Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) statements have been used as part of diversity management in human resources for some time and research suggests they are generally perceived positively and can increase organizational attraction in underrepresented groups, thus promoting diversity and inclusion. The main aim of this doctoral dissertation is to examine the effects of a particular diversity management practice called equality monitoring (EM) and investigate public perceptions of EM and effects on behaviour such as applications, intentions to pursue a job and organizational attraction. EM is the practice of collecting data on protected characteristics (such as age, ethnicity etc.), and using it to promote inclusion or for anti-discrimination purposes.

Study I examined perceptions of EM-use in an employment context. A cross-sectional survey looked at group differences of UK ethnic group and gender, and examined if perceptions and attitudes towards EDI were moderated by perceived previous experiences of employment discrimination. Results revealed that ethnic minority respondents and women were more positive about EM and had more positive attitudes towards EDI. History of discrimination was a moderator only for White males, where perceptions of previous discrimination in employment led to less positive ratings of EM and attitudes towards EDI. In a comparison between the UK responses and those from a small Swedish sample, UK respondents gave higher ratings, but both groups had positive attitudes towards EM.

Study II reports two experiments sampling majority and minority UK ethnic groups and presented job advertisements manipulated for the presence of an industry-standard (I-S) EDI statement with or without EM statements and a control condition with no EDI information. The effects were measured on organizational attraction on three subscales: general attractiveness, prestige, and job-pursuit intention. The I-S plus EM condition resulted in the highest prestige ratings across the sample, and stronger job-pursuit intentions in the ethnic minority group. In the second experiment, the effects of framing conditions on EM information were tested. The inclusion of any EDI information positively influenced ratings, but ratings dipped for ethnic minority respondents when an EM statement was provided without explanation for why data collection is being performed.

Study III was a largescale field experiment and survey on job applicants of a Swedish county council in which job advertisements were presented with no EDI statement, an I-S statement or an EM statement and were rolled out over separate 5-month periods. A second group of occupations received no changes to the usual job advertisements and served as a control group. The effects were measured on share of job applications from foreign-born and female job applicants and on average applicant age, but no effects of the interventions were found. In a subset of job applicants, survey responses showed no effects of statements on rated organizational attraction or commitment to EDI. However, perceptions of EM were positive across the sample and tended to be highest in groups protected in discrimination law.

While the present data cannot say whether statements have an effect on the number of applicant applications, they may boost aspects of attraction especially in some disadvantaged groups. Importantly, results demonstrate that EM does not detract from attraction and is generally perceived positively when it is explained to potential job seekers, even by Swedish respondents unfamiliar with EM. This is consistent with the introduction of EM more extensively to comply with obligations under EU and UN anti-discrimination directives. More research is recommended to understand the effects of EDI initiatives in diversity management across different groups and contexts in real world settings.

Wood-based panels are indispensable in many areas, such as the construction industry and furniture production. The intensified demand for renewable materials, rising wood prices and increasing protection zones of forest areas make the wood panel industry consider alternative raw materials. The agricultural sector provides, at the same time, large amounts of sustainable and renewable lignocellulosic materials. By-products can arise along the entire agricultural production chain, i.e., during harvesting or further processing into food, but their potential has not yet been fully exploited. This thesis explored the potential of agro-industry feedstocks and side streams as raw materials for wood panel manufacturing. A literature review on the research of agricultural residues as a raw material in wood panels provided an overview of the investigated wood alternatives and their performance in final products. Most of the studies focused on the production of particleboard and its mechanical and physical properties. Often only up to 30% of wood could be replaced by alternative raw materials before the properties decreased remarkably.This thesis focused on an intensive material characterisation of barley husks (BH), oat husks (OH) and wheat bran (WB). Husks are the protective surrounding of their cereal grain and have an anatomical leaf structure. Wheat bran is a side stream of flour production and consists of the grain's outer layers. It was found that BH and OH have at 70% and 66% a slightly lower holocellulose content than wooden materials (poplar, spruce), while their hemicelluloses content exceeding that of cellulose. Additionally, WB had a very high lignin content of 43%. The chemical composition, especially the ash content (5% BH, 6% OH) and the high silicon occurrence on the husks’surfaces, reduced their wettability, as demonstrated by low contact angle measurements. Micromechanical tests showed that OH could resist a higher ultimate stress load than BH and WB, but the modulus of elasticity (MOE) was lower. The MOE was noticeably affected by the microfibril angle, which was three to four-times larger in the husks compared to wooden materials. Furthermore, the results of OH showed larger particle lengths and widths on average, approximately half as much extractive content and slightly higher thermal stability compared to BH. Therefore, OH was suggested as promising raw material and evaluated for particleboard manufacturing. In an experimental investigation, OH was explored as raw material in aspecial particleboard type, i.e., tubular particleboards. Although the boards showed higher insulation properties than wood particle-based ones, the mechanical properties were considerably affected by the reduced wettability, and the manufacturing method led to poor density distribution. In addition, the agricultural feedstock wheat starch, in combination with microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) and emulsifiable diphenylmethane diisocyanate (eMDI), was investigated as an adhesive system for fibreboard production. Wheat starch was modified to dialdehyde starch (DAS) and served as the backbone in an adhesive formulation of 99.5% bio-based content using 1% MFC and 4% eMDI based on DAS, which showed excellent mechanical and water resistance performance in fibreboards. Especially, internal bond and MOE values even exceeded those obtained in boards manufactured with commercial formaldehyde-based adhesive. The application process should be optimized in the future since the DAS was applied in powder form, and long press times were necessary because the adhesive system required a high-water content. The DAS-based adhesive was used to bond OH in particleboards, where as challenges in practical implementation were encountered. The severely shortened starch molecule reacted with the proteins of the OH, and from temperatures of 160°C, it led to accelerating degradation and reduced bonding capacity of the adhesive. Finally, this thesis provided a deeper knowledge of husked-based raw materials' properties in the context of panel manufacturing and showed that they are a possible but challenging alternative to wood. Further experimental investigations are necessary to improve the interfacial adhesion of OH and there spective adhesive system in order to produce panels with mechanical and physical properties that meet current requirements. The investigation of a DAS based adhesive opened a promising path for bio-based adhesives and the independence of formaldehyde systems. But subsequent studies must convert the used application method into a sprayable process for industrial integration

According to The Simple View of Reading, both decoding and linguistic comprehension processes are needed for reading comprehension for L1 as well as L2 students. Previous research has shown that early support is important for students who struggle with reading. The thesis aims to investigate the role of decoding and comprehension for students learning to read in Swedish as L2 and how teaching and early special support can promote reading development. The first study in the thesis has a cross-sectional design and examines scores on decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The results showed that L2 students in grades 1-3 in Sweden had significantly weaker scores on all three tests than L1 students and that both decoding and vocabulary are related to reading comprehension. The results also showed that a significantly higher proprtion of L2 students were in need of extra support in reading. The second study is a systematic scoping review that identifies findings from reading intervention studies of L2 students. The results showed that additional small group or within-class programs can support L2 students when teaching is matched to their individual needs. The study also supported the view that instruction in skills in one language can transfer to skills in another. The third study has a between-groups design and investigates the impact of a Response to Intervention (RTI) model with a focus on decoding. The results showed that the RTI model had the potential to promote both L1 and L2 student's reading ability but to a lesser extent among L2 students. The forth study has a single subject design and examines the impact of a systematic word decoding intervention in Swedish for students learning Swedish as L2. All students improved their word decoding ability. In conclusion, it can be seen that differentiated balanced reading instruction and early support in an inclusive setting can promote reading ability in students learning Swedish as a second language. A second language perspective in early reading education is discussed.

This dissertation explores the design and application of a digital tool as a supporting aid for teachers of English in Swedish upper-secondary classrooms. The scope of this dissertation is the design, development and evaluation of a focus-on-form diagnostics tool in the Swedish upper-secondary English subject context. The use of corrective feedback on student texts has been discussed extensively in previous research, but the implementation of an automated diagnostics tool as a support for the practice less so.

The teachers' needs are explored through a survey with the goal of gaining insight into problems learners commonly have when attaining grammar, vocabulary and spelling as experienced by in-service teachers. Focus is on how a digital diagnostic tool could fit within the teachers’ current routines. By combining the survey results with a review of previous research, a design specification for the tool is produced. The tool is then evaluated in teaching practice as a way of exploring the possible benefits and issues of implementing automated language diagnostics as a support for teachers. The evaluation data was produced through interventions and debriefing interviews with the participating teachers.

The results of the survey on teachers' needs indicated that any automated attempt at supporting language diagnostics within the school context would have to be able to identify a series of error patterns, such as sentence structure, punctuation, verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, article usage and spelling. In addition, the tool would have to fit within an already established practice aimed at providing learners with the necessary supports for them to succeed, while also avoiding pitfalls such as creating avoidance issues or overwhelming the students. The results of the intervention study used to evaluate the tool indicated that the respondents found it likely that the implementation of the tool would result in a higher workload initially, but would be beneficial long-term. In terms of fit with current routines and ability to identify relevant language patterns, the tool was experienced as conceptually sound. However, some issues, such as the limited target variant, technical issues surrounding on-site implementation, and the overwhelming form of the output data, remain.

The use of automated text analysis for the focus-on-form reading performed by the teachers was found to provide functional support for them. Based on the results, automated diagnostics tools are indicated as being a fitting venue for future research and development. 

Over the last decades, formal schooling has changed towards an enhanced focus on theindividual pupil’s achievements. This comprises formative assessment such as visualizingpupils’ learning processes, as well as summative assessment in terms of increased numberand importance of National tests. However, little is known, from a pupils’ perspective,about how pupils together with classmates relate to the extensive focus on assessment ofthe individual’s achievements in formal education; what do today’s pupils, who havegrown up with digital technology and social media, say and do out of the teachers’supervision when dealing with individual assignments? In line with ethnographiceducational research, this thesis explores and analyses how educational structures areimposed upon subordinate groups. This thesis gives an account of, from a pupils’perspective, the pupils’ backstage pedagogy regarding formal schoolwork inside andoutside school.The applied analytical tool is Goffman’s (1990) theater metaphor of social life; in thisstudy, pupils’ interactions with peers out of the teachers’ supervision when doingschoolwork are regarded as carried out backstage, preparing an intended impression oftheir abilities and know-how to present to the assessing teacher. Based on observations, aninnovative and discreet staging of audio-visual recordings, and semi-structured interviewswith the pupils in one class at a Swedish municipal lower secondary school whereapproximately 50 % of the pupils had a foreign background, the results show that pupilsapplied a backstage pedagogy. Outside the teachers’ supervision and awareness, theyinformally interacted with classmates and used social strategies when dealing with formalindividual assignments. The pupils’ regard for grades was the linchpin of their activities;some pupils a) swapped computers with peers and wrote original texts for classmates, b)copied peers’ assignments, c) logged into classmates’ Google classroom accounts andwrote original texts for peers, and d) shared leaked National tests on the class’s Snapchatgroup. These actions led to dilemmas in the teachers’ assessing and grading of individualpupils as well as in implementing fair, impartial grading. In looking forward, the thesisdiscusses the phenomenon and impact of backstage spaces comprising parents, siblings,Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT to improve grades. 

