The aim of this master thesis is to classify the tree class from an image of a leaf with a computer vision classiffication system. We compare different descriptors that will describe the leaves different features. We will also look at different classiffication models and combine them with the descriptors to build a system hat could classify the different tree classes.

IT systems rely on correct authentication of their users in order to provide confidentiality and integrity of data. When accessing systems remotely, for instance over the Internet, no assumptions can be made regarding the level of security on the computer used. Such computers may be exposed to malware, keyloggers and other threats and must therefore generally be considered as untrusted. To increase security when users connect remotely from untrusted clients various authentication mechanisms can be used. Usability must however be considered when deploying new mechanisms. Protection must also be balanced to the load put on users. This thesis gives a presentation of common authentication mechanisms available and enumerates the main attack vectors threatening correct authentication and credentials. Furthermore a ranking method is proposed in order to evaluate authentication mechanisms in relation to each other. Using the outcome of the ranking of existing methods an authentication system called Smokey (Synchronizable Mobile Key) is proposed and implemented. Smokey uses Java capable cell phones as hardware tokens generating short time valid one time passwords. Whereas traditional tokens may cease to work under certain circumstances Smokey provides users the ability to synchronize with the authentication server aiming for high usability.

Around the world, vehicle emission regulations become stricter, increasing exhaust emission demands. To manage these rules and regulations, vehicle manufacturers put a lot of effort into minimizing the exhaust emissions. The three-way catalytic converter was developed, and today it is the most commonly used device to control the exhaust emissions. To work properly the catalytic converter needs to control the air-fuel mixture with great precision. This then increases the demands on the engine management systems, causing them to become more complex. With increased complexity, the time effort of optimizing parameters has grown drastically, hence increasing development costs. In addition to this, operating conditions change due to vehicles age, requiring further optimization of the parameters while running. To minimize development cost and to control the air-fuel mixture with great precision during an engines full life span, this master thesis proposes a self-optimized system, i.e. an adaptive system, to control the air-fuel mixture. In the suggested method, the fuel injection to the engine is controlled with help of a linear lambda sensor, which measures the air-fuel mixture. The mapping from injection to measured air-fuel mixture forms a nonlinear system. It can be approximated as a linear function at static engine operating points, allowing the system at each static point to be modelled as a first order system with long time delay. To enable utilization over full operating area, and not only in static point, the controller uses large maps, so called gain-scheduling maps, to change control parameters. The tested controller is model based. It uses an Otto-Smith Predictor and a feed forward connection of target air-fuel. The model parameters in the controller are updated while driving and the adaptation method used is based on a least squares algorithm. The performance of the adapted controller and the adaptation method is tested in both simulation environment and in vehicle, showing good potential.

Analytical and finite element solutions to the problem of a vibrating beam on an elastic foundation are presented. An application example is a concrete railway sleeper embedded in an elastic medium (the ballast). The sleeper is also elastically connected to the rails. Eigenfrequencies are calculated and vibration modes are discussed. The beam (sleeper) is divided into sections where each section may or may not be supported by the elastic foundation. The elastic connections to the rails are situated at the two joinings of the three sleeper sections. Some conclusions are that Euler-Bernoulli beam theory can be used to calculate two, or maximum three, eigenfrequencies of the sleeper. The foundation stiffness influences the lowest bending-mode eigenfrequency the most; higher eigenfrequencies are practically unaffected by the foundation stiffness. The influence of railpad (and rail) stiffness on the sleeper eigenfrequencies is negligible.

With growing economies and better living standards in many parts of the world today, there is a need of expanding the capacity of generating electricity. The alternatives for renewable energy technologies are not fully developed and have still some problems to conquer. The company Minesto has developed a technology that is called Deep Green. It is designed to gain electricity from tidal currents. Deep Green works in a similar way as a kite that is attached to the seafloor with a moving wire. It contains of a wing that moves due to the water current. The path of the movement is circular or a shape of an “8”. The turbine under the wing is powered by the water flow which in turn leads to generation of electricity by the generator. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the potential of using the Deep Green technology in ocean currents with respect to construction and economy. The site for the investigation is off the east coast of Florida where the Florida current streams with a speed of about 1, 5 m/s close to the surface. The major difference compared to the use in tidal currents is the deep waters of about 300 m and a oneway current direction. A mooring construction was developed and optimized and with the use of carbon fiber ropes, buoys and foundations lets 9 Deep Greens operate between 20 and 79 m depth. The idea is to install 7 such clusters with a total of 63 Deep Greens on the site in Florida. This configuration generates a power of 24 MW and gives a production of 185 GWh/year. Economic accounts were made with support of earlier made calculations regarding a park of 60 Deep Greens in a tidal current application. The results for the clustered configuration in ocean currents indicated a cost of 0,67 SEK/kWh with a discount rate of 8%. The required capital for the installation is about 780 mSEK (CAPEX). The operating costs (OPEX) are 43,3 mSEK. The design seems reasonable in many respects and it operates in a continuous ocean current with good electricity generation. The use of Deep Green in ocean currents speaks for being a profitable application. Though, it will be a large‐scale economic project, mainly because installations in a small scale will not be profitable due to costs such as grid connection. Critical issues to look at in a further development was considered to be surveys of the installation site, the displacement and movements of the mooring, the buoyancy‐system and the installation procedure.

