Academic literature on the topic 'Image och strategi'

Recently, optical wireless communication (OWC) technologies focused on a camera or an image sensor receiver have drawn specific attention in areas like the internet, indoor localization, motion detection, and intelligent transportation systems. Besides, panorama sensors are the subject of communications from picture sensors as receptors as the high-speed OWC strategy do not need any change to the existing network, so the difficulty and expense of deployment are very limited. So in this paper, a detailed review of the techniques of optical camera communication (OCC)has been presented. In addition to their function of localizing, tracking and recording motion. Through addressing several facets of OCC and their different implementations, this study varies from the latest literature on this topic. The first section of the current article is on standardization, Path classification, modulation, scripting, synchronization, and signal processing methods for OCC networks whereas the second section of the research discusses OCC-based localization, navigation, motion detection, and smart transport systems literature .Finally , OCC's problems and potential work directions have been addressed in the final section of the research.

PurposeThis study aims to determine the effect of personality on professionalism.Design/methodology/approachThis research was conducted in Makassar Police Office in Makassar City. The reason for conducting the research in the police officer was the low performance of police officers in Makassar Police while the workload was very high. The population in this study were all 1,185 police officers in Makassar Police Office. Using the probability sampling technique, there were 299 police officers selected as respondents. Further, this study employs descriptive statistical analysis and inferential statistical analysis using generalized structure component analysis (GSCA) as data analysis methods.FindingsThe result found that there is a significant effect of personality on professionalism and OCB. Different results are obtained on the effect of personality on performance, which has no significant effect. However, there is an indirect effect of personality on performance through professionalism and OCB as mediating variables. The results also found that there is a significant influence between Professionalism on OCB and performance, as well as a significant influence between OCB on Performance.Originality/valueThis study focus to determine the effect of personality on professionalism. It has never been done before, so this study will contribute a new empirical explanation on both relationships. In addition to differences in the use of constructs and measurements, this research is also different in terms of the analysis unit. This study examines the effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on the performance of members/employees. This research is different from previous researches which generally examine the effect of OCB with group performance such as performed by George and Bettenhausen (1990), Podsakoff et al. (1997), which both found a close association between OCB and group performance. This study examines the performance of individual members because the tasks of members of the police force require professional ability in individuals who are expected to give a good image to the police in general.

