In today's rapidly changing world, the acquisition of essential skills is crucial for the success of young individuals. Among these skills, computational thinking (CT) plays a vital role in problem-solving and adapting to the complex and evolving demands of the 21st century. However, there is a need to explore the integration of other thinking skills alongside CT, as well as their application in educational settings.

This study aims to address the gap in knowledge regarding the application of systems thinking to the development of CT and its integration into education. The primary objective is to explore the relationship between systems thinking and CT, providing a contextual framework for existing studies that focus on systems thinking in relation to CT. Additionally, the study explores how systems thinking can be applied to CT within educational contexts. By incorporating a systems thinking approach, a broader examination of the various factors involved in CT, including the technological landscape, individual skills and knowledge, and the social and cultural context, can be achieved.

The thesis comprises three papers that describe research efforts conducted over three years. These projects focused on CT development using educational robotics and maker technologies, aiming to build and enhance CT skills among individuals of different ages and perspectives. The findings of the research efforts are synthesized and consolidated using the systemic FMA model, a comprehensive model that interconnects the frameworks of ideas, methodology, and the area of interest. This model conceptualizes CT practices as a system encompassing emergent properties, multiple perspectives, design interventions, and social and ethical considerations. The adopted FMA model enables methodological pluralism and facilitates critical examination of the boundaries of CT development, leading to conceptual and practical changes.

The research contributes to the field of CT by providing insights into its theoretical foundations and practical applications, informing and guiding educational practices that are associated with CT. 

Background: Populations in many high-income countries are ageing, with an ever-increasing proportion of the population aged 65 years or older. Despite increasingly better health in older people, susceptibility to chronic illness increase with age. As life expectancy increases, the length of time people can live with chronic illness increases correspondingly, mainly due to improved medication treatments. Decreased number of hospital beds per capita and length of stay in hospital has gained primary care an increasing role in the healthcare system, with higher demands on patients and their knowledge and abilities to manage medications and self-management.

Aim: The overarching aim of this thesis was to explore how medication regimens are communicated in primary care consultations and in written discharge letters.

Methods: In Study I, passive participant observations of primary care consultations were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using content analysis. Study II had a convergent mixed methods design. An assessment matrix, constructed based on previous research, was used to assess and quantify discharge letter content. The quantified discharge letter content, questionnaires and register data were used to calculate correlations between discharge letter content and readmission rate as well as self-rated quality of care transition. Finally, associations between discharge letter content and time to readmission were calculated both univariable and multivariable. In addition to discharge letter content, several other potential independent variables were included in the multivariable analysis.

Results: Both studies show that physicians were prone to give information about medications and blood-samples or other examinations performed in advance to the consultation (Study I) or during the hospital admission (Study II). The physicians were, however, less prone to inform patients about self-management and lifestyle changes, symptoms to be aware of, and what to do in case they would appear. Communication was occasionally hindered by misunderstandings, e.g., when vague expressions or words with ambiguous meaning was used. Ambiguities e.g., arose due to dialectal disparity. Although physicians mainly communicated in plain language with patients, medication names imposed a significant problem for patients and in communication about medications. Discharge letter content was not associated to readmissions, the only significant predictor variables for time to readmission were previous admission the past 180 days and birth outside the Nordic countries. Discharge letters with more content were, on the other hand, correlated to worse self-estimated quality of care transition from hospital to home (Study II).

Conclusions: Physicians informed patients about tests and examinations performed in the past time, and comprehensive information was provided about medications, both during consultations and in discharge letters. However, information about symptoms to be aware of and measures to take in case they would appear was scarce in consultations and discharge letters. In conversations where lifestyle changes were raised, the topic was quickly dropped without recommendations or offering support if the patient showed unconcern. Lifestyle changes in relation to chronic illness and medications were rarely discussed. Improved lifestyle as a means of reducing the need for medications was not discussed or informed about in discharge letters. Discharge letter content did not have any impact on readmissions.

Gravel roads are essential for economic development as they facilitate the movement of people, transportation of goods and services, and promote cultural and social development. They typically connect sparsely populated rural areas to urban centres, providing essential access for residents and entrepreneurs. Maintaining these roads to an acceptable level of service is crucial for the efficient and safe transportation of goods and services. However, substantial maintenance investmentis required, yet resources are limited. Gravel roads are prone to dust, potholes, corrugations, rutting and loose gravel. They deteriorate faster than paved roads, and their failure development is affected by traffic action and physical, geometric and climatic factors. Thus, more condition monitoring and proper road condition assessment are necessary for dynamic maintenance planning to reach efficiency and effectiveness using objective, data-driven condition assessment methods to ensure all-year-round access.

However, objective data-driven methods (DDMs) are not frequently used for gravel road condition assessment, and where they have been applied, the practical implementation is limited. Instead, visual windshield assessment and manual methods are predominant. Visual assessments are unreliable and susceptible to human judgement errors, while manual methods are time-consuming and labour-intensive. Maintenance activities are predetermined despite dynamic maintenance needs, and the planning is based on historical failure data rather than the actual road condition. This thesis establishes a data-driven approach to gravel road maintenance describing the systematic assessment of the gravel road condition and collection of the condition data to ensure efficient and effective maintenance planning. This thesis uses a design research methodology based on a literature review, concept development, interview study and field experiments.

A holistic approach is proposed for data-driven maintenance of gravel roads encompassing objective condition data collection, processing, analysing, and interpreting the findings for obtaining reliable information concerning the condition to gravel road decision support by utilising the opportunities presented by technological advancements, particularly sensor technology. Then, decision-making is primarily influenced by the objectively collected gravel road condition data rather than the evaluator’s perception or experience. The successful implementation of a data-driven approach depends on the quality of the collected data; therefore, data relevance and quality are emphasised in this thesis. The lack of data quality and relevance hinders effective data utilisation, leading to less precisionin decision-making and ineffective decisions.

Furthermore, the thesis proposes a participatory data-driven approach for unpaved road condition monitoring, allowing road users to be part of the maintenance process and providing an efficient and effective alternative for collecting road condition data and accomplishing broad coverage at minimum cost. A top-down iiapproach for data-driven gravel road condition classification is proposed to achieve an objective assessment to address the lack of readily available quality and relevant condition data. The established data-driven approach to gravel road maintenance is evaluated and verified with field experiments on three gravel roads in Växjö municipality, Southern Sweden. The research findings indicate that properly implementing a data-driven approach to gravel road maintenance would ensure efficient and effective condition assessment and classification, which are a basis for a maintenance management system of gravel roads and enable road maintainers and authorities to achieve cost-effective decision-making. 

The main purpose of this study was to highlight young people with alcohol and drug problems and their experiences of social and pedagogical exclusion. The data collected consist of interviews, in turn obtained from Ungdok. Ungdok is a documentation system used by the Social Services. It aims at documenting young people’s own accounts of their alcohol and drug use and how it affects different aspects of their lives. The study’s focus was on how young people with a variety of substance use describe their experiences of exclusion in school settings. Initially the results were analyzed with the help of concepts that are used to identify various aspects of school difficulties, the significance of them, and what the consequences might be for the youngsters. The analysis also focuses on the elements of exclusion that the youngsters ascribe to the school setting, as well as peer relations, and their own family ties.

A large part of the interviewees, roughly 1/3 of  2169 young people with alcohol and drug problems, state that they have no school related problems, which perhaps could be attributed to a more normalized use of so-called party drugs, and/or cannabis. 2/3 of the interviewees however, state that they have experienced, or are experiencing school related problems. A lot of the young people whose accounts were used in this study state that their drug use was most prevalent in transition periods, even though alcohol use generally increase when adolescents reach adulthood. A finding of this study is that about half of the young people interviewed consider themselves unwanted or as failures. Another finding is that approximately 1/5 of the youngsters’ accounts of school related difficulties relate to ADHD or other neuropsychiatric difficulties or diagnoses. Physical illness is in a few cases also given as a reason for school related difficulties. Other problematic areas described by the young people relate to difficulties with concentration, and those are often described in terms of comorbidities or that the individual devalues him or herself.

The results of the study show that school related social exclusion appear on both a structural, interpersonal, as well as an individual level. Two distinct approaches also become apparent in the results. The first approach emphasizes that exclusion is the result of the school’s, or the educational institution’s failure to fully embrace inclusive practices. The second approach visible in the results takes a more individualistic view on exclusion, often resulting in the young person putting blame on him or herself for being the very reason they’re experiencing social, and/or pedagogical exclusion.

The study’s results raise questions as to what extent an individual child/young person can be expected to take responsibility for the parental level of education and the potential disadvantage this brings the young person. Other questions of interest that may be raised in relation to the results of this study is to what extent a child or young person can be expected to take responsibility for the potentially negative consequences of an unequal and/or segregated school system. Is it the education system, the school, or the pupils that ought to take the responsibility and action to guarantee the educational support that all pupils have the right to?

This study has contributed to the body of knowledge by providing knowledge of how young people with alcohol and drug problems describe their own experiences of school related difficulties, and to what extent these experiences in various degrees have contributed to a sense of social and pedagogical exclusion in school settings.

