Modeling articulated objects made of rigid layered parts used to populate 3D scenes in video games or movie production is a complex and time-consuming task for digital artists. This work proposes a sketch-based approach to efficiently model 3D layered articulated objects, such as animals with rigid shells and armors, in annotating a single 2D photo manually, and eventually fabricate it from automatically computed 2D patterns. In considering symmetrical objects seen under a 3/4 view, and an- notating salient features such as extremities of the rigid articulated parts as a mix of circular and Bézier curve, this approach is able to retrieve depth information, hidden parts, and rotation-articulated structure. The resulting shape consists of a set of quadrangulated polygons that may be flattened in 2D. Details such as ears, tails, and legs were further models using dedicated annotations. The accuracy of the reconstruction has been validated on synthetic cylindrical examples, and its ro- bustness in reconstructing a 3D model of armor, armadillo, and shrimp. The latter was finally fabricated using paper. / Att modellera artikulerade objekt gjorda av styva delar lagda i lager som används till att fylla 3D-scener i datorspel och filmskapande är en komplex och tidsödande uppgift för digitala konstnärer. Den här undersökningen föreslår ett skiss-baserat tillvägagångssätt att effektivt modellera artikulerade 3D-objekt lagda i lager, såsom djur med styva skal och rustning, i att annotera ett 2D-foto manuellt, och eventuellt skapa det från automatiskt beräknade 2D-mönster. Hänsyn är tagen till symmetriska objekt sedda under en 3/4 vy, och annotera framträdande egenskapersåsom extremiteter av de styva artikulerade delarna som en blandning avcirkulära och Bézier-kurvor, kan det här tillvägagångssättet hämta information om djup, gömda delar och rotations-artikulerade strukturer. Den slutliga formen består av ett set av fyrsidiga polygoner som kan bli tillplattade i 2D. Detaljer såsom öron, svansar och ben där framtida modeller använder dedikerade annotationer. Noggrannheten av rekonstruktionen har blivit validerad på syntetiska cylindriska exempeloch dess robusthet i att rekonstruera en 3D-modell av en rustning, ett bältdjur och en räka. Den senare skapades slutligen med hjälp av papper.

The percentage of low-grade material composing the annual hardwood lumber production in the U.S. is on the rise. As a result, finding markets for low-grade and low-value lumber has been identified as a top priority by researchers and industry associations. Computer simulation has been used by the manufacturing industry for several decades as a decision support tool. Simulation programs are commonly used and relied on by researchers and the industry alike to conduct research on various aspects of the rough mill from processing to recovery efficiency. This research used the ROMI-RIP and ROMI-CROSS simulation programs to determine specific conditions that led to optimal part yield when processing No. 3A Common, 4/4-thickness, kiln-dried, red oak lumber in rip-first and crosscut-first operations. Results of the simulations indicated that cutting bills with narrow part widths and short part lengths are conducive to obtaining optimal part yield while processing No. 3A Common lumber. Furthermore, it was found that as the percent of No. 3A Common lumber in a grade mix increases, part yields and sawing efficiencies decrease. The results also indicated that higher part yields will be obtained when processing short-length No. 3A Common lumber between 6 and 8 feet in length. / Master of Science

LD2668 .T4 1954 R67 / Master of Science

This thesis investigates reading for pleasure in Britain from a variety of perspectives, in the context of popular concerns surrounding levels of readership, particularly among young people, and consists of four substantive chapters. The first chapter reports how book sales and library circulation have changed, and what predicts readership in the Taking Part survey. I show that claims surrounding changes in reading in Britain may be overstated, although the number of issues from British libraries has fallen, and that while the predictors of readership are largely as expected, there are some important results surrounding social status, and ethnic differences in children. The second chapter investigates changes in young people’s reading behaviour, using the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. I show that changes in young people’s reading cannot be explained through a displacement effects account, and that socioeconomic differences in readership do not increase as panel members get older. In the third chapter, I investigate whether the relationship between reading for pleasure and educational attainment can be explained through cultural capital, and extend this with occupational attainment, using the 1970 British Cohort Study. I show a relationship between reading for pleasure and occupational attainment net of education, and I show that this relationship seems to have a cultural dimension beyond a cognitive effect account. In the fourth chapter, I show that the relationship between leisure in adoles- cence and educational and occupational attainment is not driven purely by highbrow activities, as on a certain understanding of Bourdieu: in particular, I show a relationship between occupational attainment and middlebrow activities.

