Psychological factors specific to overuse injury pain in physical activity contexts were explored within a social identity theoretical framework. Study 1 involved development of a method for designating overuse injury pain occurrence of hikers (N = 751), along with exploration of relationships between psychological measures, overuse injury pain occurrence, and effort levels. The findings of this cross-sectional, mixed-methods investigation revealed that social identification, social identity content, and mental toughness differentiated hikers who incurred overuse injury pain or selected a higher-effort behaviour from those who did not. From qualitative analysis, several social identity constructs (i.e., group member's presence, in-group status, social creativity, additional social identity content) emerged as contributors to overuse injury occurrence. The focus of Study 2 was a prospective examination of the aforementioned psychological factors in relation to overuse injury severity of hikers (N = 283). Additionally, the Test of Intentions to Reduce Effort (TIRE) was developed to identify individuals with susceptibility to higher overuse injury severity. Results provided evidence of factorial, construct, and predictive validity of TIRE factor scores. TIRE factors and social identity content significantly predicted higher severity of hikers' overuse injury pain. Mental toughness scores moderated the relationship between social identification and overuse injury severity. Study 3 consisted of a qualitative examination of social identity mechanisms of overuse injury pain in a physical activity context, CrossFit®, involving the presence of group leaders, and in which group members view each other. Findings revealed mechanisms pertaining to social identity content, in-group status, and social threats. Overall, the findings support a new means for assessing overuse injury occurrence and susceptibility to higher overuse injury severity, whilst demonstrating the potential applicability of social identity theory to the study of overuse injury. Knowledge gained may ultimately aid development of interventions to reduce overuse injury occurrence and severity of physical activity participants.

The purpose of this research study was to explore successes and challenges of Vhutshilo 2 HIV Prevention Programme in reducing HIV Infections amongst Adolescent Girls and Young Women [AGYW] in Alexandra. Qualitative, narrative research design was conducted to explore the experiences of the adolescent girls and young women in the Vhutshilo 2 programme. In order to obtain the data for this research the researcher used focus group interviews. Since the current study did not seek to generalize findings, a purposive sampling approach was seen as appropriate to use for this study. Two groups of respondents participated in the study. The first group of 7 participants were from Ratang Bana Organisation from Alexandra and the second group of 12 participants was from Friends for Life from the Mayibuye site. The data of this research project was analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that Vhutshilo was successful in achieving its desired results of helping adolescents to adopt healthy sexual behavior, developing positive values and behavior through exploring options, promoting assertiveness, understanding different influences on their lives and coming to their own views and decisions, rather than being told what to do. Recommendations made included taking the Vhutshilo 2 to other places like rural areas as the adolescent girls in the rural areas are at high risk of getting infected by HIV mostly due to cultural practices that expose them to such risks together with ignorance and limited access to health facilities. / Health Studies / M.P.H.

La presente investigación consiste en Proponer una Solución para Reducir los Reclamos en el Abastecimiento de Repuestos de Productos de Línea Blanca. Para ello, se aplicó principalmente Métodos de Clasificación ABC, Diagramas de Análisis de Actividades, Distribución por Mezcla de Familias, Métodos de Pronósticos de la Demanda, entre otras herramientas de la Ingeniería Industrial. Finalmente, se concluyó que al mejorar la Productividad del “Picking” (Sacado) y del Embalaje, al mejorar la Identificación y Reconocimiento Visual de los Repuestos y de los Espacios y al realizar una mejor Planificación de la Demanda, un adecuado Control del Inventario, una mejor Planificación del Abastecimiento, se reducirán los Reclamos en el Abastecimiento de Repuestos de productos de línea blanca. The present research is to propose a solution to Reduce Claims in supply of spare parts Products Appliances. To do this, we will mainly apply ABC classification methods, diagrams Analysis Activities, Distribution mix of families Methods demand forecast and other tools of industrial engineering. Finally, it was concluded that by improving the productivity of the "Picking" (Taken) and packaging, improving the identification and Visual Recognition of parts and spaces and improving planning Demand with an adequate control of inventory and with a better supply planning, Claims will be reduced in the Supply of white goods´ spare parts.

