Black Lives Matter rörelsen engagerade människor både internationellt och nationellt under våren 2020. Företag var inte sena med att ta ställning och visa deras stöd i frågan, vilket ledde till olika typer av reaktioner bland deras konsumenter. Denna studie ämnar undersöka svenska konsumenters attityd gentemot företag som använder sig av brand activism som svar på sociala rörelser, där Black Lives Matter valts som empiriskt kontext. Studien ämnar också besvara vilka de viktigaste aspekterna bakom konsumenters attityd är. En förstudie har gjorts genom netnografi och empiri har samlats in genom en webbenkät med 260 svenska respondenter. Studiens analys och resultat tyder på att respondenternas generella inställning till brand activism är positiv i de fall då respondenterna anser att den sociala rörelsen som stöttas är viktig. Det finns dock tre dimensioner som påverkar den övergripande attityden. Dessa är autentiskt innehåll, attityd gentemot företaget och värdet i handlingar. Inom dessa dimensioner utrönas flertalet teman där företagets historia och storlek, innehållet i själva budskapet samt att det genomsyrar organisationen är de viktigaste. Vidare är även temana utbildande, genuin och handlingskraftig kommunikation inom brand activism viktiga delar att ta med sig från resultatet. / The Black Lives Matter movement engaged people both internationally and nationally in the spring of 2020. Companies were not late to join in and show their support in favour of the movement, which led to various reactions among their consumers. This study aims to examine the attitude of Swedish consumers towards companies that use brand activism as a response to social movements, where the Black Lives Matter movement serves as an empirical context. The study also intends to answer what the key aspects behind the studied consumer attitudes are. A prestudy has been done through netnography and empirical data has been collected for the main study through a web survey with 260 Swedish respondents. The study’s analysis and results indicate that the respondents’ general attitude towards the use of brand activism is positive in cases where the respondents believe that the social movement being endorsed is of importance. However, there are three dimensions that affect the overall attitude. These are authentic content, attitude towards the company and the value of actions. Within these dimensions several themes are identified, where the company’s history and size, the content of the message itself and that it permeates the organization are the most important. Furthermore, the themes of educational, genuine and actionable communication within brand activism are also important takeaways from the result.

G. R. S. Mead is an important but neglected historical personality of the British fin-de-siècle occult, Theosophical, and post-Theosophical milieu. While previous scholars of Theosophy have portrayed the Theosophical movement as quite cohesive in nature, I argue that it might have been a lot more pluralistic, with ostensibly key Theosophical concepts being open for debate. By a careful study of Mead’s editorial activity, his debates with other Theosophists in leading occultist journal over the period 1890s through 1910s, I illustrate that Mead held alternative views of key Theosophical concepts. This gives us a clue as to how the movement of Theosophy can be characterized differently. I suggest that we speak of many different “Theosophies” rather than one singular “Theosophy” to better capture the seemingly diverse makeup of the Theosophical movement. I look at three areas wherein Mead’s views differed from those of other important Theosophists: the concept of “the Masters” as spiritual authority, which sources to turn to and how to interpret them, and the question of whether occultism should be understood primarily in theoretical or in practical terms. I propose that by seeing Theosophy as a debating ground where many different Theosophists competed over the definition of their particular kind of Theosophy, we might also better account for why so many post-Theosophical currents emerged. Lastly, Mead’s concept of “Gnosis” might have served as a bridge between his Theosophical and post-Theosophical periods, as the concept’s meaning, along with Mead’s spiritual outlook, does not appear to have changed over time. This gives some consequences to how we conceive of post-Theosophy, since he does not fit neatly within that category.

