The digital business ecosystem (DBE) is a paradigm that enables organisations and companies to develop and monitor innovative business models within collaborative business constellations. By combining digitalisation with digital collaboration, DBEs offer advantages such as cross-domain and trans-geographical collaboration, co-evolution driven by diverse interests, and adaptation through self-organising characteristics. However, to enable companies and organisations to fully benefit from DBEs, several challenges must be addressed, which include capturing, understanding, and coordinating information about individual DBE actors and their interdependencies, as well as establishing an overarching view that incorporates various perspectives on a DBE. In addition, the resilience of a DBE, in terms of its long-term viability, needs to be designed and monitored to ensure the continuity and stability of the ecosystem. Enterprise modelling has proven effective in capturing and documenting organisational designs, and can play a crucial role in overcoming these challenges by capturing and depicting abstract representations of DBEs.

The work presented in this thesis follows design science research, with the aim of establishing a modelling method for the design, analysis, and management of DBEs and their resilience. The design artefact developed here is a modelling method named DBEmap, which provides methodological support for capturing, understanding, and documenting the various perspectives on and resilience of DBEs. As a design artefact, the DBEmap modelling method targets the key actors (or “drivers”) within DBEs as users. DBEmap consists of 11 method modules that reflect critical perspectives on a DBE, along with a meta-model, a graphical language notation, and guidelines.

A systematic literature review was conducted to explicate the initial problem and explore the modelling approaches that had been previously presented in DBE-related studies. Prototyping sessions were carried out with a focus on modelling DBE resilience, alongside a survey on DBE roles using a healthcare DBE case, which also contributed to the explication of the problem. The findings highlighted the immaturity of the current state of DBE modelling and the need for a holistic modelling method.

The DBEmap modelling method was designed and developed based on data gathered from semi-structured interviews with experts and a survey analysis of DBE roles and responsibilities. These data helped to elicit the requirements for DBEmap. The design and development process involved three sub-activities: (1) developing the method modules and application guidelines using situational method engineering, (2) constructing the meta-model, and (3) creating the graphical modelling language notation.

To demonstrate and evaluate DBEmap, stakeholders from four real-world DBEs in the healthcare, higher education, and maritime domains were engaged, as well as case-independent experts from the finance and public sectors. The evaluation process followed an iterative approach using action research, semi-structured interviews, workshops, and a web-based questionnaire. The web-based questionnaire assessed experts' perceived usefulness of DBEmap in meeting the identified requirements. It included 27 statements, rated on a five-point Likert scale. The results showed similar patterns across evaluation cycles, and ex ante artificial settings were compared with ex post naturalistic ones. Qualitative feedback from semi-structured interviews indicated positive perceptions, particularly regarding the understanding of DBE concepts and constructs, visualising complexity and interconnections, and identifying gaps and balancing perspectives.

In summary, DBEmap can effectively address challenges related to integrating DBE perspectives and managing DBE resilience. This thesis also contributes to design knowledge in the field of method engineering and lays the groundwork for future research. Potential areas for further work include the integration of other Information Systems methods, extended evaluations with industrial partners over a longer timeframe, and improvements to the DBEmap tool.

Over the past two decades, archaeological excavations in Oslo harbour have uncovered a significant number of shipwrecks. Together with other wrecks along the Viken coastline, these finds form a vital body of maritime archaeological evidence that, through research, sheds light on boatbuilding techniques, transport, and cultural interaction. This thesis operates on two interconnected levels. First, it addresses a knowledge gap concerning these understudied boats and ships. Second, it engages in a broader theoretical discussion relevant to craft practices and archaeological research.

This thesis focuses primarily on lapstrake-built vessels rather than carvel-built ships. Most of the vessels examined can be classified as ‘nameless ships’ as they cannot be identified through written sources. This is a common concern in shipwreck archaeology, particularly with large vessels often commissioned by the Crown. Instead, their identities are determined through alternative methods, including investigation of their find sites, technical features, and dendrochronological dating and provenance.

