Att få ett jobb har betytt mycket : En kvalitativ brukarutvärdering av Krami

In this qualitative user evaluation, users from the Krami-programme in Borlänge have been interviewed on what they consider to have been positive changes in their social situation after participating in the programme. The respondents also point out factors in the programme that have supported these changes. The method consisted of interviews with five men who have undergone the Krami programme. The results show that Krami primarily helps the users to get an employment which results in the repeal of criminogenic factors. This plays an important part in the positive change of the users self-esteem, which tends to lead towards ”unlabeling” of the individual as “criminal”. The study also indicates other factors in the program that the users found helpful in their process of change highlighting the interaction between authorities, the approach of the Krami- staff and also the common rules that the participants has to agree upon. The users also poins out the importance of ones own motivation for changes to take place. 

A fuzzy rule-based decision support system for Duodopa treatment in Parkinson

A decision support system (DSS) was implemented based on a fuzzy logic inference system (FIS) to provide assistance in dose alteration of Duodopa infusion in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease, using data from motor state assessments and dosage. Three-tier architecture with an object oriented approach was used. The DSS has a web enabled graphical user interface that presents alerts indicating non optimal dosage and states, new recommendations, namely typical advice with typical dose and statistical measurements. One data set was used for design and tuning of the FIS and another data set was used for evaluating performance compared with actual given dose. Overall goodness-of-fit for the new patients (design data) was 0.65 and for the ongoing patients (evaluation data) 0.98. User evaluation is now ongoing. The system could work as an assistant to clinical staff for Duodopa treatment in advanced Parkinson’s disease.

A web application for follow-up of results from a mobile device test battery for parkinson’s disease patients

Background: A test battery consisting of self-assessments and motor tests (tapping and spiral drawing) was developed for a hand computer with touch screen in a telemedicine setting. Objectives: To develop and evaluate a web-based system that delivers decision support information to the treating clinical staff for assessing PD symptoms in their patients based on the test battery data. Methods: The test battery is currently being used in a clinical trial (DAPHNE, EudraCT No. 2005-002654-21) by sixty five patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) on 9991 test occasions (four tests per day during in all 362 week-long test periods) at nine clinics around Sweden. Test results are sent continuously from the hand unit over a mobile net to a central computer and processed with statistical methods. They are summarized into scores for different dimensions of the symptom state and an ‘overall test score’ reflecting the overall condition of the patient during a test period. The information in the web application is organized and presented graphically in a way that the general overview of the patient performance per test period is emphasized. Focus is on the overall test score, symptom dimensions and daily summaries. In a recent preliminary user evaluation, the web application was demonstrated to the fifteen study nurses who had used the test battery in the clinical trial. At least one patient per clinic was shown. Results: In general, the responses from nurses were positive. They claimed that the test results shown in the system were consistent with their own clinical observations. They could follow complications, changes and trends within their patients. Discussion: In conclusion, the system is able to summarise the various time series of motor test results and self-assessments during test periods and present them in a useful manner. Its main contribution is a novel and reliable way to capture and easily access symptom information from patients’ home environment. The convenient access to current symptom profile as well as symptom history provides a basis for individualized evaluation and adjustment of treatments.

Flyktingguide: En väg till integration? : Brukarutvärdering av projektet Flyktingguide i Falun

In this qualitative user evaluation participants in the project refugee guide, Falun, was interviewed about their experience of the project and how the project contributed to their integration into society and establishment on the labor market. The collection of empirical data has been made by six interviews. The results of the evaluation indicate that participants feel that they through the project had the opportunity to meet new people, practice the language and learn about each other's culture. The results also show that participants are satisfied with the project. Some participants expressed a desire to meet with several people at once while others don´t have that need. Furthermore, the interviews shows that establishment on labor market occurred through job placement and not through participation in the project. Integration proved to be a difficult concept to define, but the interviews show that the participants have a perception that it is about learning the Swedish language and culture.

QoS evaluation of bandwidth schedulersin IPTV networks offered SRD fluidvideo traffic: a simulation study

IPTV is now offered by several operators in Europe, US and Asia using broadcast video over private IP networks that are isolated from Internet. IPTV services rely ontransmission of live (real-time) video and/or stored video. Video on Demand (VoD)and Time-shifted TV are implemented by IP unicast and Broadcast TV (BTV) and Near video on demand are implemented by IP multicast. IPTV services require QoS guarantees and can tolerate no more than 10-6 packet loss probability, 200 ms delay, and 50 ms jitter. Low delay is essential for satisfactory trick mode performance(pause, resume,fast forward) for VoD, and fast channel change time for BTV. Internet Traffic Engineering (TE) is defined in RFC 3272 and involves both capacity management and traffic management. Capacity management includes capacityplanning, routing control, and resource management. Traffic management includes (1)nodal traffic control functions such as traffic conditioning, queue management, scheduling, and (2) other functions that regulate traffic flow through the network orthat arbitrate access to network resources. An IPTV network architecture includes multiple networks (core network, metronetwork, access network and home network) that connects devices (super head-end, video hub office, video serving office, home gateway, set-top box). Each IP router in the core and metro networks implements some queueing and packet scheduling mechanism at the output link controller. Popular schedulers in IP networks include Priority Queueing (PQ), Class-Based Weighted Fair Queueing (CBWFQ), and Low Latency Queueing (LLQ) which combines PQ and CBWFQ.The thesis analyzes several Packet Scheduling algorithms that can optimize the tradeoff between system capacity and end user performance for the traffic classes. Before in the simulator FIFO,PQ,GPS queueing methods were implemented inside. This thesis aims to implement the LLQ scheduler inside the simulator and to evaluate the performance of these packet schedulers. The simulator is provided by ErnstNordström and Simulator was built in Visual C++ 2008 environmentand tested and analyzed in MatLab 7.0 under windows VISTA.

A user guide to simple monitoring and sustainable operation of PV-diesel hybrid systems : Handbook for system users and operators

This report contains a suggestion for a simple monitoring and evaluation guideline for PV-diesel hybrid systems. It offers system users a way to better understand if their system is operated in a way that will make it last for a long time. It also gives suggestions on how to act if there are signs of unfavourable use or failure. The application of the guide requires little technical equipment, but daily manual measurements. For the most part, it can be managed by pen and paper, by people with no earlier experience of power systems.The guide is structured and expressed in a way that targets PV-diesel hybrid system users with no, or limited, earlier experience of power engineering. It is less detailed in terms of motivations for certain choices and limitations, but rich in details concerning calculations, evaluation procedures and maintenance routines. A more scientific description of the guide can be found in a related journal article.