Working carers (WKCs) combine paid work with informal care. Little is known about this important group of carers, which is expected to increase in number due topopulation ageing and economic trends. WKCs are beneficial for society but thecombination of work and care roles has consequences for their social and financialcircumstances as well as their health. This thesis explores the caregiving situation ofWKCs.

Study I was a scoping review of research on the challenges of and solutions for thecombination of paid work and care and the role of technologies in supportingWKCs. Results included a conceptual framework which identified high and/orcompeting demands as a key challenge solved by formal support. Web-based andcommunication technologies were seen to be a potential beneficial solution tosupport WKCs. Nevertheless, barriers existed in some instances, preventing theiroptimal use.

Studies II and III were based on data from a 2018 survey of a stratified randomsample of the Swedish population. Study II described informal care provision andreceived support among Swedish female and male WKCs. Female compared tomale WKCs cared more often alone, with more intensity, experienced care as moredemanding while their ability to work was reduced to a greater extent. Study III determined the caregiving-related factors associated with WKCs’ reducedability to work and experience of caregiving as demanding. A key finding was thatpsychological stress and financial problems due to caregiving increased the odds ofboth experiencing caregiving as demanding and a reduced ability to work, whilefinding caregiving satisfying decreased the odds of both.

Study IV was an interview study of WKCs’ experiences during the COVID-19pandemic. WKCs’ positive experiences included the delivery of support by distancevia digital technologies and more time with the care-recipient. Negative experiencesincluded the fear of becoming sick, new challenges at work, and the cancellation ofhome and community-based services for the care recipient.

This thesis contributes new knowledge on the situation of WKCs in Sweden. Itsfindings have implications for how policy can more appropriately and effectivelyaddress WKCs’ needs and preferences for support and their combination of workand care roles.

Entrepreneurship has gained increasing attention as a strategic area for rural development. Addressing environmental, demographic, and gender inequality challenges in rural areas requires contextualizing entrepreneurship. Moreover, applying contextualization as a critical lens provides a deeper understanding of how and why entrepreneurship happens in rural areas. This thesis examines the interplay between entrepreneurship and gender within the rural context and is situated in the growing body of literature expanding the knowledge on entrepreneurship in rural contexts. Thus, the thesis responds to the calls to contextualize rural entrepreneurship (McElwee & Atherton, 2021) and gender in entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011; Baker & Welter, 2020; Welter 2020). The thesis is based on a qualitative study on the life stories of women and men entrepreneurs engaged in their family businesses in the rural province of Småland in southern Sweden. The thesis further contributes with a systematic literature review describing the “state of the art” in rural entrepreneurship as well as the intertwinement between the rural, gender, and entrepreneurship fields. Methodologically, the thesis contributes to the operationalization of a rural proofing concept. To theorize on the intersection of these three, often separately studied, fields (Webster 2017), the thesis illustrates the dyadic influence of the rural context on entrepreneurship and gender relations. The thesis also provides theoretical contributions concerning the interdependence of the rural context, agency, and entrepreneurship, including the implications of this interdependence for policymakers, and practitioners. Contextualizing rural entrepreneurship and gender in entrepreneurship is crucial in the development of policies able to address the needs and capabilities of rural entrepreneurs to explore the impact of different policies on rural enterprise development (Smith & McElwee, 2014). Rural proofing policies that take into account the particularities of the rural milieu, such as gender, ethnicity, and traditions within the rural community, can increase the resilience of rural enterprises in the face of challenges arising from local and global contexts.

Labour market policies, also known as activation, are common responses to poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. Activation is characterised by increased individual responsibility, requiring welfare recipients to strive for financial self-sufficiency, be it through job-seeking, training or coaching. In Sweden, activation policies are also implemented in municipal welfare services such as social assistance and activation services. However, knowledge concerning the practical implications of activation for welfare recipients is lacking. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the meaning of recognition in social work with activation. The study explores themes such as poverty, dignity and inclusion in society. Theoretically, the thesis draws on Axel Honneth’s critical theory of recognition, which concerns social justice and a human need of being recognised as a full member of society.

The study examines social assistance and activation services in five municipalities in southern Sweden, which participated in a project funded by the European Social Fund, as a case of activation. The project consisted of a skills training programme aimed at enhancing recognition. Social workers underwent training in recognition theory and its implementation in practice over two years. The thesis studies the outcome of the training programme, partly through a survey with social workers and partly through a pre-post-test survey with welfare recipients in the case study municipalities and in five comparison municipalities. However, the study also draws upon welfare recipients’ experiences in activation through focus group and individual interviews, and open-ended survey responses from the pre-post-test.

The research findings suggest that the skills training programme did not significantly increase recognition. Also, on the one hand, welfare recipients experience the activation practices as recognising, through supportive individual interactions, increased financial resources and social esteem for work-related contributions. On the other hand, they still experience poverty, low status and limited employment prospects. The main conclusion of the thesis is therefore that welfare recipients are subject to a marginal recognition in activation. On the basis of this conclusion, a discussion is raised about the potential of social work with activation to fully recognise welfare recipients.

This dissertation is about developing our knowledge of teaching and student learning through examining teaching that has been designed and implemented with in a learning study. Applying an interdisciplinary approach, this research builds knowledge of how teaching can be designed and implemented for young students with different prior knowledge of mathematics. The focus is on inclusive education and, in particular, on inclusive learning environments. Teaching and learning about whole numbers for students in grades 2 and 3 were studied.The empirical material, mainly comprising videotaped lessons and the results of identical knowledge tests that the students completed before and after the lessons, was collected in a learning study and used in two steps. First, the teaching characteristics were analysed at a collective level, mainly based on test results used to measure learning outcomes, i.e.,students’ ability to expand their number range from natural to whole numbers. The extent to which the teaching characteristics were transferable to new teaching contexts was also investigated. Second, an interdisciplinary approach was followed, applying knowledge and theories from special needs education and mathematics education. Examining teaching characteristics in relation to outcomes, the research perspective expanded from the collective to the individual level, emphasizing participation and learning among students with different prior knowledge according to test results. Notably, at a collective level, teaching was characterized by being based on the identification of critical aspects. Analyses of teaching outcomes at the individual level revealed a mixed picture of student learning and participation in the learning study lessons. Concerning one studied lesson, an analysis of student test results revealed considerable diversity in student achievement, indicating that some students learned what was intended while others did not. However, test results from another lesson indicated that all students progressed in learning about whole numbers. During this lesson, the teacher-guided mathematical discourse incorporating several routines seemed to be central to facilitating student participation as well as change in the discourse on whole numbers.The main conclusion is that the interdisciplinary research approach helped foster deeper insight into teaching design and its outcomes regarding individual students’ learning and participation. In addition, the findings emphasize the importance of teachers taking responsibility for inviting the students into the mathematical discourse in relation to the access aspect of participation, and then, through challenging questions, facilitating progress to the collaborative aspect of participation. 

Today's software landscape features a high degree of complexity, frequent changes in requirements and stakeholder goals, and uncertainty.Uncertainty and high complexity imply a threat landscape where cybersecurity attacks are a common occurrence while their consequences are often severe. Self-adaptive systems have been proposed to mitigate the complexity and frequent changes by adapting at run-time to deal with situations not known at design time.Self-adaptive systems that aim to identify, analyse and mitigate threats autonomously are called self-protecting systems.This thesis contributes approaches towards developing systems with self-protection capabilities under two perspectives.

Under the first perspective, we enhance the security of component-based systems and equip them with self-protection capabilities that reduce the exposedattack surface or provide efficient defenses against identified attacks. We target systems where information about the system components and the adaptationdecisions is available, and  control over the adaptation is possible. We employ runtime threat modeling and analysis using quantitative risk analysis and probabilistic verification to rank adaptations to be applied in the system in terms of their security levels.  We then introduce modular and incremental verification approaches to tackle the scalability issues of probabilistic verification to be able to analyze larger-scale software systems.To protect against cyberattacks that cannot be mitigated by reducing the exposed attack surface, we propose an approach to analyze the security of different software architectures incorporating countermeasures to decide on the most suitable ones to evolve to.

Under the second perspective, we study open decentralized systems where we have limited information about and limited control over the system entities. We employ decentralized information flow control mechanisms to enforce security by controlling the interactions among the system elements.We extend decentralized information flow control by incorporating trust and adding adaptationcapabilities that allow the system to identify security threats and self-organize to maximize trust between the system entities.

The aim of this thesis is to explore, from a critical interpretive perspective, how discourses and ideological dilemmas emerge in upper secondary school teaching in civics in relation to the upper secondary school curriculum Lgy11. The theoretical perspectives and concepts are developed within the frameworks of curriculum theory and discursive psychology. While curriculum theory directs attention toward what counts as knowledge in the subject of civics, discursive psychology focuses more specifically on the social construction of discourses and dilemmas that emerge from teachers' and students' understanding of the teaching of the subject. The data of the study consist of interviews with 22 teachers, 98 students, and nine principals in Swedish upper secondary schools. Subject matter curricula in civics have also been analysed. The first empirical chapter deals with discourses that can be linked to the understanding of the nature of civics as a subject in upper secondary school. The second empirical chapter highlights discourses of teaching in civics. In the third empirical chapter, civics as a democracy subject is discussed, with a starting point in the typology of “the good citizen” by Westheimer and Kahne. The empirical findings and analyses indicate several different discourses. Within discourses of the subject of civics, the subject is constructed as a subject of democracy, as a subject of economy, as a subject of analysis, and as a functional subject. Regarding teaching in the subject of civics, the emerging teaching discourses in the subject are as arenas for individual positioning, socialization, student-active learning, and teacher-led teaching. For the students in university preparatory programs, analytical skills are emphasized in the teaching of civics. In vocational programs, the teaching has an emphasis on personal responsibility. However, students in both vocational and university preparatory programs are not expected to engage in society as adults to any great extent. Civics is taught with an emphasis on citizenship education as a matter of shaping personally responsible citizens.

Understanding how eco-evolutionary processes and environmental variation shape different dimensions of biodiversity is a major goal in evolutionary biology and ecology, and essential for the successful protection of biological variation. In this thesis, I used fritillary butterflies as model organisms to explore and further understand the origin and dynamics of genetic and phenotypic variation at different hierarchical levels of organisation and across different spatial scales.

A combination of mark-release-recapture, morphological, and genomic analyses indicated that a complex interaction of eco-evolutionary processes has contributed to the observed patterns of variation within and between the studied fritillary species. Results implied that mechanisms influencing gene flow seem to have played a crucial role in shaping genetic and phenotypic large-scale variation. Geographic distance and landscape elements, which might hinder dispersal, were identified as important drivers of population divergence in all studied species. Although some parallel patterns were evident, such as shared genetic clusters in former glacial refugia from which apparent northward dispersal took place, and similar responses to selective pressures regarding wing melanisation, most associations of environmental factors with the genetic and phenotypic variation were species-specific.