Methodologically, the technical characteristics of the vessels are systematically catalogued and subjected to statistical analysis (MCA). This analysis identifies key trends and technical attributes, which in turn inform the selection of four case studies. These case studies represent the dominant technical patterns and variations in function and size. They also serve as a foundation for further theoretical exploration.

One case study, the Sjøvollen ship (1280/90 CE), addresses the unique circumstances of the medieval period, where very few vessels engaged in trade and transport in the Viken region were constructed from locally grown oak. Despite suggestions that much of this coastal traffic was conducted on ‘own keel’, the material evidence points to a different reality. However, from the late 15^th century into the early 16^th century, many vessels, particularly those deposited in Oslo, were built from oak sourced in Southern Norway or Western Sweden. The Bispevika 16 (c. 1600) exemplifies this situation and is a typical example of cargo vessels from the period. Also, it presents an unusual feature: an additional layer of carvel planking on the exterior, highlighting changes in boatbuilding practices during the early modern period. This vessel also plays a vital role in the theoretical discussion, particularly involving the tendency to treat objects as static, finished objects.

The final two case studies focus on smaller rowing boats equipped with sails: Bispevika 14 (1532–1544 CE) and Portørenga (a. 1660). These were selected due to the lack of academic attention to such vessels, filling a significant gap between research on small vessels from the Iron Age and ethnographic studies of the 19^th- and early 20^th centuries.

In conclusion, this thesis makes a dual contribution to maritime archaeology: first, through the systematic mapping and analysis of the technical attributes of previously understudied ships from the Viken region, and second, by engaging with ongoing theoretical debates concerning the nature of material culture and things

While respect for family life is central as a human right, states retain the authority to control migration and limit possibilities for family reunification. This doctoral dissertation in public law examines the tension between states’ control over migration and individuals’ rights to family life, suggesting that family migration law can be understood as a system of migration control that includes restrictions on entry and prioritisation of certain family relationships.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how migrants’ family ties are constructed within family migration law. This objective is pursued through a mapping and analysis of relevant legal frameworks and applications. The study includes both legal sources and empirical materials, specifically decisions from the Swedish Migration Agency.

Methodologically, the research employs both doctrinal legal method and thematic analysis combined with a social constructionist approach. A fundamental premise is that law plays a significant role in society and that legal regulations and applications are not neutral but represent a form of power. An important aspect of this approach is the examination of legal discretion. Given that the Swedish Aliens Act is characterised as framework law, expressed through vague language and concepts, legal practitioners must make their own choices and considerations in legal judgments. Analysing the scope of this discretion and how norms, assumptions, and expectations regarding valid family structures are managed is a crucial part of the analysis. These norms, assumptions, and expectations, expressed in both legal regulations and practice, are described as different ‘logics’ through which family ties are constructed, specifically social and biological logics, as well as time-based logics. 

The overall conclusion is that the demarcation and meaning assigned to family ties occur through specific power processes. The thesis demonstrates that power is expressed through the predominance of legal practitioners’ own logic in interpreting the family concept. Among the effects of this power is the restriction of various forms of family ties, influenced by social, biological, and temporal logics. The thesis highlights that temporality is a particularly prominent means of governing family migration. In terms of temporal logics, family ties are often constructed as ‘broken’, controlling how past events may limit opportunities for family reunification both now and in the future. Temporal logics also relate to how family ties are constructed based on chronological age. Furthermore, power is identified as a manifestation of biopolitical disciplinary power, showing that families granted residence permits are those that can exhibit the ‘right’ form of intimacy and family characteristics. This includes the assumption that a family primarily consists of a mother, a father, and their common biological minor children. Consequently, the nuclear family is produced and reproduced in family migration law as the site where family life is expected to unfold. Overall, the thesis demonstrates how family migration law operates as an arena of power when classifying and assessing family ties.