This master thesis explores ideas, values, virtues, and masculinities within The Raw Man, a Swedish men’s group active since 2012, in the context of Swedish gender equality politics. The material used for this study is the The Raw Man’s website (with an array of persuasive texts and pictures), YouTube-videos, a podcast, and the group’s participation in a Swedish television program. The theoretical framework draws from tools and theories from the fields of rhetoric, philosophy and gender studies. First, I analyse the movement’s argumentation and sort their arguments within different rhetorical topoi. Then, with a similar method, I explore which virtues constitute an ideal man within the movement’s discourse. This analysis builds on Aristotle’s understanding of topoi and virtues and takes further help through texts of the modern rhetorical scholar Janne Lindqvist. To further investigate the movement and what kind of masculinities it reproduces, I take inspiration from Edwin Black’s theory of The Second Persona. The most commonly used topoi and virtues are used to form a second persona, the implicit reader of The Raw Man’s arguments and therefore, the embodiment of the movement’s ideas, values, and ideals. This second persona is then gazed through perspectives from men’s studies. The results show that The Raw Man is greatly inspired by the so called Mythopoetic Men’s Movement, and employs ideas from Robert Bly, Carl G. Jung, and adheres to traditional notions including essentialism, polarity between the sexes, men’s destiny as leaders and women’s as nurturers. It also shows that The Raw Man in fact considers Swedish gender equality politics as somewhat of a threat, and feminists as enemies. The type of masculinity that is being reproduced within the movement can best be described as sticky, a term used in men’s studies for describing conservative and misogynistic values that stick to men’s bodies and are difficult to shake off. The results also indicate that the movement’s discourse is rather contradictory, for example it shows ideals of being vulnerable and grounded while at the same time being a strong leader with traditional manly qualities. This implies some difficulties in fully defining their ideology and ideals, hence the second persona lacks some ideological consistency. Finally, the study shows that the use of rhetorical theories and perspectives can be useful tools when exploring men’s groups, and social movements as a whole.

