The declining population of black rhinoceroses in Tsavo West national park, Kenya, has served as the driving force behind Project Ngulia, with Ngulia serving as an enclosed area within the park. As of now, the area is equipped with multiple cameras connected to a system that automatically classify animals and humans. This thesis aims to investigate the suitability of the Insta360 One X2 camera acting as a virtual watch tower for capturing and streaming 360° images. This will work in real-time, providing a remote surveillance experience for the park rangers thereby optimizing their work. A system was implemented to create a efficient workflow, which includes stitching of the 360° images, file transfer protocol for image transmission and storage, as well as socket programming to facilitate port monitoring and communication. Additionally, the compat- ibility of two single board computers, LattePanda and Rock 4 SE, with the implemented system was evaluated. User experience methods as field studies, workshops and a user interview were also performed. The work has been developed in Sweden, resulting in limited availability for testing at the target location during the initial months. The outcome was a both locally and remotely working system, together with LattePanda, capturing images of the waterhole in Ngulia. However, because of the conclusions drawn regarding the power supply and the lack of essential functions in the 360° camera, the system was taken home for further research. Propositions is presented regarding future work, some being that the projects within Ngulia team may collaborate to enhance hardware efficiency and explore the utilization of 360° images in educational and entertainment contexts.

two towers: vertical library with spiral ramp

This Master Thesis consisted in realizing a tool able to design, estimate the cost and calculate annual yields of a molten salt solar power tower. Such tool was made for a company providing CSP equipment and plant solutions for engineering, engineering and procurement or also EPC of a solar power tower. The Company wishes to propose competitive plant configurations presenting a good trade-off between cost and revenues. The Company can oversee the EPC of a whole power plant or/and supply some components of the molten salt cycle and of the water/steam cycle. The tool models a large scale solar power tower with a thermal energy storage system on EBSILON®Professional 12.04, a thermodynamic software.   When launching a simulation, the tool sizes the components of the molten salt cycle (design phase) according to user’s inputs, the other components have their characteristics based on a reference project. Depending on the size of the components, the total cost is determined and the revenues over a year of operation are calculated (annual performance). When performing several simulations with different configurations, the Company can judge about the economic viability of plant configurations by comparing their LCOEs and NPVs.   The present document describes the result of the Master Thesis, that is to say the tool itself, what it contains and how it works. The methodology adopted to design the components is presented in depth, the way costs were calculated is exposed. The document explains the annual performance calculations and the simple operation strategy implemented. Finally, a technical and cost validation was carried out but it would require some further work to be complete. The design and cost calculations are performed in few seconds, the annual calculations take around 2-3h.   One main contribution of the Master Thesis is to show that designing, estimating costs and calculating annual performances is feasible in a single tool operating at a high level of detail. Using the tool during a solar power tower project could considerably facilitate the current process in place at the Company. It can also allow to compare an important number of configurations to determine a good techno-economic solution. / Denna uppsats bestod i att genomföra ett verktyg som kan utforma, beräkna kostnaden och beräkna årliga avkastningar på ett smält salt soltorn. Ett sådant verktyg gjordes för ett företag inom soltornsteknik, upphandling och konstruktion (SUK) som vill föreslå konkurrenskraftiga anläggningskonfigurationer som presenterar en bra avvägning mellan kostnad och intäkter. Företaget, samtidigt som det övervakar SUK för en hel kraftverk, levererar det också vissa komponenter i den smälta saltcykeln. Verktyget modellerar ett storskaligt soltorn med ett värmeenergilagringssystem på EBSILON®Professional 12.04, en termodynamisk programvara.   När en simulering startas, ritar verktyget komponenterna i den smälta saltcykeln (designfas) enligt användarens inmatningar, de andra komponenterna är baserade på ett referensprojekt. Beroende på komponenternas storlek bestäms den totala kostnaden och intäkterna över ett verksamhetsår beräknas (årlig prestation). När flera simuleringar görs med olika konfigurationer kan företaget bedöma sin ekonomiska lönsamhet genom att jämföra sina LCOE och NPV.   Det här dokumentet beskriver resultatet av masterprojektet, det vill säga själva verktyget, vad det innehåller och hur det fungerar. Den metod som antagits för att designa komponenterna presenteras grundligt samt hur kostnaderna beräknades. Dokumentet förklarar de årliga prestationsberäkningarna och den enkla operationsstrategin som implementerats. Slutligen genomfördes en teknisk och kostnadsvalidering, men det skulle kräva ytterligare insats för att göra arbetet fullständigt. Konstruktionen och kostnadsberäkningarna utförs på få sekunder, de årliga beräkningarna tar cirka 2-3 timmar.   Ett huvudbidrag av examensarbetet är att visa att utformning, uppskattning av kostnader och beräkning av årliga prestanda är möjlig i ett enda verktyg som arbetar på en detaljrik nivå. Att använda verktyget under ett soltornsprojekt kan betydligt underlätta den nuvarande processen på plats hos företaget. Det kan också göra det möjligt att jämföra ett viktigt antal konfigurationer för att bestämma en bra tekno-ekonomisk lösning.

