A brand consists of more parts than the visible features such as names and logotypes. No matter in what industry a company is acting the brand in itself determines if the company will succeed or not. A successful brand is extremely hard to copy since two exactly similar brands do not exist. With a strong brand you create positive associations and form emotional relationships with customers. The purpose with this paper was to investigate how banks in the Swedish market explain their brand identity and how they use their brand identity when positioning themselves. Furthermore the authors have investigated the differences in that matter between two of the leading banks in Sweden. This was done through a comparative case study with Nordea and SEB who are two of the leading banks in the Swedish market. A qualitative method has been used to this thesis and in-depth interviews have been conducted to collect information that was suitable for our stated problem. The results showed that both Nordea and SEB explain their brand identity according to the different aspects that the theory states and they understand the importance of brand identity. When building brand identity it is important to be aware of the different parts that the brand identity consists of. Both banks try to develop the different parts of the brand identity but there are differences in the amount of resources they put in each part. When positioning themselves, both Nordea and SEB are answering the questions in the theory concerning positioning and positioning a brand. The theory implies that the core identities are the foundation when positioning and both Nordea and SEB are well aware of their core identities and they are using them when positioning their brand.

The main purpose of this thesis is to utilize landmarks with known coordinates and the distance between a target and landmarks to establish an objective function, and to optimize the objective function by using unconstrained direct search method to estimate the coordinate of target. A number of nodes in the sensor network serve as the landmarks according to landmark selection algorithm. Since the landmark selection algorithm is time-consuming, a simplified scheme that would improve the algorithm is to reuse the distance information that had been computed. Due to the limit of transmission range between nodes, utilizing the shortest-path distance estimation model can quickly estimate the distance between the target and non-adjacent landmarks. The main conception of the model is combining the manner of multi-hop with the shortest-path model. Due to the possible errors in distance estimation, the error per hop is considered for reducing the estimation errors. It will obviously reduce the localization errors of the target. The thesis utilizes unconstrained direct search method to optimize the objective functions such as the simplex evolutionary method (SEM), the cyclic coordinate method(CCM) and the Powell method (PM). CCM and PM will tackle the problem of finding the forward length along search direction. Hence, two schemes that combine CCM or PM with SEM are proposed to resolve the problem. Finally, simulations are conducted to generate random some nodes in an known area and to select landmarks from the nodes. Let the target be assigned in the area and do performance analysis of positioning algorithm. We discuss the performance of the positioning algorithm by considering the error per hop approach. We also discuss the effects on positioning by changing some variables such as the number of nodes, the number of landmarks and the transmission range of nodes. It is seen that the positioning errors will be reduced in examples where the number of landmark are four or the number of node are four hundred. The performance of positioning becomes accurate by reducing the distance estimation error.

The purpose of this research was to investigate how the German market is segmented and what the German consumers perceive of Nelo’s positioning by assessment of what the Agents corroborate. The insights derived from it points out if Nelo’s image is rightly perceived in the German market.   In this paper a qualitative approach is used. Data collection method used was both interviews and documentation. Telephone interviews were conducted with three different agents operating in southern Germany. The secondary data the authors used were articles and books. Since it is a research based on a qualitative approach, the theories and the findings will be synthesized to make implication regarding the study.   The investigation has shown that the target segment for Nelo in Germany are the middle to high income group in the age 40+, but it is shown that the products offered by Nelo don’t attract this segment in southern Germany. Though product quality is good the design and material used, does not fit with the target customer rendering the brand unknown. Nelo is not well positioned in the target market because it has not been successful in communicating a clear image. To conclude Nelo´s position is not consistent with their image.

