A major challenge of developing tools for the environment of a host language isthat external library modules can add new syntax elements to the host language,making its environment difficult to develop and maintain using tooling based on afixed set of grammar rules. Storm is another example of this kind of extended hostlanguage; i.e., all extensions are defined in the same source file as the hostlanguage. Therefore, each developer has to figure out at least once how theirpieces of code are being parsed.This thesis introduces a new, cursor-centered, filtered syntax-tree visualization forStorm as a side panel in the popular Emacs editor. The visualization is centeredaround the developer’s cursor position, limited to the smallest enclosing multi-lineconstruct, and rendered via a grammar-agnostic renderer that works directly withthe structural characteristics of the syntactic parse trees instead of working withthe names of individual grammatical rules. The editor renders the resulting syntaxtree as a tree view with bidirectional links between source code and syntax treenodes, as well as a direct link to the Storm documentation buffer.

Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) have been widely applied to solve inverse problems (e.g., deconvolution), offering flexibility between prediction fidelity and uncertainty quantification. In this work, we focus on BNNs with heavy-tailed distributed weights, which aim to preserve the sharpness of the underlying unknown state.

Numerically, we consider a one-dimensional deconvolution problem to illustrate the effectiveness of heavy-tailed BNNs. Gaussian and Laplace distributed priors are also studied to show the limitations of smooth and sparse promoting priors. Across all considered priors, we evaluated three posterior approximation methods: deep ensembles, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling and, our primary interest, the mean-field variational approximation with Cauchy-distributed factors.

The results suggest that the Cauchy mean-field approximation introduces a sharp-promoting bias, making it a suitable modeling choice for signals with discontinuous structure. By explicitly imposing a heavy-tailed structure on the posterior distribution, the recovered signal exhibits sharp transitions that closely resemble the edges of the underlying hidden state.

Furthermore, we find that the Cauchy mean-field approximation achieves competitive edge-preserving reconstructions even with a significantly reduced network capacity, provided the network is large enough to sample a sufficient number of extreme weights. This makes it a computationally appealing alternative to full Bayesian inference methods such as MCMC.

Pain assessment relies heavily on a patient describing how they feel. Because this is highly subjective, there is a need of objective, biological way to measure pain using protein biomarkers. A laboratory technique called 2D-GE can map out these proteins visually, but having humans analyze these complex image maps is slow and inconsistent. To solve this, this thesis evaluates how deep learning can automatically scan 2D-GE images of different bodily fluids to find objective, physical evidence of pain.

To achieve this, the study systematically evaluated three distinct neural network architectures: convolutional neural networks (CNNs), specifically ResNet18 and ResNet34, and a vision transformer (ViT). The models were trained and validated on a proprietary dataset of 2D-GE images derived from heterogeneous bodily fluids (saliva, cerebrospinal fluid [CSF], and blood plasma). The methodology evaluated both global (mixed-fluid) and fluid-specific classification tasks. Monte Carlo cross-validation across 50 iterations was employed to ensure evaluation, comparing metrics such as accuracy, balanced accuracy, and Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC). Furthermore, the necessity of transfer learning was tested against training from scratch. To confirm the significance of the observed performance disparities, two-sided pairwise permutation tests (10,000 resamples) and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (α = 0.05) were executed. Finally, visual explainability algorithms specially, GradCAM++ for CNNs and attention heatmap for the ViT were utilized to interpret the spatial reasoning behind the models’ predictions.The study established that pain classification is feasible but fluid-dependent. Models trained on heterogeneous global data struggled to surpass a random-chance baseline due to confounding factor. However, for fluid-specific classification, saliva emerged as a significant diagnostic medium, achieving a good predictive accuracy of 82.49%±5.63%. Conversely, blood plasma proved unsuitable for this task, largely due to high variations in sample quality and background noise.

Computationally, transfer learning was proven necessary; without pre-trained weights, the deeper ResNet34 model suffered considerable performance degradation by performing at 50%. With transfer learning, the CNN architectures demonstrated a significant statistical superiority over the ViT. For the overall binary classification task, ResNet34 achieved the highest overall accuracy of 65.2%±5.8%. Whereas, ResNet18 achieved an accuracy of 62.5%±4.4% and ViT achieved an accuracy of 59.4%±5.2%. For the complex 6-class multiclass task, ResNet34 achieved 63.0%±4.0% accuracy against a 16.67% baseline, again establishing significant superiority over the ViT (p = 0.0002). Despite the predictive shortcomings of the ViT, explainability analyses revealed a crucial trade-off: GradCAM++ showed that ResNet models relied on broad, diffuse regional patterns, while the ViT attention heatmaps acted as a more localized focus, successfully pinpointing discrete, individual protein spots.Ultimately, this research demonstrates that while deeper CNN (ResNet34) are the superior diagnostic classifiers for evaluating complex 2D-GE images, the ViT provides the precise higher localized focus required for downstream biological identification. This thesis lays a foundation for the algorithmic pain-related protein biomarkers detection. Future efforts must focus on mitigating data scarcity within the underrepresented fluid cohorts and exploring multimodal data fusion to further enhance diagnostic capabilities.

The Semantic Web aims to make web data machine-readable by embedding semantics into the data. As key technologies in the Semantic Web, ontologies and knowledge graphs (KGs) are used to formalize and represent knowledge in a structured way. They are core components in application scenarios involving searching, integrating, managing, and extracting value from heterogeneous data sources at scale, and are widely used by major data and database providers and consumers, such as Google, Amazon, and Netflix. As a result, their quality is critical for developing high-quality semantically enabled applications. However, in practice, many ontologies and KGs, especially large-scale ones, contain defects. Using such defective resources can lead to incorrect conclusions or missed valid conclusions. Ensuring their quality, particularly in terms of correctness and completeness, is a major challenge. 

In this thesis, we focus on repairing ontologies and KGs represented by description logic knowledge bases. We first discuss the kind of defects concerning correctness and completeness that can occur in ℰℒℋ⟂ ontologies and KGs. We then propose an interactive repairing approach that combines five basic quality-improving operations: debugging, removing, weakening, strengthening, and adding, to address the problem of repairing ℰℒℋ⟂ ontologies and KGs with defects. Traditional debugging approaches repair ontologies and KGs by simply removing incorrect information, which may result in the loss of correct information that was previously derivable from the removed information. In contrast, our approach aims to preserve as much correct knowledge as possible while removing incorrect information by, in addition to removing the incorrect information, also adding correct knowledge, thereby mitigating the negative effects and improving the quality of repaired ontologies and KGs. 

Furthermore, we show that there are also choices to be made when using and combining these operations such as how to combine them and when to apply them, as well as the different autonomy levels of different components in a KG. We define combination operators that reflect these different choices, and discuss how these choices influence the quality of the repaired ontologies and KGs in terms of correctness and completeness. Comparing these different combinations provides insights into how to make choices based on the desired level of correctness and completeness of repaired ontologies and KGs. Finally, we conduct experiments and present several use cases to validate our approach and demonstrate the framework. Overall, this framework serves as a template for developing repair systems with specific properties regarding correctness and completeness of the repaired ontologies and KGs.  

 In today’s tech-driven society, we increasingly rely on the security of internet commu-

nication to handle personal data, financial transactions and digital infrastructure. TLS

1.3 is one of the most used cryptographic communications protocols for securing internet

communication, ensuring confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity. However, imple-

mentations remain vulnerable to critical software defects: Heartbleed and Apple’s ”goto

fail;” are two of the major discovered security bugs which risked data leakage and enabled

authentication-bypasses, respectively. For this reason systematic methods are needed to

find bugs before they are exploited. This thesis presents a KLEE-based Differential Sym-

bolic Execution framework to test the parsing of the ServerHello message in OpenSSL

and wolfSSL implementations. The framework progressively introduces message fields as

symbolic variables in order to detect end-to-end divergences between implementations. It

is developed and guided by a proof of concept (PoC) implementation, in which it discovers

9 out of 12 injected bugs. Applied onto the real TLS implementations, two unique diver-

gences are found through four runs of Differential symbolic execution for which OpenSSL

is classified as non-conformant to the RFC 8446 (TLS 1.3). Furthermore, through the

runs discrepancies in build configurations was uncovered, assisting in ensuring a correct

setup. The results demonstrate that Differential Symbolic Execution is a viable method

for finding parsing level divergences, but is prone to state-space explosion and hence faces

difficulties in making larger fields of the message symbolic, and finding deeper vulnera-

bilities. It is also solely capable of finding divergences between implementations, possibly

vulnerabilities, and is no guarantee of proving absence of bugs.