Timber-concrete hybrid buildings are an innovative solution to increase the amount of timber materials in modern buildings. Due to its lower impact on the environment than materials like steel and concrete, the demand for timber products is rising as the construction industry aims to decrease its environmental footprint.Timber is naturally grown, and certain characteristics must be considered when used in buildings, such as strength and stiffness properties depending on variables like fiber direction and moisture content. In addition, timber is a lightweight material, which influences dynamic performance of timber elements and structures.To fulfill the requirements of a modern building, timber elements are sometimes combined with concrete elements, introducing timber-concrete hybrid buildings.This study aims to expand the use of timber-concrete hybrid buildings within the construction industry. The objective is to present different types of timber-concrete hybrid buildings and evaluate their structural performance to improve the level of knowledge for structural designers for the safe and robust design of such buildings. Typically, four different types of timber-concrete hybrid structures are found in building projects in Sweden. These types of building projects usually involve additional designers than regular projects due to a lack of knowledge in timber design. Additionally, different designers uses different statical models for their designs, even within the same building project. A mobile measurement system was developed to perform in-situ dynamic measurements. The system was used in a nine-story timber-concrete hybrid building during construction to investigate the dynamic properties and validate structural design models. A parameter study highlights different design parameters that have a large influence on these models. These parameters include the inplane shear stiffness of CLT wall elements, the foundation properties, as well as non-load-bearing internal walls. In addition, the long-term dynamic response of a four-story office timber concretehybrid building is presented. Over a three-years evaluation period, the results show a clear seasonal variation of the natural frequencies which correlates well with the moisture content within a CLT slab element. The results show that environmental effects are to be considered when comparing with finite  . A predictive model is presented that can be implemented in a structural health monitoring system for damage detection so that these environmental effect scan be filtered out.

Denna licentiatuppsats utforskar vilka värden som uppstår när allmänheten, tillsammans med professionella arkeologer, får möjlighet att engagera sig i arkeologiskt fältarbete. Projektformen där professionella arkeologer arbetar tillsammans med aktörer ur allmänheten kallas i denna studie för Deltagande arkeologi. Uppsatsen utforskar även vilka praktiker som omgärdar denna projektform samt vilka traditioner och politiska beslut som har påverkat allmänhetens möjligheter för praktiskt deltagande inom kulturmiljöarbetet. Forskningen baseras till stor del på studierna av tre svenska arkeologiprojekt, som alla bygger på allmänhetens deltagande, vilka utforskas genom enkätstudier, intervjuer och deltagande observation. Resultaten visar att projektformen genererar flera olika former av värden och vinster. För den arkeologiska vetenskapen bidrar projektformen till att platser som ligger långt från uppdragsarkeologins verksamhetsområden kan uppmärksammas och undersökas vilket resulterar i en bättre geografisk spridning av arkeologiska undersökningar och därmed en jämnare kunskapsuppbyggnad. För arrangörerna (arkeologer) är projekten en möjlighet att få ägna sig åt långvarig forskning och för deltagarna (allmänheten) en möjlighet att få ägna sig åt sina intressen, skapa värdefulla kontaktnät och vänskaper. Samtidigt uppger båda aktörsgrupperna att deltagandet bidrar till en förbättrad hälsa och välbefinnande samt till att förstärka känslorna av delaktighet till, och i arbetet kring, det materiella kulturarvet.

Syftet för studien är att visa hur en körledare instruerar om luft och andning genom att studera verbalt och förkroppsligat språk i en barnkör när deltagare lär sig att sjunga. Forskningsfrågor har fokus på hur instruktioner om luft och andning ser ut, vilka resurser körledare använder för instruerandet och när under körövningen det instrueras. Bakgrund och tidigare forskning rör verbalspråkliga såväl som förkroppsligade instruktioner vid körövning, körsång och körkontexter men också i andra musikaliska kontexter där undervisning sker. Kapitlet har utgångspunkt i att instruktioner kan vara både verbala och icke-verbala.      Utgångspunkt för studien är att i aktiviteter där deltagare använder sin kropp orienteras instruerandet också emot kroppen. Studien använder metod och teori där ett sådant perspektiv är möjligt att tillämpa: etnometodologisk konversationsanalys (EMCA), som i Sverige också kallas multimodal interaktionsanalys. En sådan analys studerar samvaro och interaktion människor emellan och använder ett etnografiskt förhållningssätt. Ett sådant perspektiv inkluderar närvaro i den undersökta kontexten vid insamlingsfas av materialet och att man för fältanteckningar. Den kvalitativa analysen tar hänsyn till den sociala struktur som deltagarna ingår i. Under ett halvår har körövningar med en barnkör i ålder 8–12 år spelats in med video. Närvarande forskare har gjort fältanteckningar. Materialet närstuderas sedan både i insamlings-, bearbetnings- och analysfas. Exempel från aktiviteten, i form av 37 transkriptioner med tillhörande 62 bilder, synliggör i avhandlingen instruktioner om luft och andning när barn lär sig sjunga.      Analysen är indelad i tre avsnitt om instruktioner innan, under och efter sång och visar i detalj hur instruktioner ser ut och vilka resurser som används i olika skeden. Den visar att instruktioner om luft och andning sker multimodalt och med flera parallella resurser: körledarens blick, mimik, kroppshållning, gester, tal- och sångröst, samt icke-lexikalt ljudande. Utöver sin kropp använder körledaren även flygelspel som resurs. Andra artefakter inkluderar tavla, notblad och pärm.  Flest instruktioner om luft och andning sker innan sång. Under sång sker instruktioner med hänsyn till sångens flöde, och efter sång återkopplar instruktionerna till precis genomförd sång. Instruktioner innan sång initierar relevant innehåll för att hantera kroppen optimalt vid sång. Under körens pågående sång undervisas om tidskritiskt innehåll med relevans för ljudandet och efter sång instrueras för att nyansera precis uttryckt sång. Till slut diskuteras studiens resultat utifrån bakgrund och tidigare forskning inom interaktionsforskningsfältet. Avhandlingen synliggör en aktivitetskontext som tidigare inte studerats utifrån hur exakt instruktioner ser ut och när instruktioner om luft och andning sker. Den kartlägger vilka multimodala resurser som används av körledaren i en barnkörkontext.

The study of multivariate networks (MVNs, i.e., large data sets where datapoints have relations to other data points and both these relations and the pointsthemselves can have attributed data) is an important task in many different fields,such as social networks for the humanities, citation networks for bibliometricsand biochemical networks for life sciences. Furthermore, when dealing withvisualization and analysis of MVNs, many open challenges still exist regardingboth computational aspects (i.e., the challenge of computing different metricsof a large-scale MVN) and visual aspects (i.e. the challenge of displaying allthe information of a large-scale MVN in a way that is comprehensible to theuser). In the search for efficient and scalable visual analytics methods, especiallyfor exploratory data analysis, this thesis explores a novel approach of aspectdrivenMVN embedding and the use of ensembles of embeddings for multi-levelsimilarity calculations. Starting from the observation that there already existseveral different embedding techniques for datatypes that are common for realworldMVNs, the main question that we will try to answer is: “Could the useof multiple embeddings provide for new and better solutions for visual analytics onmultivariate networks?" This main question then inspires the formulation of fourmore specific research goals regarding: (1) methods for combining embeddings,(2) the development of a general methodology framework, (3) new visualizationmethods, and (4) proof-of-concept applications for real-world scenarios.The focus of our work lies on similarity-based analysis within the domainsof bibliometrics and scientometrics, and our first major step is to developa methodology for combining several different embeddings (for the sameunderlying data) to augment the quality of similarity calculations. This stepincludes an adaptation of some of the key ideas from ensemble methods to thefield of embeddings, and also an interactive optimization process for finding thebest performing ensembles. Upon this foundation, we develop an aspect-drivenapproach which seeks to divide an underlying MVN into separately embeddableaspects, which in turn allows for the resulting embedding vectors to be used inflexible analysis scenarios with high level of interaction. We then proceed toshow how the concept of similarity-based analysis can be used to obtain valuableinsights to, and a better understanding of, a large set of scientific publications.For this, we introduce the abstract concept of similarity patterns which we use toexpress how a specific set of similarity criteria are distributed over a data set.Furthermore, we present proof-of-concept applications which are designed toallow the user to exploit these similarity patterns at different levels of detail. Wealso show that our proposed methodology is generalizable beyond the scope ofMVNs, and therefore could be applied to other fields as well.

Climate change and densification of cities are two major global challenges. Inthe building and construction industry, there are great expectations that tall timberbuildings will constitute one of the most sustainable solutions. First, verticalurban growth is energy and resource-efficient. Second, forest-based productsstore carbon and have one of the highest mechanical strength to density ratios.If the structural substitution of concrete and steel with wood in high-rise buildingsawakens fears of fire safety issues, engineers and researchers are particularlyworried about the dynamic response of the trendy tall timber buildings.Indeed, due to the low density of wood, they are lighter, and for the same height,they might be more sensitive to wind-induced vibrations than traditional buildings.To satisfy people’s comfort on the top floors, the serviceability design oftall timber buildings must consider wind-induced vibrations carefully. Architectsand structural engineers need accurate and verified calculation methods,useful numerical models and good knowledge of the dynamical properties oftall timber buildings.

Firstly, the research work presented hereby attempts to increase the understandingof the dynamical phenomena of wind-induced vibration in tall buildings andevaluate the accuracy of the semi-empirical models available to estimate alongwindaccelerations in buildings. Secondly, it aims at, experimentally and numerically,studying the impact of structural parameters – masses, stiffnesses anddamping – on the dynamics of timber structures. Finally, it suggests how talltimber buildings can be modeled to correctly predict modal properties and windinducedresponses.

