A prerequisite for digital services within the public sector is that everyone should be able to use them. This motivates a high degree of digital and cognitive accessibility. If accessibility is lacking, certain user groups may risk being excluded. The purpose of the study is to investigate which aspects of visual information design and interface design that can increase the cognitive accessibility of public digital services, and how these affect the perceived usability. The study was conducted using a mixed method approach consisting of semi-structured interviews and tests. Seven participants with varying reasons that affect their cognitive ability participated in the study. The results show that aspects such as structure, clarity and overview are essential for increasing cognitive accessibility. At the same time, the results of the study indicate that the perceived usability based on these aspects and how they affect the cognitive load can be individual. The study contributes with a deeper understanding of which aspects of visual information design and interface design that are essential and how these can be used to influence the cognitive accessibility and the perceived usability of public digital services.

Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) appear at a considerably high frequency in primary care. Patients who suffer from MUS tend to also have suffered from childhood trauma and concurrent relationship problems. Previous research suggests that MUS in adulthood appears to be closely related to childhood trauma.

This study aimed to systematically investigate the emotional problems of the participants who suffer from MUS by trying to answer the following questions: What emotional and relational patterns, from a psychoanalytically informed perspective, can be identified in participants who suffer from medically unexplained symptoms? To what extent can the emotional and relational patterns identified be interpreted as expressions of alexithymic functioning? To answer these questions the study used reflexive thematic analysis, conceptualized by Braun & Clarke (2021), utilizing a deductive approach. These patterns were interpreted through a psychoanalytic lens. The study found that the participants’ descriptions of their emotional and relational problems were characterized by prioritizing the needs of other people over their personal issues, often reporting that their somatic problems worsen after emotionally challenging events, suggesting a possible connection with defense processes such as introjection and somatization. Furthermore, alexithymia was systematically investigated in relation to the observed patterns. There was no consistent pattern of alexithymia found among the participants, but Bucci’s (1997) multiple code theory was found to be a useful tool in examining the emotional and relational patterns among the participants.

This thesis research if the Japanese wood joinery method Kigumi or Tsugite-Shiguchi can be implemented in Swedish building practice. The focus of the study is on demountability, reuse capability and circular construction. A theoretical study and comparison between the Japanese joints Watari-ago and Nuki-joint, the Swedish traditional joinery methods knuttimring and skiftesverk and modern methods such as screws, spikes, metal brackets and glued wood components. Results show that Kigumi has advantages in demountability, material efficiency and reuse potential by being constructed completely out of wood and relying on its own weight and the fitting of its design. Knuttimring and skiftesverk have some reversible qualities but they don’t reach the quality of Kigumi. The modern methods have superior mechanics but perform much worse with circular building and waste management in mind. The study concludes that Kigumi has good potential for circular timber construction in Sweden, but it needs to be modified and updated to fulfill the Swedish standards with better resistance against different elements and more efficient production.

Previously, school attacks were considered to be very rare in Sweden, but the threat picture has changed, and violent incidents have become more common, which has increased the focus on school safety and preventive measures. At the same time, there is a lack of clear and practical knowledge about how the physical design of schools affects safety during violent incidents, including ongoing deadly violence. The study analyzes how primary schools, upper secondary schools, and universities are physically designed in relation to school safety, with a focus on floor plans, entrances, alarm systems, and glass panels.

The results show that the physical design of school buildings has a direct impact on school safety. Corridor-based floor plan layouts with possibilities for sectioning are identified as a strength, while large glass panels and open areas without physical barriers constitute vulnerabilities through increased visual exposure. The study emphasizes the importance of a strategically placed staffed reception, robust doors, and manual locking systems to enable effective lockdowns, as well as the fact that analog alarm systems appear to be more reliable for issuing warnings.

The conclusion establishes that physical barriers and technical systems can make a violent incident more difficult and limit its consequences, but that safety is to a high degree dependent on human ability to manage risks. Architecture and technical solutions should therefore function as support in the preventive work. 

This study examines how the design of dental clinic environments affects work Environment, patient experience, and operational efficiency. The focus is on spatial layout, circulation, accessibility, and environmental factors in dental care settings. 

The study is based on a combination of methods, including a literature review, interviews with dental staff, a survey with patients, and on-site observations. Five dental clinics with varying conditions were analyzed. 

The results show that most patients perceive the clinics as functional, safe, and easy to navigate. However, some limitations were identified, particularly related to cramped spaces, noise levels, and orientation in certain areas. 

The interviews indicate that the original design of the clinic has a significant impact on daily operations. Clinics designed specifically for dental care demonstrate more efficient workflows, while older or converted facilities require adaptations in routines and working methods. 

The study also highlights the importance of environmental factors such as sound, light, and spatial organization for patient comfort and perceived safety. Clear layouts and well-designed environments contribute to reduced stress and improved patient experience. 

Based om the findings, key design principles are identified, including clear spatial organization, short distances between functions, good accessibility, and separation of flows. 

This thesis presents numerical, and semi-analytical approaches for the analysis of laterally loaded piles based on the Matlock p–y formulation for soft clay, following the recommendations of the Swedish Pile Commission.

A comparative analysis was first conducted, benchmarking three solution approaches: Numerical p-y formulations in RFEM 6 integrated with a Python-based application programming interface (API), the finite element (FE) toolbox CALFEM and a semi-analytical solution. The different approaches adopts different level of complexity, and produced stable results. The semi-analytical solution provides a practical and conservative solution for small load levels where linear elastic soil behaviour can be assumed, but is not recommended for larger loads where the soil response enters the nonlinear range. The iterative secant solution procedure implemented in CALFEM, captures both nonlinear soil behaviour and second-order effects, proved to be computationally efficient, providing stable results while maintaining good agreement with the RFEM 6 results across various loading levels .

An automated numerical framework has been developed in Python using the RFEM 6 API for the analysis of laterally loaded piles. The framework implements the p–y method and accounts for nonlinear soil behaviour through lateral springs, second-order effects, and geometric imperfections derived from the first buckling mode of the interacting pile–soil system. Using the framework, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the influence of soil conditions, axial and lateral loading, and pile-head boundary conditions on second-order effects and the load-carrying capacity of a standard concrete and steel pile section. The resulting bending moments were assessed using normal force–bending moment (N–M) interaction diagrams based on Eurocode provisions. The results demonstrate that second-order effects on the bending moment distribution and section load-bearing capacity for both pile types are strongly affected by pile and soil strength and stiffness characteristics, pile-head boundary conditions, the magnitude of the applied lateral load, and the level of axial compression. In particular, free pile-head conditions, weak soil conditions, and high lateral loads increase pile deflections and amplify second-order bending moments, leading to reduced mobilized soil resistance and a subsequent decrease in the overall load-bearing capacity of the pile–soil system. Once the limiting lateral soil resistance is reached, further pile movement occurs with limited additional soil support, resulting in increasing displacements until structural failure, either through the formation of a mechanism or through loss of equilibrium of the system.

The pile–soil interaction problem is highly complex, and careful evaluation of the actual soil conditions, pile-head rotational restraint, and applied load levels is essential for reliable assessment. Furthermore, nonlinear soil behaviour, second-order effects, and initial imperfections should be explicitly considered when analysing slender piles subjected to lateral loading. These factors can significantly influence the predicted analysis outcome compared with simplified approaches that neglect their effects.