Gene regulatory networks are dynamic and continuously remodelled in response to internal and external stimuli. To understand how these networks alter cellular phenotype in response towards specific challenges, my first project sought to develop a methodology to explore how the strength of genetic interactions changes according to environmental context. Defined as sensitivity-based epistasis, the results obtained using this methodology were compared to those generated under the conventional fitness-based approach. By integrating this information with gene expression profiles and physical interaction datasets, we demonstrate that sensitivity-based epistasis specifically highlights genetic interactions with a dynamic component. Having investigated how an external stimulus regulates network dynamics, we next sought to understand of how genome positioning impacts transcription kinetics. This feat was accomplished by cloning two gene-reporter constructs, representing contrasting promoter architectures, across 128 loci along chromosome III in S.Cerevisiae. By comparing expression and noise measurements for promoters with “covered” and “open” chromatin structures against a stochastic model for eukaryotic gene expression, we demonstrate that while promoter structure regulates burst frequency (the rate of promoter activation), positional effects in turn appear to primarily modulate burst size (the number of mRNA produced per gene activation event). By integrating these datasets with information describing global chromatin structure, we suggest that the acetylation state of chromatin regulates burst size across the genome. Interestingly, this hypothesis is further supported by nicotinamide-mediated inhibition of Sir2 which would appear to modulate burst size globally across the genome.

Gene regulatory networks are dynamic and continuously remodelled in response to internal and external stimuli. To understand how these networks alter cellular phenotype in response towards specific challenges, my first project sought to develop a methodology to explore how the strength of genetic interactions changes according to environmental context. Defined as sensitivity-based epistasis, the results obtained using this methodology were compared to those generated under the conventional fitness-based approach. By integrating this information with gene expression profiles and physical interaction datasets, we demonstrate that sensitivity-based epistasis specifically highlights genetic interactions with a dynamic component. Having investigated how an external stimulus regulates network dynamics, we next sought to understand of how genome positioning impacts transcription kinetics. This feat was accomplished by cloning two gene-reporter constructs, representing contrasting promoter architectures, across 128 loci along chromosome III in S.Cerevisiae. By comparing expression and noise measurements for promoters with “covered” and “open” chromatin structures against a stochastic model for eukaryotic gene expression, we demonstrate that while promoter structure regulates burst frequency (the rate of promoter activation), positional effects in turn appear to primarily modulate burst size (the number of mRNA produced per gene activation event). By integrating these datasets with information describing global chromatin structure, we suggest that the acetylation state of chromatin regulates burst size across the genome. Interestingly, this hypothesis is further supported by nicotinamide-mediated inhibition of Sir2 which would appear to modulate burst size globally across the genome.

Finding ones way in unknown and unfamiliar environments is a common task. A number of tools ranging from paper maps to location-based services have been introduced to assist human navigation. Undoubtedly, car navigation systems can be considered the most successful example of location based services that widely gained user acceptance. However the concept of car navigation is not always (perhaps rarely) suitable for pedestrian navigation. Moreover, precise localization of moving objects indoors is not possible due to the absence of an absolute positioning method such as GPS. These make accurate indoor tracking and navigation an interesting problem to explore. Many of the methods of spatial analysis popular in outdoor applications can be used indoors. In particular, generation of the indoor navigation network can be an effective solution for a) improving the navigation experience inside complex indoor structures and b) enhancing the analysis of the indoor tracking data collected with existing positioning solutions. Such building models should be based on a graph representation and consist of the number of ‘nodes’ and ‘edges’, where ‘nodes’ correspond to the central position of the room and ‘edge’ represents the medial axis of the hallway polygons, which physically connects these rooms. Similar node-links should be applied stairs and elevators to connect building floors. To generate this model, I selected the campus of University of Saskatchewan as the study area and presented a method that creates an indoor navigation network using ESRI ArcGIS products. First, the proposed method automatically extracts geometry and topology of campus buildings and computes the distances among all entities to calculate the shortest path between them. The system navigates through the University campus and it helps locating classrooms, offices, or facilities. The calculation of the route is based on the Dijkstra algorithm, but could employ any network navigation algorithm. To show the advantage of the generated network, I present results of a study conducted in conjunction with the department of Computer Science. An experiment that included 37 participants was designed to collect the tracking data on a university campus to demonstrate how the incorporation of the indoor navigation model can improve the analysis of the indoor movement data. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that the generated indoor network can be applied to raw positioning data in order to improve accuracy, as well as be employed as a stand-alone tool for enhancing of the route guidance on a university campus, and by extension any large indoor space consisting of individual or multiple buildings.