Motion pictures are first and foremost experienced as flow and only secondarily, if the machine stops or pauses, as still pictures. Notwithstanding the directness of our cinematic experience film depends on the rigidity of its motionless units, abstracted from the flux of time, for the synthesis of the filmic process to commence anew in the cinematic experience of which the spectator takes part. Monetary circulation, in contrast, is first and foremost experienced as the movement of rigid units; coins, bills, or digital denominations transferred from one place to the next, turning into flow only at a later “financial” stage at which the monetary unit takes on the properties of a liquid, as for example in the fluctuation of stock quotes. Yet, money too is an abstraction from a world of time, only later abstracted into the appearance of an object for the purposes of economic circulation. Thus, as time-based media, both film and money rely on the endurance of a subject relation.

Film and money are abstractions from an unmeasurable reality, their quantification into units, however, is what makes their circulation in a new sphere possible. In money’s case, lived reality is hidden behind the unit of account, never to recover its intersubjective dimension. In film’s case, to the contrary, lived reality is highlighted—the fixture of representation in effect turned back into something living and social through the viewing subject. This difference in circulatory characteristics provides an important insight, since at their respective end points the filmic experience is relation internalized while the monetary experience is relation externalized. The variations of this shared function of film and money lies at the heart of this investigation. Through a layering of credit and state theories of money, apparatus theory, attention economics, semiotics, and theories of social subjection and machinic subjugation, I will etch out the transhistorical properties of the social relation inherent to money and moving images. 

This dissertation contains five chapters. Chapter 1: Apparatus Theory and The Subject of Money starts by sketching the overarching principles of Jean-Louis Baudry’s apparatus theory to show how the lineages of mathematical, perspectival, and economic representation coalesce in “the transcendental subject of cinema.” Drawing on Brian Rotman’s semiotic history of mathematics enables me to flesh out the argument for the transhistorical structure underlying the filmic dispositif and its intertwined relation with money. Chapter 2: Dr. Mabuse and The Blindness of Modernity sets out to paint the picture of the upheaval of urban modernity and a failed modern monetary economy through a close reading of the emblematic film Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Fritz Lang, 1922). Chapter 3: Secret Service and Hollywood continues with another close reading, this time of the counterfeiting-themed film noir T-Men (Anthony Mann, 1948). In Chapter 4: A Short History of Film and Copyright I trace the process, culminating in the Townsend amendment, that delineated film as a juridical object. Chapter 5: The Rise and Fall of The Hollywood Stock Exchange analyzes the discussions on the floor of Congress and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding the setting up of exchanges for futures contracts based on projected box office numbers.

This compilation thesis, “The North American Indigenous People Nuu-chah-nulth: Religious Practices and Beliefs”, examines how the traditional language, as well as the social and political systems of the Native American Nuu-chah-nulth people, function and are employed today, alongside their traditional beliefs and ritual practices. The thesis is based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, and highlights their accounts concerning the preservation and revitalization of these traditions. It explores the forms of traditional beliefs and religious practices that the informants claim to engage in and invoke, analyzing the motivations behind their practices, and how traditional religion is distributed within the community.

This thesis consists of five published articles that present different parts of the empirical material, including the informants’ views of and uses of tradition, such as ritual practices and beliefs, but also as a tool for social, political, and identity formation. It also includes a comprehensive introduction, which includes additional field data and further empirical insights, in the context of relevant scholarly research. The thesis shows that the tradition has become both fragmented and heterogeneous, with individuals engaging with and practicing it in diverse ways and with different motivations.      

In the contemporary context, we observe shamans with congregations, individuals practicing vision quests and participating in rituals, as well as secret societies that remain active. The material points to several factors contributing to the current state of Nuu-chah-nulth traditions. Since the first contact with Europeans, these traditions have undergone transformations, influenced both by external forces and internal developments. One significant factor is the nature of missionary activity, Catholic or Protestant. Nevertheless, practices such as witchcraft and sorcery continue to exist, and their potential motivations are explored in the thesis. 