Electrification of societies and the rapid development of artificial intelligence are predicted to significantly increase global energy demand in the coming years. Meeting this demand sustainably requires renewable energy sources. Organic solar cells (OSCs) have emerged as a promising candidate, achieving power conversion efficiencies exceeding 20% in laboratory settings through the development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). However, limited long-term stability remains a major challenge for commercialization.

In this work, the photodegradation of the NFAs Y6 and IT4F (outdoor photovoltaics), GS-ISO and FTCC-Br (indoor photovoltaics), and the donor polymer PTQ10, was investigated in neat films, bulk heterojunction (BHJ) blends and solar cell devices under standardized AM1.5G LED illumination without UV in air. A combination of UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL), transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) and device characterization was used to correlate material degradation with device performance.

The results showed wavelength dependent degradation for IT4F, GS-ISO and FTCC-Br, with higher energy photons causing more severe damage, while Y6 exhibited high photostability. Although the absorption of PTQ10 remained stable after light soaking, a reduced photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and shortened lifetimes indicated increased non-radiative recombination. TAS revealed accelerated formation of bound polaron pairs in light soaked IT4F, GS-ISO and FTCC-Br, while no such features were observed for PTQ10. Despite efficient charge transfer in BHJ blends, the devices showed a dramatic loss of performance and external quantum efficiency after 12 hours of light soaking. This loss in performance could not be explained solely by the photodegradation of the active layer, and indicated additional problems within the device stack, including increased series resistance and reduced shunt resistance. Overall, the results demonstrated that a dominant degradation pathway is the formation of non-radiative recombination channels driven by photoinduced degradation of the NFAs.

Memory safety vulnerabilities remain a prevalent security challenge, accounting for a significant majority of critical software defects. This paper investigates how programming language standards influence memory safety by analyzing three distinct approaches: the manual memory management of C++, the ownership-based compile-time model of Rust, and the automatic garbage collection of Python. These languages are evaluated by reproducing a suite of Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) vulnerabilities, including buffer overflows, use-after-free, and null pointer dereference conditions to determine the stage at which faults are detected: compile-time, runtime, or silent execution.The study highlights the fundamental trade-offs in language design: Rust shifts detection to the compilation phase by imposing strict compile-time discipline on the developer. C++ prioritizes runtime performance and control, often relying on warnings rather than errors at the risk of silent failures, and Python ensures safety through significant runtime overhead. These findings quantify the cost of safety, offering a comparative view of the memory overhead and safety guarantees inherent to each language's design.

Den här uppsatsen utgörs av en komparativ analys av Margarets Atwoods roman Tjänarinnans berättelse och P.D. James roman Människors barn utifrån aspekterna religion, infertilitet, det kvinnliga könet och bokförbud samt ett avslutande avsnitt om verkens reella politiska omvärld. Det som undersöks är två likartade romaner men där enbart den förstnämnda har blivit förbjuden. Syftet med denna analys är därför att undersöka både likheter och avgörande skillnader för att ge en rimlig förklaring till varför Tjänarinnans berättelse är förbjuden medan Människors barn inte är det trots deras många likheter. Teorin för uppsatsen har sin grund i Gregory Claeys definition av begreppet dystopi samt Andreu Domingos underkategori demodystopi, tillsammans med Yvonne Hirdmans genusteorier om det kvinnliga könet och det stereotypiska genuskontraktet. Tidigare forskning tar upp olika perspektiv på aspekterna ovan, där bland annat religionens roll och kvinnors villkor är några framträdande teman. Till själva bokförbudsaspekten tar uppsatsen också hjälp av Svenska PEN och deras gemensamma databas om verk och deras bokförbud. Metoden för den här uppsatsen är närläsning av de båda verken för att kunna genomföra den komparativa analysen. I det avslutande kapitlet av analysen (Det politiska klimatet) skiljer sig metoden från de resterande delarna då denna del istället utgörs av en undersökning av romanernas verkliga omgivande samhälle. Denna förändring av metod tillämpas för att skapa en djupare förståelse och en mer nyanserad bild över vad som kan tänkas ha orsakat de olika bokförbuden. Resultatet av analysen synliggör hur Atwood och James olika användning av kristendomen utgör en viktig roll för mottagandet av boken, där Tjänarinnans berättelse har anklagats för exempelvis blasfemi medan Människors barn istället kan läsas som en kristen fabel. Detta tillsammans med hur Atwoods roman börjat figurera i dagens politik drar den här uppsatsen som slutsats till att utgöra de största skälen till verkets förbud.

Accurate dynamic models of industrial robot manipulators are essential for achieving high-performance control and for realizing accurate physics simulation. However, improving model fidelity typically requires extensive experimental data and time-consuming identification procedures. This thesis addresses this trade-off by advancing system identification methods aimed at improving the accuracy of physically parameterized robot models. The advancements are focused on resource- efficiency in terms of shortening experiment duration for data collection, decreasing data volume and reducing need for manual effort related to experiment design and tuning of the identification algorithm.

The work first investigates high-fidelity modeling approaches, including multibody formulations with flexible links derived from Finite Element data. These models enable accurate prediction of robot dynamics early in the development process without requiring experimentally identified stiffness parameters. To further enhance model realism, extended joint models incorporating gear, bearing, and link flexibility are developed, allowing separation and identification of transmission- and arm-side dynamics using dual encoder measurements.

The second central contribution of the thesis is the development of improved experiment design strategies for frequency-domain identification. By formulating and solving optimization problems based on information criteria, optimal robot configurations for data collection are identified, significantly reducing experimental effort while maintaining or improving parameter estimation accuracy. These methods are validated both in simulation and on real industrial manipulators, demonstrating substantial reductions in experiment time. The approach is further extended to systems incorporating nonlinear transmission stiffness through the use of statistical linearization.

Third, the thesis introduces advanced estimation techniques for extracting more information from limited data. In particular, local parametric methods for frequency response function estimation are adapted to nonlinear, closed-loop, multi-input multi-output robotic systems, reducing the number of required experiments and improving estimation accuracy compared to classical approaches.

A key contribution of the thesis is the experimental validation of the proposed methods and models, ensuring their practical relevance. Overall, the results demonstrate that substantial improvements in model fidelity can be achieved without increasing experimental resources. By combining physically parameterized models, optimized experiment design, and efficient estimation methods, the proposed framework has significant practical and industrial impact, supporting the development of accurate and computationally efficient dynamic models for industrial robot manipulators.

Drinking water can become contaminated through several mediums, the distribution network being a major one. Sewage water may enter the pipe network through pipe breaks or leaks, and there are many documented cases historically of this causing people to fall ill. The drinking water in the distribution network is currently monitored through manual sampling, which is time-consuming and infrequent. This means contaminations in the network are usually not discovered until after people have already fallen ill. There is therefore a need for detecting contaminations in real time in the distribution network before people become sick.

In this project methods for detecting sewage contamination in the drinking water distribution network are explored and evaluated. It investigates the feasibility of using a sensor called the electronic tongue alongside one of five different algorithms to detect contaminations in real time. The most important factors include being able to detect low concentrations of sewage as well as minimizing false alarms, and a delay in the response is also introduced to reduce the number of false alarms. The algorithms are evaluated with regard to the trade-off between contamination detection, false alarm rate and response delay, and the results show that out of the five algorithms, two are viable for detecting sewage contaminations using the electronic tongue. The thesis highlights the decisions that need to be made when tackling this problem and provides some alternatives for solving it. To evaluate the real efficacy of the algorithms, further testing with more nuanced data is required, especially in real scenarios.

Background: The number of individuals dependent on financial assistance due to illness and poor health is increasing. Long-term dependence on financial assistance is associated with an increased risk of social exclusion and ill health. Within municipal labor market units, individuals may be offered community-based vocational rehabilitation. Occupational therapists working in these units often use the Assessment of Work Performance (AWP) to assess work ability, and in some units the informant report data collection method (AWP-IR) is applied.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate aspects of usability of the data collection method AWP-IR in work ability assessments within community-based vocational rehabilitation.

Method: The study had a qualitative design with a deductive approach. Data were collected through focus group interviews with two groups: occupational therapists in municipal labor market units with experience of AWP and AWP-IR, and supervisors with experience of using AWP-IR in collaboration with occupational therapists. The data were analyzed using manifest content analysis based on an analysis framework derived from usability concepts in relevant literature.

