Recent research has shown that working memory tasks can be performed with information that hasn’t been consciously perceived. This provides new opportunities in research concerning possible limitations and influential factors on unconscious working memory. Gender has been demonstrated to be a factor affecting conscious visual working memory tasks and could likewise influence unconscious visual working memory. An analysis of behavioral data, obtained in three similar unconscious visual working memory tasks (n = 89), was performed. Three ANCOVAs were conducted to establish whether there was a significant effect of gender on unconscious working memory accuracy, response time (RT) and speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) across the three datasets. The analysis demonstrated a significant advantage in response time for female participants compared to male participants. Implications of this observation, such as male and female response strategies and possible social implications of unconscious processes, are discussed in this thesis. / Nyligen har arbetsminnet bevisats fungera omedvetet. Detta öppnar nya dörrar för forskning om möjliga begränsningar och påverkande faktorer på omedvetet arbetsminne. Kön, som har betydande inflytande på medvetet visuellt arbetsminne, kan på samma sätt också påverka det omedvetna visuella arbetsminnet. En analys av data, insamlad vid tre liknande visuella uppgifter där det omedvetna arbetsminnet användes (n = 91), utfördes. ANCOVAs utfördes för att fastställa huruvida det fanns betydande effekter utifrån kön på det omedvetna arbetsminnets noggrannhet, svarstid samt avvägning mellan snabbhet och noggrannhet, oavsett uppgift. Analysen visade ett signifikant övertag vad gäller kvinnors svarstid i jämförelse med manliga deltagare. Detta övertag gäller generell svarstid och en fördelaktig avvägning mellan snabbhet och noggrannhet. Konsekvensen av dessa observationer, såsom olika svarstaktik för män och kvinnor, möjlig samhällspåverkan av omedvetna processer, diskuteras i denna uppsats.

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Purpose - There has been a considerable effort over the last decade to increase awareness of the tsunami risk in coastal Washington, USA. However, contemporary research on warning systems spawned by the recent Indian Ocean tsunami tragedy highlights the need for development of an effective tsunami warning system for both residents and transient populations, including visitors and tourists. This study sets out evaluate staff training for emergencies, emergency management exercises (including drills and evacuation), and hazard signage within motels and hotels in Ocean Shores, Washington, USA. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from interviews with reception staff and managers at 18 hotels, motels, and other accommodation establishments. Findings - Levels of staff training and preparedness for tsunami and other hazards were found to be generally very low, although examples of "best practice" were found at a select few establishments. Larger hotels already had orientation or general training programmes set up which had the potential to incorporate future tsunami and hazard training, while smaller "owner-operator" businesses did not. Research limitations/implications - Suggestions on how to improve preparedness are discussed, including undertaking training needs analyses and conducting workshops, simulations and employee training to empower both businesses and employees. Originality/value - This case study provides an insight into the challenges faced by emergency managers and the tourism sector in improving the effectiveness of warning systems in areas with high transient populations.

Datahantering är en aspekt av systemlösningar som inte ska försummas. Svarstider är en lika viktig aspekt i den moderna onlinetjänsten. När molntjänster har nått en popularitet högre än någonsin är det viktigt att veta hur man använder dem effektivt för att kunna få bästa resultat. Kunden, Axis Communications, utvecklar för närvarande en IoT-plattform (Internet of Things) som tros leverera ytterligare mjukvarufunktionalitet och information i realtid till slutanvändaren. Ett moment i denna tjänst är händelsehantering och behandling. Detta kräver att händelser tas emot och bearbetas med hjälp av AWS-komponenter innan de skickas vidare. I denna rapport har vi jämfört prestandan mellan att berika en händelseström med information via externa tjänster och att berika samma händelseström via lokala tjänster. För att bestämma vilka lösningar som ger en snabbare responstid för vår klient, Axis Communications, har vi utvecklat en ny prototyp. Utvecklingsprocessen som vi har valt gör det möjligt att iterera och utvärdera prototypen under utvecklingsprocessen. Utvärderingen bör endast användas som riktlinje vid bedömning av händelsehanteringstjänster, eftersom antalet parametrar kan skilja sig och ge ändrade resultat. Resultaten visar att vår metod för denna lösningen presterade upp till 5,16 gånger bättre än den externa tjänsten. Molntjänsten presterade även bättre under hög belastning tack vare skalbarheten hos AWS Lambda. / Data processing is an aspect of system solutions which cannot be neglected. Response times is an equally important aspect in the modern online service. With cloud services reaching an all-time peak in popularity, it is important to know how to use them efficiently by providing the best results. The client, Axis Communications, is currently developing an IoT (Internet of Things) platform which is thought to deliver further software functionality and information in real-time to the end user. One of the elements of this service is event handling and processing. It requires events to be received and processed using AWS components before sending them through. In this thesis we aim to compare the performance between decorating an event stream using external services to decorating the same event stream with local services. In order to determine which of the solutions offer a better result for our client, we had to develop a new prototype of said solution. The process of development makes it possible to iterate and evaluate the prototype during the time of development. The evaluation should only be used as a guideline when considering event handling services as the number of parameters may differ and yield altered results. The results prove that our method for this solution had up to 5,16 times faster response time. The cloud-based solution also performed better when under heavy load by processing all of the requests simoultanously due to the scaling of AWS Lambda.

