<p>Is North America vulnerable to widespread electrical blackout from natural or man-made disasters? Yes. Are electric utilities and critical infrastructure (CI) operators prepared to maintain CI operations such as, hospitals, sewage lift stations, food, water, police stations etc., after electrical blackout to maintain National security and sustainability? No. Why? Requirements to prioritize electrical restoration to CI do not exist as a requirement or regulation for electrical distribution operators. Thus, the CI operators cannot maintain services to the public without electricity that provides power for the critical services to function. The problem is that electric utilities are not required to develop or deploy a prioritized systematic plan or procedure to decrease the duration of electrical outage, commonly referred to as blackout. The consequence of local blackout to CI can be multi-billion-dollar financial losses and loss of life for a single outage event attributed to the duration of blackout. This study utilized the review of authoritative literature to answer the question: “Can a plan be developed to decrease the duration of electrical outage to critical infrastructure”. The literature revealed that electric utilities are not required to prioritize electrical restoration efforts and do not have plans available to deploy minimizing the duration of blackout to CI. Thus, this study developed a plan and subsequent model using Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) to decrease the duration of blackout by providing incremental electrical service to CI.</p>

The colourful past of the late 18th century marquetry furniture has seldom been highlighted. Through ageing and environmental influences, colourful marquetry furniture has lost their original expression. The current knowledge of how Swedish cabinet-makers in the late 18th century used dyes to colour their furniture is limited. Trace of colour has been observed and the use of dyes has been mentioned, but deeper research in this filed is missing. A visual examination and studies of archive documents and previous research have been performed to investigate the colourful past of Gottlieb Iwerssons masterpiece, a secretaire in Gustavian style made for the king Gustav III. The result shows that the secretaire has a colourful past in accordance with its original drawing. A hypothetical picture has been created to illustrate the colourful original appearance.

While a lot of efforts have been on outdoor intelligent systems, internal living environment system that suits the occupancy’s behaviour has not received much attention. The intelligent living environment designed in this study has three components; the physical world (environment), the database and the decision maker. The study sought to design a model that senses ever changing home conditions such as lights, doors and windows. Other variables that were looked at include, but not limited to the number of people in the room and inside thermodynamics and human activity. Global information such as temperature, gas or electricity usage and time of the day will also be received by the system through various sensing facilities. The information will be sent to a rules engine for a decision on an appropriate action to be taken. The action may include just turning off the lights, in the case of a mild abnormality or a high alert to an emergency response unit in a most severe case. The study proposes a context aware and proactive neural networks control system to control a living environment with a main focus on the aged citizens living alone. The proposed living environment was not developed to an actual or “mock” building containing a representation of subset of sensors, actuators and controllers as used in the actual systems due to lack of funding. However, the study will report on the modelling and simulation of the home system variables based on the chosen Artificial Intelligent technique using MATLAB/SIMULINK. These results indicate a possibility of implementing the designed living environment to increase the resident’s security. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Engineering: Electrical)

No description available.

Det digitala samhället kännetecknas av konstant utveckling och snabb föränderlighet, vilket har skapat rollen influencer: En person som används av företag och varumärken för att marknadsföra produkter eller tjänster. Denna studie fokuserar särskilt på influencerns egen bild av sitt yrke och genom att tematisera frågor utifrån teorier rörande kommersialisering, självpresentation, deltagarkultur och opinionsbildning. I studien undersöks hur tre utvalda svenska influencers inom mode och skönhet på Instagram ser på sin roll i och med kommersialiseringen vilket analyseras utifrån samma teorier inom medie- och kommunikationsvetenskapen som har nämnts ovan. Studien genomförs genom kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer där influencerna själva är utgångspunkten. Genom studien blir det tydligt att förstå hur kommersialiseringen har påverkat mediesamhället och tidigare roller har bytts ut. Kändisar är inte bara längre skådespelare och artister, opinionsledare behöver inte längre vara traditionella medier, en person kan ha olika roller i olika mediesammanhang och annonsering är inte längre något som går från producent till konsument. Utvecklingen av både medier och sociala kanaler har förändrat medielandskapet helt och de gränserna mellan avsändare och mottagare suddas ut. Det är inte bara marknadskommunikationen som har monopol på forskning rörande annonsering och marknadsföring. Avlutningsvis visar studien att influencerna har en sammansatt och komplex roll som uppstått i och med kommersialiseringen och är en följd utav en konvergens av det digitala medielandskapet. / The digital society is characterized by constant development and rapid change, which has created the role influencer: A person used by companies and brands to market products or services. This study focuses on influencers own image of their occupation and by thematising issues based on theories of commercialization, self-presentation, participatory culture and opinion formation. The essay is exploring how three selected Swedish influencers in fashion and beauty at Instagram are looking at their role in commercialization which is analyzed on the basis of the same theories in media and communication science that have been mentioned above. The study is conducted through qualitative research interviews where the influencers themselves are the starting point. Through the study it becomes clear to understand how commercialization has affected the media community and previous roles have been replaced. Celebrities are no longer just actors and artists, opinion leaders no longer need to be traditional media, a person can have different roles in different media contexts and advertising is no longer something that goes from producer to consumer. The development of both media and social channels has changed the media landscape in so much as the boundaries between senders and recipients are being erased. It is not only market communication that has a monopoly on research relating to advertising and marketing. Lastly the study shows that influencers have a composite and complex role that has emerged through commercialization and is a consequence of a convergence of the digital media landscape.