Results: The results show that AWP-IR achieves usability in terms of appropriateness, effectiveness, satisfaction, perceived usability, as well as situational and organizational usability. AWP-IR appears to be usable within the context of community-based vocational rehabilitation. Further studies are needed focusing on the application of the informant report data collection method within AWP, where occupational therapists as assessors and supervisors as informants conduct systematic data collection for work ability assessment.

Conclusion: Increased knowledge about work ability assessments using AWP-IR within municipal community-based vocational rehabilitation may contribute to improved quality of work ability assessments for individuals receiving financial assistance due to illness or ill health. Improved assessments may provide a basis for appropriate interventions and increased opportunities for equality in activity, participation, and self-sufficiency through work.

Bakgrund: Personer med substansbrukssyndrom (SUD) har komplexavårdbehov men möter ofta stigma och negativa attityder i samhället och ihälso- och sjukvården.Syfte: Att belysa hur patienter med SUD upplever mötet med vårdpersonalinom den somatiska hälso- och sjukvården.Metod: En allmän litteraturstudie med systematisk ansats. Datainsamlinggenomfördes i CINAHL och PubMed. Elva kvalitativa artiklar och enmixad-metod artikel (2016–2026) inkluderades efter urval,kvalitetsgranskning och analys enligt kvalitativ innehållsanalys.Resultat: Patienter beskrev avhumanisering, misstro och skuldbeläggning,vilket påverkade tillit och vårdsökande. De upplevde även att de inte blevlyssnade på eller inkluderade i vårdbeslut. Somatiska symtom och smärta togsibland inte på allvar och behandling kunde vara bristfällig.Konklusion: Patienter med SUD upplever ojämlikt och stigmatiserandebemötande inom somatisk vård. Ett ökat fokus på personcentrering, kunskapoch förbättrade attityder krävs för att säkerställa jämlik och kvalitativ vård.

This thesis investigates how the history of mathematics can be integrated into contemporary mathematics education through the design, implementation, and evaluation of a teaching resource on Maya mathematics for upper secondary school students. The study is grounded in research highlighting the need for more varied and engaging mathematics instruction, as well as curriculum guidelines that emphasize the historical and cultural dimensions of mathematics. The aim was to design, implement, and evaluate a mathematics-history-based teaching unit in mathematics education, as well as to identify areas for improvement in its design. Furthermore, the study examined students' perceptions of the teaching unit and the potential effects of incorporating elements from the history of mathematics on student learning.

The teaching resource was developed iteratively through three design phases and was also inspired by principles of Slow Design to promote reflection, curiosity, and cultural understanding. The material consisted of instructional videos, worksheets, and grids with items through which students performed the four basic arithmetic operations using methods derived from Maya mathematics, adapted to base ten to facilitate comparisons with the decimal number system. The study was conducted in an upper secondary school class studying Mathematics 2c and was evaluated through classroom observations and a questionnaire completed by 25 students.

The results indicate that the lesson was generally well received. Most students found the material clear, appropriately challenging, and engaging. For example, 76% of the students appreciated the opportunity to work with an alternative calculation method, 48% experienced a higher level of engagement than during a regular math class and 60% considered the history of mathematics to be an important component of mathematics education. At the same time, several pedagogical challenges were identified, particularly regarding the format of instruction and some students’ tendency to rely on their usual calculation methods rather than the historical methods presented.

The study indicates that teaching activities based on the history of mathematics can contribute to increased interest, engagement, variation, and understanding in mathematics education. However, it also shows that their design requires careful adaptation to students’ prior knowledge, working methods, and educational context.

Over the past decades, the circular economy has developed around products with either high material value or large, uniform waste volumes. However, many other products are still locked in to the linear economy of take–make–dispose. Few products illustrate the logic of the linear economy as clearly as product category of bonded, short-lifecycle products with examples such as comfort air filters. Comfort air filters are manufactured to improve air quality, protect human health and machines, and they require frequent replacement as their efficiency declines when they become saturated with dust and particles. This frequent replacement generates substantial end-of-life waste, which is typically sent to incineration. Climbing higher in the waste hierarchy, from incineration with energy recovery to material recycling, would allow the embedded material value to circulate rather than be lost, easing pressure on virgin resource extraction and aligning the product category with the broader transition toward a circular economy. This master’s thesis investigates why incineration persists as the main end-of-life pathway, how a manufacturer of bonded, short-lifecycle products can implement a take-back system, and what value arises from closing a material loop. This is done through a case study of the company Camfil AB, a market-leading manufacturer of comfort air filters, with the main empirical collection constituting of semi-structured interviews, primarily with employees and customers.  The thesis highlights that incineration persists for several mutually reinforcing reasons. Sweden has developed one of the most extensive waste-to-energy systems with incineration being deeply integrated with the district heating networks. Regarding the material recycling, infrastructure is built around either high-volume single-material products or high value materials. Large recycling companies deem the volumes of these products as insufficient for a dedicated processing line to be economically viable to operate. The material value is also too low to motivate them to acquire the necessary machinery for separation of the bonded materials. Customers handling spent products are influenced by several types of operational frictions – all leading the filter handling towards the path of least resistance, which is incineration. Additionally, the study concludes that an internal take-back system is preferable to outsourcing for a market-leading manufacturer of bonded, short-lifecycle products. An internal system secures control over material, the economic value of the recovered material, and the communicative benefits of a closed material loop. Companies should leverage existing local presence and prioritize locations where customer and product-density is sufficient. Implementation should proceed incrementally, starting where conditions are most favorable, rather than as a full-scale rollout. Finally, the findings show that the economic viability of a take-back system need not rest on material value alone. Value is realized indirectly through won procurements where circularity has become a qualifying criterion, through strengthened relationships with actors throughout the value chain, through a strengthened sustainability position that limits competitors' ability to compete on environmental claims, and through first-mover advantages such as customer lock-in and influence over emerging regulation. For a market-leading manufacturer, the greatest value lies in maintaining its market position and failing to act puts this position at risk. The risk from inaction is greater than the risk from early investments, as brand position and customer trust are difficult to rebuild once lost.  

This thesis aims to design, implement, and cross-compare software capable of updating parts of a running system, without requiring a restart of the host application. Dynamic Software Updating (DSU) enables such runtime modifications. High-availability systems aim to remain continuously in service, which makes dynamic updates particularly valuable for applying changes with minimal service interruption in such systems. In academia, DSU has been explored in general-purpose computing where prior work largely focuses on abstract mechanisms rather than application-specific ones. In this work, we take an application-specific perspective, using DSU to update program functions within a running Radio Access Network (RAN) application.

The scientific novelty of this work lies in applying established DSU techniques to a uniquely constrained RAN application. Restructuring the application to support DSU introduced some pros and cons, prompting an investigation into how different DSU strategies affect downtime, performance, memory usage and system stability. By implementing four update solutions and evaluating them under conditions that resemble a worst-case packet transmission workload, the thesis quantifies the costs of enabling runtime updates in a high-availability RAN system.

The mining industry has a central but ambivalent role in the sustainability transition, as it both supplies critical raw materials for low-carbon technologies and needs to reduce its own emissions. Electrification of mobile machinery is a important step, but it requires more than replacing diesel equipment with electric alternatives. It also involves changes in infrastructure, mine planning, supplier relations, routines and decision-making, while several technologies remain under development. Therefore, electrification in mining can be understood as a socio-technicaltransition rather than a purely technical change.

Combining transition studies with perspectives from organizational change, this thesis analyzes how perceived organizational barriers and technological uncertainty shape how an incumbent mining organization handles electrification. While transition studies provide a lens for understanding electrification as part of a broader socio-technical transition, organizational change perspectives are used to examine how this transition is interpreted, negotiated and enacted insidethe organization. Previous transitions research has often treated incumbent firms as relatively coherent regime actors, leaving limited understanding of how internal organizational conditions shape transition processes. Empirically, the study is based on a qualitative embedded singlecase study, including semi-structured interviews with internal and external actors, as well as observations from two mine sites.

The findings show that electrification is widely perceived as a necessary and desirable long-term direction within the organization, driven by environmental goals, improved work environment, long-term competitiveness and potential cost efficiency. At the same time, uncertainty regarding technology maturity, supplier capacity, infrastructure requirements, geopolitics, future costs and operational consequences makes the organization hesitant to test, invest in and commit to specific electrification path. These uncertainties are interpreted through existing responsibilities, priorities and routines, meaning that support for electrification remains conditional andvaries across organizational roles. The study identifies this as an uncertainty paradox: because uncertainty limits experimentation and commitment, opportunities for learning are reduced, which in turn reproduces the uncertainty that slows the transition. As a result, electrification remains exploratory and fragmented. Pilot projects and supplier collaborations generate valuable knowledge, but this learning is not always sufficiently shared or translated into coordinated organizational action.