Gas metal arc is a high-efficiency and widely used heat source for metal processing applied predominantly in welding and additive manufacturing. In this study, it was applied to welding. It offers high productivity, low production and investment cost, as well as suffers from some drawbacks such as humping or undercut when welding large parts that are curved and impose changing the orientation of the welding torch along the joint path. Deeper process understanding was therefore sought to mitigate these drawbacks. The difficulty is then the non-lineardependence of the process to the welding parameters and material properties. Besides, visual observation of this process is also difficult. For instance, the elevated temperature and the intense radiative emission from the electric arc, smoke, spatter, as well as the non-transparency of the processed alloy can hinder in-process observation or limit it. Process simulation provides a complementary means to reach process knowledge. It was thus the approach used in this study. For this, a thermo-fluid melt pool model that can predict melting and solidification, track free surface deformation, metal transfer, and coalescence with the melt pool was developed. Two main research questions were identified and addressed.The first one led to studying the effect of the substrate orientation during multilayer welding of a V-groove joint with INVAR and gas metal arc. It was foundthat the force balance in the melt pool changes significantly when the workpieceorientation is changed, resulting in distinct melt flow patterns, melt pool and bead geometries, and in some conditions defect initiation such as humping, undercut, and lack of fusion. As a result, multi-layer welding with flat substrate and downhill welding of a 20◦ inclined substrate are recommended with these process conditions. On the contrary, welding of a side inclined substrate and uphill welding of a 20◦ inclined substrate are not recommended. The second question gave rise to the comparative investigation of the three electromagnetic force models commonly used when modelling a melt pool produced by an electric arc. The underlying modelling assumptions were retrieved and investigated. It was found that each of these three models predicts a different melt flow pattern, different heat convection, melt pool shape, free surface oscillation, and interaction with the transferred metal drops, and thus result in different bead geometry. All these models can be adjusted to predict the penetration depth, however, only the most complete of them is recommended for developing a predictive melt pool model. For this, it is proposed as a future work to improve this model through predicting an electromagnetic force that takes also into account the local deformation of the free surface. / Gasmetallbåge är en effektiv och allmänt använd värmekälla vid svetsning och additiv tillverkning. I denna studie tillämpas den på svetsning. Den erbjuder hög produktivitet, låg kostnad vid inköp och användning, såväl som vissa nackdelarsom ojämn "bucklig" svetssträng och smältdiken vid svetsning av stora komponenter som är krökta och medför att svetsbrännarens orientering ändras utmed fogen. Bättre processförståelse eftersträvas därför för att mildra dessa nackdelar. En utmaning är processens icke-linjära beroende av svetsparametrarna och materialegenskaperna. Dessutom är experimentell optisk övervakning svår. Till exempel kan den höga temperaturen och den intensiva elektromagnetiska strålningen från ljusbågen, rök, sprut, såväl som legeringens ogenomskinlighet, förhindra observation under processen eller begränsa den. Processimulering erbjuder en komplementär metod för att nå processkunskap. Det är alltså detta tillvägagångssätt som används i denna studie. För detta har en modell av värme och materialflödena i smältan utvecklats som kan prediktera smältning och stelning, spåra smältytans deformation, metallflöde och koalescens med smältan.Två huvudsakliga forskningsfrågor har identifierats och adresserats. Den första studerade gravitationens påverkan vid flersträngs-, gasmetallbågsvetsning av V-fogar i INVAR. Olika svetslägen har visat sig ha en betydande påverkan på kraftbalanserna i svetssmältan vilket resulterar i distinkta smältflöden, smält- och svetsförbandgeometrier, och under vissa förhållanden svetsdefekter såsom ojämn "bucklig" svetssträng, smältdiken och bindfel. Som ett resultat rekommenderas horisontellt och 20◦ fallande läge vid flersträngssvetsning, medan 20◦ stigande och sidolutande inte rekommenderas. Den andra frågan undersökte inverkan av de tre huvudsakliga modellerna för den elektromagnetiska kraften som idag används vid svetssimuleringar. För modelleringen har antaganden lagts fram och undersökts. Det visade sig att de tre modellerna predikterar olika flödesmönster i smältan, olika värmekonvektion, smältgeometri, ytvågor och interaktion med de överförda metalldropparna, och därmed också predikterar olika svetsstränggeometrier. Alla tre modeller kan justeras för att prediktera svetspenetrationen, men endast den mest kompletta av dessa rekommenderas för sant prediktiv modellering. Det föreslås också att ytterligare förbättra den mest kompletta modellen så att det elektromagnetiska kraftfältet följer deformationen av den fria smältytan. / <p>Submitted papers or manuscripts have been excluded from the fulltext file. </p>

Physical inactivity is a growing concern in the world. Exergames, which are physically demanding games, offer a solution to motivate individuals to participate in regular physical activity, and virtual reality (VR) is the latest addition to this field. Visual physical activity data through wearable trackers has also shown promising results to motivate individuals to stay active. This thesis researched the possibility to increase VR players physical activity levels, beneficial movements, and immersion, by involving their physical activity data in the form of a physical activity bar in the gameplay, with a reward being granted upon completion. This was explored through a within-subject user study with 20 participants where they first played a VR game without the physical activity bar and then again with it. The results showed an increase for all activity levels and immersion, however, the conclusion was that players are more likely to perform beneficial movements that fit the gameplay. / Fysisk inaktivitet är ett växande bekymmer i världen. Exergames, som är fysiskt krävande spel, erbjuder en lösning för att motivera individer att delta i regelbunden fysisk aktivitet, och virtuell verklighet (VR) är det senaste tillskottet på detta område. Visuell fysisk aktivitetsdata genom bärbara spårare har också visat lovande resultat för att motivera individer att hålla sig aktiva. Det här examensarbetet undersökte möjligheten att öka VR-spelares fysiska aktivitetsnivåer, speciella rörelser och immersion, genom att involvera deras fysiska aktivitetsdata i form av fysisk aktivitetsdata i spelet, med en belöning som delas ut när de är klara. Detta undersöktes genom en användarstudie inom ämnet med 20 deltagare där de först spelade ett VR-spel utan fältet för fysisk aktivitet och sedan igen med det. Resultaten visade en ökning för alla aktivitetsnivåer och immersion, men kom till slutsatsen att spelare är mer benägna att utföra speciella rörelser som passar spelet.