This mastes´s thesis deals with higher usage of boiler K5 in CHP plant ŽĎAS, a.s. in temporary season, when due to reduced consumption is overheating hot water return branch and there is need to change to another boiler. Main goal of thesis is reduce changes betwen boiler K5 and boiler K3 and increase usage of boiler K5 in temporary season by ekonomic profitablbe technical solution. At the beginning of thesis is described CHP plant ŽĎAS, a.s. and its equipment. Next are four methods of calculation increase year´s usage of boiler K5. And these are cooling hot water return branch using heat exchanger, condensation of part steam from back pressure, reduce minimal power of boiler K5 and usage with small condensing turbine. Thesis is finished with comparison of mentioned methods and experimental reduce of minimal power boiler K5.

Diploma thesis deals with the development strategies of the small business. First it presents the theoretical background that serves as a knowledge-based support for other parts of the work. Then performs an analysis. Based on these findings it tries to find flaws in its long-term strategy. The solution proposals redefine existing strategy and innovate the product base. After these changes can be assumed effective and sustainable development of the company.

Diplom thesis deals with the influence of typical pilot error during the landing maneuver in airplanes with maximum take-off mass 2250 kg. It contains basic information about the landing. The main attention is paid to the accident database, its subsequent evaluation and the proposal for a way to reduce these accidents. It also includes a survey of pilots.

Circular economy (CE) is today gaining a lot of attention, which means to improve resource efficiency through reusing, recycling, and reducing (3R). Increased CE is one step towards improved sustainable development. The aim in this study is to explain how circular economy can pursue sustainable development, by business model innovation. A qualitative study including a market analysis has been performed with 28 semi structured interviews. The context studied was the Swedish stone material industry (SSMI) through NCC and its division Industry, as case company. The participants were employees selected from the case company, competitors, customers, ordering parties, and independent actors.    The study highlights both barriers and opportunities for improving 3R’s on the SSMI. Strict regulations are seen as a strong obstacle whereas reduced climate impact is a great possibility. To contribute successfully to circular economy, a shift towards circular business models (CBM) is needed. Such strategical transformation can be accomplished through business model innovation, which this study shows difficult. A CBM is presented to the case company with for instance customer co-creation and developing new partnerships included. Shaping take-back services are also recommended to be implemented in the CBM. A conclusion is that business models and strategy interrelate, and both concepts are affected by regulations. This imply both positive and negative consequences of the market development, concerning circular economy. Lastly, a conclusion is that the triple bottom line mindset must be improved in the industry to pursue sustainable development. / Cirkulär ekonomi (CE) får idag mycket uppmärksamhet, och det innefattar ökande resurseffektivitet genom återanvändning, återvinning och reducering (3R). Ökning av CE är ett steg i ökad hållbar utveckling. Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur cirkulär ekonomi kan främja hållbar utveckling, genom affärsmodellsinnovation. En kvalitativ studie har utförts genom en marknadsanalys med 28 semistrukturerade intervjuer. Det studerade sammanhanget var den svenska stenmaterialindustrin (SSMI) och fallföretaget har varit NCC och deras avdelning Industry. Deltagarna var utvalda anställda från fallföretaget, konkurrenter, kunder, beställare och oberoende aktörer.  Studien belyser både hinder och möjligheter för att öka de 3R’n på SSMI. Strikta regler visar sig vara ett starkt hinder medan reducerad klimatpåverkan är en stor möjlighet. För att framgångsrikt bidra till cirkulär ekonomi behövs ett skifte mot en cirkulär affärsmodell (CBM). Sådan strategisk förändring kan åstadkommas genom affärsmodellsinnovation vilket i denna studie har visats sig vara svårt. En CBM presenters till fallföretaget innehållande bland annat samskapande med kund och utveckling av nya partnerskap. Utformande av återtagstjänster är också rekommenderat för implementation i CBM. En slutsats är att affärsmodeller och strategi interagerar och båda koncepten påverkas av regleringar. Det kan medföra både positiva och negativa konsekvenser på marknadsutveckling beträffande cirkulär ekonomi. Slutligen så är en slutsats också att triple bottom line mindset måste förbättras i branschen för att främja hållbar utveckling.