The study further conceptualizes the incumbent firm as a micro-regime, where internal routines, production-oriented priorities, decentralized decision-making, local autonomy and role-specific interpretations reproduce stabilizing mechanisms usually associated with broader socio-technical regimes. This shows that electrification is constrained not only by external technology and market conditions, but also by internal organizational structures that shape how new technologies are evaluated and acted upon.

By opening the incumbent “black box”, this thesis contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how established industrial firms handle sustainability transitions. The findings show that incumbent firms are neither simply resisting nor straightforwardly driving change. Instead, they navigate transitions through internal negotiations between long-term sustainability ambitions, technological uncertainty and established operational logics. The study therefore highlights the importance of shared learning, clearer strategic translation and stronger coordination across organizational levels in order to move from fragmented exploration toward more deliberate transition management.

Growing energy demands, electrification, and geopolitical tensions have been increasing the urgency of the Swedish energy transition in recent years. The past decade of Swedish energy policy has seen drastic changes, going from the goal of 100% renewable energy to 100% fossil-free energy. This is not just a change in words or technologies; it is a change in the futures that are imagined, valued, and enacted. This thesis focuses on how Swedish energy futures are imagined, valued, and enacted in different contexts: a national policy and strategy context, a regional energy context, and the context of municipal energy and climate advisors. With an approach that is centred on sociotechnical imaginaries and values, this thesis studies how energy future imaginaries are enacted and embedded in society. The thesis has its starting point in four sociotechnical imaginaries analysed in a document published by the Swedish Energy Agency in 2016. These imaginaries serve as an analytical point of reference in studying how national policy, regional energy work, and municipal energy and climate advisors value and enact energy futures. The analysis shows how different contexts allow different energy future imaginaries to manifest. The thesis points out that while energy policy has changed drastically in the last decade, Sweden has been locked into an imaginary focused on large-scale energy production, a strong and competitive industry, job creation, and minor changes in households’ energy use patterns. In this imaginary, households are valued for their contribution to stabilising the grid through flexibility and demand response, and the regional context is valued for its contributions to grid capacity management. The thesis identifies tensions with this dominant imaginary. In the regional and local context, obstacles to the embedding of the dominant imaginary are identified, such as limited institutional and financial resources. Additionally, it points out that the regional and local contexts value and enact different energy futures, but do not have the means to embed those in society.

In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's (1797-1851) seminal novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), the body and the monster are revealed to be closely connected as Frankenstein's creature comes to embody the ultimate Other, equally repellent, frightening, and fascinating in his artificial corporeality. In this study I examine three modern novels – Poor Things (1992) by Alasdair Gray (1934-2019), Bunny (2019) by Mona Awad (b. 1978) and Our Hideous Progeny (2023) by C.E. McGill (b. 2000) – which, I argue, may all be linked to Shelley's novel through their shared usage of the Frankenstein motif: the creation or construction of artificial bodies. Focusing especially on the female protagonists of the novels, this study aims to illustrate how the novels use, subvert, and recontextualize the Frankenstein motif to explore the notion of the monstrous body, particularly the relationship between monstrosity, femininity, and queer existence. Combining feminist and posthumanist theory, I examine the novels' portrayals of female agency, reproduction, and sexuality as well as the seemingly contradictory term monstrous cuteness, showcasing the various ways in which the body may be used as a tool for subversion and reclaiming agency. The findings of this study highlight the figure of the monster as simultaneously ostracized object and powerful subject, revealing the implicit power dichotomies inherent in Cartesian humanism as well as advocating for a broader, more inclusive understanding of the human.

Att arbeta utifrån agila arbetssätt har blivit allt vanligare inom systemutveckling. I takt med denna utveckling har frågan om hur användarupplevelse (UX) hanteras blivit mer aktuell. Tidigare forskning  har identifierat flera utmaningar kopplade till integrationen av UX i agila arbetssätt, såsom Scrum. Exempelvis har det visats att agila arbetssätt inte utgör processer med starkt användarfokus, samt att UX-arbete kommer in för sent i processen, vilket riskerar att slutprodukten inte motsvarar användarens behov. Samtidigt finns det begränsad kunskap om hur UX integreras i storskaliga agila sammanhang ur ett kognitionsvetenskapligt perspektiv. Därför undersöker denna studie hur användarupplevelse kan integreras i storskaliga sammanhang. Studien genomfördes i samarbete med Trafikverket och använde en fallstudiemetodik för att undersöka deras nuvarande arbetssätt. Data samlades in genom bland annat intervjuer och observationer samt analyserades med distribuerad kognition som analyslins. Resultatet visade att kommunikation mellan aktörer, samarbete och den fysiska/digitala miljön stödjer hanteringen av användarinformation, medan begränsningar i artefakter, otydligt ansvar för UX och hur information representeras kan försvåra integreringen av UX. Utifrån de identifierade framgångsfaktorerna och hinder bidrar studien med rekommendationer för hur UX kan integreras mer kontinuerligt i storskaliga agila arbetssätt.

Denna studie syftade till att undersöka hur vårdpersonal inom reumatologin i Region Östergötland upplever användbarheten i behandlingsprogrammet för reumatoid artrit på plattformen Stöd och behandling via 1177. Målet var att identifiera användbarhetsproblem och förbättringsområden som kunde realiseras i konkreta designförslag. Studien följde perspektivet Forskning genom design och använde sig av ett användarcentrerat perspektiv där semistrukturerade intervjuer med inslag av användartest utfördes för att samla in kvalitativa data om programmet. Den kvalitativa data analyserades utifrån en tematisk analys där fyra huvudteman identifierades, vilka var: Patientinformation, Navigering och struktur, Feedback, samt Terminologi och begreppsförståelse. Insikterna från den tematiska analysen lade grunden för de designförslag som utvecklades och den slutgiltiga Hi-Fi prototypen. Designförslagen genomgick en iterativ process där olika förslag skapades, testades och utvärderades för att slutresultatet skulle motsvara personalens förväntningar och önskningar så pass bra som möjligt. De slutgiltiga Hi-Fi prototyperna presenterades för verksamheten som bidrog med insikter och områden som borde vidareutvecklas. Insikter från intervjuer, användbarhetstester och utvärderingar av designförslagen användes för att besvara studiens frågeställningar och hur området bör utforskas vidare. Studien är menad att fungera som en grund för vidare arbete kring hur Stöd och behandling för dig med RA ska fungera så pass bra som möjligt i praktiken. Studien utgår ifrån ett distribuerat perspektiv på kognition, vilket innebär att kognition förstås som något som uppstår i samspelet mellan människor, artefakter och den omgivande miljön. 

This literature review investigates which problem-solving methods and strategies students can use when working with mathematical word problems, as well as which teaching strategies teachers can use to support students in this process. The study is based on a systematic literature study in which articles were identified through database searches in ERIC and UniSearch. The selected articles were then analyzed through a thematic analysis. The results identified four overarching themes: language, the use of digital tools, mathematical representations and teachers' teaching strategies. The result shows that students can use strategies such as retelling the word problem in their own words, creating personal och mathematical connections, asking questions, dividing the word problem into smaller parts, visualizing the word problem by creating pictorial and schematic representations and using digital tools. Students can also use the C-C model or a problem-solving model that involves dividing problem solving into two phases. Teachers can use strategies such as introducing the task without numbers and the question itself and asking students questions. Furthermore, teachers should teach about mathematical language and key concepts, work with language and reading comprehension and focus on practicing students' deep reading skills. In teaching, teachers can use different colors, diagrams and different forms of representation that can support students. Finally, teachers should teach strategies and teach students about the C-C model and about the two phases of problem solving.

Background

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an acute, non-atheromatous, non-inflammatory, non-iatrogenic cause of myocardial infarction (MI) characterized by a spontaneous separation of the coronary vessel wall layers due to either vessel wall hematoma or an initial rift in the intimal-medial vessel wall. Little is known on its pathogenesis and, until a few years past, interventional cardiologists were little aware of the variations of its radiographic appearance. Specifically in Sweden, little research has been done on the demographics (incidence, prevalence, treatment and prognosis) of this disease and its diagnostic patterns.

