<p>In hands-free telephony and in teleconference systems, the main aim is to provide agood free voice quality when two or more people communicate from different places.The problem often arises during the conversation is the creation of acoustic echo. Thisproblem will cause the bad quality of voice signal and thus talkers could not hearclearly the content of the conversation, even thought lost the important information.This acoustic echo is actually the noise which is created by the reflection of soundwaves by the wall of the room and the other things exist in the room. The mainobjective for engineers is the cancellation of this acoustic echo and provides an echofree environment for speakers during conversation. For this purpose, scientists designdifferent adaptive filter algorithms. Our thesis is also to study and simulate theacoustics echo cancellation by using different adaptive algorithms.</p>

In the social sciences, geopolitical theory is used in order to analyze states actions and commitments when it comes to foreign policy. This thesis develops a new understanding of geopolitical theory. Firstly, the development and application of geopolitical theory, from its foundations in the early twentieth century to contemporary geopolitical studies is discussed. Secondly a revised understanding of the variables integrated in the concept and how it can be operationalized as an analytical tool is presented and tested empirically.The critical assessment of the research field of geopolitical theory tells us that six different geopolitical perspectives have been considered the most influential (room, strategy, power projection, identity, affiliation and governance) when it comes to analyzing state action. This model is applied as an analytical tool and thus tested on a single case. The case study is an analysis of foreign policy discussions at the state level in Sweden. This has determined how the geopolitical perspectives function in relation to each other as well as presenting the need of new geopolitical perspectives, in order to understand a state’s foreign policies actions and commitments.The case study clearly shows the merits in using geopolitical perspectives and letting them interplay. The most important result, however, is that future studies needs to consider the connections between the six perspectives. The study has confirmed the need of an additional geopolitical perspective (ideology). Ideology as a seventh perspective addresses the issue of political intentions among a state’s representatives, and in that way helps to explain the dynamic connections between the other six geopolitical perspectives that influence states actions and commitments when it comes to foreign policy.

This dissertation reports on an investigation of corrective feedback provided by instructors to learners in sixteen online asynchronous and synchronous interactions. The overarching objective of this study was to examine the provision of corrective feedback in computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments. This study also sought to examine the frequency of corrective feedback types and the relationship between learner error and corrective feedback provision. Finally, this study investigated what types of corrective feedback led to repaired learner responses.Over the course of one university semester, the instructors and students in four second-semester Spanish courses participated in bulletin board and chat room discussions and a detailed analysis of the transcripts revealed that instructors do provide learners with corrective feedback in online asynchronous and synchronous environments. The results also reveal that corrective feedback is more prevalent in the asynchronous environment than in the synchronous environment. A total of six corrective feedback typesexplicit correction, recasts, metalinguistic feedback, clarification request, elicitation, and repetitionwere found in these environments. All corrective feedback types were present in the asynchronous environment while repetition was not observed in the synchronous environment. The results indicate instructors overall preference for explicit correction in the asynchronous environment and preference for recasts in the synchronous environment. In the synchronous environment, different types of learner errors are followed by different types of corrective feedback. Recasts most often follow grammatical and lexical errors, while an opportunity to negotiate form is most often provided for multiple errors.

The efforts to improve health care delivery usually involve studies and analysis of patient populations and healthcare systems. In this dissertation, I present the research conducted in the following areas: identifying patient groups, improving treatments for specific conditions by using statistical as well as data mining techniques, and developing new operation research models to increase system efficiency from the health institutes’ perspective. The results provide better understanding of high risk patient groups, more accuracy in detecting disease’ correlations and practical scheduling tools that consider uncertain operation durations and real-life constraints.

Through geopolitical theory this thesis explores how conflicts within states can be read and understood according to an analytical model determining one or several possible causes for the conflict.  The model is created by the author and reflects geopolitical theory by giving three possible explanations to an intrastate conflict: culture, economy or territorial construction. The aim of the thesis is testing this model on two selectively chosen case studies – i.e. two intrastate conflicts – namely: the upcoming referendum in Scotland and the terror attack at Tiananmen Square in China. These conflicts are compared by applying the model on each case and then providing a qualitative analysis through it. This comparison has shown that the geopolitical model of conflicts can be used in determining the cause or several possible causes for an intrastate conflict, and by doing so determining the need for geopolitical perspective to better understand states as actors in international relations.

The process of patient care relies on clinical data spread across specialized hospital departments. Powerful software is being designed to assimilate this disconnected patient data before treatment can be decided. However, these data are often presented to clinicians on interfaces that do not fit clinical workflows, leading to poor operational efficiency and increased patient safety risks. This project relies on ethnographic design methods to create evidence of clinician preferences pertaining to the presentation and collection of information on user interfaces in patient rooms. Using data gathered in clinical observation, a prototype interface was designed to enable doctors to conduct clinical tasks through a usable patient room interface. The prototype evaluation with doctors identified clinical tasks that are relevant in the patient room and provided insight into the perceived usability of such an interface. The evaluation sessions also elucidated on issues of patient-centeredness in technology design, effortless authentication and interface customizability.

