Swedish health care is currently facing problems, such as lack of financial resources, staff shortage and dissatisfaction among patients and professionals. Patients’ dissatisfaction was the point of departure for the present study, and one approach dealing with this problem was investigated. It was hypothesised that a patient-centred perspective could offer a possible solution. The aim of the study was to explore health care professionals’ and medical students’ understanding of their professional role and the patient encounter. A further goal was to determine whether these understandings could be developed by educational interventions. Students and professionals have been either interviewed or responded to a survey about their professional role and the patient encounter. Qualitative analysis was used. One group- and one individualised intervention were carried out. The participants’ understandings of their professional role were taken as the starting point for learning. The results showed that a minority of medical students and professionals in diabetes care had incorporated a patient-centred perspective. Nurses in telephone advisory services recognised the patients’ needs, but experienced conflicting demands of being both carer and gatekeeper. A non-optimal match between patients’ needs and what professionals understand as their role could cause some of the problems. Competence development could be achieved by taking the participants understanding of the professionals’ role and of the patient encounter as a starting point for reflection. The results have implications for changes in organisation and education in health care, to optimise outcomes of care. Time for reflection, mentoring and professional development is needed.

In this thesis study, single target tracking algorithms including IMM-PDA and IMM-IPDA algorithms / Optimal approaches in multitarget tracking including IMM-JPDA, IMM-IJPDA and IMM-JIPDA algorithms and an example of Linear Multi-target approaches in multitarget tracking including IMM-LMIPDA algorithm have been studied and implemented in MATLAB for comparison. Simulations were carried out in various realistic test scenarios including single target tracking, tracking of multiple targets moving in convoy fashion, two targets merging in a junction, two targets merging-departing in junctions and multitarget tracking under isolated tracks situations. RMSE performance, track loss and computational load evaluations were done for these algorithms under the test scenarios dealing with these situations. Benchmarkings are presented relying on these outcomes.

In this thesis, a maximum likelihood receiver to obtain the target range profile that uses the clutter prediction derived from the target-free previous observations is suggested as a fast time processor for pulse compression radar systems. The maximum likelihood receiver is proposed to overcome the range sidelobe problem, which is introduced by the pulse compression method. Conventional methods, such as the matched filter receiver, as fast time processor result in the targets with high radar cross sec- tion masking the low radar cross section targets at the neighboring range cells / since sidelobes of the matched filter is determined by the autocorrelation of the spreading code and linearly proportional to target signal power. An unbiased estimator, like the maximum likelihood receiver in this thesis work does not su&crarr / er from such issues. In addition to that, to suppress the signal dependent interference, namely the clutter, at the output of fast time processor / the previous target-free observations are col- lected and utilized to predict the clutter signal for next time instant. This prediction is used in the maximum likelihood receiver. The clutter prediction is done for the stationary case and the internal clutter motion case, and their SINR performances with the maximum likelihood receiver are evaluated. In conclusion, such an approach managed to have an unbiased estimation of target range profile and the clutter suppression advantage in the fast time.

The proliferation of embedded systems, mobile devices, wireless sensor applications and in- creasing global demand for energy directed research attention toward self-sustainable and environmentally friendly systems. In the field of communications, this new trend pointed out the need for study of energy constrained communication and networking. Particularly, in the literature, energy efficient transmission schemes have been well studied for various cases. However, fundamental results have been obtained mostly for offline problems which are not applicable to practical implementations. In contrast, this thesis focuses on online counterparts of offline transmission scheduling problems and provides a theoretical background for energy efficient online transmission schemes. The proposed heuristics, Expected Threshold and Expected Water Level policies, promise an adequate solution which can adapt to short-time-scale dynamics while being computationally efficient.