Augmented Reality—The Liminal Zone Within the larger context of the post-desktop technological philosophy and practice, an increasing number of efforts are directed towards finding solutions for integrating as close as possible virtual information into specific real environments; a short list of such endeavors include Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS-driven navigation, mobile phones, GIS (Geographic Information System), and various technological systems associated with what is loosely called locative, ubiquitous and pervasive computing. Augmented Reality (AR) is directly related to these technologies, although its visualization capabilities and the experience it provides assure it a particular place within this general trend. Indeed, AR stands out for its unique capacity (or ambition) to offer a seamless combination—or what I call here an effect of convergence—of the real scene perceived by the user with virtual information overlaid on that scene interactively and in real time. The augmented scene is perceived by the viewer through the use of different displays, the most common being the AR glasses (head-mounted display), video projections or monitors, and hand-held mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, increasingly popular nowadays. One typical example of AR application is Layar, a browser that layers information of public interest—delivered through an open-source content management system—over the actual image of a real space, streamed live on the mobile phone display. An increasing number of artists employ this type of mobile AR apps to create artworks that consist in perceptually combining material reality and virtual data: as the user points the smartphone or tablet to a specific place, virtual 3D-modelled graphics or videos appear in real time, seamlessly inserted in the image of that location, according to the user’s position and orientation. In the engineering and IT design fields, one of the first researchers to articulate a coherent conceptualization of AR and to underlie its specific capabilities is Ronald Azuma. He writes that, unlike Virtual Reality (VR) which completely immerses the user inside a synthetic environment, AR supplements reality, therefore enhancing “a user’s perception of and interaction with the real world” (355-385). Another important contributor to the foundation of AR as a concept and as a research field is industrial engineer Paul Milgram. He proposes a comprehensive and frequently cited definition of “Mixed Reality” (MR) via a schema that includes the entire spectrum of situations that span the “continuum” between actual reality and virtual reality, with “augmented reality” and “augmented virtuality” between the two poles (283). Important to remark with regard to terminology (MR or AR) is that especially in the non-scientific literature, authors do not always explain a preference for either MR or AR. This suggests that the two terms are understood as synonymous, but it also provides evidence for my argument that, outside of the technical literature, AR is considered a concept rather than a technology. Here, I use the term AR instead of MR considering that the phrase AR (and the integrated idea of augmentation) is better suited to capturing the convergence effect. As I will demonstrate in the following lines, the process of augmentation (i.e. the convergence effect) is the result of an enhancement of the possibilities to perceive and understand the world—through adding data that augment the perception of reality—and not simply the product of a mix. Nevertheless, there is surely something “mixed” about this experience, at least for the fact that it combines reality and virtuality. The experiential result of combining reality and virtuality in the AR process is what media theorist Lev Manovich calls an “augmented space,” a perceptual liminal zone which he defines as “the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information, multimedia in form and localized for each user” (219). The author derives the term “augmented space” from the term AR (already established in the scientific literature), but he sees AR, and implicitly augmented space, not as a strictly defined technology, but as a model of visuality concerned with the intertwining of the real and virtual: “it is crucial to see this as a conceptual rather than just a technological issue – and therefore as something that in part has already been an element of other architectural and artistic paradigms” (225-6). Surely, it is hard to believe that AR has appeared in a void or that its emergence is strictly related to certain advances in technological research. AR—as an artistic manifestation—is informed by other attempts (not necessarily digital) to merge real and fictional in a unitary perceptual entity, particularly by installation art and Virtual Reality (VR) environments. With installation art, AR shares the same spatial strategy and scenographic approach—they both construct “fictional” areas within material reality, that is, a sort of mise-en-scène that are aesthetically and socially produced and centered on the active viewer. From the media installationist practice of the previous decades, AR inherited the way of establishing a closer spatio-temporal interaction between the setting, the body and the electronic image (see for example Bruce Nauman’s Live-Taped Video Corridor [1970], Peter Campus’s Interface [1972], Dan Graham’s Present Continuous Pasts(s) [1974], Jeffrey Shaw’s Viewpoint [1975], or Jim Campbell’s Hallucination [1988]). On the other hand, VR plays an important role in the genealogy of AR for sharing the same preoccupation for illusionist imagery and—at least in some AR projects—for providing immersive interactions in “expanded image spaces experienced polysensorily and interactively” (Grau 9). VR artworks such as Paul Sermon, Telematic Dreaming (1992), Char Davies’ Osmose (1995), Michael Naimark’s Be Now Here (1995-97), Maurice Benayoun’s World Skin: A Photo Safari in the Land of War (1997), Luc Courchesne’s Where Are You? (2007-10), are significant examples for the way in which the viewer can be immersed in “expanded image-spaces.” Offering no view of the exterior world, the works try instead to reduce as much as possible the critical distance the viewer might have to the image he/she experiences. Indeed, AR emerged in great part from the artistic and scientific research efforts dedicated to VR, but also from the technological and artistic investigations of the possibilities of blending reality and virtuality, conducted in the previous decades. For example, in the 1960s, computer scientist Ivan Sutherland played a crucial role in the history of AR contributing to the development of display solutions and tracking systems that permit a better immersion within the digital image. Another important figure in the history of AR is computer artist Myron Krueger whose experiments with “responsive environments” are fundamental as they proposed a closer interaction between participant’s body and the digital object. More recently, architect and theorist Marcos Novak contributed to the development of the idea of AR by introducing the concept of “eversion”, “the counter-vector of the virtual leaking out into the actual”. Today, AR technological research and the applications made available by various developers and artists are focused more and more on mobility and ubiquitous access to information instead of immersivity and illusionist effects. A few examples of mobile AR include applications such as Layar, Wikitude—“world browsers” that overlay site-specific information in real-time on a real view (video stream) of a place, Streetmuseum (launched in 2010) and Historypin (launched in 2011)—applications that insert archive images into the street-view of a specific location where the old images were taken, or Google Glass (launched in 2012)—a device that provides the wearer access to Google’s key Cloud features, in situ and in real time. Recognizing the importance of various technological developments and of the artistic manifestations such as installation art and VR as predecessors of AR, we should emphasize that AR moves forward from these artistic and technological models. AR extends the installationist precedent by proposing a consistent and seamless integration of informational elements with the very physical space of the spectator, and at the same time rejects the idea of segregating the viewer into a complete artificial environment like in VR systems by opening the perceptual field to the surrounding environment. Instead of leaving the viewer in a sort of epistemological “lust” within the closed limits of the immersive virtual systems, AR sees virtuality rather as a “component of experiencing the real” (Farman 22). Thus, the questions that arise—and which this essay aims to answer—are: Do we have a specific spatial dimension in AR? If yes, can we distinguish it as a different—if not new—spatial and aesthetic paradigm? Is AR’s intricate topology able to be the place not only of convergence, but also of possible tensions between its real and virtual components, between the ideal of obtaining a perceptual continuity and the inherent (technical) limitations that undermine that ideal? Converging Spaces in the Artistic Mode: Between Continuum and Discontinuum As key examples of the way in which AR creates a specific spatial experience—in which convergence appears as a fluctuation between continuity and discontinuity—I mention three of the most accomplished works in the field that, significantly, expose also the essential role played by the interface in providing this experience: Living-Room 2 (2007) by Jan Torpus, Under Scan (2005-2008) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Hans RichtAR (2013) by John Craig Freeman and Will Pappenheimer. The works illustrate the three main categories of interfaces used for AR experience: head-attached, spatial displays, and hand-held (Bimber 2005). These types of interface—together with all the array of adjacent devices, software and tracking systems—play a central role in determining the forms and outcomes of the user’s experience and consequently inform in a certain measure the aesthetic and socio-cultural interpretative discourse surrounding AR. Indeed, it is not the same to have an immersive but solitary experience, or a mobile and public experience of an AR artwork or application. The first example is Living-Room 2 an immersive AR installation realized by a collective coordinated by Jan Torpus in 2007 at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts FHNW, Basel, Switzerland. The work consists of a built “living-room” with pieces of furniture and domestic objects that are perceptually augmented by means of a “see-through” Head Mounted Display. The viewer perceives at the same time the real room and a series of virtual graphics superimposed on it such as illusionist natural vistas that “erase” the walls, or strange creatures that “invade” the living-room. The user can select different augmenting “scenarios” by interacting with both the physical interfaces (the real furniture and objects) and the graphical interfaces (provided as virtual images in the visual field of the viewer, and activated via a handheld device). For example, in one of the scenarios proposed, the user is prompted to design his/her own extended living room, by augmenting the content and the context of the given real space with different “spatial dramaturgies” or “AR décors.” Another scenario offers the possibility of creating an “Ecosystem”—a real-digital world perceived through the HMD in which strange creatures virtually occupy the living-room intertwining with the physical configuration of the set design and with the user’s viewing direction, body movement, and gestures. Particular attention is paid to the participant’s position in the room: a tracking device measures the coordinates of the participant’s location and direction of view and effectuates occlusions of real space and then congruent superimpositions of 3D images upon it. Figure 1: Jan Torpus, Living-Room 2 (Ecosystems), Augmented Reality installation (2007). Courtesy of the artist. Figure 2: Jan Torpus, Living-Room 2 (AR decors), Augmented Reality installation (2007). Courtesy of the artist.In this sense, the title of the work acquires a double meaning: “living” is both descriptive and metaphoric. As Torpus explains, Living-Room is an ambiguous phrase: it can be both a living-room and a room that actually lives, an observation that suggests the idea of a continuum and of immersion in an environment where there are no apparent ruptures between reality and virtuality. Of course, immersion is in these circumstances not about the creation of a purely artificial secluded space of experience like that of the VR environments, but rather about a dialogical exercise that unifies two different phenomenal levels, real and virtual, within a (dis)continuous environment (with the prefix “dis” as a necessary provision). Media theorist Ron Burnett’s observations about the instability of the dividing line between different levels of experience—more exactly, of the real-virtual continuum—in what he calls immersive “image-worlds” have a particular relevance in this context: Viewing or being immersed in images extend the control humans have over mediated spaces and is part of a perceptual and psychological continuum of struggle for meaning within image-worlds. Thinking in terms of continuums lessens the distinctions between subjects and objects and makes it possible to examine modes of influence among a variety of connected experiences. (113) It is precisely this preoccupation to lessen any (or most) distinctions between subjects and objects, and between real and virtual spaces, that lays at the core of every artistic experiment under the AR rubric. The