This research thesis confirms the concerns that timber buildings above 15-20stories are more sensitive to wind excitation than traditional buildings with concreteand steel structures, and solutions are proposed to mitigate this vibrationissue. Regarding the comparison of models from different standards to estimatewind-induced accelerations, the spread of the results is found to be very large.From vibration tests on a large glulam truss, the connection stiffnesses are foundto be valuable for predicting modal properties, and numerical reductions withsimple spring models yield fair results. Concerning the structural models of conceptualand real tall timber buildings, numerical case studies emphasize the importanceof accurately distributed masses and stiffnesses of structural elements,connections and non-structural building parts, and the need for accurate dampingvalues.

In this licentiate thesis studies how a systematic work of implementing a supported housing develops from idea to practice with the purpose to analyze collaboration and its impact on the development of the implementation. The study followed how the four organizations created a collaboration to implement a supported housing.; the social services in Kalmar municipality, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service in the form of the local probation service in Kalmar, the association KRIS (Kriminellas Revansch I Samhället, [Criminals' Revenge In Society]) in Kalmar and Kalmarhem AB a housing company, 

The starting point for the study consists of a process evaluation of an implementation process, how collaboration established between the organizations, how collaboration as a way of working affects the process and finally the split-up of the project. The study conducted in two parts: partly during the years 2006-2008 when implementation studied, partly during the years 2014-2015 when the split-up of the project studied. The methods used was interviews, participatory observations and document studies. The empirical evidence collected during the two periods forms the basis for the analysis.

The results indicate that collaboration created between the actors of the implementation is of crucial importance. That is, how the actors confronted and solved the problems that arose during the implementation and that both time and various forms of resources are required to create a comprehensive collaboration. 

The concluding part of the study describes how a split-up of collaboration takes place. The change can attributed to a new arrangement with clear operational management in accordance with the impact of New Public Management [NPM]. A consequence for the supported housing, in line with this logic, was a separation and division of clients and contractors and division between businesses in accordance with a competitive mindset.

At the time of writing, the supported housing remains, albeit in a different form. One explanation is that during the implementation, a close and sustainable collaboration was developed that could withstand some of the threats created through changed forms of governance. This indicates that the collaboration that developed between the four organizations can still provide some space if it is able to find forms that can fit into new control logics.

Since the 1980s, there has been a growing consciousness among heritage workers and policy makers about the management of indigenous heritage. Museums, universities, and other cultural institutions around the world have acknowledged that old work practices must be exchanged for new ones, where the indigenous peoples are allowed influence, stewardship, and interpretative prerogative. One result of these efforts is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).

With the breakthrough of public archaeology and community archaeology in the 1990s, these ambitions have also been put into practice in multiple archaeological projects around the globe. In my research, I examine the heritage management system of Sweden, and how this system works in relation to the indigenous Sámi. 

Despite being on the retreat geographically for the past few centuries, the Sámi still dispose of about 50% of the area of Sweden for the grazing of their reindeer, which means the historical and cultural landscape of the Sámi is vast and the archaeological traces of their activities are spread over a large area.

In Sweden, about 90% of all archaeological projects are due to land development projects and conducted by archaeological companies operating on a commercial market. The remaining 10% are research projects financed by public funding and mostly conducted by museums and universities. 

Investigating the Swedish county of Jämtland as a case study and drawing on interviews with ten actors with different perspectives on Sámi heritage, I study what happens when policy meets practice. The indigenous perspective appears to be considered less in contract archaeology than in research projects. Legislation, money, old habits, and the realities of everyday life obstruct indigenous influence. But my research results suggest that there are also ways of improving the system.

This licentiate thesis examines how history teachers in Swedish upper secondary school translate the syllabus for History 1b into practice when they construct, assess and grade student assignments and exams, and how this, in turn, affects students’ final grades and the equivalence of grades.

The empirical material was collected from six teachers at five different upper secondary schools, and consisted of, on the one hand, authentic students’ assignments and exams, along with partial grades and resulting final grades, and, on the other hand, the teachers’ reflections on the processes involved in assessing and grading said assignments and exams, and subsequently awarding final grades. The teachers’ reflections were obtained through interviews, in which the informants were asked to go through their students’ work and “think aloud” about the reasons for their assessments.

The empirical material was analysed based on a modified version of Bloom’s revised taxonomy, in terms of how well it aligned with the syllabus, as well as in terms of whether assignments and exams differed between student groups as a result of the teachers’ different interpretations of the syllabus. The results of the analysis were subsequently used to discuss the equivalence of grades.

In conclusion, the study shows that there are clear differences in how the teachers participating in the study translate and implement the intentions of the syllabus in their assignments and exams – as regards content as well as cognitive levels. Whereas some teachers base their assignments and exams on the full range of content categories and cognitive levels covered by the syllabus, others focus on fewer content categories at less advanced cognitive levels. It seems reasonable to assume that this, in turn, affects grading in that it will be harder for students belonging to the former group to achieve a high final grade, than it will for students belonging to the latter group. Consequently, the equivalence of grades is negatively affected.

Keywords

History education, assessment, grading, alignment, upper secondary school, curriculum, syllabus.

The power transformer is a critical equipment in which the protection process is essential for modern societies where continuous electric power supplies are required. Copper corrosion problems due to the formation of sulfur deposits on the copper windings of mineral oil-filled power transformers are considered a major issue that can lead to sudden failures, and in some cases, to costly fire and explosion accidents in the power plants. These kinds of problems are still being reported regardless of available condition monitoring (CM) parameters applied in power transformers' maintenance strategy. The currently applied CM parameters are based on three different types of technologies. The first is oil analysis focuses more on measurable variables such as measuring the concentration of the corrosive sulfur compounds in the insulating oil, evaluating the oil's capability to form sulfur deposits, and measuring an increase in the concentration of specific gases. The second is on-site electrical testing focuses on the variation of the transformer's electrical properties due to the sulfur deposits. The measurable variables used in the electrical testing are Frequency Domain Spectroscopy test and Polarization/Depolarization Current test. The last is online sensor technology using Corrosive Sulfur Sensor, where the sensor's outcome data provide information about the oil's capability to form sulfur deposits. The research problem addressed is how to establish more effective CM parameters for early detection of copper corrosion problems.  The research problem is divided into three concretized research problems: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the currently applied condition monitoring parameters? Which measurable variables could be utilized to improve the currently applied condition monitoring parameters to be more effective for early detection of copper corrosion problems? And how to establish a procedure for the condition monitoring for detecting copper corrosion? Two research methodologies were applied to answer these questions, literature review and experimental work. The literature review showed significant gaps in the currently applied CM parameters for early detection of copper corrosion problems due to incomplete data of the corrosion reaction mechanism. Therefore, qualitative and quantitative investigations in the experimental work were carried out. The most important result was finding new relevant measurable variables, i.e. hydrogen sulfide gas and toluene compound, which are by-products of corrosion reaction. These measurable variables are utilized to establish more effective CM parameters for early detection of copper corrosion problems. The main conclusion of this thesis is the importance of detection corrosion problems in the initial stage by implementing more effective CM parameters to prevent catastrophic and costly failures, reduce the negative impacts on human life and the environment, and save the economic losses. Another conclusion is the importance of regularly following the measurable variables' uptrend during transformer useful life to avoid incorrect evaluation of corrosion conditions.

The forest constitutes a very important element of renewable natural resources and makes a significant contribution to the Swedish bioeconomy. Biofuels are Sweden’s largest source of energy; of all the energy we use, 32% comes from biofuels, and of this approximately 85% comes from the forest and the forestry sector. In spite of this, logging residues constitute only a small component, compared to for example byproducts from sawmills and pulpindustry, and there is considered to be great potential for increasing their use.

In 2019 the Swedish Forestry Agency issued new recommendations for logging residue harvest and ash recycling. This was a further development of the 2008 recommendations, which formed the foundation for how forest fuel producers work today, and were based on several decades of research into, for example, the impact on forest productivity and technological development of machinery. This practice of logging residue harvest aims to yield a dry and defoliated fuel where the needles are left at the clear felled area.

However, if we are to increase the use of green renewable energy from forestry, it is very important to understand how different procurement systems affect the handling and storability of fuels from a quality perspective. It is also of great importance to understand, from the forest owners’ perspective, how removal of additional products from forestry influences nutritional balance and long-term productivity. If harvesting of logging residues does not affect long-term productivity, it is up to small-scale private forest owners to decide if removal of logging residues will be performed on their land. This thesis addresses some of these issues regarding removal of logging residues from the point of tree harvest up to the point of delivery to the energy conversion industry when the fuel chips are measured.

Regarding different methods of handling of logging residues, the traditional method – dry-stacking – was compared with the, fresh-stacking method. The logging residues investigated came from stands that mainly consisted of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst). The loads investigated in Paper 3 also came from logging of spruce-dominated forests. Both methods aim to dry the logging residues to an acceptable moisture content for delivery to the energyconversion industry. For the later part in the supply chain, moisture content measurements of logging residues were compared during a winter and summer season.

