This thesis establishes a quantization noise model of a delta-sigma modulator (DSM), which is utilized to estimate the phase noise performance of a fractional-N frequency synthesizer. In delta-sigma modulator structures, we choose multi-stage noise shaping (MASH) and single-loop structure for investigating the advantages and disadvantages. We have implemented a 3rd order single-loop and a 3rd order MASH DSM by using Verilog codes and a Xilinx field-programmable gate-array (FPGA). With a reference frequency of 12MHz, the fractional-N frequency synthesizer has an output frequency band of 2400~2500MHz, and a frequency resolution of 183 Hz. The measured phase noise is lower than -54 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset frequency. The PLL settling time is less than 29us with a 48 MHz frequency hopping.

Det råder debatt kring huruvida stretch goals är en gynnsam målsättningsstrategi där tidigare forskning och teorier framhåller såväl för- som nackdelar. Användning av stretch goals innebär att organisationen styrs av mål med inslag av hög målsättning och ett nytänk. Målsättningsstarategin möjliggör erhållen kunskap och kan bidra till individuellt lärande som i sin tur gynnar den organisatoriska utvecklingen. Uppsatsen ämnar att ge en djupare förståelse för de praktiska erfarenheterna av stretch goals och hur målsättningen kan stimulera lärande inom organisationer. Studien tillämpar en kvalitativ ansats med fem intervjuer med avdelningschefer på fem olika mjukvarubolag som har erfarenhet av arbete med stretch goals. Studiens resultat visar att avdelningscheferna i de studerade fallen främst har positiva erfarenheter av målsättningsstatrategin. Därtill indikeras att målsättningarnas höga svårighetsgrad erhåller större fokus än ett nytänk gällande målens innehåll. Slutligen påvisar studien att individuell utveckling uppstår vid realiseringen av stretch goals samt att organisatoriskt lärande gynnas av detta.

Under 1990-talet populariserades fenomenet lärande organisationer för att bemöta den konkurrens som globaliseringen medförde. Det finns både nya och mer klassiska forskningsstudier inom fenomenet lärande organisationer. Nyare studier inom fältet har försökt att skapa en heltäckande bild om lärande organisationer. Dessa studier tenderar dock att vara för smala och leder därmed till en alltför ytlig bild. Syftet med denna studie är därför att generera kunskaper om hur ett företag kan ses som en lärande organisationer genom en hybridmodell. Denna hybridmodell kombinerar Senges (2006) organisatoriska strukturer för innovativt lärande, tillsammans med Argyris och Schöns (1996) teori om olika nivåer av lärande. Studien har därmed en deduktiv ansats och den metod som studien använder är kvalitativa intervjuer. Resultaten visar att samtliga organisatoriska strukturer för innovativt lärande går att återfinna samt att dessa tillsammans leder till en djupare nivå av lärande. Slutsatsen av denna studie är därmed att denna hybridmodell kan ses som ett komplement till framtida studier inom området och att resultaten av denna studie tycks gå i linje med befintlig forskning inom området.

Titel: Att lära i motgång - En fallstudie av företag i Covid-19 krisen. Bakgrund: Företag behöver vara ständigt förberedda i den föränderliga värld de verkar inom, där osäkerhet är ständigt närvarande. Kriser har blivit ett allt vanligare fenomen, där organisationskriser sammanfattas som ett oväntat fenomen som ställer företag inför en utmaning. Kriser kan antingen kan ses som något negativt och katastrofalt, eller som en process som företag kan ta lärdom av och se som en möjlighet till att utveckla den egna verksamheten. Då krisen till följd av Covid-19 drabbat världen, finns ett antagande om att tillverkande företag kan komma att ta flertalet lärdomar med sig ut ur krisen. Syfte och Problemformulering: Syftet med denna studie är att erhålla en fördjupad förståelse kring lärprocesser och lärdomar hos tillverkande företag och dess medarbetare i samband med krisen kring Covid-19. Och kommer att besvaras med problemformuleringen: Vilka likheter och skillnader finns det mellan olika tillverkande företags lärprocesser och lärdomar kring Covid-19-krisen? Metod: I denna studie har den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden tillämpats där en abduktiv strategi har använts. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom intervjuer med anställda på de tillfrågade företagen. Det empiriska materialet har kompletterats med en teoretisk referensram för att syfte och problemformuleringar ska kunna besvaras. Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen berör Organisatoriskt lärande, Organisation, individ & lärande, Lärandeprocess i organisationer, Lärande, kommunikation & information samt Single vs. double loop learning. Empiri: Empirin består av åtta intervjuer. Nästintill samtliga respondenter vittnar om att företagen och respondenterna själva har kunnat dra flertalet lärdomar utifrån den rådande krisen och är i en lärande process just nu. Analys: I analysen diskuteras företagens och medarbetarnas lärprocesser samt lärdomar kopplat till teori. De olika temana är: Lärande, rutiner & erfarenheter, Medarbetare & organisation, Information, kunskap & kommunikation samt Anpassning av arbetssätt. Slutsats: Slutsatserna som dras är att verksamheterna kommer ta med sig lärdomarna som erfarenheter inför framtida arbete i verksamheten och för framtida kriser. Lärdomar som företagen drar omvandlas till rutiner i verksamheterna. Samtliga verksamheter är i en lärprocess nu i att gå över mer till det digitala.