fact that this distinction is never entirely erased—as Living-Room 2 proves—is part of the very condition of AR. The ambition to create a continuum is after all not about producing perfectly homogenous spaces, but, as Ron Burnett points out (113), “about modalities of interaction and dialogue” between real worlds and virtual images. Another way to frame the same problematic of creating a provisional spatial continuum between reality and virtuality, but this time in a non-immersive fashion (i.e. with projective interface means), occurs in Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Under Scan (2005-2008). The work, part of the larger series Relational Architecture, is an interactive video installation conceived for outdoor and indoor environments and presented in various public spaces. It is a complex system comprised of a powerful light source, video projectors, computers, and a tracking device. The powerful light casts shadows of passers-by within the dark environment of the work’s setting. A tracking device indicates where viewers are positioned and permits the system to project different video sequences onto their shadows. Shot in advance by local videographers and producers, the filmed sequences show full images of ordinary people moving freely, but also watching the camera. As they appear within pedestrians’ shadows, the figurants interact with the viewers, moving and establishing eye contact. Figure 3: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Under Scan (Relational Architecture 11), 2005. Shown here: Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom, 2008. Photo by: Antimodular Research. Courtesy of the artist. Figure 4: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Under Scan (Relational Architecture 11), 2005. Shown here: Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom, 2008. Photo by: Antimodular Research. Courtesy of the artist. One of the most interesting attributes of this work with respect to the question of AR’s (im)possible perceptual spatial continuity is its ability to create an experientially stimulating and conceptually sophisticated play between illusion and subversion of illusion. In Under Scan, the integration of video projections into the real environment via the active body of the viewer is aimed at tempering as much as possible any disparities or dialectical tensions—that is, any successive or alternative reading—between real and virtual. Although non-immersive, the work fuses the two levels by provoking an intimate but mute dialogue between the real, present body of the viewer and the virtual, absent body of the figurant via the ambiguous entity of the shadow. The latter is an illusion (it marks the presence of a body) that is transcended by another illusion (video projection). Moreover, being “under scan,” the viewer inhabits both the “here” of the immediate space and the “there” of virtual information: “the body” is equally a presence in flesh and bones and an occurrence in bits and bytes. But, however convincing this reality-virtuality pseudo-continuum would be, the spatial and temporal fragmentations inevitably persist: there is always a certain break at the phenomenological level between the experience of real space, the bodily absence/presence in the shadow, and the displacements and delays of the video image projection. Figure 5: John Craig Freeman and Will Pappenheimer, Hans RichtAR, augmented reality installation included in the exhibition “Hans Richter: Encounters”, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013. Courtesy of the artists. Figure 6: John Craig Freeman and Will Pappenheimer, Hans RichtAR, augmented reality installation included in the exhibition “Hans Richter: Encounters”, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013. Courtesy of the artists. The third example of an AR artwork that engages the problem of real-virtual spatial convergence as a play between perceptual continuity and discontinuity, this time with the use of hand-held mobile interface is Hans RichtAR by John Craig Freeman and Will Pappenheimer. The work is an AR installation included in the exhibition “Hans Richter: Encounters” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 2013. The project recreates the spirit of the 1929 exhibition held in Stuttgart entitled Film und Foto (“FiFo”) for which avant-garde artist Hans Richter served as film curator. Featured in the augmented reality is a re-imaging of the FiFo Russian Room designed by El Lissitzky where a selection of Russian photographs, film stills and actual film footage was presented. The users access the work through tablets made available at the exhibition entrance. Pointing the tablet at the exhibition and moving around the room, the viewer discovers that a new, complex installation is superimposed on the screen over the existing installation and gallery space at LACMA. The work effectively recreates and interprets the original design of the Russian Room, with its scaffoldings and surfaces at various heights while virtually juxtaposing photography and moving images, to which the authors have added some creative elements of their own. Manipulating and converging real space and the virtual forms in an illusionist way, AR is able—as one of the artists maintains—to destabilize the way we construct representation. Indeed, the work makes a statement about visuality that complicates the relationship between the visible object and its representation and interpretation in the virtual realm. One that actually shows the fragility of establishing an illusionist continuum, of a perfect convergence between reality and represented virtuality, whatever the means employed. AR: A Different Spatial Practice Regardless the degree of “perfection” the convergence process would entail, what we can safely assume—following the examples above—is that the complex nature of AR operations permits a closer integration of virtual images within real space, one that, I argue, constitutes a new spatial paradigm. This is the perceptual outcome of the convergence effect, that is, the process and the product of consolidating different—and differently situated—elements in real and virtual worlds into a single space-image. Of course, illusion plays a crucial role as it makes permeable the perceptual limit between the represented objects and the material spaces we inhabit. Making the interface transparent—in both proper and figurative senses—and integrating it into the surrounding space, AR “erases” the medium with the effect of suspending—at least for a limited time—the perceptual (but not ontological!) differences between what is real and what is represented. These aspects are what distinguish AR from other technological and artistic endeavors that aim at creating more inclusive spaces of interaction. However, unlike the CAVE experience (a display solution frequently used in VR applications) that isolates the viewer within the image-space, in AR virtual information is coextensive with reality. As the example of the Living-Room 2 shows, regardless the degree of immersivity, in AR there is no such thing as dismissing the real in favor of an ideal view of a perfect and completely controllable artificial environment like in VR. The “redemptive” vision of a total virtual environment is replaced in AR with the open solution of sharing physical and digital realities in the same sensorial and spatial configuration. In AR the real is not denounced but reflected; it is not excluded, but integrated. Yet, AR distinguishes itself also from other projects that presuppose a real-world environment overlaid with data, such as urban surfaces covered with screens, Wi-Fi enabled areas, or video installations that are not site-specific and viewer inclusive. Although closely related to these types of projects, AR remains different, its spatiality is not simply a “space of interaction” that connects, but instead it integrates real and virtual elements. Unlike other non-AR media installations, AR does not only place the real and virtual spaces in an adjacent position (or replace one with another), but makes them perceptually convergent in an—ideally—seamless way (and here Hans RichtAR is a relevant example). Moreover, as Lev Manovich notes, “electronically augmented space is unique – since the information is personalized for every user, it can change dynamically over time, and it is delivered through an interactive multimedia interface” (225-6). Nevertheless, as our examples show, any AR experience is negotiated in the user-machine encounter with various degrees of success and sustainability. Indeed, the realization of the convergence effect is sometimes problematic since AR is never perfectly continuous, spatially or temporally. The convergence effect is the momentary appearance of continuity that will never take full effect for the viewer, given the internal (perhaps inherent?) tensions between the ideal of seamlessness and the mostly technical inconsistencies in the visual construction of the pieces (such as real-time inadequacy or real-virtual registration errors). We should note that many criticisms of the AR visualization systems (being them practical applications or artworks) are directed to this particular aspect related to the imperfect alignment between reality and digital information in the augmented space-image. However, not only AR applications can function when having an estimated (and acceptable) registration error, but, I would state, such visual imperfections testify a distinctive aesthetic aspect of AR. The alleged flaws can be assumed—especially in the artistic AR projects—as the “trace,” as the “tool’s stroke” that can reflect the unique play between illusion and its subversion, between transparency of the medium and its reflexive strategy. In fact this is what defines AR as a different perceptual paradigm: the creation of a convergent space—which will remain inevitably imperfect—between material reality and virtual information.References Azuma, Ronald T. “A Survey on Augmented Reality.” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 6.4 (Aug. 1997): 355-385. < http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/ARfinal.pdf >. Benayoun, Maurice. World Skin: A Photo Safari in the Land of War. 1997. Immersive installation: CAVE, Computer, video projectors, 1 to 5 real photo cameras, 2 to 6 magnetic or infrared trackers, shutter glasses, audio-system, Internet connection, color printer. Maurice Benayoun, Works. < http://www.benayoun.com/projet.php?id=16 >. Bimber, Oliver, and Ramesh Raskar. Spatial Augmented Reality. Merging Real and Virtual Worlds. Wellesley, Massachusetts: AK Peters, 2005. 71-92. Burnett, Ron. How Images Think. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004. Campbell, Jim. Hallucination. 1988-1990. Black and white video camera, 50 inch rear projection video monitor, laser disc players, custom electronics. Collection of Don Fisher, San Francisco. Campus, Peter. Interface. 1972. Closed-circuit video installation, black and white camera, video projector, light projector, glass sheet, empty, dark room. Centre Georges Pompidou Collection, Paris, France. Courchesne, Luc. Where Are You? 2005. Immersive installation: Panoscope 360°. a single channel immersive display, a large inverted dome, a hemispheric lens and projector, a computer and a surround sound system. Collection of the artist. < http://courchel.net/# >. Davies, Char. Osmose. 1995. Computer, sound synthesizers and processors, stereoscopic head-mounted display with 3D localized sound, breathing/balance interface vest, motion capture devices, video projectors, and silhouette screen. Char Davies, Immersence, Osmose. < http://www.immersence.com >. Farman, Jason. Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media. New York: Routledge, 2012. Graham, Dan. Present Continuous Past(s). 1974. Closed-circuit video installation, black and white camera, one black and white monitor, two mirrors, microprocessor. Centre Georges Pompidou Collection, Paris, France. Grau, Oliver. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. Translated by Gloria Custance. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London: MIT Press, 2003. Hansen, Mark B.N. New Philosophy for New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004. Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001-2012. < http://www.etymonline.com >. Manovich, Lev. “The Poetics of Augmented Space.” Visual Communication 5.2 (2006): 219-240. Milgram, Paul, Haruo Takemura, Akira Utsumi, Fumio Kishino. “Augmented Reality: A Class of Displays on the Reality-Virtuality Continuum.” SPIE [The International Society for Optical Engineering] Proceedings 2351: Telemanipulator and Telepresence Technologies (1994): 282-292. Naimark, Michael, Be Now Here. 1995-97. Stereoscopic interactive panorama: 3-D glasses, two 35mm motion-picture cameras, rotating tripod, input pedestal, stereoscopic projection screen, four-channel audio, 16-foot (4.87 m) rotating floor. Originally produced at Interval Research Corporation with additional support from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris, France. < http://www.naimark.net/projects/benowhere.html >. Nauman, Bruce. Live-Taped Video Corridor. 1970. Wallboard, video camera, two video monitors, videotape player, and videotape, dimensions variable. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Novak, Marcos. Interview with Leo Gullbring, Calimero journalistic och fotografi, 2001. < http://www.calimero.se/novak2.htm >. Sermon, Paul. Telematic Dreaming. 1992. ISDN telematic installation, two video projectors, two video cameras, two beds set. The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford England. Shaw, Jeffrey, and Theo Botschuijver. Viewpoint. 1975. Photo installation. Shown at 9th Biennale de Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France.