The concept of the product life cycle is not new, having been described, analyzed and discussed so often in the literature of marketing, management and manufacturing. While its strategic implications have been the subject of much research, little is known about its effect on operational aspects, particularly for product and process design. This paper intends to fill this gap. Four product and process concepts are considered; they are modularization, mass customization, the customer order decoupling point, and postponement. By means of a causal loop diagram, the relationships between the different concepts are explored, all finally connecting to one of two business benefits: cost reduction or customer value enhancement. Building on the diagram, a conceptual framework is presented; intended to serve as a set of guidelines for companies wishing to align their product and process design with respect to the product life cycle, allowing benefits to be gained by leveraging the different stages of the product life cycle. Finally, a case study tests the conceptual framework against a global materials handling equipment manufacturer. Due to the long product life cycles existing in the industry, it was not possible to fully cover all steps of the product life cycle. However, the application of the other concepts was explored in great detail for both the operational supply chain, as well as for the design of new products.

Energy efficiency in industry is became important issue in this century considering cost of energy, energy crisis in the world and environmental issue of using energy sources. To solve this problem energy management can be successful tools due to it positive impact on reduction of energy use and also reduction of energy use environmental impacts. The aim of this thesis is to present results of a successful energy managing practices in a Swedish iron foundry and explain the possibilities to implement energy efficiency measures in iron foundry. This in depth evaluation conducted in 2009-2010 in the ITT Water & Wastewater that is a pump manufacture and considers the most energy efficient foundry in Sweden. The company has received the Swedish Foundry Association’s energy prize in 2006 and is considered the most energy efficient foundry in Sweden. In order to reach the goals of project some visiting of factory is done to be familiar with the overall view of the factory and to detect the measures which have been done. Then all data have been gathered and after that analyzed. This in depth evaluation tries to indicate role of energy manager and having energy management practice in industry. Research in this field that contains both theoretical aspect and practical results is very rare. Also for approaching to more details result for in depth evaluation it is better to be  involved with another aspects and actors in industry such as different workers, decision makers to have an in depth view about energy management practice, but because of time limitation in this work just  energy manager and the energy efficiency implementations are considered to conclude results. Results point out well-organized, IT-based and knowledgeable energy management system in cooperation with energy efficiency measures implementation and professional energy manager in the company under study in different part make an increase in energy efficiency for electricity more than 27% and for district heating 68%. Evaluations of factory energy management practices from 10 years ago till 2008 is done and show also role of the overcoming barriers in executing energy management strategies.

Det här examensarbetet behandlar de olika teoretiska verktyg och moment en grafiskt process innehåller, samt jämför teorins delar med hur olika företag arbetar i verkligheten. En studie har genomförts på fyra olika oberoende varumärkesägande företag som intervjuats för att ta del av deras individuella processer vid utveckling av förpackningsdesign till sina produkter. Innehållet i intervjuerna har ställts mot vad teorin presenterar där processerna har jämförts och analyserats för att belysa för- och nackdelar. Genom att framhäva svagheter och se på andra lösningar lyfts eventuella möjligheter till effektivisering av processerna fram. Det här examensarbetet behandlar de olika teoretiska verktyg och moment en grafiskt process innehåller, samt jämför teorins delar med hur olika företag arbetar i verkligheten. En studie har genomförts på fyra olika oberoende varumärkesägande företag som intervjuats för att ta del av deras individuella processer vid utveckling av förpackningsdesign till sina produkter. Innehållet i intervjuerna har ställts mot vad teorin presenterar där processerna har jämförts och analyserats för att belysa för- och nackdelar. Genom att framhäva svagheter och se på andra lösningar lyfts eventuella möjligheter till effektivisering av processerna fram.

Perso-Arabic script is the official writing system in Iran. Romanized transcriptions, based on phonology of Persian, have been extensively used in electronic communications especially on Internet. Dealing with the conversion between these two types of writing systems has been an interesting topic in Natural Language Processing. Similar to Machine Translation, these conversions can be applied at different grammatical layers; such as sentence, phrase or word layer. In this thesis, by choosing Dabire as a standard Romanized transcription, we introduce two approaches to achieve such conversions at word level. In Lexicon-based approach we use Finite State Technology for bi-directional conversion between Perso-Arabic and Dabire. The second approach uses association analysis for statistical conversion from Perso-Arabic to Dabire.

Mathematical modeling has evolved from being a rare event to becoming a standardapproach for investigating complex biological interactions. However, variationsand uncertainties in experimental data usually result in uncertain estimatesof the parameters of the model. It is possible to draw conclusions from the modeldespite uncertain parameters by using core predictions. A core prediction is amodel property which is valid for all parameter vectors that fit data at an acceptablecost. By validating the core prediction with additional experimentalmeasurements one can draw conclusions about the overall model despite uncertainparameter values. A prerequisite for identifying a core prediction is a global searchfor all acceptable parameter vectors. Global optimization methods are normallyconstructed to search for a single optimal parameter vector, but methods searchingfor several acceptable parameter vectors are required here.In this thesis, two metaheuristic optimization algorithms have been evaluated,namely Simulated annealing and Scatter search. In order to compare their differences,a set of functions has been implemented in Matlab. The Matlab functionsinclude a statistical framework which is used to discard poorly tuned optimizationalgorithms, five performance measures reflecting the different objectives of locatingone or several acceptable parameter vectors, and a number of test functionsmeant to reflect high-dimensional, multimodal problems. In addition to the testfunctions, a biological benchmark model is included.The statistical framework has been used to evaluate the performance of thetwo algorithms with the objective of locating one and several acceptable parametervectors. For the objective of locating one acceptable parameter vector, theresults indicate that Scatter search performed better than Simulated Annealing.The results also indicate that different search objectives require differently tunedalgorithms. Furthermore, the results show that test functions with a suitabledegree of difficulty are not a trivial task to obtain. A verification of the tuned optimizationalgorithms has been conducted on the benchmark model. The resultsare somewhat contradicting and in this specific case, it is not possible to claimthat good configurations on test functions remain good in real applications.