Cities are highly unequal systems and rapid, top-down development is increasingly causing segregation between people of different socio-economic statuses through gentrification. In response, a bottom-up, more community centred approach is often proposed, yet this method also not without significant issues. In this thesis I investigate the role of the designer as a mediator, facilitator and translator between the top-down and bottom-up approaches to urban development. Using Grønland, Oslo as a case study, I start by gathering high-level research in order to understand the large-scale strategies that the municipality and private developers have for the area. In the second section, I undertake on-the-ground research in order to understand the everyday issues that people who live in, or use, the area face. In the final section I propose a research laboratory and makerspace that can activate the local community, providing the resources in order for everyday people to be able to have a positive impact on their city, in addition to gathering long-term, in-depth research on the area in order to influence the future of Grønland. This thesis is written as a working document that can, and should, be used by a wide range of people, from the municipality to local residents, and is designed to be added to as the project develops.

This text is about visibility and invisibility of work and labor through research from history and present time and through my own work, process and thinking. Through these topics I want to raise discussions and make comments in the field of craft and glass. To evoke our senses and feelings through video, sound and perception of the work and installations together with the properties of glass. To discuss that there are underlying layers of a work of glass that we see in a museum or gallery space. Why some information is visible, and some is lost by the presented state. Is the material and finished product that we see more important than the underlying layers and process? Can we change how we present and document our pieces with information better? Together with the labor of my interest, there is also about the loss of an industry and a personal loss of the time I had there coming to an end.

As money laundering is a global threat, with approximately US$800 billion to US$2 trillion being laundered yearly, it is important to come up with new and stronger solutions to combat illicit activities. Among the most exploited entities for money laundering are financial institutions, and more specifically banks. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis has been to investigate the usability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a decision-maker in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) department to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Moreover, the main research question was to explore the usability of AI as a decision-maker within AML operations. To enable this, an important aspect was to understand what regulatory and compliance requirements are demanded on AI from the AML departments. Thereafter, it was necessary to understand AI’s technical functionalities to facilitate the department’s daily operations. The literature review presented the fundamentals of AML and their precautionary actions. Furthermore, in the second phase of the literature review, the fundamentals of AI were investigated. Lastly, a combination of the topics of AML and AI were reviewed to identify techniques that the AML department can implement. Moreover, the methodology of the thesis consisted of a qualitative research design with an inductive approach. In the findings, a framework was constructed from the obtained results (second order themes). Subsequently, those themes were further developed into aggregated dimensions, which were extensively elaborated on in the conclusion. Thereafter, the dimensions were categorized into either the compliance criteria or the functional criteria. Also, the dimensions were presented in the order of priority based on how critical they are. To answer the main research question, AI is usable in the AML department as a decision-maker when considering the aggregated dimensions. Essentially, AI can successfully be implemented into the AML department’s daily operations when all the dimensions are achieved. / Då penningtvätt är ett globalt hot, där det uppskattas att det årligen tvättas 800 miljarder till 2 biljoner amerikanska dollar, är det viktigt att komma med nya och motståndskraftigare lösningar som bekämpar illegala verksamheter. Finansiella institutioner är bland de mest utsatta enheterna för penningtvätt, däribland banker som är mest exponerade. Därför var syftet med masterexamensarbetet att undersöka användbarheten av artificiell intelligens (AI) som beslutsfattare på avdelningen som bekämpar penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism. Vidare var huvudfrågeställningen att utforska användbarheten av AI som beslutsfattare inom arbetsuppgifterna för avdelningen som bekämpar penningtvätt. För att möjliggöra detta var en viktig aspekt att förstå vilka lagstadgade- och efterlevnadskrav som ställdes på AI från avdelningen som bekämpar penningtvätt. Därefter måste man förstå AI:s tekniska funktioner för att underlätta avdelningens dagliga verksamhet. I litteraturstudien presenterades de grundläggande faktorerna för bekämpning av penningtvätt och deras försiktighetsåtgärder. Vidare i den andra fasen av litteraturstudien undersöktes de grundläggande faktorerna för AI. Slutligen granskades litteratur som behandlade en kombination av ämnena bekämpning av penningtvätt och AI för att identifiera tekniker som avdelningen för bekämpning av penningtvätt kan implementera. Dessutom bestod masterexamensarbetet av en kvalitativ forskningsdesign med en induktiv forskningsprocess. I resultatdelen framställdes ett ramverk utifrån de erhållna resultaten (andra ordningens teman). Därefter utvecklades dessa teman vidare till aggregerade dimensioner, som beskrevs utförligt i slutsatsen. Därpå blev dimensionerna kategoriserade i antingen efterlevnadskriterier eller funktionella kriterier. Dimensionerna presenterades även i prioritetsordning baserat på deras kritiska innebörd. Studien föreslog att AI är användbart på avdelningen som bekämpar penningtvätt som beslutsfattare när de aggregerade dimensionerna tas i beaktning. I huvudsak kan AI framgångsrikt implementeras i avdelningens dagliga verksamhet för att bekämpa penningtvätt när alla dimensioner har uppnåtts.

(Synopsis to introductory statement): An introductory statement to five documentary films made by Ian Lang in Australia between 1981 and 1997 exemplifying  a 'democratising' model of sustainable and ethical documentary film production. This document critically reflects on the production process of these films to accompany their submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Publication at Griffith University. It finds that a contemporary tendency towards 'post-industrial' conditions allows an observational film-maker to negotiate a critical inter-dependence rather than a romantically conceived 'independence' traditional to the genre. [Full thesis consists of introductory statement plus six DVD videodiscs.]