Bakgrund: Ett problem vid varumärkeshantering är att det vanligen finns ett gap mellan varumärkesidentiteten och varumärkesimagen. Gapet förklaras, i den traditionella litteraturen, av bristen på tid, kunskap och resurser. Vi anser dock att detta inte tillräckligt förklarar denna ”mismatch”, varför vi således vill nyansera förklaringen till varför detta gap uppstår.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att utveckla teoribildningen kring varumärkeskommunikation. Denna teoriutveckling kommer att ske med en intern fokusering på varför ett gap uppstår mellan varumärkesidentitet och varumärkesimage. Vidare kommer vi även att ge förslag till hur företag bör agera för att minimera detta gap.

Avgränsningar: Vi har i denna uppsats valt att enbart fokusera på företag som verkar på konsumentmarknader i Sverige. Vidare har vi även valt att avgränsa studien från företag som inte använder sitt företagsnamn i kommunikationen av de produkter eller tjänster de levererar.

Genomförande: Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie med en abduktiv ansats. Urvalet har genomfördes med ett experturval och ett snöbollsurval. Totalt har vi genomfört 27 intervjuer.

Resultat: Allt kommunicerar! Företag måste samordna all organisatorisk handling för att kunna hantera gapet mellan identitet och image. Den klassiska betraktelsen av ett varumärke leder till en allt för snäv syn på varumärkeskommunikation. Varumärket måste hanteras på en strategisk nivå i företagen. För att möjliggöra att samtliga kommunikationsbärare likformas och aktiveras måste varumärket förankras i organisationen.

Problemformulering och syfte:
Kritik har riktats mot polisens närvaro i sociala medier då samhället har ifrågasatt om polisen behöver lägga energi och tid på att närvara på dessa plattformar (Erlandsson 2015). Syftet med den här studien är att analysera vilka uppfattningar ett urval av Facebook-användare har om polisens kommunikation på Facebook, för att sedan jämföras med hur polisen vill framstå och om de arbetar strategiskt för att lyckas med detta på Facebook.
Metod och material: För att svara på studiens syfte har studien en kvalitativ metod och utgår från intervjuer med två kommunikatörer från Polismyndighetens kommunikationsavdelning i Stockholm som har sociala medier som sitt största arbetsområde. Samt två fokusgrupper av totalt åtta Facebook-användare med olika kön och åldrar mellan 20 till 60 år.
Huvudresultat: Polisens profil skiljer sig mot deras image på en del plan utifrån ett urval av Facebook-användare. Urvalet uppfattar polisen som tillförlitlig, med intressanta uppgifter men att Facebookinläggen ofta är tråkigt och krångligt skrivna. De har förväntningar på polisens kommunikativa arbete på Facebook som enligt de inte uppfylls. Detta medan polisen menar att deras arbete på Facebook är välfungerande då responsen är märkbart bra. I sin kommunikation på Facebook vill polisen framstå som mänsklig, lättförståelig, professionell och öppen. För att bibehålla detta arbetar de strategiskt med sin kommunikation då framförallt många regler och riktlinjer följs.

På Facebook är man författare till sin egen digitala självbiografi. Sociala medier och socialanätverk har gjort det möjligt för användare att kunna forma den bild av sig själv man vill visaomvärlden. Vi har gjort en studie om vilka strategier man använder sig av för att dela bilderoch vad dessa bilder säger om användarens identitet. Med hjälp av tidigare forskning samtvår egen studie bestående av intervjuer och enkäter har vi kommit fram till att man ofta delarbilder för att ta kontakt och känna gemenskap med andra människor/användare. Användarnavi undersökte vill visa den bästa bilden av sig själva samtidigt som användarna vill visa en såverklighetstrogen bild som möjligt. De har inga problem med att modifiera bilden av sigsjälva med att exempelvis ta bort en tagg eller be någon ta bort någon bild som är publiceradpå dem. Vad som visas på deras Facebookprofiler har stor betydelse för användarna.
On Facebook, you are the author of your own digital autobiography. Social media and socialnetworks have made it possible for users to decide how they want to be perceived. We haveconducted a study regarding what strategies people use to share images and what they sayabout the users identities. We have found out through previous research, interviews andsurveys that people often share images to connect with others and socialize. The users westudied wanted to present their best sides and still stay true to their personalities in real life.They have no problems with modifying their self-image by, for example, removing tags orpictures taken of them. What is displayed on their Facebook profile page is very important tothe users.

Det finns mycket tidigare forskning och litteratur om hur design som kommunikationsmedel kan tillämpas i praktiken, både genom estetisk och strategisk design. Däremot framgår inte huruvida tillämpningen av design som kommunikationsmedel är branschspecifik eller generellt gällande för företag oavsett bransch. Företag kan nyttja design som ett kommunikationsmedel för att kommunicera sin varumärkesidentitet till konsumenterna så att deras syn på imagen blir likställd med identiteten. Då når företaget ett starkt varumärke uppsatsens definition. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och jämföra hur företag inom olika branscher kan nyttja design, i form av estetisk och strategisk design, med avsikt att kommunicera sin varumärkesidentitet till sina konsumenter och skapa ett starkt varumärke. Uppsatsen är av kvalitativ karaktär och består av individuella intervjuer och fokusgrupper. De individuella intervjuerna och fokusgrupperna har gjorts med centrala personer från valda företag, designsamarbetspartners samt med företagens konsumenter. Uppsatsens insamlade data har analyserats med en modifiering av the Corporate branding model som teoretiskt ramverk. Denna teori har i sin tur kompletterats med modellerna och teorierna Kapferers varumärkesidentitetsprisma, design thinking och Lockwoods kategorier för att mäta värdet av estetisk design. I slutdiskussionen jämförs hur nyttjandet och effekten av estetisk och strategisk design som kommunikationsmedel skiljer sig åt mellan två företag inom olika branscher och huruvida det faktum att de är verksamma inom olika branscher påverkar. Nyttjandet av design thinking skilde sig åt då serviceföretaget (Sturehof) nyttjade det genomgående medan produktföretaget (Svenskt Tenn) inte nådde fram med kommunikation genom design thinking. Effekten av design thinking gick inte att jämföra då nyttjandet skilde sig åt. Nyttjandet av estetisk design skilde sig ytterst lite åt mellan de olika företagen, men effekten skilde sig åt. Författarnas förklaring till detta är att konsumenterna inte ställer lika höga krav och inte förväntar sig samma grad av estetisk design på en restaurang som de gör på en inredningsbutik. Design hos ett produktföretag inom inredningsbranschen anses vidare som en självklarhet, men hos ett tjänsteföretag inom restaurangbranschen anses det vara en konkurrensfördel. Sammanfattningsvis menar författarna att denna undersökning visat att design, oavsett bransch, bör nyttjas i sin helhet med såväl strategisk som estetisk design för att nå ett starkt varumärke.
There is a lot of research and literature on how design, both aesthetic and strategic, can be applied in practice as a communication tool. However, the research and literature does not clarify whether the application of design as a communication tool is industry specific or generally valid for all types of companies. Companies can use design as a communication medium to communicate their brand identity to consumers, so that their view of the brand image becomes equated with the brand identity. If they succeed, the company reaches a strong brand. The purpose of this thesis is to examine and compare how companies in different industries can use design, in the form of aesthetic and strategic design, with the intention to communicate their brand identity to its consumers and to create a strong brand. The thesis is qualitative in nature and consists of individual interviews and focus groups. The individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with key persons from selected companies, their design partners and their customers. The collected data were analysed using a modification of the Corporate branding model and other, more specific, models and theories as a theoretical framework. In the final discussion the authors compare if the use and effect of aesthetic and strategic design as a communication tool differ between companies in different industries, and whether the fact that they operate in different industries has an effect. The use of strategic design and design thinking was different, since the service company (Sturehof) used it consistently, while the product company (Svenskt Tenn) didn’t reach out with communication through design thinking. The effect was not compared since the use differed. The use of aesthetic design differed little between the various companies, but the effect differed more. The authors' explanation for this is that consumers do not set equally high standards and expect the same degree of aesthetic design in a restaurant as they do at a furniture store. Design of a product company in the interior decorating industry was considered as a natural concept, but design of a service company in the restaurant industry was considered a competitive advantage. In conclusion, the authors mean that this thesis demonstrated that design, regardless of industry, should be used in its entirety with both strategic and aesthetic design to achieve a strong brand.