Idag är det möjligt att koppla upp utrustningar mot nätet hemma och ha ett Smart Hem. Ett hushåll har två elavtal, elnät och elhandel. Elnät är bunden till området man bor och kan inte bytas ut, men det är annorlunda med elhandel. Hos elhandel vill man ha det lägsta priset på el och det är där timpris spelar roll. Elkostnader kan bli höga och för att minska kostnaderna samt använda grön energi har detta examensprojekt tagit fram ett system som ska kunna informera en användare om spotpriset respektive väder. Projektet har använt sig av Android Studio (front-end), Firebase Realtime database och ett javaprogram (back-end). Med Grönt Väders API och Google Maps Geocoding API har data om användaren, elpriser och väder samlats i databasen. Resultatet av projektet blev en mobilapplikation som visar information om dagens elpris, väder och andra faktorer som hjälper ett hushåll med egenproducerad energi att följa. Dock kunde elpriser inte jämföras med vädret. För vidareutveckling hade back-end kunnat vara på en Raspberry Pi där man kopplar en vitvara som man kan styra i framtiden. / Today it is possible to connect equipment to the network at home and have a Smart Home. A household has two electricity agreements, electricity networks and electricity trading. Electricity network is tied to the area you live and cannot be changed, but electricity trading is a different matter. In electricity trading, what you want is the lowest price and that is where the hourly rate matters. Electricity costs can be high and to reduce costs and use green energy, this degree project has developed a system that will inform a user about the spot price and weather. The project has used Android Studio (front-end), Firebase Realtime database and a Java program (back-end). With the Green Weather API and the Google Maps Geocoding API has information about the user, electricity prices and weather been collected in the database. The results in this project was an app that showed electricity prices of the day, weather and other factors that helps a household with self-produced energy to follow. However, electricity prices could not be compared with weather. Further development would be to have the back-end running on a Raspberry Pi where appliances could be controlled in the future.

Accuracy obtained when training deep learning models with large amounts of data is high, however, training a model with such huge amounts of data on a single node is not feasible due to various reasons. For example, it might not be possible to fit the entire data set in the memory of a single node, training times can significantly increase since the dataset is huge. To avoid these problems decentralized training is devised. In decentralized training, using the technique of Data parallelism, multiple nodes/workers make a local copy of the model and train it using a partition of the dataset. Each of these locally trained models are aggregated at some point to obtain the final trained model. Architectures such as Parameter server, All-reduce and Gossip use their own network topology to implement decentralized training. However, there is a vulnerability in this decentralized setting, any of the worker nodes may behave arbitrarily and fail. This type of failure is called byzantine failure. Here, arbitrary means any of the worker nodes may send incorrect parameters to others, which may lead to inaccuracy of the global model or failure of the entire system sometimes. To tolerate such arbitrary failures, aggregation rules were devised and are tested using Parameter server architecture. In this thesis we analyse the fault tolerance of Ring all-reduce architecture to byzantine gradients using various aggregation rules such as Krum, Brute and Bulyan. We will also inject adversaries during the model training to observe, which of the aforementioned aggregation rules provide better resilience to byzantine gradients. / Noggrannheten som erhålls vid träning av djupinlärningsmodeller med stora datamängder är hög, men det är inte möjligt att utbilda en modell med så stora mängder data på en enda nod av olika skäl. Det kan till exempel inte vara möjligt att passa hela datamängden i minnet på en enda nod, träningstiderna kan öka avsevärt eftersom datamängden är enorm. För att undvika dessa problem utformas decentraliserad träning. I decentraliserad utbildning, med hjälp av tekniken för dataparallellism, gör flera noder / arbetare en lokal kopia av modellen och tränar den med hjälp av en partition av datamängden. Var och en av dessa lokalt utbildade modeller samlas vid någon tidpunkt för att få den slutliga utbildade modellen. Arkitekturer som Parameterserver, All- reduce och Gossip använder sin egen nätverkstopologi för att implementera decentraliserad utbildning. Det finns dock en sårbarhet i denna decentraliserade inställning, någon av arbetarnoderna kan uppträda godtyckligt och misslyckas. Denna typ av fel kallas bysantinskt fel. Här betyder godtyckligt att någon av arbetarnoderna kan skicka felaktiga parametrar till andra, vilket ibland kan leda till felaktighet i den globala modellen eller att hela systemet misslyckas. För att tolerera sådana godtyckliga fel utformades aggregeringsregler som testas med hjälp av parametern serverarkitektur. I den här avhandlingen analyserar vi feltoleransen för Ring allreduceringsarkitektur till bysantinska gradienter med hjälp av olika aggregeringsregler som Krum, Brute och Bulyan. Vi kommer också att injicera motståndare under modellutbildningen för att observera vilka av de ovannämnda aggregeringsreglerna som ger bättre motståndskraft mot bysantinska lutningar.

