The wave of mass protests in the Middle East and North Africa highlighted the crucial role of information communication technologies in mobilization and political change. Debate among scholars revolved around the Internet’s potential for toppling authoritarian regimes. However, rather than seeing the Arab Spring as a direct result of social media, this study examines how the online and offline media strategies converged, interacted, or prevailed within the various socioeconomic and political contexts. It looks at the purposes and functions of each medium, with a discussion of the dialectical relationship between them. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in Morocco, as well as a critical examination of the movement’s communications, this study contributes to the debate about the role of social media and the Arab Spring. It analyzes an Arab Spring movement that did not call for regime change, investigates relationships between the activists’ use of online and offline media, and examines the multiple forms of communication flows in meaning making and nation building within dominant and non-dominant Moroccan publics. Finally, the study explores how the February 20th movement’s communication approaches functioned within the historical, cultural, and sociopolitical context of Morocco in the present day. The findings show that the activists generally relied on the online social platforms to respond to state allegations against the movement, counter hegemonic practices of the state, and to mobilize followers both locally and internationally. While the online environment helped set the agenda for political discussion, it was also, unable, on its own, to mobilize the Moroccan people to the streets. Online platforms simply could not substitute for traditional offline communication, with the result that the activists had to utilize both online and offline communication channels. Dismissing the notion that a homogenous Moroccan communication strategy prevailed in the February 20th movement, the demographic and political contexts in specific cities played a major role in the choice of communication platforms or messages. The study found the activists relied on offline communication strategies, with a particular focus on aesthetic practices to mobilize the subaltern publics. Through implentation of various cultural and linguistic practices, the movement worked to reformulate the traditional concepts of nation and state, create a shared history of oppression and resistance, and envision a new era of participatory politics.

Traditional grocery shopping has been the only option for Swedish consumers to purchase groceries for a long time. However, the relatively new format, online grocery shopping is rapidly growing in popularity. Hence, consumers are presented with a completely new grocery shopping experience which has different advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this thesis is to explore which advantages and disadvantages consumers experience with offline, and online grocery shopping to answer the question why consumers chose to buy groceries online. A conceptual model has been developed based on earlier research on grocery shopping, consumer experience and the four dimensions of the marketing mix; product, place, price and promotion. Qualitative data has been collected from two focus groups and five semi-structured interviews to explore what advantages and disadvantages consumers experience connected to offline and online grocery shopping and to understand why consumers chose to buy groceries online. All respondents shared most of the experienced advantages of online grocery shopping. The main reasons why consumers chose to purchase groceries online was to save both time and effort. Moreover, consumers experienced that they saved money due to less spontaneous purchases and fewer shopping trips per week. Online grocery shopping is growing in popularity. Hence, this thesis gives insights relevant to practitioners and academics on why consumers experience a desire to purchase groceries online. The findings of this thesis could help online grocery retailers to respond more efficiently to consumers’ needs and preferences.

The retail industry is in a motion of fascinating developments, it can be currently alleged that it is one of the most innovating fields within research. Online retailing in particular has experienced major changes in recent years. However, these developments are slowing down as online retailing is entering a mature state. Online fashion companies now have to consider new strategies to further evolve their businesses. Innovative Online companies have taken action towards a multi-channel sales distribution strategy, some have even gone as far as adopting an omni-channel approach. With that statement, this study attempts to add different insights to the topic by focusing on the issue of online expanding offline from a company point of view. Empirical data included company and industry specialist interviews as well as a questionnaire that was used for pre-research and developing propositions. This resulted in three findings that involved both advantages and disadvantages in Online fashion retailers evolving offline. Firstly, whether or not an Online fashion company should expand offline depends entirely on the ambition level and type of company interviewed. Secondly, it can be concluded that Online fashion companies have the desire to keep their current business model, though they cannot continue with the same strategy in the long run. Lastly, if an offline presence is established, a traditional expansion strategy cannot be used, but innovative concepts are required (mixed realities). If this strategy is taken seriously, expanding offline could be the solution to reach a higher level of online retailing and company success. / Program: Master Programme in Fashion Management

The demand for computing power and performance in real-time embedded systems is continuously increasing since new customer requirements and more advanced features are appearing every day. To support these functionalities and handle them in a more efficient way, multi-core computing platforms are introduced. These platforms allow for parallel execution of tasks on multiple cores, which in addition to its benefits to the system's performance introduces a major problem regarding the timing predictability of the system. That problem is reflected in unpredictable inter-core interferences, which occur due to shared resources among the cores, such as the system bus. This thesis investigates the application of different optimization techniques for the offline scheduling of tasks on the individual cores, together with a global scheduling policy for the access to the shared bus. The main effort of this thesis focuses on optimizing the inter-core data propagation delays which can provide a new way of creating optimized schedules. For that purpose, Constraint Programming optimization techniques are employed and a Phased Execution Model of the tasks is assumed. Also, in order to enforce end-to-end timing constraints that are imposed on the system, job-level dependencies are generated prior and subsequently applied during the scheduling procedure. Finally, an experiment with a large number of test cases is conducted to evaluate the performance of the implemented scheduling approach. The obtained results show that the method is applicable for a wide spectrum of abstract systems with variable requirements, but also open for further improvement in several aspects.

