Biomimicry comes from bios, life, and mimesis, to imitate. Biomimicry is becoming an increasingly well-known topic in the field of architecture, imitating nature’s designs and processes to solve human problems. This project uses the oak tree as a model, measure, and mentor to derive sustainable architecture. Biomimicry is examined as a holistic methodology with six steps: identify, interpret, discover, abstract, emulate, and evaluate. Using this methodology, this project investigates oak tree’s closed-loop systems including water, oxygen, and food. The synergies that exist within these systems are emulated to develop a complex green infrastructure of building and landscape systems. This project provides an illustrated process using the biomimicry methodology to generate sustainable architecture.

No description available.

There are over 10 000 dams in Sweden of various types and sizes. Most of the larger dams were built around 1950-1970 when the Swedish hydropower was expanded. Since then, the knowledge of engineering dam structures has increased and there are new guidelines for how a dam should be built. Energiföretagen (the Swedish energy companies) have since 1997 published guidelines for dam safety, (RIDAS for short in Swedish), which describes how dam safety should be conducted. Since 1997 the knowledge and recommendations have changed. In RIDAS TV Embankment dams from 2020 the recommendations for compacting fine filter has changed from previous versions. In the new version it is recommended that the fine filter should be compacted as little as possible to allow the filter to collapse on itself to slow down erosions. This recommendation brought up a discussion amongst the dam-builders on how loose a filter should actually be compacted. Generally, a loosely compacted soil is less stable while a highly compacted soil is stiffer and can hold cracks open which promotes erosion. The purpose with this master thesis is to improve the understanding of how a low initial compaction degree affects the function of a filter. To answer this question, both a literature study and some laborations have been conducted. The literature study examines erosion, collapsibility, and shear strength for different degrees of compaction. To describe loosely packed soil and densely packed soil, dilation and contrancy is also examined. The main focus of the laborations was studying deformations for natural and crushed filters. The deformations were measured both in a static load test and a dynamic load test between two possible effective pressures in a theoretical dam. Crushing from compacting the filter was also examined by using modified proctor test with different packing energies. The two materials used in the study is a natural filter from Burvattnet and a crushed filter from Kiruna. The degree of compaction on the dam in Burvattnet was also determined during a field study for comparison with the published recommendations in RIDAS. From the laborations with dynamic load no change in grain size distribution was found. But it clearly showed that a varying load can increase the deformations with a high factor. By adding a dynamic load, the deformation increased from 50% to 400% if compared to only a static load, where the crushed filter had a slightly higher difference than a natural filter. The largest difference observed between crushed and natural filter was the degradation and change in particle size distribution that happened when the filters was compacted. From the work done some pro´s and con´s have been identified with loosely packed filters. With a low compaction degree the filter will be better at hindering the propagation of an erosion by collapsing and healing the cracks that appear. But by lowering the compaction degree the risk of erosion increases as a loosely packed filter is less good at filtering. Another effect that a low compaction has on the filter is that its inherent shear strength is lower compared with densely compacted filters, and this can lead to a slide of the embankment. A loosely compacted filter also suffers from larger subsidence that can create cracks if the surrounding soil is much stiffer. To be able to decide what rate of compaction that is most beneficial, more studies are warranted to be able to assess the risk of the dam degrading as a result of a change in compaction of the filter. By analysing the found pro´s and con´s effects on the probability on a dam failure the most beneficial compaction rate can be found.