The results of the studies indicate that the two methods do not create results that differ from what is allowed by the Swedish Forestry Agency and that they are quite similar with respect to dry mass- and nutrient removal from the clearfelled area. The results also show that similar yields and distributions of material are obtained from the logging residues with different stacking methods; in addition, the final felling itself, combined with the work performed by the forwarder operator, has a greater impact on the result than the method chosen for residue stacking of the logging residues. For the individual clear-felled area and the individual forest owner the increased removal associated with freshstacked logging residue has no major impact, however from a national perspective this small increase in removed logging residues may yield a supplement of between 0.5 – 1 TWh of green energy annually.

Regardless of treatment, the studies indicated that the delivered fuel chips will have similar characteristics. The moisture content measurement techniques currently in use are sufficiently accurate and reliable. However, if the forest owner is unlucky and an error in measurement occurs or comminution and delivery happens during an especially wet period they may suffer a significant financial loss; indeed, it is generally not under the individual forest owners’ control when the logging residues are comminuted and delivered.

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 degree of change by adapting at run-time to deal with situations not known at design time. They, however, are not immune to attacks, as they themselves suffer from high degrees of complexity and uncertainty. Therefore, systems that can dynamically defend themselves from adversaries are required. Such systems are called self-protecting systems and aim to identify, analyse and mitigate threats autonomously. This thesis contributes two approaches towards the goal of providing systems with self-protection capabilities.

The first approach aims to enhance the security of architecture-based selfadaptive systems and equip them with (proactive) self-protection capabilities that reduce the exposed attack surface. We target systems where information about the system components and its adaptation decisions is available, and control over its adaptation is also possible. We formally model the security of the system and provide two methods to analyze its security that help us rank adaptations in terms of their security level: a method based on quantitative risk assessment and a method based on probabilistic verification. The results indicate an improvement to the system security when either of our solutions is employed. However, only the second method can provide self-protecting capabilities. We have identified a direct relationship between security and performance overhead, i.e., higher security guarantees impose analogously higher performance overhead.

The second approach targets open decentralized systems where we have limited information about and control over the system entities. Therefore, we attempt to employ decentralized information flow control mechanisms to enforce security by controlling interactions among the system elements. We extend a classical decentralized information flow control model by incorporating trust and adding adaptation capabilities that allow the system to identify security threats and self-organize to maximize the average trust between the system entities. We arrange entities of the system in trust hierarchies that enforce security policies among their elements and can mitigate security issues raised by the openness and uncertainty in the context and environment, without the need for a trusted central controller. The experiment results show that a reasonable level of trust can be achieved and at the same time confidentiality and integrity can be enforced with a low impact on the throughput and latency of messages exchanged in the system.

This study is about Joseph Samuel Frithiof Stephens (1841–1934) and how he as a Scandinavian contractor acquired an economic fortune in the colonial India. The fortune was used for the acquisition of the mill property Huseby Bruk in Småland and also contributed to the Stephens family's strategy of advancing in the then Danish bourgeois class establishment. The study aims to present an individual actor's opportunities to achieve financial success through access to non-financial capital forms. Social capital in the form of important social relations and cultural capital in the form of information, skills, etc., can be used for transformation into economic capital. The identification and analysis of the personal networks that occurred in Joseph's career determines the importance of family networks and professional networks for access to the various alternative forms of capital. Joseph's career in British India in the 1850s and 60s was surrounded by the colonial power context linked to global capitalist progression and characterized by civilization ambitions, technological transfer and dominance. The aftermath of the Revolt 1857–1858 opened the playing field for wealth-seeking risk-takers from Europe. The power structures previously maintained by the East India Company were gradually replaced by the British central power apparatus. The new power relations established a new administration and altered social institutions in the emerging crown colony. The Indian railways became a significant element in the colonial intervention and consisted of trunk lines that crossed the subcontinent. The used source material in the form of private letters, diaries, business correspondence and more, constitutes the research basis for the studies, and are included in the India-related material stored in the Huseby Archives at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. The results of the study show that network contacts and access to alternative forms of capital became crucial success factors for Joseph Stephen's career and wealth accumulation. The networks were linked to both the private and traditional spheres as well as to the professional and rational spheres and sometimes seemed cross-border. The study has further demonstrated the structures, colonial thought patterns and hierarchies that the individual actor was actively related to, and that affected the often-strained everyday life of the contractor.

The title of this licentiate thesis is: Urban contract archaeology, public outreach and schools. Beyond the horizons of history teaching.  

The aim of my licentiate thesis is to investigate how educational programs for schools are implemented within the framework of contract archaeology. I study the underlying incentives that motivate public outreach within contract archaeology, who carries out the outreach and what impact educational programs have on schools. My research project also aims to explore how public outreach within contract archaeology can be organized to meet schools´ demand for knowledge and activities. With an interdisciplinary approach, taken from archaeology and educational sciences, the goal is to instigate a dialogue between the scientific community and contract archaeology, as well as between contract archaeology and schools.

As a primary goal, midway into in my doctoral degree, I have chosen in this licentiate thesis to study the practices of public outreach on urban excavation sites in Sweden, specifically studying outreach practices towards schools.

The research queries in the licentiate thesis are:

1. What are the purposes and objectives with public outreach in contract archaeology?
2. What are the preconditions for working with public outreach in contract archaeology?
3. How are the practices of public outreach aimed at schools conducted at urban excavation sites?
4. How do educational programs within contract archaeology address the needs and goals of school education?

Based on these queries, I also discuss how contract archaeology in the future can make possible broader collaborations with schools. This serves as an introduction to how archaeo-didactics can evolve bringing together contract archaeology's goals and potential in an educational situation, with the needs and goals of school education.

This thesis consists of two self-contained essays.

 Essay I. 

I compute how optimal income tax schedules optimally should be differentiated between immigrants and natives. I use a calibrated optimal tax model with heterogeneous labor supply elasticities across and within groups and employ Utilitarian and Rawlsian social welfare functions. As compared to an optimal tax system that treats both groups the same, the optimal differentiated tax system increases marginal tax rates for the majority of natives, with a decrease in the marginal tax rates of immigrants. However, there is not much redistribution between the groups.

Essay II. (with Håkan Selin and Martin Söderström)

Sweden introduced a phase-out of the earned income tax credit in 2016. As a consequence, taxpayers belonging to the top 5 percent of the earnings distribution, already facing high taxes, experienced a 7% reduction in their net-of-tax shares. While exploiting rich full-population administrative data up to 2017, we evaluate earnings responses to the reform. When graphically and econometrically comparing earnings growth at different segments of the distribution, we estimate a significant relative earnings reduction in the treatment group immediately appearing in 2016, and growing in 2017. The implied earnings elasticity is fairly low and around 0.1. We interpret the essential features of the response using a simulation model, in which people have noisy perceptions of the piece-wise linear tax code. To simulate the empirically observed response, we need to add more noise to perceptions than what is motivated by earnings uncertainty alone.

This study aims at improving cooperation and communication between actors in the field of Swedish contract archaeology in order to maximize the benefits of their work. It addresses two research questions: How did the development of archaeology into contract archaeology as an independent business affect museum collections in Sweden? And: How do communication and terminology affect the processes that transform material culture into cultural heritage?

Departing from “actor-network-theory” and taking a linguistic perspective, I first examine closely some important processes and structures behind the making of heritage. The background of contemporary contract archaeology is then illuminated through a literature study focusing on the history of and current practices in contract archaeology, conservation practice and museum management. Later, I investigate the particular effects of contract archaeology on museum collections. This is based in part on a comparative analysis of selection and de-selection processes of artefacts in collections and partly on a survey among contract archaeologists. I conclude with a discourse analysis of policies and other governing documents, highlighting the significance of communication and terminology in processes during which archaeological artefacts acquire a new identity as cultural heritage.

The study shows how the contemporary system of contract archaeology creates a biased representation of (pre-)history, as selection and de-selection processes of artefacts in museum collections are affected by various internal practices and external demands that ultimately shape cultural heritage. This bias is not helped by the fact that those collecting the artefacts in the field use different terminology compared with those collecting in museums. I argue that behind this gap lies the “cultural heritage paradox” which derives from different understandings and aims of cultural heritage by different actors. 

In response to the furniture industry’s growing demand for raw material, large volumes of juvenile silver birch and downy birch stems available from pre-commercial thinning operations in Sweden’s forests could offer solutions. However, such stems are not currently used on an industrial scale, and most research conducted on birch stems in general has neither focussed on young trees nor the potential use of the central stem part around the tree pith. The resulting lack of knowledge about the juvenile part of birch wood thus requires additional information about the material properties of birch, which could encourage its use for various purposes in the furniture and other industries.

The initial literature review performed for this thesis has highlighted some properties of juvenile birch required for its use as a furniture material, as well as identified topics concerning the physical characteristics of juvenile birch about which knowledge is currently limited. Consequently, the objectives of this thesis were to explore some characteristics of juvenile birch—bark thickness, wood-to-bark bonding ratio after drying, variations in the density and width of growth rings, and anatomical growth response to fertilisation—in order to increase the knowledge.