Spatial heterogeneity of ecological environments was also important for population differentiation. For example, small-scaled phenotypic and genetic divergence documented between two colour morphs in Fabriciana adippe might be explained by adaptation to distinct microhabitats within the same landscape. On a large scale, the phenotypic variation in F. adippe and Speyeria aglaja (but not F. niobe) was linked to similar environmental variables as their genetic structure, hinting at a genetic underpinning of the morphological variation due to local adaption. Besides deterministic processes such as divergent selection, stochastic processes such as genetic drift and founder events might have contributed to the patterns of variation in these species.

This thesis illustrates that even closely related species and populations in sympatry may respond differently to shared environments, possibly due to differences in dispersal abilities and ecological niche breadth. As the relative importance of eco-evolutionary processes may vary between species, my thesis thereby highlights the importance of comparative studies of variation to understand and protect biodiversity.

Aim: The overall aim was to explore Emergency Department triage in Swedenthrough a specific focus on the Swedish triage system, RETTS© and RegisteredNurses’ experience of triage.

Methods: Study I was a cross-sectional, prospective, national survey. Fiftyone(75%) EDs completed a digital questionnaire about triage and triage relatedwork. Study II was longitudinal, retrospective, register-based. In total 74,845patient ED visits were extracted, two annual cohorts from two EDs. Study IIIwas cross-sectional, 28 RNs from two EDs allocated triage levels on 46authentic patient scenarios. Study IV was descriptive, inductive, based on semistructuredinterviews with 14 RNs representing different parts of Sweden andlevels of hospitals. Descriptive (I, II, III), inferential (II), kappa statics (III), andinductive content analyses (IV) were applied.

Results: Triage is firmly implemented in Swedish EDs and the Swedish triagesystem, RETTS© is the most commonly applied system but with variation on howRETTS© is applied or taught. RETTS© demonstrated no statistically significantdifference between the annual upgrades regarding ten-day and 72-hour mortality,but for admission to intensive care unit (ICU). Statistically significant differencewas demonstrated for mortality when data was adjusted for gender, age andcomorbidity. There was a statistically significant difference between the triagelevels for all outcomes. An inability to distinguish between stable/unstable patientwas demonstrated when 21/46 scenarios were triaged over this boundary. RETTS©reliability was moderate with κ=0.562. Furthermore, the RNs experience of triagewas described as A Balancing Act of an Ambiguous Assignment, a movementbetween uncomplicated and complex assessments performed with visible andimplicit prerequisites and in time perspectives that is both unpredictable andpredictable.

Conclusion: Triage is performed in the majority of Swedish EDs and RETTS© isthe most commonly applied triage system, however, without a unanimous approach.The annual upgrade of RETTS© do not improve the ability to identify risk for shorttermmortality, but for admission to ICU. Furthermore, RETTS© reliability wasmoderate, and the RNs considered triage as a balancing act, a performance that hasto result in a safe assessment of the patient’s needs.

Desire has been recognized as a crucial driver of entrepreneurial behavior and economic development for over a century, but despite its central position in the theorization of entrepreneurship, its underlying philosophical assumptions are rarely questioned. Seeking to pave the way for an understanding of desire as a quality of entrepreneurial practices, in this dissertation I uncover and problematize the prevailing understanding of desire in entrepreneurship research, which frequently entails viewing desire as a motivational force situated within the entrepreneurial subject.

In the literature review I identify four different ways in which desire has previously been linked to entrepreneurship and used to understand entrepreneurial phenomena: (a) desire as a dispositional quality of the entrepreneur, (b) entrepreneurship as a means of producing desirable outcomes, (c) entrepreneurship as a desirable category in itself, and (d) entrepreneurship as a capacity to produce desiring. Against this backdrop, I suggest a framework of desire by looking to the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, drawing on his relational ontology and praxeology to understand desire as socially distributed and culturally constituted. I then use this Bourdieusian framework in a qualitative case study about the creation of a contemporary art exhibition venue, using the framework to explore entrepreneurial practices and to address the research inquiry into how desire is organized in the area of culture.

The case study illustrates how desiring is deeply intertwined with entrepreneurial practices and demonstrates how a Bourdieusian perspective can be used to provide a more nuanced picture of the role desire plays in processes of organizational emergence. The dissertation ultimately brings forth a way of understanding desire through the metaphor of organizing desire, which I summarize in ten tenets. The study makes several contributions: Theoretically, it brings forth an understanding of organizing desire that can enrich entrepreneurship theory and give greater insight into entrepreneurial phenomena. Empirically, the study presents and analyzes a case of entrepreneurship situated within the area of arts and culture. Methodologically, the study offers a reflection on the challenges of studying organizations in emergence and adopts a Bourdieusian framework to arrive at an understanding of desire as a force that both organizes entrepreneurial practices and is organized by them. Finally, in practical terms this dissertation implies that desire need not be viewed as a quality exclusively belonging to individual entrepreneurs but can also be seen as part of the social world—an insight that comes with an ethical responsibility for other desiring beings.

Information technology is now part of almost every product and service, and the ever-increasing rate of technology and software development demands an appropriate software development process model. The model, whichdescribes the software development process, plays a crucial role for success in software projects. Models are constantly produced and refined in academia and practice, but models from academia tend to remain unused in practice, or take a long time to reach practice. Currently there is a lack of knowledge on how models are transferred or diffused in and between academia and practice, which is the knowledge gap that this study aims to investigate.

The research purpose has thus been to investigate and ground a theory about the diffusion of software process models in and between academia and practice. The study is based on data collected from 31 informants, from both academia and practice, and analyzed with a grounded theory method approach. The Diffusion of Innovation theory was consulted during theory development, and the perceived model characteristics, complexity, ando bservability are seen as distinguishing differences between the theories.

The resulting grounded theory, “Establishment Patterns of Model Diffusion” describes four important areas, and how they affect each other ina model diffusion situation. The areas are: Motivation; Establishment; Usage; and Quality. How model diffusion takes place depends on the are as themselves, on the prevailing conditions, on the knowledge at hand and on how the areas are evaluated. This shows multi-faceted, time-dependent, and unpredictable patterns for model diffusion. The patterns include experience of model use, the past and future context of use, the characteristics of the model, requirements in the working process, individuals’ empowerment, availability of multiple models, composition of project groups, and the group members’ private and business networks.

The findings have several implications. For academia, the benefits may be in the awareness of the multiple patterns for model diffusion and software process improvements, which cannot be separated from each other. Models are constantly adopted and simultaneously modified in practice. Practice may benefit from an awareness of the multiple patterns for model diffusionand sources of experience and knowledge, and how to make use of the existing knowledge capital strategically. Both academia and practice may also benefit from increased cooperation, each contributing their unique experience, and consequently increasing relevance for practice in the diffusion of models, and in developing and receiving research results in a useful format.

The enormous challenge of climate change is discussed and debated today because of its major impact on life on Earth. The forests have an important role to play as the plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere through their photosynthesis and the growing tree retain carbon (C). Hence, the larger the growth the greater the carbon storage and climate benefit. The demand for wood and wood products is increasing as well as the ongoing debate about forest management. Therefore, alternative management methods to increase wood production is of interest and the effects these methods could have on climate change mitigation. In this context this Thesis deals with the effect of fertilization on carbon balance and growth in young forest as well as flows of the greenhouse gases, CO₂, methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) from forest land. In addition, it deals also with the reliability and comparability of different measurement methods which are compared with respect to the carbon balance.

The studies have been carried out in a young mixed stand of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) and birch (Betula pendula and B.pubescens) on a storm-felled (Gudrun 2005) area in southern Sweden, Kronoberg county. Part of the area was fertilized with 150 kg N ha-1 everysecond year from 2014 and forward, while the other part was kept unfertilized. In the unfertilized part a dose experiment was set up where 0,150, 300, and 450 kg N ha^-1 were added to investigate the impact of the different fertilizer levels on forest floor greenhouse gas fluxes. Chamber measurements of forest floor fluxes, eddy-flux measurements of stand net-fluxes and tree measurements of height, diameter and birch leaf biomass were conducted in different, occasionally overlapping, periods in the years 2013-2021.

The results show that even if the flows of CO₂ from the forest floor increase initially after a first standard fertilization, the effect decreases quickly. The net fluxes show that the stands become carbon sinks already eight years after the storm with a net uptake of about 18 ton CO₂ ha^-1 yr^-1 of. The forest floor fluxes of CH₄ and N₂O also show a short-term effect of fertilization, however the levels are very low compared to CO₂. The fertilization induced increase of total tree biomass growth increased with time. The results show that 12 and 15 years after regeneration, the fertilization compared to the control has increased the tree growth by 3.4 and 6.3 m³ ha^-1 yr^-1 and carbon storage by 4.7 and 8.7 ton C ha^-1 yr^-1 respectively.

Comparison of measurement results of the Eddy-flux technique's netflows and chamber measurements of soil respiration together with tree growth shows the importance of calibrating the measurement methods when the results are later to be used in modeling future climate scenarios.

The research project started with the purpose of understanding the importance of corporate governance in franchising. The dissertation includes four articles all of which describe the governance of franchising.The first article is a review study using a strategy of systematic search to produce a systematic review. The second article, building on the first, expands the conceptual domain within the governance of franchising. The third is an empirical contribution by an exploratory study with theory development. Finally, the fourth article evaluates governance of the findings in articles 1-3 in an empirical model. The first article explores whether corporate governance could be a factor explaining the success or failure of franchising networks. The article presents for the first time a review of articles at the interface of corporate governance and franchising. This division enables a detailed analysis of current research in the field. The contribution of article 1 is that the literature largely ignores the traditional view of corporate governance when examining, the structure and performance of franchising networks. Additionally, article 1 finds that franchising literature covers governance topics when discussing the governance modes and provides grounds for developing corporate governance theories. The second article aims at expanding the conceptual domain within governance of franchising. Article 2 explores at which levels a franchise company is viewed and suggests a conceptual model that expands the concept of governance in franchising to include higher-order ownership structures. The article provides guidance for future work that expands corporate governance and franchising scholarship by highlighting some research questions of significant interest related to an emerging view of governance in franchising. Furthermore, it clarifies the differing perspectives on corporate governance and franchising. The contribution of the second article offers a wider corporate governance view, together with the franchisees that invest their own capital and maintain their own balance sheets, providing a rich context to explore governance issues. The theoretical insight has contributed to a new expanded franchise corporate governance framework model for analyzing the area of governance in franchising.The third article explores the absence of understanding of the role and influence of the individual members in the governance processes of these franchise companies. Furthermore, this qualitative study of how the ownership and governance of the firm affect the franchise system shows the limited knowledge we have within the area of governance in franchise companies. The findings revealed to suggest that governance and ownership transform how franchise businesses are directed, by applying contracts as a buffer between the governance layers but also with are lational governance view not only from the franchisor but also at the board of director’s level. The contribution of this empirical data suggestsinteresting results that franchise depends on ownership. In conclusion, this paper shows that the choice of franchise can depend on the ownership situation. While franchise research has historically mainly focused on the channel governance of the relationship between the franchisee and the franchisor and from a theoretical perspective, the summary of the interviews and data in the third article points us to a new typology for the governance situation. The fourth article considered world sales, productivity, and franchise levels as dependent variables. If the company has survived at the top, it provides an indirect basis for an effective franchising model. In this study, I examined the effects of corporate governance by studying ownership changes impacton firm franchise performance. It is commonly assumed that superior corporate governance provides strategic and operational benefits and should result in superior financial performance. The fourth article focused on the 139 largest US-based international firms in the franchise retail sector over 10 years, conducting a panel fixed effect regression-based analysis. The article emphasizes on understanding how ownership characteristics have led to financially significant effects on the level of franchising. The findings provided evidence that changes in ownership governance in franchising firms create higher levels of franchising. If there is a change in ownership structure the franchise performance in terms of world sales is significantly increased and indicating that ownership structure change affects franchising performance and thus supports the research question. The fourth article fills the gaps by examining the role of ownership governance and how that affects franchise companies. Additionally, this article’s research opens up for future examination of the endurance of the stable plural-form theory.