Bakgrund: ADHD är en neuropsykiatrisk funktionsnedsättning som påverkar uppmärksamhet, impulskontroll och exekutiva funktioner. Kvinnor diagnostiseras ofta senare än män, då symtomen ofta internaliseras eller maskeras. Sen diagnostisering kan innebära oupptäckta svårigheter, vilket kan påverka psykisk hälsa, självbild och upplevelsen av vården. Detta gör ämnet relevant för allmänsjuksköterskan som har en viktig roll i personcentrerad vård. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva kvinnors upplevelser av att erhålla en ADHD-diagnos i vuxen ålder. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en litteraturöversikt med induktiv ansats baserad på kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Datainsamlingen genomfördes genom litteratursökningar i databaserna CINAHL och PubMed. Artiklarna valdes utifrån inklusions- och exklusionskriterier och kvalitetsgranskades. Analysen genomfördes som en integrerande sammanställning inspirerad av metasyntes enligt Fribergs analysmodell. Totalt inkluderades 15 artiklar i uppsatsen. Resultat: Resultatet visade att en ADHD-diagnos i vuxen ålder ofta upplevdes som en vändpunkt i kvinnornas liv. Diagnosen bidrog till ökad självförståelse och möjliggjorde en omtolkning av tidigare upplevelser av otillräcklighet och utanförskap. Samtidigt väckte diagnosen känslor av lättnad, sorg, ilska och frustration över uteblivet stöd tidigare i livet. Kvinnorna beskrev även kvarstående vardagliga svårigheter och psykisk ohälsa. Vidare framkom upplevelser av stigma, bristande förståelse och otillräckligt stöd från vård och omgivning. Slutsats: Kvinnors upplevelser av att erhålla en ADHD-diagnos i vuxen ålder präglas av ökad självförståelse och en omtolkning av tidigare upplevelser. Diagnosen kan bidra till ökad självacceptans, men behovet av stöd kvarstår. Resultatet belyser vikten av ökad kunskap om ADHD hos kvinnor samt behovet av personcentrerad och individanpassad omvårdnad.

 Bakgrund: Psykisk ohälsa bland unga vuxna är vanligt globalt och påverkar miljontals individer. Vårdpersonalens kompetens, personcentrerade arbetssätt och tillitsfulla relationer är avgörande för patientsäkerhet, delaktighet och välbefinnande. Sjuksköterskor inom primärvården möter ofta unga vuxna med psykisk ohälsa. Däremot finns brister i utbildning och evidensbaserade metoder för relationsskapande och tidiga interventioner.Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva unga vuxna personers erfarenheter av vårdpersonalens bemötande vid kontakt med primärvården i samband med psykisk ohälsa.Metod: Denna allmänna litteraturöversikt baseras på en systematisk genomgång av befintlig forskning om unga vuxnas erfarenheter av vårdpersonalens bemötande i primärvården. Artikelsökning genomfördes i databaserna CINAHL och PubMed och tio artiklar inkluderades. Data analyserades genom sammanfattning, jämförelse av likheter och skillnader samt kategorisering för att skapa en översikt. Resultat: Resultatet visar att vårdrelationen har en avgörande betydelse för unga vuxnas erfarenheter av primärvården vid psykisk ohälsa. Kontinuitet och personcentrerat förhållningssätt främjar trygghet, tillit och benägenhet att söka vård och när detta brister kan det leda till frustration och undvikande av vårdkontakt. Ett holistiskt synsätt, upplevs som centralt för ett adekvat bemötande. Barriärer i kontakten inkluderar maktobalans, stigmatisering och bristande information inom vårdsystemet, vilket påverkar möjligheten till kontinuerligt stöd och adekvat behandling. Slutsats: Litteraturöversikten visar att unga vuxna med psykisk ohälsa ofta upplever att de inte blir tagna på allvar, förbisedda eller stigmatiserade. Trygga, kontinuerliga vårdrelationer och lyhörd vårdpersonal är avgörande för positiva vårdupplevelser. God samverkan inom vårdteam och vårdsystemet stärker delaktighet och känslan av att bli sedd och förstådd.

Bakgrund: Stamcellstransplantation används främst vid hematologiska sjukdomar och innebär att patientens blodstamceller ersätts. Tiden efter transplantationen präglas av hög infektionskänslighet och isolering, vilket kan påverka patientens välbefinnande.

Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva hur patienter med hematologisk sjukdom upplever tiden efter en stamcellstransplantation.

Metod: En litteraturöversikt baserad på kvalitativa artiklar genomfördes med en allmän litteraturöversikt som analysmetod.

Resultat: Resultatet visade att tiden efter stamcellstransplantationen präglades av psykiskt och fysiskt lidande samt en lång återhämtningsprocess. Patienterna beskrev oro, rädsla, trötthet och smärta. Det krävdes olika strategier för att hantera situationen, såsom stöd från anhöriga, religion och positivt tänkande. Bemötande och delaktighet i vården framkom som betydelsefulla faktorer. Vidare beskrev patienterna att erfarenheterna efter transplantationen hade påverkat deras syn på livet och framtiden.

Slutsats: Tiden efter stamcellstransplantationen innebar omfattande fysiska och psykiska påfrestningar för patienterna. Resultatet belyser vikten av personcentrerad omvårdnad och individanpassat stöd för att främja återhämtning och välbefinnande efter transplantationen.

This dissertation examines how principals in Swedish schools interpret and develop strategies for action within the tension between the ideal of inclusion and the demands of organizational and pedagogical differentiation. Grounded in a systems and neo-institutional perspective, the dissertation conceptualizes principals' leadership as a meaning-making and institutionally embedded process, in which interpretation, negotiation, and action are shaped in the encounter between structural conditions and professional values.

The dissertation draws on five sub-studies that illuminate how principals' leadership is constituted across different levels of the education system: policy and text analyses, conceptual-historical policy analysis, systematic literature reviews, and interviews with principals and other actors within governance arenas. Students with autism serve as an analytical example, foregrounding how the tension between inclusion and differentiation takes concrete shape in practice and why both school leadership and special education perspectives must be held together.

The cover essay applies institutional logics and sensemaking as analytical lenses to examine how policy signals and governance expectations are interpreted and made meaningful in principals' everyday leadership. The findings show that leadership can be understood as a continuous process in which policy and governance are translated within local contexts, forming the basis for developing strategies for action. These strategies constitute ways of managing competing institutional demands while simultaneously reshaping the conditions and scope for principal agency. Leadership thus emerges not as individual choice, but as an ongoing process of interpretation and negotiation within, and in response to, institutional frameworks.

The dissertation makes two interconnected contributions. First, it advances understanding of how systemic and institutional conditions shape principals' interpretive work and strategic action. Second, it bridges school leadership research and special education research, two fields that have largely developed in parallel despite addressing the same organizational challenges. By analyzing inclusion and differentiation as questions of leadership as much as pedagogy, the study demonstrates that decisions about placement, resource allocation, and school organization cannot be adequately understood without attending to the institutional logics and governance conditions within which they are made.

This bachelor’s thesis investigates and optimizes the logistics and administrative workflows within the bulk export process at The Absolut Company in Åhus, Sweden. Global market growth and increasing product variety have placed higher demands on supply chain efficiency. While previous research emphasizes production line efficiency, this case study addresses a distinct research gap by exploring the administrative dependencies and coordination delays that can create bottlenecks in export logistics. 

Using a mixed-methods approach, this study combines qualitative semi-structured interviews and direct observations with quantitative lead-time measurements. Lean production principles and Theory of Constraints (TOC) were applied alongside Value Stream Mapping to analyze the current state of the bulk export process. The empirical findings revealed significant inefficiencies, primarily driven by waiting times, a lack of authority for documentation, reliance on weighing and loading equipment, and manual document and signing processes. 

Based on these findings, several optimization proposals were developed, including decentralized document handling, integration of digital signatures, and investing in a new flow meter. A future state Value Stream Map was constructed to evaluate the impact of the proposed changes. The theoretical verification demonstrated a potential 19.4% reduction in lead time, decreasing processing time from 103 minutes to 83 minutes. In conclusion, this study highlights the critical importance of aligning administrative workflows with physical material flows to allow for competitiveness and ensure resource efficiency. 

Hur välfärdssamhället ska hantera unga som inte går i gymnasiet är en återkommande utmaning. Ansvarsfördelningen har skiftat över tid mellan olika aktörer, och sedan 2015 är kommunerna ansvariga genom det kommunala aktivitetsansvaret (KAA). KAA saknar en tydlig organisatorisk hemvist och organiseras olika i olika kommuner, ofta av koordinatorer med varierande utbildnings- och yrkesbakgrund. Ungdomarna utgör en heterogen grupp med olika behov, vilket kräver samordning mellan flera välfärdsaktörer i ett fragmenterat system. 

