This paper proposes a general convex framework for the identification of switched linear systems. The proposed framework uses over-parameterization to avoid solving the otherwise combinatorially forbidding identification problem, and takes the form of a least-squares problem with a sum-of-norms regularization, a generalization of the ℓ1-regularization. The regularization constant regulates the complexity and is used to trade off the fit and the number of submodels. / <p>Funding Agencies|Swedish foundation for strategic research in the center MOVIII||Swedish Research Council in the Linnaeus center CADICS||European Research Council|267381|Sweden-America Foundation||Swedish Science Foundation||</p>

During the last three decades there has been an increased influx of refugees and immigrants into Scandinavia. The overall aim of this thesis was primarily to improve our knowledge of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment need, both normative and self-perceived, in adolescents of varying geographic origin. A further aim was to determine whether any differences with respect to perception of general appearance and psychosocial well-being were related to geographic origin. Papers I and II concerned self perceived and normative orthodontic treatment need. About 500 12-13 year-old subjects, stratified into different groups: A-Sweden, B-Eastern/Southeastern Europe, C-Asia and D-other countries, answered a questionnaire and underwent clinical examination by the author. In paper III the association between the two variables in papers I and II was investigated. Paper IV was a follow up study, at 18-19 years of age, of the relationship between geographic origin and prevalence of malocclusion, self-perceived treatment need, temporomandibular symptoms and psychosocial wellbeing. In Paper V a qualitative study of 19-20 year old subjects was conducted, to identify the strategies they had adopted to handle the issue of persisting poor dental aesthetics. The main findings were that at 12-13 years of age, immigrant subjects had a lower perceived orthodontic treatment need than subjects of Swedish background. Girls of Swedish background had the highest self perceived treatment need, whilst girls of non-Swedish background were most concerned that fixed appliance therapy would be painful. In a few of the clinical variables measured at 12-13 years of age, the Swedish group exhibited the greatest space deficiency and irregularity in both the maxillary and mandibular anterior segments and greater overjet, compared to the Eastern/Southeastern European and Asian groups. The clinical implications were negligible. The orthodontic treatment need according to “Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need - Dental HealthComponent” (IOTN-DHC) grades 4 and 5, ranged from 30 to 40 percent, without any inter-group differences. There were strong associations between subjects perceiving a need for orthodontic treatment and 6IOTN-DHC grades 4 and 5, anterior crossbite and avoiding smiling because they were self-conscious about their teeth. At the age of 18-19 years, the frequency of malocclusion was similar in all groups. Subjects of Asian origin had a higher self-perceived orthodontic treatment need than their Swedish counterparts and a higher frequency of headache than those of Eastern/Southeastern European origin. Psychological wellbeing was reduced in nearly one quarter of the sample, more frequently in girls than boys. No association was found between self-perceived orthodontic treatment need and psychological wellbeing. The theory “Being under the pressure of social norms” was generated in Paper V, and it can be applied to improve our understanding of young adults who have adjusted to living with poor dental aesthetics and also aid to identify those who are not as well-adjusted and would probably benefit from treatment. Undisclosed dental fear is an important barrier to acceptance of orthodontic treatment in early adolescence. Despite demographic changes due to immigration, no major change in the prevalence of malocclusion and normative orthodontic treatment need has been disclosed. This does not apply to adolescents and adults who immigrated at an older age.