According to The Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s (2014) quality review, technology subject is all too often characterized by practical work that does not illustrate the theory. In this study, the theory is used to describe the practical work in technology teaching. The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of how practical problem solving together with oral interaction affects students’ understanding of the theory behind the water tower as a technical system. Previous research shows how oral interaction strengthens students’ learning through the zone of proximal development (ZPD). When Students work in groups they can use each other’s knowledge and together support each other to reach a new development zone. Through group collaboration, they also increase their skills in practical problem solving through oral interaction and exchange of knowledge.  The methods in the study are design study, observation with observation schedule and observation with video analysis. The teaching approach in the design study is based on the students’ understanding of the theory behind the water tower as a technical system with the help of practical work in groups. The design of the design study is based on students in year six having to understand the theory behind the water tower by constructing a water tower themselves. The results of the study shows that students in year six through our approach to technology teaching are given the opportunity for a gradual increase of knowledge acquisition. The gradually increasing of understanding is based on the students developing from initially lacking knowledge of the water tower as a technical system in level one and in level four the students understanding how the different technical systems work together. The results shows that this way of working is a good addition to the existing technology teaching, with a focus on the theoretical knowledge in the technology subject.

This thesis explores the application of a neural network approach to cell tower localization using crowdsourced measurements. The deployment of cell tower infrastructure has been increasing exponentially in recent times as it is a crucial element of mobile communications. Location information is key to the quality of 4G LTE and 5G wireless service, establishing accurate coverage maps and different connectivity studies. Mobile carriers do not usually disclose the location of their cell towers due to security concerns, regulatory requirements, or market competition. In addition, open-source datasets on cell tower localization available online are often incomplete, inaccurate, or non-existent. Crowdsourcing enables the collection of large amounts of signal measurements from several mobile devices. By labeling these measurements with ground truth locations of base stations, we can address this challenge, employing a machine learning framework to predict the geographical locations of cell towers. The methodology followed in this project involves data preprocessing and feature engineering of a crowdsourced dataset along with the implementation and tuning of a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network model. The cell tower approximations obtained with this method excelled other state-of-the-art localization algorithms and provide a better estimation of telecommunication infrastructure deployments than open-source datasets. Overall, this thesis discusses the feasibility of employing a neural network model for predicting cell tower locations, while addressing some limitations and possible improvements for the localization problem. / Denna avhandling utforskar tillämpningen av ett neuralt nätverkstilvägagångssätt för lokalisering av mobiltelefonmaster med hjälp av crowdsourcade mätningar. Utbyggnaden av infrastrukturen för mobiltelefonmaster har ökat exponentiellt på senare tid eftersom den är en avgörande del av mobil kommunikation. Platsinformation är nyckeln till kvaliteten på 4G LTE och 5G trådlös tjänst, att etablera precisa täckningskartor och olika anslutningsstudier. Mobiloperatörer avslöjar vanligtvis inte platsen för sina mobiltelefonmaster på grund av säkerhetshänsyn, regulatoriska krav eller marknadskonkurrens. Dessutom är öppna datakällor för lokalisering av mobiltelefonmaster som finns tillgängliga online ofta ofullständiga, felaktiga eller icke-existerande. Crowdsourcing möjliggör insamling av stora mängder signalmätningar från flera mobila enheter. Genom att märka dessa mätningar med de faktiska platserna för basstationer kan vi ta itu med denna utmaning, genom att använda ett ramverk för maskininlärning för att förutsäga de geografiska platserna för mobiltelefonmaster. Metodiken som följdes i detta projekt involverar datapreprocessering och egenskapsingenjörskonst av en crowdsourcad datamängd tillsammans med implementering och justering av en flerlagers perceptron (MLP) neuralt nätverksmodell. Mobiltelefonmästarnas approximationer som erhållits med denna metod överträffade andra toppmoderna lokaliseringsalgoritmer och ger en bättre uppskattning av telekommunikationsinfrastrukturutplaceringar än öppna datakällor. Sammantaget diskuterar denna avhandling genomförbarheten av att använda en neuralt nätverksmodell för att förutsäga platser för mobiltelefonmaster, samtidigt som den tar upp vissa begränsningar och möjliga förbättringar för lokaliseringsproblemet.

