To be able to see if voter turnout can be enhanced, studying income is of interest. This researchpaper attempts to answer the following thesis question: “How can voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election be explained by income?” The conclusion drawn is that income, measured in GDP per capita, does affect voter turnout, however the exact influence is hard to determine.This research paper agrees with Wolfinger & Rosenstone (1980), that income rather plays a role until a voter has received a point where they can attain a “modestly comfortable standard of living”. Beyond this threshold, there are other variables and preferences that determine voter turnout. Therefore, COVI, that studies the cost variable within the utility hypothesis model, cannot explain voter turnout in relation to income. To better address voter turnout based on income, one would have to use a more extensive index and include other variables andpreferences.

Many utilities implement the financial incentive plans in promoting their Demand-Side Management (DSM) programs. The plans are intended to reduce the customer investment cost for a high efficiency equipment option, so that to make the investment more attractive. Despite its potential to increase customer participation, the financial incentives could cause a considerable increase in program cost to the utility. An analysis of financial incentive impact on the utility DSM program is conducted in this thesis. The analysis uses the combination of the customer participation modeling and the cost-benefit analysis of a DSM program. A modeling of customer participation by a discrete choice model is presented. The model uses the logistic probability functions. The benefit and cost of DSM programs are explored to develop the analysis methodology. Two typical energy conservation options of DSM programs are taken for case studies to demonstrate the analysis. The analysis is also conducted to see the effect of financial incentives on the performance of DSM programs in a fluctuating marginal energy cost. The result of this research shows that the financial incentive could induce the customer participation, thus provide an increase of benefit and costs. However, this research also reveals that, in certain circumstances, the financial incentive may result in a decrease of net benefit due to significant increase of cost. These imply that utilities must carefully evaluate the financial incentive plan in their DSM programs, before the programs are implemented. / Master of Science

This master thesis is a part of a research project where Luleå University of Technology (LTU) collaborates with University of Oulu, SINTEF Narvik and Oulu University of Applied Sciences. The goal with the research project is to develop a Nordic platform for development of autonomous, environmental friendly and energy efficient heavy vehicles in the forest, harbor and mining industry. The purpose with the master thesis is to assist LTU in their role in the research project. The Nordic platform was positioned in the product development process, with the result that it could be useful in the fourth phase ”Detail design” and in the fifth phase ”Testing and refinement” in the Ulrich and Eppinger product development process. A methodology has been developed, covering all necessary steps going from an assembly of a vehicle in an arbitrary CAD program to perform real time simulations (including HiL simulations) of the vehicle in Simulink. The off-road research platform for forest- and agriculture applications developed by LTU was used as a case study in the master thesis. Applying the methodology on this platform showed that choosing correct simulation frequency is important and that graphics enabled in real time simulations requires large computational power.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund: Ortopedtekniska hjälpmedel har som övergripande syfte att göra det möjligt för människor att i sin vardag och livsstil vara rörliga, aktiva och delaktiga trots en fysisk funktionsnedsättning. För finansiering av ortopedtekniska hjälpmedel i Sverige ansvarar uteslutande det offentliga i form av landsting och regioner, vilka har en begränsad summa pengar att hushålla med. Det ligger därför i samhällets intresse att dessa pengar satsas på insatser som är av god kvalitet och främjar medborgarnas hälsa. Hälsoekonomiska utvärderingar som jämför kostnader och effekter av olika alternativ utgör en del av beslutsunderlaget för sådana prioriteringar. Det saknas emellertid användbara utvärderingar av ortoser och proteser, både vad gäller effekt och kostnadseffektivitet. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att analysera ortoser för nedre extremiteten ur ett hälsoekonomiskt perspektiv baserat på sjukvårdens direkta kostnader och förändring i patienters självupplevda hälsa. Metod: Totalt 17 patienter, vid fyra ortopedtekniska mottagningar, som ordinerats ortoser för nedre extremiteten, genomförde EQ-5D-3L-enkäten före och sex veckor efter utprovningstillfället. Hälsoprofiler från enkäterna överfördes via nationella tariffer till hälsoindex som representerar hälsokomponenten i QALY. Nyttan bedömdes genom att jämföra hälsoindex före och sex veckor efter utprovningstillfället. Kostnadsanalysanalys utfördes sedan genom att dividera landstingets/regionens direkta kostnad för ortoserna med skillnaden i hälsoindex. Resultat: Studien visar att ortoser för nedre extremiteten inte medför någon förändring i patienters självupplevda hälsa och därför inte kan anses vara kostnadseffektivt. För att kunna utvärdera metoden och göra dra några statistiska slutsatser behöver fler enkäter samlas in. Implikation: På lång sikt kan resultat från en kostnadsnyttoanalys, genom att visa patientnyttan med ortopedtekniska hjälpmedel, bidra till en högre kvalitet på den ortopedtekniska verksamheten och även fungera som beslutsstöd vid val av lämpligt hjälpmedel.