Uppsatsen behandlar vårdföretaget Carema Cares två bloggar som skapades i och med krisen som uppstod kring företaget år 2011. Detta görs genom en granskning av argumentationen Carema Care för på bloggarna utifrån kriskommunikationsstrategier och retoriska strategier.

Bakgrund: Denna uppsats handlar om hur företag ska kunna attrahera framtida kompetens med en ny varumärkesstrategi. ”Employer Branding” är namnet på denna strategi och beskrivs av konsulter som ett medel för företag att via en genomtänkt varumärkesstrategi profilera företaget på kompetensmarknaden. Grunderna i en Employer Branding-strategi innefattar följande aspekter: att kunna attrahera och behålla den bästa kompetensen samt att ena företaget kring sin vision och kultur. Vi har i denna uppsats undersökt och definierat vad en Employer Branding-strategi innebär och hur begreppet kan ställas i relation till existerande teorier. Vidare har vi genom intervjuer på Ericsson, VolvoCars och SAS utrett vilka krav en Employer Brandingstrategi ställer på företaget och dess varumärkeshantering.

Syfte: Att definiera och teoretiskt relatera Employer Branding till varumärkesforskning, samt analysera vilka krav Employer Branding ställerpå företags varumärkeshantering.

Genomförande: Vi har valt att genomföra en empirisk studie där erhållna kunskaper grundats på information från intervjuer i och observationer av verkligheten. I vår förstudie sökte vi information i syfte att definiera vad Employer Branding är (del 1, kap 1-5). Studien har till stor del varit ur ett marknadsperspektiv och av explorativ art då "fenomenet" är relativt okänt. Vi valde att först intervjua konsulter som var kunniga inom Employer Branding, för att kunna göra en empirisk begreppsbildning. Utifrån denna nya kunskap samlade vi in befintliga teorier som vi ansåg kunna sättas i relation till Employer Branding. För att förstå vilka krav som Employer Branding ställer på varumärkeshanteringen på företag har vi valt att intervjua tre stora svenska arbetsgivare utifrån två perspektiv på företagen, utifrån Human Resource- och utifrån varumärkes/marknadsföringsperspektiv. Uppsatsen har därmed två empiriska målsättningar. Till begreppsbildningen, del 1 var huvudsyftet att definiera vad Employer Branding är och i uppsatsens andra del (kapitel 6-8) att undersöka vilka krav Employer Branding ställer på företags varumärkeshantering.

Resultat: Employer Branding är en marknadsföringsstrategi som beskriver hur företaget kan profileras som arbetsgivare mot arbetsmarknaden, för att skapa en tydlig arbetsgivarimage. Detta i syfte att skapa konkurrensfördelar som arbetsgivare. Målsättningen är att attrahera och behålla rätt kompetens samt att internt förena företaget i en vision kring varumärket, ett Employer Brand. Det nya med begreppet Employer Branding är inte dess beståndsdelar utan hur strategin frammanar en ny kombination av teorier, tankesätt och arbetssätt för att skapa ett helhetsperspektiv och intern konsensus gällande varumärket, och att skapa en trovärdig arbetsgivarimage gentemot arbetsmarknaden. Strategin syftar därmed till att skapa ett långsiktigt relationsbyggande med arbetsmarknaden och företaget får ett affärsmål och en vision kring hur det ska nå ut med sitt rekryteringsbudskap till arbetsmarknaden och sina anställda över konjunkturer.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur två reseföretag i förtroendekris bemöter kritik via Twitter samt vilka strategier inom den image reparerande diskursen de använder sig av. Studien ämnar även ta fasta på om det finns ett mönster bakom bemötandet. För att uppfylla uppsatsens syfte har två frågeställningar formulerats: · Hur bemöter SJ och SAS kritik på Twitter? · Verkar företagen vara medvetna om valda strategiers möjliga effekter? För att genomföra denna undersökning utfördes först en förundersökning där antalet dialoger mellan företagen och dess kunder sammanställdes samt dialogernas längd och antalet aktörer räknades. Till huvudundersökningen studeras 20 dialoger innehållande kritik som låg närmast i tiden. För att studera dessa använde vi oss av en kvalitativ textanalys. De viktigaste resultaten visar att båda reseföretagen tillämpar liknande strategier i situationer där de kritiseras för händelser av liknande karaktär. De mest använda strategierna var för både SJ en SAS av ignorerande eller förnekande karaktär, två strategier som i denna studie har kategoriserats som avståndstagande strategier. Den huvudsakliga slutsatsen i uppsatsen är att den valda strategin inte påverkar ett företags rykte så mycket som sättet själva strategin tillämpas på.
Aim: The purpose of this paper is to examine how two travel companies in different kinds of crises respond to criticism through social media, more specifically on Twitter. The paper also aims to identify whether crises of various kinds in the travel industry are met by specific image repair strategies. If possible one aim is also to take note if there is a certain relationship between chosen strategy and the impact on the examined companies reputation. Material and Method: The first part of the research consists of a preliminary investigations where the two companies tweets is counted and measured in order to get an overall picture of their activity on Twitter. This part of the research was based on one week ́s activity per company and the tweets were recalculated to get average numbers. The qualitative part represents the key study of this research and the material consisted of the 20 latest dialogues where customers expressed criticism and complaints directed to the companies SJ and SAS. Main Results: The main results of this research found that the two companies applied similar strategies in situations when accused for incidents of resembling nature. The most used strategies was for both SJ an SAS of ignoring or denial character, two strategies that in this research was categorized as renunciative strategies. The main conclusion this essay found is that the chosen strategy does not impact a company’s reputation as much as the application of the strategy.

