Blekinge Institute of Technology
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Using speculation to enhance JavaScript performance in web applications
No full textJavaScript lets developers provide client-side interactivity in Web
applications, but because it is sequential, it can't take advantage of
multicore processors. Thread-level speculation (TLS) addresses this issue by
enabling the speculation of JavaScript function calls and thus exploits the
parallel performance potential multicore processors provide. The authors
implemented TLS in the Squirrelfish JavaScript engine, which is part of the
WebKit browser environment. They evaluate their approach using 15 popular Web
applications on an eight-core computer, and show significant speed-ups without
any modifications to the JavaScript source code
Designing ICT-Supported Health Promoting Communication in Primary Health Care
No full textIncreasing lifestyle-related ill health, escalating health care costs,
expanding health inequalities within and between nations, and an aging
population are challenges facing governments globally. Governments, especially
in industrialized countries like Sweden, are investing in health promotion and
health communication, especially in ICT-supported health communication as a way
to increase health literacy and empowerment at individual and population
levels. Studies show that many eHealth communication efforts are narrow in
scope, medical oriented and therefore not enough to address the complexity of
lifestyle-related ill health and equity issues.
This thesis proposes integrating health promotion values and principles in the
design process of eHealth systems for health promotion in order to develop
usable, sustainable, engaging, eHealth resources that are adaptable to their
context of use and user’s skills. The overall aim of this thesis was study the
participatory development process of an interactive ICT-supported health
communication channel for health promotion and enhancing health literacy in PHC
context.
Participatory Action Research (PAR) with a multi-phase and multi-method
approach was used in this thesis. A model entitled Spiral Technology Action
Research’ (STAR) was used to guide the development of the health channel. This
design process was framed in three developmental and evaluation phases
corresponding to formative, process and outcome evaluation. A total of 146
participants consisting of professionals from primary health care services,
information technology and academia, and local citizens participated in the
project’s different phases. A triangulation of methods was used to collect the
data; survey, document analysis, participatory observations with field notes,
individual interviews, focus groups, think aloud protocols and log statistics.
Qualitative and quantitative content analyses were used to analyse data.
The results revealed that integrating health promotion values and principles in
the design process proved to be valuable not only to the content of the
channel, but also in PHC practice. The different design phases yielded valuable
results that built into each other and contributed to an eHealth channel that
was perceived as relevant to the local people’s need for health communication;
accessible and user friendly. The results also indicated that an Internet based
interactive health channel, could be a valuable resource for enhancing health
literacy if users are involved in the design
On the Synergies Between an Electronic Waybill and Intelligent Transport Systems Services
No full textThe main purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential synergies between
an electronic waybill (e-Waybill) and other Intelligent Transport System (ITS)
services. An e-Waybill service, as presented in this thesis, should be able to
perform the functions of a paper waybill (which is an important transport
document and contains essential information about a consignment) and it should
contain at least the information specified in a paper waybill. To investigate
synergies between the e-Waybill solutions and ITS services, we present 5
conceptual e-Waybill solutions that differ in where the e-Waybill information
is stored, read, and written. These solutions are further investigated for
functional and technical requirements (non-functional requirements), which can
potentially impose constraints on a potential system that should implement the
e-Waybill service. A set of 20 ITS services are considered for synergy analysis
in this thesis. These services are mainly for road transport, however most of
them are relevant to be considered for utilization in other modes of transport
as well.
For information synergy analysis, the e-Waybill solutions are assessed based on
their synergies with ITS services. For different ITS services, the required
input information entities are identified; and if at least one information
entity can be provided by an e-Waybill at the right location we regard it to be
a synergy. The result from our synergy analysis may support the choice of
practical e-Waybill systems, which has the possibility to provide high synergy
with ITS services. This may lead to a higher utilization of ITS services and
more sustainable transport, e.g., in terms of reduced congestion and emissions.
