Adult education policy in the European Union during the Lisbon decade : the shift to vocational adult learning and work skills matching

This doctoral dissertation investigates the adult education policy of the European Union (EU) in the framework of the Lisbon agenda 2000–2010, with a particular focus on the changes of policy orientation that occurred during this reference decade. The year 2006 can be considered, in fact, a turning point for the EU policy-making in the adult learning sector: a radical shift from a wide--ranging and comprehensive conception of educating adults towards a vocationally oriented understanding of this field and policy area has been observed, in particular in the second half of the so--called ‘Lisbon decade’. In this light, one of the principal objectives of the mainstream policy set by the Lisbon Strategy, that of fostering all forms of participation of adults in lifelong learning paths, appears to have muted its political background and vision in a very short period of time, reflecting an underlying polarisation and progressive transformation of European policy orientations. Hence, by means of content analysis and process tracing, it is shown that the new target of the EU adult education policy, in this framework, has shifted from citizens to workers, and the competence development model, borrowed from the corporate sector, has been established as the reference for the new policy road maps. This study draws on the theory of governance architectures and applies a post-ontological perspective to discuss whether the above trends are intrinsically due to the nature of the Lisbon Strategy, which encompasses education policies, and to what extent supranational actors and phenomena such as globalisation influence the European governance and decision--making. Moreover, it is shown that the way in which the EU is shaping the upgrading of skills and competences of adult learners is modeled around the needs of the ‘knowledge economy’, thus according a great deal of importance to the ‘new skills for new jobs’ and perhaps not enough to life skills in its broader sense which include, for example, social and civic competences: these are actually often promoted but rarely implemented in depth in the EU policy documents. In this framework, it is conveyed how different EU policy areas are intertwined and interrelated with global phenomena, and it is emphasised how far the building of the EU education systems should play a crucial role in the formation of critical thinking, civic competences and skills for a sustainable democratic citizenship, from which a truly cohesive and inclusive society fundamentally depend, and a model of environmental and cosmopolitan adult education is proposed in order to address the challenges of the new millennium. In conclusion, an appraisal of the EU’s public policy, along with some personal thoughts on how progress might be pursued and actualised, is outlined.

Local Features in Image and Video Processing - Object Class Matching and Video Shot Detection

The usage of digital content, such as video clips and images, has increased dramatically during the last decade. Local image features have been applied increasingly in various image and video retrieval applications. This thesis evaluates local features and applies them to image and video processing tasks. The results of the study show that 1) the performance of different local feature detector and descriptor methods vary significantly in object class matching, 2) local features can be applied in image alignment with superior results against the state-of-the-art, 3) the local feature based shot boundary detection method produces promising results, and 4) the local feature based hierarchical video summarization method shows promising new new research direction. In conclusion, this thesis presents the local features as a powerful tool in many applications and the imminent future work should concentrate on improving the quality of the local features.

Overvoltage Mitigation Techniques in Wind Power Generators

Advancements in power electronic semiconductor switching devices have lead to significantly faster switching times. In motor and generator applications, the fast switching times of pulse width modulated (PWM) inverters lead to overvoltages caused by voltage reflections with shorter and shorter cables. These excessive overvoltages may lead to a failure of the electrical machine in a matter of months. In this thesis, the causes behind the overvoltage phenomenon as well as its different mitigation techniques are studied. The most suitable techniques for mitigating the overvoltage phenomenon in wind power generator applications are chosen based on both simulations and actual measurements performed on a prototype. An RC filter at the terminals of the electrical machine and an inverter output filter designed to reduce the rise and fall times of voltage pulses are presented as a solution to the overvoltage problem. The performance and losses of both filter types are analysed.