Syfte: Det finns mycket forskning om hur företag påverkas av tillämpandet av strategisk filantropi, dock anser vi den tidigare forskningen i ämnet vara bristfällig gällande idrottsorganisationer. Syftet med denna uppsats är således att få ökad förståelse för hur en idrottsorganisation tillämpar strategisk filantropi och hur det bidrar till att stärka deras varumärke. Metod: Vi antog ett hermeneutiskt synsätt i denna fallstudie då vi hade för avsikt att skapa förståelse för det valda ämnet. Således skapades en teoretisk referensram utifrån tidigare forskning i ämnet samt även empiriskt material som främst samlades in via tio respondenter som arbetar för Brynäs IF genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Analys genomfördes sedan genom jämförelse av det insamlade teoretiska samt empiriska materialet. Resultat & Slutsats: Undersökningen påvisar att strategisk filantropi har positiv påverkan på varumärket hos den undersökta idrottsorganisationen vilket har inneburit ekonomiska fördelar för organisationen. Det framgick att andra företag i stor utsträckning hade börjat intresserat sig för att samarbeta med Brynäs och deras filantropiska satsning. Dock fanns det tecken på att den enskilde konsumenten prioriterar andra faktorer än filantropiska satsningar, när det gäller att stärka varumärket. Examensarbetets bidrag: I denna fallstudie är det teoretiska bidraget att öka förståelsen för hur strategisk filantropi kan kopplas till ett stärkt varumärke samt på lång sikt ge ekonomiska fördelar. Undersökningen påvisar också att idrottsorganisationer som tillämpar strategisk filantropi kommer kunna åtnjuta fördelar i form av samarbeten med andra företag men samtidigt behöva motivera sin filantropiska satsning för konsumenterna. Det praktiska bidraget med detta arbete är att idrottsorganisationen måste arbeta efter sin målsättning, mäta utfallet samt följa upp och förbättra processen med det filantropiska arbetet. Vidare beskrivs vikten av att vara transparenta mot organisationens intressenter för att skapa förståelse för den filantropiska strategin och hur den förbättrar samhället samt vilka positiva effekter satsningen har på idrottsorganisationen. Detta anser vi har en positiv inverkan på intressenternas syn på de filantropiska åtagandena. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Vi anser att det finns ett behov av ytterligare forskning i ämnet. Ett område som behöver undersökas är hur den enskilde konsumenten uppfattar idrottsorganisationers strategiska filantropi. En annan punkt vi anser vara intressant för framtida forskning är varför andra företag tycks lockas att samarbeta med filantropiskt lagda idrottsorganisationer.

Turistindustrin är en viktig industri ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv samtidigt som den är mycket sårbar för negativa händelser som sker runt om i världen. Då information och nyheter sprids snabbare än någonsin, på grund av den enkelhet som finns att ta till sig information, är det lätt att destinationers image påverkas av det som förmedlas via media. Föreliggande studie fokuserar därmed på att, ur ett producentperspektiv, försöka kartlägga på vilket sätt som destinationers image påverkas av negativ nyhetsrapportering. Detta görs genom att erhålla en förståelse kring vad det är som gör att en image förändras. Samtidigt ligger ett fokus på att försöka förstå om olika strategier tillämpas av researrangörer för att förändra destinationers image samt om de arbetar med att hantera medias påverkan på destinationers image. Det med ambitionen att erhålla en kunskap kring vad som kan göras för att minska att resmönster påverkas i lika stor utsträckning som det gör idag.   För att göra detta fokuserar studien på följande forskningsfrågor:  

Hur påverkas destinationers image av negativ nyhetsrapportering? Finns det några strategier som researrangörerna tillämpar för att förändra en destinations image och i så fall vilka?   De slutsatser som studien kommer fram till är följande:  
Destinationer påverkas av negativ nyhetsrapportering till följd av att personer påverkas av det media rapporterar om. Destinationer påverkas i olika utsträckning beroende på dess internationella status, geografiska läge, resenärernas familjära känsla gentemot platsen samt själva händelsens karaktär. Alla individer påverkas olika av massmedias rapportering, beroende på tidigare erfarenheter och kunskap om platsen. Alla kriser och händelser kräver olika strategier, både storleksmässigt och beroende på vad för typ av händelse som inträffat. Researrangörer hjälper destinationer under en kortsiktig period men under ett längre perspektiv så anpassar sig researrangörerna främst till efterfrågan på marknaden. Det är en skör balansgång vad gäller att tillämpa externa aktörer vid arbetet med att förändra destinationers image. Baserad på situation tilltas olika marknadsföringsstrategier i form av kampanjer, annonser och rabatter, vilket kortsiktigt kan påverka att försäljningen ökar och resmönster påverkas. Ansvaret ligger hos oss människor hur vi erhåller rätt information via rätt kanaler som följaktligen påverkar våra uppfattningar och därmed destinationers image.
The tourist industry is important to the industry economically. But at the same time it is very vulnerable to negative happenings and events from around the world. Since information and news is spreading faster than ever before, and due to the simplicity there now is to take parts of the information about a destination, it is easy for the destinations image to be affected badly by what is being mediated throughout the media. This study therefore aims to map out in what ways destinations images are affected by negative news, reporting through a producer perspective. This is done by examining what there is that makes an image change. At the same time this study focuses on trying to understand if different strategies are being used by tour operators in order to change the image of destinations and if they are trying to handle the media's effect on such image. Therefore the ambition is to gain knowledge about what can be done to minimize the effect media has on travel patterns and reduce the extent there is today.   In order to do this, the following study focuses on these two research questions:   How is destinations images affected by negative news reports? Are there any strategies that travel agencies apply in order to change destination images, and in that case which?   The conclusions that can be drawn are following:   Destinations are affected by negative news reports because people are affected by media reportings. Destinations are affected to various degrees depending on its international status, geographical location, travelers' family feelings towards the place and the nature of the event itself. All individuals are affected differently by the media reportings, depending on previous experience and knowledge of the site. All crises and events require different strategies, both in size and depending on what type of event that has occurred. Tour operators help destinations in the short term rather than the longer term perspective, as tour operators adapt primarily to market demand. It is a tough balance in terms of applying external factors in the process of changing the image of destinations. Based on situation, different marketing strategies are used in the form of campaigns, ads and discounts, which can shortly affect sales and travel patterns. The responsibility lies on each individual and how we get the right information through the right channels, which consequently affects our perceptions and thus the image of destinations.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a chronic, disabling disorder with a lifetime prevalence of up to 2-3%, and is a leading cause of illness-related disability. OCD is characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses (obsessions) that cause anxiety or distress, and repetitive mental or behavioral acts (compulsions). Though the etiology of OCD is unclear, current evidence implicates both genetic and environmental factors in its development. Our understanding of the neurobiology underlying OCD is still evolving, with convergent evidence from clinical and preclinical studies highlighting the importance of abnormalities in cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) circuits. Evidence-based treatments for OCD include both pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. This chapter will review the etiology and neurobiology of OCD, and will provide an overview of treatment strategies.

Frequency domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) uses infrared light waves, providing intracoronary images at a high resolution and enabling the characterization of the structure and extent of coronary artery disease in unprecedented detail. OCT can study plaque components such as fibrous tissue, calcium, and lipids with high accuracy. Furthermore, the technique is potentially able to depict inflammatory cells, crystals of cholesterol, and intimal vasculature, and can clarify the mechanism of acute coronary syndromes. OCT is therefore the most promising technique to study plaque vulnerability. FD-OCT, with its ability to distinguish fresh thrombus from other tissues, can also identify culprit lesions in patients with acute coronary syndromes. Some studies are encouraging the adoption of an OCT-guided approach of stent deployment, showing the superiority versus an angiography-guided strategy. The assessment of plaque composition pre-intervention is instrumental for device selection. Identification and quantification of calcium is key to decide whether to perform direct stenting or to proceed with tissue ablation in the presence of massive calcifications. Furthermore, FD-OCT can be used to size stent length and diameter. After intervention recent data established the OCT metrics to be adopted to fine-tune stenting procedures.