The bullwhip effect is defined as an upstream amplification of demand variability and has received interest within multinational companies for decades. As early as in the 1950’s, Forrester (1958) discussed what is today known as the bullwhip effect, which has a negative impact on the customer service, costs, and inventory investment in a supply chain (Lee et al., 1997). Even though the bullwhip effect has been noticed in various industries, the consequences, in form of decreased availability and increased costs the further up the supply chain the bullwhip goes, still remain. The employees at Volvo Group Service Market Logistics suspect that their supply chain has been affected by the bullwhip effect and want to know if it is correct and subsequently know why it has occurred. Therefore, this master’s thesis highlights the root causes of the bullwhip effect and presents strategies to mitigate it. To understand how the bullwhip effect affected the Volvo Group Service Market Logistics’ supply chain, the purpose was formulated as follow: The purpose of this study is to identify events in the Volvo Group Service Market Logistics’ supply chain where the bullwhip effect has occurred, its root causes, and how to reduce or eliminate the bullwhip effects.  The studied flow was from the Central Distribution Center (CDC) in Ghent, to the Regional Distribution Center (RDC) in Brazil, to the Dealers associated to the RDC in Brazil, and the customers. Data was collected from each node and events were studied to find bullwhip events. After sorting out the part numbers that passed the criteria for bullwhip events, the amount of data had to be reduced even more. A couple of different conditions were applied which resulted in four suitable bullwhip events. Thereafter, the authors conducted interviews with Logistics Managers at each node of the supply chain to find the root causes of the bullwhip effect in each studied event.  Among the several found root causes, lack of information transparency was the most frequent occurring root cause, found in three out of four studied bullwhip events. Insufficient communication and lack of information sharing cause bullwhip effects, and the authors found that improved communication both between and within the nodes will contribute to better planning, and consequently avoided bullwhip effects. Other root causes found were issues with the ordering system, lack of learning and experience, neglected lead times, fear of empty stock, price fluctuations, and phase-out of the spare part.  To reduce or eliminate the bullwhip effect, the focus was on mitigating the root causes since the root causes create opportunities for the bullwhip effect to occur. Four suggestions were given with suitable mitigation strategies found in the literature, where the four suggestions were sales campaigns, prepare for boosts, keep track of manually placed orders, and ordering system and Logistics Manager behavioural issues. The suggestions could then be connected to the different found root causes. The stated suggestions and mitigation strategies focused on mitigating the root causes in a long-term perspective and consequently the bullwhip effect itself.