Method

We utilised data from the SWEDEHEART registry to describe a Swedish SCAD population. We recruited a national cohort of acute SCAD patients to compare coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) as a non-invasive diagnostic modality against invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and further describe our angiographic findings. We investigated SCAD prevalence, diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity in women with MI <50 years between 2015-2023 from 3 Swedish hospitals, by comparing SWEDEHEART registry data and angiographic evaluations by two independent interventional cardiologists.

Results

We found an initial low prevalence of SCAD in Sweden. Compared to atherosclerotic (type 1) MI, SCAD patients were treated almost the same. SCAD patients had lower mortality but comparable morbidity and a higher incidence of unplanned repeat angiography than atherosclerotic MI patients. CCTA was less effective than ICA in identifying and locating acute SCAD, especially if distally located. There was significant underdiagnosing of SCAD in SWEDEHEART with an improving trend in accuracy during the reviewed period.

Conclusion

SCAD was initially underdiagnosed in Sweden, likely leading to an underestimation of its true prevalence. ICA remains the most reliable method for diagnosing SCAD since non-invasive CCTA could not demonstrate comparable precision. Since implementation of a SCAD variable in 2015, SCAD diagnosis in Sweden has improved.

This study compiles the errors students make when calculating addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with fractions, and whether there is a difference when the fractions consist of the same or different denominators. With predetermined selection criteria, the database searches resulted in 6 articles that answers the study's question. The articles were then analyzed using thematic analysis. The analysis resulted in 5 themes, which were: addition with fractions, subtraction with fractions, multiplication with fractions, division with fractions and the difference between the same and different denominators. The results showed that when adding and subtracting fractions, a common denominator is not always sought, while when multiplying a common denominator is found. The common denominator also affects the calculation when dividing. Furthermore, it was shown that inverting fractions occurred in both addition and multiplication, but was forgotten in division. Finally, it was shown that the calculation methods were mixed up, which led to incorrect answers.

Denna kvantitativa studie bidrar med kunskaper om svenska lågstadieelevers attityder och motivation till sin läsläxa. Detta undersöks genom en anonym enkätundersökning där 198 elever från årskurs 1 och årskurs 3 deltar. Resultatet visar att det finns en skillnad i attityden och motivationen mellan eleverna i de olika årskurserna. Eleverna i årskurs 1 har en mer positiv attityd och en högre motivation än eleverna i årskurs 3. Resultatet redogör även för ett positivt samband mellan en positiv attityd och en hög motivation. Slutsatser som kan dras av studiens resultat är att elevernas attityd och motivation är högre i början av lågstadiet. Det kan därmed antas vara av vikt att upprätthålla en undervisning som uppmuntrar och engagerar elever i sin läsläxan genom hela lågstadiet. 

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka personalledande chefers upplevelse och uppfattning av det årliga medarbetarsamtalet. Genom att utforska chefers egna känslor inför denna sociala praktik är syftet att bidra med nyans till området om chefers iscensättning av dessa samtal. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ, induktiv och hermeneutisk ansats. 

Resultatet visar att chefer lägger ansträngning på att iscensätta samtalet, i huvudsak så att det framstår som demokratiskt. Under ytan styr dock cheferna samtalet genom olika mekanismer. Samtidigt styrs de själva av strukturer. För att själva känna en meningsfullhet kring samtalen väljer de antingen att skapa en egen norm eller genom rollintegration där de sammanväver sin praktik med organisationens normer och strukturer. 

Vare sig cheferna är medvetna om sin maktposition på samtalet eller inte, använder de sig av nedtoning av makt för att legitimera den. 

Aerial vehicles operating in GNSS-denied environments must rely on alternative navigation methods. Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) can propagate the vehicle state without external signals, but the estimate drifts over time due to the accumulation of errors. 

Position measurements from a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), such as GPS, are typically used to correct this drift. In GNSS-denied environments, however, GNSS may be unavailable or unreliable. Terrain-Aided Navigation (TAN) is a positioning method that does not rely on GNSS. Instead, TAN compares terrain measurements with an elevation map to estimate the vehicle position and correct INS drift. However, the performance of TAN depends strongly on the terrain along the flown path. This creates a coupling between motion planning and navigation performance: a short path through weakly informative terrain may be difficult to execute robustly, while a longer path through more informative terrain may improve localization.

This thesis investigates uncertainty-constrained motion planning for a fixed-wing-inspired aerial vehicle that uses TAN for navigation. An RRT*-based motion planner is modified to account for predicted navigation uncertainty by propagating the parametric Cramér--Rao lower bound (ParCRLB) along candidate paths. The planner minimizes travel time while enforcing deterministic constraints based on the propagated ParCRLB, including a path-wise trace constraint and a ParCRLB-based no-flight-zone safety margin. A multi-track propagation method is also introduced to make the uncertainty evaluation less dependent on a single nominal path.

The planner is evaluated in closed-loop Monte Carlo simulation. The results show that constraining the ParCRLB can improve mission success, path-following performance, and estimation performance, but at the cost of longer planned paths. In the trace-threshold study, low maximum allowed ParCRLB trace values generally lead to higher mission success rates and lower estimation errors, while high trace thresholds allow shorter but less robust paths. The planner-mode comparison shows that enforcing low predicted uncertainty along the entire path gives the most robust behavior, while using only a ParCRLB-based safety margin around no-flight zones can be sufficient in less safety-critical scenarios. Overall, the results indicate that the ParCRLB is useful as a planning-stage proxy for navigation robustness, although it should not be interpreted as an exact prediction of the closed-loop estimation error.

This thesis investigates how electromagnetic waves interact with radar absorbing material (RAM) panels, with a focus on how controlled geometric modifications (defects) influence microwave reflectivity since real-world panels are rarely perfectly flat. The study examines the relationship between material geometry and electromagnetic response at radar frequencies using three-dimensional (3D) printed electrical conductive samples with systematically introduced geometrical defects. 

Measurements were performed using the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) arch method, which enables near field, non-contact evaluation of reflection characteristics over a broad frequency range. The samples were fabricated using 3D printing, which allowed for the control of geometric parameters such as size and patterns. Reflection data were collected for four different sample series and analyzed using both frequency data and statistical estimations. The measured results show that variations in surface geometry affect the resonant frequency and reflection magnitude compared to a planar reference sample. In several cases, increased geometric complexity leads to shifts to lower frequencies in resonant behavior and changes in absorption performance. 

To quantify these effects, polynomial regression analysis of resonance shifts and confidence intervals was applied based on Student’s t-distribution. The results show that different sample series behave with different levels of consistency. Sample series 1 and 2, which have step size in concave and convex geometries as the parameter that varies, follow trends that match the fitted model well and agree with the uncertainty ranges. Sample series 3 and 4, which have a checkerboard pattern that varies, show more variation in the data and do not follow a clear relationship between geometry and response.

Bakgrund och syfte: Dyslexi är en neurologisk funktionsnedsättning som påverkar individens läs- och skrivförmåga. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur personer med dyslexi upplever sin arbetssituation, sin delaktighet i arbetslivet och hur de hanterar olika utmaningar. Studien utgår från ett biopsykosocialt perspektiv, där både individens förutsättningar och omgivningens betydelse för delaktighet i arbetslivet beaktas. Metod: Studien genomfördes med en kvalitativ ansats där åtta vuxna personer med dyslexi intervjuades genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna gav möjlighet att ta del av deltagarnas egna erfarenheter och upplevelser av arbetslivets krav, möjligheter och anpassningar. Resultat: Dyslexi påverkar arbetslivet genom utmaningar med läsning, skrivning och administration, vilket ofta leder till ökad ansträngning och stress. Samtidigt använder deltagarna olika strategier, som planering och tekniska hjälpmedel, för att hantera dessa utmaningar. Arbetsplatsens stöd och förståelse har stor betydelse för delaktighet, medan brist på stöd kan leda till att svårigheter döljs och påverkar arbetsglädje och självkänsla negativt. Slutsatser: Delaktighet i arbetslivet för personer med dyslexi formas i samspelet mellan individ och arbetsmiljö. För att skapa bättre förutsättningar för delaktighet behövs ökad kunskap om dyslexi, större förståelse i arbetslivet och ett mer aktivt arbete med individuella anpassningar och tillgänglighet.  

Background and purpose: This study examines how individuals’ self identification as persons with disabilities is shaped in relation to administrative processes in Sweden and France. The aim is to analyze how differences in national administrative systems influence individuals’ relationship to identity as a person with a disability.