Avhandlingen undersöker KAA som ett icke-institutionaliserat policyområde inom aktiveringspolitiken, där frontlinjearbetare översätter nationella direktiv till lokal praktik. Det övergripande syftet är att förstå hur lokal organisering och samverkansrelationer påverkar översättningen av policy till praktik, och därmed hur stödet till en mångfacetterad ungdomsgrupp formas i olika lokala kontexter. 

I en tidigare artikel analyseras hur nationella policytexter och problemformuleringar översätts till lokal nivå. En annan artikel fokuserar på hur koordinatorer definierar sitt verksamhetsområde i relation till andra välfärdsaktörer. Denna artikel jämför organiseringen av KAA i tre svenska kommuner. 

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly integrated into critical decision-making processes, serving as assistants for education, writing, and professional support. This widespread adoption places questions of bias and trust at the center of their responsible deployment. However, much of the existing research on LLM bias focuses on evaluating the internal mechanics and probabilities of models, rather than exploring how users perceive and interact with generated text in real-world scenarios. The core research problem addressed in this thesis is the misalignment between true model capabilities and human perception, often termed the calibration gap. Prior research establishes that state-of-the-art LLMs exhibit persistent social identity and cognitive biases despite rigorous value alignment [1, 2, 3]. Furthermore, users often systematically overestimate LLM accuracy when presented with confident or detailed explanations [4]. Parallel work demonstrates that superficial presentation cues, such as attribution or subtle framing, can systematically shift how information is evaluated [5]. Building upon this theoretical foundation, this thesis investigates how observable bias cues embedded in LLM responses, specifically operationalized as subtle positive or negative framing relative to a neutral baseline, influence readers’ perceived trustworthiness and related judgments. To examine this, we conducted an online survey experiment (N = 42) wherein participants evaluated five realistic AI assistant scenarios. For each scenario, participants were randomized to read one of three response variants and subsequently rated the output on four multidimensional Likert items: trustworthiness, objectivity, decision comfort, and appropriateness of tone. Our quantitative and qualitative analysis reveals that framing cues primarily affected perceptions of objectivity and tone, with both positively and negatively framed variants being rated as less objective and less appropriate than their neutral counterparts. Interestingly, the direct effects on overall factual trustworthiness were highlyscenario-dependent, yielding statistically significant differences in only two out of the five scenarios. Additionally, we found that a user’s baseline trust in AI correlated strongly and positively with their trustworthiness ratings across all scenarios(r = 0.51, p = 0.001). Taken together, the findings suggest that users often decouple factual trustworthiness from perceived appropriateness. Even when an LLM employs promotional or restrictive language, users may still trust the underlying information, particularly if their baseline confidence in AI is high. These results emphasize that trust is a complex, multidimensional construct influenced as much by stable individual predispositions as by the generated text itself. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on LLM trust calibration by providing empirical, user-centered evidence on cue sensitivity, highlighting the necessity of designing systems that prioritize neutral presentation to mitigate the insidious effects of framing biases.

Data pipelines are a core component of distributed systems, where large volumes of data must be processed efficiently, reliably, and at scale. The two commonly used paradigms are batch processing, which handles data in bounded jobs, and stream processing, which handles data continuously as it arrives. Despite both being widely used, little empirical research compares them as deployed pipelines under controlled and comparable conditions. This thesis addresses the gap by implementing a batch pipeline using Apache Spark, and a streaming pipeline with Apache Flink and Apache Kafka, then comparing their performance in a controlled experiment. The pipelines run an identical hourly aggregation over NYC Yellow Taxi records across three dataset sizes and three parallelism levels, with each condition repeated five times on two machines. The evaluation measures throughput, latency, CPU utilisa tion, memory usage, and duration. The batch pipeline reached higher throughput at every dataset size, and the gap widened as the data grew. The streaming pipeline held stable throughput and resource utilisation, at the cost of longer duration. The results also challenge two common assumptions, implying that under this workload batch scaled with the available cores, while streaming throughput remained limited by its single-threaded producer rather than by Flink, and batch was not generally the heavier paradigm.Therefore, the choice between the architectures is conditional. Batch is more suitable for workloads where high throughput is the priority, while streaming is preferable where continuous processing and timely reactions to incoming data are required. The final decision depends on the workload, the latency requirements, and the operational constraints.

Essay 1: “Self-employment experience and labor market integration of young immigrants: A field experiment in Sweden.” In many countries, immigrants turn to self-employment to enter the labor market, and policymakers often present it as a stepping stone to regular employment. However, credible evidence on whether self-employment improves employment prospects remains scarce. This paper tests the stepping-stone hypothesis using a correspondence experiment in which fictitious applications were randomly assigned to signal self-employment, wage employment, or unemployment. Applicants with self-employment experience were more than twice as likely to receive interview requests as otherwise identical unemployed applicants. Interview callback rates for self-employed and wage-employed were similar, suggesting that when wage employment is hard to find, self-employment can serve as an alternative route into regular employment for young immigrants.

Essay 2: “Equal Pay Laws and the Gender Earnings Gap: Evidence from Swedish Administrative Data.” (co-authored with Lina Aldén,  Anne Boschini and Samuel Mann). Gender-based equal pay laws are intended to narrow earnings disparities, yet evidence on their effectiveness remains mixed. We study Sweden’s 1979 Equal Pay Act using population-wide administrative data and a propensity-score matched event-study that compares women’s annual earnings to those of observably similar men within narrowly defined job cells. We find that the reform modestly reduced the within–job-cell gender earnings gap. The gains are concentrated among workers who change jobs, with little evidence of changes in relative earnings growth among job stayers. We also find that women’s job mobility declined relative to men’s over this period, and that women who moved were less likely than comparable men to enter male-dominated job cells, where relative earnings gains were largest. Taken together, the results suggest that equal pay laws can improve within-job pay equity, but that limited access to higher-paying job transitions may constrain their broader effects on gender earnings convergence.

 Essay 3: “Work Training for Disadvantaged Job Seekers: Evidence from Sweden.” Work integration social enterprises (WISEs) provide work training for job seekers with disabilities or long-term unemployment, groups who often struggle to reach the regular labor market. This study examines a unique Swedish work training program launched in 2022 as a nationwide reserved procurement mainly delivered by WISEs. Participation is not random; participants are matched to similar non-participants using linked population registers. The study uses a stacked regression model in a difference-in-differences framework to estimate the effect on positive labor income over a two-year period. The estimated intention-to-treat effect is negative and statistically significant: a gap of 7-10 percentage points relative to the matched control group persists over this period.

This study examines how respondents to the consultation on Ds 2024:26 frame the need for reform of compulsory youth care provided by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (SiS). The study focuses on how problems, causes and solutions are formulated and what similarities and differences emerge between public bodies and professional and knowledge-based organisations on the one hand, and civil-society and child-rights organisations on the other.

The study is based on a qualitative text analysis of 25 consultation responses containing substantive comments. Jönson’s (2010) perspective analysis of social problems is used with a discourse-analytic orientation. The findings are further interpreted through a sociological neo-institutional perspective on institutional demands and legitimacy.

The results show broad agreement that SiS faces problems requiring change, but differences in how these problems are understood and which reforms are considered legitimate. Three recurring problem perspectives emerge: children’s rights and legal safeguards, safety and security, and governance and capacity. The clearest difference concerns expanded coercive powers. Several public bodies and professional and knowledge-based organisations present these as necessary or useful security measures, whereas civil-society and child-rights organisations more often emphasise staffing, relationships, care and preventive work.

The study concludes that reforming SiS concerns not only coercive powers but also competing institutional demands and expectations related to the legitimacy and future direction of compulsory youth care.