The purpose of this study is to discuss how journalists think about the interaction with the audience in social media and the fact that it can make the traditional audience feel excluded. The study shows how journalists on P4 Kalmar is experiencing audience interaction in social media and describes how aware the journalists are about the digital divide. The results show that all of our interviewed journalists think that the interaction with the audience through social media works well and that there is awareness among journalists about the digital divide. The results also show that many of the interviewed journalists had not reflected on that parts of the audience can feel excluded by the interaction taking place in social media, but some of them could understand if parts of the audience felt that way. We consider our study as part of a research field on journalist’s interactivity with the audience through different types of media, but also as source of inspiration for future research on how the digital media becomes one with the community.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how young girls reason about norms and attitudes towards female sexuality. Through a qualitative research approach ten girls in grade 9 has discussed in two focus-groups on what is typically female, the ideal images of the ultimate woman as well as what is considered to be characteristic of female sexuality. The results were analyzed using Tina Mattson's theory of intersectionality, Beverly Skeggs theory of respectability and Göran Burenhults thoughts about biology and sexuality. Some of the main findings are that the girls in the study associate femininity primarily with external attributes and beauty and the ideal image of the woman is beautiful, yet independent. Further they describe different conditions for boys and girls to explore their own sexuality, and also that for girls the risk of being branded a "whore" is ever present. Moreover, the results reflect an overall heteronormativity and that ethnicity and culture play a role in how girls relate to the topic.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vilka hinder och motsättningar som rådgivare och forskare upplever i forskningskommersialiseringsprocessen inom högskolenära inkubatorer. Studien bör ses som en förstudie för att i ett senare skede kunna skapa en effektiv innovationsprocessmodell för högskolenära inkubatorer. Uppsatsens frågeställningar har undersökts ur ett innovationstekniskt perspektiv med hjälp av teorier om bland annat inkubatorer, innovationsprocesser och akademiskt entreprenörskap. Resultatet visar att det finns ett antal kulturkrockar som medför risk för att rådgivare och forskare talar förbi varandra. Andra hinder och motsättningar i forskningskommersialiseringsprocessen är skillnader i språkbruk, forskarens multipla roller, uppfattningar om arbetstempo samt att matchningen mellan entreprenör och forskare är svårorganiserad och tidskrävande. / This essay seeks to examine which obstacles and oppositions business coaches and researchersexperience in the research commercialization process in university business incubators. This studyshould be seen as a pre-study with the intention of contributing to later on building a newinnovation process model for university business incubators. Essay questions have been examinedfrom the perspective of innovation technology and are linked to theories about incubators,innovation processes and academic entrepreneurship. The result is that there is a number of culturalclashes that brings along a risk for misunderstandings between business coaches and researchers.Other obstacles and oppositions in the research commercialization process is differences inlinguistic use, the multiple roles of the researcher, interpretation of working pace and also that thematching between researcher and entrepreneur is time-consuming and hard to organize.

This essay aims to examine what subject positions are possible within the discourse of relationship anarchy. Through semi-structured interviews with four people who define themselves as relationship anarchists I've made a discourse analysis to determine how these relationship anarchists explain what, in the discourse they’re in, is described as an relationship anarchistic way of being, what isn’t and how they relate to this. Relationship anarchy is described as an ideology based on freedom. It is about the right to define their relationships as they like, as something constantly changing and that does not hold a specific value based on its label. But it is apparent that the freedom is relative when it occurs in a discourse where other standards are created. Based on these standards, both the hegemonic discourse, where being a couple is the relationship standard, and the counter-hegemonic relationship anarchist discourse, the respondents are positioning themselves as something different from that, and that their way of practicing relationships are based on responsibility and communication. Based on this I find that there are three possible subject positions within relationship anarchy: the idealogical, the player and the responsible.

This research focuses on the methods of introduction into BDSM, role identification, and the management of private information as it relates to BDSM. The method utilized for this study was in-depth interviews of fifteen current participants in the BDSM subculture. It is primarily through peer association, sexual scripting, and impression management that new members are introduced, learn their role, and manage their information within the BDSM subculture. It was found that peer association is the primary method of socializing members. Role identification is accomplished through both a method of sexual scripting as well as complimentary differentiation, the process by which a stimulus is transmitted and received, and subsequent stimuli are transmitted back, reinterpreted and responded to. It is through impression management and stigma management that members learn to maintain the privacy of their participation. Future research should include additional analysis with a larger sample size to determine if the current findings will continue to hold true.