Method: The study applies a qualitative design based on semi structured interviews with eight participants, four in Sweden and four in France. The material was analyzed using framework analysis and interpreted through theories of identity, stigma, and the social model of disability.

Results: All French participants identified as persons with disabilities, often in connection with administrative processes related to RQTH status. In Sweden, mainly participants with experience of support measures and assistive services identified as persons with disabilities. Working life emerged as a central context in both countries.

Conclusions: Administrative processes may function as mechanisms of identity formation, while self identification is komplex and also is influenced by social context, working life, and type of disability.

Point defects in crystals have been shown to be useful as building blocks for quantum technology. In the search for new defects with properties better suited for specific applications, a detailed understanding of their many-body state structure is needed. Accurately modeling the states cannot be done using standard density functional theory (DFT) methods, and true many-body methods are computationally expensive. We develop a general computational tool for constructing many-body defect states, and for estimating their energies from constrained occupation DFT calculations. The tool is used to construct configuration state functions (CSF) for active spaces of orbitals in any of the 32 point groups. The CSF were constructed for several defects, and the results agree with states reported in the literature. The many-body energies are estimated by first expressing single-determinant energies as linear combinations of the unknown CSF energies and then solving the resulting system of equations. We applied this method to estimate the many-body energies for the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center and the sodium substitution in diamond. For the NV center, the ordering of CSF energies was found to be sensitive to the specific DFT settings. The many-body states of the sodium substitution in diamond have not been mapped out previously; we present them here. The developed tool simplifies complex group-theory calculations, enabling the mapping of excited states of numerous point defects, potentially offering a cheaper alternative to true many-body methods for high-throughput screening of candidates for quantum technology.

The development of liquefied biogas has grown alongside the increasing demand for renewable fuels. Liquefied biogas production uses cryogenic heat exchangers to effectively liquefy biomethane. However, previously conducted studies have revealed that trace amounts of mercury may cause liquid metal embrittlement on aluminium alloys, potentially causing material damage and catastrophic accidents. The distribution of mercury and the influence of substrate and gas upgrading technology on mercury concentration remain unknown within biogas production processes, emphasizing an important knowledge gap.This master’s thesis was conducted in collaboration with St1 Biokraft and investigates the occurrence of mercury across six biogas production facilities and aims to contribute to the understanding of mercury behaviour in biogas systems. The study examines substrate, digestate and biomethane to assess mercury input and output of the process. Mercury in biomethane was collected using mercury sorbent traps-EPA Method 30B and analysed using Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry, whilst samples of substrate and digestate were analysed with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. To enable comparable analysis, the study also evaluated different gas upgrading technologies and included facilities using pressure swing adsorption and amine scrubbers for the removal of contaminants from biomethane.The results showed that mercury was detected in biomethane at each facility, and every detected value was below the industrial limit of 10 ng/m3. Mercury was also detected in some of the substrate and digestate samples. However, no clear correlation was observed between Hg concentrations in substrates, digestates and biomethane or between gas upgrading technologies. Elevated mercury concentrations were observed on a wet weight basis in dry digestion systems and substrates with higher total solids content, suggesting Hg distribution within particulate and organic phases. However, the correlation declined when concentrations were expressed on dry weight basis. The results presented in this report are based on a screening principle that indicates that Hg distribution within biogas production processes is complex and further studies are necessary to better understand the mechanism of mercury.

One of the leading causes of injury-related deaths is severe bleedings. Bleedings of this magnitude can cause death within minutes, and therefore it is important that the bleeding is either stopped or controlled as soon as possible. In such cases the injured often bleeds out before they are aided by professionals, placing the responsibility for bleeding control on bystanders. Due to this, the concept Stop the Bleed was introduced with the aim of spreading knowledge about bleeding control measures to the public. A prototype of a pump system was developed by Linköping University students together with the Centre for teaching & research in disaster medicine and traumatology (KMC) in Linköping, in order to improve bleeding control education. This study is a mixed-method field study with the purpose of evaluating how the pump system works as a part of a bleeding control course for healthcare professionals at KMC. Observations, semi-structured interviews, and a survey were used to explore the participants' experiences of using the pump system. A thematic analysis was conducted to summarize the participants' insights and reflections of the pump system as a tool within the course. The results showed that the participants valued the increased realism and instant feedback that the pump system provided, however some technical issues were identified with the prototype’s physical properties and accompanying interface. As a result, suggestions for improvements were developed to increase the potential of the pump system in educational contexts. Further research is recommended to explore how the pump system is experienced by novices and on larger scales.

Sammanfattning: Elever med adhd och/eller autism riskerar skolsvårigheter eftersom undervisningen ofta inte anpassas efter deras behov. Övergången till årskurs 7 är särskilt kritisk, med nya lärare, lärmiljöer och akademiska krav.Syftet med denna studie är att öka kunskapen om hur elever med adhd och/eller autism upplever övergången till högstadiet. I studien har åtta kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts.Resultatet visar att eleverna upplever både förväntan och oro inför högstadiet. Förändringar i miljö och relationer väcker osäkerhet. De beskriver utmaningar i lärmiljön, skolarbetet och i det sociala samspelet vilket kan bidra till känslor av misslyckande, psykisk ohälsa och skolfrånvaro. Samtidigt framträder relationer som en avgörande faktor: föräldrar, lärare, kamrater och andra vuxna kan ge stöd, motivation och förståelse. När skolan erbjuder anpassningar och individuellt stöd upplever eleverna ökad trygghet, bättre självförtroende och en större möjlighet att tillgodogöra sig undervisningen.Studien analyserar elevernas upplevelser av övergången utifrån KASAM:s tre delar: begriplighet, hanterbarhet och meningsfullhet. Resultatet visar att övergången till högstadiet skapar otrygghet, svårigheter i lärmiljön och psykisk ohälsa vilket i sin tur försvagar känslan av sammanhang och orsakar skolfrånvaro. Relationer till lärare, kamrater och föräldrar samt individuella anpassningar är avgörande för att stärka motivation, delaktighet och skolnärvaro. Detta gör att eleverna upplever det meningsfullt att gå till skolan och uppnår en känsla av sammanhang.Studiens slutsatser visar att övergången till högstadiet innebär stora utmaningar för elever med adhd och/eller autism. Det skapar stress, ohälsa och svårigheter med både lärande och social anpassning. Individuella stödinsatser, delaktighet för både elever och föräldrar samt tillitsfulla relationer till lärare framstår som viktigt för att skapa begriplighet, hanterbarhet och meningsfullhet i skolgången. Känslan av sammanhang är en process, där eleverna utifrån sina behov och förutsättningar kommit olika långt i sin sociala, emotionella och akademiska utveckling

This study examines how teachers, special education professionals and principals in Sweden and Finland identify and meet student support needs in upper secondary education. The research is prompted by significant policy shifts, the Swedish SOU 2025: 113 inquiry and the 2025 Finnish legislative form. The aim is to examine how student needs, medical diagnoses and resources influence decision-making and how these factors align with national mandates for compensatory education.Using a qualitative, comparative approach, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed through thematic analysis. The analytical framework is based on systems theory, categorical, relational and dilemma perspectives. The findings reveal a divide in how support is applied in practice. In Finland, recent reforms have fostered a proactive, needs-based culture where co-teaching and differentiation are the primary tools for support. In contrast, the Swedish context remains tied to a medical paradigm; here, the diagnoses often serve as a “safety-net” to secure resources, despite legal ambitions for need-led interventions.Four key themes emerged from the data: early identification and continuity, the tension between pedagogical and medical paradigms, organizational and economic constraints, and the vital role of collaborative practice. The study concludes that while Finland benefits from greater legislative and structural clarity, the Swedish system is currently marked by reform-related uncertainty and a growing reliance on clinical labels. Ultimately, educators in both countries agree that strong interpersonal relationships and interprofessional teamwork are the try backbone of an equitable education.