I bakgrunden presenteras sjuksköterskans och distriktssköterskans ansvarsområde, att arbetet ska utgå från ett etiskt och holistiskt förhållningssätt och främja hälsa genom exempelvis rådgivning. Forskning beskrev att arbetet med telefonrådgivning upplevdes stimulerande samtidigt som det var svårt att vara både grindvakt och vårdare. Som en hjälp i det arbetet kunde beslutsstöd användas, det sågs som ett skyddsnät som kompletterade sjuksköterskans erfarenheter. Det sågs även som ett kvalitétshöjande instrument samt att rädslan för att ta fel beslut och anmälas minskade. Syftet med studien var att beskriva sjuksköterskors och distriktssköterskors erfarenheter av att arbeta med telefonrådgivning utifrån det webbaserade rådgivningsstödet på vårdcentral. För att få fram beskrivningarna användes halvstrukturerade intervjuer som analyserades genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys med induktiv ansats. I resultatet beskrevs det att stödet skapade trygghet då det var en källa till kunskap, ett stöd vid behov, ett bra hjälpmedel och gav bekräftelse. Stödet sågs som otillräckligt och svårarbetat då det var svårnavigerat, tidskrävande, språket satte gränser, det kunde inte ersätta den kliniska blicken och stämde inte med verkligheten. Slutligen beskrevs det att den egna erfarenheten styr hur stödet används. Erfarenheterna var övervägande positiva, men omvårdnadsfokus minskade då dyrbar tid användes till att hantera rådgivningsstödet. / In the background we present the responsibilities of nurses and district nurses, namely that the duties will begin with an ethical and holistic point of view, and to promote health through for example giving advice. Research described that working with telephone counselling was perceived as stimulating, though hard being both a gatekeeper and a caretaker. One kind of help in that task could be decision support, it was seen as a safety net and a complement to the experience of the nurse. It was also seen as an instrument to improve quality, as well as reducing the fear of making the wrong decisions and being reported. The purpose of the study was to describe the experience of nurses and district nurses to work with telephone counselling using the web-based counselling support in health centres. To get the descriptions half structured interviews were used, which were analyzed by qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. It was described in the result that the support created a sense of assurance, because it was a source of knowledge, a support when needed, a good aid, and gave confirmation. The support was also seen as insufficient and not user-friendly, since it was hard to navigate, time consuming, had a language barrier, it could not replace the clinical “eye”, and did not correspond with reality. Lastly it was said that the experience of each individual was a key in how the support was used. Most had positive experiences, but focus from taking care of patients was lost due to valuable time being used for handling the counselling support.

Several emerging wireless communication systems require direct transmission between mobile terminals to support efficient data transfer and user mobility. Such mobile-to-mobile communication systems differ from the conventional cellular systems where only the user unit is mobile. In addition, there might be a relay, also called a repeater, between the original transmitter and the final receiver to improve the network range and coverage. Potential applications for mobile-to-mobile systems include Intelligent Highways for coordinated traffic control and ad-hoc networks meant for military and disaster management. Relays may be deployed in cellular networks and IEEE 802.16 mesh networks for wireless broadband access. Extensive research in cellular radio channels has led to the successful deployment of cellular networks. However, our knowledge of the radio channels encountered in mobile-to-mobile and relay-based systems is still inadequate. This forms the primary motivation behind our research in addressing wireless channel modeling, simulation, and estimation issues for these systems. Specifically, we investigate frequency-flat mobile-to-mobile channels and develop simulation models by using the sum-of-sinusoids method, which is widely used for cellular channels. In addition, we present the properties of amplify and forward relay channels via theoretical analysis. This analysis, to the best of our knowledge, is the first of its kind. Further, we address the unique challenges, which arise because of the different underlying channel model, for channel estimation in amplify and forward relay systems. Our work would provide other researchers the necessary tools for the design and testing of these emerging communication systems.

The area of deterministic noise cancellation in mobile radio communication systems is investigated and analyzed. Several interoperation problems in the mobile wireless radio space are identified and interference concerns for the Bluetooth - WLAN networks are characterized and quantified in the physical layer. A mathematical framework has been created for describing interference in the 2.4 GHz band. An adaptive noise suppression system has been developed that is able to alleviate the encroachment of the aggressor signal on the victim without sacrificing any of the original signal. This system is demonstrated to improve the victim SNR in a spread spectrum communication scenario. The research is extended to construct an interference canceller that is easy to assimilate into existing RF front-ends. A low-power small form-factor analog active canceller has been designed in 0.18-ìm Si-CMOS IC technology that delivers adequate noise suppression performance while operating in the RF domain. This includes novel implementations of phase rotator circuits based on delay interpolation and an integrated low-current quadrature modulator-based continuously variable analog phase shifter. This canceller is capable of up to 30 dB of in-band cancellation for the Bluetooth - WLAN problem. Other versions of the canceller are configured to protect GPS and DVB-H receivers from unintentional radiators transmitting in the vicinity. These demonstrate noise mitigation of at least 15 dB in their respective bands while generating very low broadband noise at the output. A simple low-power mixed-signal automatic control mechanism is also developed to operate the canceller adaptively. The work described in this dissertation advances the state-of-the-art in the area of mobile wireless radio coexistence.