The material studied came from mixed birch and Norway spruce stands at two sites in southern Sweden, namely Asa and Toftaholm. The birch stems were naturally regenerated silver birch and downy birch, with breast height diameters between 30 and 83 mm. Fertilised and unfertilised silver birch trees were sampled at Toftaholm, whereas unfertilised stems of silver birch and downy birch were sampled at Asa. The characteristics of stems from the pith to bark (radial direction) and along the stem (longitudinal direction) were measured. The wood-to-bark bonding ratio on downy birch after drying was calculated as the percentage of the stem circumference with full contact between the wood and bark, while oven-dry density and basic wood density for silver birch were determined by using the water displacement method. The impact of ring width on wood density was statistically analysed, and an image analysis of the wood anatomy was conducted to elucidate their relationship.

Amongst the results, bark thickness along the stem had the highest deviation in the section closest to the stump. Moreover, the wood-to-bark bonding ratio after drying measured for juvenile downy birch seemed to depend more on the stem’s diameter than the sampling height along the stem. Such results are relevant for processors seeking to estimate the volume of wood under the bark. The wood-to-bark bonding ratio was highest for diameters between 30 and 39 mm, and neither did that relationship correlate with the sampling height along the stem.

Variation in wood density in the radial and longitudinal directions in juvenile silver birch suggested that such density negatively correlated with growth rate (ring width). That relationship held true for stems at each site and between the sites, irrespective of management or growing conditions. As expected, mean wood density was lower in fertilised trees than in unfertilised ones, and towards the bark, radial density increased more in trees that grew more slowly. At the same time, variation in longitudinal density in young silver birch trees was low. Quantitative wood anatomy studies confirmed that the fertilised juvenile birch had younger cambia, thinner cell walls, and fewer vessels per mm² than unfertilised trees in the same diameter class.

Overall, the knowledge generated in the study may facilitate the industrial use of juvenile birch stems and wood in interior and furniture applications. The role of wood anatomy in determining the mechanical performance of juvenile birch stems should be further examined, however, to possibly reveal new opportunities for the use of juvenile birch.

Denna licentiatuppsats lägger grunden för att undersöka om skandinaviska partiers tävlan om röster har förändrats så som den uttrycks i partiernas valmanifest. Därigenom testas dels om det finns en förändrad partitävlan i Skandinavien, dels om en eventuell förändring i partitävlan drivs av en existerande tävlansstruktur ärvd från 1970-talet, om partiernas tävlan om röster helt eller delvis försvunnit eller om partiernas tävlan snarast handlar om konkurrens om väljarnas röster

Inom partiforskningen har den så kallade kartellpartitesen haft ett mycket stort genomslag. I korthet innebär denna att partier snarast försöker passivisera väljare genom att inte erbjuda alternativ vare sig i policy eller ideologi till skillnad från tidigare då partier i första hand försökt mobilisera sina kärnväljare och erbjudit tydliga skillnader i såväl policy som ideologi. Mot dessa två beskrivningar kan även ställas en tredje baserad på ett antagande om skärpt partikonkurrens där det gäller att vinna alltmer rörliga väljare. För att testa dessa tre hypoteser studeras valmanifest från 1970 till 2010 från agrara, konservativa och socialdemokratiska partier i Danmark, Norge och Sverige.

Resultatet visar snarast på stark konkurrens inom samtliga partisystem oavsett vilken partifamilj som studeras. Valmanifesten blir tydligare och tendera att mer och mer betona policytävlan, men det finns även en konstant närvaro av värderingar i valmanifesten. Detta talar framförallt mot att tävlans bortdöende, men för att slutgiltigt utvärdera resultaten krävs närmare studier av vilka policys och vilka värderingar som presenteras och om dessa förskjuts eller förändras över tid.

Process based approaches to environmentally sustainable logistics performancemanagement are lacking within organizations that buy logistics services (buyers) and thatsell logistics services (LSPs), which puts a damper on environmentally sustainablelogistics performance. Organizations understand the potential of environmentallysustainable logistics performance management, but they seems unable to developeffective management processes and accurate environmentally sustainable logisticsmetrics. An environmentally sustainable logistics performance management process(ESLPM process) is one way for an organization to manage its performance in line withits environmental strategy and overall environmental targets.The purpose of this thesis is to adapt the logistics performance management process toinclude environmental sustainability. The first research question is about thecharacteristics for including environmentally sustainable logistics in the logisticsperformance management process. Characteristics that need to be included in the logisticsperformance management process must be identified in order to illustrate the process, inorder to improve the environmental performance. Moreover, by identifying thecharacteristics of the process activities, it is possible to compare how the characteristicsof the process are similar and/or different between organizations. The performancemanagement process can only be used successfully if the strategy is closely aligned tosome process activities being implemented; this motivates the second research question,which is how the ESLPM process can be expanded to measure alignment.The method used to collect empirical data is primarily interviews in eight multiple-casestudies of four organizations buying logistics services and four organizations sellinglogistics services. The frame of reference is based on the inclusion of environmentalsustainability characteristics in the logistics performance management process and thealignment between process and strategy as well as within processes.

The results include a description of an ESLPM process that contains five activities withseventeen characteristics for managing environmentally sustainable logistics. Specificcontexts of eight organizations, like type (private, public, or private/public) and size(small, medium, or large) and their influence and implications concerning the ESLPMprocess are discussed and presented. The matching between the theoretical ESLPMprocess (based on the frame of reference) and the empirical ESLPM process is presentedand then compared within the eight organizations, resulting in a modified ESLPM processwith twenty characteristics. The results shows that the use of an ESLPM process is stillin beginning stages and is not done in a structured manner; in particular, the organizationsfind it difficult to establish appropriate ESLP metrics, to define the ESLP metrics, to setaccurate ESLP targets, and to collect and measure the ESLP metrics.Results from measuring level of alignment include theoretical measurement models fortwo types of alignment, a model for measuring alignment between process and strategy,as well as a model for measuring alignment within a process. The two theoretical modelscontain different aspects that measure alignment on three different levels (high, medium,low). These models are tested within each organization, and the results from measuringlevel of alignment per organization is used to evaluate the two theoretical models,resulting in modified models for measuring alignment.The results lead to increased understanding of how type and size influence thecharacteristics of the ESLPM process and the level of alignment. The results also contribute to the literature on environmentally sustainable logistics performancemanagement and the alignment both between process and strategy as well as within theESLPM process. The result can be used by organizations selling and buying logisticsservices to improve their environmentally sustainable logistics performance.

This research concerns the digitalisation of archaeology, with a focus on Swedish contract archaeology. The aim is to understand how the archaeological discipline relates to the change that digitalisation brings and human involvement in these processes. The thesis is a study of its impact on processes connected to archaeological knowledge production and communication. The work problematises how digital data might be understood within these contexts but also illustrates where the potential of the digitalisation lies and how archaeology can make use of it. The theoretical approach re-actualises the concept of reflexivity in a digital context, combining it with various communication theories aiming to challenge the archaeological workflow and connect it more closely to present-day society. The digitalisation of archaeology can be seen across the whole discipline withan emphasis on academia. This digital development has greater opportunities in larger research projects which have sufficient funding than in contract archaeology. In those projects leading the digital development, the reflexive approach has been re-discovered and the digital enabled for new processes of knowledge production to take place. In case studies of Swedish contract archaeology several observations are made where it becomes clear that the digitalisation already shows positive effects at a government level, in organisations and projects within the sector. But there are also issues regarding digital infrastructure, knowledge production, archiving, accessibility and transparency. The biggest challenge is not technical but in attitudes towards digitalisation. The research concludes that digital communication based on archaeological source material can be something more than mediation of results. With digital interactive storytelling there are ways to create emotional virtual connections with the user, relating to the present and the surrounding society. By interlinking the processes of interpretation and communication an archaeological knowledge production might become an archaeological knowledge development.

This thesis concerns the problem of statistical hypothesis testing for mean vector as well as testing for non-normality in a high-dimensional setting which is called the Kolmogorov condition. Since we consider mainly the first and the second moment in testing for mean vector and we utilize the third and the fourth moment in testing for non-normality, this thesis concerns a more general moment testing problem. The research question is related to a data matrix with $p$ rows, which is the number of parameters and $n$ columns which is the sample size, where $p$ can exceed $n$, assuming that the ratio $\frac{p}{n}$ converges when both the number of parameters and the sample size increase. 

The first paper reviews the Dempster's non-exact test for mean vector, with a focus on one-sample case. We investigated its size and power properties compared to Hotelling's $\mathit{T}^2$ test as well as Srivastava's test using Monte Carlo simulation. 

The second paper concerns the problem of testing for multivariate non-normality in high-dimensional data. We proposed three test statistics which are based on marginal skewness and kurtosis. Simulation studies are carried out for examining the size and power properties of the three test statistics.

The aim of the study is to use the documentation produced and made public in preschool to contribute with knowledge about values in preschool performative documentation practice. The study focuses on seemingly valuable actions in the documentations studied.

Ball’s performativity concept has been applied to analyze the documentationsthat form the basis of the study. The theoretical concepts of fabrication and second-order activity have been used in the analysis of the material. In addition, core actions within a performative culture characterized by displays, judgements and comparisons form the basis of the analysis. The empirical material consists of documentation produced and made public in preschool bybeing posted on walls and in children’s files.

Eight categories of valuable actions emerge from the material: actions related to learning and knowledge, social actions, self-control and obedience, independence, creativity and curiosity, ethical actions, participation and influence, as well as joy and wellbeing.