Background: According to national clinical guidelines, individuals at very high risk of severe pneumococcal disease are recommended a conjugate vaccine to ensure enhanced protection. Based on these guidelines, Smittskydd Stockholm has developed a clinical decision support tool in the form of a vaccination schedule intended to assist healthcare providers when prescribing vaccines. Previous studies have identified challenges related to the implementation of clinical guidelines in healthcare settings. Clinical decision support tools have shown potential to facilitate the adoption of guidelines, increase adherence to them, and thereby strengthen patient safety.

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine whether a digital clinical decision support, in the form of a notification in the documentation system Vaccinera that alerts the prescriber when an individual is at very high risk of severe pneumococcal disease, can contribute to improved adherence to clinical guidelines for pneumococcal vaccination.

Method: This is a quantitative, quasi‑experimental pre‑ and post‑intervention study based on registry data from the vaccination documentation system Vaccinera. The intervention in this health informatics study is a clinical decision support tool in the form of an automated notification that alerts the prescriber to individuals at very high risk of severe pneumococcal disease. To analyze changes in adherence to the clinical guidelines following the introduction of this notification, logistic regression analysis and Pearson´s chi‑square-tests were used.

Results: Adherence to the clinical guidelines increased significantly after the introduction of the digital notification, by 13.8 percentage points (p < 0.001; OR 1.75). Adherence varied clearly between types of healthcare settings, both before and after the notification was introduced. A significant increase in adherence was seen for primary care and vaccination clinics. In primary care, adherence increased by 7.3 percentage points (p < 0.001; OR 1.88), and in vaccination clinics by 15.4 percentage points (p < 0.001; OR 1.91). No significant differences were observed for the other types of healthcare settings. 

Conclusion: In an increasingly pressured healthcare environment with rising demands for efficiency, digital clinical decision support tools may contribute to more efficient workflows and improved patient safety. However, although this study demonstrates that a digital clinical decision support tool can increase overall adherence to clinical guidelines, the substantial variation in effect across different healthcare settings indicates that digitalization and decision support tools alone are not sufficient solutions for the continued development of healthcare services.

Modern computing systems exhibit increasing heterogeneity and often require runtime self-management and adaptation to cope with their structural and operational complexity, as well as changes in their environment and requirements. Self-Adaptive Software Systems (SASS) represent a class of context-aware and autonomous systems designed to manage such complexity. However, designing such systems remains challenging due to their complexity, runtime variability, and the continuous need to ensure functional and quality requirements. Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI (Gen AI) offer promising capabilities, yet their use in the architectural design of SASS remains poorly understood. To that end, this study reports a work in progress systematic review. The review findings reveal that the use of LLMs and other Gen AI approaches for the architectural design of SASS remains nascent, with only four relevant studies identified. Across these studies, LLMs act as augmentative reasoning components, concentrated in the monitoring, analysis, planning, and knowledge phases of the MAPE-K loop and are only partially present in execution. Characteristics such as hybrid architectures, multi-agent reasoning, and retrieval-augmented grounding recur across the reviewed studies; however, given the small and heterogeneous evidence base, these are best viewed as preliminary observations rather than established trends, and trustworthiness and runtime assurance remain underexplored.  As a work in progress, this paper contributes an initial characterization of LLM-supported design in self-adaptive systems, outlines research directions, and aims to stimulate discussion within the community on advancing LLM-supported architectural design for self-adaptive and autonomous software systems.

Modern web and distributed systems rely heavily on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), with Representational State Transfer (REST) and GraphQL serving as the primary architectural styles. While performance metrics such as latency and throughput are crucial for user experience and system efficiency, existing research often lacks a detailed analysis of how these APIs perform under varying levels of query complexity. This thesis investigates the performance differences between REST and GraphQL APIs by examining their behavior under comparable workloads and evaluating the impact of increasing query complexity on scalability. Using a design science methodology, a controlled experimental environment was developed with Python, Flask, and SQLite, while performance was evaluated using the Locust load testing tool. Measurements were conducted across three levels of query complexity, ranging from simple lookups to deeply nested relational data, under workloads of 50, 200, and 500 concurrent users. The results indicate that REST consistently delivers lower latency and higher throughput across all test scenarios, demonstrating superior scalability under high concurrency. While both architectures perform similarly for simple queries, GraphQL performance degrades more substantially as query complexity increases due to the additional server-side overhead associated with query parsing and resolver execution. However, GraphQL offers advantages when retrieving deeply nested relational data, where equivalent functionality in REST may require multiple client requests.  The findings suggest that REST is better suited for high-volume, performance-critical systems, whereas GraphQL is more appropriate for applications requiring flexible and efficient retrieval of complex, interconnected data.

During the 2000s, Swedish police training has undergone organizational change. One significant development is the integration of police training into the university's faculty organization, indicating an ongoing process of academization of the Swedish police training. 

In this project, I investigate this academization process, and its implications for students, lecturers, and the Swedish police training program. Special attention is given the relation between theory and practice, and how different actors influence and interpret the educational content. Empirically, the study is based on interviews with a student panel consisting of 14 police students, and interviews with teachers and administrative staff in leadership roles. In addition to these methods, observations of teaching moments are also being conducted, and a document study is done to contextualize the changes. 

The preliminary analysis presented in this paper, focus on the students and their expectations. Firstly, the results show that students expect the education to contain a significant practical component, with theoretical aspects closely tied to professional relevance. Secondly, two preliminary categories of theory have been identified: utility theory and abstraction theory – of which the former is seen as the one of relevance. Thirdly, the educational framework with multiple parallel courses poses a potential source of friction, but also contributes to bridging the gap between theory and practical elements. To manage the diversity and ambiguity arising from the education's structure, students develop various strategies. Lastly, analysis indicates the presence of an anticipated professional culture carried by the police students, primarily conveyed by the practice-focused instructors. 

Old skiftesverk buildings in the Swedish countryside are currently at risk of decay, as their original agricultural functions have declined over time and been replaced by larger and more multifunctional farm buildings. At the same time, growing interest in sustainability, reuse and circular construction has increased the focus on adapting existing buildings rather than constructing new ones.

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for converting existing skiftesverk buildings into residential housing and to identify the technical, functional and cultural heritage aspects affecting such conversions. The study was carried out through a literature review and a case study of nine existing skiftesverk buildings. Particular focus was placed on thermal insulation, window openings and the preservation of cultural heritage values. 

The results indicate that internally insulated wall constructions can be adapted to skiftesverk buildings and that new window openings may be introduced while largely preserving the buildings' architectural and cultural heritage values. Furthermore, the findings suggest that many existing skiftesverk buildings have the potential to be converted into residential housing, provided that each building’s condition, dimensions, construction, and cultural heritage significance are carefully assessed. 

The study concludes that skiftesverk buildings can contribute to a more sustainable and resource-efficient use of the existing building stock. However, successful conversion requires a careful balance between technical requirements and preservation interests. 

Approximately one-third of an average individual's lifetime is spent working, highlighting the importance of working conditions and how the work is performed. Although the COVID-19 pandemic did not introduce hybrid work, it has become increasingly common today, to the extent that office-based work without it is almost impossible to imagine.

There are several benefits to hybrid work, especially when working from home, such as greater flexibility and better focus. However, insights from this project indicated that work-life boundaries may become blurred, making it more challenging to maintain routines and keep good posture throughout the workday, among other factors. From the survey, semi-structured interviews and home visits, it was found that regardless of how well-equipped a workspace is, it is ultimately work behaviours and habits that determine how work is performed. Sitting or standing while working on the computer without regular breaks can lead to health issues, negatively affecting our well-being through sleep disturbances, fatigue, and musculoskeletal discomfort. To prevent this from happening, the final solution was developed through human-centered design and behavioural design to explore how design can influence behaviours and decision-making to improve well-being.

The final solution resulted in a light-based system that uses light to promote healthier work behaviours and habits, particularly related to breaks, movement, and ergonomics, to improve well-being, with a focus on hybrid workers working from home. Nomi, the lamp, is illuminated in different colours to signal different meanings. For instance, green light signals taking a walk, and blue light encourages stretching. This solution has the potential to enhance the well-being of hybrid workers, benefiting companies and society in the long term from both economic and social perspectives.