Background: In Sweden, youth sexual health is worse than that of other residents. Youth also report exposure to violence to a greater extent, threatening their health.

Aim: The aim was to investigate youth’s sexual behaviour, their exposure to violence and self-rated health and its potential relationship, and explore whether youth exposed to violence disclose this.

Method: Cross-sectional studies include data from a web survey among exchange students and youth visiting a youth centre (I–III). Besides background questions, online questionnaires contained validated questions and instruments covering sexual behaviour, exposure to violence, and mental health. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used. A qualitative study was conducted where abused youth were interviewed, and the data were analysed with content analysis (IV).

Results: Most outgoing exchange students rated their health highly, and over half had received information regarding HIV/sexually transmitted infection or safer sex before their trip (I). Eight out of ten exchange students reported at least one sexual risk behaviour. Among youth visiting the youth centre, a greater proportion of teenagers reported sexual debut before age 15 compared with young adults (II). A greater proportion of young adults indicated having had a sexually transmitted infection compared with teenagers (II). Associations were shown between several sexual risk behaviours and exposure to violence, while no difference was shown between the age groups regarding the occurrence of violence (II). Nine out of ten youth rated their health as high, but four out of ten reported being exposed to violence in their lifetime (III). A larger proportion of those exposed to violence reported low self-rated health compared with those not exposed to violence (III). All the youth interviewed expressed that being exposed to violence resulted in losing their security; they described the importance of being questioned about violence, and most of them wanted to disclose having been exposed to violence (IV).

Conclusion: A high incidence of sexual risk behaviour and exposure to violence and the relationship between these experiences was demonstrated in youth. Midwives need to ask sensitive questions to identify youth who risk their health and offer advice or support. How questions are posed can determine whether youth disclose exposure to violence.

The Art of Needle Exchange: The Significance of Needle Exchange Programs at the Intersection of Politics, Professional Practice, and People's Everyday Lives

This doctoral thesis discusses how social meanings are constructed in needle exchange programs. For nearly four decades, Sweden has implemented needle exchange programs to prevent the spread of bloodborne viral infections. However, a restrictive drug policy and resistance to harm reduction efforts have led to limitations in access to these programs, both in terms of geography and through an exclusionary regulatory framework. The effectiveness of needle exchange programs in reducing the risk of infection associated with injection-related behaviour is clearly positive. However, there are limited scientific studies on the more socially oriented meanings of needle exchange programs. 

With needle exchange programs as a physical and social place, the overarching aim of this thesis is to understand how the creation of social meanings of needle exchanges is achieved through time, space, and social interaction, primarily between the program's visitors and its staff. 

The empirical material primarily consists of 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observations and informal conversations at two needle exchange programs in southern Sweden, as well as in the everyday lives of individuals who visit these programs. Through extensive ethnographic narratives and analyses based on theories of everyday life, resistance, time, and gifts, the thesis demonstrates that needle exchange programs hold multiple meanings created through interactions between visitors and staff. 

Two concurrent and parallel tracks contribute to understanding what needle exchange programs mean to those who visit them. One track starts with a counterproductive regulatory framework where requirements and rules result in some visitors coming less often than they need to or not at all. The other track involves countless material and relational exchanges that foster positive experiences of the needle exchange program, turning it into a place of social hope and a changed future. 

One of the thesis's most significant findings concerns the social work that takes place at the needle exchange program in the interactions between visitors and staff. These interactions also occur at the intersection of the norms and hierarchies of the drug world and the Swedish dream of a drug- free society. In the waiting room of the needle exchange program, negotiations are constantly underway to maintain it as a place of hopeful encounters, as opposed to a destructive refuge.

This doctoral thesis in mathematics consists of three articles that explore the probabilistic structure of quantum mechanics and quantization from a novel perspective.

The thesis adopts a probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics, which views the archetypical quantum experiments of Bell- and double-slit- type as violating the principle of non-contextuality, i.e., the assertion that all events and observables are always representable on one single Kolmogorovian probability space, rather than the principles of realism or locality. This probabilistic interpretation posits that quantum mechanics constitutes a probability theory that adheres to the principle of contextuality, and that quantum events explicitly occur at the level of measurement, rather than the level of that which is measured, as these are traditionally interpreted.

The thesis establishes a natural connection between the probabilistic structure of quantum mechanics, specifically Born’s rule, and the frequentist interpretation of probability. The major conceptual step in establishing this connection is to re-identify quantum observables instead as unitary representations of groups, whose irreducible sub-representations correspond to the observable’s different possible outcomes, rather than primarily as self- adjoint operators.

Furthermore, the thesis reformulates classical statistical mechanics in the formalism of quantum mechanics, known as the Koopman-von Neumann formulation, to demonstrate that classical statistical mechanics also adheres to the principle of contextuality. This finding is significant because it raises questions about the existence of a hidden-variable model of classical statistical mechanics of the kind as examined in Bell’s theorem, where this presumed hidden-variable model traditionally has been seen as that which distinguishes "classical" from "quantum" probability.A novel reformulation of quantization is proposed considering it rather in terms of the representation theory of Hamiltonian flows and their associated inherent symmetry group of symplectomorphisms. Contrary to the traditional view of quantization, this formulation can be regarded as compatible with the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics and offers a new perspective on the quantization of gravity.

The overarching aim of the thesis is to explore how local school management actors, i.e. school principals and municipal management staff, interpret and enact changes in their organizations following the demands and intentions derived from the teacher certification reform in Swedish School-age Educare. Through four individual research articles and a summary chapter, this compilation thesis focuses on the local organizing efforts and areas of conflict in enacting the initiatives of quality development and equivalence within the educational program. As a novel entity when compared to the institutional and professional properties of the neighboring school forms, and with little prior research into the managerial practice of the educational program, this thesis contributes to the understanding of professional standards-implementation and educational management outside of the compulsory school system. The thesis takes its theoretical point of departure in a symbolic interactionist approach toorganizational sensemaking – providing a framework for exploring actors’ interpretations, interactions and actions in making sense of the reform in relation to themselves, their organizations and extended environments. Guided by constructivist grounded theory methodology, the sub-studies ofthe thesis are carried out through case studies and qualitative interview studies.The main findings of the thesis show that managerial actors in Swedish School-age Educare interpret and enact the intentions and demands of the reform based on three co-constructive and dilemmatic factors that encompass the identity, quality and resource-based aspects of the educational program. Managers, across both the municipal and local school level, untangle and maneuver within and between these factors by means of contextual rationality and pragmatic problem-solving – resulting in a wide variation in outcomes between individual organizations. This is apparent incommon activities affected by the content of the reform, such as professional development of current staff, recruitment procedures and hiring routines and the re-structuring of staff responsibilities. As a result of this, issues arise in relation to the initial reform intentions and logic of qualitative equivalence through professional standardization in School-age Educare, with further implications for local managerial practice towards improvement and change in the educational program.

Wood has been used as a construction material for a very long time. The development of efficient industrial production processes of wood has expanded the use of the material with the introduction of new products, such as engineered wood products. Considering the adversely changing climate, the use of wood in construction is advocated due to its environmental benefits, such as its low carbon footprint. As a naturally growing material, however, wood has a high moisture content when harvested. Additionally, the chemical composition of wood fibers together with its porous structure, gives wood a strong affinity towards moisture, throughout the whole lifecycle of the material. The moisture content in wood strongly influences its physical and mechanical properties, such as strength, stiffness, shape stability and durability properties. Further, it requires energy-intensive drying processes to bring wood to the desired moisture content for structural use.

The task of predicting the moisture content and transport of moisture in wood is challenging. It involves multiple phases, i.e., liquid water, gaseous vapor and the solid wood fibers, and it also engages a number of physical processes such as evaporation/condensation, adsorption/desorption, diffusion and seepage of the fluids, heat conduction and swelling/shrinkage of the wood fibers.

This thesis investigates the interplay between heat, moisture and their associated transport mechanisms in wood. The mechanics of the solid wood material is also studied. The primary goal of this thesis is to develop a thermodynamically consistent continuum model that is capable of predicting the macroscopic behavior of wood subjected to varying climate conditions and mechanical loading. The hybrid mixture theory is used todevelop a multiphase continuum model for wood, in which, at the macroscale, the wood material is considered to contain immiscible solid, liquid and gaseous phases. Constitutive relations are derived by fulfillment of the entropy inequality at the macroscopic scale. Interaction processes involving phase changes through sorption and evaporation/condensation, and diffusive transport mechanisms are described using the macroscale chemical potential as defined by the hybrid mixture theory.

The thesis starts with introductory chapters describing the overall properties of wood of importance in this context and the interactions between wood and moisture. A summary of the mixture theory as applied to this work is also presented. The thesis contains four attached papers, Paper I, Paper II, Paper III and Paper IV. In Paper I a model describing moisture transport and sorption processes in wood below the saturation point of the wood fibers is presented. The model is developed further, in Paper II and Paper III, to incorporate wood-water interactions below and above the fiber saturation point. Shrinkage/swelling and non-linear elastic deformations are also implemented. A drying test simulation of wood starting from the green state is performed and compared to experimental results. The model presented in Paper II and Paper III is complemented in Paper IV by considering damage associated with anisotropic cracking of the solid wood material. The phase field fracture modeling approach is used for this purpose. The resulting non-linear coupled partial differential equations governing the macroscopic behavior of the material are solved numerically using the finite element method. Simulations are performed to check the overall performance of the theoretical framework behind the proposed models and they are compared to experimental results for the identification of some of the material parameters of the models.