The thesis demonstrates that aspects of the traditional religion of the Nuu-chah-nulth have managed to survive centuries of oppression from the Canadian majority society, and in fact almost since the first contacts with Europeans, and remain alive today, albeit transformed, as traditional religion has constituted and continues to constitute an integral part of the group’s preserved linguistic, cultural, social, and political systems. The unifying theme that connects the various parts of the thesis thus touches not only on the rituals and religious beliefs of the traditional religion, but also on the strategies used to defend a traditional way of life against the pressures of the majority society. It also explores how their desire to revitalize old traditions is expressed, as well as the varying outcomes of this endeavor across different generations, groups, and individuals.

The thesis shows that traditional religion today fulfills several functions, including serving as a tool for identity and politics, while also representing an efficacious reality for some informants. Central is a discussion of the concept of tradition, which recurs throughout the compilation. The study of religion among the Northwest Coast Native American peoples is a highly neglected field, and this study hopes to contribute new knowledge to it.

The chemical exposome is the cumulative sum of environmental chemical exposures over an individual’s lifespan, including pollution, dietary substances, and the metabolic products of gut microbiota. Specific environmental chemicals are known to influence health and disease risk, but overall knowledge has advanced too slowly due to a previous focus on a limited number of targeted chemicals and the large volumes of blood required for sensitive analyses. Measurement of the chemical exposome in blood is strategic due to the simultaneous presence of dietary substances, drugs and environmental contaminants, as well as endogenous molecules whose profiles may be impacted by such exposures. To facilitate routine chemical exposomics in health studies, trace analytical methods for small volumes of blood are needed that can quantify a wide range of multiclass target analytes, while also discovering unexpected chemicals in a complex matrix dominated by endogenous molecules. Recognizing that our environment is dynamic, and that human susceptibility to disease changes over the life course, the exposome has always been envisaged as a parameter requiring repeated measures over time. However, fundamental questions remain on the longitudinal stability of the chemical exposome, including its relative stability compared to other omic profiles routinely measured in health studies today. 

The foundation of this doctoral thesis is a chemical exposomics analytical workflow, involving: a sample preparation method for ≤ 200 µL of human blood plasma that minimizes endogenous interferences, a combined targeted/untargeted liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) acquisition, and a data processing workflow with open science tools to discover and annotate hundreds of small molecules in large datasets. Workflow applications in Swedish cohorts are also demonstrated, including the first cohort-scale application of longitudinal exposomics in blood. 

In Paper I, the selective removal of high abundance phospholipids from plasma enabled the sensitive and quantitative multiclass targeted analysis of 83 priority analytes. In untargeted acquisition, 109 and 28% more non-phospholipid molecular features in positive and negative mode, respectively, were detected with the new method compared to a control method without phospholipid removal. In Paper II, the same method was applied to a longitudinal multiomic wellness cohort, resulting in 519 confident molecular annotations, including novel exposures and correlated co-exposures (i.e. mixtures). A data resource containing the longitudinal stabilities for hundreds of environmental molecules in blood over 2 years revealed that the chemical exposome has low stability compared to other omic profiles in the same individuals, thereby urging repeated exposome measurement in future studies. In Paper III the workflow was applied to plasma from 100 healthy women in a pilot study for exposome and breast cancer, revealing associations between known and unknown chemicals and breast cancer risk factors. Overall, this thesis provides a powerful workflow for plasma chemical exposomics that can be applied at cohort-scale, and the combined products of this thesis will contribute to the design and execution of future exposome studies.