I min essä beskriver jag den öppna miljön, med ett modernt och nytänkande arbetssätt som blir allt vanligare inom förskolan. I den nya moderna förskolan öppnas innemiljöerna upp allt mer för att skapa möjligheter till ett ökat samspel och lärande mellan barnen. Pedagogiken säger att vi pedagoger ska bygga miljöer och inspirera barnen till att själva söka kunskap, men här anser jag att det finns barn som får problem. Många barn har svårt att anpassa sig till den stora barngruppen och utmärker sig för att vara "stökiga" eftersom de inte klarar av att sortera alla sinnesintryck runt omkring sig. Jag ser att barn med koncentrationssvårigheter blir allt vanligare inom förskolan och är orsakat av miljön de befinner sig i. Syftet med min essä är att undersöka hur miljön kan vara grunden till barn som har ett oroligt beteende och hur jag som pedagog kan ge dem möjligheter att lättare komma till ro i en verksamhet som saknar avdelade rum. Genom att jag reflekterar över mitt pedagogiska förhållningssätt kommer jag fram till att alla barn inte kan bemötas lika. För att alla barn ska känna en lugn och trygg lärandemiljö på förskolan krävs det att vi pedagoger har kunskap om hur flexibla rum, vardagsstress och stora barngrupper kan påverka barnets koncentration till eget lärande. / In my essay I describe the open environment, with a modern and innovative way of work that is becoming more and more common in preschools. In the new modern preschool the indoor environments are becoming more open to create an increased interaction and learning between the children. The science of education says that the pedagogue shall create environments and inspire the children to search their own knowledge, but according to me this is a something that causes problems for some children. Many children have difficulties to adapt to the large group of children and are characterized as "messy" since they are unable to sort all the perception they are exposed to. I experience that children with concentration disabilities are becoming more and more common at preschools and that it is caused by the environments they are situated in. The purposes of my essay is to investigate how the environment can be the cause of a restless behavior and how I, as a pedagogue, can give them the opportunity to easier find peace in a preschool which doesn’t have any separate rooms. By reflecting over my pedagogical attitude I find that not all children can be met the same way. For every children to experience a calm and safe learning environment at preschool, it is necessary that we pedagogues have knowledge about how flexible rooms, everyday stress and large groups of children can effect the concentration of learning for the child.

The purpose of this study was to explore the referrals that were generated from one hospital emergency room to a community outreach team. This study used a specific geriatric program assessment team in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada as the community outreach team. Malcolm Payne’s description of Task Centered Casework and Crisis Intervention and Irene Pollin’s Medical Crisis Counseling served as the theoretical structure and design to gain an understanding of the reasons geriatric patients were referred to the GPAT on discharge. This study aimed to answer three research questions: 1) What is the emergency room medical team’s main reason for referral to a geriatric outreach team? 2) Are the referrals received from the emergency room medical team clearly identifying psychosocial issues as areas for examination by an outreach team? 3) Are psychosocial issues identified only after an outreach team clinician completed a comprehensive assessment? This study revealed that out of the 209 referrals to geriatric program assessment team, the highest number of times referred was for functional decline. It revealed that the emergency room medical team saw functional decline as a valid reason to have the geriatric program assessment team assess the individual in their home settings to ensure that any functional issue be addressed and possible adaptations made in a timely manner to avoid the reverberation that one ailment can set off. The second most common reason for referring to the geriatric program assessment team was for social issues. Forty percent of the referrals identified that there were concerns in relation to social issues which clearly identifies that the emergency room medical team identified psychosocial issues as an area for further examination. And finally, the findings show psychosocial issues were not identified only after an outreach team clinician completed a comprehensive assessment, but that both appear cognizant of the interplay between medical issues and social issues.

The process of patient care relies on clinical data spread across specialized hospital departments. Powerful software is being designed to assimilate this disconnected patient data before treatment can be decided. However, these data are often presented to clinicians on interfaces that do not fit clinical workflows, leading to poor operational efficiency and increased patient safety risks. This project relies on ethnographic design methods to create evidence of clinician preferences pertaining to the presentation and collection of information on user interfaces in patient rooms. Using data gathered in clinical observation, a prototype interface was designed to enable doctors to conduct clinical tasks through a usable patient room interface. The prototype evaluation with doctors identified clinical tasks that are relevant in the patient room and provided insight into the perceived usability of such an interface. The evaluation sessions also elucidated on issues of patient-centeredness in technology design, effortless authentication and interface customizability.

The word "vecindad" in Spanish means neighborhood, but the word is also used to describe a dwelling form. The vecindad is usually known as a row of one-room dwellings surrounding an open space or patio. This kind of dwelling form exists in most Latin American countries as well as in Spain, however the word "vecindad" is used exclusively in Mexico. This dwelling form existed in Spain under the name of "corrales" and it was brought to Mexico in the XVI century with the Conquest of 1521. Initially, vecindades were built as multi-family tenements to rent to low-income artisans or workers in Mexico. There are two kinds: the multi-storied ones which were built within the Traza, which was the first design of Mexico City by the Spaniards; and the one-storied buildings built in the Indian barrios located on the periphery of the Traza. / While each vecindad is different, they share the same elements such as the zahuan (entrance), the patio, the dwellings and the accesorias (commercial spaces). The number and dimensions of these elements vary depending on the characteristics of each vecindad. / From the XVI century until the early XX century, vecindades comprised the majority of the housing stock in Mexico City. In the 1940's, due to the ideas of Functionalism, vecindades ceased to be built and were relegated as an old and traditional dwelling form in the center of the city. / This thesis presents the origin, evolution and present condition of vecindades within the Traza of Mexico City. Their adaptability to fulfill social, cultural and political circumstances throughout the history of Mexico City reveals their importance as the city's main collective urban dwelling form.