Overlap explores how a city map can become a tool for encouraging spon-

taneous connection between strangers. Through visual communication

the project examines how everyday urban spaces can support more

open and meaningful social interactions. By deconstructing the fa-

miliar format of the city map, I aim to transform it from a simple

tool for navigation, into a medium for conversation and human con-

tact. The project is grounded on research, testing, and reflection

on how people approach new social situations, and how design can

make these moments feel a bit more easier.

As a visual communicator, I want to challenge the idea that maps

only guide movement through a city. Instead, I use maps to guide

people toward each other. Ultimately, the thesis argues that de-

sign can do more than convey information: it can shape behavior,

support social engagement, and strengthen the experience of urban

life through meaningful human connection.

Interpersonal metadiscourse, through engagement markers, attitude markers, and epistemic markers, determines how writers position themselves in relation to their readers, influencing both the strength of their authorial voice and the perceived reliability of their claims. Through engagement markers, the reader becomes involved in the text, through attitude markers, the writer signals her evaluation of given statements and advice, and through epistemic markers, she expresses her degree of certainty. Together with the graduation of evaluative meanings, these resources determine how confident, persuasive, or cautious a text appears, ultimately affecting whether the advice offered is perceived as trustworthy.

The primary source in this paper was a handbook about buying a property in Spain, which was translated and contrastively analysed for interpersonal metadiscourse. This paper found that the frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse differs widely among cultures. A higher degree of interpersonal metadiscourse in the English source text, particularly attitude markers and boosters, contributes to a more informal text, illustrating the writer’s perspectives and stance. By contrast, the translated text, with a lower degree of attitude markers combined with a higher degree of engagement markers, particularly imperatives, appears more formal and potentially more trustworthy to the reader. The question is: can you trust the advice? These differences may be partly culturally determined. English texts in this genre tend to favour a more personal and informal style, whereas Swedish texts tend to favour a more restrained and formal one. These differences do not necessarily indicate that the advice is better or worse; rather, they reflect different ways of using interpersonal metadiscourse to convey trustworthy guidance.

This thesis studies the construction of female subjectivity in The Sea Wall (1950) and The Lover (1984) by Marguerite Duras, articulating feminist theories with a narratological analysis. The research question asks to what extent the construction the articulation of feminist theories and narratological tools makes it possible to reveal the construction of a female subjectivity shaped by patriarchal oppression, colonial domination and class relations.

The theoretical frame of reference cumulatively rather than additively mobilizes six feminist approaches: Simone de Beauvoir’s idea of the woman as Other, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality of class and gender, Colette Guillaumin’s notion of sexage and the idea of nature, Christine Delphy’s analysis of the domestic mode of production, Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s criticism of Western feminist perspective, Camille Froidevaux-Metterie’s phenomenology of the lived and seen body and Françoise Vergès’s decolonial feminism. Gérard Genette’s narratology is used as a tool serving this ideological analysis.

The analysis shows that the external focalization on the mother, pronominal changes between “I” and “she”, syntactic fragmentation, silences, repetitions and ellipsis and the unsaid are the formal translation of a dispossessed feminine condition. No single framework is sufficient to account for this condition. It’s by their cumulative articulation, comparable to the blocks of a pyramid, that makes it possible to understand the complexity of the mother’s and the young girl’s subjectivity in colonial Indochina.

Background: Body weight and body composition are commonly monitored in both sports and fitness settings using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Previous research suggests that hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle may influence fluid balance and body water distribution, potentially affecting body weight and body composition measurements. However, findings remain inconsistent, and the practical significance of these variations is not fully understood. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate whether body weight and body composition variables measured by BIA differ across the menstrual cycle in physically active women. Methods: Six physically active women participated in this repeated-measures study. Body weight and body composition were assessed using an InBody 770 analyzer during four phases of the menstrual cycle: menstruation, follicular phase, ovulation, and luteal phase. Variables analyzed included body weight, fat mass, fat-free mass, total body water (TBW), intracellular water (ICW), and extracellular water (ECW). Due to the small sample size and results from an a priori power analysis, non-parametric statistics were applied. Differences between menstrual cycle phases were analysed using the Friedman test, complemented by descriptive analyses. Results: No statistically significant differences were observed in body weight or body composition variables across the menstrual cycle phases. However, individual variations were identified, with body weight fluctuations ranging from approximately 0.4 to 1.3 kg between phases. The most pronounced trend was observed for extracellular water (ECW), which tended to be higher during menstruation and the luteal phase compared with the follicular and ovulatory phases. These findings are consistent with previous research suggesting that menstrual cycle-related changes are primarily associated with alterations in fluid balance rather than changes in fat mass or fat-free mass. Conclusion: The results indicate that body weight and body composition showed only minor variations across menstrual cycle phases. No statistically significant differences were observed, although extracellular water (ECW) demonstrated the most notable tendency for variation. These findings suggest that the menstrual cycle may be a factor to consider when interpreting repeated BIA measurements in women. Further research with larger sample sizes and more precise methods for menstrual cycle phase determination is warranted.

Introduction: Social media has become a central source of training-related information, while the quality of the content varies. For individuals training for hypertrophy, the choice of information source may influence how training-related decisions are made. Aim: The aim was to investigate which information sources are used by individuals training for hypertrophy, how credible these sources are perceived to be, and which sources influence their training practices. The study also examined differences according to sex, training level, education, and age. Method: The study employed quantitative cross-sectional design. Data was collected through a web-based questionnaire comprising 147 participants. Frequency of use and perceived credibility were rated on five-point Likert scales and examined in relation to sex, training level, education, and age. Results: Instagram, coaches, and YouTube were the most frequently used information sources. Scientific articles were perceived as the most credible source. Coaches were most frequently reported to have influenced participants’ training practices. A significant association was identified between training level and the most frequently used information source. Advanced-level participants more often identified YouTube and scientific articles as their primary sources, whereas participants at lower training levels more often identified Instagram. Differences according to sex, training level, and education were found for only a limited number of information sources. Older age was associated with lower use and perceived credibility of several digital and interpersonal sources. Conclusion: The information sources perceived as most credible were not necessarily those used most frequently or those with the greatest practical influence. This may indicate that other potential factors also influence the choice of information sources. Coaches stood out through their high frequency of use, high perceived credibility, and substantial influence on training practices. Differences related to participants’ backgrounds were primarily source-specific and should be interpreted with caution.

Background: State self-control has been proposed to influence sport and exercise performance, but the literature varies considerably in participant populations, experimental manipulations, and performance outcomes.

Aim: This scoping review aimed to map how state self-control exertion has been investigated in healthy adults and summarize its reported effects on subsequent sport and exercise performance.

Methods: Systematic searches were conducted in PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, PubMed, and Scopus. Studies were included if they experimentally manipulated state self-control within a sequential-task paradigm and assessed a subsequent sport or exercise performance outcome. Data were extracted on study characteristics, manipulations, regulatory processes, performance tasks, and findings.

Results: Twenty-six studies published between 2010 and 2024 were included. Most used modified Stroop or transcription tasks and primarily examined response inhibition. Prior self-control exertion was generally associated with impaired endurance, resistance, and sport-specific performance, although several studies reported mixed, context-dependent, or null effects. No single psychological mechanism consistently explained the observed impairments.

Conclusion: Prior state self-control exertion was generally associated with impaired subsequent sport and exercise performance, although the effects varied across studies and were not consistently explained by a single underlying mechanism.

This thesis examines digital gender disinformation as a phenomenon that is gaining increasing strength due to the use of social media and its affordances, as well as the growing use of artificial intelligence, which facilitates the alteration or creation of false content. The study is situated within the context of electoral campaigns in Sweden and Bolivia, with the aim of understanding how this phenomenon operates in different settings and contributing to the field of knowledge, given that most existing scholarship comes from the Global North. Research on digital gender disinformation is still developing, particularly in the Global South.