Frequency domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) uses infrared light waves, providing intracoronary images at a high resolution and enabling the characterization of the structure and extent of coronary artery disease in unprecedented detail. OCT can study plaque components such as fibrous tissue, calcium, and lipids with high accuracy. Furthermore, the technique is potentially able to depict inflammatory cells, crystals of cholesterol, and intimal vasculature, and can clarify the mechanism of acute coronary syndromes. OCT is therefore the most promising technique to study plaque vulnerability. FD-OCT, with its ability to distinguish fresh thrombus from other tissues, can also identify culprit lesions in patients with acute coronary syndromes. Some studies are encouraging the adoption of an OCT-guided approach of stent deployment, showing the superiority versus an angiography-guided strategy. The assessment of plaque composition pre-intervention is instrumental for device selection. Identification and quantification of calcium is key in deciding whether to perform direct stenting or to proceed with tissue ablation in the presence of massive calcifications. Furthermore, FD-OCT can be used to size stent length and diameter. After intervention, recent data established the OCT metrics to be adopted to fine-tune stenting procedures.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common causes of severe visual loss in middle and old-age population, and often leads to serious deterioration in quality of life. Currently, the first-line treatment for neovascular AMD (nAMD) are intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) medications, including bevacizumab, ranibizumab, and aflibercept and also latest commercially available drug, brolucizumab. During initial examination and imaging and treatment follow-up for patients with nAMD, optical coherence tomography (OCT) is used to predict and assess the therapeutic response and guide the treatment. Several OCT-based biomarkers, including the central subfoveal thickness (CSFT), the presence of intraretinal cysts (IRCs) or subretinal fluid (SRF), and the presence of pigment epithelial detachment (PED), were found to influence baseline visual acuity or visual improvements. Recent analyses of large randomized control trials (RCTs) summarized the usefulness of these OCT-based biomarkers. However, many of these early studies relied on time-domain OCT to evaluate the retinal structures thus providing less precise evaluation of the retinal details. After introduction of spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) which provided high resolution images, recent studies offered new insights in specific morphological changes and their different impact on visual function in nAMD. For example, these advancement in resolution offered new classification of IRCs into degenerative and exudative which impacts treatment strategy and final outcome in the treatment of nAMD. Moreover, the recent data disclose a substantial difference between RCTs and real-world studies regarding the response to anti-VEGF therapy. In conclusions, IRCs and PED are associated with poor visual improvement in nAMD in a realworld setting. Both IRCs and SRF responded better than PED to anti-VEGF therapy. These observations mandate large longitudinal studies focusing on the usefulness of these high resolution SD-OCT biomarkers in real-world situations.

The altitude relight performance of a lean fuel injector and combustor was investigated at the altitude relight test rig at the Rolls-Royce Strategic Research Centre (SRC) in Derby. The studies were performed for different mass flow rates of air and kerosene, a combustor temperature and pressure of 278 K and 0.5 bar, respectively. Good optical access to the combustion chamber enabled the application of optical and laser measuring techniques. High-speed video imaging in the UV and visible wavelength range at a frame rate of 3.5 kHz was used to visualize the temporal development of the flame kernel. The observed differences between the UV and visible flame emissions demonstrate the different origins of the luminosity, i.e. OH* chemiluminescence and soot radiation. Further, laser-induced fluorescence of kerosene and OH radicals was applied at a frame rate of 5 Hz to visualize the fuel distribution and regions of hot and reacting mixtures. For two exemplary flames with different mass flow rates and fuel-to-air ratios, the steady burning flames after successful ignition are characterized in this paper by the distributions of kerosene, OH*, OH and soot luminosity. An example of the flame kernel development for a successful ignition is given by an image sequence from a high-speed video recording of the chemiluminescence. The importance of the upstream movement of the flame kernel as a condition preceding successful flame stabilization is identified.

Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have contributed many breakthroughs in segmentation tasks, especially in the field of medical imaging. However, domain shift and corrupted annotations, which are two common problems in medical imaging, dramatically degrade the performance of DCNNs in practice. In this paper, we propose a novel robust cross-denoising framework using two peer networks to address domain shift and corrupted label problems with a peer-review strategy. Specifically, each network performs as a mentor, mutually supervised to learn from reliable samples selected by the peer network to combat with corrupted labels. In addition, a noise-tolerant loss is proposed to encourage the network to capture the key location and filter the discrepancy under various noise-contaminant labels. To further reduce the accumulated error, we introduce a class-imbalanced cross learning using most confident predictions at class-level. Experimental results on REFUGE and Drishti-GS datasets for optic disc (OD) and optic cup (OC) segmentation demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed approach to the state-of-the-art methods.

A late injection, high exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR)-rate, low-temperature combustion strategy was investigated in a heavy-duty diesel engine using a suite of optical diagnostics: chemiluminescence for visualization of ignition and combustion, laser Mie scattering for liquid fuel imaging, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) for both OH and vapor-fuel imaging, and laser-induced incandescence (LII) for soot imaging. Fuel is injected at top dead center when the in-cylinder gases are hot and dense. Consequently, the maximum liquid fuel penetration is 27 mm, which is short enough to avoid wall impingement. The cool flame starts 4.5 crank angle degrees (CAD) after the start of injection (ASI), midway between the injector and bowl-rim, and likely helps fuel to vaporize. Within a few CAD, the cool-flame combustion reaches the bowl-rim. A large premixed combustion occurs near 9 CAD ASI, close to the bowl rim. Soot is visible shortly afterwards along the walls, typically between two adjacent jets at the head vortex location. OH PLIF indicates that premixed combustion first occurs within the jet and then spreads along the bowl rim in a thin layer, surrounding soot pockets at the start of the mixing-controlled combustion phase near 17 CAD ASI. During the mixing-controlled phase, soot is not fully oxidized and is still present near the bowl-rim late in the cycle. At the end of combustion near 27 CAD ASI, averaged PLIF images indicate two separate zones. OH PLIF appears near the bowl rim, while broadband PLIF persists late in the cycle near the injector. The most likely source of broadband PLIF is unburned fuel, which indicates that the near-injector region is a potential source of unburned hydrocarbons.

The present work extends previous efforts using “micro-mixing” fuel injectors operating on hydrogen fuel to elevated pressure and temperature and includes initial evaluation of a second injector concept. A micro-mixing fuel injector consists of multiple, small and closely spaced mixing cups, within which fuel and air mix rapidly at a small scale. The micro-mixing injection strategy offers inherent flexibility for the accommodation of staging, dilution, and fuel flexibility, and the manufacturing technology employed for building the cups affords great flexibility to address the conflicting demands of superior fuel-air mixing and flash-back avoidance. In the present work, both radial and axial flow micromixing concepts are investigated using experiments and computational fluid dynamics. The hydrogen/air reaction structure is captured using OH* chemiluminescence at 308 nm, recorded using a 16-bit thermoelectrically cooled ICCD with a UV sensitive phosphor. Instantaneous images are used to assess flashback tendencies at pressures up to 8 atm for reaction temperatures approaching 2000 K. Emissions are measured at the exit of the combustor liner using EPA certified methodologies. The results demonstrate that both concepts can produce low NOx emissions while remaining robust relative to flashback and lean blowout. The radial concepts offer superior emissions performance, while the axial concepts offer superior flashback tendencies. Based on the results obtained to date, the micro-mixing approach appears promising relative to achieving flashback free operation with low emissions at pressures up to 8 atm while maximizing scalability and fuel flexibility.

In the context of lean premixed combustion, the prevention of upstream flame propagation in the premixing zone, referred to as flashback, is a crucial challenge related to the application of hydrogen as a fuel for gas turbines. The location of flame anchoring and its impact on flashback tendencies in a technically premixed, swirl-stabilized hydrogen burner are investigated experimentally at atmospheric pressure conditions using planar laser-induced fluorescence of hydroxyl radicals (OH-PLIF). The inlet conditions are systematically varied with respect to equivalence ratio (ϕ = 0.2–1.0), bulk air velocity u0 = 30–90m/s and burner preheat temperature ranging from 300K to 700K. The burner is mounted in the atmospheric combustion test rig at the HFI, firing at a power of up to 220 kW into a 105 mm diameter quartz cylinder, which provides optical access to the flame region. The experiments were performed using an in-house burner design that previously proved to be highly resistant against flashback occurrence by applying the axial air injection strategy. Axial air injection constitutes a non-swirling air jet on the central axis of the radial swirl generator, thus, influencing the vortex breakdown position. High axial air injection yields excellent flashback resistance and is used to investigate the whole inlet parameter space. In order to trigger flashback, the amount of axially injected air is reduced, which allowed to investigate the near flashback flame behavior. Results show that both, fuel momentum of hydrogen and axial air injection alter the isothermal flow field and cause a downstream shift of the axial flame front location. Such a shift is proven beneficial for flashback resistance. This effect was quantified by applying an edge detection algorithm to the OH-PLIF images, in order to extract the location of maximum flame front likelihood xF. The temperature and equivalence ratio dependence of the parameters xF is identified to be governed by the momentum ratio between fuel and air flow J. These results contribute to the understanding of the superior flashback limits of configurations applying high amounts of axial air injection over medium or none air injection.