<p>All mechanical systems with moving parts are affected by friction, including industrial robots. Being able to design an accurate friction model would further increase the performance of todays robots. Friction is a complex dynamic phenomena that is constantly changing depending on the state and environment of the robot. It is therefore beneficial to update the parameters of the friction model online. An estimate of the friction will be made using the feedback control signal with the help of a feedforward control scheme in a two axis simulation setup. The friction estimate is then used for an offline identification of three friction model parameters in a static Lugre friction model. Improvements on the identification will be done by introducing some shut-off rules that will improve the estimate. The normalized least mean square method (NLMS) will then be used to update the parameters online. A simulation of friction compensation with a fixed friction model, and with an adaptive friction model will be studied. The method will also be simulated using experimental data taken from a real industrial robot.</p>

The notions of community and identity are discussed and the various elements of each concept are analyzed in terms of their manifestation in physical and virtual spaces. A comparison of community and identity in physical and virtual spaces highlights the interdependent nature of these experiences in the intersection of these two spaces. Modern society functions through the use of technology that is ever increasing in speed and efficiency. We rely more and more on virtual technology as a tool to maintain relationships, perform various tasks, communicate and interact with others, and to manage our self-presentations. Thus, the fundamental experiences of community and identity must be studied in both online and offline contexts in order to determine how we can manipulate our use of technology for positive outcomes.

Two studies were devised to determine why the difference in manual aiming performance, between full vision and no vision, is decreased for a randomized visual feedback schedule. In study one, aiming accuracy and precision was assessed for up to four trials in the same vision condition, following a switch in visual feedback availability. In experiment one, visual feedback availability was uncertain; while in experiment two, certainty was provided. Results of both experiments revealed that the precision of the first trial immediately following the switch in visual condition was reminiscent of the trial that preceded it, even when performed under different visual conditions. For study two, the inter-trial interval was evaluated by extending the interval to five seconds. Results indicated no reminiscence effect. Overall, we suggest that when the inter-trial trial is brief, individuals rely on offline visual information from the preceding trial to plan the subsequent movement, regardless of certainty.

Two studies were devised to determine why the difference in manual aiming performance, between full vision and no vision, is decreased for a randomized visual feedback schedule. In study one, aiming accuracy and precision was assessed for up to four trials in the same vision condition, following a switch in visual feedback availability. In experiment one, visual feedback availability was uncertain; while in experiment two, certainty was provided. Results of both experiments revealed that the precision of the first trial immediately following the switch in visual condition was reminiscent of the trial that preceded it, even when performed under different visual conditions. For study two, the inter-trial interval was evaluated by extending the interval to five seconds. Results indicated no reminiscence effect. Overall, we suggest that when the inter-trial trial is brief, individuals rely on offline visual information from the preceding trial to plan the subsequent movement, regardless of certainty.

Metal deposition is an additive layered manufacturing process that deposits molten metal droplets on a substrate and by repeating this process layer by layer, a complex shaped 3D geometry can be manufactured. In this thesis, the metal deposition process is performed by a robot with a wire feeder tool and a laser as energy source to melt the metal wire. The robot programming for robotized metal deposition process can be completely automated by computer aided robotics software. University West is currently developing an add-in application in a computer aided robotics software, Process Simulate, that is capable of programming the robotized metal deposition process. The first goal of this thesis was to verify the up to now developed software and the process from CAD drawing down to robot code. Another goal was to find and implement an algorithm that will reduce the number of locations on a circular arc to three locations. The algorithm to minimize the locations must be capable of changing all the different curvature paths to linear and circular arc motions which are easy to translate to robot code. The user should be able to decide the fitting precision of the approximated motion path to the original path. A real robot cell setup is modelled in Process Simulate. This lets Process Simulate generate the correct robot code for that specific cell.  Since each robot cell has its own unique setup, a custom script will be developed that changes the universal robot code, that Process Simulate generates, to the custom robot code required in this specific robot cell. The software is improved and tested from CAD drawing down to robot code but still needs to be debugged more and needs implementation of some non-existing features.

All mechanical systems with moving parts are affected by friction, including industrial robots. Being able to design an accurate friction model would further increase the performance of todays robots. Friction is a complex dynamic phenomena that is constantly changing depending on the state and environment of the robot. It is therefore beneficial to update the parameters of the friction model online. An estimate of the friction will be made using the feedback control signal with the help of a feedforward control scheme in a two axis simulation setup. The friction estimate is then used for an offline identification of three friction model parameters in a static Lugre friction model. Improvements on the identification will be done by introducing some shut-off rules that will improve the estimate. The normalized least mean square method (NLMS) will then be used to update the parameters online. A simulation of friction compensation with a fixed friction model, and with an adaptive friction model will be studied. The method will also be simulated using experimental data taken from a real industrial robot.