Additionally, a service design method has been proposed for supporting the
process of designing new ITS services, which primarily utilizes on functional
synergies with already existing ITS services. In order to illustrate the usage
of the suggested method, we have applied it for designing a new ITS service,
i.e., the Liability Intelligent Transport System (LITS) service. The purpose of
the LITS service is to support the process of identifying when, where, and by
whom a consignment has been damaged and who was responsible when the
consignment was damaged
An intraoperative caring model – the ‘awake’ patient’s need for a genuine caring encounter
No full textAnaesthesia nursing care during regional anaesthesia is characterized by the
encounter between the ‘awake’ patient’s own lifeworld and the nurse
anaesthetist’s knowledge in theory and in practice. This study aims to present
an intraoperative caring model from the patient’s perspective that will
facilitate nurse anaesthetists’ (NA) practice to enhance and support the
‘awake’ patient’s intraoperative well-being during surgery under regional
anaesthesia. The model is underpinned by a synthesis based on interviews with
patients, a philosophical reflection using Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, and
video recordings from orthopaedic surgeries under regional anaesthesia. The
model can be used as a tool to encounter awake patients’ existential needs in
the intraoperative situation and to further enlighten NAs about the possible
impact of their proximity, interaction and communication behaviour in the
delivery of intraoperative nursing care. The model can help NAs to access,
understand and learn through lived experiences, thereby deepening their
professional caring skills. The model is a way to get research knowledge ready
for use by NAs to reflect on what gaps need to be filled between what nurses
know (research) and do (practice)
On Shared Understanding in Software Engineering
No full textShared understanding is essential for efficient communication in software
development and evolution projects when the risk of unsatisfactory outcome and
rework of project results shall be low. Today, however, shared understanding is
used mostly in an unreflected, intuitive way. This is particularly true for
implicit shared understanding.
In this paper, we investigate the role, value and usage of shared understanding
in Software Engineering. We contribute a reflected analysis of the problem, in
particular of how to rely on implicit shared understanding. We discuss enablers
and obstacles, compile existing practices for dealing with shared
understanding, and present a roadmap for improving knowledge and practice in
this area
Traceability in Healthcare Innovation Maintaining the Relations Between Needs and Solutions
No full textHealthcare is an important arena for improvement and innovation by the use of
e-health solutions. But many obstacles exist, such as insufficiency in
interoperability and usability. One reason for this problematic situation is
that the development process has been inadequate. Swedish healthcare serves
under regulations for public procurement. Hence, almost every e-health solution
has to be procured to prevent an orientation towards illegal direct award of
contracts. Specifying requirements that explain what the customer and users
needs and why, is one of the most critical parts of that process. The customer
gets what asked for, but often the requirements are on a high level of
interpretation and not explicit or traceable enough. This prevents
interoperability and usability from being a vital part of the prioritizing
activity.
Today knowledge about requirement processes and traceability is fragmented, and
often more based on ideal models than on practical, real life experiences. The
aim of this work is therefore to understand how traceability is managed and how
it can be improved. I investigate who is most suitable to perform the
“traceability activity” and, maybe even more important, the skill needed to
fulfil that task. With a practice-based and ethnographical approach several
studies have been conducted in different healthcare settings in Sweden, all
closely connected to the design- and development process in e-health projects.
The research shows that traceability maintains the relation between needs and
solutions by providing a reality check for every step in the procurement and
development. To accomplish that, requirements must be made explicit and
interpretable for different stakeholders. The actors best suited for this
“traceability activity” must have a holistic approach and know how to identify
needs and relate them to the context. This demands a domain-specific knowledge
about the healthcare setting and understanding how the organisation works
practically and politically. It is crucial to also be skilled at usability,
design, development and procurement. In addition, implementing IT in healthcare
cannot be separated from business development.
I argue that it is time to update the way healthcare development is managed and
by whom. First, healthcare management must pay more attention on usability and
the crucial role that healthcare professionals have as change leaders and
needfinders to strengthening existing initiatives. Second, the design community
must match existing initiatives and roles in healthcare with the designers’
special knowledge to support innovation and design processes
Coexistence, Deployment and Business Models of Heterogeneous Wireless Systems Incorporating High Altitude Platforms
No full textThe increased demand for broadband communications has led to the rapid
development of the conventional terrestrial and satellite wireless
communications systems. One of the main challenges to next generation wireless
systems is to deliver high-capacity and cost-efficient solutions to cope with
an increasing usage of broadband services and applications. In the recent
years, an emerging competitive system has attracted the attention for providing
wireless broadband communications and other services based on quasi-stationary
aerial platforms operating in the stratosphere known by high altitude platforms
(HAPs), and located 17-22 km above the earth surface. This solution has been
described by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as "a new and long
anticipated technology that can revolutionize the telecommunication industry''.