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the development of women with an engineering background who became leaders. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of female engineering leaders in the New York utility sector. The research problem was why few women with engineering degrees obtain leadership positions. Women comprise half the total working population, yet few hold leadership positions, especially in the utility sector. In this study, 28 women in the New York utility sector shared experiences on their progression from engineer to leadership. The conceptual framework was the Moustakas phenomenological approach, investigating the humanistic properties of female leaders with backgrounds in engineering and Bandura's social cognitive theory on the role of self-efficacy for women. Through the phenomenological approach, in-depth interviews captured the challenges and successes each woman has faced and identified themes that emerged from those experiences. The modified van Kaam method of phenomenology was used for data analysis to capture the experiences and perceptions of female engineers in leadership positions. Key findings from this study indicated how working in teams helped build the self-efficacy of women during their undergraduate studies and fostered effective teamwork in their work environment. Work-life balance encouraged female engineering leaders to go further in their career because it allowed them stability and the ability to advance. Through this study, positive social change may occur for women seeking to pursue engineering degrees who are striving for leadership roles in traditionally male fields.

Given the increased emphasis on language acquisition in public education, and in university, government, and military settings there will be an increased focus on the language classroom. My goal in this study was to investigate how five foreign language instructors in the greater Salt Lake area perceived and implemented the national standards disseminated by the American Council for the Teachers of Foreign Language (ACTFL) known as the five Cs: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. These standards have also been adopted by the Utah State Office of Education (USOE). A broadened understanding was achieved through analysis of interviews and observations, also evaluation of classroom materials and handouts and interpreting differences between instructors’ perceived adherence and observed adherence to the standards. The purpose of my analysis was to describe the degree of integration of the standards attained in the thinking (perceptions) and teaching (practices) of these Spanish instructors. (All the teachers taught second-year Spanish, known as Spanish II.) The design for this study emanated from four in-class observations for each teacher. The need for research grew out of discussions with district-level administrators about the problem of implementing state and national standards. I selected a case study approach and cross-case analysis because it was most appropriate for this question, and because I wanted to describe the specifics of how high school Spanish language teachers perceived the five Cs and the degree to which they integrated them into their disclosure statements, classroom practices, and teaching materials. Cross-case analysis involves case-by-case comparison of various data sources including comparison of language instructors’ responses to a questionnaire and observations I made. I discovered a lack of congruency/consistency in what teachers perceive they are doing and what they are actually doing in the classroom. There are actions that can be taken at the school, district, state, and university credential program level to deal with the pervasive problems uncovered in this study. It is apparent that my research confirms what a national survey of teachers found, that there is both a lack of knowledge and an unwillingness at multiple levels to implement the mandated ACTFL five Cs.

Energy production is associated with environmental impairment. Most anxious is the greenhouse gas emissions, which also arise from transportation. If battery electric vehicles should be able to alleviate the problem, they must be charged with environmentally friendly produced electricity. This paper investigates a possible relationship between battery electric vehicles and solar photovoltaic panels in household survey data from ENABLE.EU performed in ten European countries autumn 2017 – spring 2018. Estimated with a logit binary choice model, it is found that the probability that a household owns a battery electric vehicle increases if the household owns solar photovoltaic panels. Furthermore, this increase in probability is higher within countries with a higher market diffusion of battery electric vehicle and solar photovoltaic panels (France and the UK). This suggests that policy encouraging home charging of battery electric vehicles from solar photovoltaic panels that includes an energy storage facility could speed up the transition of the vehicle fleet.