This thesis focuses on the care given by the social elite to their dead – the preparation, dressing and adornment of their bodies and the furnishing of their coffins with plants and textiles – in Sweden in the early modern period. Focusing on these material practices makes it possible to explore changing notions of death and dead bodies from the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century. The social groups under study are the royal family, the nobility and the upper middle class. The main empirical sources are textual and photographic documentation of excavated graves, royal accounts and official documents, and coffin inscriptions and written descriptions of individuals' deathbeds that provide insight into ideas expressed about death and dying.

Previous research has ascribed the Reformation a major impact on changing burial customs in the early modern period. Archaeologists have suggested that since the spiritual condition of the dead could no longer be influenced by the living, greater emotional care was taken in preparing the body. Historians and art historians have considered the impact of the Reformation as a reason for the bereaved social elite to focus entirely on manifestations of power and status at the wake and during the funeral as well as on grave monuments. This thesis argues that previous research made its interpretations on the wrong premises, taking the impact of written normative accounts as given. The analysis carried out here finds that Reformation did not have a direct and decisive impact on the social elite's care of the dead and was probably not behind the more widespread use of coffins and clothes for the dead in mainstream society either. Rather, material expressions of power and status in the context of preparing the dead and their interment must be interpreted within the framework of virtues: the religiously imbued rules of life that – if followed – would lead to eternal life. The importance of displaying virtues before God on the final day of Judgement seems to have been a development in both Protestant and Catholic European countries alike in the 17th century.

By comparing a variety of contemporary discourses known to the social elite with their material practices, this thesis argues that several are relevant to explaining and understanding how the dead were prepared and cared for. The most important discourses were the conceptions of God and his role in creation, the religiously imbued virtues, and the so-called emotional rules of the period: the norms for how people should express emotions in connection with someone's death, scientific and religious conceptions of the state of the dead body, the body's relationship to the soul, and the roles the body and the soul were considered to take in the conception of eternal life. Many practices around body and coffin must also be understood based on the beliefs that the smell and air from a decaying body, miasma, was considered hazardous to health. I also show that the power-legitimizing notion that the regent, by God's will, was endowed with an immortal political body explains why the regent’s body was prepared and handled differently from other bodies during most of the period. 

Finally, the thesis argues that the founding of cemeteries on the outskirts of cities by the early 19th century, would not have taken place without an ontological shift in the social elite’s understanding of death, dead bodies and the resurrection.  

The Streamlining Theory explains that the success of certain prokaryotic species in marine environments might be linked to their highly reduced genomes and minimal nutritional requirements. Still, the ecological implications of genome size variability remain understudied. In this thesis, I provide novel insights to explore how we can use genome size information to understand different ecological patterns in prokaryotes.

The first part of my thesis explores patterns of genome size variability across ecosystems. In Chapter I we investigate prokaryotic genome size across 17,834 species-clusters (ANI > 95%) retrieved from three major biomes (host-associated, terrestrial and aquatic), and 8,267 species-clusters obtained from laboratory-grown isolates. We found that host-associated and aquatic prokaryotes (averaging 3.0 Mbp and 3.1 Mbp, respectively) hold reduced genome sizes when compared to those retrieved from soils (averaging 3.7 Mbp) and laboratory-grown isolates (averaging 4.3 Mbp). Moreover, only a minority of the species-clusters had been previously grown in laboratory cultures (~3.03%). In Chapter II we observed that differences in genome size also happen between and within aquatic environments: MAGs retrieved from the water column of brackish and marine environments (averaging 2.97 Mbp and 3.10 Mbp, respectively) have smaller genome sizes than those retrieved from pelagic freshwaters (averaging 3.48 Mbp). Differences in genome size are also observed between benthic and pelagic prokaryotes in the Baltic Sea (averaging 3.47 Mbp and 2.97 Mbp, respectively). Interestingly, we found that genome size in both brackish environments correlated negatively with the metabolic potential involved in numerous functions, with the only exception of genes involved in the nitrogen cycle.