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Background. Environmental sustainability and reducing energy consumption are important and relevant topics today. Energy consumption by data centres is constantly increasing. One factor that could be affecting this is what web frameworks are being used. Objectives. We wanted to investigate whether there is a difference in energy consumption depending on the selected web framework for an API web server. An improvement should not come with overhanging negative side effects. Therefore, energy usage was to be contrasted with response time. In addition, we wanted to see how the choice of response format affects these metrics. In the case of finding any considerable impact on energy usage, without compromising the response time, the goal was to communicate this in order to increase the awareness among software developers. Methods. A literature review was done in order to gather existing information on how to conduct an experiment measuring software energy consumption. We evaluated available tools for measuring consumed application energy. An experiment then compared four popular web frameworks in regard to both energy usage, and response time. Django, Express, Laravel, and Spring Boot were selected for the experiment. Metrics measured were energy usage and response time. The experiment was executed with three different amounts of concurrent requests vusers = {10, 100, 250}. Results. The literature study resulted in a selection of software tools for measuring software energy consumption to choose from. The tool perf was chosen for the experiment. In the experiment, the response format was shown to affect the response time, but not the energy consumption. Increasing the amount of concurrent users made for larger differences between frameworks, both regarding energy usage and response time. Express and Spring Boot show the best performance in both regards for all amounts of concurrent requests. Conclusions. Express and Spring Boot are the clear winners out of the four compared frameworks. Both in terms of energy usage and response time, they had the best results. Django is not a web framework to recommend if response time is of importance.

Introduction: This paper presented an analysis of the energy consumption and responsiveness of MicroPython in an embedded system. The purpose of this study was to understand the energy consumption and response time of a MicroPython based system to optimize its overall performance and efficiency. Two research questions had been formulated to concretize the purpose of this thesis: [RQ1] How does the energy consumption of a MicroPython based embedded system compare to that of a C-based embedded system for tasks utilizing low power modes? [RQ2] What is the wake-up response time of MicroPython for low power modes when receiving external and internal interrupts, and how does it compare to an established language like C on an embedded system? Method: To answer the research questions and achieve the purpose, an experimental study was conducted. The energy consumption of the MicroPython based system was analyzed under different scenarios. The time it took for MicroPython to respond to an interrupt request from a sleeping state was also measured. The data collected from the experiment was analyzed to determine the level of energy consumption and responsiveness of MicroPython in an embedded system. Results: The results indicated that C was generally more energy efficient and responsive than MicroPython for tasks utilizing low power modes for the Deepsleep mode. Although MicroPython proved to have shorter response times for the Lightsleep low power mode. For energy consumption, C was more stable in the measurements while MicroPython reached both lower minimum currents and higher maximum currents. Conclusions: In conclusion, this study found that while MicroPython could achieve lower power levels than C in both low power modes tested, it reached higher current levels upon waking up. Despite this, MicroPython could still be a choice for applications that spend longer durations in low power modes, as this could offset the increased current spikes during wake-up. Response times for MicroPython were faster than C in the Lightsleep internal interrupt case, but MicroPython exhibited significantly longer response times in the Deepsleep mode due to the system resetting and restarting the interpreter. Keywords: Embedded systems, Energy consumption, Interrupt requests, Low power modes, MicroPython, Responsiveness.

This study investigated the effect of vitamin B-12 supplementation on visual response time (VRT). Menstrual cycle phase (MCP) and 24-hour dietary intake of B-12 were also observed as dependent variables. This blind, placebo-controlled trial observed 14 young adult females in four treatment groups: control, 500mcg (low dose), 2000mcg (moderate dose), and 3000mcg (high dose). The study lasted 28 days, with participants treated weekly, randomly assigned to each of the treatment groups. When comparing B-12 dose treatment groups to VRT baseline, there was significant improvements in VRT. Compared to the placebo, there were no significant differences among treatment groups. Significant differences were observed among MCP in two of the four treatment groups. No significant differences were observed in 24-hour intake of B-12 prior to treatment.

A model that accurately describes the transient and steady-state response of thermal microactuators is desirable to provide guidance for design and operation. However, modeling the full response of thermal actuators is challenging due to the temperature-dependent material properties and nonlinear deformations that must be included to obtain accurate results. To meet these challenges a three-dimensional multi-physics nonlinear finite-element model was developed using commercial code. The Thermomechanical Inplane Microactuator (TIM) was chosen as a candidate application to validate the model. TIMs were fabricated using the SUMMiT V™ process and their response was measured using a high-speed camera. The TIMs were modeled and the model output was compared to the experimental data. The finite-element model predicts the steady-state response to within 0.74 percent and the transient response, as described by the time constant, to within 42 percent. The usefulness of the model was further demonstrated by its predicting that response time and energy consumption can be reduced by actuating thermal microactuators with short-duration high-voltage pulses. This behavior was verified through testing. Feedback control has proven useful in improving reliability and performance for a variety of systems. However there has been limited success implementing feedback control on surface micromachined MEMS devices. The inherent difficulties in sensing microscale phenomena complicate the development of an economical transducer that can accurately monitor the states of a surface micromachined system. We have demonstrated a simple and effective sensing strategy that uses the piezoresistive property of the polysilicon thin film of which surface micromachined MEMS devices are fabricated. The states of the device are monitored by measuring the change in resistance of flexible members which deflect as the device moves. Measurement of the output displacement of an in-plane thermal actuator is presented as a candidate application. The thermal actuator is constructed of angled pairs of expansion legs that are connected to a center shuttle. As current flows through the legs they heat up and expand. The expansion causes the center shuttle to displace in the direction the legs are angled. The center shuttle is also connected to a pair of sensing legs. Theses legs are identical to the expansion legs except that they are angled in the opposite direction. Three other leg pairs are electrically connected to the sensing legs in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. An excitation voltage is applied to the bridge, and as the sensing legs deflect with the center shuttle displacement, the resistance change across the legs can be determined by measuring the voltage across the bridge. While there still is a noise issue to be dealt with, this setup provides adequate signal strength to implement feedback control using off-chip analog circuitry. Implementation of proportional/integral control on the system is successfully demonstrated.

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