Master data quality management in a global enterprise

In a networked business environment the visibility requirements towards the supply operations and customer interface has become tighter. In order to meet those requirements the master data of case company is seen as an enabler. However the current state of master data and its quality are not seen good enough to meet those requirements. In this thesis the target of research was to develop a process for managing master data quality as a continuous process and find solutions to cleanse the current customer and supplier data to meet the quality requirements defined in that process. Based on the theory of Master Data Management and data cleansing, small amount of master data was analyzed and cleansed using one commercial data cleansing solution available on the market. This was conducted in cooperation with the vendor as a proof of concept. In the proof of concept the cleansing solution’s applicability to improve the quality of current master data was proved. Based on those findings and the theory of data management the recommendations and proposals for improving the quality of data were given. In the results was also discovered that the biggest reasons for poor data quality is the lack of data governance in the company, and the current master data solutions and its restrictions.

Development of Color Difference Equations Matching to Human Vision System

Research on color difference evaluation has been active in recent thirty years. Several color difference formulas were developed for industrial applications. The aims of this thesis are to develop the color density which is denoted by comb g and to propose the color density based chromaticity difference formulas. Color density is derived from the discrimination ellipse parameters and color positions in the xy , xyY and CIELAB color spaces, and the color based chromaticity difference formulas are compared with the line element formulas and CIE 2000 color difference formulas. As a result of the thesis, color density represents the perceived color difference accurately, and it could be used to characterize a color by the attribute of perceived color difference from this color.

Utilization of a Time Domain Simulator in the Technical and Economic Analysis of a Wind Turbine Electric Drive Train

The amount of installed wind power has been growing exponentially during the past ten years. As wind turbines have become a significant source of electrical energy, the interactions between the turbines and the electric power network need to be studied more thoroughly than before. Especially, the behavior of the turbines in fault situations is of prime importance; simply disconnecting all wind turbines from the network during a voltage drop is no longer acceptable, since this would contribute to a total network collapse. These requirements have been a contributor to the increased role of simulations in the study and design of the electric drive train of a wind turbine. When planning a wind power investment, the selection of the site and the turbine are crucial for the economic feasibility of the installation. Economic feasibility, on the other hand, is the factor that determines whether or not investment in wind power will continue, contributing to green electricity production and reduction of emissions. In the selection of the installation site and the turbine (siting and site matching), the properties of the electric drive train of the planned turbine have so far been generally not been taken into account. Additionally, although the loss minimization of some of the individual components of the drive train has been studied, the drive train as a whole has received less attention. Furthermore, as a wind turbine will typically operate at a power level lower than the nominal most of the time, efficiency analysis in the nominal operating point is not sufficient. This doctoral dissertation attempts to combine the two aforementioned areas of interest by studying the applicability of time domain simulations in the analysis of the economicfeasibility of a wind turbine. The utilization of a general-purpose time domain simulator, otherwise applied to the study of network interactions and control systems, in the economic analysis of the wind energy conversion system is studied. The main benefits of the simulation-based method over traditional methods based on analytic calculation of losses include the ability to reuse and recombine existing models, the ability to analyze interactions between the components and subsystems in the electric drive train (something which is impossible when considering different subsystems as independent blocks, as is commonly done in theanalytical calculation of efficiencies), the ability to analyze in a rather straightforward manner the effect of selections other than physical components, for example control algorithms, and the ability to verify assumptions of the effects of a particular design change on the efficiency of the whole system. Based on the work, it can be concluded that differences between two configurations can be seen in the economic performance with only minor modifications to the simulation models used in the network interaction and control method study. This eliminates the need ofdeveloping analytic expressions for losses and enables the study of the system as a whole instead of modeling it as series connection of independent blocks with no lossinterdependencies. Three example cases (site matching, component selection, control principle selection) are provided to illustrate the usage of the approach and analyze its performance.

