability could be established based on stochastically established REVs. The stress-dependence of the permeability and the stress-displacement behaviour were then investigated using models of REV sizes. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) was used for numerical simulation of the fluid flow, deformability properties and mechanical strength behavior of fractured rocks. The results show significant scale-dependency of rock permeability, deformability and strength, and its variation when the correlation between aperture and trace length of fractures are concerned, with the overall permeability and deformability more controlled by dominating fractures with larger apertures and higher transmissivity and deformability, compared with fracture network models having uniform aperture. As the second moment of aperture distribution increases, a fractured rock mass shows more discrete behavior and an REV is established in smaller value of second moment with much larger model size, compared with the models with uniform fracture aperture. When the fracture aperture pattern is more scattered, the overall permeability, Young’s modulus and mechanical strength change significantly. The effect of stress on permeability and fluid flow patterns in fractured rock is significant and can lead to the existence or non-existence of a permeability tensor. Stress changes the fluid flow patterns and can cause significant channeling and the permeability tensor, and REV may be destroyed or re-established at different applied stress conditions. With an increase in the confining stress on the DEM models, the strength is increased. Compared with the Hoek-Brown criterion, the Mohr-Coulomb strength envelope provides a better fit to the results of numerical biaxial compression tests, with significant changes of the strength characteristic parameters occurring when the second moment of the aperture distribution is increased. / QC 20100702

Soil landscape characterization into landform elements for precision agriculture has become an important issue. As soil properties and crop yields change over the landscape, delineating landform elements as a basis for site-specific application of crop inputs has become a reality. Two different methods of delineating landform elements from agricultural fields were tested and compared. The first method delineated landform elements from digital elevation maps with the use of the LandMapR(tm) software, the second method delineated classes from IKONOS high resolution panchromatic images using an unsupervised classification algorithm. The LandMapR(tm) model delineated landform elements from true elevation data collected in the field and was considered the reference dataset to which the image classification maps were compared to. The IKONOS imagery was processed using a combination of one filtering algorithm and one unsupervised classification method prior to being compared to the classified DEM. A total of 20 filtering algorithms and two unsupervised methods were used for each of the five study sites. The study sites consisted of four agricultural fields covered with crop stubble and one field in summer fallow. Image classification accuracy assessment was reported as overall, producer’s and user’s accuracy as well as Kappa statistic. Results showed that filtering algorithms and classification methods had no effects on image classification accuracies. Highest classification accuracy of image map to landform element map comparison achieved for all study sites was 17.9 %. Classification accuracy was affected by the heterogeneity of the ground surface cover found in each field. However, the classification accuracy of the fallow field was not superior to the stubble fields. / May 2006

Results of the investigation has been presented to derive digital elevation models of forest areas for the determination of the parallax measuring accuracy from AATE (Adaptive Automatic Terrian Extraction) with the PCI software Geomatica. It has been used the informations from the threefold overlaps of aerial stereoscopic pairs. The parallax measuring errors on forest areas are three times larger than on the arable and pasturelands. It has been shown that the third dimension can be used for the derivative of crown of tree profiles and their roughness and the rates of timber growth can be derived with sufficiently high accuracy from the repeatability flying.

<p>In this thesis, fractured rock masses are treated asequivalent continua for large-scale analyses of rockengineering projects. Systematic developments are made for thedetermination of equivalent mechanical and hydraulic propertiesof fractured rock masses using a hybrid discrete fracturenetwork - distinct element method (DFN-DEM) approach. Thedetermined equivalent properties are then used for a far-fieldfinite element analysis of the thermo-mechanical impacts on thestress, deformation and permeability of fractured rockssurrounding a hypothetical geological repository of nuclearwaste. The geological data were extracted from the results ofan extensive site investigation programme at Sellafield, UK,conducted by Nirex UK Ltd.</p><p>The scale dependencies of the hydraulic and mechanicalproperties were investigated by using multiple realizations ofthe fracture system geometry with increasing model sizes untilproperly defined hydraulic and mechanical representativeelementary volumes (REVs) were reached. The validity of thesecond order permeability tensor and the fourth-ordermechanical compliance tensor were tested for continuum analysesat larger scales. The REV was determined to be around 5 m formechanical and hydraulic data in this study.</p><p>Analysis of the stress-dependent mechanical and hydraulicproperties shows that the effect of rock stresses is crucial.The elastic moduli increase significantly with the increase ofstress and an empirical equation of stress-dependent elasticmodulus is suggested based on results of numerical experiments.Calculations of the Poisson's ratios suggest greater valuesthan are normally assumed in practice. Depending on the stateof stress, permeability decreases or increases with increasingcompressive stress. Stress-induced flow channeling effect iscaptured by numerical modeling for the first time and detailedmechanisms of shear dilation of fractures are provided. Basedon the numerical experiments, a set of empirical equations wassuggested for the stress-dependent permeability, consideringboth normal deformation and shear dilation of fractures.</p><p>Thermo-mechanical impact on the performance of ahypothetical repository at a far-field scale (5 km by 1 km) wasinvestigated with the stress-dependent equivalent propertiesdetermined at the REV scale. This analysis shows thatmechanical responses vary significantly depending on how themechanical properties were determined. The change ofpermeability due to the thermal loading is, however, notsignificant in this particular case.</p><p>The thesis provides a framework for systematic analysis oflarge-scale engineering applications in fractured rock masses,such as geological repositories of nuclear wastes.</p><p><b>Keyword:</b>Fractured rock masses, Equivalent Continuum,Discrete Fracture Network (DFN), Distinct Element Method (DEM),Finite Element Method (FEM), Nuclear Waste Disposal, CoupledThermo-Hydro-Mechanical Processes</p>