In 2015, Argentina witnessed an upsurge of feminist mobilization due to the rising numbers of feminicides, which motivated the foundation of Ni Una Menos and a broad feminist movement. The aim of the movement is to initiate measures against psychological manipulation, physical-, sexual- and institutional violence against women. Since the beginning of the movement, feminists have enabled mass mobilization which resulted in legislative changes regarding legal and free abortion. The studys’ purpose is to examine the strategies that have been crucial for the amplification of a large scale feminist activism, as well as the challenges faced when navigating social and political resistance in Argentina. This is carried out through semi-structured interviews with feminist activists from Buenos Aires, the data has been analyzed qualitatively, additionally with a phenomenological approach. The results from the interviews demonstrate a complexity of strategies and challenges, including the political context, societal actors, as well as the role of media. The feminist movement faces multiple obstacles such as the described political setback and exclusion of women in all societal levels, despite this, feminist activists continue to mobilize and fight for social justice.

This thesis lays focus on the Young Socialist Movement (ungsocialisterna) and their mobilisation in Stockholm between 1903 and 1910. In line with social movement research the theoretical concepts of mobilisation structure and resource mobilisation are used to examine the Young Socialists local clubs mobilisation and its prerequisites. The results show that the mobilisation structure of the Young Socialists in Stockholm was characterised by a fragmented organisational framework, wherein local clubs operated independently. This underscored the importance of the groups social network in their mobilising efforts and collaboration between the clubs. The ideological stance was ambiguous, and various radical ideas influenced the mobilisation structure of the group. Due to a lack of tangible resources, human and intangible resources played an essential role in the Young Socialists mobilisation efforts. Over time the decentralised organisational structures and diverse ideological affiliations came to hinder the Young Socialists effectiveness in mobilising towards their goal: the socialist revolution. This study sheds light on the practices and mobilising process of an often overlooked group that was highly influential in shaping the early labour movement in Sweden. It also underscores the importance of a unified mobilisation structure for social movements.

The world’s oceans are becoming more acid in a process called ocean acidification. The pH of the ocean have already decreased by 0.1 units from pre-industrial time until today. Scientists predict that by the year of 2100 the pH will decrease by as much as 0.4 units. This is a big potential problem to many marine species, because they have developed in such a stable environment that has not changed for millions of years. It is difficult to predict how they might be affected by such a decrease in pH during a relatively short time period. Several studies have been made on marine species exposed to decreased pH-levels, the results showed changes in their physiology but it is hard to predict how these changes will affect the organism in a long-term scale and if this might change ecosystem dynamics. Our study measured the activity of Littorina littorea and Balanus improvisus when exposed to lower pH, the results of our study showed an increase in activity for the lower pH (pH 6.0-7.5) when compared to the control (~pH8). The area of ocean acidification is a field that requires further studies to fully understand its effects on the marine ecosystems and the species within it.

In the beginning of 2021 the documentary “The selected children” was aired in one of the public Swedish television channels. In the film we follow the filmmaker as he returns to his elementary school that he left almost three decades ago. His memories where positive but the film depicts abuse with a focus on the leadership and a rope swing . The ensuing media debate was influenced by the fact that the school was, and still are, a waldorf school (Steiner school) and the cult concept was frequently used. This bachelor thesis aimed to find the underlying reasons for the media usage of the cult concept in this context and further how and why a description of a school in the past became a novelty in the present. The perspective is religion sociology and medialization. The purpose is to understand how and why the cult concept is used in nationwide written news media, narrowed down to 11 articles published in Aftonbladet, Dagens ETC, DN, Expressen, GP, SvD och SVT nyheter during May and June 2021. I used a qualitative content analysis method combined with an abductive reasoning. The theory used was in the field of cults, NRM and medialization with an emphasis on media logic also described as media modus operandi. The result shows that the cult concept is used to describe and frame the extreme characteristics of the school. There is a connection between the school and other waldorf schools both in the description of the schools as cults related to abuse and abnormality but the main reason is the foundation in relation to the waldorf pedagogy and anthroposophy. The media uses a very narrow number of sources describing the school, waldorf schools and the anthroposophic movement. The descriptions are made in the present as if the film was depicting the present school as well. As such the sources alongside the framing language constructs the news value in line with the media logic. In conclusion I argue that the findings show that media uses the cult as a description aswell as a news story in line with the theory, describing how the news are storytellers as they have developed into the entertainment industry.