The motivation behind this study was the observation that women were stepping down from leadership roles during political campaigns in both Bolivia and Sweden in 2025. Consequently, this study adopts a comparative qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with eight female politicians –four in each country– at both the local and national levels. The aim is to understand their perceptions of this phenomenon, compare their experiences and interpret them through the lens of existing gender disinformation theory.

A systematic thematic analysis with an inductive orientation is applied to develop themes and a conceptual model that emerges from the empirical material and explains digital gender disinformation through a dialogue between this material and the theoretical contributions of scholars working in this field. The study explores the mechanisms, gendered narratives and public-facing dynamics of disinformation in digital political contexts, as well as its broader democratic implications for political participation, representation and public debate.

The systematic thematic analysis results in four themes: The structural production and circulation of digital gender disinformation; gender disinformation narratives as instruments of political delegitimization; navigating gender disinformation in political practice; and the democratic consequences and limits of institutional responses. These themes are further developed in the theoretical discussion, which concludes with a conceptual model. The findings indicate that digital gender disinformation functions as a strategy aligned with broader structural mechanisms, enabling misleading content and false gender narratives to circulate online, cause harm, and contribute to democratic erosion. The results also underscore the need to prioritize and address gender disinformation both as a threat to democratic integrity and as a barrier to gender equality.

Background: Public sector management control is characterized by formal requirements for objectives, follow-up and results, while work must also be carried out in accordance with norms concerning legal certainty, quality and service. Previous research emphasizes that management control should be understood as a package of interacting forms of control, but the relationship between cultural and cybernetic control remains less developed.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the relational dynamics between cultural and cybernetic control within public sector management control by examining how these forms of control relate to each other in case handling processes within a government agency.

Method: The study is a qualitative single-case study of the Swedish Tax Agency. The method describes how the empirical material was collected through semistructured interviews, recurring observations and a document study, and how these were used together to examine the relationship between the forms of control in practice.

Conclusion: The study shows that cultural and cybernetic control are closely intertwined in everyday case handling work. Cybernetic control signals, such as objectives, follow-up and feedback, become practically meaningful through cultural norms concerning quality, responsibility and legal certainty. At the same time, cultural control is reinforced through meetings, documentation and local work practices. The relational dynamics are expressed through complementarity, substitution,imbalance and invisibility, where the forms of control may reinforce each other, compensate for each other’s limitations, create friction in daily work or operate without ever becoming visible to those who carry out the work.

Predictive maintenance is an important application area for data-driven systems, especially when unexpected machine failures can cause downtime, repair costs, and safety-related risks. A central task in this area is Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prediction, which estimates how long a system is expected to operate before failure. This task is challenging because degradation is usually observed through multivariate sensor signals, and complete run-to-failure data may be limited in practical settings.

This thesis studies RUL prediction for turbofan engines using the NASA C-MAPSS degradation dataset. The aim is to compare selected feature-engineered machine learning models with sequence-based deep learning models under a controlled experimental setup. Random Forest, XGBoost, and Support Vector Regression are evaluated using statistical features created from sensor windows. LSTM, GRU, and 1D-CNN are evaluated using ordered sensor sequences. The study also investigates how prediction performance changes when the available training data is reduced.

The results show that recurrent deep learning models provide the strongest overall performance in the tested setup. In the direct 30-cycle comparison, GRU achieved the lowest MAE, while LSTM achieved the highest R². In the deep learning window-size experiment, LSTM with a 50-cycle window achieved the lowest MAE. The reduced data results show that LSTM remained the strongest model across all tested training data sizes, although performance varied between different selected engine subsets.

The thesis contributes a controlled empirical comparison of RUL prediction approaches and shows how model type, sequence length, and training data availability influence prediction performance.

Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks are increasingly important for tactical and disaster-relief operations, but remain highly vulnerable to Electronic Warfare attacks on the shared electromagnetic spectrum. The proprietary protocols that defend against this (Beechat’s HopSync being the contemporary example) require specialised FPGA radios and are not available for independent study, leaving open the question of whether the same architectural pattern is implementable on commodity hardware at all.

This thesis presents and empirically evaluates an Adaptive Frequency Hopping protocol that combines three mechanisms: an HMAC-SHA256 Time-based One-Time Password for stateless channel rendezvous between nodes, kernel-evidence-driven blacklist learning to suppress repeat visits to compromised channels, and a dual-radio “ping-pong” handover that masks the radio re-tune cost. The implementation runs on two Raspberry Pi 5s with off-the-shelf AR9271 USB Wi-Fi adapters; jamming is simulated via the Linux tc/netem traffic-control facility.

Across a 30-run campaign (six experimental configurations × five simulated time windows, ~720,000 packets per direction), the full design delivers 92.17 ±0.32 % packet delivery ratio under continuous-wave jamming against 54.90 ±0.13 % for the worst-case static baseline while maintaining consistent improvement over all baselines. The +37.27 percentage-point improvement decomposes additively into a +22.84 pp contribution from time-based hopping and a further +14.43 pp from the adaptive blacklist, with the dual-radio architecture contributing to a ~1 s reduction in 95th-percentile latency. Per-event recovery medians sit at one bucket (2 s) on both algorithmic and end-to-end axes, approximately two orders of magnitude faster than the static baseline. The reference implementation and analysis pipeline are released as the principal open-source artefact of the project.

This study examines how public librarians role health- promoting actors take shape through the reading promoting activity known as Silent book club. Based on qualitative,semi-structured interviews with public librarians and field observations, the study analyses how the activity is constructed, justifield and understood in relation to bothreading promotion and health promotion work. The results show that the silent book club is characterized by low thresholds for participation, with a non-demanding and flexible format in which participants themselves choose the litterature and the degree of social interaction. By applying social capital as a theoretical lense, the study suggests that thelibrary can function as an inclusive meeting place that can foster social community, reduce loneliness and offer respite in a performance-oriented society. Reading emerges both as an individual activity with potential well-being effects and as part of social contexts where meaning is created through human interaction. At the same time, it emerges that librarians often do not explicitly define their work as health-promoting, even though the activities may in practice have such effects.

Public sector organizations struggle to address today’s complex challenges through traditional institutional structures. Innovation labs have emerged as an organizational response, yet their potential depends on the organization cultural and the quality of the infrastructure connecting the stakeholders and processes. This thesis is situated at the intersection of systemic design, service ecosystem design, and public sector innovation, and examines how design practice can strengthen the process infrastructure of a newly established e-health innovation lab. 

The Innovation Environment (IE) is a collaborative innovation lab between Region Kalmar Län and Linnaeus University, set up to develop need-driven digital health solutions at the intersection of public healthcare, academia, and private technology partners. Despite its clear mission and committed actors, the IE lacks the shared structures that allow clinical needs to travel reliably from the healthcare floor to technical development. This thesis asks: what structural gaps exist in the IE's current process, and how can systemic design strengthen its infrastructure to support need-driven collaboration between clinical and technical actors? 

Research through Design guided the methodology for this project. Data was gathered through twelve semi-structured interviews, three field visits, desk research, visual system mapping, and benchmarking of comparable frameworks. Three facilitated workshops translated findings into a validated design direction. 

The result is the Kalmar Innovation Oak, a conceptual ecosystem framework that maps the IE's innovation process onto the architecture of a living oak tree. The framework provides a shared language across the IE's fragmented actor groups, formalizes existing regional practices and introduces three operational canvases to guide actors through need-finding, operationalization, and co-creation. The first and foundational Canvas was co-created and validated with IE actors in the final workshop. 

The study concludes that addressing the structural conditions and processes of innovation is a form of innovation in and of itself, as it impacts how actors view the system, understand their roles, and relate to one another, with long-term implications for the quality of health services in the Kalmar region. 

