Stimuli sensitive polymers and hydrogels respond with large property changes to small physical and chemical stimuli (e.g. temperature, pH, ionic strength). The bulk behavior of these polymers is widely studied and they show an isotropic swelling. However, thin hydrogel layers of polymers on a substrate show a swelling behavior, which is constrained in some way. Therefore, size, confinement, patternability, response time and transition temperature of thin hydrogel layers are the most important parameters in technological applications and this study focuses on the investigation of these above-mentioned parameters. The aim of this study involves synthesis, characterization and application of thin photo-crosslinked hydrogel layers. Dimethylmaleimide (DMI) moiety was incorporated in the polymers chains and was used to introduce photo-crosslinking by [2+2] cyclodimerization reaction in the presence of UV irradiation. The following photo-crosslinkers based on DMI group were synthesized ? - Acrylate photo-crosslinker (DMIAm) - Acrylamide photo-crosslinker (DMIAAm) - Polyol photo-crosslinker (DMIPA, DMIPACl) The conventional free radical polymerization of above listed photo-crosslinker with its respective monomer resulted in formation of photo-crosslinkable polymers of (a) HEMA, (b) DMAAm, (c) NIPAAm/DMAAm, (d) NIPAAm/Cyclam. The properties of these polymers were investigated by NMR, UV-VIS spectroscopy, GPC and SPR. Thin hydrogel layers were prepared by spin coating on gold-coated LaSFN9 glass. The covalent attachment to the surface was achieved through an adhesion promoter. Swelling behavior of the thin polymer layers was thoroughly investigated by Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Spectroscopy and Optical Waveguide Spectroscopy (OWS). SPR and OWS gave a wide range of information regarding the film thickness, swelling ratio, refractive index, and volume degree of swelling of the thin hydrogel layer. For hydrophilic photo-crosslinked hydrogel layers of HEMA and DMAAm, it was observed that the volume degree of swelling was independent of temperature changes but was dependent on the photo-crosslinker mol-% in the polymer. These surface attached thin hydrogel layer exhibited an anisotropic swelling. For NIPAAm photo-crosslinked hydrogel layers with DMAAm as a hydrophilic monomer, it was observed that both transition temperature (Tc) and volume degree of swelling increases with increase in the mol-% of DMAAm. To study the effect of film thickness on Tc and volume degree of swelling, hydrogels with wide range of film thickness were prepared and investigated by SPR. These results provided vital information on the swelling behavior of surface attached hydrogel layer and showed the versatility of SPR instrument for studying thin hydrogel layers. Later part of project involved synthesis of multilayer hydrogel assembly involving a thermoresponsive polymer and a hydrophilic polymer. The combination of two layers with photo-crosslinkable DMAAm polymer as base layer and photo-crosslinkable NIPAAm polymer as top layer formulate a multilayer assembly where, the base layer only swells in response to temperature and the top layer shows temperature dependent swelling. Photo-crosslinked hydrogel layers of NIPAAm, DMAAm and HEMA shows a high-resolution patterns when irradiated by UV light through a chromium mask. At last this study focused on an important application of these hydrogel layers for cell attachment processes. Cell growth, proliferation and spreading shows a biocompatible nature of these hydrogel surfaces. Such thermoresponsive photo-crosslinkable multilayer structure forms bases for future projects involving their use in actuator material and cell-attachment processes.

