Despite the growing applications of silver nanoparticles, toxicity information on this nanomaterial is still deficient. Conclusions on the toxicity of silver nanoparticles vary and atomic level toxicity mechanisms are not yet achieved. Consequently, our group conducted combined computational and experimental toxicity studies of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Toxicity of 10 nm citrate stabilized AgNPs on HepG2 cells were investigated. Experimental results show that the 10 nm citrate stabilized AgNPs begin to be toxic to HepG2 cells at a dosage that exceeds 1 ppm and LD50 was observed at 3 ppm. Elevated reactive oxygen species levels were seen upon exposure to AgNPs with the maximum at the LD50 concentration of 3 ppm. Normal protein regulation of HepG2 cells were affected by exposure to AgNPs. TEM images of HepG2 cells exposed to AgNPs reveal that AgNPs can penetrate and agglomerate inside the cells. Our preliminary computational study was guided by one of the widely accepted toxicity mechanism of AgNPs in which the nanoparticles dissolute to Ag+. The computational model was composed of a 1:1 ratio of silver and phospholipid head. The silver employed are in atomic and anionic form while the phospholipid head are the phosphocholine (PC) and phosphoethanolamine (PE), which are abundant in HepG2 cells. Computational study shows that the presence of Ag+ results in partial oxidation of both the phospholipid heads. Our preliminary experimental and computational studies lead us to develop new computational methods that can accurately predict oxidation potentials (HOMO), reduction potentials (LUMO), and absorption spectra that can be used in studying toxicity mechanism of AgNPs through the oxidation pathway. Thus, computational methods for cyclic voltammetry and absorption spectroscopy that use DFT and TD-DFT, respectively, were improved to provide more accurate electronic and optical properties. Cyclopenta-fused polycyclic hydrocarbons (CP-PAHs) with available experimental data for HOMO, LUMO, ΔEgap and absorption spectra and have potential application as AgNP stabilizers were used in developing the improved computational methods for cyclic voltammetry and absorption spectroscopy. The improved computational method for cyclic voltammetry was developed by accounting for the anion species that occur experimentally and by using B3LYP the best density functional in predicting the HOMO, LUMO and ΔEgap of CP-PAHs with overall MAE of 014 eV. The best absorption spectra otef CP-PAHs were predicted using B3LYP for geometry optimizations followed by TD-CAMB3LYP with MAE of 29 nm. All calculations of CP-PAHs were implemented using the 6-311g (d,p) basis set and tetrahydrofuran (THF) as solvent. These two developed computational methods were tested on a group of methyl triphenyl amine (MTPA) derivatives with available experimental data for HOMO, LUMO, ΔEgap and absorption spectra and have potential application as AgNP stabilizers. The new computational methods for cyclic voltammetry and absorption spectroscopy also provided the most accurate predicted electronic and optical properties of MTPA derivatives. Among the ten density functionals employed, prediction of HOMO, LUMO and ΔEgap were most accurate using B3LYP and B3PW91 with overall MAE of 0.31 eV and 0.27 eV, respectively. Absorption spectra of MTPA derivatives were still best predicted using the B3LYP/TD-CAMB3LYP method with MAE of 13 nm. All calculations of MTPA were implemented using the 6-31+g (d,p) basis set and dichloromethane as solvent.

English holds a significant status as a lingua franca in Sweden, offering regular contact opportunities for learners through media consumption and entertainment, starting at a young age. Exposure to English outside the walls of the formal language classroom has been extensively studied especially in conjunction with students’ motivation, vocabulary acquisition, and oral proficiency (cf. Sundqvist & Sylven, 2016). This study examines the impact of self-reported time spent on extramural English (EE) exposure on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of written proficiency among lower-secondary students in Sweden. The research focuses on the quantitative measures of complexity and accuracy in argumentative essays (N=20) as well as quantitative measures of fluency in argumentative essays (N=53) taken from a sample of the corpus of Swedish learners of English (SLEC). The findings show that there are positive correlations between EE and complexity, as indicated by lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. Additionally, the normalized error ratio suggests that EE is associated with fewer errors in students' writing. Fluency, measured by written words per minute, aligns with students' self-reported EE contacts, with high-frequency EE users producing longer essays. While group-level findings indicate a positive influence of EE on written proficiency, individual-level analysis reveals a non-linear and complex relationship between contact with EE and written proficiency components. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating students' EE experiences into the formal language classroom to maximize the benefits of extramural English.