Cultural aspects of globalizing university-industry knowledge interaction in China

Previous studies of the local involvement of multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries focus on host-country firms and local business partners such as suppliers and customers. The role of host-country universities in the same context of innovation networks is neglected. Furthermore, there are many organizational culture- and knowledge-related differences between universities and companies, and this is likely to pose additional challenges for successful collaboration. Early university-industry (U-I) studies have primarily been limited within a national boundary, being concerned with a single level of culture (i.e., at an organizational level) and one-way knowledge transfer from university to industry. Research on more dynamic knowledge interaction in multinational settings is lacking. This is particularly true in the business context of China. In today’s globalizing and rapidly changing organizations, addressing cultural differences and clashes is an everyday reality, and inter-cultural U-I collaboration is becoming a key asset for gaining global competitiveness. This study deals with Finnish MNC subsidiaries’ research collaboration with Chinese universities. It aims to explore the essence of such U-I collaboration and knowledge interaction, uncovering the deep functioning mechanisms of culture underlying effective collaborative knowledge creation and innovation. The study reviews critically different bodies of literature including knowledge management theories and studies, U-I collaboration and knowledge interaction, and cross-cultural research in terms of organizational knowledge generation and utilization. It adopts a case study strategy with qualitative research methods, and data is collected through in-depth interviews and participant observation. The study presents the following major findings: 1. In the light of a comprehensive analysis of U-I collaboration, an effective matching strategy is proposed, in the assumption that good alignment of knowledge interaction strategies and approaches with their corresponding knowledge type, capability development and research task may greatly enhance the effectiveness of cross-cultural U-I collaboration and knowledge interaction. 2. It is proposed that in the Chinese MNC context more dynamic types of knowledge interaction like knowledge co-creation should be of key concern particularly when dealing simultaneously with multi-disciplinary applied research of human factors and technologies. U-I knowledge interaction, otherwise, pays attention only to the study of one-way technology and knowledge transfer. 3. It is posited that the influence of culture on collaborative knowledge interaction can be studied in a valuable way when knowledge-related variables are simultaneously taken into account. A systematic analysis of the role of knowledge in cross-cultural knowledge interaction could best be approached from multi-aspects of knowledge including not only nature, characteristics and types of knowledge but also the process of knowledge (e.g., intensifications of knowledge interaction). 4. The study demonstrates the significant role of aspects of the host-country culture (e.g., Chinese guanxi) in U-I collaboration and knowledge interaction. This is evident, for instance, in issues related to interpersonal relationships and trust, true interest and the relatedness of the research, mutual commitment and learning, communication intensity and interaction, and awareness of cultural and knowledge-related differences between collaboration partners. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are suggested and discussed.

Evaluating multidimensional visualization techniques in data mining tasks

Visual data mining (VDM) tools employ information visualization techniques in order to represent large amounts of high-dimensional data graphically and to involve the user in exploring data at different levels of detail. The users are looking for outliers, patterns and models – in the form of clusters, classes, trends, and relationships – in different categories of data, i.e., financial, business information, etc. The focus of this thesis is the evaluation of multidimensional visualization techniques, especially from the business user’s perspective. We address three research problems. The first problem is the evaluation of projection-based visualizations with respect to their effectiveness in preserving the original distances between data points and the clustering structure of the data. In this respect, we propose the use of existing clustering validity measures. We illustrate their usefulness in evaluating five visualization techniques: Principal Components Analysis (PCA), Sammon’s Mapping, Self-Organizing Map (SOM), Radial Coordinate Visualization and Star Coordinates. The second problem is concerned with evaluating different visualization techniques as to their effectiveness in visual data mining of business data. For this purpose, we propose an inquiry evaluation technique and conduct the evaluation of nine visualization techniques. The visualizations under evaluation are Multiple Line Graphs, Permutation Matrix, Survey Plot, Scatter Plot Matrix, Parallel Coordinates, Treemap, PCA, Sammon’s Mapping and the SOM. The third problem is the evaluation of quality of use of VDM tools. We provide a conceptual framework for evaluating the quality of use of VDM tools and apply it to the evaluation of the SOM. In the evaluation, we use an inquiry technique for which we developed a questionnaire based on the proposed framework. The contributions of the thesis consist of three new evaluation techniques and the results obtained by applying these evaluation techniques. The thesis provides a systematic approach to evaluation of various visualization techniques. In this respect, first, we performed and described the evaluations in a systematic way, highlighting the evaluation activities, and their inputs and outputs. Secondly, we integrated the evaluation studies in the broad framework of usability evaluation. The results of the evaluations are intended to help developers and researchers of visualization systems to select appropriate visualization techniques in specific situations. The results of the evaluations also contribute to the understanding of the strengths and limitations of the visualization techniques evaluated and further to the improvement of these techniques.