Titel: Bolags CSR-arbete och kostnaden för räntebärande skulder Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi  Författare: Stefan Högdahl & Mikael Lindqvist  Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2022 - Juni  Syfte: Forskningen kring CSR är omfattande och kan ta en mängd olika inriktningar. Denna studie studerar sambandet mellan bolags CSR och deras ESG-betyg i förhållande till deras kostnader för räntebärande skulder för att se om dessa kan ge ekonomiska fördelar. Vidare studeras även CSR-redovisningens samband uppdelat mellan okänsliga och känsliga sektorer med bolags kostnader för räntebärande skulder. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvantitativ och deduktiv utgångspunkt inom den positivistiska forskningsfilosofin. Datan är hämtad från Refinitiv Eikon och innehåller information från 2539 företag. Denna data har sedan behandlats och analyserats via IBM SPSS. Resultat och slutsats: Utifrån de genomförda regressionsanalyserna framkommer det förväntade negativa sambandet mellan CSR och skuldkostnad och hypoteserna styrks. Företag som utför ett bra CSR-arbete och erhåller ett högt ESG-betyg kan därmed enligt studiens resultat minska sin skuldkostnad genom lägre räntor. Regressionsanalyserna visade även på att företags CSR-redovisning är av större vikt inom känslig sektor. Detta kan ge en grund för företag att motivera kostnaderna för hållbarhetsarbete. Examensarbetets bidrag: Genom att undersöka sambandet mellan CSR och skuldkostnad har studien bidragit till att klargöra detta förhållande. Därmed kan företag lättare motivera ett arbete med CSR. Sambandet tyder också på att långivare är medvetna om företags CSR-arbete och tar hänsyn till det i sin riskbedömning vid sättande av räntor. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Att långivare tar hänsyn till CSR-arbete visar sig i studien. Vidare forskning kan undersöka på vilket sätt CSR ingår som en del i riskanalysen hos dessa. Vidare forskning kan även undersöka hur stor påverkan denna ränteskillnad får på bolagens ekonomiska resultat och huruvida det är ett tillräckligt stort incitament för att satsa på CSR. / Title: Companies work with CSR and the cost of interest-bearing liabilities Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Authors: Stefan Högdahl & Mikael Lindqvist Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2022 - Juni Aim: The research on CSR is extensive and can take a wide variety of orientations. This essay studies the relationship between companies' CSR and their ESG-ratings in relation to their costs for interest-bearing liabilities to determine if these can provide financial benefits. Furthermore, the relationship between CSR accounting is also divided into insensitive and sensitive sectors with companies' costs for interest-bearing liabilities. Method: The study is based on a quantitative and deductive vantage point within the positivist research philosophy. The data is taken from Refinitiv Eikon and contains information from 2539 companies. This data was then processed and analyzed via IBM SPSS. Result and Conclusions: Based on the regression analysis carried out, the expected negative relationship between CSR and cost of debt emerges and the hypotheses are substantiated. Companies that perform good CSR work and receive a high ESG rating can thus, according to the results of the study, reduce their debt costs through lower interest rates. The regression analysis also show that companies' CSR accounting is of greater importance in the sensitive sector. This can provide a basis for companies to justify the costs of sustainability work. Contribution of the thesis: By examining the relationship between CSR and cost of debt, the study has helped to clarify this relationship. This makes it easier for companies to motivate work with CSR. The connection also indicates that lenders are aware of companies' CSR work and take this into account in their risk assessment when setting interest rates. Future research: The fact that lenders take CSR into account when setting interest rates is shown in the study. Further research can investigate the way in which CSR is included as part of their risk analysis. Further research can also examine how much impact this interest rate difference has on the companies' financial results and whether there is a sufficiently large incentive to invest in CSR.

