In this paper we show how the theory of dynamical systems can be employed to solve problems in motion vision. In particular we develop algorithms for the recovery of dense depth maps and motion parameters using state space observers or filters. Four different dynamical models of the imaging situation are investigated and corresponding filters/ observers derived. The most powerful of these algorithms recovers depth and motion of general nature using a brightness change constraint assumption. No feature-matching preprocessor is required.

This report addresses the problem of fault tolerance to system failures for database systems that are to run on highly concurrent computers. It assumes that, in general, an application may have a wide distribution in the lifetimes of its transactions. Logging remains the method of choice for ensuring fault tolerance. Generational garbage collection techniques manage the limited disk space reserved for log information; this technique does not require periodic checkpoints and is well suited for applications with a broad range of transaction lifetimes. An arbitrarily large collection of parallel log streams provide the necessary disk bandwidth.

In most classical frameworks for learning from examples, it is assumed that examples are randomly drawn and presented to the learner. In this paper, we consider the possibility of a more active learner who is allowed to choose his/her own examples. Our investigations are carried out in a function approximation setting. In particular, using arguments from optimal recovery (Micchelli and Rivlin, 1976), we develop an adaptive sampling strategy (equivalent to adaptive approximation) for arbitrary approximation schemes. We provide a general formulation of the problem and show how it can be regarded as sequential optimal recovery. We demonstrate the application of this general formulation to two special cases of functions on the real line 1) monotonically increasing functions and 2) functions with bounded derivative. An extensive investigation of the sample complexity of approximating these functions is conducted yielding both theoretical and empirical results on test functions. Our theoretical results (stated insPAC-style), along with the simulations demonstrate the superiority of our active scheme over both passive learning as well as classical optimal recovery. The analysis of active function approximation is conducted in a worst-case setting, in contrast with other Bayesian paradigms obtained from optimal design (Mackay, 1992).

Pain coping is the purposeful effort people use to manage and minimize the negative impacts of pain. The scientific literature on pain coping conceptualizes its role in recovery as a reciprocal interactive process of psychological, social, and biological factors. The objective of this dissertation was to investigate how workers cope with pain and how coping relates to recovery. Paper one-How Do Injured Workers Cope with Pain? A Descriptive Study of Injured Workers with Occupationally Related Long Term Pain, aimed to identify pain coping strategies used by workers and identify characteristics related to each strategy. This study hypothesized that workers coping may be a function of biological, social, and psychological factors. The results indicated that the most frequently used coping strategy was coping self statements, followed by praying and hoping, and catastrophizing. Additionally, coping strategies differed according to gender, marital status, education, part of the body injured, levels of depressed symptomatology, and pain. The objective of paper two, Predicting Recovery for Workers with Chronic Pain: Does Pain Coping Matter?, was to measure the prognostic values of pain coping strategies, using polynomial logistic regression and Cox regression, on two commonly used measures of recovery, self perceived disability and time to suspension of benefits. The adjusted polynomial models showed that coping self statements predicted moderate disability. The Cox regressions showed that increases in diverting attention, pain related behaviours, and perceived control meant small but significant decreased chances of suspended benefits. Paper three, Self Perceived Disability in Workers with Chronic Pain: Does Depression Matter?, sought to identify factors associated with self perceived disability at the beginning of rehabilitation. Depression and pain interacted to affect disability therefore, two multivariable models were built. For depressed workers, every one point increase in pain was associated with a 58% increased odds of moderate disability and a 258% increased odds of severe disability, compared to low disability. Pain control was protective for moderate and severe disability. For non-depressed workers, a one point increase in pain was associated with a 97% increased odds of moderate and a 109% increased odds for severe disability. However, Pain control was non-significant. / Epidemiology