With an increased amount of connected devices and the recent surge of artificial intelligence, the two technologies need more attention to fully bloom as a useful tool for creating new and exciting products. As machine learning traditionally is implemented on computers and online servers this thesis explores the possibility to extend machine learning to an embedded environment. This evaluation of existing machine learning in embedded systems with limited processing capa-bilities has been carried out in the specific context of an application involving classification of basic human movements. Previous research and implementations indicate that it is possible with some limitations, this thesis aims to answer which hardware limitation is affecting clas-sification and what classification accuracy the system can reach on an embedded device. The tests included human motion data from an existing dataset and included four different machine learning algorithms on three devices. Support Vector Machine (SVM) are found to be performing best com-pared to CART, Random Forest and AdaBoost. It reached a classification accuracy of 84,69% between six different included motions with a clas-sification time of 16,88 ms per classification on a Cortex M4 processor. This is the same classification accuracy as the one obtained on the host computer with more computational capabilities. Other hardware and machine learning algorithm combinations had a slight decrease in clas-sification accuracy and an increase in classification time. Conclusions could be drawn that memory on the embedded device affect which al-gorithms could be run and the complexity of data that can be extracted in form of features. Processing speed is mostly affecting classification time. Additionally the performance of the machine learning system is connected to the type of data that is to be observed, which means that the performance of different setups differ depending on the use case. / Antalet uppkopplade enheter ökar och det senaste uppsvinget av ar-tificiell intelligens driver forskningen framåt till att kombinera de två teknologierna för att både förbättra existerande produkter och utveckla nya. Maskininlärning är traditionellt sett implementerat på kraftfulla system så därför undersöker den här masteruppsatsen potentialen i att utvidga maskininlärning till att köras på inbyggda system. Den här undersökningen av existerande maskinlärningsalgoritmer, implemen-terade på begränsad hårdvara, har utförts med fokus på att klassificera grundläggande mänskliga rörelser. Tidigare forskning och implemen-tation visar på att det ska vara möjligt med vissa begränsningar. Den här uppsatsen vill svara på vilken hårvarubegränsning som påverkar klassificering mest samt vilken klassificeringsgrad systemet kan nå på den begränsande hårdvaran. Testerna inkluderade mänsklig rörelsedata från ett existerande dataset och inkluderade fyra olika maskininlärningsalgoritmer på tre olika system. SVM presterade bäst i jämförelse med CART, Random Forest och AdaBoost. Den nådde en klassifikationsgrad på 84,69% på de sex inkluderade rörelsetyperna med en klassifikationstid på 16,88 ms per klassificering på en Cortex M processor. Detta är samma klassifikations-grad som en vanlig persondator når med betydligt mer beräknings-resurserresurser. Andra hårdvaru- och algoritm-kombinationer visar en liten minskning i klassificeringsgrad och ökning i klassificeringstid. Slutsatser kan dras att minnet på det inbyggda systemet påverkar vilka algoritmer som kunde köras samt komplexiteten i datan som kunde extraheras i form av attribut (features). Processeringshastighet påverkar mest klassificeringstid. Slutligen är prestandan för maskininlärningsy-stemet bunden till typen av data som ska klassificeras, vilket betyder att olika uppsättningar av algoritmer och hårdvara påverkar prestandan olika beroende på användningsområde.