Double sampling procedure is adapted from a statistical branch called acceptance sampling. The first Shewhart-type double sampling monitoring scheme was introduced in the statistical process monitoring (SPM) field in 1974. The double sampling monitoring scheme has been proven to effectively decrease the sampling effort and, at the same time, to decrease the time to detect potential out-of-control situations when monitoring the location, variability, joint location and variability using univariate or multivariate techniques. Consequently, an overview is conducted to give a full account of all 76 publications on double sampling monitoring schemes that exist in the SPM literature. Moreover, in the review conducted here, these are categorized and summarized so that any research gaps in the SPM literature can easily be identified. Next, based on the knowledge gained from the literature review about the existing designs for monitoring the process mean, a new type of double sampling design is proposed. The new charting region design lead to a class of a control charts called a side-sensitive double sampling (SSDS) monitoring schemes. In this study, the SSDS scheme is implemented to monitor the process mean when the underlying process parameters are known as well as when they are unknown. A variety of run-length properties (i.e., the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 95th percentiles, the average run-length (𝐴𝑅𝐿), standard deviation of the run-length (𝑆𝐷𝑅𝐿), the average sample size (𝐴𝑆𝑆) and the average extra quadratic loss (𝐴𝐸𝑄𝐿) metrics) are used to design and implement the new SSDS scheme. Comparisons with other established monitoring schemes (when parameters are known and unknown) indicate that the proposed SSDS scheme has a better overall performance. Illustrative examples are also given to facilitate the real-life implementation of the proposed SSDS schemes. Finally, a list of possible future research ideas is given with hope that this will stimulate more future research on simple as well as complex double sampling schemes (especially using the newly proposed SSDS design) for monitoring a variety of quality characteristics in the future. / Statistics / M. Sc. (Statistics)

No description available.

Klimatkrisen är en av de största utmaningarna som världen står inför. På senare år har en ökad uppmärksamhet för hållbarhet vuxit vilket medfört att företagens ansvarstagande i miljömässiga, sociala och styrningsrelaterande frågor blivit en allt viktigare del. För att kvantifiera hur väl hållbarhetsarbetet utförts i företag har hållbarhetsmåttet ESG utvecklats. Begreppet ESG är en sammanställning av tre olika segment: Environmental, Social och Governance som utifrån ett hållbarhetsperspektiv inriktar sig på att mäta dessa segment. Huruvida högre ESG-poäng leder till förbättrad finansiell prestation är däremot oklart. Många studier har undersökt relationen mellan ESG och finansiell prestation, dock har ingen konsensus kring förhållandet ännu konstaterats. Denna studie har därför undersökt om detta förhållande existerar på den svenska marknaden. I studien undersöktes om förhållandet mellan ESG och finansiell prestation påverkas beroende på företags branschtillhörighet. För att undersöka om branschtillhörighet har en signifikant effekt på förhållandet mellan ESG och finansiell prestation har en uppdelning mellan branscher och sektorer gjorts för företag som är känsliga för ESG-frågor och de som inte är det. De redovisningsbaserade prestationsmåtten som använts är ROA och ROE och det marknadsvärde-baserade måttet i studien var Tobin’s Q. Regressionsanalyser utfördes med ESG och de individuella pelarna E,S och G som oberoende variabler. Resultatet från studien fann överlag ett insignifikant förhållande mellan de redovisningsbaserade måtten ROA och ROE för känsliga företag. En positiv relation kunde däremot konstateras för det marknadsvärde-baserade måttet Tobin’s Q för de känsliga företagen. För de icke-känsliga företagen fanns studien överlag inga signifikanta förhållanden mellan något av de tre finansiella prestationsmått som används i studien. Resultaten ger inget stöd till hypotesen att ESG och de tre individuella pelarna E,S och G har en mer positivt relation till de finansiella prestationsmåtten inom känsliga företag än icke-känsliga företag. Något som kan förklaras av att ESG-poäng inte bedömer prestationen utan enbart rapporteringen. För att bringa klarhet i frågan gällande branschtillhörighetens påverkan på förhållandet mellan ESG och finansiell prestation behövs mer omfattande hänsyn till industriella faktorer tas för att ytterligare förstå sambandet mellan ESG och finansiell prestation. / The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges the world is facing. In recent years, increased attention to sustainability has led to corporate responsibility in environmental, social and governance-related issues becoming increasingly important. To quantify how well sustainability efforts are being carried out in companies, the sustainability measure ESG has been developed. The term ESG is a compilation of three different segments: Environmental, Social, and Governance, which from a sustainability perspective focus on measuring these segments. However, it is unclear whether higher ESG scores lead to improved financial performance. Many studies have examined the relationship between ESG and financial performance, but no consensus has yet been reached on the relationship. This study has therefore examined whether this relationship exists in the Swedish market. The study investigated whether the relationship between ESG and financial performance is influenced by a company's industry affiliation. To investigate whether industry affiliation has a significant effect on the relationship between ESG and financial performance, a breakdown of industries and sectors was made for companies that are sensitive to ESG issues and those that are not. The accounting-based performance measures used are ROA and ROE, and the market based measure in the study was Tobin's Q. Regression analyses were performed with ESG and the individual pillars E, S, and G as independent variables. The results of the study generally found an insignificant relationship between the accounting-based measures ROA and ROE for sensitive companies. However, a positive relationship was found for the market based measure Tobin's Q for sensitive companies. For non-sensitive companies, the study generally found no significant relationships between any of the three financial performance measures used in the study. The results do not support the hypothesis that ESG and the three individual pillars E, S, and G have a more positive relationship with the financial performance measures within sensitive companies than non-sensitive companies. This could be explained by the fact that ESG scores do not assess performance, only reporting. To bring clarity to the question regarding the impact of industry affiliation on the relationship between ESG and financial performance, it is necessary to take more comprehensive industry factors into account in order to further understand the relationship between ESG and financial performance.