Effective Message Design and Media Mix of Senior Mobile Phone in China

The present research focuses on the study of how to design message and select media in advertising to generate customer’s purchase intention towards senior mobile phone in China. The message design concentrates mainly on message framing and fear appeals study while the media selection method is only based on direct matching. For exploring the main research question, the study utilized qualitative methodology. The data collection consisted of a pre-interview questionnaire, interviews, and three sets of experiments. The experiments were designed to test the selected 18 participants’ responses toward different emotional appeals and message framings. The findings illustrate participants’ understanding of senior mobile phone and their media usage habits. Moreover, positive message framing and emotional appeals in advertising are more effective. Gender differences in responding to emotional appeals were explored as well.

Stop bugging me! : diversity in appearance of warning coloration

In nature, many animals use body coloration to communicate with each other. For example, colorations can be used as signals between individuals of the same species, but also to recognise individuals of other species, and if they may comprise a threat or not. Many animals use protective coloration to avoid predation. The two most common strategies of protective coloration are camouflage and aposematism. Camouflaged animals have coloration that minimises detection, usually by matching colours or structures in the background. Aposematic animals, on the other hand, signal to predators that they are defended. The defence can be physical structures, such as spikes and hairs, or chemical compounds that make the animal distasteful or even deadly toxic. In order for the warning signal to be effective, the predator has to recognise it as such. Studies have shown that birds for example, that are important visual predators on insects, learn to recognise and avoid unpalatable prey faster if they contrast the background or have large internal contrasts. Typical examples of aposematic species have conspicuous colours like yellow, orange or red, often in combination with black. My thesis focuses on the appearance and function of aposematic colour patterns. Even though researchers have studied aposematism for over a century, there is still a lot we do not know about the phenomenon. For example, as it is crucial that the predators recognise a warning signal, aposematic colorations should assumingly evolve homogeneously and be selected for maximal conspicuousness. Instead, there is an extensive variation of colours and patterns among warning colorations, and it is not uncommon to find typical cryptic colours, such as green and brown in aposematic colour patterns. One hypothesis to this variation is that an aposematic coloration does not have to be maximally signalling in order to be effective, instead it is sufficient to have distinct features that can be easily distinguished from edible prey. To be maximally conspicuous is one way to achieve this, but not the only way. Another hypothesis is that aposematic prey that do not exhibit maximal conspicuousness can exploit both camouflage and aposematism in a distance-dependent fashion, by being signalling when seen close up but camouflaged at a distance. Many prey animals also make use of both strategies by shifting colour at different ecological conditions such as seasonal variations, fluctuations in food resources or between life stages. Yet another explanation for the variation may be that prey animals are usually exposed to several predator species that vary in visual perception and tolerance towards various toxins. The aim with this thesis is, by studying their functions, to understand why aposematic warning signals vary in appearance, specifically in the level of conspicuousness, and if warning coloration can be combined with camouflage. In paper I, I investigated if the colour pattern of the aposematic larva of the Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo) can switch function with viewing distance, and be signalling at close range but camouflaged at a distance, by comparing detection time between different colour variants and distances. The results show that the natural coloration has a dual distance-dependent function. Moreover, the study shows that an aposematic coloration does not have to be selected for maximal conspicuousness. A prey animal can optimise its coloration primarily by avoiding detection, but also by investing in a secondary defence, which presence can be signalled if detected. In paper II, I studied how easily detected the coloration of the firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus), a typical aposematic species, is at different distances against different natural backgrounds, by comparing detection time between different colour variants. Here, I found no distance-dependent switch in function. Instead, the results show that the coloration of the firebug is selected for maximal conspicuousness. One explanation for this is that the firebug is more mobile than the butterfly larva in study I, and movement is often incompatible with efficient camouflage. In paper III, I investigated if a seasonal related colour change in the chemically defended striated shieldbug (Graphosoma lineatum) is an adaptation to optimise a protective coloration by shifting from camouflage to aposematism between two seasons. The results confirm the hypothesis that the coloration expressed in the late summer has a camouflage function, blending in with the background. Further, I investigated if the internal pattern as such increased the effectiveness of the camouflage. Again, the results are in accordance with the hypothesis, as the patterned coloration was more difficult to detect than colorations lacking an internal pattern. This study shows how an aposematic species can optimise its defence by shifting from camouflage to aposematism, but in a different fashion than studied in paper I. The aim with study IV was to study the selection on aposematic signals by identifying characteristics that are common for colorations of aposematic species, and that distinguish them from colorations of other species. I compared contrast, pattern element size and colour proportion between a group of defended species and a group of undefended species. In contrast to my prediction, the results show no significant differences between the two groups in any of the analyses. One explanation for the non-significant results could be that there are no universal characteristics common for aposematic species. Instead, the selection pressures acting on defended species vary, and therefore affect their appearance differently. Another explanation is that all defended species may not have been selected for a conspicuous aposematic warning coloration. Taken together, my thesis shows that having a conspicuous warning coloration is not the only way to be aposematic. Also, aposematism and camouflage is not two mutually exclusive opposites, as there are prey species that exploit both strategies. It is also important to understand that prey animals are exposed to various selection pressures and trade-offs that affect their appearance, and determines what an optimal coloration is for each species or environment. In conclusion, I hold that the variation among warning colorations is larger and coloration properties that have been considered as archetypically aposematic may not be as widespread and representative as previously assumed.

