Indigenous Radio and the Cultural Politics of Voice

Daniel Fisher. The Voice and Its Doubles: Media and Music in Northern Australia, Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2016

Identification and Estimation of DC-Motor Dynamics for the Crazyflie Quadcopter

In this thesis methods for finding state space representation parameters for low inductance DC-motors are found and evaluated. Theory previously tested in simulations is verified experimentally and improved upon for both linear behaviour when the motor is controlled with a DC-source as well as nonlinear behaviour when controlled with pulse width modulation (PWM). For the linear behaviour a linear regression model with multiple regression sets proved satisfactory at identifying the motor dynamics. For the nonlinear behaviour caused by the PWM signal it was found that a Hammerstein model was sufficient to model the dynamics and several rotor speed estimators were tested and compared. Based on these results a design for a Crazyflie expansion board is suggested

Energy Management and Control of Electrical Drives in Hybrid Electrical Vehicles

Hybrid vehicles have attracted tremendous attention during the last years. Increasing environmental concern and a steady increase in fuel prices are key factors for the growing interest. Hybrid vehicles, which benefits from having at least two different energy converters and two different energy storage systems, have proven to have significant potential to improve fuel economy without reducing the performance of the vehicle. However, the extra degree of freedom inherited by the use of two energy sources on-board the vehicle, gives rise to a more complicated energy management control. The first part of the thesis treats the subject of energy management in hybrid electrical vehicles. The gain in fuel consumption and the minimization of emissions are highly dependent on the performance of the control strategy. A rather simple heuristic control strategy presented in the literature is optimized. Heuristic control strategies are often referred to as hard to tune, and none optimal. However, the result presented in the thesis shows that the strategy is easily tuned, robust and has no significant cycle-beating trait. Dynamic programming is used to obtain a global optimal solution to the control problem. The result of this global optimization is then used as a basis for evaluating the real-time heuristic control strategy and serves as a lower bound for the fuel consumption for a given cycle. A comparison of fuel consumption for the two control strategies shows that, though being quite simple, the heuristic control strategy gives a relatively near-optimal result. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the development of an electrically driven rear axle for a HEV in collaboration with SAAB Automobile. A rear drive unit, consisting of an electrical machine, planetary gear and a differential, was provided by SAAB. Focus is on control and thermal modeling of the electrical machine. A simple and effective field weakening controller, giving fast field weakening performance is proposed. The fast field weakening performance is important in a HEV since the battery voltage undergoes rapid variations, during accelerations. In addition to this, the FWC minimizes the torque-per-current ratio by, for a given torque, using the current combination yielding the minimal stator current. In addition to this, a thermal model based on several thermal measurements is proposed and validated against data. The thermal model forms the basis for the derivation of an over temperature controller, preventing the machine from over heating

The importance of nature in coping

The aim of the present dissertation is to create a greater understanding of the importance of pure experiences of nature for human health. The dissertation consists of five articles and a frame story. The first two articles report on an introspective study of my own experiences of the nature previously. The interplay between human beings and the natural environment is described in detail, based on the interaction between the author and strong elements in nature, e.g. stones and water. The findings from Article III and IV may be interpreted as follows: x Elderly people, in general, recover more quickly from directed attention fatigue after having rested in a garden than after having rested indoors, as could be measured by different tests of concentration. x Elderly people with low psycho-physiological balance were most affected by a stay in a garden, as could be measured by changes in heart rate and blood pressure. x The study shows, first, that an outdoor visit is important for recovery from stress and fatigue and, second, that the improvement is especially significant for those who are most susceptible. The findings from Article V may be interpreted as follows: x Experiencing nature seems to have a more powerful influence on the rehabilitation potential of people greatly affected by a crisis. x Taking a walk also has a significant influence, although not of equal importance. x The social factor seems to have more influence on the rehabilitation potential of people affected by a crisis to a low/moderate degree. x Having access to nature in everyday life can have a buffering effect on people’s mental state. Individuals who have many experiences of nature are less affected by their crisis than are those who have few such experiences. The above results are discussed and interpreted in the frame story by linking them to that stays in sound natural environments function as stays in enriched environments. Sound natural environments contain certain qualities that mediate an effectual explanatory models of the effects of nature experiences on emotions and recovery from a crisis

Pål Hollender’s Moment of Metamorphosis

The thesis Pål Hollender’s Moment of Metamorphosis – Transgression through Metamorphosis as an Artistic Strategy for Communication and Power Struggle studies the transformation of Pål Hollender from the artist as media celebrity in the TV show Survivor, to the artist as sex purchaser in the documentary Buy Bye Beauty. Through this specific case from Pål Hollender’s artistic production, the thesis attempts to shed light on the conditions for artistic communication and power struggle presented by his strategy of transgression through metamorphosis. The first part of the thesis is an ontological and epistemological analysis on the concepts of seduction and appearance that attempts to describe the conditions for meaning and communication by a speaking subject. In this chapter Hollender’s method is mainly analysed through the theories of appearance by Jean Baudrillard and Giorgio Agamben. Regarding appearance, Hollender’s strategy seeks to reveal appearance as appearance itself, and therefore presents a possibility of meaning and a speaking subject. The next chapter uses a phenomenological approach to discern how Hollender’s strategy relates to the concepts of the lived body and the dys-appearing body, as defined by Drew Leder. This is done in order to analyse how he uses the body as a tool for communication. In the light of those concepts, Hollender endeavours to make the viewers experience their bodies as a collective of lived bodies. Finally, a discursive approach is used to discern in what way Hollender’s artistic strategy presents a possibility for power struggle. In this chapter Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben form the basis for the discussion regarding e.g. the concepts of discipline, bare life, camp and sovereign. Hollender in this perspective uses a strategy of disruption of stability that puts the viewers in the position of the sovereign, in an attempt to wake them up to experience a world of domination