Although challenges in water and sanitation access are often assumed to be issues of low- and middle-income nations, over 400,000 homes in the United States still lack access to complete indoor plumbing. Previous research has demonstrated that the remaining plumbing challenges are more prevalent in communities with high Black and brown populations. This study hypothesizes that the 1930s practice of redlining by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), which systematically denied loans to minority populations, is linked to present-day inadequate plumbing access (i.e. defined as incomplete plumbing above the national average). Digitized HOLC maps for 202 urban areas across the country and US Census data from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey were combined to interpolate the modern-day plumbing access for historic neighborhoods (n=8871 communities). Analysis via binomial logistic regression demonstrated that nationally, redlined communities (HOLC Grade "D") are significantly more likely to have a rate of incomplete plumbing above the national average as compared to greenlined communities (HOLC Grade "A") (0.1352; CI= +0.036). This finding was also observed for three of the nation's four census sub-regions (Northeast, Midwest, West). Slight differences by region in relationships between the proportion of specific racial/ethnic populations on rates of incomplete plumbing demonstrate the need for targeted place-based interdisciplinary examinations of exclusionary practices. The demonstration of the present-day impacts of redlining after nearly 90 years emphasizes the need to intentionally mitigate past injustices to ensure modern-day equity. / Master of Science / Access to water is a prevailing issue in underserved communities. Over 400,000 homes in the United States still lack access to complete indoor plumbing. This condition is called incomplete plumbing which is defined by the US Census Bureau as not being able to use running water, or flush a toilet, or bath. Redlining is the historical practice of denying loans to homeowners in a certain area based on their race or economic status. Our study sought to discover whether redlining has negatively affected the presence of plumbing in homes. To do this we examined whether incomplete plumbing in 2020 was above the national average in areas that were previously redlined. We found that redlined communities are significantly more likely to have a rate of incomplete plumbing above the national average as compared to greenlined communities. The same trend was found in three of the nation's four census sub-regions (Northeast, Midwest, and West). These findings show that racist practices such as redlining have had a lasting effect on modern-day infrastructure such as plumbing.