Optimization of parameters for fiber laser-MAG hybrid welding in shipbuilding applications

The Arctic region becoming very active area of the industrial developments since it may contain approximately 15-25% of the hydrocarbon and other valuable natural resources which are in great demand nowadays. Harsh operation conditions make the Arctic region difficult to access due to low temperatures which can drop below -50 °C in winter and various additional loads. As a result, newer and modified metallic materials are implemented which can cause certain problems in welding them properly. Steel is still the most widely used material in the Arctic regions due to high mechanical properties, cheapness and manufacturability. Moreover, with recent steel manufacturing development it is possible to make up to 1100 MPa yield strength microalloyed high strength steel which can be operated at temperatures -60 °C possessing reasonable weldability, ductility and suitable impact toughness which is the most crucial property for the Arctic usability. For many years, the arc welding was the most dominant joining method of the metallic materials. Recently, other joining methods are successfully implemented into welding manufacturing due to growing industrial demands and one of them is the laser-arc hybrid welding. The laser-arc hybrid welding successfully combines the advantages and eliminates the disadvantages of the both joining methods therefore produce less distortions, reduce the need of edge preparation, generates narrower heat-affected zone, and increase welding speed or productivity significantly. Moreover, due to easy implementation of the filler wire, accordingly the mechanical properties of the joints can be manipulated in order to produce suitable quality. Moreover, with laser-arc hybrid welding it is possible to achieve matching weld metal compared to the base material even with the low alloying welding wires without excessive softening of the HAZ in the high strength steels. As a result, the laser-arc welding methods can be the most desired and dominating welding technology nowadays, and which is already operating in automotive and shipbuilding industries with a great success. However, in the future it can be extended to offshore, pipe-laying, and heavy equipment industries for arctic environment. CO2 and Nd:YAG laser sources in combination with gas metal arc source have been used widely in the past two decades. Recently, the fiber laser sources offered high power outputs with excellent beam quality, very high electrical efficiency, low maintenance expenses, and higher mobility due to fiber optics. As a result, fiber laser-arc hybrid process offers even more extended advantages and applications. However, the information about fiber or disk laser-arc hybrid welding is very limited. The objectives of the Master’s thesis are concentrated on the study of fiber laser-MAG hybrid welding parameters in order to understand resulting mechanical properties and quality of the welds. In this work only ferrous materials are reviewed. The qualitative methodological approach has been used to achieve the objectives. This study demonstrates that laser-arc hybrid welding is suitable for welding of many types, thicknesses and strength of steels with acceptable mechanical properties along very high productivity. New developments of the fiber laser-arc hybrid process offers extended capabilities over CO2 laser combined with the arc. This work can be used as guideline in hybrid welding technology with comprehensive study the effect of welding parameter on joint quality.