There are a number of ongoing projects developing autonomous vehicles, both helicopters and airplanes. The purpose of this thesis is to study a concept for calculating the height and attitude of a helicopter. The system will be active during landing. This thesis includes building an experimental setup and to develop algorithms and software. The basic idea is to illuminate the ground with a certain pattern and in our case we used laser pointers to create this pattern. The ground is then filmed and the images are processed to extract the pattern. This provides us with information about the height and attitude of the helicopter. Furthermore, the concept implies that no equipment on the ground is needed. With further development the sensor should be able to calculate the movement of the underlying surface relative to the helicopter. This is very important when landing on a moving surface, e.g. a ship at sea. To study the concept empirically an experimental setup was constructed. The setup provides us with the necessary information to evaluate how well the system could perform in reality. The setup is built with simple and cheap materials. In the setup an ordinary web camera and laser pointers that are avaliable for everyone have been used. / Det finns flera pågående projekt inom autonomflygande farkoster, både för helikoptrar och flygplan. Syftet med vårt examensarbetet är att undersöka ett koncept för en landningssensor för autonom landning med helikopter. Examensarbetet innebär att bygga en fysisk modell för test av konceptet samt att utveckla mjukvara. Konceptet för sensorn består av att belysa marken med ett speciellt mönster, i vårt fall skapas mönstret av laserpekare, som därefter fotograferas och bildbehandlas. Detta mönster ger sedan information om helikopterns höjd och attityd i luften. Vidare innebär konceptet också att ingen markutrustning krävs för att sensorn ska fungera. I förlängningen ska man med detta koncept kunna beräkna hur underlaget rör sig relativt helikoptern, vilket är väldigt viktigt vid landning på objekt som rör sig, till exempel ett fartyg. För att undersöka hur bra sensorn presterar i verkligheten så har en rigg byggts. Riggen är byggd med enkla och billiga material. I det här fallet används en webbkamera och laserpekare som går att köpa i vanliga elektronikaffärer.

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This paper intends to describe the work and result of the design project Meet App. Meet App lets users interact around their current locations in a direct manner. The user experience is evaluated to get an understanding of the usefulness and interaction with this type of design. The project is related to the context-awareness research field where findings put the project in a greater whole. The result indicates usefulness and enjoyment interacting with the application, but because of the low number of participants the findings cannot be validated.

This thesis was carried out during Spring semester 2012 at Södertörn University in collaboration with the Swedish distance selling company Halens. Halens is one of Sweden’s leading e-commerce companies with a significant history in distance selling. The company started as a mail-order company but their current and future goals are directed towards full e-commercialization. Halens has expanded to several international markets and their assortment consists mainly of women’s apparel, but also includes men’s wear, children’s wear and electronics. The purpose of this thesis is to find ways to improve the image of traditional mail-order companies that are going through a transition towards e-commerce. It has a specific look on branding and brand repositioning and the aim is to give suggestions on how to improve the image and attracting new customers while maintaining the loyal customer base that companies have gained. This includes identifying the pros and cons of the companies’ current position as well as viewing the modern possibilities that e-commercialization brings. Four interviews were conducted in order to obtain up-to-date information. Two of the people who were interviewed are employees at Halens whose work is closely related to the subject of this thesis. The data that was obtained from them deals with the company’s current activities and goals in terms of repositioning their brand. Another viewpoint is met with two consumer interviews, where information is received from different attitudes towards Halens. One of the interviewed is a long-time Halens customer, while the second one has never purchased from Halens. In addition, our own observations have been conducted for deeper analysis of the study. As one of us is a Halens employee it has given us direct access to collect data about the company image and compare our perceptions with one another. A clear view of the brand repositioning requirements that have appeared with the transition towards e-commerce has been established during this essay. Results have shown an apparent need for modernizing and investing in renewal of brand image as a mail-order company moving in to online marketing.