Urban reconstruction is an increasingly permanent condition in growing cities, yet limited attention has been given to how construction phases affect everyday mobility and social sustainability. This thesis examines construction-related mobility disturbances in the ongoing redevelopment of the Inner Harbour in Norrköping, Sweden. The study aims to investigate how mobility disturbances are experienced by users during reconstruction, how these disturbances are framed in planning practice, and what implications they have for social sustainability. The study uses a survey conducted at a local climbing hall located within the reconstruction area, observations, and policy analysis of municipal planning documents to answer its objectives, analysed by applying the principles of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in combination with the “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” (WPR) framework. The findings show that users experience both physical and non-physical mobility disturbances, with the former including road closures, redirected routes, disrupted pedestrian infrastructure and reduced parking, while the latter involves unclear signage, lack of information, and uncertainties. These disturbances affect accessibility, safety and everyday mobility, and in some cases they have generated stress, frustration and worry. The analysis further reveals a discrepancy between municipal representations and lived experiences, where the problem of construction work and its subsequent mobility disturbances are framed, assumed and silenced in different ways. The study concludes that construction-related mobility disturbances are socially significant and should be treated as an integral planning condition rather than a temporary disruption, and that more socially sustainable reconstruction practices require stronger integration of concerns as experienced by users.

2030 is the goal year for several environmental goal systems. The Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Biodiversity Framework both face implementation challenges. At the national level, Sweden is expected to meet only one of its 16 national environmental objectives by 2030. Biodiversity objectives are among the ones with the worst outlook. Clearly, there is room for improvement in environmental governance across governance levels. Local-level implementation is important for the achievement of national as well as global biodiversity goals. Yet, research on local environmental objective implementation is scarce. This thesis explores the role of national environmental objectives in local-level biodiversity conservation through semi-structured interviews with municipal-level civil servants in southeastern Sweden. Additionally, the thesis delves into challenges and opportunities for local implementation of the national environmental objectives. While national-level environmental objectives are perceived as important at the local level, they do not steer the work with biodiversity conservation. The national environmental objectives can provide strength to conservation work as an overarching goal structure, but further guidance on their implementation is asked for. Land use change is a common challenge in implementing biodiversity objectives at the local level. Clarifying expectations, allocating sufficient resources and rallying around clear focus areas across governance levels could increase the implementation of the national environmental objectives. 

In medtech ecosystems, value is rarely created by a single organisation. No actor possesses the full set of resources, competencies and institutional preconditions required to develop and realise medical technology innovations, making collaboration between startups, established companies, support organisations, regions and regulatory actors essential. However, prior research on value co-creation (VCC) has largely approached the phenomenon either through actor-centred stakeholder frameworks or at a higher level of theoretical abstraction, leaving the specific dynamics of medtech ecosystems insufficiently understood. This study addresses that gap.

Drawing on multiple perspectives on value creation, the study identifies the success factors that enable value co-creation within medtech. It is conducted as a qualitative multiple-case study based on 15 semi-structured interviews across four types of medtech organisations: startups, established firms, support organisations and regions. An abductive approach combines theore­tically derived categories with empirically emerging patterns, guided by an analytical frame­work integrating value theory, stakeholder theory and a network perspective.

The findings suggest that VCC emerges as a relational phenomenon distributed across the ecosystem rather than driven by individual organisations. Five mutually reinforcing actor capabilities are identified as enablers of VCC: external orientation, strategic collaboration, dialogic capability, continuity and renewal, and institutional navigation. The significance of relationships for VCC is determined more by the functions they fulfil, such as being direct value-creating, indirectly enabling, structuring or risk-managing, than by the actor categories involved. Importantly, the same relationships that enable VCC also carry the potential for value co-destruction (VCD) when goals, time horizons or institutional conditions diverge between actors. The institutional environment emerges as both a constraint and a leverage point for value co-creation.

Three conclusions are drawn. First, success factors for VCC rest on the capability to establish, sustain and functionally activate relationships with complementary actors. Second, because these success factors are relational, responsibility for VCC shifts from the organisational to the ecosystem level. Third, the institutional environment operates simultaneously as constraint and leverage. The study recommends that medtech startups treat network-building as a strategic core activity, that other ecosystem actors take on active network-brokering roles, and that regulatory actors involve medtech startups in the design of regulation. Theoretically, the study contributes by establishing VCC as a relational phenomenon, introducing a functional pers­pective as a complement to actor-based stakeholder theory, and demonstrating that VCC and VCD may coexist within the same relationships. Practically, the study contributes by iden­tifying concrete success factors for actors operating within medtech ecosystems.

This thesis was performed for the company Actia Nordic AB and researches the viability of transmitting USB data using a 16-pin Molex Mini50 connector that is not made for that purpose. The intent is to improve product compactness by consolidating multiple data connections into a single unified connector, with enough pins to accommodate these, instead of utilizing multiple separate connectors. To evaluate the connector, a 3D simulation using a model of the connector pins is first performed to analyze three distinct implementation candidates. Based on the simulation results, a circuit board is then produced and used to make measurements to evaluate and analyze electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), with a focus on conducted and radiated emissions, and to compare the signal integrity of the implementation candidates. The results suggest that implementing USB with this connector is indeed viable, and that the best configuration may be achieved when using the edge pins on either side of the connector. The wire pairs should use adjacent pins that are as close together as possible, with a minimal gap between the differential signal pins, to minimize the electric field created. The measured data is, however, not sufficient to adequately conclude whether this is the most optimal implementation, particularly regarding emissions. Deeper analyses would be needed to validate the EMC performance and how it may be affected in the wider scope of incorporating additional parallel data connections.

Nowadays, influencer marketing is a crucial marketing strategy for companies. The purpose of the study was to examine whether Generation Z’s purchase intentions and loyalty to a brand within the beauty industry are affected by micro- and macroinfluencers. The study has used a quantitative method in the form of two experimental surveys to investigate whether there is a difference in the impact of micro- and macroinfluencers on brand loyalty and purchase intentions among Generation Z in the beauty industry. The data from the surveys has been analyzed through independent t-tests and correlation tests in SPSS. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference in how micro- and macroinfluencers affect purchase intentions and brand loyalty among Generation Z. However, the study shows a statistically significant relationship between brand loyalty and purchase intentions, indicating that the consumer's relationship with a brand is more important than the number of followers. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how influencer marketing works in Sweden and among Generation Z. 

Quota-based systems are commonly used in sales organizations to motivate employees, create direction, and improve performance. These systems set clear targets for employees to work toward, but previous research also shows that performance targets can influence employee behavior in unintended ways. For example, employees may prioritize short-term sales, adjust the timing of deals, or focus on individual targets at the expense of broader organizational goals. At the same time, sales organizations differ in how authority, control, and decision-making are distributed. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to analyze how centralized and decentralized organizational structures influence the relationship between quota-based systems and employee behavior in sales organizations.

To answer the purpose, a qualitative study was conducted through four semi-structured interviews with respondents from centralized and decentralized sales organizations. The empirical material was analyzed thematically, with a focus on motivation, autonomy, control, dysfunctional behavior, and the relationship between individual and organizational goals.

The findings show that quota-based systems can create motivation, focus, and direction when targets are clear and realistic. However, the findings also show that quotas can create pressure, frustration, short-term prioritization, and dysfunctional behavior when targets are perceived as unrealistic or poorly aligned with organizational goals. The study further shows that organizational structure influences how employees work toward quota-based targets. In centralized structures, quota work is more closely connected to top-down control, monitoring, and evaluation. In decentralized structures, employees experience greater autonomy and flexibility, which allows them to adapt their work to customer needs and market conditions.

Neutron reflectometry is used to probe thin films and buried interfaces, but the interpretation of reflectometry data is often limited by non-uniqueness, finite measurement range, noise, and weak contrast between the sample of interest and the surrounding layers. These difficulties are especially relevant for soft-matter and other low-SLD systems, where different sample configurations can produce similar reflectivity curves. Magnetic reference layers offer one way to improve such experiments by introducing spin-dependent contrast in polarized neutron reflectometry. The choice of reference material, reference-layer thickness, and capping layer is therefore an experimental design problem.

This thesis investigates magnetic reference layer design for polarized neutron reflectometry using both signal-based and Bayesian design criteria. A specular reflectometry solver is implemented using a layered scattering-length-density model, Parratt recursion, and roughness corrections. The solver is embedded in a computational pipeline in which candidate designs are generated, simulated, scored, and optimized. Signal-based figures of merit, especially the total sensitivity figure, are compared with Bayesian objectives based on mutual information and posterior uncertainty reduction under a finite prior over possible samples of interest.

The results show that magnetic reference layer optimization depends on the chosen notion of informativeness. Signal sensitivity, posterior contraction, and polarization-specific information gain are related but not equivalent design criteria. The thesis therefore provides a simulation and optimization pipeline for MRL design and interprets MRL performance through the associated Bayesian inverse problem.