Dams in rivers modify the habitats and hinder dispersal and migration. Since moving around is an essential part of most organisms’ life histories, this represents a new regime for life in freshwater. This thesis addresses several issues that are either directly or indirectly related to fragmentation and aims to contribute to our understanding of living and coping in fragmented riverscapes. It contains studies conducted on different study species and several spatial, temporal, and ecological scales.

I first show that individuals in spawning migrating populations of cyprinid fish are phenotypically sorted along the length of a river with culverts. Results support the spatial sorting hypothesis, and are consistent between species, between sexes, and among individuals within sex; smaller and slimmer fish migrate further. I next show that eel ladders, which are passage solutions at dams aimed at increasing the distribution of European eel, did not remove the negative barrier effect of the dam.

Next, I show that the spatial configuration of distinct rapid-flowing habitats has significant impacts on the well-being of brown trout populations. Subpopulations in larger and closer located habitats were significantly denser and more stable, likely because of lower extinction rates and higher immigration rates. I further evaluated the effects of dams on spatial synchrony in populations of trout, Eurasian minnow, and northern pike; dams contributed to demographic isolation by decreasing synchrony in the two former species, but the effects of population synchrony on global population viability were weak.

Lastly, I show how the distribution and demography of the threatened freshwater pearl mussel is influenced by environmental heterogeneity and viability of host fish populations. Mussel populations residing in colder regions, and in locations with more viable host fish populations, had retained recruitment to a higher degree. The long-lived mussels exemplify how stress in aquatic environments can accumulate and manifest over time.

This thesis emphasizes in different ways that the spatial context in which individuals, populations and species move, distribute, and interact matters. Each study has important conservation implications regarding its study species, study system, or for the environmental aspect under scrutiny.

Aim: This dissertation called the COPE (Caring Optimized Physical Environment) project, aimed to evaluate the perceptions of patients, family members, and staff regarding support from the physical environment, with a focus on light, color, and person-centered climate, before and after there furbishment and remodeling of an emergency department (ED).

Methods: A quasi-experimental design was employed, implementing evidence-based design principles for light and color in the ED. The study evaluated the perceived support and person-centered climate among participants using a newly developed and validated questionnaire, the Light and Color Questionnaire (LCQ). It also validated a Swedish version of the Person-centered Climate Questionnaire for family members (PCQ-F). A total of 600 participants, including patients, family members, and staff, were included in the study.

Results: The scores for the perceptions of light and color and person centered climate were higher after the redesign than before for patients, family members, and staff. Thus, redesign of a healthcare environment based on knowledge and experience in light and color design corresponded with a positive change in self rated perceived support of that environment to all three groups: patients, family members, and staff. The redesign involved enhancing access to natural daylight by incorporating additional windows and diverse artificial lighting options. The redesign also included the use of color coding to facilitate way finding and uniform colors for shared floor surfaces and contrasting colors for non-patient areas to enhance safety.

Conclusion: The intervention, which focused on optimizing lighting and color in the ED, coincided with an increased perceived support from light and color for patients, family members, and staff. Further, the changes in light and color, along with the overall redesign, concurred with a higher score for perceived person-centered climate. These findings emphasize the importance of evidence-based design interventions and highlight the potential benefits they can bring to staff and patients in other health care settings.

Aim: The overall aim for this thesis was to explore continuity of care through patients’, family carers’, and health care personnel’s perceptions, and to develop and evaluate a patient-reported experience measure of continuity of care.

Method: This thesis consists of four studies; I have a qualitative explorative design and II have a qualitative descriptive design, whereas III and IV are methodological studies. In studies I and II, data were collected from four geographically disparate areas in Sweden; in studies III and IV, data were collected in one of these areas. Data were collected using individual (I, II, III), focus groups, pair interviews (II), and questionnaires (III, IV). Data were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory (I), conventional content analysis (II), and according to classical test theory (III), and Rasch measurement theory (IV).

Results: For patients to experience continuity of care, all aspects were interconnected, as access to tailored information was essential for gaining mutual understanding regardless of who was performing a care task. This required clarity in responsibilities and roles, interprofessional collaboration, and a trusting relationship over time and space between each link in the patient’s care trajectory (I). Further, Study II showed that to achieve continuity of care, professional and cross disciplinary cooperation at micro, meso and macro levels were needed. Continuity of care is dependent on long-term and person-centered relationships, dynamic stability in the organizational structure, and shared responsibility for cohesive care enabling uniform solutions for knowledge and information exchange (II). Studies III and IV resulted in the Patient-Experienced Continuity of care Questionnaire (PECQ). The instrument contains 20 items measuring four dimensions of continuity of care: Information (four items), Relation (six item), Management (five item), and Knowledge (five item). Overall, the PECQ showed satisfactory measurement properties according to classical test theory and Rasch measurement theory (III, IV) regarding factor structure, unidimensional, local independence, response category function, differential item functioning for age and sex, and internal consistency reliability.

Conclusion: Continuity of care is perceived as multidimensional, containing several important aspects working in synergy and varying over time. To achieve continuity of care, information and knowledge sharing need to cross disciplinary and organizational boundaries. Collaborative responsibility is needed, vertically through all levels of the system, instead of focusing on personal responsibility horizontally. The PECQ can provide information on different dimensions of continuity, useful for driving quality improvements in the primary care context. 

Valuable hardwoods, such as oak, although renewable, present limitations in product realisation in terms of their cost and availability, often attributed to production waste and sub-optimal product design factors. The slicing technique facilitates the production of thin wood lamellae, minimising waste and ensuring optimal material conversion. This study explores the application of sliced lamellae in engineered wood flooring, focusing on quality aspects and control. 

The performance of sliced lamella-based engineered flooring was compared with traditional parquet flooring elements through standard performance tests, which scrutinised the characteristics of appearance, delamination, and dimensional stability under varying climate conditions. The climate tests highlighted the significant flaws of sliced lamella-based flooring elements: surface-checking. Despite diminished delamination resistance, the dimensional stability excelled for the sliced lamella–based flooring. Primary observations indicated that the study’s constraints are related to a lack of surface-checking quantitative measurements and an absence of sliced lamellae quality control. 

The subsequent research characterised sliced lamellae quality using the properties of slicing checks and mechanical performance perpendicular to the grain. Slicing thickness is considered a critical variable in both lamella-processing and product performance factors. A detection method using image processing and analysis was developed to characterise slicing check occurrence. The method considered slicing check characteristics, check depth ratio and check frequency. The results of the slicing check inspection indicated a decrease in the check depth ratio and check frequency with increased slicing thickness. 

Mechanical testing revealed that oak sliced lamellae exhibited considerably lower strength and stiffness compared to sawn solid wood. The slicing check depth ratio was found to be negatively correlated with the sliced lamellae’s tensile strength and strain at break.

A novel method for detecting surface-checking was developed and employed. It utilised digital image correlation and analysis of full-field strain data. The novelty of the method is advancing the surface-checking quality index that considers the check length over the inspected area. This method was applied to engineered wood flooring to evaluate the impacts of core type and sliced lamellae nominal thickness on surface-checking results. Significant interactions between the studied variables were found, indicating that the surface-checking tendency could not be attributed to a single factor. Especially notable was the reduced surface-checking outcome in standard core specimens paired with a low lamella thickness. 

This thesis offers new insights into using sliced lamella in engineered wood flooring realisation. Although the assumed sliced lamellae quality aspects, slicing check depth and check frequency, were shown not to impact surface-checking, the significant interactions between engineered wood flooring construction parameters highlight the need for a broader perspective concerning this subject. 

Future research should focus on further refining the sliced lamellae quality analysis and developing new methods that consider other quality aspects.

Real-world software applications must constantly evolve to remain relevant. This evolution occurs when developing new applications or adapting existing ones to meet new requirements, make corrections, or incorporate future functionality. Traditional methods of software quality control involve software quality models and continuous code inspection tools. These measures focus on directly assessing the quality of the software. However, there is a strong correlation and causation between the quality of the development process and the resulting software product. Therefore, improving the development process indirectly improves the software product, too. To achieve this, effective learning from past processes is necessary, often embraced through post mortem organizational learning. While qualitative evaluation of large artifacts is common, smaller quantitative changes captured by application lifecycle management are often overlooked. In addition to software metrics, these smaller changes can reveal complex phenomena related to project culture and management. Leveraging these changes can help detect and address such complex issues.

Software evolution was previously measured by the size of changes, but the lack of consensus on a reliable and versatile quantification method prevents its use as a dependable metric. Different size classifications fail to reliably describe the nature of evolution. While application lifecycle management data is rich, identifying which artifacts can model detrimental managerial practices remains uncertain. Approaches such as simulation modeling, discrete events simulation, or Bayesian networks have only limited ability to exploit continuous-time process models of such phenomena. Even worse, the accessibility and mechanistic insight into such gray- or black-box models are typically very low. To address these challenges, we suggest leveraging objectively captured digital artifacts from application lifecycle management, combined with qualitative analysis, for efficient organizational learning. A new language-independent metric is proposed to robustly capture the size of changes, significantly improving the accuracy of change nature determination. The classified changes are then used to explore, visualize, and suggest maintenance activities, enabling solid prediction of malpractice presence and -severity, even with limited data. Finally, parts of the automatic quantitative analysis are made accessible, potentially replacing expert-based qualitative analysis in parts.

In this work, the Covid-19 pandemic provides the context for exploring the emerging field of mobile technologies for disease prevention and tracking during epidemics and pandemics. Knowledge on how to design and utilize these types of digital preventive technologies and how to gain public acceptance is still limited. This area presents novel opportunities for the informatics community to address the pressing need to enhance resilience to epidemic outbreaks. Much focus has been placed on proximity-based contact tracing applications during this pandemic, but their use has raised concerns about ethics and privacy. Scholars have also called for alternatives to this technology. In this regard, technologies based on behavioral design represent a promising yet under-explored opportunity. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of how mobile technologies can support preventive efforts during epidemic outbreaks. Additionally, it aims to inform ways of thinking and approaching the problem to guide design of digital preventive technologies. The research question guiding this work is: How can digital preventive technologies based on proximity tracking be designed and utilized to enhance mitigation strategies during epidemic outbreaks?

This work comprises four studies that shed light on different levels of this complex problem through conceptual and empirical approaches. Two technologies—contact tracing and nudge technologies—are discussed, and various aspects related to their design and use are explored. It is proposed to reframe the problem in technological design, from a focus on tracking infectious individuals to a behavioral design perspective, promoting physical distancing through nudges. Moreover, it is emphasized that human aspects such as public acceptance are essential for utilizing the potential of digital preventive technologies. This thesis contributes to emerging theoretical understanding of how digital and preventive technologies can be utilized in epidemic outbreaks. It also expands the number of tangible alternatives available for a toolbox of digital preventive technologies, strengthening our preparedness for future outbreaks.

Regeneration success depends on decisions made based on factors on aregional, site, and microenvironmental level. Therefore, understanding andmapping of such factors between and within sites can guide decisions forbetter seedling establishment. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to findcombinations of regeneration measures that result in low seedling mortalityand high growth. Additionally, to explore the potential of digital tools inregeneration planning. Aims were handled using field experiments and asurvey, by integrating digital tools in the analysis and experimental set-up.