The HAP systems provide important advantages such as low cost, high elevation
angles, low propagation delay, easy and incremental deployment, flexibility in
operation, broad coverage, broadcast and broadband capability, ability to move
around in emergency situations, etc. Therefore, they have been proposed by ITU
for the provision of fixed, mobile services and applications, e.g. the third
generation (3G) services licensed by ITU and backbone link for terrestrial
networks in remote areas.
This thesis explores and investigates the wireless communication and
techno-economic performance of terrestrial systems and HAPs. An overview of
research and development on aerial platforms worldwide is given. Coexistence
performance and techniques of heterogeneous systems to provide broadband
wireless communications based on Worldwide Interoperability Microwave Access
(WiMAX) are investigated. A heterogeneous scenario is developed to examine the
coexistence performance of heterogeneous systems. The capacity and deployment
aspects of HAPs are analyzed, and further compared with terrestrial Universal
Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) through techno-economic studies
including a proposed partnership based business model for HAPs. Performance of
wireless sensor network applications via HAPs is also investigated, and shows
the high potential of HAPs for large-area and long-endurance surveillance and
emergency applications.
The thesis shows that communications from the aerial platforms provide the best
features of both terrestrial and satellite systems. HAPs can effectively
coexist in a heterogeneous radio environment, and are competitive solutions in
urban and suburban scenarios in terms of capacity, coverage and business
perspective. This makes HAP a viable competitor and complement to conventional
terrestrial infrastructures and satellite systems
Alternativ i miljökonsekvensbedömning och miljöbedömning
No full textEnligt miljöbalkens bestämmelser om miljöbedömning och miljökonsekvensbedömning
ska man vid planeringen ta fram olika alternativ som är förenliga med syftet
med planen, programmet eller projektet. Genom att utarbeta och analysera olika
alternativ ska beslutsfattarna kunna finna det alternativ som sammantaget är
det bästa ur olika aspekter inklusive miljö.
I denna rapport beskrivs resultaten av en pilotstudie om hantering av
alternativ i miljöbedömning av planer och program och miljökonsekvensbedömning
av projekt. Utgångspunkten är erfarenheter att detta på flera sätt inte tycks
fungera så som det är tänkt utifrån EU-direktiv och svensk lagstiftning.
Pilotstudien har genomförts i fem olika moment:
• Internationell litteraturstudie
• Granskning av miljökonsekvensbeskrivningar mot en fast granskningsmall
• Intervjuer, utifrån en frågelista för semistrukturerade intervjuer, av
svenska utförare som arbetar med MKB och MB
• Diskussioner med svenska praktiker och med forskare i andra länder.
• En workshop anordnad av Naturvårdsverket i samarbete med projektet.
Ansvariga för studien är professor Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, SLU (projektledare)
och professor Lars Emmelin, BTH
Forskningsprogrammet MiSt
Programmet "Miljöstrategiska verktyg", MiSt, är ett tvärvetenskapligt
forskningsprogram finansierat av Naturvårdsverket. Programmet leds från
Blekinge Tekniska Högskola.
I programmet studeras verktyg som kan underlätta miljöbedömning i strategiskt
beslutsfattande på olika nivåer, från nationell till lokal. Förståelsen och
basen för utveckling av verktyg och rekommendationer om verktyg i olika
planerings- och beslutsprocesser baseras på empirisk forskning på fall inom
flera sektorer.
Målen för MiSt-programmet:
• Kritisk undersökning av verktygens funktion
• Teoribaserad förståelse av deras verkan
• Utveckling av råd om effektiv användning av verktyg och kombinationer av
verktyg
Programchef: professor Lars Emmelin, Fysisk planering, BTH.
Biträdande programchef: professor Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, MKB-Centrum SLU
Moving Target Focusing with Normalized Relative Speed in Azimuth-Invarian Bistatic Sar
No full textFocusing moving targets with Normalized Relative Speed
(NRS) for bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is discussed in this paper.
The discussion concentrates on azimuth invariant bistatic geometry. The
focusing approach for azimuth-invariant bistatic geometry is derived
analytically. The validity of the proposed approach for other bistatic geometry
like azimuth-variant is also investigated