In the second part of my thesis work, we focused on freshwater prokaryotes to explore genome size variability. In Chapter III we sampled and sequenced 17 new metagenomes collected from eight different freshwater lakes in the Stockholm region, with a particular focus on lake Mälaren. In total, this project compiles a total of 2,378 MAGs (completeness >30% and contamination <10%) grouped into 514 species-clusters from 19 different phyla. This data, together with other re-binned MAGs and publicly available genomes, were compiled to study the relation between genome size, prevalence and relative abundance in Chapter IV. In this project, we included 80,561 genomes of medium-to-high quality (>50% completeness and contamination <5%) retrieved from ~590 publicly available BioProjects and research articles, and were clustered into 24,050 species-clusters. After competitive mapping against a dataset of 636 globally-distributed freshwater metagenomes, we detected the presence of 9,028 species-clusters on at least one metagenomic sample. Our results show that the estimated genome size correlates negatively with the prevalence and the average relative abundance, reflecting that prokaryotes with reduced genomes are present in a larger number of metagenomes, and at a higher relative abundance. Furthermore, we found that species-clusters with reduced genomes have a higher tendency to co-occur with other prokaryotes, probably in relation to strong metabolic dependencies. Lastly, in Chapter V we selected the genus Rhodoferax (phylum Pseudomonadota) as a case study to investigate the ecological implications of intragenus genome size variability. After subsetting the results from the previous chapter, we compiled 345 high-quality genomes (>90% completeness and contamination <5%) classified as Rhodoferax. These genomes clustered into 96 species-clusters, from which 80 were detected on at least one freshwater metagenome. We found that intragenus genome size ranged from 2.41 Mbp to 6.92 Mbp, and its variability was linked to the number and length of genomic islands, the metabolic potential, and the depth stratification of lakes.

The projects presented combine newly generated metagenomic data with the re-use of public archived data to provide new insights of the ecological implications of prokaryotic genome size variability. We used comparative (meta)genomics to analyze and compare genomes from numerous species-clusters and from various environments, with a specific focus on aquatic environments.

Organohalogen compounds (OHCs) represent a diverse group of organic substances containing fluorine, chlorine, bromine and/or iodine, many of which are well-known for their environmental persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity. Despite regulations and bans on several problematic OHCs, new compounds continue to emerge as replacements, challenging existing analytical techniques. The concept of the OHC “iceberg” is that we only measure a fraction (“the tip”) of all OHCs in a sample. This thesis aims to quantify the size of the OHC iceberg and apply state-of-the-art analytical techniques to identify the part we cannot see. To achieve this, extractable organohalogen (EOX; where X = F, Cl, or Br) mass balance methods were developed and applied, using a combination of combustion ion chromatography (CIC) and target analyses. Subsequently, high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS)-based suspect and nontarget screening approaches were applied to further characterize the unknown fractions of EOX.

The lack of standardization for extractable organofluorine (EOF) mass balance methods has raised concerns about data reproducibility. In Paper I, an interlaboratory comparison was conducted to assess the fluorine mass balance method across three laboratories, using both water and sludge samples. The EOF-CIC method demonstrated promising accuracy and robustness, over a wide range of concentrations (60 to 2500 ng/L F). Paper II presents the first multi-halogen mass balance in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) sludge, a useful approach to prioritize samples for follow-up investigation. Total halogen (TX) and EOX were determined in municipal sewage sludge as well as in standard reference materials (SRMs). Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) made up ~92% of extractable organochlorine (EOCl), while brominated flame retardants accounted for ~54% of extractable organobromine (EOBr) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) accounted for only 2% of the EOF. Additionally, unidentified EOF in non-polar CP extracts suggest the existence of organofluorine(s) with chemical properties unlike those of conventional PFAS. In Paper III the unknown fraction of EOF in WWTP sludge was further investigated, focusing on fluoropharmaceuticals and -pesticides. HRMS-based suspect screening was applied and sixteen pharmaceutical substances (including transformation products [TPs]), one pesticide and thirteen conventional PFAS were confirmed at confidence levels 1-4. Although the newly detected organofluorine compounds contained few fluorine atoms, their high concentrations resulted in significant contributions to the EOF. The known EOF fraction increased from 2% to 27% identified, of which ~22% was accounted for by fluoropharmaceuticals. In Paper IV, sludge and SRM extracts from Paper II containing unidentified EOCl and EOBr were reanalyzed using HRMS with ion mobility (IM) separation. Out of 17,982 peaks, 3,890 were prioritized using isotope patterns, collision cross section (CCS) values, and mass defect filters, resulting in the detection of 54 legacy OHCs and 30 unknown OHCs, of which 11 were tentatively identified. 