Nowadays, with the ever growing availability of options in many areas of our lives, it is crucial to have good ways to navigate your choices. This is why recommendation engines’ role is growing more important. Recommenders are often based on user-item interaction. In many areas like news and podcasts, however, by the time there is enough interaction data for an item, the item has already become irrelevant. This is why incorporating content features is desirable, as the content does not depend on the popularity or novelty of an item. Very often, there is text describing an item, so text features are good candidates for features within recommender systems. Within Natural Language Processing (NLP), pre-trained language models based on the Transformer architecture have brought a revolution in recent years, achieving state-of-the-art performance on many language tasks. Because of this, it is natural to explore how such models can play a role within recommendation systems. The scope of this work is on the intersection between NLP and recommendation systems where we investigate what are the effects of adding BERT-based encodings of titles and descriptions of movies and books to a recommender system. The results show that even in off-the-shelf BERT-models there is a considerable amount of information on movie and book similarity. It also shows that BERT based representations could be used in a recommender system for user recommendation to combine the best of collaborative and content representations. In this thesis, it is shown that adding deep pre-trained language model representations could improve a recommender system’s capability to predict good items for users with up to 0.43 AUC-ROC score for a shallow model, and 0.017 AUC-ROC score for a deeper model. It is also shown that SBERT can be fine-tuned to encode item similarity with up to 0.03 nDCG and up to 0.05 nDCG@10 score improvement. / Med den ständigt växande tillgängligheten av val i många delar av våra liv har det blivit viktigt att enkelt kunna navigera kring olika alternativ. Det är därför rekommendationssystems har blivit viktigare. Rekommendationssystem baseras ofta på interaktion-historiken mellan användare och artikel. När tillräckligt mycket data inom nyheter och podcast har hunnits samlats in för att utföra en rekommendation så har artikeln hunnit bli irrelevant. Det är därför det är önskvärt att införa innehållsfunktioner till rekommenderaren, då innehållet inte är beroende av popularitet eller nymodigheten av artikeln. Väldigt ofta finns det text som beskriver en artikel vilket har lett till textfunktioner blivit bra kandidater som funktion för rekommendationssystem. Inom Naturlig Språkbehandling (NLP), har förtränande språkmodeller baserad på transformator arkitekturen revolutionerat området de senaste åren. Den nya arkitekturen har uppnått toppmoderna resultat på flertal språkuppgifter. Tack vare detta, har det blivit naturligt att utforska hur sådana modeller kan fungera inom rekommendationssystem. Det här arbetet är mellan två områden, NLP och rekommendationssystem. Arbetet utforskar effekten av att lägga till BERT-baserade kodningar av titel och beskrivning av filmer, samt böcker till ett rekommendationssystem. Resultaten visar att även i förpackade BERT modeller finns det mycket av information om likheter mellan film och böcker. Resultaten visar även att BERT representationer kan användas i rekommendationssystem för användarrekommendationer, i kombination med kollaborativa och artikel baserade representationer. Uppsatsen visar att lägga till förtränade djupspråkmodell representationer kan förbättra rekommendationssystemens förmåga att förutsäga bra artiklar för användare. Förbättringarna är upp till 0.43 AUC-ROC poäng för en grundmodell, samt 0.017 AUC-ROC poäng för en djupmodell. Uppsatsen visar även att SBERT kan bli finjusterad för att koda artikel likhet med upp till 0.03 nDCG och upp till 0.05 nDCG@10 poängs förbättring.

Architecture and Film - A Symbiotic Relationship. This project is not intented to be revolutionary, but rather exploratory. To delve deeper into ones interests and better understand them. My architectural studies are five years young, and my passion for film has been with me for as long as I can remember. That is why I see my diplomaproject as an opportunity to bring both worlds that fuel my creativity together. I do not see myself as an architect without being a filmmaker and I cannot create worlds as a filmmaker without exploring architecture. An anomaly was detected in the northern region of Europe. Satellite images show an island not included in any of our maps on which monolithic structures are resting. The clean geometry and the elusive dimensions show monuments difficult to specify in time. These monuments seem ancient, but they are not primitive. They show advanced knowledge of our celestial bodies from however long ago. These are The Monuments of The Ones Before. Once, before our time. To you the reader: We have made a startling discovery. This is the birthplace of astronomy.