Increased precipitation and decreased air temperatures between April andOctober during the planting year lowered seedling mortality. Planting inmineral soil also lowered the mortality rate, which emphasized theimportance of planting and site preparation quality (Paper I). Selection ofsite preparation method was found to be of minor importance. The sitepreparation’s ability to create suitable planting spots was most important forseedling survival and growth. Selection of site preparation affected soildisturbance, and natural regeneration was promoted with all methods usedin the experiments (Paper II). Adapting planting position choice, followingsite preparation, to within-site variation was valuable to decrease mortalityrates and promote growth (Paper II-III). In wet conditions, elevatedplanting positions were advantageous compared to lower ones, but moreflexibility could be applied in drier conditions. Norway spruce, Scots pine,and silver birch reacted differently to planting position choice (Paper III).Paper I-III indicated that digital tools could be used in regenerationplanning. A depth-to-water-raster successfully explained seedling mortalityand growth in the extreme ends of the soil moisture spectrum. Using remotesensing derived variables can be valuable for further mapping andunderstanding of between and within-site variation in future regenerationplanning. There were no long-term negative effects on stand productivityafter 30 years following site preparation. The standing volume was largestafter ploughing but disc trenching and mounding also had higher standingvolume than the unscarified control (Paper IV). I conclude that regenerationdecisions made today, regarding species selection and regeneration method,should strive for increased precision for the benefit of the forests oftomorrow.

This compilation thesis examines the United States (U.S.), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), Russian, and Georgian political elites’ images of Georgia from the regaining of Georgia’s independence in 1991 up to 2020. This topic shows the significance of studying the role of the agency of individual leaders and including them as a level of analysis when analyzing different geopolitical setups. The empirical data come from the author’s 102 original interviews with political elites from Georgia, the U.S., NATO and the EU, including presidents, prime ministers, ministers, secretaries, secretaries-general, and Russian foreign policy experts. This dissertation comprises four articles, each using the same research design. 

The findings of this dissertation show that over time, external and internal political elites hold somewhat varying images of Georgia. These diverging images that mainly emerged after the Rose Revolution of 2003 have a geopolitical character and are crucial for understanding Georgia’s strained geopolitical context. In particular, they reflect a rift between the U.S., NATO, the EU, Georgia, and Russia with regard to the perception of the threat to and cultural status of Georgia. This has chiefly influenced the type of imagery of Georgia that the actors hold and has contributed to the changing geopolitical conditions. Overall, changes in internal and external political elites’ perceptions and attention to image variation help explain policy variation over time. 

This thesis concerns reinforcement learning and dynamical systems in finite discrete problem domains. Artificial intelligence studies through reinforcement learning involves developing models and algorithms for scenarios when there is an agent that is interacting with an environment. By taking actions the agent may induce changes in the observed environment, where a modeled reward system reinforces correct behavior through learning algorithms. Reinforcement learning can be used in a wide variety of different  domains, such as finance, robotics, games, routing and health care. However as the subject matures there is an increasing need to more heavily rely on advanced concepts in mathematics and deep learning to further our understanding of existing problems and find new algorithmic insights. Discrete dynamical systems arise in virtually any setting as soon as there is a set of elements subjected to iteration by a defining function. The function may be seen to represent the passing of time or to define the rules for state transitions. If the set of elements is finite but very large then we may find applications in several different fields such as operations research, cryptography and biology, where understanding properties of the structure and long-term behavior without explicit enumeration is key. 

In Paper I we extend the model of categorical reinforcement learning with a group-aided training procedure involving multiple agents. By having the agents learn through shared distributional information but act independently we argue for an accelerated learning process. We empirically show that the procedure may lead to much more robust learning, stronger individual agent performance and good ensemble efficiency.

In Paper II we continue to build upon distributional reinforcement learning for finite Markov processes. A common approach among

algorithms is to apply transformations on agent returns for stability and flexibility over a variety of different tasks. We show that one of the most successful methods may not work for a stochastic process. As a solution we introduce a new distributional operator that handles a large class of transformations with guaranteed theoretical convergence. We also propose an approximating single-actor algorithm based on these novel insights, which when tested achieves state-of-the-art performance compared to similar algorithms.

In Paper III we focus on the issue of efficient exploration in reinforcement learning by studying the regret that a learning algorithm might have versus an optimal policy. Specifically, in the paper we derive a Bayesian regret bound for Thompson sampling on linear multi-armed bandits with Gaussian reward models when we have environment uncertainty described by a set of multivariate normal-gamma distributions.

In Paper IV we derive sharp bounds on the number of iterations needed for any linear finite dynamical system to stabilize on an inner set of cycles. These bounds may be used in cycle analysis and criterion tests to understand the long-term behavior of extremely large systems.

Studying the consequences of variation in individual life-histories is vital for our understanding of the evolution of animal societies. In this thesis, I study the ecology and consequences of group living on growth, survival, reproduction, and the gut microbiome of the Damaraland mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis), a subterranean cooperatively breeding mammal. For this, I used data and faecal samples collected from a long-term study population in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa.

I explored the effects of group size and group composition on individuals’ growth and survival. While large group size had no clear advantages for either growth or survival, individuals within groups biased to their own sex grew more slowly. The number of recruits increased modestly with group size, but experimentally created pairs showed the same reproductive success as established groups. Further, single individuals exhibited high survival rates and good body condition. Combined, these results suggest that mole-rats delay dispersal to maximise their own fitness, and that group living has costs and benefits for all group members.

I also investigated the effects of individual life-histories and group affiliation on the gut microbiome. This work shows that individuals bring the gut microbiome from their birth group when they disperse, and that group members have more similar gut microbiomes. When dispersed individuals start to reproduce in their new groups, they subsequently transfer this microbiome to their offspring, resulting in higher similarity between offspring with common descent of breeders. This pattern could arise from shared early life environment of breeders or through genetic relatedness of breeders. To separate the effects of these factors, I used a cross-foster experiment of captive animals, which showed that group members have more similar gut microbiomes, regardless of host relatedness.

My thesis gives deepened insights into the ecology of the Damaraland mole-rat. It shows how variation in the social environment of group living species affects their life-histories, their fitness, and beyond that extended phenotypic traits such as the gut microbiome composition.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematopoietic malignancy with poor survivalrate and limited therapeutic options. Targeted treatment of other types ofcancer, for instance chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and breast cancer, has seensignificant progress. However, when it comes to AML, the outcome is poor witha five-year relative survival of only 20 - 30%. Over the last four years, the FDA hasapproved nine new drugs for AML patients in the United States. Unfortunately,the median overall survival of AML patients is still fairly low. For patients aged 70 years and older, the median overall survival is only about 10 months. Even forchildren with AML, the overall 5-year survival rate is 65 - 70%. A major cause oftreatment failure is the development of treatment-induced drug resistance. Thedevelopment of somatic mutations is one of the most common mechanisms ofdrug resistance.

In AML, mutations in the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene are oftenpresent, with an incidence rate of ∼30% of cases. Most of these mutations areinternal tandem duplications (ITD), present in approximately 25% of the patients.Patients with a high FLT3-ITD burden often relapse after chemotherapy. Inpatients with FLT3-ITD mutations, FLT3 has become a promising drug target fortherapy. In the past few years, FLT3 inhibitors have led to clinical progress, butthere are still some significant problems with their usage. Among these, drugresistance is urgent to overcome.

This thesis mainly focuses on exploring different treatment regimens to over-come drug resistance in human FLT3+ AML cells as a model for the disease.Initially, a drug rotation protocol between two inhibitors which have differentresistance profiles was tested. However, the results were not satisfying. Combi-nation therapy between a FLT3 inhibitor and another inhibitor was adopted. Thisstrategy exhibited significant synergy and, more importantly, could postponethe emergence of drug resistance. In further experiments, we examined somenewly-developed small molecular compounds, and it turned out some of themhad excellent inhibitory activity against established drug-resistant AML cell lines.In parallel, we have also studied the cause of resistance in these cells and haveidentified resistance mutations that have not been described before. Finally, westudied whether FLT3 inhibitors were likely to be synergistic with azacitidine, ahypomethylating agent approved for AML treatment. Such combinations did notdisplay a clear synergistic effect on AML cells, though one combination may bepromising. Overall, our studies provided a better understanding of the resistancemechanisms by which FLT3-ITD cells overcome therapy and valuable informationabout the efficacy of novel inhibitors that are not currently in clinical use, and oncombination therapies. To this end, the results will enable to further facilitatethe rational development of new strategies to overcome drug resistance in FLT3+AML.

From an inclusive perspective in mathematics education, the aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to gain profound knowledge of didactical and relational aspects of mathematics teaching concerning students’ participation in mathematics education. The overarching research questions delve into methodological and theoretical aspects that enable the study of enacted mathematical and relational knowing of teachers, as well as how mathematical and relational knowing supports inclusion in mathematics for students. Three studies were conducted. The first study investigated the possibilities of various data collection methods to document mathematics teachers’ reflections on mathematical and relational knowing in mathematics education. The second study aimed to gain theoretical and empirical insights into teachers’ mathematical and relational knowing, as well as into students’ participation in mathematics. The third study examined earlier research regarding how co-teaching organized mathematics education can contribute to inclusion. These three studies generated four publications that answered the overarching research questions. The methodological and theoretical findings emphasize the complexity involved in exploring inclusive mathematics education. Understanding mathematical and relational knowing of teachers requires abroad conceptual framework that considers how these forms of knowing come into play when teaching. The coordinated conceptual frameworks used have core elements connected to the situated nature of inclusive mathematics education. These frameworks are based on contextual factors that focus on how and when teaching materials, mathematical examples and connections are used. They also consider the particular teacher-student interactions that occur in the moments of teaching. Hence, from a special didactic perspective, it is essential to emphasize not only the ‘what, ‘how,’ and ‘why’, but also the ‘when’ question, considering both mathematical and relational knowing in the context of inclusion in mathematics. Furthermore, findings show that if students are to be didactically included, meaning they participate in mathematics within the community of classroom mathematics, it appears important for teachers to enact mathematical and relational knowing simultaneously, whether distributed between one or two teachers in a co-teaching setting. Moreover, co-teaching does not automatically lead to didactical inclusion. However, if all students’ learning is the point of departure and the teachers, together or individually, enact mathematical and relational knowing, this can contribute to didactical inclusion.