Multiple, interacting flames in DLE systems can increase flame surface area and promote mixing of hot-products into the reactants — leading to an efficient usage of combustion volume and improved injector performance. An optically-accessible, confined, linear array of five swirl nozzles was recently built [1] to investigate flame dynamics and validate computational strategies. The present work focuses on modeling a dataset representative of lean gas turbine conditions, using a flamelet approach. A preheated (500K), premixed fuel-air mixture (ϕ = 0.55, Tflame = 1732K) at atmospheric pressure was injected through the swirlers at 40 m/s into a rectangular chamber. High-speed laser measurements of the flow (3 component velocity field from 10 kHz stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (S-PIV)) and flame (planar laser induced fluorescence of the hydroxyl radical (OH-PLIF)) were used for model validation. The objectives of this work: (1) Evaluate a flamelet-progress variable method based on flamelet-generated manifolds (FGM) and examine its sensitivity to models for micro (scalar dissipation) and large scale mixing (anisotropic RANS vs LES) and (2) Obtain insight into the velocity field and flame stabilization in an interacting system. Computations indicate that high-swirl nozzles produce bluff-body flames anchored to shear-layer vortices due to an arrested flow expansion. The anisotropic RANS turbulence model under-predicts the recirculation zone strength but predicts flow development and Reynolds stress profiles fairly well. While LES is more accurate overall, both models over-predict flow fluctuations in the transitional flow at the end of the recirculation bubble where flow becomes axially positive. The flamelet approach predicts the flame-shape and length correctly but over-predicts the reaction rate in-between swirlers. The effect of including a reactive SDR model is to significantly increase flame-flow interaction (higher scalar variance) but does not appear to influence the overall shape or location of the flame.

This study investigates the influence of the fuel injection strategy on safety against flashback in a gas turbine model combustor with premixing of H2-air-mixtures. The flashback propensity is quantified and the flashback mechanism is identified experimentally. The A2EV swirler concept exhibits a hollow, thick walled conical structure with four tangential slots. Four fuel injector geometries were tested. One of them injects the fuel orthogonal to the air flow in the slots (jet-in-crossflow-injector, JICI). Three injector types introduce the fuel almost isokinetic to the air flow at the trailing edge of the swirler slots (trailing edge injector, TEI). Velocity and mixing fields in mixing zone and combustion chamber in isothermal water flow were measured with High-speed-Particle-Image-Velocimetry (PIV) and Highspeed-Laser-Induced-Fluorescence (LIF). The flashback limit was determined under atmospheric pressure for three air mass flows and 673 K preheat temperature for H2-air-mixtures. Flashback mechanism and trajectory of the flame tip during flashback were identified with two stereoscopically oriented intensified high-speed cameras observing the OH* radiation. We notice flashback in the core flow due to Combustion Induced Vortex Breakdown (CIVB) and Turbulent upstream Flame Propagation (TFP) near the wall dependent on the injector type. The Flashback Resistance (FBR) defined as the ratio between a characteristic flow speed and a characteristic flame speed measures the direction of propagation of a turbulent flame in the flow field. Although CIVB cannot be predicted solely based on the FBR, its distribution gives evidence for CIVB-prone states. The fuel should be injected preferably isokinetic to the air flow along the entire trailing edge in oder to reduce the RMS fluctuation of velocity and fuel concentration. The characteristic velocity in the entire cross section of the combustion chamber inlet should be at least twice the characteristic flame speed. The position of the stagnation point should be tuned to be located in the combustion chamber by adjusting the axial momentum. Those measures lead to safe operation with highly reactive fuels at high equivalence ratios.

Due to the expected increase in available fuel gas variants in the future and the interest in independence from a specific fuel, fuel flexible combustion systems are required for future gas turbine applications. Changing the fuel used for lean premixed combustion can lead to serious reliability problems in gas turbine engines caused by the different physical and chemical properties of these gases. A new innovative approach to reach efficient, safe and low-emissions operation for fuels like natural gas, syntheses gas and hydrogen with the same burner is presented in this paper. The basic idea is to use the additionally available fuel momentum of highly reactive gases stemming from their lower Wobbe index (lower volumetric heating value and density) compared to lowly reactive fuels. Using fuel momentum opens the opportunity to influence the vortex dynamics of swirl burners designed for lowly reactive gases in a favorable way for proper flame stabilization of highly reactive fuels without changing the hardware geometry. The investigations presented in the paper cover the development of the optimum basic aerodynamics of the burner and the determination of the potential of the fuel momentum in water channel experiments using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The results show that a proper usage of the fuel momentum has enough potential to adjust the flow field to the different fuels and their corresponding flame behavior. As the main challenge is to reach flashback safe fuel flexible burner operation, the main focus of the study lies on avoiding combustion induced vortex breakdown (CIVB). The mixing quality of the resulting injection strategy is determined applying laser induced fluorescence (LIF) in water channel tests. Additional OH* chemiluminescence and flashback measurements in an atmospheric combustion test rig confirm the water channel results for CH4, CH4/H2 mixtures, H2 with N2 dilution and pure H2 combustion. They also indicate a large operating window between flashback and lean blow out and show expected NOx emission levels. In summary, it is shown for a conical four slot swirl generator geometry that the proposed concept of using the fuel momentum for tuning of the vortex dynamics allows aerodynamic flame stabilization for different fuels in the same burner.

Abstract Increased global demand for cleaner energy production and growing concern about using fossil fuels have urged many researchers to focus their work on developing more efficient and flexible combustion processes. In this regard, a FLOX®-based liquid fuel single-nozzle burner is investigated for use in a Capstone C30 micro gas turbine (MGT). The main advantages of FLOX®-based combustor systems are their decreased NOx emissions and increased fuel flexibility. An atmospheric test rig is set up to investigate the behavior of the FLOX®-based liquid fuel burner under the influence of the hot gas. The circulating gas in the C30 annular combustion chamber is emulated by hot cross-flow gas generated by a 20-nozzle FLOX®-based natural gas burner operated on a separate horizontal test rig. The variation and combination of the process parameters of both burners are done systematically according to Design of Experiments (DOE) as a statistical design methodology. DOE methodology is adopted rather than the conventional one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) strategy, as DOE considers any possible interaction between the factors and reduces the number of experiments. Employing statistical design of experiments allows determining which input variables are responsible for the observed changes in the response, developing a model relating the response to the important input variables, and using this model for improving the combustor system. The results are subsequently run through the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in order to allow for an objective conclusion about the effect of the factors on the selected responses, which include mass flow rate (·fuel) and global air equivalence ratio (λ) of both of the liquid and natural gas burners. The hot gas cross-flow interaction with the liquid fuel burner is assessed through analyzing exhaust gas emissions and averaged flame OH*-chemiluminescence images. The models developed by the DOE method can be used to estimate the emissions and the flame geometrical properties of any other operating points that are not explicitly tested.