Cardiac Microvascular Disease Quantified with CMR

This thesis has investigated three different diagnoses where cardiac microvascular disease is suspected: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), systemic sclerosis (SSc), and patients with suspected microvascular angina (MVA).Study I of this thesis investigated patients with HCM. We investigated the myocardial perfusion (MP) using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in young patients with HCM or the risk of developing the disease. The investigation found that the patients had lower blood flow of the heart muscle than a reference group with healthy volunteers. This finding was interpreted as a sign of cardiac microvascular disease.Study II investigated patients with SSc, which is a complex rheumatic disease with multiorgan involvement. The investigation showed that the patients had lower blood flow through the heart muscle than a reference group with healthy volunteers. This finding was interpreted as a sign of cardiac microvascular disease.Study III Investigated patients with suspected MVA. The investigation showed that these patients had lower global MP than a reference group of healthy volunteers, but not as low as another reference group with patients with known coronary artery disease. The finding was interpreted as a sign of cardiac microvascular disease in this group of patients.Study IV aimed to collect reference values for coronary sinus (CS) flow derived global MP and to validate the method against a flow phantom. The study showed that global MP was lower in men than women, which needs to be recognized when interpreting a quantitative assessment of global MP. The study also showed that the CS flow method is accurate compared to a flow phanto

Improvements for value creation in public services

The demands on public services are constantly increasing and the public sector has, over the years, been subject to several management approaches trying to improve it. These new approaches have been criticized lately for an overly emphasis on market forces, specialization, and an intra-organizational focus, resulting in fragmented services and a poor system understanding for both citizens and employees of public organizations. Moreover, the problems faced by today’s society often require collaboration among multiple actors, not speaking in favor of these new approaches that tend to separate professions and functions into silos. To problematize further, the beneficiary of a public service is not always clear, and there are occasions when the wishes of a service user and the society might diverge. Here, value might be perceived to be destroyed for one actor, but created for another. This thesis seeks to increase the understanding of improvements for value creation in public services by investigating the case of the Swedish public service of sick leave. A public service consisting of multiple actors in need of collaboration to succeed in delivering the service. Two research questions (RQ) are used to guide the research. The first is: “How can service user improvements be described and facilitated in public services?” The second is “How is value created and destroyed with service users among actors in public services?” Three papers serve as the foundation for the thesis and answer the RQs. The first paper is a systematic literature review that aims to increase the understanding of customer-related improvements and thereby consolidates knowledge for further use in the thesis, mainly contributing to the first RQ. The second paper goes further into the multi-actor context of public services and investigates how improvements can be facilitated in terms of how to identify, understand, and align improvements, contributing to both the first and second RQs. The third paper regards the perspective of the frontline employees of the public service organizations involved in the sick leave system and how they can improve the aspect of value creation in the public service, mainly contributing to the second RQ. The findings show a complexity of improvements, where mandate to initiate/start an improvement, capabilities to perform the improvement, and the benefits from an improvement could be separated among different actors and dispersed over hierarchical levels and organizational and professional borders. The improvements are also found to be conditioned by a sequence of improvements to realize benefits, contributing to the need for a system understanding to enable improvements in the system. In this context of public services, it is also found that the root cause of the problems the service aims to solve can reside outside of the scope of the public service, leading to only symptomatic treatment of the problem, making it difficult to improving the service per se. It is also found that value can be created at different loci of the system, even with actors that are not typically a part of the public service. To counter these problems, ‘gaps’ in rules and regulations should be addressed. However, this approaches the aspect of standardization, which could also improve the situation, but might also create problematic situations due to the professional context requiring autonomy and risks, decreasing motivation and creativity of the employees. The thesis hereby contributes to the area of public management by infusing it with aspects from change management and quality management to increase the understanding of improvements for value creation in public services