Cycling, and micromobility tools like bike share, have increasingly been recognized for their health, economic and environmental benefits, and municipalities have recently made encouraging the use of these modes of urban transportation both a policy and a financial priority. Many studies, using varying methods, have identified and confirmed an association between an increased presence and connectivity of cycling infrastructure (bike lanes, cycle tracks, etc.) and cycling or bike share ridership. Determining a more explicit causal link between infrastructure and ridership, however, often proves challenging to researchers, due to data limitations and a variety of simultaneous, exogenous, factors that abound within complex urban transportation systems. Given the financial impacts of capital investment in infrastructure, more closely establishing this causal link, and identifying infrastructure’s ability to generate cycling and bike share traffic, is of growing importance to municipal governments and taxpayers. Using Hamilton Bike Share (HBS) trip logs and GPS trajectories occurring between January, 2019 and August, 2022 (n = 741,369 and 609,746, respectively), this thesis constructs individual shapefiles of each HBS trip for GIS analysis through Dalumpines and Scott’s (2011) GIS-Based Map-Matching Algorithm. It investigates the impact of ten separated cycling infrastructure projects in Hamilton, constructed between 2019 and 2022, on HBS ridership along the respective intervention segments. The thesis also holistically analyzes the spatial and ridership impacts of one infrastructure intervention, the Victoria Avenue cycle track, on the distribution of riders using the segment of interest, a more precise classification of post-intervention trip natures (‘induced’ or ‘diverted’) using a novel categorization process, and maps the impact of the iv segment on trip diversion to use the cycle track. Results indicate that five of the ten interventions have had significant, positive, impacts on monthly HBS ridership along their respective segments, with others having nearly statistically significant results as well. Moreover, the Victoria Avenue cycle track lessened the cost of distance associated with using Victoria Avenue, and 46.9% of trips along the cycle track post-intervention, were determined to be ‘induced’ trips. Finally, of the streets in the Victoria Avenue cycle track’s neighborhood, the cycle track segments were the only segments to experience ridership increases post-intervention, which indicates a significant level of trip diversion and funneling of trips to use the cycle track. These results enhance findings from the literature and more concretely quantify the direct impacts of infrastructure investments. Investments in infrastructure appear to make a significant difference in increasing ridership and serve to benefit more than just existing riders. This thesis can have an important impact on municipal active transportation planning, policy, and financing, through its results and by providing a methodological foundation for future research into infrastructure’s impacts on a variety of users. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Försörjningskedjan i byggprojekt konvergerar materialflödet mot byggarbetsplatsen. Där byggs materialet ihop till en enskild produkt. Materialhanteringen är en av de viktigaste faktorerna för hur byggprojekt presterar gällande kostnad, tid, säkerhet i planeringen och arbetsplatsolyckor. Att flera olika materialflöden hanteras i projektspecifika miljöer av projektspecifika organisationer innebär en komplicerad logistikhantering. Trots det är byggbranschen jämförelsevis dålig på att utnyttja expertis och moderna tekniker för att förbättra materialhanteringen. Ett effektivt informationsflöde är väsentligt för att kunna upprätthålla ett effektivt materialflöde. Men byggprojekt har många olika källor till information med olika nivåer av detaljrikedom. Det leder till bristande kommunikation vilket får flera negativa effekter. Tidigare studier (Xue, Wang, Shen & Yu, 2007; Donyavi & Flanagan 2009) har visat att det finns ett behov av digitala verktyg för styrning av försörjningskedjan till byggprojekt. Andra studier (Olsson, 2000; Samuelson & Björk, 2014; Blanco, Mullin, Pandya & Sribdhar, 2017) har visat att det sällan är en helt friktionsfri process att implementera nya rutiner och digitala verktyg i byggbranschen. Därför finns ett behov av att studera hur företag kan lyckas med implementering av digitala verktyg för materialhantering. Målen med studien är att undersöka framgångsfaktorer för implementering av digitala verktyg för materialhantering i husbyggnadsprojekt och vilka effekter lyckad implementering kan leda till. Syftet är att öka effektiviteten i materialflöden i byggproduktion. Den här studien har utförts som en flerfallsstudie på flerbostadsprojekt där ett digitalt verktyg för materialhantering använts. Fallstudien består av ett primärt fall och ett jämförande fall. I det primära fallet har en långsiktig implementering av det digitala verktyget misslyckats, till skillnad från i det jämförande fallet. Det digitala verktyget som ingår i fallstudien är Myloc Construction och det används bland annat för att koordinera transporter till byggarbetsplatsen. Fallstudien genomfördes som en intervjustudie. Utöver respondenter från de olika byggprojekten inkluderas även respondenter från utvecklaren av det digitala verktyget. Det digitala verktyget tillgängliggör information om bland annat leveranser och förflyttningar påbyggarbetsplatsen. Detta förenklar koordineringen av materialflödet på byggarbetsplatsen och på så sätt kan det bidra till ökad samordning, färre störningar, minskad trängsel och effektivare godsmottagning. Dessutom finns ett bokningssystem för lyftresurser vilket gör det enklare att anpassa materialflödet efter resurstillgången eller vice versa. Studien har identifierat tre nyckelfaktorer för implementeringen av digitala verktyg för materialhantering: Planering - Förutsättningarna i produktionen måste anpassas efter hur logistiken och det digitala verktyget är tänkt att fungera. Resurser – En enhet som driver implementeringen av det digitala verktyget bör ägna sig åt att öka följsamheten och att driva igenom förbättringar i hanteringen av det digitalaverktyget. Hur mycket resurser som krävs för detta beror på logistikuppläggets komplexitet. Riktlinjer – Det krävs riktlinjer för hur det digitala verktyget ska hanteras. Dessa bör till stor del anpassas efter projektets förutsättningar. En riktlinje som är viktig oberoende av projektets utformning är att bestämma med vilken framförhållning som information ska matas in. Riktlinjerna kan antingen förmedlas via projektspecifika instruktioner eller via avtal. Två tidigare studier (Olsson, 2000; Sullivan, Barthorpe och Robbins, 2010) har beskrivit att byggentreprenörer inte är vana vid att lägga resurser på att förbättra logistiken. Den här studien har bekräftat att det till viss del fortfarande är så, men studien tyder också på att detta är något som håller på att bli bättre. Dessutom bekräftar studien att användarna generellt är positivt inställda till att testa ny teknik för att utveckla sitt arbete. En studie (Aloini, Dulmin, Mininno & Ponticelli, 2012) har visat att sen inblandning av aktörer, brist på samordnad utformning och bristfälligt urval av leverantörer är riskfaktorer för implementering av ett logistikkoncept som kallas Supply Chain Management. Studien som gjorts i detta examensarbete kunde identifiera att dessa riskfaktorer även hindrat implementeringen av det digitala verktyget för materialhantering.