Lagen om företagsrekonstruktion infördes i svensk rätt med syfte att ge företag med god affärsidé möjlighet att bli lönsamt igen efter att ha hamnat i en ekonomisk kris. Det handlar således om företag som är nödvändiga för marknaden. Gäldenärsföretaget får vid företagsrekonstruktion hjälp av en rekonstruktör som utses av domstol och vars uppgift bland annat är att försöka nå en ekonomisk uppgörelse med företagets borgenärer. Rekonstruktören har således en central roll i rekonstruktionsförfarandet. På senare tid har det blivit alltmer vanligt att rekonstruktören delegerar uppgifter till utomstående parter som inte blivit utsedda av rätten. Det förekommer även att rekonstruktören sätter annan i sitt ställe. Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse för rekonstruktörens möjlighet att delegera samt avhända sig uppdrag till annan och hurdet förhåller sig till lagen. Anledningen till att vi valde att skriva om detta ämne grundar sig på att vi finner situationen problematisk i de fall lagen skulle kringgås. Även en kortare jämförelse med konkursförvaltare och sysslomannaskap har gjorts för att hämta ledning i frågan. Arbetet är utformat efter den rättsdogmatiska metoden för att utreda gällande rätt. Även den empiriska metoden har använts i form av intervjuer med olika yrkesverksamma personer. Vår slutsats är att det idag finns företag på marknaden som har en affärsidé att rekonstruera gäldenärsföretag i form av rollen som mellanman i förhållande till rekonstruktör och gäldenär. En sådan verksamhet bedrivs i strid med lagen om företagsrekonstruktion då lagen enligt vår mening inte ger utrymme för att anlita ett så kallat ombud för gäldenärens räkning.

Abstract   Title: Strategies and tactics to stimulate Social enterprise business expansion-Swedish experience   Level: Final assignment for Master’s Degree in Business Administration   Author: GU Yanhao   Supervisor: Maria Fregidou-Malama   Examiner: Lars Ekstrand   Date: 2013-10-17   Aim: This study aims to identify elements which can affect social enterprise business expansion. Based on study, suggestions for social enterprises to achieve long term development are exhibited.   Method: This research is a qualitative research based on case study. Relay on previous knowledge about social enterprises, I formulate questions which serve my study’s aim. There are three companies be selected in my case company list. Those three companies are divided in two categories: one type is social enterprise consultant company whose mission is to aid regional social enterprise to make health business operation; another type is social enterprise. There are four interview used in the research to ensure that the research result contains different perspectives and opinions.   Result & Conclusions: This study depicts an overall view about social enterprise business expansion. Certain suggestions have been listed relay on the combination of previous literature result with case studies. In the study, various elements have been determined which have significant impacts on social enterprise business expansion operation. They are divided in two segments, internal and external. Internal aspects include human resource and social entrepreneur. External factors include third Part Company, non-profit charity groups and authority. Social enterprise who wants business expansion needs to integrate different resources from various social institutions. Meanwhile to enhance internal product capability as well as competitive advantage social enterprise needs to more emphasize on social entrepreneurs’ characteristics.   Suggestion for further research: Further study should emphasize on various sizes of social enterprises in multi-stakeholders co-operation model. This study mainly focuses on SMEs type of SE, but with the time passing by, due to SE can offer solutions to social crisis and economic crisis, SE will be popular, and this idea will spread quickly. Therefore, more and more large size SE will emerge which needs guide and help with business maintaining and expansion plans.   Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to three aspects. First, this study analyses the present situation of social enterprise, exhibit internal and external factors which affect social enterprise to make business expansion. It offers social enterprise a path to implement business expansion, and help social enterprise to identify its potential capabilities which could help them achieve long term development. Secondly, during this work, author explains the ideology of social enterprise, what are its contributions to society as well as the reason why it exists. Since the results offer an explicitly structured conclusion, they are valuable information to society as well as local municipality to re-considerate the important role social enterprise can play. Last not the least, this research presents a new model of key elements for social enterprise business expansion. It is critical and crucial for further research in academic study.