Att sociala normer omedvetet inbäddas i interaktionsdesign har kommit att bli ett problem i takt med den ökade digitaliseringen. Tidigare forskning visar på att interaktionsdesign inte är en neutral plattform utan kan bidra till exkludering genom att förstärka uppfattningen om vem produkten riktar sig mot inom ramarna för de sociala normer som existerar i samhället. Kunskapsgapet ligger således i bristen på teoretiska och metodologiska tillvägagångssätt som hjälper designers att ifrågasätta normativa designkonventioner och navigera designrymden för alternativa metoder och praktiker. Denna kvalitativa studie med socialundersökning som forskningsstrategi grundar sig i att besvara forskningsfrågan: Vilka tillvägagångssätt använder UX-designers för att designa normkritiskt inom interaktionsdesign? I denna studie syftar tillvägagångssätt på olika metoder och principer som UX-designers använder i sitt normkritiska arbete. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer intervjuades tio UX-designers med frågor som utgick från fyra perspektiv: kulturella representationer, interaktivitet, teknik och användningssammanhang. Data analyserades utifrån en tematisk analys och ställdes sedan i relation till dessa fyra perspektiv med kunskap från tidigare studier för att kunna besvara forskningsfrågan. Studien visade på att det fanns flera tillvägagångssätt till att designa normkritiskt, nämligen genom användarcentrerad design, tillgänglighetsgranskning, samt ifrågasättande av normativa designval. Vidare identifierades ett antal ekonomiska, strukturella och tekniska barriärer som motverkar UX-designers tillvägagångssätt för normkritisk interaktionsdesign. / In line with increased digitalisation, the fact that social norms subconsciously are embedded in interaction design has become a topic of discussion. Previous research shows that digitally designed platforms aren't as neutral as we once thought but excludes users by reinforcing the perception of a target audience within the framework of societal norms. The knowledge gap lies in the lack of theoretical and methodological approaches to assist designers in questioning normative design conventions and help navigate the design sphere for alternative methods and practices. By collecting data from social surveys, this qualitative study aims to understand and answer the research question: What approaches do UX designers use to design norm-critically within interaction design? In this study, approaches refers to methods and principles that UX designers use in their norm-critical design work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten participants with questions based on four norm-critical perspectives: cultural representation, interactivity, technology, and context of use. Later, the data was analysed by the use of thematic analysis and examined in relation to these four perspectives with data collected from previous studies to be able to answer the research question. The study showed that UX designers have several approaches to working norm-critical, namely through user-centered design, accessibility reviews, and questioning normative design practices. However, a number of financial, structural, and technical barriers have been identified that counteracts UX designers approaches to norm-critical interaction design.