<p>Internet access using IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks has become very common. In home and office networks where voice, video and audio will be delivered, quality of service (QoS) support is essential so that customers can be offered video on demand, audio on demand, voice over IP and high-speed Internet access. In addition to the proliferation of WLAN hotspots, WLAN mesh networks are now being used as a cost-effective means for coverage extension and backhaul relaying between IEEE 802.11 access points (APs).</p> <p> In conventional IEEE 802.11, APs are always continuously powered using fixed wired connections. In future WLAN mesh networks however, wired power connections may not always be readily available, especially in Wi-Fi hotzone installations which cover expansive outdoor areas. In such cases, fixed power connections can often be replaced by a battery operated or solar powered design. For this reason, power saving on the AP is highly desirable for this type of application. Unfortunately, this is not possible since the existing IEEE 802.11 standard requires that APs remain active at all times.</p> <p> In this thesis, we propose and investigate a comprehensive framework for a power saving QoS-enabled access point (PSQAP), intended for use in solar and low power IEEE 802.11 infrastructure applications. An energy-efficient media access control protocol is proposed using the contention-based channel access mode for IEEE 802.11. When real-time flows are present, a PSQAP schedules its awakening/sleeping pattern in a manner that satisfies the delay and packet loss requirements for the admitted real-time flows. A dynamic connection-admission control algorithm is proposed for efficient management of wireless resources. We show that both background traffic and the synchronization of stations' transmissions due to AP's alternating between awake and sleep states can cause excess queuing and packet collision rate. These effects result in an increase in packet delay and power consumption at the mobile stations in contention-based channel access mode. We propose and investigate several scheduling methods for mitigating these effects. It is also shown that voice over IP over WLAN (VoWLAN) suffers a low capacity problem and high handset/AP power consumption. A novel adaptive voice packetization scheme is proposed which improves VoIP capacity and reduces power consumption. The work in this thesis is characterized by analytical models and evaluated through extensive network simulations to study and analyze the key performance aspects of the proposed framework and the associated protocols.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

The company Linjeutrustning AB works with replacing cable cabinets and needs a simpler and more structured method for documenting the work. There is a need to document the work in a structured way to simplify subsequent processes such as service and maintenance. There is also a need to take pictures and plan projects over specific areas to streamline work. The project group has taken on the task of meeting these needs through the development of a digital tool, an app. The goal of the app is to simplify the documentation of work and increase efficiency by allowing electricians to take pictures and plan projects in specific areas directly from their mobile phones. The result is an app that makes it easier and more structured for electricians to document their work by taking pictures and planning projects in specific areas directly from their mobile phones. The app enables more structured documentation of work, which in turn can streamline subsequent processes such as service and maintenance. Electricians can also plan projects and take pictures of specific areas to increase efficiency and safety for the future.

Denna studie har undersökt förtätningen av städer och dess påverkan på gröna områden. Tidigare forskning inom samma område har visat att förtätningen av städer runt om i världen har ökat drastiskt de senaste decennierna och att vissa städer har tredubblats i storlek. Den mest berörda världsdelen är sydöstra Asien där urbaniseringen har ökat med 2,8 % jämför med andra delar av världen. En av de största konsekvenserna som kan medfölja med förtätningen är minskning av gröna områden, vilket påverkar negativt ekosystemet, umgängeplatser, psykiskt och fysiskt välmående av invånarna. Förvandlingen av gröna områden till bebyggda områden har blivit en av de största orsakerna till försämrad livsmiljö världen över.  I denna studie undersöktes fyra svenska städer och för att se hur de hanterar förtätningen samt vilka strategier de använder sig av för att skydda gröna områden. Kommunerna som har undersökts är Falkenberg, Varberg, Halmstad och Helsingborg. Dessa är mellanstora kommuner i Sverige som har haft stor ökning av befolkningen de senaste åren.  Undersökningen har varit baserad på kvalitativa undersökningsmetoder, där intervjuer, dokumentanalys och litteraturstudie har använts för att komma fram till ett resultat. Denna studie resulterade i att förtätningen måste ske ur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv och att det är viktigt att förtätningen är välplanerad. Om gråa ytor tar över de gröna så kan livskvaliten bli försämrad för invånarna. Men det visade sig att de undersökta kommuner har detta under kontroll, där vardera kommun har skapa ett sorts program där skyddandet av gröna områden är en del av programmet