This research examines the impact of work-family reconciliation policies on gender inequality in the labour market, and on the division of paid work and care in the household. Policies designed to help families meet their work and care responsibilities have undergone considerable reform over the last fifteen years. The research aims to understand how this has affected the way that earning and caring are divided between mothers and fathers, and the implications of this for mothers’ labour market outcomes. The research compares two cohorts; the National Child Development Study (NCDS) tracks individuals born in 1958, and the British Cohort Study (BCS) those born in 1970. These cohorts experienced the key childbearing years of their early thirties on either side of a fairly sharp discontinuity in work-family reconciliation policy. The research aims to link this difference in policy environments to differences the way that couples in each cohort divide paid work and care, and in the labour market behaviour of mothers and the penalties they face when they are in employment. Logistic regression models are employed to quantify the magnitude and significance of the impact of cohort membership on the work and care outcomes of interest, controlling for other variables that affect these outcomes. Some case-level analysis of the data is also carried out; individuals representing typical family arrangements are highlighted, to demonstrate the relevance of the theoretical model and assist with hypothesis generation. Case stories illustrate the interplay of individual circumstances with policy and other external factors, in a way that is difficult to achieve using statistical methods. A key finding is that the younger cohort is less likely to report equal sharing of childcare than the older cohort, even after controlling for other factors that might influence the division of labour. This is also in spite of the finding that mothers in the younger cohort are more likely to be in work. This suggests progress to some extent, in that mothers perhaps find it easier to be in employment. However at the same time it represents a regressive step at the household level, as they not only continue to shoulder the majority of the care work, but are even more inclined to do so. Analysis of pay and status gaps also yields interesting results. The findings suggest that the penalty to motherhood in terms of labour market status accrues by virtue of the interrupted human capital accumulation that results from periods out of the labour market or working part time. However, the motherhood penalty in pay persists even after controlling for other wage determinants, suggesting that these gaps are a direct result of motherhood itself and not of the labour market behaviour changes that occur as a result. The research contributes theoretically and substantively to the wider literature on this topic. It brings together human capital perspectives with theories of gender, power and resources, and of the impact of policy on family life, and uses Amartya Sen’s capability approach to reconcile and move forward these ideas. It also contributes to the practical understanding of the impact of policy on the way that families reconcile work and care, and in particular the implications of policy for gender equality. Finally, its methodological contribution is in the use of a narrative approach to large-scale quantitative data, alongside more conventional statistical techniques, in order to further exploit the detailed, longitudinal data available.

This sociological study aims to understand full-time students’ decision to work part-time during their studies. The study also aims to understand the impact part-time work has on full-time students student life and career decisions. A qualiatative approach was used containing eight semi-structured interviews. The results were then analyzed with Hodkinson and Sparkes’ theory of careership and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, field and capital. The results of the study were thematised into following categories: prospects and impacts of positions; the complex relationship between studies and work and the significance of acquired resource. The study show that the decision made by the students to participate in a part-time work during studies could indeed be explained through habitus. It further shows how the student is influenced by positions and other players and institutions in their field. Different resources maintained in the different fields were then part of the decision to work part-time during studies. The majority of the interviewed had full student aid and still worked part-time. For some of the interviewed, the reason for not wanting full student aid could be explained through positions in the field. Some of the students also stressed the possibility to work part-time as a consequence of a lot of spare time as a result of how the lectures and other educational learning opportunities were formed. It then showed that students had a complex relation to maintain a combination of part-time work with their studies.

This thesis consists of four individual essays and an introduction chapter. The essays are in the field of multilevel analysis of economic data. The first essay estimates capitalisation effects of farm attributes, with a particular focus on single farm payments (SFP), into the price of farms. Using a sample of Swedish farm transactions sold all across the country, the results from a spatial multiple-membership model suggests that the local effect of SFP is negative while there is a positive between-region effect of SFP, on farm prices.   The second essay investigates the extent to which differences in the probability to exit from part-time unemployment to a full-time job can be accounted for by spatial contextual factors and individual characteristics. To correctly incorporate contextual effects, a multilevel analysis was applied to explore whether contextual factors account for differences in the probability of transition to full-time employment between individuals with different characteristics. The results indicate that there is a contextual effect and that there are some spatial spill-over effects from neighbouring municipalities.   The third essay investigates the determinants of educational attainment for third-generation immigrants and natives in Sweden. Using a mixed-effects model that includes unobserved family heterogeneity, for linked register data, the main result is that the effect of parent’s educational attainment is mainly due to the between-parental education effect of family income.   The fourth and last essay presents a new robust strategy for performance evaluation in the case of panel data that is based on routinely collected variables or indicators. The suggested strategy applies a cross-classified, mixed-effect model. The strategy is implemented in two illustrative empirical examples, and the robustness is investigated in a Monte Carlo study.

Title: Biomechanical reflection of the cervicocranial part during frontal impact Objectives: The aim of the work was to analyze in which parameters differs ATD from human participant during frontal impact. Characterize the head movement, compare maximal post impact head speed between ATD and human volunteers and defereneces between volunteer with eye control and without. Methods: Measuring was done with 8 volunteers and ATD (Manikin, 50th percentile man). For each volunteer were done two measurements, first without eye control and second with eye control. ATD was measured twice. It was recorded by Qualisys system, specifically by three optical cameras, on crash simulator. Results were processed in Qualisys Track Manager. There were tracked three markers, two on the body - forehead, shoulder and one on the sledge. Results: Results showed that speed of the head depends on eye control. Volunteer without eye control had higher post impact speed of head (4,94 m/s) than ATD (3,67 m/s) and volunteer with eye contact (3,19 m/s). Quite the same result was observed in change of distance between head and sledge after impact. There was higher value for volunteer without eye contact than for ATD. Keywords: Whiplash, frontal impact, Qualisys, crash simulator, cervicocranial part