Research in the field of reliability based design is mainly focused on two sub-areas: The computation of the probability of failure and its integration in the reliability based design optimization (RBDO) loop. Four papers are presented in this work, representing a contribution to both sub-areas. In the first paper, a new Second Order Reliability Method (SORM) is presented. As opposed to the most commonly used SORMs, the presented approach is not limited to hyper-parabolic approximation of the performance function at the Most Probable Point (MPP) of failure. Instead, a full quadratic fit is used leading to a better approximation of the real performance function and therefore more accurate values of the probability of failure. The second paper focuses on the integration of the expression for the probability of failure for general quadratic function, presented in the first paper, in RBDO. One important feature of the proposed approach is that it does not involve locating the MPP. In the third paper, the expressions for the probability of failure based on general quadratic limit-state functions presented in the first paper are applied for the special case of a hyper-parabola. The expression is reformulated and simplified so that the probability of failure is only a function of three statistical measures: the Cornell reliability index, the skewness and the kurtosis of the hyper-parabola. These statistical measures are functions of the First-Order Reliability Index and the curvatures at the MPP. In the last paper, an approximate and efficient reliability method is proposed. Focus is on computational efficiency as well as intuitiveness for practicing engineers, especially regarding probabilistic fatigue problems where volume methods are used. The number of function evaluations to compute the probability of failure of the design under different types of uncertainties is a priori known to be 3n+2 in the proposed method, where n is the number of stochastic design variables. / <p>QC 20160317</p>

This paper aims to provide a description of how knowledge can occur in Apoteket AB, an organization that is operating on the Swedish pharmacy market. The purpose of this paper is also to describe how the organizational learning occurs in the organization, and how the outcome of this learning can be stored in the organizational memory. This subject is of interest since Apoteket AB experience changes in their external environment in that they no longer have monopoly to sell pharmaceuticals on the Swedish pharmacy market. Earlier research claims that organizations need to develop new knowledge in order to take action, and this development needs to be supported by the management within the organization. The collection of primary data was done by two qualitative interviews with employees within the organization of Apoteket AB. Our conclusions are that knowledge can occur in many forms, such as tacit and explicit knowledge. The vast majority of the knowledge within the organization is the information that can be found in the electronic database Aponet within Apoteket AB, and that is useful for the employees in their daily work, and therefore is known as explicit knowledge. Since this knowledge is to be found through Aponet, the organizational memory plays an important role in sharing knowledge. The organizational learning can also be found in many different forms, making it possible for the organization to benefit from the employees experiences and discoveries. The outcome of this learning is often stored in the organizational memory known as social networks, which includes the employees in different situations.

The global demand for digital services has been growing steadily, which has led to an increase in the utilization of data and consumption of energy, causing an increment of the global digital carbon footprint. Therefore, corporations providing digital services are gradually enforced to be able to measure and quantify their digital carbon footprint, which requires them to restructure their organizational strategy, processes, and culture. Yet, previous research in the digital service industry presents a gap in understanding how to accelerate the adoption of measuring the digital carbon footprint and fails to provide a framework for corporations to incorporate new sustainability initiatives. Thus, this thesis investigates the usefulness and need for digital services companies to use a triple-loop learning framework for adopting the digital carbon footprint as a new measurement for sustainability. From this, the study has made use of semi-structured interviews with professionals from ten digital services companies aimed at examining their processes for incorporating the digital carbon footprint into their sustainability operations. Results show that many companies used a combination of the three loops of learning, and the majority applied triple-loop learning in various sustainability initiatives. The creation or redesign of industry-level standards, by inter-organizational networks and communities of practices, was the primary process of triple-loop learning applied for the adoption of the digital carbon footprint. Here, multiple organizations came together to create standards for measuring the digital carbon footprint, redirecting the behaviour of the digital services industry and, potentially, of the global market towards sustainability. Therefore, the application of a triple-loop learning framework has the potential to create a more sustainable digitalization of the corporate world, which allows for different stakeholders to share knowledge and join forces to produce standards that have the potential to transform the societal- traditional systems needed for the incorporation of the digital carbon footprint.

In 1999, Texas Legislature mandated the Student Success Initiative to ensure all eighth grade students are on grade level in reading and mathematics. Although progress is evident, the achievement gap for English language learners remains. The purpose of this case study was to explore effective school practices that lead to closing the achievement gap. This qualitative study applies the two core functions of leadership for exercising influence and providing direction to answer the research question: How do the core functions of school leadership practices for implementing the Student Success Initiative requirements vary between English language learners and non-English language learners in high and low-performing middle schools? The comparison between the high-performing school and low-performing school brought forth key findings and identifies school practices for supporting secondary English language learners. The key findings for exercising influence on teachers were: 1) Effective school practices that influence teacher knowledge on how to identify students and their needs include: a) conducts a needs assessment.; b) analyze data; c) create differentiated ESL programs, d) place diverse groups of ELLs in differentiated ESL programs. 2) Effective school practices to influence teachers how to intervene include: a) accept teacher input and follow through on requests when planning interventions, b) target intervention needs; c) create differentiated interventions. 3) Effective school practices to influence teachers how to monitor include: a) analyze multiple types of data, b) measure student reading growth; c) measure student language proficiency, d) conduct walkthroughs to observe students. The key findings for providing direction to teachers established the following practices: 4) Effective school practices to provide direction to identify students and their needs include, a) develop and implement a school wide intervention plan, b) create a master schedule to implement differentiated ESL programs; c) model how to disaggregate data, d) develop and implement an individual plan for ELLs. 5) Effective school practices to provide direction to intervene include: a) assign ESL teacher to intervention groups, b) use data to drive intervention planning, c) measure growth in language and literacy, d) provide daily interventions, e) integrate language and literacy interventions in lessons. 6) Effective school practices to provide direction to teachers for monitoring include: a) measure growth of literacy and language development, b) triangulate multiple types of data, c) review intervention lessons during walkthroughs, e) provide daily interventions specific to student needs. / text