The thesis is an inquiry into peasants’ collective organisation inMozambique since the country’s Independence in 1975. It brings togetherfour published studies and aims to understand the historical and socioeconomic conditions for different forms of peasant organisation in postIndependence Mozambique. An abductive approach is applied and adialogue between theory, method and the ethnographic material from thetwo northern provinces of Niassa and Nampula runs through the thesis. Thefirst study concludes that peasants’ organisation is hampered by thefragmentation, instability and unpredictability of peasants’ livelihood,leading to a low level of classness. The second study examines the strugglefor the right to land as an exception in terms of a broad-based collectiveorganisation. The third study explores how peasants’ memories of theindependence movement and first years of socialist policies are mobilisedin a critique against current policies. Finally, the fourth study examines thecontinuity of power of the traditional leadership at local level, providinginsights into the local structural conditions for peasants’ collectiveorganisation.Based on the four studies, the thesis suggests the following three mainconditions for peasants’ organisation: First, peasant household livelihood,where fragmentation, instability and unpredictability lead to difficulties toidentify central and enduring interests and conflicts peasants are engagedin, that could be the foundation for their collective organisation. Second, theorganisational structures and positions in peasant societies. In the contextof peasants, already occupied spaced for organisation, repression andhistorical backpack hamper their organisation. Peasants’ issues are capturedat local level by party, civil society and traditional leadership. Peasants arein abundance. And third, the peasants’ consciousness. The thesis concludesthat there is a relatively strong consciousness among peasants with regardto structure, inequalities, as well as formulation of thought, strong senseamong the elderly of peasant way and peasant society.

Transitioning to and sustaining democracy cannot be possible without active citizens joining protests, distributing political information, or representing fellow citizens in legislative institutions. Due to this, political-science research for several decades has tried to investigate why some citizens are involved in political decision-making while others prefer to refrain from it.

Many scholars have suggested that citizens’ political participation is, at large, explained by their interest in politics and political knowledge. However, in the time of shifting towards the digital era, social media has substantially increased the speed and scope of information sharing and overall political knowledge. Additionally, attention seekers populating social networking sites promote mindfulness, consciousness, pro-activeness, and altruism, popularising online activism, boycotting, buycotting, and protesting. Yet, the scale of protest participation in semi-authoritarian regimes, which have a high potential to democratise, remains limited. If political interest or knowledge cannot really explain why this is the case, what can?

In this dissertation, I tested hypotheses grounded in political-participation, social-capital, political-mobilisation, and rational-choice research traditions, as well as new hypotheses generated by studying the patterns in original data. In this fashion, I sought to find the underlying factors behind limited protest participation in semi-authoritarian regimes. 

By studying what is traditionally referred to as unconventional participation (e.g., online activism, petition-signing, and protesting) in democratic and semi-authoritarian regimes and participation in the Russian Federation as a representative case, I have developed an explanatory model of contemporary political participation. In the Russian context, the model proved to be 96% accurate at predicting protest participation.

Based on the results of this study and those reported by other scholars, I concluded that socioeconomic status (SES) is at the root of inequalities in political participation. While high-SES individuals acquire advantageous social networks that give them access to political information, low-SES individuals are often excluded from political processes altogether. This dissertation demonstrated that individual social networks—and not time, money, or civic skills—are the most critical resource for contemporary participation.

In blood circulation, the complement and the coagulation cascades, together with platelets and endothelial cells form a complex network of crosstalk. When dysregulated, these interactions can lead to inflammation in combination with thrombosis (thromboinflammation) and the manifestation of pathophysiological complications. As complement activation and thromboinflammation are often associated with intravascular hemolysis, e.g., sickle cell disease (SCD), we aimed to study these reactions in relation to heme, a product of hemolysis. Furthermore, our goal was to evaluate whether exposure to biomaterials results in hemolysis-induced thromboinflammation, and to examine the potential of complement inhibition.

Our findings show that heme could lead to a significant thromboinflammatory response in our in vitro whole blood model, as seen by complement-, cell- and coagulation- activation, as well as increased cytokine secretion. Inflammation, including complement activation, was also linked with increased heme concentrations in vivo in hemolytic disease in SCD patients. The mechanism of action was attributed to uncontrolled alternative pathway (AP) activation, as heme was shown to bind and inhibit the main AP regulator, factor I, resulting in increased concentrations of fluid phase and surface-bound C3b.

Moreover, administration of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) in vitro and implantation of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) in vivo were monitored and correlated with increased hemolytic, e.g., heme, and thromboinflammatory markers, e.g., complement-, endothelial cell- and platelet- activation. Targeting complement components C5 and C3 in vitro was shown overall beneficial in the presence of heme or IONPs respectively. In our settings, the majority of the thromboinflammatory markers measured were successfully attenuated, indicating that complement fuels this response.

In conclusion, the results in this thesis stress that heme-induced complement activation is an important player in thromboinflammation. In addition, we propose that complement inhibition can be used as a therapeutic approach in hemolytic conditions and as a strategy to enhance biomaterials’ biocompatibility.

During the first half of the 20th century, ethnologists investigated rural parts of Sweden. They hoped to uncover traces of a truly ancient culture which they imagined had been preserved unchanged in so-called relic areas. This approach was rejected during the 1970s by a generation of researchers who proceeded from new cultural theoretical perspectives that assumed that culture was in constant change. As a result, the theories about relic areas were not further developed. This dissertation returns to the folk culture but with new perspectives on how to understand the old-fashioned clothing practice.

This study investigates Virestad parish, part of a so-called relic area, from 1750 through 1850. By analyzing minutes from parish meetings, the parish letters to the king, articles of clothing, and estate inventories this dissertation presents new perspectives on connections between economic, social, and political development and cultural continuity and change. The most important source has been the estate inventories which provides a unique opportunity to follow the individuals’ clothing choices, from their choice of textiles to decisions regarding clothing economics.

The investigation shows that the people of Virestad was not “behind the times”, they were clearly in phase with their contemporaries in politics and trade. Instead, the people actively chose to dress in an old-fashioned way. Most of them had not inherited the old-fashioned clothes that they wore but had them made. This study shows that modernity and tradition do not need to be each other's opposites but can develop in tandem, conditioning each other. Dressing in an old-fashioned manner served as a stabilizer that allowed for a more flexible economic, social, and political culture. Therefore, contrary to previous research, a central finding of the dissertation is that relic areas were innovative and modern, where older elements of tradition existed which gave the population security and stability.

The overarching aim of this thesis is to examine how the welfare technology solution discourse can provide insights into society’s views of formal and informal care for older people.  

The thesis employs a qualitative inductive design based on social constructionism and discourse analysis. The studies illuminated the welfare technology solution discourse from the angle of international research (Study I), Swedish local policy (Study II), local politicians (Study III) and older adults represented by pensioners’ organisations (Study IV). The temporal demarcations were from 2013-2022. The studies made use of the following research methods: scoping review (I), poststructural policy analysis (II), poststructural interview analysis (III) and focus group interviews (IV). The findings were derived from narrative descriptions and interpretations of the empirical data supported by previous empirical, theoretical and grey literature in the field. 

The findings highlighted that the welfare technology solution discourse focused on prevention in order to keep older people active and independent and thereby avoid further increases in demands for formal care. Health was positioned as a means to achieve that goal and as an individual responsibility for the older person her/himself. Passive remote monitoring, gaming and digital leisure activities were considered to be part of “good” care, while participation and inclusion were downplayed.

Informal carers were positioned as part of the older person’s social sphere, a position that ignores the help, support and/or care they provide to their elder family member or friend on a weekly or even daily basis. The discourse did not include any welfare technology to support or facilitate participation by informal carers. The reviewed empirical literature (I) and policy documents (II) did not take up the issue of health inequalities among older people and their informal carers to any great extent. 

The pensioners’ organisations viewed the discourse with concern, cautioning about an increased gap between those digitally included and those excluded in what they perceived as a “harsh and impersonal society”. They positioned informal carers as crucial for the older person’s security and wellbeing. 

The thesis challenges the conceptualisation of health in old age as an individual enterprise and argues that interventions using welfare technology for older people need to be targeted towards participation and facilitate reciprocal relationships between all parties involved. Further, informal care needs to be further lifted on the political agenda to illuminate informal carers’ role in the provision of informal care of older people within the modern welfare state in Sweden. 

The aim of the thesis is to examine how young people construct – i.e., make meaning about and socially organize – two adjacent residential areas in Malmö. Central to this is understanding how young people organize the public spaces, as well as construct social identities and a sense of belonging in relation to these places. Concepts such as social identities, group identities, local communities and idiocultures are used to understand young people’s relations with the areas, and with other young people residing there. To understand the complexity of place, I develop a multidimensional concept that takes into account five dimensions: localization; events and activities; populations and social relations; physical environment;values and qualities.

My research design employed a combination of methods, drawing primarily on an ethnographic approach. I utilized three different data collection techniques: field observations, focus group interviews,and “go-alongs”. A total of 40 young people, ranging in age from 15 to 25 years, participated in my study.

My empirical findings highlight how the values and qualities attributed to the areas by the young people could be said to constitute two distinct discourses: one describes the areas with an emphasis on safety,belonging, and community, while the other emphasizes fear, distance, and isolation. Both discourses were conveyed by heterogeneous groups in terms of class background, ethnicity, age, and gender. What distinguished the young people expressing safety and belonging from those describing fear and distance was primarily the extent of their local networks and experiences of “hanging out” in the areas. Young people spending a lot of time in the areas imagined themselves belonging to a local community based on place, class, ethnicity, and gender identities, making it difficult to belong for those who did not enact these identities according to local norms. Young people who frequently hung out in the areas, claiming different places and controlling access through language, behaviour, and subtle rules was further complicating placetaking for other groups of young people. 

The deployment of artificial intelligence solutions and machine learning research has exploded in popularity in recent years, with numerous types of models proposed to interpret and predict patterns and trends in data from diverse disciplines. However, as the complexity of these models grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for users to evaluate and rely on the model results, since their inner workings are mostly hidden in black boxes, which are difficult to trust in critical decision-making scenarios. While automated methods can partly handle these problems, recent research findings suggest that their combination with innovative methods developed within information visualization and visual analytics can lead to further insights gained from models and, consequently, improve their predictive ability and enhance trustworthiness in the entire process. Visual analytics is the area of research that studies the analysis of vast and intricate information spaces by combining statistical and machine learning models with interactive visual interfaces. By following this methodology, human experts can better understand such spaces and apply their domain expertise in the process of building and improving the underlying models.

The primary goals of this dissertation are twofold, focusing on (1) methodological aspects, by conducting qualitative and quantitative meta-analyses to support the visualization research community in making sense of its literature and to highlight unsolved challenges, as well as (2) technical solutions, by developing visual analytics approaches for various machine learning models, such as dimensionality reduction and ensemble learning methods. Regarding the first goal, we define, categorize, and examine in depth the means for visual coverage of the different trust levels at each stage of a typical machine learning pipeline and establish a design space for novel visualizations in the area. Regarding the second goal, we discuss multiple visual analytics tools and systems implemented by us to facilitate the underlying research on the various stages of the machine learning pipeline, i.e., data processing, feature engineering, hyperparameter tuning, understanding, debugging, refining, and comparing models. Our approaches are data-agnostic, but mainly target tabular data with meaningful attributes in diverse domains, such as health care and finance. The applicability and effectiveness of this work were validated with case studies, usage scenarios, expert interviews, user studies, and critical discussions of limitations and alternative designs. The results of this dissertation provide new avenues for visual analytics research in explainable and trustworthy machine learning.