This master’s thesis investigates pressure amplification in dual underwater explosions and its relation to dual-sided initiation of explosives. By utilizing exploding foil initiators, highly precise and simultaneous detonation can be achieved, enabling controlled investigations of colliding shock waves. The study combines analytical formulations, experimental investigations, and two separate numerical simulations based on 2D axisymmetric S-ALE models implemented in LS-DYNA. The fluid model is analyzed through these approaches, including an underwater experiment in which two explosive charges were detonated at a separation distance of 1.5 m to validate the numerical simulations. The verification results show good agreement between the numerical simulations and the semi-analytical calculations, while the experimental data demonstrate reasonable agreement with the numerical and analytical predictions for several measured quantities. For the dual-sided initiation of explosives, a numerical model was developed and verifiedusing the Chapman–Jouguet pressure as a reference. The verification revealed an underprediction of the detonation wave pressure, which was found to depend on both mesh resolution and timestep size. In both the fluid and explosive models, shock and detonation waves were collided to investigate their interaction behavior. The angle of incidence, post-collision wave dynamics, and pressure decay over time were analyzed for both types of waves. Additionally, the fluid model included an investigation of the relationship between incident pressure and amplification. The results indicate that pressure amplification differs significantly between colliding shock waves in a fluid and detonation waves in an explosive. In particular, detonation wave interactions are more sensitive to the angle of incidence and do not achieve the same amplification ratios as shock waves in an unbounded domain, contributing to an improved understanding of wave interaction phenomena in explosive environments.

Reading graphs is a skill taught as early as elementary school, but what happens when sight is not enough to navigate the world? In an increasingly complex society, technology can be more helpful than ever -- if used correctly. Sonification has the potential to aid those with visual impairments, but also the general public. However, the public currently lacks auditory literacy, limiting the usefulness of sonification in practice. Therefore, this project explored how sonification can not only make society more accessible but also how to make the concept of sonification itself accessible to the public. To do this, an interactive installation was developed for Visualization Center C. The development followed an iterative process where system development in JavaScript and SuperCollider was combined with sound design in Logic Pro and multiple user studies. These included expert evaluations, a questionnaire focused on sound design, and an observational study 'in the wild' at the center. The resulting installation is a web-based single-page application with two navigation paths: one educational and one exploratory. The educational path provides guidance and examples, while the exploration page allows users to design their own sonification based on four parameters: tempo, pitch, sound level, and a short melody (earcon), each allowing two opposite mappings as well as the option to disable each parameter. The user studies showed that tempo/rhythm was the most intuitive parameter for determining distance. They also indicated that the installation maintained a logical structure with intuitive interactions. However, the observational study revealed that the physical setup must be further refined to be effective in a public space. It also suggested that the balance between entertainment and education should place greater emphasis on interactive engagement to effectively communicate the underlying educational message. The project demonstrates how interactive public installations can support the development of auditory literacy while simultaneously increasing awareness of accessibility challenges in public transport.

This thesis investigates how NGO peacebuilding program reports construct and represent children’s participation in post-conflict settings. In such settings, NGO and international organisation reports play a central role in documenting these contributions for donors, policymakers, and researchers.

Although children’s participation is widely promoted in policy and organisational commitments, the ways in which institutional reports describe, frame, and selectively present this participation have received limited attention. 

This study adopts a child centered approach through an interpretivist epistemological lens and a constructionist ontological position. It views reports as active institutional texts that shape meanings of childhood and participation rather than neutral records. For this reason, data was collected through qualitative document analysis of four publicly available NGO peacebuilding reports published between 2022 and 2024.

The study explores how these reports describe children’s participation through organised activities, roles, and outcomes, the extent to which children’s perspectives are presented as being listened to, taken seriously by adults, and shaping peacebuilding programs, and how institutional and Western frameworks shape what counts as legitimate participation while making other forms less visible. 

This thesis explores the use of the asymmetric unit (ASU) as an efficient representation of symmetric crystal structures and it’s computational benefits for energy landscape sampling restricted to the degrees of freedom of Wyckoff positions and energy evaluation. Two methods for this representation are presented. The first is an ASU-based sampling approach in which only the degrees of freedom corresponding to unique configurations in the ASU are explored. It is shown that the resulting reduced energy landscapes can be expanded through symmetry operations to recover the complete landscapes without loss of information while providing a notable speed up. The second method introduces an energy evaluation scheme operating directly on the ASU by utilizing the equivalence of atoms belonging to the same Wyckoff orbit, enabling the energy of the full crystal structure to be expressed as a weighted sum over only the atoms in the ASU. The scheme can be integrated with a simple Lennard-Jones or machine-learned interatomic potential, significantly reducing the computational cost. The proposed methods are validated against conventional full unit cell calculations and are shown to reproduce the same results up to floating-point precision. The results demonstrate that operating directly in the ASU provides an accurate and computationally efficient approach for working with crystal structures.

The field of quantum sensing has shown rapid advancement in recent years. These advances have focused on making quantum sensors, which previously required laboratory environments and expensive bulky equipment, more portable and cost-effective. These developments are largely due to the use of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. NV center diamond is suitable because its quantum mechanical properties can be observed over a wide range of temperatures and do not require strictly controlled conditions such as environmental shielding. These characteristics make NV centers promising candidates for sensing applications, such as defense-related technologies. Potential applications include magnetometry for navigation and radio-frequency sensing for signal interception, motivating the project conducted at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). This thesis presents and evaluates a low-cost and portable design of an NV center based magnetometer to determine the feasibility of such designs. The results demonstrate that the sensor is capable of detecting the underlying quantum phenomena in a diamond containing NV centers, yielding an optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) signal. Furthermore, the sensor responds to changes in magnetic fields. However, several design challenges remain before achieving high-accuracy sensing performance.

Polarizing neutron mirrors are important components in neutron instrumentation, where efficient control of the neutron spin state is required. Fe/Si-based multilayers are promising for this purpose because Fe provides magnetic contrast, while Si acts as a non-magnetic contrast layer. The incorporation of boron carbide can improve the structural stability of such multilayers by reducing crystallization and interdiffusion, but practical deposition routes must still provide control over composition, interface quality, magnetic behaviour, and neutron-optical performance.

This work investigates compound-target sputtering as a route for depositing Fe–B–C/Si–B–C multilayers for polarizing neutron optics. The motivation for this approach, rather than continued co-sputtering, is partly practical and industry-oriented. Compound targets are directly compatible with standard planar magnetron systems, where each source typically accommodates only one target material at a time. This makes the approach more relevant for industrial implementation, since Fe–B–C and Si–B–C layers can be deposited from single targets rather than requiring multiple synchronized sources.

Fe+B4C and Si+B4C targets were therefore used to deposit single layers and multilayers by DC magnetron sputtering. The sputtering and gas-phase transport processes were studied using SRIM and SiMTRA simulations, while the deposited films were characterized using X-ray reflectivity, X-ray diffraction, elastic recoil detection analysis, SQUID/VSM magnetometry, and polarized neutron reflectometry.

The results show that B and C are incorporated into both Fe-based and Si-based films when using compound targets. However, the measured film compositions differ from the simulated sputtered and transported fluxes, indicating that the final film composition is influenced by growth-related effects and contamination. In addition, limitations in the measurement techniques restrict how precisely the composition and depth distribution can be determined.

X-ray reflectivity shows that lower working pressure and moderate ion assistance improve multilayer quality, while high pressure and insufficient or excessive energetic assistance lead to broader effective interfaces. The magnetic measurements show that very thin Fe-based layers have reduced magnetic performance, while thicker multilayers retain a clearer ferromagnetic response. Polarized neutron reflectometry confirms that selected multilayers produce spin-dependent neutron reflectivity, with the best-performing sample showing strong spin selectivity at the multilayer Bragg peak.

Overall, the results demonstrate that compound-target sputtering is a promising route for fabricating Fe–B–C/Si–B–C multilayers for polarizing neutron optics. Compared with the earlier Fe/Si+11B4C multilayers reported by Zubayer et al., the present samples do not yet reach the same neutron-optical performance in terms of interface quality, spin selectivity, and magnetic behaviour [47, 42, 43, 46]. However, the compound-target approach addresses a different and more practical objective, namely to explore a deposition route that is more compatible with industrial planar magnetron systems, where each source typically uses one target material at a time.

The results should therefore be viewed as a first step toward a more scalable alternative to co-sputtering, rather than as a direct performance replacement. Further optimization is needed to improve composition control, reduce contamination and interface broadening, and increase neutron-optical performance, particularly through the use of isotopically enriched 11B4C.