Self-monitoring procedures have been applied to various populations, in diverse settings, and have focused on a wide variety of behaviors. While the relation between the accuracy of self-monitored data and changes in target behavior has been examined in research, there has been relatively less research focusing on the accuracy of self-monitored data in relation to the change in safety behavior. Studies (n=11) where self-monitoring procedures were introduced to target specific safety behaviors in adults were reviewed and analyzed to determine the relation between the accuracy of self-monitored data and various other aspects of an intervention, including the percent change of target behavior. This analysis found a positive but small correlation between the relevant measures. This analysis suggests that the act of self-monitoring in and of itself is important for behavior change. There is a possibility that increases in self-monitoring accuracy could lead to desirable changes in targeted safety behaviors, but further analysis of a larger sample size of studies would be required to determine the relationships among these measures.Keywords: behavior based safety, behavioral self-monitoring, self-monitoring accuracy / Applied Behavioral Analysis

The demand for using shell theories comes from its efficiency in computational and analytical cost. On another side, new materials that are orthotropic and/or anisotropic in nature are discovered and broadly used in many fields. Many advanced shell theories are developed for these new materials, particularly in the recent decades. A study about the accuracy of these shell theories is very meaningful to build confidence in them for further applications. This study requires a precise benchmark against which shell theories can be tested. This is the main research subjective in this dissertation: to build a set of solutions using the three dimensional (3D) theory of elasticity against which shell theories can be tested for accuracy. The contents of this dissertation to support this research include a comprehensive literature review for the shell theories and recent usage and to find the gaps which need to be filled. These gaps include, among others, the lack of studies on the accuracy of the theories used and the absence of results using the 3D theory, particularly for orthotropic materials. Some of these studies are conducted here. The deficiency of some commercial finite element packages is discussed here. The reasons for the absence of accurate results are investigated. The 3D theory and analyses of isotropic and orthotropic materials of hollow cylinders is investigated here for reliable results.

The main objective of this bachelor thesis was to gain awareness of accuracy and precision in total station measurements. Experiments were designed, executed and analyzed.   The approach to the subject was to examine measurements made with various prism set-ups. Prisms are supposed to be directed to the total station with the front face in the line of sight. In the experiment the prisms were directed in various angles in order to measure in non-perfect measuring arrangement and the behavior of the precision and accuracy were noted.   The mean values and standard uncertainties were calculated from the material as well as RMS Error in the cases where reference values could be used as true values. The reference values for comparison were available due to the possibility to use a test field – a network of concrete pillars with well-defined coordinates.   To see whether the precision (the standard uncertainty) changed between a measurement sample made with correctly positioned prisms and a measurement sample towards the angled prisms, a statistical test method was used. (The test method is recommended in the international standard ISO 17123-1; Optics and optical instruments, Field procedures for testing geodetic and surveying instruments, Part 1: Theory).   The results from the experiments showed that there were larger standard uncertainties in the slope distance measurements towards extreme angled prisms than to correctly directed prisms. Surprisingly it was also larger standard uncertainty in vertical angle measurements toward correctly directed prisms than slightly angled prisms. The mean values of the horizontal angle measurement drifted sideways in the measurements made towards one extreme angle to the opposite extreme so that a total shift of around one centimeter was detected at short distances as well as up to 100 m distance.    When aiming in between the separate prisms of 360-degree targets the standard uncertainty were larger in horizontal angle measurements at a few occasions where it seemed like the autolock function had chosen two different prisms to lock on to, at separate occasions. The standard uncertainties were also larger in all vertical angle measurements when aiming in between the prisms.   The results showed clearly that even when the standard uncertainties of the measurements were of equal size, the mean values – when measuring in the different test positions – could vary substantially. / Huvudsyftet med detta kandidatarbete var att öka medvetenheten angående noggrannhet och precision i mätningar utförda av en totalstation. Ett antal experiment planerades, genomfördes och analyserades.   De områden som undersöktes i projektet var hur mätningarna påverkades av olika sätt att vinkla prismor mot totalstationen. Det rekommenderas att rikta ett prismas framsida mot totalstationens siktlinje. I experimentet vinklades prismorna i olika lägen för att mätningar skulle utföras i icke-perfekta förhållanden.   Medelvärden och standardosäkerheter beräknades ur mätdatan samt RMSE i de fall där det fanns referensvärden att jämföra med. Dessa referensvärden var tillgängliga tack vare möjligheten att få utnyttja ett testfält med betongpelare med kända koordinater.   För att utröna om precisionen (standardosäkerheten) ändrades mellan mätningar på korrekt inriktade prismor och de mätningar som gjordes mot vinklade prismor, utfördes ett statistiskt test. (Testmetoden rekommenderas i den internationella standarden ISO 17123-1, Optics and optical instruments - Field procedures for testing geodetic and surveying instruments - Part 1: Theory).   Resultaten av undersökningarna visade att där var större standardosäkerheter i mätningar av den lutande längden när prismorna var extremt vinklade än när de var korrekt orienterade. Standardosäkerheten var något överraskande också större med korrekt riktade prismor i vertikalvinkel-mätningarna med autolockfunktionen än om prismorna var något utåtvinklade. Medelvärdena på horisontalvinklarna drev sidleds i mätningar gjorda i en extrem vinkelposition till den motsatta extremen så att en total förflyttning på runt en centimeter konstaterades på korta avstånd likväl som på avstånd upp till 100 m.   Vid inriktning av siktet mot områdena mellan de separata prismorna i 360-gradsmålen så ökade standardosäkerheten i horisontalvinkel vid ett par positioner då det verkade som att autolockfunktionen valde båda prismorna på var sida, vid olika tillfällen. Standardosäkerheten var också större vid samtliga vertikalvinkelmätningar mot områdena mellan prismorna.   Resultaten visade tydligt att även om standardosäkerheterna i mätningarna var i samma storleks-ordning så kunde medelvärdena av mätstorheten mellan de olika testpositionerna variera substantiellt.