This companion of short essays, images and drawings are parts to a whole: a series of independent studies in search of architectural understandings. While this "project" has been underway for several years, until recently the thread of relevance between studies has been untethered. Now at the end, I come to the beginning of this book to suggest the emerging relevance to these studies: architectural harmony. And because the process of understanding is one of sorting things out, this compilation should be appreciated as such. Thus, it is by no means comprehensive or conclusive, despite its presence as a completed work. Indeed, the writing of this book is itself a sorting activity. It is not a report of absolute findings, supported by irrefutable references or statistical data points. Readers should therefore enter the book as a student, engaged in question making, discoursing with another also searching in these pages. Herein lies emerging positions, built up from root questions. Because of this, these positions will likely change with time and may never find absolute resolution. If forced to side with one position at this time, it must be the acknowledgement that there are many. Indeed, many valid positions exist and perhaps, more importantly, coexist. This is the nature of harmony as well. Harmony in architecture is less about notions of something specific, final or pleasing and is more about the poise of phenomenal states: where relationships of part to part and parts to whole form entireties whose identities are appreciable for more than their singularity or their totality. Because harmony is a ex post facto backdrop for these studies, it is not persistent theme throughout the book. Part 1 is dedicated to positions best described as taking stock; for example, taking stock of subjects, such as knots or the square; taking stock of situations and roles, such as modes of inquiry and the responsibility of design; taking stock of one's own dispositions, so to set out a consistent relationship between the players and the field of play. Part 2 describes the thesis project with demonstrations and words. Words are inevitable in discussing the work. They help articulate observations and defend design decisions and sensibilities. Some of these observations are described as if the project exists. But because an architectural thesis often uses demonstrations to provide examples in lieu of final constructions, it is hard to gauge the extent to which these speculations are imagined or drawn out by demonstration. The book concludes with Part 3. The thesis defense lecture is one distillation of harmony that closely examines a fragment of the project as an example of part and whole. Alas, it is in the very nature of using words to understand architecture, especially if the author of text and line are one in the same, that an author's a priori intentions and their a posteriori evaluations of the work are susceptible to mix. Further, such an author is faced with a paradox; on the one hand, he is the expert, on the other, he is in no position to claim ultimate authority. Compatibility between work and word exists partially in the mind and partially in the eyes. It is indeed difficult (perhaps impossible) to step outside the self enough to accurately compare and contrast word and work. With this point established, the work is not only subject to critique, but so is this evaluation of it. To conclude these preparatory remarks, as the direct benefactor of these studies, my appreciation of harmony in architecture is reaching that elusive position where, with each layer of understanding made clear, additional layers of opacity are encountered. In other words, questions are answered with yet more questions. For example, should harmony be understood as cause or effect? Does harmony exist out of time or completely in it? Thus, standard definitions are quite inadequate for architectural understandings of harmony. And while it might be helpful to break harmony down into digestible parts, this reductive inventory does not render a harmonic assembly. Furthermore, even the most lucid of explanations do not translate well into examples such to instruct. It seems the type of thing, perhaps like color, is best known through repetitive and thoughtful experience. This is just the start where even assumptions brought to the table must be checked. Despite these quandaries, my challenge for this book is to reveal something fundamental, albeit modest, to readers, and in the end, for architecture. / Master of Architecture

This thesis choreographs the procession around and within a tower. An alternating sequence of compression and expansion of space creates a rich spatial experience. Each moment along the sequence is meant to complement or contrast the others, exaggerating their effect. The tower's form is designed by producing and then selecting from a series of potential solutions. Each iteration is guided by the aforementioned sequence of spatial conditions. / Master of Architecture

The story of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11: 1-9) has been interpreted in various ways down through the centuries. However, most commentators have ignored the genre of the text, and have not sought to interpret it within its mythological framework - therefore most interpretations are nothing short of babble. A working text is ascertained, and the complexity of the text investigated. The text is then identified as 'myth': within its mythological framework the tower is seen as a temple linking heaven and earth, ensuring the continuation of the royal dynasty (i e 'making a name'). When used by the Yahwist Levites during the Babylonian Exile, our story was inserted in the great Pre-History as polemic against the Babylonian concept of creation, temple, and dynasty; and served as both a warning and an encouragement to the Exiles. The post-exilic Priestly Writer re-interpreted our story as a warning to the returning exiles that their society, and their temple, should be reconstructed as YHWH determines. Interpreting the story as myth enables it, finally, to speak clearly into our context today, especially that of South Africa. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)