Automated Pollen-Grain Counting

Denne oppgaven utforsker hvodan CNN baserte objektdeteksjonsmodeler kan bruker til å lokalisere of klassifisere pollenkorn ved hjelp av mikroskopisk bilde data. Telling av pollen er en sentral metode innen mange forskellige felt, f.eks. krimimalogi, arkeologi, og geologi. Dette er en møysommelig og veldig tidkrevende oppgave som per nå krever ekspertkunnskap. Fra litteraturen finnes det åpne spørsmål med hensyn til kompleksiteten som trengs for å løse dette problemet i forhold til mer vanlige objektdeteksjonsoppgaver. Effekten skarpheten til treningsekemplene her på modellen er også uklar. Eksperimenter med en "Single Shot Multibox" deteksjonsmodell viser at problemet er løselig med en fullt konvolusjonell modell. Den regulære formen til pollenkorn tillater visse forenklinger av modellen, men likhetene på tvers av klassene fører til tap av nøyaktighet i mindre modellkonfigurasjoner. Ekskludering av uskarpe data fra modellopplæringen får modellen til å fiksere på skarphet, noe som reduserer modellens evne til å identifisere korn som er mindre skarpe en trenings eksemplene. Trening med uskarpe eksempeler ser ut til å tillate en mer robust generalisering over de ukile attributtene i multifokale data.This thesis explores how a CNN based object detection model may be used to localize and classify pollen grains using microscopic imaging data. Pollen counting is a central method in many diverse fields, e.g., criminology, archaeology, and geology. This is a laborious and very time-consuming task that currently requires expert knowledge. From the literature, open questions remain with regards to the complexity needed to solve this problem versus more common object detection tasks. The effects of sharpness within training examples are also unclear. Experiments using a Single Shot Multibox Detection model reveal that the problem is solvable with a fully convolutional model. The regular shape of pollen grains allows for certain simplifications to the model, but the similarities across classes cause a loss in accuracy in smaller model configurations. Excluding un-sharp data from the model's training data causes the model to fixate on sharpness, reducing the model's ability to identify grains that appear less sharp. Training with un-sharp examples seems to allow for a more robust generalization over the features encoded in multifocal data

Evaluation of Process Cooling in Subsea Separation, Boosting and Injection Systems (SSBI)

The next generation of subsea process systems will combine the subsea gas compression technology currently under qualification with the previously developed subsea processing technologies, including separation, multiphase pumping and produced water re-injection. These systems will benefit from process cooling. This paper is an evaluation of the use of process cooling in subsea separation, boosting and injection (SSBI) systems including compression. Fouling is the biggest uncertainty, and potentially the biggest problem, in the design and operation of process cooling for SSBI systems when reliability, size, weight and controllability are considered as the most important design parameters. The room for optimization towards fouling reduction in the process cooling was identified to be in the process system design, in the cooling arrangement, in the heat exchanger selection and in the heat exchanger design. In each of these steps the optimization potential was identified and discussed. A case study was performed in which a direct cooling system using a printed circuit heat exchanger was found to be the most compact solution. The rate of fouling will set the reliability and maintainability of a heat exchanger installed under water. The fouling rate, and subsequently the cleaning strategy will change the design of the heat exchanger. The available information on fouling rate in SSBI systems is not complete. To develop a complete picture of fouling in subsea heat exchangers it is suggested that similar heat exchanger technology already field proven is studied for the collection of detailed operation experience and data. This infromation is useful for the design of subsea process coolers to develop the most compact, reliable and controllable solution

A critical review of currently available pore pressure methods and their input parameters: glaciations and compaction of north sea sediments.

Historically pore pressure evaluation in exploration areas was based on empirical relationships between drilling parameters, wireline logs and the mud weight. Examples include Eaton's Ratio and the Hottman & Johnson Methods, which were based on data from the Gulf of Mexico. These methods are not readily transported to other areas, such as the North Sea Basin, where the sediments are different in character and where burial and temperature histories are distinctly different. Data from several offshore North Sea wells, with high quality wireline and associated data have been analysed to determine the most appropriate method to estimate pore pressure in mudrocks. The data have led to an understanding of the key parameters for successful pore pressure estimation. The most effective method is shown to be the Equivalent Depth Method, but only where disequilibrium compaction is the source of the overpressure in the mudrocks. Core samples from 576 British Geological Survey sites in the offshore area of the British Islands were compared with > 10,000 porosities collected from the deep oceans (DSDP/ODP sites), which show that the porosities in the shallow section in the North Sea are anomalously low. The shallow section of the North Sea includes large volumes of Pleistocene-Recent sediments deposited as glacial and inter-glacial deposits. Frequency analysis (Cyclolog) of the wireline data covering this interval in several North Sea wells revealed a pattern in the relative featureless original data. Comparison with the global signature for oxygen isotopes for the same time period suggests that there have been ten cycles of ice sheet build up (Glacial period) followed by melting (Interglacial period) during the last one million years. Glacial deposits from 10 individual glacial cycles have therefore been identified in several exploration wells in the North Sea. Implications of loading/unloading of ice for the migration and trapping of hydrocarbons in the North Sea Basin are assessed