Sweden and its relationship with the former state church Church of Sweden and religion, is complicated. The country has been described as one of the most secular countries in the world, and yet one of the longer recurring public debates has been on the topic of whether schools’ end of year ceremonies should take place in local churches or not. The peak of this debate coincides with newly defined regulations from the Swedish National Agency for Education regarding what is considered appropriate and inappropriate religious features in school and its ceremonies. The aim of this study is to investigate how Swedish citizens contribute to this debate and to illuminate what different intents and purposes they associate with the end of year ceremony in church. The research questions asked were: What themes occur in the opinion pieces written by Swedish citizens in the years 2010–2012? What or which purposes do they ascribe to the end of year ceremony in church within these themes? In what ways can these intents and purposes be seen and understood through Grace Davie’s” Vicarious religion” and religion as a public utility? The study was conducted by performing a qualitative content analysis on 28 articles published in public debate or opinion pieces in Swedish regional press through the years 2010–2012. The result was then analyzed with Grace Davie’s theory” Vicarious religion” and the notion of religion as a public utility within that theory. The results and analysis showed that the citizens had different understandings of the political decisions that concerned the end of year ceremony, which in turn led to different opinions on the purpose of the ceremony taking place in church. The differences in opinion showed that the Swedish people considered religious features and locales as either going against the school’s non-confessional policies and the freedom of religion, or as a necessity to fulfill a culturally traditional or educational role. The citizens who want the end of year ceremonies to take place in church and potentially include religious aspects can be understood as participating in vicarious religion in the sense that they defend continued access to religious locales and features as part of education and tradition, and by consequence, religion as a useful public utility.

Utility network fieldworkers of today want to access more information and can benefit a lot from new technical development. Today most fieldwork is conducted using paper plans or locally stored data on laptops as a visual aid. Therefore there is a need for improvement and development of new reliable software for fieldwork. Also the abil- ity to use advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions and enhanced visualization methods while out in the field could help improve fieldwork. In order to be as e↵ective as possible when carrying out di↵erent tasks in the field, di↵erent ways of visualizing the same network data are required. 2D and 3D visualization methods have di↵erent advantages and disadvantages when it comes to visualizing network data, which will be accounted for in this thesis. There are three main objectives in this thesis. The first is to evaluate how suitable di↵erent visualization methods are for fieldwork users working with utility networks. The second is to get a better understanding of what hardware and software that can be used for implementing the visualization methods. The last one is to use the first and second objectives to develop a prototype for utility network fieldwork. To address the objectives, the first step is to understand the users that work in the field. By conducting interviews, information about the current workflow for fieldworkers and their opinions about how the systems currently work is gathered. Based on this information the thesis is divided into cases and criteria which is the foundation for proposing a solution in form of mock-up sketches which is then imple- mented in form of a prototype. Finally the prototype is evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively using a web survey and presentations for potential end users. The prototype is created using web technologies and is mainly intended for tablets. Because of its mobility, screen size and adequate computational power the tablet is a good hardware choice for conducting fieldwork. The prototype presents network data in a 2D interactive map view, a 3D augmented reality (AR) view and a combined view. These choices are based on information gathered by studying related work and performing interviews with potential end users in the beginning of the study. The results of the thesis highlights large possibilities in making field work more e↵ective for fieldworkers. This in concluded partly by the results of the interviews with potential end users, but also by the response of the survey and presentation of the suggested solution. It is shown that there are new ways to improve the work process out in the field and that AR can help in visualizing the network in a new informative way for fieldwork. However, several challenges remain, but rapid techno- logical development implies possible solutions to deal with these challenges.

Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, has experienced an unsatisfied water demand during the last three decades. The state owned water utility in charge of the water supply of the country, SANAA, has faced this deficit by providing an intermittent water supply. The intermittent water supply has increased the gap between the rich and the poor, who cannot afford water storage facilities. Theories explain water scarcity either by low precipitation or by lack of investment in water structures. This thesis investigates the applicability of both explanations by quantifying the annual precipitation in the sub catchments with water supply potential for Tegucigalpa, and identifying the problems which caused the lack of investment into the water infrastructure. The analysis concluded that even if the annual precipitation is abundant, it is not evenly distributed in time and in space. Furthermore, it is argued that the financial limitations which hindered the lack of investment in water structures originated in the low tariffs imposed, and to the practices of the patronage system. / QC 20111207