Context: Several recovery strategies have been used, with limited effectiveness, to reduce the muscle discomfort or pain and the diminished muscle performance following a bout of unaccustomed physical activity, a condition known as delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS). Muscle damage in this condition is associated with mechanical disruption of the muscle and connective tissue and inflammation and increased oxidative stress. Low frequency, low intensity, whole body periodic acceleration (WBPA) that increases nitric oxide (NO) release from vascular endothelium into the circulation through increased pulsatile shear stress offers a potential solution. This is because endothelial derived nitric oxide has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-nociceptive properties. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of WBPA on the pain and diminished muscle performance associated with DOMS induced by unaccustomed eccentric arm exercise in young male subjects. Design: Longitudinal. Setting: University Exercise Physiology Laboratory. Participants: Seventeen active men, 23.4 +/- 4.6 yr of age. Intervention: Subjects made six visits to the research facility over a two-week period. On day one, the subject performed a 1RM elbow flexion test and was then randomly assigned to the WBPA or control group. Criterion measurements were taken on Day 2, prior to and immediately following performance of the eccentric exercise protocol (10 sets of 10 repetitions using 120% of 1RM) and after the recovery period. During all subsequent sessions (24, 48, 72, and 96 h) these data were collected before the WBPA or passive recovery was provided. Main Outcome Measures: Isometric strength (MVC), blood markers (CPK, MYO, IL-6, TNF-alpha and Uric Acid), soreness, pain, circumference, and range of motion (ROM). Results: Significantly higher MVC values were seen for the WBPA group across the entire 96 h recovery period. Additionally, within group differences were seen in CPK, MYO, IL-6, soreness, pain, circumference, and ROM showing a smaller impact and more rapid recovery by the WBPA group. Conclusion: Application of WBPA hastens recovery from DOMS after eccentric exercise. Given the lack of other potential mechanisms, these effects appear to be mediated by the increased NO release with WBPA.

Today’s economy is getting more service oriented and we live in a service society. The service sector has experienced a great development, which has implied and implies greater competition. The customers have a wider range of services to choose among and as a service provider, it is all about providing a superior service. However, being a service provider can sometimes imply a hard undertaking. Sometimes the service provider does not accomplish to provide the service perfectly. These situations are more known as service failures. Service recoveries are often used to recover service failures, which can e.g. imply an apology or offering the customer something extra at no cost. To be able to act correctly in a service recovery situation, a com-pany can e.g. have a service recovery policy for how to act in service failure situations. A company can also choose to empower the front-line employees who interact frequently with the customers. The purpose of the thesis is to determine the interrelation between service recovery policy and empowerment. The research method chosen in this thesis is qualitative and the in-formation is collected by using semi-formal in-depth interviews as well as verbal protocols. One middle manager and one front-line employee representing three different service companies is partici-pating in the thesis. The three companies operate in three different industries within the service sector. There is somewhat an interrelation between service recovery policy and the degree of empowerment. A non-specific service recovery policy seems to demand a high degree of empowerment while a specific policy does not seem to require a high degree of empowerment. According to the findings of this thesis, a company can also have a semi-formal policy and a medium degree of empowerment. This means that the more formal and specific service recovery policy, the less empowered staff is required.

The thesis focuses on the development of an experimental set up for a recently developed failure recovery technique of spatial robot manipulators. Assuming a general configuration of the spatial robot arm, a task is specified. This task contains constraints on position, velocity and acceleration to be satisfied. These constraints are derived from contact and curvature specifications. The technique synthesizes the serial chain and tests if the task can be satisfied in case of a joint failure. An experimental set up was developed in order to validate the failure recovery technique. It includes a robot arm mounted on a movable platform. The arm and platform are controlled by NI sbRIO board and are programmed in LabVIEW. The experimental results of the failure recovery technique were obtained for the case of Elbow failure in robot manipulators. The thesis considers two applications of the synthesis of spherical five –degree-of-freedom serial chains: Power assist for human therapeutic movement and Synthesis of Parallel Mechanical Linkages. A spherical TS chain has been synthesized for these two applications using the Mathematica software.

Uppsatsen skrevs i samband med Konsumentverket och undersöker hurKarlstadsbuss använder sig av service recovery i sitt dagliga arbete. Service recovery innebär att så fort en kund upplevt något negativt i samband med ett företagsmöte så ska denne få återkoppling i form av en ursäkt, pengar tillbaka eller någon annan typ av förmån. Lyckas företaget ge kunden detta så fort som möjligt så förhindrar det att kunden får en negativ bild av företaget som den sprider vidare till personer i sin omgivning. För att få djupare kunskap i ämnet har tidigare teorier om klagomålshantering, service recovery och hur företag kan motivera sina anställda till att vara mer serviceinriktade studerats. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att studera hur service recovery används i ett kollektivtrafikföretag och hur det tillämpas i hela organisationen. Först studerades teorier inom ämnet och sedan gjordes en empirisk undersökning, uppsatsen är med andra ord uppbyggd enligt den deduktiva strategin.