The result shows that actions related to learning and knowledge form the core in preschool documentation practice. Besides representing an overwhelming majority of the documentation studied, they are also included in other valuable action categories. Actions playing a minor role in the material include ethical actions as well as participation and influence. The focus of learning and knowledge lies mainly on particular subjects or curriculum areas, such as language, mathematics and science. Most documentation also demonstrates a goal and result orientation which indicates the importance of learning and knowledge. The children are the ones made visible in preschool documentation, while teachers are relatively invisible. The documentation focuses on the knowledge and skills of the children. The assessments are made both implicitly, by highlighting certain actions as valued, and explicitly, bytesting children’s knowledge and abilities by check-up tasks or interviews. Comparisons are not normally made between children, but rather bycomparing children’s current knowledge and skills with what they havedemonstrated previously. The majority of the documents lack information onpreschool contributions to improvements in children’s knowledge.

Performative elements like performance, examination, evaluation, check-ups, goal orientation, result orientation and focus on the individual are most distinctly linked to the category of learning and knowledge. This indicates a connection that may contribute to primarily highlighting learning and knowledge in the documentation. This category includes all the analysis concepts that are used in the study and are relevant in a performative culture. Hence, a strong focus on learning and knowledge is in itself an indication that the documentation practice should be characterized as performative.

The aim is to study and reach an understanding of how upper secondary school students perceive the subject of physical education and health through the assessment practice they experience. Part of the interest concerns the content of the assessment practice and the picture of the subject emerging from this. Another part is to study what students perceive to form the basis of the actual assessment. A third field of interest is directed towards the assessment practice at large and the ways in which students perceive how far this gives them equal opportunities of showing their knowledge and skills.

Focus group interviews were carried out inspired by different vignettes, based on various dilemmas identified through earlier research. Four upper secondary schools from southern Sweden are represented, with 38 interviewed students. To further understand and analyze student perceptions, a New Institutional perspective is applied focusing on normative, regulative and cultural conditions1 (Scott 2008). The regulative and normative conditions are understood on the basis of different policy documents, and the cultural conditions are interpreted through previous research in the field.

It can be established that institutionalized club sport receives priority both before school policy documents and the less institutionalized health field. Some normative elements are perceived to be important, especially those linked to club sport, like cooperation, consideration, understanding and fair play, while other normative and regulative requirements are neglected or not mentioned at all, like outdoor education. The interpretation may be that above all the culturally based requirements in the form of sport affect students’ perception of the subject of physical education and health.

The interviewed students perceive physical education and health as an unfair subject. There are those students who have learned to perform ”correctly” according to sport norms, while at the same time there are those who do not have these skills, and none of the students perceive that they master the sport norms correctly.

The subject of corpses from mass violence is surprisingly unexplored, even though the materiality of the corpse carries strong symbolic capital in conflicts. The aim of my PhD research is to create new knowledge about the implications of unburied corpses that stem from intergroup conflicts, and subsequently to add knowledge concerning how intergroup violence is organised to achieve desired social agendas.

In the licentiate thesis presented here, I research the conditions for postmortem agency and how treatment of corpses can be studied in prehistory, specifically through the material remains of unburied corpses from the Sandby borg massacre. The Sandby borg case study is explored through a bioarchaeological perspective. Inside the Iron Age ringfort, the remains of at least 26 individuals have been recovered hitherto. Several of the dead display traces of lethal intergroup violence. By integrating osteology, archaeology, taphonomy and social theories, I show how bioarchaeological research can contribute to the understanding of past postmortem agency in relation to intergroup violence as a social process. The thesis is comprised of four articles.

The aim of my PhD work is to study how heritage and archaeological knowledge can be applied in practice to meet the aims of Agenda 2030, in particular goal no.11 Sustainable cities and communities. This licentiate thesis serves to provide a foundation for this research.

Here, I investigate how Swedish contract archaeology can contribute to sustainable development. First, I analyse how government policy and regulations convey the relation between sustainable development and contract archaeology in practice, and examine how professionals within the contract archaeological system see that they can work with sustainability issues in practice. The results show that there is a gap between policy and practice which is mainly connected to the understanding of sustainable development as a concept and not a practice. This may potentially limit Swedish contract archaeology´s ability to play an active role in sustainability practice.

In a case study, I research a modern urban planning project in Kalmar, Valnötsträdet, where contract archaeology played a decisive role in the planning process. By analysing the project process from a sustainability perspective and interviewing participants, I come to the conclusion that contract archaeology´s significant role in the project was due to the ability of individual persons to see the value of using a holistic working method and archaeological knowledge to strengthen the planning process. However, the results also show that archaeology and archaeological heritage have an inherent attraction that can cause imbalances between values ​​in a manner that potentially affects sustainable urban development if not taken into account and managed throughout the process.

Although research has established that heritage and archaeology has an important role to play in the achievement of environmental, economic and social sustainability, there are still few practical examples of this. The results of this licentiate thesis point to the fact that the sector still needs to develop an understanding of sustainability as a practice in order for this to change.

While IT-enabled innovations continue to disrupt long-lasting industries, emerging concepts and theories seek to explain implications of digitalisation on its value, competition and organisation. Over the past two decades, the notions of digital capability and business model reconfiguration as antecedents of organisational performance have become increasingly influential in the Information Systems literature. Appreciation of the role of strategic agility, external resources and interorganisational collaborations on IT-enabled value propositions has shaped the core logic and fundamental assumptions of the two aforementioned concepts. Nevertheless, the relationship between digital capability and business model reconfiguration remains underinvested and largely elusive. In order to reconcile such fragmented literature, the aim of this study is to investigate the coevolutionary dynamics of digital capability and business model reconfigurations.

Digital capability reflects on the organisational ability to identify IT-enabled opportunities and deploy IS/IT to mobilise resources and structures in order to exploit those opportunities. Business model reconfiguration encapsulates management agenda to elevate value propositions for customers, partners and other stakeholders in order to create and capture value. It entails altering organisational resources and processes to enable such value propositions.

Empirical data that is used in this thesis is gathered from an insurance company and contains information about the internal and external contexts, decisions, actions and performance between 2008 and 2016. There are four major phases during this time period. As identified, during each, the company revised its strategic intentions, invested in new IS/IT and human resources and reconfigured its business model.

Results of this study illustrate that organisational digital capability drives strategic intentions for co-exploration and co-exploitation of value with partners. Such emerging strategies shape the configuration of the firm’s business model, which in turn leads to investments for generating the required IS competencies. This process increases the organisational digital capability, which affects the future cycles.

Development of each IS competency is a result of co- exploration strategies. It is likely that such IS competencies are leveraged for co-exploitation in the future phases. In addition, Business-to-Business (B2B) IS competencies are instrumental in operationalising business models: however, as the number of partners grow and configuration of business models change, dyadic connections are likely to be replaced by standard ones.         

Strategies of co-exploration and co-exploitation could lead to innovative, adoptive or evolutionary business model reconfigurations. However, for incumbent organisations, business model innovation seems to follow several business model adaptations and evolutions. That is, a great deal of organisational learning and tinkering with business models, strategic intentions and technological backbone is needed to innovate business models.

The final contribution of this research is the analytical model devised for exploring the essence of strategic decision making in dynamic environments. Based on the Appreciative Systems Model, the model illustrates how the perception of the constant flux of events and ideas leads to strategic intentions based on value and reality judgments, which in turn triggers action to operationalise those understandings. Both formulating the intentions and executing them will change future events, perceived ideas and emerging intentions based on evolving values and standards.

This licentiate thesis investigates the use of digital visualisations for knowledge production and communication of maritime heritage located underwater. The archaeological practice that takes place in response to development, contract archaeology, is the field that is being investigated.

Much of the practical and administrative aspects of contract maritime work involves the survey, excavation and interpretation of archaeological remains. In addition, shifts in heritage policy emphasise that the results of this work move beyond their own value to provide access and democratic participation to heritage and be of benefit to society (e.g. Faro Convention, 2005).

Since the inaccessibility of maritime archaeology underwater makes outreach especially challenging, digital, and in particular 3D, technologies have been recognised as having great potential to meet the needs of both maritime archaeological researchers and public audiences. Advances in methodologies for digitally documenting and visualising archaeological sites, both on land and underwater, are providing a range of innovative and multidisciplinary solutions for both archaeological analysis and outreach activities.

The aim of this research is to understand current uses of digital visualisation for knowledge production and communication of maritime archaeology located underwater, in order to identify knowledge gaps that would benefit from future research. This aim is met through a study drawn primarily from the fields of digital archaeology, maritime archaeology and heritage studies, as well as discourse and thematic analysis of the factors that influence the use of these technologies in the sector. The case study is the contract maritime archaeology sector in Scandinavia, with a primary focus on the practice in Sweden and also including perspectives from the Danish and Norwegian sectors.

The results show that an emphasis on efficiency within the contract sector shapes the understanding and use of digital technologies, in some instances limiting their potential for archaeological interpretation and communication. While the maritime sector was found to be partly defined and restricted by a distinct identity, at times operating independently from mainstream archaeology, it was also found to be open to innovation. This represents great potential for digital workflows aimed at enhancing both interpretation and communication to be applied to the maritime archaeological sector in the future.