A multitude of data is being produced from the increase in instructional technology, e-learning resources, and online courses. This data could be used by educators to analyze and extract useful information which could be beneficial to both instructors and students. Educational Data Mining (EDM) extracts hidden information from data contained within the educational domain. In data mining, hybrid method is the combination of various machine learning techniques. Through this dissertation, the novel use of machine learning hybrid techniques was explored in EDM using three educational case studies. First, in consideration for the importance of students’ attention, on and off-task data to analyze the attention behavior of the students were collected. Two feature selection techniques, Principal Component Analysis and Linear Discriminant Analysis, were combined to improve the classification accuracies for classifying the students’ attention patterns. The relationship between attention and learning was also studied by calculating Pearson’s correlation coefficient and p-value. Our examination was then shifted towards academic performance as it is important to ensuring a quality education. Two different 2D- Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models were concatenated and produced a single model to predict students’ academic performance in terms of pass and fail. Lastly, the importance of using machine learning in online learning to maintain academic integrity was considered. In this work, primarily a traditional machine learning algorithms were used to predict the cheaters in an online examination. 1D CNN architecture was then used to extract the features from our cheater dataset and the previously used machine learning model was applied on extracted features to detect the cheaters. Such type of hybrid model outperformed the original traditional machine learning model and CNN model when used alone in terms of classification accuracy. The three studies reflect the use of machine learning application in EDM. Classification accuracy is important in EDM because different educational decisions are made based on the results of our model. So, to increase the accuracies, a hybrid method was employed. Thus, through this dissertation it was successfully shown that hybrid models can be used in EDM to improve the classification accuracies.

GNSS positioning has become a key element in everyday life of millions of people, from the person using google maps to move around an unknown city to the mailman or the DRON pilot who require it to carry out their work. All of them benefit in some way from the GNSS constellations and the position algorithms.The European Union through their GNSS constellation, Galileo, has recently made available a new service called Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS). With the aim of improving the positioning solutions already provided by the Open Service (OS) to a centimetric level with the target of professional and commercial users requiring this high accuracy. As a result, in this Master Thesis project the steps of the development and implementation of a Software-Defined Radio to collect the High Accuracy corrections transmitted through Galileo GNSS constellation are going to be shown. The SDR itself is going to be made available so that other persons from companies to academia can benefit from it and see how the corrections are extracted and either use the algorithm or implement its own to be able to use this High Accuracy Service.

Title: Kinematic analysis of a putt stroke in healthy and disabled golfer Objectives: The aim of this study is to objectify the movements during a putt stroke using 3D kinematic analysis and monitoring the pressure of the lower limbs to the ground for a healthy and disabled golfer of comparable performance and identify differences in stability of technique and performance between players. Methods: On a sample of 1 healthy and 1 handicapped golfer with similar performance was determined process of a putt stroke using 3D kinematic analysis of the CODA Motion system and pressure plate BodiTrak. Specifically, the difference between the putt stroke of the players in selected parametres, stability of performance and access were evaluated. The obtained data were processed in Microsoft Excel. The Wilcox test for independent samples and Cohen's d was to determine statistical and factual significance. Results: We found the statistical and large factual significance of the difference in the performance of the putting stroke between the disabled and healthy players (p < 0,01, d > 0,8) for most parameters. The most fundamental difference was found in the pressure of the lower limbs, when the disabled golfer had a greater pressure on the back limb. High stability of execution was found in 80 % of parametres in...

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