This thesis treats mathematical considerations that arise in relation to certain stochastic optimal control problems, in particular of switching and impulse type. Both of these problems are extensions of the well-known optimal stopping problem. The optimal stopping problem amounts to finding the optimal stopping rule for a payoff that evolves in a random manner. In this case the control is merely a stopping time, making it one of the most primitive stochastic control problems.

The control in the above-mentioned extensions of optimal stopping takes the formof a double sequence (𝜏_𝑖, 𝜉_𝑖), where 𝜏_𝑖 are stopping times and 𝜉_𝑖 are random variables. In the case of optimal switching, we switch "mode" at each stopping time 𝜏_𝑖 according to the discrete random variable 𝜉_𝑖, while in the case of impulse control these variables take values in a compact set and represent impulses with which we hit the system, causing it to "jump". As in the case of optimal stopping, the goal is to find a control that maximizes a pre-defined performance measure. Generally speaking, breaking control problems down into smaller ones is known as the Bellman principle, which we establish to be applicable in our settings.

The problem we consider in Paper 1 is an impulse problem, where on the one hand the control enters the volatility, and on the other our underlying system is non-Markovian. Paper 2 explores a Feynman-Kac type formula for the problem in Paper1. In short, we establish the classic correspondence between conditional expectations and partial differential equations. In this case, the conditional expectation in question is the expected profit for the impulse problem. Paper 3 treats a particular non-Markovian switching problem with signed costs. Paper 3 treats a particular non-Markovian switching problem with signed costs.

Big quantities of residues and side-streams are generated annually from forest-based and agricultural industries all around the world and present a relatively unexplored renewable resource. Due to the absence of a regularly updated and systematic database of supply, industrial residues and side-streams usually end up in landfill disposal, are used for energy generation, or remain at the production sites. These renewable side-streams are mainly lignocellulosic materials that can be used for fuels, chemicals, and other value-added materials. However, the difficulty in recovering useful components from industrial wastes from a techno-economic point of view is hindering the use of these materials. There are different methods for converting biomass into fuels, chemicals, and materials, including thermochemical, biochemical, and physical conversion. Negative environmental impacts from direct incineration of waste materials and increasing interest in reducing the dependency on fossil-based sources have increased the need for the valorization of the industrial side-streams for material and chemical applications. 

Among the different thermochemical conversion methods, liquefaction of lignocellulosic materials is an efficient way to convert solid biomass into liquids. Liquefaction including hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and moderate acid-catalyzed liquefaction (MACL), is often carried out in an aqueous environment by employing organic solvents with or without catalyst under pressure or ambient conditions. A liquefaction process is influenced by many factors such as material type, solvent, catalyst, time, and temperature. All the parameters of the liquefaction are related to each other, and they affect the yields and the properties of the final products. Studies on the utilization of industrial waste and side-streams as feedstock for liquefaction have increased in recent years, generating significant interest from both academia and industry.  

This PhD study included a literature review on liquefaction technologies that provide liquefied products for wood adhesives, followed by experimental work on MACL and its optimization for different industrial side-streams, such as wood sawdust, bark, and oat husks. Liquefaction of those materials led to different liquefaction yields (LY) due to their different chemical compositions. When the same liquefaction conditions were applied, liquefied wood sawdust had the highest LY while liquefied bark had the lowest. This was mainly attributed to wood sawdust having a higher cellulose and lower lignin content, when compared to bark and oat husks. After optimizing the liquefaction of wood sawdust, obtained products were applied in wood adhesive formulations successfully. Crude liquefied wood (CLW) and purified liquefied wood (PLW) polyols were obtained from the liquefaction of wood sawdust with the highest LY of 99.7% and used for the synthesis of polyurethane (PU) adhesives by reacting them with polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate (pMDI). The bonding strength and penetration to wood adherends of the PU adhesives were affected by the molar ratios between the isocyanate groups (NCO) in pMDI and the hydroxyl groups (OH) in the CLW and PLW. The highest bonding strength of PU adhesives was achieved at an NCO:OH molar ratio of 1.5:1. The thermal stability of the PU adhesives was improved by increasing the NCO:OH molar ratio. PU adhesives based on CLW and PLW with the same adhesive formulation did not show significant differences in their properties while CLW polyol contained more water and alcohols than PLW.  

A novel method called partial liquefaction of lignocellulosic biomass was also proposed. Partially liquefied bark (PLB) was prepared and used to replace wood particles for producing particleboards (PB) with or without the presence of a commercial synthetic adhesive, i.e. melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF). PLB was shown to provide single-layer PBs with good adhesion, mechanical strength, and water repellency. The overall mechanical properties of non-MUF single-layer PBs were inferior to those of MUF-bonded PBs. Increasing the PLB content up to 9.5% led to enhanced mechanical properties for MUF-bonded PBs. PLB prepared from bark with a particle size less than 2 mm ensured good mechanical behavior of single-layer PBs. Moreover, three-layer particleboards prepared from PLB and wood particles had comparable mechanical properties to the reference PBs made solely from wood particles, and PLB had less influence on the mechanical properties of the PBs when used in the surface layer than in the core layer. Formaldehyde emissions from the three-layer PBs were below the limits required by European Standard EN 13986:2004 and major volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were carboxylic acids. 

This research provided a comprehensive understanding of converting different lignocellulosic materials by a MACL process into valuable polymers and raw materials, which are suitable for the synthesis of wood adhesives and for the manufacturing of particleboards. Due to time constraints related to conducting the PhD, it was not possible to conduct a full characterization of the liquefied products from the selected materials. Such studies should be part of future research in order to supplement our knowledge of MACL mechanisms. 

The overall aim of this thesis was to describe the conditions for learning inthe ambulance service during clinical practice, and to develop an understanding of how to support the professional development of caring in this context.

The findings of this thesis are based on four qualitative interview studies.The study group consisted of 28 specialist ambulance nursing students (I), 20 preceptors (II), 27 preceptors (III), and 16 specialist ambulance nursingstudents (IV), from all parts of Sweden. The data were collected by individual, dyadic, and focus group interviews. The study designs and analytical approach were guided by the critical incident technique, latent content analysis, reflexive thematic analysis, and a phenomenographic approach.

The findings indicate that the contextual complexities of ambulance care contradict the students’ fundamental need to independently care for the patients in their development of all domains of knowledge. Caring and learning in the ambulance service requires a structured approach in medical, technical, and practical aspects to create a basic security for preceptors and students in dealing with the diversity in care situations, patient needs, and student needs. However, this structured approach may hinder an individualized and situationally adapted approach unless the preceptors and students develop a flexible and reflective questioning approach in the phronetic domains of knowledge. The support, educational strategies, and learning objectives needed for enhancing educational clarity and quality during clinical practice in ambulance care are presented at an organizational, environmental, situational, and interpersonal level.

It is proposed in the conclusions that a reflective questioning approach and an embodied understanding of ambulance service work supported by critical reflections are fundamental to support professional development in this field. Higher education institutions and the ambulance departments should address the professional development as a mutual concern, where supporting the development of a caring competence should be viewed as a lifelong continuum of learning. The expanding scope of ambulance care requires professional judgement to manage the ethical complexities of clinical decision-making to safeguard the patient perspective in ambulance care.

The Baltic Sea sediments record spatial and temporal information about metalsand metalloids (hereafter referred to as metals), which could help to understandthe past and present contamination sinks in different basins. In addition, giventhe expanding anoxic zones in the Baltic Sea, the response of metals to artificialreoxygenation is poorly understood. This thesis calculated background valuesfor As, Cd, Co, Cu, Pb, U, and Zn and measured their concentration in sedimentsfrom pre-industrial to recent times. Metal concentration peaks during the1970—1980s and clearly decline till present-day, possibly owing to effectivepollution control measures. Furthermore, anoxic Baltic Proper sedimentssubjected to reoxygenation experiments showed that As, Ba, Co, K, Mn, Rb, U,Sr, and Mo are released to bottom waters, suggesting possible aggravation ofmetal pollution if such mitigation option is applied.During previous coastline transgression (5000 years before CE), rich sulfidicsediments (known as potential acid sulfate soils) were deposited and laterexposed to air by natural processes and/or by artificial drainage systems ofcoastal areas of the present-day Baltic Sea. Oxidation of sulfidic phases resultedin the formation of acid sulfate soils, which are a potential source of metalcontamination to drainage areas. This thesis investigated an area in Kristianstad,southern Sweden, in which metal contamination is sourced from acid sulfatesoils. From the acid sulfate soil site, the dispersion showed enrichment of Fe inthe adjacent wetland in the form of akaganeite/schwertmannite, identified usingX-ray absorption spectroscopy. Furthermore, Be, U, rare-earth elements, and Alwere enriched in the drain sediments. Simultaneously, metals such as Mn, Co,Ni, Zn, and Cd were not or only marginally enriched in the drain sediment. Aremediation experiment to remove metals from the drainage water using spentcoffee-grounds and dissolved humic acid was performed. The spent coffeegroundsefficiently removed Al, Ca, Co, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn via adsorption, butfail to remove S from the acid sulfate soil drainage. However, the dissolvedhumic acid removed up to 25% of the S from the drainage.

The pupose is to study stories about crime, mythopoesis, via the modalities of speech, text and image and to problematise movements of texts that originate in other contexts and institutions. The study examines how and why rhetorical strategies are used to legitimise and delegitimise the content of speeches, texts and images in trials and how relations of influence occur between plaintiffs and defendants in written judgements. The study also examines actor roles and interaction  between participants, how authority is negotiated and how technology affects trials.

The material consists of 14 audio recordings and investigative reports from three district court trials and 27 judgements. The study combines analyses of speech, texts and images with critical discourse analysis (CDA), social semiotics and legitimation theory as a theoretical framework. The methods are taken from CDA and are based on systemic-functional grammar. The research questions deal with legitimation, recontextualisations, relations of influence, verbal and non-verbal communication between participants, and the influence of technology in the trials. 

Some results stand out. Rhetorical strategies from Roman law are still applied. The genre now includes modern technology and multimodal texts that change the ways of communication. In addition, texts that are recontextualised can lead to mixture of voices. Lawyers use rhetorical strategies in oral arguments to prove, disprove, create doubt, and transfer guilt and responsibility. Recontextualised texts are surrounded with explanatory contexts that increase their comprehensibility during the trial. Through conscious selection, the content and use of certain verb processes can be legitimised in stories that benefit one's own case or assignment or delegitimised in stories that disadvantage the assignment or case. The power to interpret the content of speeches, texts and images during trials lies with the lawyers. Plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses have limited power over the content of the stories - mythopoesis - about perpetrators and victims, but the interviewees can regulate their stories by using a selection of verbal and non-verbal language acts. In summary, the study shows how language and content are shaped, regulated and recontextualised in practice in trials and judgements.