The aim of the study is to contribute with knowledge about preschool documentation and assessment practice. The starting point is the interaction taking place in situations where teachers and/or children simultaneously conduct some form of documentation. The focus lies on the way this interaction and, consequently, these situations can be perceived from a socialinteractionist and social-critical perspective.

Goffman’s social interaction theory has been used to analyze and interpret the interaction arising in documentation situations. Reed’s concept of maximal interpretation with a utopian referent has also been useful in the analyses. The empirics consist of video observations of everyday documentation situations comprising interaction between teacher and child. The primary interaction theory concepts used in the analysis include definition of a situation, framing and secondary adaptation.

The analysis shows that, on the basis of different interaction patterns, teachers and children make different definitions and framings of documentation situations. Teacher definitions seem task-oriented, including a predetermined goal and the expected result of the activity. Children appear more spontaneously driven and seem to act on the assumption that the activity tends to change. The analysis also indicates that the teacher largely tries to make children share her definition by speaking in questions. Maintaining the activity as such and hence its definition seems to be an overarching aim among the teachers. In cases when the expected outcome does not harmonize with the actual one but results in a performance gap, a transformation takes place in that things are reinterpreted into something else. What also emerges from the result is that both teachers and children seem to adapt to current institutional documentation and assessment practice expectations and demands. Teachers’ adaptation is expressed in that they seem to act as though there is no performance gap between the predetermined and the actual result. This gives rise to an as if practice. The children on their part seem to adapt by directing their performance to harmonize with what seems to be expected by the teacher.

To create meaning in what is said or done in the specific activity, the aim of the situation must be clarified by the participant. In other words, teachers and children need to arrive at a mutual definition of what is going on or what is intended to go on. The result indicates that no clarification has been made of what a documentation situation can or should mean. Both parties seem to interact on the basis of implicit or taken-for-granted definitions of what is or is supposed to be going on in the situation. The vulnerability of reaching a mutual framing of the situations and of different adaptations indicates the necessity of considering what learning or what other aspects can be made visible through the documentations taking place in the analyzed situations and in what ways preschool documentation and assessment practice may promote or restrain children’s lifelong urge to learn.

The aim of the study is to contribute with knowledge about preschool documentation and assessment practice. The focus lies on preschool teachers’ mutual talk about documentation and assessment and how discourses about documentation and assessment practices are sustained, challenged or recreated. 

In the study, the applied theory and method are taken from Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. The starting point of the study is the way preschool teachers in their speech acts express what they consider to be common sense with regard to documentation and assessment. The data material was constructed by using two focus groups with a total of 10 participant preschool teachers. The teachers’ speech acts were analyzed by applying the analysis concepts of modality and legitimacy. 

The result shows that preschool teachers talk about documentation as something regulated by using the curriculum as authority, as well as something benefiting the reputation of preschool and its profession, children’s development as well as the development of preschool. In addition, documentation is mentioned as a tool for working with children’s interest and influence. These are the speech acts that legitimize documentation in preschool. In contrast, there are few speech acts that question preschool documentation practice. To legitimize challenging the current documentation practice, the question whether preschool is like a Big Brother world is asked. Photographs and film emerge as highly important documentation tools for benefiting children’s development, making the organization visible to caregivers, and for pinpointing learning. Children’s participation is legitimized by preschool teachers from various aspects, while children appear to have few possibilities to abstain from documentation. The participant teachers demonstrate both the necessity and the desirability of the assessment concept in preschool documentation and assessment practice. Their talk is of high modality both when referring to the undesirability of assessing the individual child and when admitting that this is something they are obliged to do. This is legitimized by their claim that the assessment is of benefit to the children. Assessing the relation between activities and children’s actions emerges as desirable in preschool teachers’ talk. 

In the analysis of how preschool teachers talk about documentation and assessment, five different ways of referring to these processes can be distinguished. They comprise a power structure discourse as well as a learning, a professionalization, a digital and a welfare discourse. One conclusion to be drawn is that preschool teachers contribute to maintaining documentation as a natural part of preschool activities. Challenging preschool documentation and assessment practice occurs to some extent in that ethics discussions, which have not previously been included in preschool documentation and assessment practice, now enable teachers to discuss what their documentation requirement entails for the children.

The aim of the study is to contribute knowledge about pedagogical documentation in relation to children’s participation. The focus is directed both towards teachers’ actions in connection with documentation production during project work and towards teachers’ descriptions of their intention with thedocumentation situation. In the study, Habermas’ Communicative Action Theory has been used to analyze teachers’ actions in initial work with pedagogical documentation. The empirics consist of video observations of project work as well as interviews with teachers acting in the filmed material. The concepts from communicative action theory that have been primarily used in the analysis comprise communicative and strategic action as well as system and life-world. The analysis shows the occurrence of child participation in the studied contexts but also its tendency to decrease in connection with the production of documentation. The primary reason for this seems to be teachers’ intention that the documentations should visualize certain parts of the activity, which in the study can be referred to natural science contents. In parallel, the teachers’ intention is also to highlight the importance of what children show an interest in among the activities conducted. When children fail to show an interest in that which the teachers wish to visualize through documentation, the children are geared, by subtle or more tangible methods, towards the contents that agree with the teachers’ visualization intentions. However, the documentations are presented as being based on the interests, curiosity and proved commitment of the children. The documentations consequently signal that, according to the teachers, they are supposed to reflect the interests shown by the children while, simultaneously, the analysis shows that the actions taking place in connection with the documentation are mainly of a strategic nature. The result demonstrates that teachers tend to act strategically in documentation situations, whereas communicative actions predominate in the 2 situations analyzed that do not comprise documentation work. One conclusion drawn is that the actual documentation conduces to diminishing children’s participation, which in turn seems to be due to the perception by teachers that the documentation should be directed towards specific activity contents. The initial work with pedagogical documentation hence contributes to visualizing a manufactured picture of children’s participation while, simultaneously, real participation takes place within the project work without being subject to documentation.

Background: Diabetes is a chronic disease affecting more and more people and placing increasing demands on health care. The increasing numbers of adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are in need of self-management strategies. Learning self-management includes mastering the skills required to complete the complex emotional and physical tasks necessary to manage well-being and to prevent future complications. A technological service developed with the participation of stakeholders may be an alternative way to meet rising needs for self-management. The involvement of various stakeholders enables cooperation, facilitates patient empowerment, and takes into consideration how adults with type 2 diabetes manage their everyday activities.

Aim: The overall aim of the licentiate thesis is, by participatory research methods identify self-management support of a future ICT service to facilitate adults with type 2-diabetes.

Methods: Two studies were conducted using participatory design (PD) with qualitative methods. Data were collected among recently diagnosed adults and those with longer experience of type 2 diabetes. The adults were recruited from a primary healthcare centre and from a diabetes hospital clinic in Sweden. Study I identified perceived challenges related to self-management among recently diagnosed adults and those with longer experience of type 2 diabetes by using multistage focus groups. Study II reported needs and wishes for an ICT self-management service to facilitate their everyday life and to deal with type 2 diabetes by using a future workshop.

Results: Three main challenges were identified; understanding; developing skills and abilities; and mobilizing personal strengths. Both recently diagnosed adults and those with longer experience of diabetes described challenges in understanding the causes of fluctuating blood glucose and in developing and mobilizing skills for choosing healthful food and eating regularly. The recently diagnosed group were more challenged by learning to accept the diagnosis and becoming motivated to change habit while the experienced group were mainly challenged by issues about complications and medications. The adults with type 2 diabetes expressed needs and wishes for an ICT service all fell under the broad category of Acceptance of the diagnosis, with the three suggestions; Trust in partnerships, Communication and Individualized information. Acceptance of the diagnosis was a prerequisite for managing diabetes successfully. Acceptance of the diagnosis also made the participants accept information, learn about their condition, and understand how to personally manage their everyday lives. Trust in partnership with caregivers and Communication facilitated that acceptance and understanding of the disease.

Main findings: The adults with type 2 diabetes stated different needs for support during different phases of the disease. The expressed needs and wishes for an ICT service all fell under the broad category of Acceptance of the diagnosis, with three other suggestions; Trust in partnerships, Communication, and Individualized information. The participants’ experience of the participatory methodology as a democratic process and their appreciation of mutual learning contributed to these results, which are consistent with the aims of person centred care.

Conclusions: Adults with diabetes have different needs for support during different phases of the disease. From a person-centred perspective it would be desirable to meet individual needs for self-management on peoples’ own terms through a technological service that could reach and connect to a large number of people. Healthcare practitioners need to address the knowledge needs of patients with type 2 diabetes and support them in developing self-management skills. Consistent with person-centred care, practitioners should also encourage patients’ abilities to mobilize their own personal strengths to maintain self-management.

The field of discrete dynamical systems is a rich and active field of research within mathematics, with applications ranging from biology to computer science, finance, engineering and various others. In this thesis properties of certain discrete dynamical systems are studied together with number theoretic properties of the functions defining these systems. The dynamical systems studied in this thesis are defined by iteration of power series g with a fixed point at the origin, tangent to the identity, and defined over fields of prime characteristic p. We are interested in the geometric location of the periodic points in the open unit disk. Recent results have shown that there is a connection between the lower ramification numbers of g and the geometric location of the periodic points in the open unit disk. The lower ramification numbers of g can be described as the multiplicity of zero as a fixed point of p-power iterates of g.