Communications Effect on Trust in The Hybrid Workplace. An explorative case study of an outsourcing company providing financial services

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way people work, with many organizations shifting to remote work as the result. As we move towards a post-pandemic world, the hybrid working method that combines remote and in-office work is becoming increasingly popular and not likely to go away. Trust is considered a critical factor in the future of remote work, due to the lack of visibility of each other in the office, therefore, organizations need to prioritize trust for the smooth and successful functioning of the workplace. Trust has been researched in remote work, and there has been limited studies in the context of the hybrid working method. This thesis explores the role of communication in how trust is built between managers and employees in the hybrid workplace through a case study of an outsourcing company providing financial services. The data was collected through eleven semi-structured interviews with managers, employees and HR from the company and analysed with thematic analysis. This thesis has contributed with how trust is built between managers and employees in the hybrid workplace. Findings show that communication have some effect on trust building but does not need to be the only factor. Framework that combines media synchronicity theory and social exchange theory was applied and points to that media with high synchronicity, high symbols sets, and high transmission velocity is the way to build trust. Moreover, the managers desired informing communication from the employees and employees desired availability and help from their managers to build trust

How to facilitate improvements in public service systems: propositions for action

Purpose The purpose of this article is to increase the understanding of how improvements can be facilitated in a public service containing multiple actors in terms of identifying, aligning and prerequisites for the improvements. Design/methodology/approach The research utilizes an interactive research approach where data were gathered though a conference, workshop and a survey. The study alternately combines quality management methods such as affinity and interrelationship diagrams with computer aided text mining and latent semantic analysis. Findings The research shows that practitioners must consider interconnectedness between improvements and benefits that are crossing organizational levels of the public service system as well as professional borders. In public service systems, the complex reality can be better understood when improvements and benefits are classified into different organizational layers and an interconnectedness and sequence of improvement areas are acknowledged. Research limitations/implications The research is set in the Swedish public service of the tax-paid sick leave insurance. Future research would benefit by investigating similar cases in other nations and other services. Practical implications The used methodology can be applied by practitioners to enhance a unified understanding of the system required to improve. The study also guides practitioners for how to support, relive hinders and prioritize improvements. Originality/value The research fills a gap of understanding of improvements in public services with multiple actors. As this area is difficult to improve, a novel combination of qualitative and quantitative methods paved the way for deeper and more unified understanding of the system

Simulating Shazam: Acoustic Fingerprinting for Music Identification A Comprehensive Study on Developing a Song Recognition System

Abstract This report explains the implementation, design and testing of the core functionalities of Shazam. Shazam identifies songs by capturing short audio segments and matches them against a sizeable database. The program is coded in Python and with MySQL for the database. To perform tests, both audio files and a microphone are used to catch the samples of the songs. The results of the project are deemed successful as it can detect songs from a 10 second sample of a song. In conclusion, the project demonstrates a strong foundation to continue developing the project to simulate Shazam

Theory and practice of customer-related improvements: a systematic literature review

Customers are vital to any organization and system, and must therefore be considered when seeking to improve. However, how to improve with regard to the customer, is not clear, and the knowledge is spread over several research fields, making it difficult for researchers and practitioners to comprehend. The purpose of this literature review is to show how customer-related improvements are described in the literature and how the research is performed. 666 articles were screened, resulting in 99 coded and analysed articles. The study concludes that there is a lack of understanding when it comes to the process of how to improve and that both practitioners and academics should focus more on the system level. It is also seen that by involving the customer in the improvement process, the improvement is more likely to succeed. The article concludes that there is a need for future research which are conceptual, longitudinal, and are addressing actual improvements, not just potential. From the practitioners\u27 point of view, the article is proposing an increased focus on customer-related improvements which address aspects concerning people, such as employee competence and work environment, and reward systems, rather than strategy and processes to improve the potential benefits