Automated terrain segmentation is an important component of autonomous rovernavigation, particularly in environments where computational resources and system robustness are limited. This thesis investigates how different architectural andtraining-related design choices influence rare-class terrain segmentation performanceon the AI4Mars dataset under constrained deployment conditions. The study focuseson lightweight semantic segmentation models suitable for deployment-constrainedenvironments, with particular attention to the detection of the rare Big Rock terrainclass.A three-stage controlled experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of input resolution, decoder family, encoder architecture, loss functions, augmentationstrategies, training duration, and deployment-related constraints. Several lightweightsegmentation architectures were compared using the AI4Mars Curiosity NAVCAMdataset. The final model was additionally evaluated under simulated deploymentrelevant constraints, including limits on parameter count, latency, memory usage,and survivability under simulated radiation-induced bit-flip faults.Input resolution and loss-function choice had the largest impact on rare-class performance. The strongest configuration combined DeepLabv3+ with a MobileNetV4-Conv-Small encoder at 512 × 512 input, trained with focal–Tversky loss and basicaugmentation, reaching a Big Rock IoU of 0.446 on the gold expert test set with3.00 M parameters. After adding safeguards against simulated radiation faults, thefinal model recovered its accuracy and stayed within the parameter and memory limits, with baseline CPU latency well under budget.The findings demonstrate that lightweight segmentation models can achieve competitive performance within strict resource and robustness limits when training configuration and architectural choices are carefully optimized. The study also highlights the importance of balancing segmentation accuracy with deployment feasibility in constrained autonomous navigation environments.

An existing multi-scale FE2 finite element framework is extended to steady-state, coupled thermo-mechanical analysis of hyperelastic materials undergoing large deformations. Two formulations are considered: a standard first-order formulation and a thermo-mechanical framework combining second-order mechanical homogenization with a first-order thermal model. The latter is introduced to account for size effects arising from microstructural heterogeneities and thermal expansion. The framework is tested under plane strain conditions for composite microstructures containing either soft or stiff inclusions. The results show that, while the second-order formulation provides a more accurate representation of the RVE fields, the overall macroscale improvement over the classical first-order formulation is problem-dependent. The study demonstrates the practicality of the numerical framework for both approaches in multi-scale thermo-mechanical analysis. 

This study contributes to current discussions by highlighting the pedagogical potential of digital platforms within School-Age Educare Centre (SAEC) contexts and how multimodal, collaborative learning can be supported through digital–physical hybridity. However, debates persist in Sweden and internationally regarding children’s screen time and the role of digital technologies in education. As a result, digital tools are sometimes absent from SAEC activities. This study takes as its premise that SAEC can offer safe digital environments, such as Minecraft Education, where all participants are known to teachers and peers, and where diverse learning opportunities can unfold. Previous research shows that hybrid learning activities can extend children’s social, digital, and subject specific competences, with more knowledgeable peers supporting others in navigating both digital and physical spaces (Wernholm et al., 2025). Research further indicates that pupils’ participation increases when they engage in activities that allow multiple forms of expression (Patron et al., 2026). 

This study aims to explore how pupils express their learning experiences and demonstrate competencies during teacher‑designed building activities in MinecraftEdu within SAEC settings. The following research questions guide the study: 

-     How do pupils use different competencies when engaging with MinecraftEdu?

-     How do pupils express their learning experiences from engaging with MinecraftEdu? 

This study draws on Designs for Learning theory and a social semiotic perspective on multimodality, viewing teaching and learning as multimodal design (Selander & Kress, 2010). The field work was conducted at a Swedish SAEC center with 52 pupils aged 8–10. The pupils were video recorded while constructing buildings in MinecraftEdu, and focus group interviews were conducted with 24 of them. Preliminary results show that pupils draw on a range of competencies, including subject competence. For example, constructing a pyramid in MinecraftEdu requires mathematical understanding; some pupils recognized errors in their design and revised their structures by identifying that the base had to be square. Pupils also described solving problems either through trial and error or by consulting more knowledgeable peers. The most prominent finding is the central role of social competence: collaborating successfully in this hybrid activity required communication, negotiation, and coordinated action. A preliminary conclusion is that both experienced and inexperienced Minecraft players participate actively and remain highly engaged during the activity, which creates conditions for the further development of these competencies.

References

Selander, S., & Kress, G. (2010) Design for Lärande: Ett Multimodalt Perspektiv. Norstedt

Patron, E., Wernholm, M., Ebbelind, A., Palmér, H., Danielsson, K., & Kjällander, S. (2026). ”Att få kött på benen” – att förbereda lärarstudenter både teoretiskt och praktiskt för att designa hybrida läraktiviteter i fritidshemmet. Nordic Studies in Education. 46 (1). 17-34.

Wernholm, M., Patron, E., Danielsson, K., Ebbelind, A., & Palmér, H. (2025). Hybrida läraktiviteter för att främja sexåringars meningsskapande. Forskning om undervisning och lärande. 13(1), 22-45, https://doi.org/10.61998/forskul.v13i1.25870 

This thesis investigates how tacit knowledge is discussed in academic discourse with aspecial focus on recent years and the introduction of generative AI. Tacit knowledge isunderstood here as knowledge that is neither formally documented nor codified inorganizational procedures. Instead, it emerges organically through practice, experience,and social interaction. Utilizing a dual-methodological framework that pairs qualitativethematic analysis, with computational natural language processing (corpus analysis), thisstudy maps a foundational corpus of 10,983 unique publications harvested from Scopus and Web of Science from 1968 to 2025. The longitudinal topography reveals a distinct W-shaped historical lifecycle. The literature transitioned from an initial cognitive and behavioral science root focused on implicit human learning (1968–1993), into a heavilycommercialized, extraction-oriented Knowledge Management (KM) paradigm focused oncorporate codification (1994–2010), before stabilizing into an enablement modelprioritizing social capital, psychological safety, and pedagogy (2011–2021).

To isolate the structural impact of recent technological breakthroughs, a specializedPRISMA-compliant sub-corpus of 30 core works and an expanded algorithmic database of521 entries specifically detailing the intersection of artificial intelligence and tacitknowledge were thoroughly analyzed. Pointwise Mutual Information (PMI) collocatemapping and transformer-based RoBERTa sentiment mining indicate a historic rebalancingof the field’s vocabulary. Rather than remaining an isolated peripheral node, AI hassolidified as a core thematic hub since late 2022. Contemporary scholarship exhibits astructural divergence, bypassing recent literature to link classic human-centric theoriesdirectly to modern automated pipelines. Sentiment profiling reveals a shift from defensiverejections of automation toward a cautiously optimistic, co-creative narrative. The findingsdemonstrate that while Large Language Models can instantly synthesize explicit data, theyremain fundamentally constrained by Polanyi’s paradox. Consequently, modern discoursereframes human intuition not as an automated target, but as an intractable, context-specificboundary and a mandatory check-and-balance required to ground black-box algorithmic recommendations.

This thesis investigates how joy can be intentionally integrated into design practice through the development of a practical design toolkit for designers. While existing approaches in emotional design, positive design, and well-being design often focus broadly on happiness, pleasure and user satisfaction. This remains a lack of structured methods specifically aimed at designing for “joy” as a distinct emotional experience. This research addresses that gap by exploring how joy can be defined meaningfully for design practice and how designers can be supported in intentionally creating joyful experiences for everyday life.

The study adopts the Double Diamond design framework as the primary methodological approach, combining literature review, brainstorming, mind mapping, rapid ideation, method mapping, prototyping, user testing and reflective practice throughout the project development process. The research draws from interdisciplinary perspectives including psychology, philosophy, emotional design, positive psychology and design for well-being. Particular attention is given to recent theories defining joy as the “elation of right relation,” emphasizing joy as a momentary and meaningful emotional experience emerging through alignment between identity, context and sensory engagement.

Based on these findings, the project develops a Joy Design Toolkit consisting of structured tools and guiding methods intended to help designers identify joy domains, moments, sensory experiences and emotional triggers within the design process. This toolkit reframes joy into a process that cultivate meaningful emotional experiences and preparing human for their own sustainability.

Although though that joy remains subjective, contextual and culturally dependent, design can still intentionally facilitate conditions that support joyful experiences through sensory stimulation, meaningful momentary interaction and emotional alignment of joy domains. The project contributes to the growing opportunities on both emotional and positive design by proposing a more focused and actionable approach to designing for joy. It also highlights the potential role of emotionally meaningful design in supporting sustainable and human-centered futures.