Anti-predator adaptations in aquatic environments

Predation is an important selective force that has led to the evolution of a variety of fascinating anti-predator adaptations, such as many types of protective coloration and prey behaviours. Because the evolution of life has begun in the aquatic environment and many anti-predator adaptations are found already in relative primitive taxa, it is likely that many of these adaptations evolved initially in the aquatic environment. Yet, there has been surprisingly little research on the mechanisms and function of antipredator adaptations in aquatic systems. To understand the function of anti-predator adaptations and natural selection imposed on prey appearance and behaviour, I have investigated how protective coloration can be used, either as such or together with behavioural adaptations, to manipulate predator behaviour and decrease predation risk. To this end I conducted a series of behaviour ecological laboratory experiments in which I manipulated the visual appearance of artificial backgrounds and prey items. In paper I of this thesis, I investigated background choice as an anti-predator strategy, by observing the habitat choice of the least killifish (Heterandria formosa) between pairs of artificial backgrounds, both in the presence and absence of predation threat. It has been suggested that prey could decrease their risk of being detected by predators either by preferring backgrounds into which they blend or by preferring visually complex backgrounds. The least killifish preferred a background that matched their patterning to a background that mismatched it, showing that they are able to respond to cues of visual similarity between their colour pattern and the surrounding environment. Interestingly however, in female least killifish visual complexity of the background was a more important cue for habitat safety and may override or act together with background matching when searching for a safe habitat. It is possible that in females, preference for visually complex backgrounds is associated with lower opportunity costs than preference for matching backgrounds would be. Generally, the least killifish showed stronger preference while under predation threat, indicating that their background choice behaviour is an antipredator adaptation. Many aquatic prey species have eyespots, which are colour patterns that consist of roughly concentric rings and have received their name because they for humans often resemble the vertebrate eye. I investigated the anti-predator function of eyespots against predation by fish in papers II, III and IV. Some eyespots have been suggested to benefit prey by diverting the strikes of predators away from vital parts of the prey body or towards a direction that facilitates prey escape. Although proposed over a century ago, the divertive effect of eyespots has proven to be difficult to show experimentally. In papers II and III, I tested for divertive effect of eyespots towards attacking fish by presenting artificial prey with eyespots to laboratory reared three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). I found that eyespots strongly influenced the behaviour of attacking sticklebacks and effectively drew their strikes towards the eyespots. To further investigate this divertive effect and whether the specific shape of eyespots is important for it, I tested in paper III the response of fish also to other markings than eyespots. I found that eyespots were generally more effective in diverting the first strikes of attacking fish compared to other prey markings. My findings suggest that the common occurrence of eyespots in aquatic prey species can at least partly be explained by the divertive effect of the eyespot shape, possibly together with the relative simple developmental mechanisms underlying circular colour patterns. An eyebar is a stripe that runs through the eye, and this pattern has been suggested to obscure the real eyes of the prey by visually blending parts of the eyes and head of the prey and by creating false edges. In paper III, I show that an eyebar effectively disrupts an eyelike shape. This suggests that eyebars provide an effective way to conceal the eyes and consequently obstruct detection and recognition of prey. This experiment also demonstrates that through concealment of the eyes, eyebars could be used to enhance the divertive effect of eyespots, which can explain the common occurrence of eyebars in many species of fish that have eyespots. Larger eyespots have been shown to intimidate some terrestrial predators, such as passerine birds, either because they resemble the eyes of the predator’s own enemy or because highly salient features may have an intimidating effect. In papers II and IV, I investigated whether the occurrence of eyespots in some aquatic prey could be explained by their intimidating effect predatory fish. In paper IV, I also investigated the reason for the intimidating effect of eyelike prey marks. In paper II, I found no clear intimidating effect of eyespots, whereas in paper IV, using a different approach, I found that sticklebacks hesitated to attack towards eyelike but not towards non-eyelike marks. Importantly, paper IV therefore presents the first rigorous evidence for the idea that eye mimicry, and not merely conspicuousness, underlies the intimidating effect. It also showed that the hesitation shown by fish towards eyelike marks is partly an innate response that is reinforced by encounters with predators. Collectively, this thesis shows that prey colour pattern and the visual appearance of the habitat influence the behaviour of fish. The results demonstrate that protective coloration provides numerous distinctive ways for aquatic prey to escape predation. Thus, visual perception and behaviour of fish are important factors shaping the appearance and behaviours of aquatic prey.