In this study, we study the dynamics of network adaptive video streaming and propose novel algorithms for rate distortion control in video streaming. While doing so, we maintain inter-protocol fairness with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) that is the dominant transport protocol in the current Internet. The proposed algorithms are retransmission-based and necessitate the use of playback buffers in order to tolerate the extra latency introduced by retransmissions. In the first part, we propose a practical network-adaptive streaming scheme based on TCP transport and the idea of Selective Frame Discarding (SFD) that makes use of two-layer temporally scalable video. The efficacy of the SFD scheme is validated for playout buffer times in the order of seconds and therefore makes it suitable more for delay tolerant streaming applications. In the second part of the thesis, we propose an application layer rate-distortion control algorithm which provides Optimal Scheduling and Rate Control (OSRC) policies in the average reward sense in order to achieve efficient streaming of video. The Optimal Scheduling (OS) we propose maximizes the probability of successfully on time delivery according to a prespecified set of rate constraints, and different channel conditions by using Markov Decision Process (MDP) models. On the other hand optimal rate control (RC) is achieved by calculating the optimal rate constraint which minimizes the average distortion of a video streaming session by making use of the video distortion model derived for lossy channels and achievable success probabilities provided by the set of optimal schedules. For numerical examples, we focus on an equation-based TCP friendly rate control (TFRC) protocol where transport layer retransmissions are disabled and Fine Granular Scalable (FGS) coded video is used for improved rate adaptation capabilities but with an additional rate distortion penalty. The efficacy of the proposed OSRC algorithm is demonstrated by means of both analytical results and ns-2 simulations.

Today&amp / #8217 / s analog modulators and upconverters are inadequate to synthesize and modulate signals with high &amp / #8216 / Spurious Free Dynamic Range&amp / #8217 / (SFDR). Thus, the main objective of this thesis is to design and implement a &amp / #8216 / Digital Signal Synthesizer&amp / #8217 / (DSS) that is capable of synthesizing signals between 50-100 MHz with 60dB SFDR and to modulate them variable symbol rates and modulation techniques with very high phase/frequency resolution and switching speed while keeping the amplitude modulation occurring during a modulated symbol duration as small as possible. In this thesis, digital words of the desired signals are first synthesized in a &amp / #8216 / Field Programmable Gate Array&amp / #8217 / (FPGA) using &amp / #8216 / Direct Digital Synthesizer&amp / #8217 / (DDS) fundamentals and then converted to analog signals with a high speed &amp / #8216 / Digital to Analog Converter&amp / #8217 / (DAC). In order to attain the analog requirements, the system variables such as DAC analog performance, nonlinearities, sample and hold affects, DDS parameters, system clock, bandwidth requirements of analog filters and how they effect the output performance are studied. FPGA blocks that are capable of modulating and synthesizing desired signals are designed and programmed on a FPGA. Finally, single tone and modulated signals are synthesized with this DSS implementation and measured in order to verify this system&amp / #8217 / s performance and capabilities.

The multimedia watermarking techniques are evolved very quickly in the last years with the increase in the use of internet. The evolution of the internet makes the copyright issues very important and many different approaches are appeared to protect the digital content. On the other hand, holography is the method to store the 3-D information of an object but it is very applicable to use as a watermark because of the nature of the holographic data. The 3-D object can be reconstructed from the hologram even if the hologram is cropped or occluded. However, watermarking of an image with a hologram is a very novel approach and there are only a few works in the literature which are not very robust against the attacks like filtering or compression. In this thesis, we propose to embed the phase of the hologram to an image using quantization index modulation (QIM). QIM is utilized to make the watermarking scheme blind and degrade the host image as low as possible. The robustness of the proposed technique is also tested against several attacks such as filtering, compression, etc. The evaluated performance of this system is compared with the existing methods in the literature which uses either holograms or logos as the secret mark. Furthermore, the characteristics of the holograms are investigated and the findings about the hologram compression are reported in this work.