In real-time systems spanning a network, there is a need for deterministic communication. The best-effort approach which most of the Internets traffic follows is not suitable for this area since it does not guarantee packet delivery within a deadline and there is also no accurate measure of when the packet was sent. The network core and edge entities such as routers and hosts do not have any concept of time in normal networking, making real-time constraints more difficult to enforce. Time Sensitive Networking is a set of standards, all of which are related to solving the problem above. The most central of these standards is IEEE 802.1AS which defines the generic Precision Time Protocol that specifies how all the nodes of a network should synchronize their clocks to one master clock, giving them a common perception of time. This standard is a prerequisite for some of the other standards in the suite, for example, the 802.1Qbv standard defining a Time Aware Sharper which provides bounded latency for time-critical traffic. A common perception of time is also by itself needed by applications that have to orchestrate actions, with temporal relations to each other, across a network. These applications can be found within areas such as industrial automation and vehicular control systems. The problem that this thesis explores is how the precision of time synchronization of a Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) solution depends on variables in the network such as configuration, topology, and external factors. To find the correlation between the parameters and the precision of the time synchronization, several experiments have been conducted. The experiments were performed on a simple network of hardware components constituting a physical test bed and an oscilloscope was used to probe the clocks if its nodes and extract measurements. Our findings indicate several relationships between the tested parameters and the synchronization precision. The biggest conclusion we can make from our study is that the IEEE 802.1AS standard does not rely on the support of other standards to achieve sub-microsecond results when there is a best-effort traffic load on the network. The manipulated configuration of the standard has given results that in general coincide with the expected behavior. Finally, the data gathered on different topologies, that were tested showed no significant trends regarding the precision. / I realtidssystem som kommunicerar över nätverk finns det ett behov av deterministisk kommunikation. Det vanliga tillvägagångssättet som de mesta av internettrafiken följer är inte lämpligt för detta område eftersom det inte garanterar paketleverans inom en deadline och det inte heller finns något exakt mått av när paketet skickades. Nätverkets enheter som routrar och noder har inte någon uppfattning om tid i normala nätverk, vilket gör realtidsbegränsningar omöjliga att upprätthålla. Time Sensitive Networking är en uppsättning standarder, som alla är relaterade till att lösa problemet ovan. Den mest centrala av dessa standarder är IEEE 802.1AS som definierar generic precision Time Protocol som specificerar hur alla noder i ett nätverk ska synkronisera sina klockor till en masterklicka, vilket ger dem en gemensam tidsuppfattning. Denna standard är en förutsättning för några av de andra standarderna i sviten, till exempel 802.1Qbv-standrarden som definierar en Time Aware Scheduler som ger begränsad latens för tidskritisk trafik. En gemensam tidsuppfattning behövs också av applikationer som måste orkestrera operationer, med tidsmässiga relationer till varandra, över ett nätverk. Dessa applikationer finns inom områden som industriell automation och fordonsstyrningssystem. Problemet som denna avhandling undersöker är hur precisionen av tidssynkronisering av en TSN-lösning beror på variabler i nätverket så som konfiguration, topologi och externa faktorer. För att hitta korrelationen mellan parametrarna och precisionen i tidssynkroniseringen har flera experiment genomförts. Experimenten utfördes på ett enkelt nätverk av hårdvarukomponenter som utgör en fysisk testbädd och ett oscilloskop användes för att undersöka klockorna på dess noder och extrahera mätningarna. Våra resultat indikerar flera samband mellan de testade parametrarna och synkroniseringsprecisionen. Den största slutsatsen vi kan dra från vår studie är att IEEE 802.1AS-standaden inte förlitar sig på stöd från andra standarder för att uppnå resultat under mikrosekunder när det finns en annan trafikbelastning på nätverket. Den manipulerade konfigurationen av standarden har gett resultat som i allmänhet överensstämmer med det förväntade beteendet. Slutligen visade de insamlade data om olika typologier som testades inga signifikanta trender vad gäller precisionen.

Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / Natalie Mladenov / The Colorado Front Range of the Rocky Mountains contains undeveloped, barren soils, yet in this environment there is strong evidence for a microbial role in increased nitrogen (N) export. Barren soils in alpine environments are severely carbon-limited, and organic carbon (OC) is the main energy source for heterotrophic microbial activity and sustenance of life. Atmospheric deposition can contain high amounts of OC. Atmospheric pollutants, dust events, and biological aerosols, such as bacteria, may be important contributors to the atmospheric OC load. In this stage of the research we evaluated seasonal trends and annual loadings in the chemical composition and optical spectroscopic (fluorescence and UV-vis absorbance) signatures of wet deposition and dry deposition in an alpine environment, at Niwot Ridge in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to better understand the sources and chemical characteristics of atmospheric deposition. Dry deposition was found to be an important source of OC to the alpine. Wet deposition contributed substantially greater amounts of dissolved ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate. There were also positive relationships between dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and ammonium, nitrate and sulfate concentrations in wet deposition, which may be derived from such sources as dust and urban air pollution. We also observed the presence of seasonally-variable fluorescent components in atmospheric samples that are different from aquatic dissolved organic matter (DOM). Finally, the quality of atmospheric organic compounds reflects photodegradation during transport through the atmosphere. These results are relevant because atmospheric inputs of carbon and other nutrients may influence nitrification in barren, alpine soils and, ultimately, the export of nitrate from alpine watersheds.

Cosmic-ray fluctuations are monitored by neutron monitors using several different kinds of proportional counter tubes. An important component of these monitors is the electronic subsystem that registers and counts output pulses from these counter tubes. Part of the electronic subsystem is a specific preamplifier. The pulse-height distribution curve of the existing preamplifier used in the neutron monitor system at the Centre for Space Research at the North-West University was found to be incorrect, and therefore the pulse-height information cannot be used for further research on the counter tube characteristics. A correct pulse-height distribution implies that the envelope of the pulse, as generated by an amplifier, has a very specific shape as a result of the physics that governs the generation of pulses in the neutron counter tube. It was therefore proposed that a new charge-sensitive preamplifier be synthesized to provide an output that provides the correct pulse-height distribution graph for a neutron monitor system. The Centre for Space Research at the North-West University is in the process of designing and building a new mini neutron monitor system. The new charge-sensitive preamplifier will be implemented into this updated system. Ultimately, the electronic subsystem must be able to provide a pulse-height distribution graph at the push of a button, thus making the preamplifier a key component in the new design. In this dissertation the theory of charge-sensitive amplifiers is researched following a design science research methodology. The results showed that a charge-sensitive amplifier can be synthesized to address both the real-world requirements and the theoretical requirements of this research. / MIng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Cosmic-ray fluctuations are monitored by neutron monitors using several different kinds of proportional counter tubes. An important component of these monitors is the electronic subsystem that registers and counts output pulses from these counter tubes. Part of the electronic subsystem is a specific preamplifier. The pulse-height distribution curve of the existing preamplifier used in the neutron monitor system at the Centre for Space Research at the North-West University was found to be incorrect, and therefore the pulse-height information cannot be used for further research on the counter tube characteristics. A correct pulse-height distribution implies that the envelope of the pulse, as generated by an amplifier, has a very specific shape as a result of the physics that governs the generation of pulses in the neutron counter tube. It was therefore proposed that a new charge-sensitive preamplifier be synthesized to provide an output that provides the correct pulse-height distribution graph for a neutron monitor system. The Centre for Space Research at the North-West University is in the process of designing and building a new mini neutron monitor system. The new charge-sensitive preamplifier will be implemented into this updated system. Ultimately, the electronic subsystem must be able to provide a pulse-height distribution graph at the push of a button, thus making the preamplifier a key component in the new design. In this dissertation the theory of charge-sensitive amplifiers is researched following a design science research methodology. The results showed that a charge-sensitive amplifier can be synthesized to address both the real-world requirements and the theoretical requirements of this research. / MIng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014