Scheduling dynamic dataflow graphs with model checking

With the shift towards many-core computer architectures, dataflow programming has been proposed as one potential solution for producing software that scales to a varying number of processor cores. Programming for parallel architectures is considered difficult as the current popular programming languages are inherently sequential and introducing parallelism is typically up to the programmer. Dataflow, however, is inherently parallel, describing an application as a directed graph, where nodes represent calculations and edges represent a data dependency in form of a queue. These queues are the only allowed communication between the nodes, making the dependencies between the nodes explicit and thereby also the parallelism. Once a node have the su cient inputs available, the node can, independently of any other node, perform calculations, consume inputs, and produce outputs. Data ow models have existed for several decades and have become popular for describing signal processing applications as the graph representation is a very natural representation within this eld. Digital lters are typically described with boxes and arrows also in textbooks. Data ow is also becoming more interesting in other domains, and in principle, any application working on an information stream ts the dataflow paradigm. Such applications are, among others, network protocols, cryptography, and multimedia applications. As an example, the MPEG group standardized a dataflow language called RVC-CAL to be use within reconfigurable video coding. Describing a video coder as a data ow network instead of with conventional programming languages, makes the coder more readable as it describes how the video dataflows through the different coding tools. While dataflow provides an intuitive representation for many applications, it also introduces some new problems that need to be solved in order for data ow to be more widely used. The explicit parallelism of a dataflow program is descriptive and enables an improved utilization of available processing units, however, the independent nodes also implies that some kind of scheduling is required. The need for efficient scheduling becomes even more evident when the number of nodes is larger than the number of processing units and several nodes are running concurrently on one processor core. There exist several data ow models of computation, with different trade-offs between expressiveness and analyzability. These vary from rather restricted but statically schedulable, with minimal scheduling overhead, to dynamic where each ring requires a ring rule to evaluated. The model used in this work, namely RVC-CAL, is a very expressive language, and in the general case it requires dynamic scheduling, however, the strong encapsulation of dataflow nodes enables analysis and the scheduling overhead can be reduced by using quasi-static, or piecewise static, scheduling techniques. The scheduling problem is concerned with nding the few scheduling decisions that must be run-time, while most decisions are pre-calculated. The result is then an, as small as possible, set of static schedules that are dynamically scheduled. To identify these dynamic decisions and to find the concrete schedules, this thesis shows how quasi-static scheduling can be represented as a model checking problem. This involves identifying the relevant information to generate a minimal but complete model to be used for model checking. The model must describe everything that may affect scheduling of the application while omitting everything else in order to avoid state space explosion. This kind of simplification is necessary to make the state space analysis feasible. For the model checker to nd the actual schedules, a set of scheduling strategies are de ned which are able to produce quasi-static schedulers for a wide range of applications. The results of this work show that actor composition with quasi-static scheduling can be used to transform data ow programs to t many different computer architecture with different type and number of cores. This in turn, enables dataflow to provide a more platform independent representation as one application can be fitted to a specific processor architecture without changing the actual program representation. Instead, the program representation is in the context of design space exploration optimized by the development tools to fit the target platform. This work focuses on representing the dataflow scheduling problem as a model checking problem and is implemented as part of a compiler infrastructure. The thesis also presents experimental results as evidence of the usefulness of the approach.