Part of this thesis concerns characterizing power series having certain sequences of ramification numbers. The other part concerns utilizing these results in order to describe the geometric location of the periodic points in terms of their distance to the origin. More precisely, we characterize all 2-ramified power series, i.e. power series having ramification numbers of the form 2(1 + p + … + pⁿ). Moreover, we also obtain a lower bound of the absolute value of the periodic points in the open unit disk of such series.

Introduction: Throughout many parts of the world, forests exist in one form or another. And for the timber from these forests to be used, it must be processed by, for example, sawing into planks and dried. Studies have shown that profits for the forest owners increase from beneficial processing of these raw materials. An efficient use of this raw material is to process it into lightweight panels. Some general incentives for using lightweight constructions are: economical, technical and environmental. Some general weaknesses with sandwich constructions are more sensitive to impact and bumps, risk for delamination, harder to make fastenings, and more sensitive to the concentration of point loads. This work aims to increase the knowledge of properties and design of wood based lightweight panels used for interiors and furniture. The intention with this knowledge is that it can contribute to the development of lightweight panels.

Material and method: A lightweight panel of cross glued sandwich type and a cross-glued multi-layered panel with densified face sheets have been used as an example to investigate and understand which parameters are crucial for a lightweight panel, made of wood. The lightweight panel of sandwich construction has been studied to consider the changes of shape brought about by moisture, as well as which mechanical properties this panel has, with a focus on creep deformation. Two methods for reducing the moisture-generated shape changes so as to increase the shape stability of the panel have also been studied. The methods are crossgluing and thermal treatment of the wood material. In the investigations of the panels, primarily quantitative methods in the form of empirical tests have been used. Some numerical simulations describing the moisture-generated shape changes and stresses that arise in the investigated lightweight panels were also made.

Results and discussion: Cross-gluing of a multi-layered panel and also for the lightweight panel used in this study is a way to reduce the movement in the panel, generated by moisture. The drawbacks with this method are that stresses occur in the panels when the moisture change, and this can lead to a decrease in the shape stability of the panel. Thermal treatment can also be used to decrease the moisture-generated movement in wood, and in this way increase the shape stability of the product. In those cases where the empirical experiments were combined with numerical simulations, there was good agreement between the experimental and the numerical results. With the lightweight panels a weight reduction was achieved from 307 to 540 kg/m3 compared with a solid beech wood panel. The creep deformation of the lightweight panel was better or comparable for 6 of the 8 studied groups, compared to solid beech wood panel. The study also show that is possible to adapt the mechanical properties through its design of this lightweight panel.

The overarching interest of this licentiate thesis is directed towards values as they are discursively constructed in systematic quality work in preschool. The aim of the study is to contribute with knowledge about the values discursively expressed in systematic quality work in preschool and how these can, in turn, be understood in relation to current quality work contexts. Values, as understood in the study, are assumptions about something good, desirable and worth aiming at and are seen as socially constructed in a specific societal, cultural and historical context. Discourse can be interpreted as a certain way of talking about and understanding values where language represents a specific meaning context.

Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis has been applied to critically examine and make visible what values and discourses are expressed in the systematic quality work in preschool, as well as their mutual relations. In addition, Ball’s performativity concept has been used. The empirical material consists of 17 preschools’ documented systematic quality work in the form of evaluations conducted during the 2014-2015 school year.

The value practice emerging from the analysis of the evaluations carries a complexity in that values appear to overlap and may thus be hard to separate. Values are both explicitly and implicitly expressed. What is highlighted as desirable can be categorized within five areas: competence, democracy, ethics, disciplination and efficiency.

The result shows that a goal rational, a market-oriented, a relational, a morally oriented and a development psychology discourse are included in the order of discourse that exercises power over the values that are expressible and over the way this is done. The analysis clearly demonstrates the predominance of the goal rational discourse, while the influence of the development psychology discourse seems to be limited with regard to what is considered desirable in the organization. It also emerges that there is a power structure where the goal rational and the market-oriented discourses seem to include and articulate the other discourses within the order of discourse.

In a long-time perspective, preschool activities appear to have passed from development psychology rationality to goal rationality. For preschool children this transformation may have entailed that currently the strongly emphasized welfare aspect of the organization tends towards a strong emphasis on competence. These values stand out in the evaluations as two opposite poles, which may indicate a swing of the pendulum from one side to the other.

This thesis consists of two self-contained empirical essays. Essay I investigates the impact of labor subsidies on TFP, and profit per employee is included as a second outcome. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) is performed on the key variables. After matching, a difference-in-difference (DID) model is applied. The study shows that firms employing workers with wage subsidies experience negative and significant effects on both TFP and profit per employee. Heterogeneity is, however, observed; the only sector to show a deficit in both TFP and profit per employee is wholesale. During the second year with a subsidy, a negative impact can be observed on the profit per employee but not on TFP. The policy conclusion from the analysis is that subsidizing individuals from particular groups is necessary to induce firms to hire workers from these groups. However, the time period for which a single firm is subsidized should be considered.

Essay II (with Jonas Månsson from Linnaeus University and the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO), Christian Andersson from SNAO and Fredrik Bonander from SNAO) measures TFP of the Swedish district courts by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate the Malmquist productivity index for 48 Swedish district courts from 2012 to 2015. This study uses a fully decomposed Malmquist index. A bootstrapping approach is further applied to compute confidence intervals for each decomposed factor of TFP as well as for TFP. The study shows an average annual of TFP by 0.7%. However, a substantial variation between years is observed both with regards to the number of statistically significant courts below and above unity. The negative impact is mainly driven by pure technical regress. Large variations are also observed over time where the small courts have the largest volatility. The TFP change is positively correlated with the rate of change in the caseload. Two recommendations are: 1) that district courts with negative TFP growth could learn from those with positive TFP growth and 2) that a back-up force could be developed to enhance flexibility.

The objective of this thesis is to develop a maintenance approach that fulfills the requirements of Industry 4.0. It explores the role and importance of maintenance activities in today’s industry. Then, it develops the features and tasks required to be performed by maintenance to fulfill the demands of Industry 4.0. Finally, it develops a reference model to be used in designing maintenance system for Industry 4.0. To perform these studies, real data were collected and applied as well as a typical scenario was implemented.

The results achieved in the papers of this thesis are 1) a mathematical representation and application of a model that identifies, analyses and prioritizes economic weakness in working areas related to production, 2) a model that analyses, identifies and prioritizes failures that impact the competitive advantages and profitability of companies, 3) characterization of a suitable maintenance technique for Industry 4.0 and 4) a reference model i.e. a framework, that could be utilized to develop a maintenance approach for Industry 4.0.

The conclusion of this thesis confirms that maintenance has a significant impact on companies’ competitive advantages, other working areas and profitability. To achieve a suitable maintenance technique for Industry 4.0, this technique must be able to monitor, diagnose, prognosis, schedule, assist in execution and present the relevant information. In order to perform these tasks several features must be acquired, the most important features are to be: digitized, automated, intelligent, able to communicate with other systems for data gathering and monitoring, openness, detect deviation in the condition at an early stage, cost- effective, flexible for adding new CM techniques, provide accurate decisions and scalable. The developed framework could be used as a base to design a maintenance system for Industry 4.0. This study contributes to our understanding of the maintenance importance in today’s industry and how to develop a maintenance approach for Industry 4.0.

Earlier studies in the context of windows and blinds selection have mostly tried to increase the awareness regarding various effects of windows and blinds selection on subjective well-being, including their effect on visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. However, the main problem is the potential conflicts between visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. Increased awareness about the contradictory effect of windows and blinds selection on subjective well-being on one hand and lack of a feasible method in managing the conflicts on the other hand may bind individuals, as decision-makers, in a situation where they follow the immediate economic benefits rather than the long-term visual and thermal benefits. To solve the mentioned problem, this study analysed first the degree of the conflicts between average daylight illuminance and total energy consumption in Sweden. This decision was made due to large variation in solar elevation angle and solar intensity between summer and winter in Sweden, which has significant effects on daylight illuminance and total energy consumption. Analysing the conflicts was accomplished by developing two multivariate linear regression models for calculating average daylight illuminance and total energy consumption. Comparison and analysis of the multivariate linear regression models showed the existence of a high degree of conflicts, which makes window and blind selection a rather complex multidimensional problem. Specifying the degree of the conflicts formed a hypothesis as: “A multi criteria decision-making method increases the controllability and manages the conflicts in selecting windows and blinds”. The developed hypothesis was later tested by employing analytical hierarchy process, as widely used multi criteria decisionmaking method. The analytical hierarchy process prioritizes decision-maker’ preferences and introduces a desired trade-off solution. The results of employing analytical hierarchy process showed the capability of it in managing the conflicts among visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. Finally, the application of the analytical hierarchy process was expanded by integrating it with nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II, as an optimization algorithm. Through this integration, optimization algorithm combines windows’ and blinds’ design variables and analyses a large number of solutions, while analytical hierarchy process ranks the solutions based on decision-makers’ preferences and introduces a desired trade-off solution. The integration between analytical hierarchy process and the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II was presented later as a conceptual framework. The developed conceptual framework can be used for selecting windows and blinds II in both residential and commercial buildings. In selecting windows and blinds, the conceptual framework is a novel solution to the lack of a feasible method for increasing the controllability for decision-makers and obtaining a desired trade-off solution.