In this thesis, I investigate the complex interactions between the circulation and ice shelf melting in Greenlandic fjords, focusing particularly on ice shelves in North Greenland. The melting of ice shelves, driven by fjord circulation, is a major factor in the mass loss of ice sheets, which in turn contributes to global sea-level rise. Despite its importance, the processes that control marine ice shelf melt remain one of the largest contributors to uncertainty in climate and ice sheet models. This study aims to better understand the dynamics of these interactions by using high-resolution simulations from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) to explore the impact of oceanic forcing on marine melt and ocean circulation beneath the floating tongues of marine glaciers.

The research uses data from the 2019 Ryder Expedition, the first comprehensive survey of the region, to set up idealised model configurations for the Sherard Osborn Fjord and Ryder Glacier system. In this study, I examine how the warming of Atlantic Water, the injection of subglacial discharge, and the presence of fjord sills influence the fjord circulation and the resulting melt rates. One of the key findings is that melt rates exhibit a nonlinear response to oceanic temperature forcing for low ambient temperatures. This response becomes linear at higher temperatures. This behaviour combines results from previous studies, showing that glaciers experience a nonlinear dependence of melt on temperature forcing in colder conditions (such as at Antarctic ice shelves) and a linear dependence in warmer conditions, such as in Greenlandic fjords.

Additionally, in this study, I investigate the role of subglacial discharge, finding a sub-linear relationship between discharge volume and melt rates. The research also explores the spatial variability of melt rates under the ice shelf, driven by the ambient density stratification, which affects the ocean velocities at the ice shelf base. The presence of bathymetric features, such as fjord sills, can restrict the inflow of warm Atlantic Water and reduce overall melt rates by decreasing the temperature of water reaching the ice-ocean interface. I proceed to show the complex combined effect of variations in silldepth and variations in subglacial discharge volume.

During this work I assess different modelling approaches. I evaluate different approximations of the heat conduction into the ice in the parametrization commonly used to represent melting in ocean modelling. It further includes a comparison of results from MITgcm simulations with results from a novel finite element model. The latter offers advantages in representing complex seabed and ice shelf geometries and has the advantage of being able to locally refine the grid best represent regions of strong gradients, like the plume underneath ice shelves. The thesis also addresses the limitations of two-dimensional models. It shows that neglecting the effects of Earth’s rotation and the resulting across-fjord variability, even in narrow fjords, leads to an overestimation in shelf integrated melt by a factor of up to five. Three-dimensional models, although computationally more expensive, provide a more accurate representation of these processes, leading to more detailed representation of the melt rate underneath ice shelves.

The findings shown in this study have important implications for the modelling of ice shelves and the overall mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its contribution to global sea-level rise. By improving the understanding of the key processes driving marine melt in Greenlandic fjords, this research enhances the ability of climate models to include the effects of melting ice sheets. The insights gained from this work also provide a framework for further studies on ice-ocean interactions, particularly in the rapidly changing polar environments of fjords in Greenland.