How to Deal with Quantum Leap Innovations and Free-Fall Situations

When a quantum leap innovation enters the market, other competing companies can get in negative chaos and free fall situations for their businesses. To change such a situation, the use of controlled self-organization principles, for example, as prescribed by the Planetary Organization principles, can be valuable. This chapter, which is based on dynamic/flexible/agile philosophies and participatory action research from three industrial cases, mainly deals with the question how to develop quantum leap innovations and how to survive free fall situations. For both situations, creativity, improvisation, and dynamic development are essential ingredients for success. The chapter also gives some useful tips on how to successfully handle change management situations

Causes and consequences of hyperglycemia and glycosuria.

Type 2 diabetes is one of the world’s major challenges today. Over 400 million people around the globe are diagnosed with diabetes and the consequences to the individual patient and health care systems are significant. Diabetes is a chronic disease and the standard treatment including lifestyle changes, metformin and insulin is in many cases not effective enough. New anti-diabetic drugs have been developed aiming to lower blood glucose by inhibition of the glucose re-uptake via the sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) from urine, leading to excessive glycosuria. The potential effects of this treatment on the prevention of glucose intolerance have not been addressed in previous studies. The SGTL2-inhibitors mimic a condition where mutations in the SLC5A2 gene, which encodes the SGLT2 transporter, give rise to glycosuria. In study 1 we investigated the effect of chronic glycosuria on glucose tolerance over time in a family with mutations in the SLC5A2 gene and found that despite their life-long “SGLT2-inhibition” there was no effect of chronic glycosuria on the development of glucose intolerance.There is a strong genetic component of diabetes that has been investigated using linkage studies and genome-wide association studies but only a small part of the estimated heritability has been explained by these findings. In families with high incidence of diabetes we can search for part of the missing heritability in the form of rare, family specific mutations. We show in study 2 that a previous linkage on chromosome 9 in families enriched with type 2 diabetes might in part be explained by rare variants in the multiple PDZ domain containing protein (MPDZ) gene. Knock down of the gene in an insulin secreting rat beta cell line resulted in impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion.A vital part of glucose homeostasis is the regulation of blood glucose by insulin. The ultimate characteristic of type 2 diabetes is the failure of the pancreas to produce insulin in response to increased glucose demands. Studies of gene expression in islets of Langerhans may provide an answer to why this occurs. Study 3 compared the global gene expression in islets from human type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic donors. Over 1500 genes were differentially expressed in diabetic islets, e.g. the RAS guanyl releasing protein 1 (RASGRP1) was negatively associated with diabetes and positively associated with insulin secretion. Of the genes associated with diabetes we found that the expression of 35 genes was influenced by genetic variants and silencing of the gene tetraspanin 33 (TSPAN33), 5’-nucleotidase, ecto (NT5E), transmembrane emp24 protein transport domain containing 6 (TMED6) and p21 protein activated kinase 7 (PAK7) in a rat beta cell line resulted in reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion.Glucose is a potent regulator of gene expression and the regulation of genes by elevated glucose might further impair insulin secretion. In study 4 we aimed to separate the causes from the consequences of hyperglycemia on islet gene expression by global transcriptome analysis of islets exposed to short-term glucose (18.9 mmol/l glucose for 24 hours). We then compared the changes in gene-expression seen in patients with chronic hyperglycemia (diabetes) with genes regulated by short-term glucose exposure with the assumption that genes whose expression change after short-time hyperglycemia may reflect consequences rather than causes of hyperglycemia. This resulted in about 400 genes likely to be pathogenically involved in the development of hyperglycemia. For example the ERO1-Like Beta (ERO1LB) gene was down-regulated in islets from diabetic donors and correlated positively with insulin secretion whereas the transmembrane protein 132C (TMEM132C) gene that was up-regulated in islets from diabetic donors and correlated negatively with insulin secretion

Worst Case Execution Time Analysis for Modern Hardware Architectures

Knowing the worst case execution times #WCETs# for programs are crucial for the design and veri#cation of real-time systems. Modern hardware architectures utilize pipelinedexecution and cache memory for improved performance. We extend an existing execution time analysis technique, the Implicit Path Enumeration Technique #IPET#, to consider these and other modern hardwarearchitecturefeatures. We extend IPET in two stages. First, we annotate the control #ow graph of the program with variables representing the history of execution, thus allowing the state of architectural entities, such as cache and pipeline, to be determined before each basic block. Secondly, we model the architectural entities with constraints. The result is an equation which contains a complete model of how the program will execute on the modeled architecture. This novel idea provides a straightforward and #exible way of incorporating the behavior of various modern hardwarearchitecturefeatures into WCET analysis

A Comparison of CP, IP and Hybrids for Configuration Problems

We investigate different solution techniques for solving a basic part of configuration problems, namely linear arithmetic constraints over integer variables. Approaches include integer programming, constraint programming over finite domains and hybrid techniques. We also discuss important extensions of the basic problem and how these can be accommodated in the different solution approaches