Syfte: Den bakomliggande tanken med vår uppsats är att belysa tjänstekvalitet från ett kund- och medarbetarperspektiv. Vi ville dels undersöka medarbetarnas uppfattning om det egna företagets tjänstekvalitet och dels kundernas uppfattning av och förväntningar på företagets tjänstekvalitet. En annan aspekt som undersöks är hur kundrelationens längd påverkar den kundupplevda tjänstekvaliteten. Metod: Både sekundär- och primärdata har använts i uppsatsen. Vi har genomfört en litteraturstudie för att söka kunskap inom området tjänster och tjänstekvalitet. Därefter genomförde vi en förstudie i form av interjuver med befintliga kunder till företaget och slutligen gjorde vi en kvantitativ undersökning. Resultatet från denna analyserades sedan och jämfördes mot teoribildningen inom tjänsteområdet så att vi kunde besvara våra frågeställningar. Resultat & slutsats: Medarbetarnas uppfattning om den egna tjänstekvaliteten stämmer någorlunda överens med kundernas uppfattning om företagets levererade tjänstekvalitet. Däremot lyckas inte företaget på ett övergripande plan uppfylla kundernas förväntningar på tjänstekvaliteten. Vi kan konstatera att det finns stora skillnader i kundernas uppfattning beroende på hur länge man varit kund och vilken kundkategori man tillhör. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Det skulle vara intressant att undersöka företagets Service recovery process, både från ett kund och medarbetarperspektiv, genom en kvalitativ studie.Vi skulle även tycka det var spännande att undersöka om det finns några samband mellan den kundupplevda kvaliteten och exempelvis lojaliteten eller lönsamheten. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna uppsats belyser tjänstekvaliteten inte bara från ett kundperspektiv utan även från ett medarbetarperspektiv. Den visar även på kundrelationens påverkan på den upplevda tjänstekvaliteten. / Purpose: The underlying idea of our paper is to highlight service quality from a customer and employee perspective. We wanted to explore employees perceptions of their own company's services and consumers perceptions and expectations of the company's services. Another aspect being investigated is how the length of the customer relation affects the customer perceived service quality. Method: Both secondary and primary data has been used in the paper. We have undertaken a literature review to seek knowledge in the field of services and service quality. Thereafter, we carried out a feasibility study where we interviewed existing customers to the company and finally we made a quantitative study. The results were then analyzed and compared against theories in the service quality area so that we could  find answers to our questions. Results & conclusion: Employees perception of the service quality of their own company  agreed more or less with customers perception. However the company does not fully succeed in meeting customers' expectations for service quality. We noted that there are major differences in customers perceptions of service quality depending on the length of the relation with the company and category belonging.  Proposal for further research: It would be interesting to examine the company's service recovery process, both from a customer and employee perspective, trough a qualitative study. We would also think it should be exciting to explore whether there is any correlation between the customer perceived quality and loyalty or profitability. The contribution of this paper: This paper highlight service quality not only from a customer perspective but also from an employee perspective. It´s also shows how the length of the relation affects the perceived service quality.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur tjänsteföretag med många kundkontakter samlar in synpunkter och klagomål från deras kunder. Genom att undersöka hur företag motiverar sin kontaktpersonal att ta emot synpunkter, vill vi förstå i vilken utsträckning empowerment används som motivationsteori. Studien utgår från ett ledningsperspektiv och använder ett kontaktpersonalperspektiv för att se om ledningen och kontaktpersonalens världsbild överensstämmer. Metoden har varit fyra kvalitativa fallstudier med kundserviceansvariga och kvantitativa enkäter till kontaktpersonalen i respektive företag. Slutsatserna är att vi har funnit att företagen delvis motiverar sin personal utifrån empowerment och de specifika fallföretagen kan utveckla sin synpunktshantering i syfte att anpassa sig efter kundernas krav.