In today's society, we are witnessing the closure of youth meeting places as a result of economic cutbacks. Public libraries are no exception. The hardest hit are public libraries in smaller communities and areas with less favorable socioeconomic conditions. Previous research shows that young people primarily use libraries today as social gathering spaces. Against this background, this study focuses on public libraries in smaller communities, their youth programs, and the significance of these programs for young people. The aim of the study is to investigate how librarians at small public libraries work with youth programs and how these activities can be understood in relation to the library’s role as a democratic institution and community meeting place. The study focuses on examining young people’s opportunities for participation in society and how such participation can enhance their empowerment and influence, both as individuals and as a group. To achieve this, six public librarians were interviewed using semi-structured interviews conducted digitally via video calls. The interviews were transcribed and subsequently analyzed thematically. The material was interpreted through the lens of Jürgen Habermas’s theory of the public sphere and Nancy Fraser’s theory of counterpublics. The findings identify several recurring and relevant themes. The topics discussed include youth programs in relation to social interaction and group dynamics, as well as the relationship-building work of librarians, which plays a crucial role in the success of youth services. Young people’s intermediate position is highlighted and problematized in relation to their status as a prioritized target group under the Swedish Library Act. Throughout the study, the democratic role of small public libraries for both young people and society is emphasized. The study demonstrates that young people are structurally deprioritized in relation to other target groups, which affects the conditions for developing and maintaining youth programs. 

The global shift towards a Circular Economy is becoming increasingly critical as industries face growing pressures related to resource scarcity, waste generation, and climate change. While companies like IKEA are actively committing to circular goals, consumer engagement remains one of the key barriers to closing the circular loop. This project explores the barriers and drivers that shape consumer participation in circular initiatives within the furniture sector, with a focus on two contrasting contexts - Sweden (Global North) and India (Global South).

Using IKEA as a case company, the study employs an interdisciplinary research approach drawing on Circular Economy theory, Socio-technical theory, the concept of value-action gap, nudge theory, and service design. Methods include benchmarking, field study, comparative case study, semi-structured interviews, persona development, user journey mapping, and prototyping, structured within the Double Diamond framework.

The findings reveal that low awareness and inconvenience are the primary barriers preventing IKEA India consumers from engaging with circular services. In response, the project proposes a consumer-centric service design solution across three interrelated touchpoints - a social media awareness campaign, visual communication and spatial planning at the store, and a UX feature called the IKEA Furniture Bank, integrated into IKEA's existing app and website to provide easy post-purchase access to circular services. Designed to guide consumers into the circular loop through convenience and nudging. Together, these aim to bridge the gap between consumers and circular services, reduce the value-action gap, support behavioral change and guide consumers into the circular loop. Ultimately, through the agency of IKEA, the proposal aims to shift the mindset of Indian consumers by raising awareness towards circularity and encouraging more circular behaviours, making sustainability an effortless choice.

This project investigates the role of design in supporting emotional awareness among young people in school environments. It focuses on how a tangible tool can create space for reflection, helping students recognize and articulate their feelings in everyday situations. The outcome is a journal-based tool developed for 12–13-year-old students, combining visual elements, storytelling, and guided prompts. Rather than offering solutions, it invites users to engage with their own experiences and build a personal understanding of their emotions. The project highlights how small, consistent practices of reflection can influence behavior over time, and suggests that emotional awareness should be considered an essential part of learning and social sustainability.

Bakgrund: Samverkan mellan polis och akutsjuksköterskor blir allt vanligare på akutmottagningar. Akutsjuksköterskan ansvarar för patienten och dess vård och ska ha kunskaper i att skapa ett vårdande möte oavsett situation med fokus på patientens integritet. Vid samverkan med polis kan situationer problematiseras av att polis och hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal lyder under olika lagar. Dessutom kan polisens närvaro innebära en auktoritet som kan försvåra akutsjuksköterskans möjlighet till att skapa en vårdande relation till patienten.

Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva akutsjuksköterskors upplevelse av vårdandet av patienter i polisnärvaro.

Metod: Kvalitativ intervjustudie med semistrukturerade frågor och induktiv ansats. Tio akutsjuksköterskor intervjuades på akutmottagningar i södra Sverige. Data analyserades genom Graneheim och Lundmans kvalitativa innehållsanalys. 

Resultat: För att akutsjuksköterskan ska ha möjlighet att bedriva god och säker vård krävs det att vårdmiljön är säker, vilket polisen kan inbringa. Samverkan beskrivs som god men problematiseras av att personalen lyder under olika lagar. Anledningen till polisnärvaron påverkar situationen och med det även akutsjuksköterskans förmåga att skapa en vårdande relation. Upplevelsen är att patientens integritet och sekretess är i fokus. Akutsjuksköterskor har inställningen att ge lika vård till alla utan att döma. Erfarenhet ger trygghet som utöver vårdandet även påverkar samverkan med polis.

Slutsats: Akutsjuksköterskor upplever att polisnärvaron i vårdandet ger en trygghet men försvårar möjligheten att skapa en vårdande relation mellan akutsjuksköterska och patient. Det krävs att akutsjuksköterskan har möjlighet att se hela människan för att skapa ett vårdande möte. Forskning i ämnet utifrån svenska förhållanden är begränsade vilket ökar betydelsen för ytterligare studier.

Bakgrund:  Moralisk stress uppstår när sjuksköterskor vet vad som är moraliskt riktigt att göra men hindras från att agera i enlighet med sina professionella och etiska värderingar. Under Covid-19-pandemin präglades vården av hög arbetsbelastning, resursbrist och omfattande organisatoriska förändringar, vilket påverkade sjuksköterskors möjligheter att ge vård i enlighet med sitt professionella ansvar.Problemformulering: Moralisk stress har under Covid-19-pandemin identifierats som ett betydande problem inom hälso- och sjukvården och kan få negativa konsekvenser för både sjuksköterskor och vårdorganisationer. Trots tidigare forskning saknas en sammanställd bild av vilka faktorer sjuksköterskor upplevde bidrog till moralisk stress under pandemin. En sådan sammanställning kan bidra till ökad förståelse för de faktorer som påverkar sjuksköterskors möjligheter att ge vård i enlighet med professionella och etiska värderingar.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att sammanställa sjuksköterskors upplevda faktorer som bidrog till moralisk stress under Covid-19-pandemin.Metod: Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ litteraturöversikt med induktiv ansats. Datainsamlingen genomfördes i databaserna CINAHL och PubMed. Tio kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar inkluderades efter kvalitetsgranskning och analyserades enligt Fribergs analysmodell för integrerande sammanställning av kvalitativ forskning inspirerad av metasyntes.Resultat: Analysen resulterade i tre kategorier som beskrev faktorer som bidrog till moralisk stress hos sjuksköterskor under pandemin: att uppleva resursbrist, att uppleva bristande inflytande och kontroll samt att uppleva rädsla för att smitta andra och själv bli smittad. Resursbrist omfattade personalbrist, materialbrist och tidsbrist. Bristande inflytande och kontroll innefattade otillräcklig kunskap, att inte bli lyssnad på samt riktlinjer och restriktioner. Rädsla för smitta handlade om svårigheten att balansera patientansvar med den egna och närståendes säkerhet. Slutsats: Resultatet visar att resursbrist, bristande inflytande och kontroll samt rädsla för att smitta andra eller själv bli smittad var faktorer till moralisk stress hos sjuksköterskor under Covid-19-pandemin. Gemensamt för de identifierade faktorerna var att de begränsade sjuksköterskornas möjligheter att ge vård i enlighet med sina professionella och etiska värderingar, vilket låg till grund för den moraliska stressen. Studien belyser därmed betydelsen av organisatoriska förutsättningar som möjliggör delaktighet, stöd och tillräckliga resurser för att förebygga moralisk stress och stärka vårdens beredskap inför framtida kriser.