Sexual assault of women is a well-documented phenomenon in U.S. samples, particularly on college campuses. Innovative approaches to prevention encourage men and women to intervene as bystanders in sexual assault situations; however, bystander behavior is notoriously inhibited by various situational factors. This study used a mixed-method approach to better understand the role of situational factors in college men’s bystander behavioral intentions in a party gang rape situation. The first aim was to develop an experimental paradigm using vignette methodology to manipulate the amount of masculinity threat present in a party gang rape situation, which could then be used to explore the effect of masculinity threat on men’s bystander behavioral intentions. Although I was unable to heighten masculinity threat, findings indicate that a previous relationship with the offenders results in men expecting a typical male college bystander to experience less negative affect in the situation. The second aim was to use the vignettes to examine whether men’s perception of the rape-supportive and traditional masculine gender role norms among the offenders involved, as well as indicators of masculinity threat, would predict men’s bystander behavioral intentions. Boding well for bystander intervention programs, the majority (98%) of men reported intention to intervene to stop the assault to some degree, although this intention was lower for men who perceived the party gang rape situation to result in more negative affect for a typical college male bystander. Data depicts the party gang rape situation as one in which masculine norms and masculinity threat are salient; however, these aspects did not play a role in intentions to intervene. Eighteen percent of men reported some intention to join in the assault, which was predicted by perceived masculine norms and men’s demographic characteristics. Findings point to the importance of culturally competent programming and the utility of incorporating a social norms approach in bystander intervention programs. Programs may benefit from addressing concerns about retaliation, particularly as a function of men’s relationships to the offenders. A limitation is the exclusion of individual difference variables to explore whether men’s own attitudes interact with situational factors to predict bystander behavioral intentions.

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that although Laurie Anderson’s performance works are technologically driven and often involve gender play, seemingly transgressing the gender binary, ultimately she reinscribes traditional gender norms. On the one hand, Anderson has been a pioneer in the use of electronic technology, which is significant considering she is a woman and electronics is a male-dominated arena; on the other hand, her ambiguously- gendered cyborg persona, which does often raise awareness about gender stereotypes, ultimately reinscribes traditional gender norms. Although I consider these issues as they pertain specifically to Anderson, the significance of this project lies in the broader picture. Are there limits to gender performativity? Is it possible to break traditional gender norms? Must gender norms constantly reinscribe themselves regardless of new technology? As gender norms are deeply rooted in society, they are difficult to escape, as Anderson’s work demonstrates.

Today’s youth have been exposed to more gambling-related media than previous generations, and they have grown up in an era in which states not only sanction but also run and promote gambling enterprises. Social Learning Theory proposes that one can develop new attitudes or expectancies about a specific behavior by watching others engage in that behavior, and that the media is one avenue through which one can develop new expectancies (Bandura, 2001). In addition, the Theory of Reasoned Action proposes that one’s behaviors are influenced directly by both subjective norms and attitudes (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). A mixed methods explanatory design was used to test a modified version of the Theory of Reasoned Action in which subjective norms and gambling-related media were hypothesized to have an effect on gambling behaviors directly and indirectly through both positive and negative expectancies. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses, and semi-standardized interviews were used to help explain the results of the quantitative analyses and provide a richer and more accurate interpretation of the data. The hypothesized model was partially supported: the model was a good fit with the female college student data, accounting for 27.8% of variance in female student gambling behaviors, and it fit the male college student data reasonably well, accounting for 35.2% of variance in male student gambling behaviors. Results indicated that perceived subjective norms were more important for female college students. Results also indicated that exposure to gambling-related media has a direct positive association with both male and female college student gambling behaviors, and that exposure to gambling-related media has an indirect, positive association with male college student behaviors through positive expectancies. However, exposure to gambling-related media is not associated with positive expectancies about gambling for female college students. Data from the qualitative interviews supported the findings from the qualitative analyses and provided some clues about the progression from non-problematic to problematic behaviors, which may inform future research in this area.