This dissertation explores how the far-right social movement in Nordic countries mobilizes emotion in place and to what ends. Focusing on Sweden and Denmark, I argue that these affective landscapes of the far right movement are mobilized strategically to delineate ethnoracial insiders and outsiders, racialize spaces, and sustain activist participation. Through ethnographic observations, interviews, and visual analysis, I provide a unique analysis of the localized practices of racial nativist ideologies. The affective landscape studied in this dissertation spans "the body"—framed as under threat from others, “badlands”—racialized urban areas linked to crime and immigration, "homelands"—the nostalgic, rural spaces purportedly untouched by multiculturalism, and “safe spaces"—where activists foster expressions of white national identity they believe to be denigrated. 

Through four articles I offer a novel understanding of how far-right movements mobilize politicized places. Article I shows how Danish far right activists embody nativism through confrontational protests in diverse neighborhoods, using footage of counterprotestors to portray racialized others as threats to national purity. Article II highlights how Swedish activists frame multicultural urban areas as signs of state failure, employing fears of the “badlands” of the nation to justify interventions into these neighborhoods and demonstrate the decline of the Swedish homeland. Article III begins to look more closely within the movement, theorizing how far-right activists negotiate the stigma of their position and the shame which typically follows from that stigma. I find that the far right activists repurpose narratives of stigmatization within movement “safe spaces”, fostering an alternative normative order through the affective practices of truth, love, and humor. Article 4 studies how rural “homelands” become imagined as sanctuaries for white national identities, based on observations of an attempted white separatist community.

Given the embeddedness of racializing nativism in liberal democracies today, this dissertation makes critical contributions to understanding how our emotional relationships to places become strategically mobilized to exclude. Ultimately, this dissertation offers insights into how emotion in place becomes framed by and sustains far-right mobilizations. This research demonstrates that far right movements in Nordic countries emotionally signify specific places, leveraging these affective landscapes to legitimize exclusionary agendas. 

Market power, and conduct that increases it, are of central concern in competition law, which aims at preventing consumer harm from firms abusing dominant positions. Market definition plays a crucial role in assessing market power, typically by identifying interchangeable goods and analyzing cross-price elasticity or consumer substitutability through small price changes.

Market definition is less useful in digital markets because of their unique characteristics. New technologies have transformed society, introducing business models driven by high innovativeness, platforms, utilization of data, and specific pricing strategies, such as providing zero-price services. These features confound market definition. Payments are not always made with monetary means in the digital economy. Platform mechanics can create markets that otherwise would not be sustainable, and platforms usually lead to tipping. Data can be a powerful, even insurmountable, leveraging tool for firms, by reinforcing platform effects. Furthermore, the build-on nature of goods and services can create lock-in effects through ecosystems.

The solution is to reconceptualize market definition in digital markets by ensuring that economic rigor is observed. This includes shifting the focus from price to quality parameters for assessing substitutability and placing greater emphasis on competitive constraints currently categorized as potential competition. Users' attention should also be utilized to scope interchangeability. Additionally, aftermarket-inspired tests should be applied to system markets, such as digital ecosystems, to better capture their dynamics. Based on investigations of how relevant markets for products and services in the digital economy should be defined, this dissertation presents two tests.

The Platform Test is a three-pronged approach used to define markets, determining which platforms compete against which other services. First, (1) it eliminates services that do not gather data. Second, (2) it uses an attention-based pre-test to scope usage shares of the relevant platform compared with other services, taking potential competitors into account. Lastly, (3) it applies a Small But Significant Non-Transitory Decrease in Quality test.

The Market Relations Test is used to define markets in cases where the products or services being investigated are part of an ecosystem. It determines whether products belong on the same market by looking at the extent to which a user is locked into an ecosystem. If the user is considered to be locked in, the market is defined more narrowly. If the user is not considered to be locked in, the ecosystem products or services compete in a wider relevant market. This is determined by asking four questions: whether (1) users can make an informed choice of lifecycle pricing when purchasing a product (at the primary market level), (2) users are likely to make an informed choice, (3) enough users in an apparent policy of exploitation would adapt their purchasing behavior (at the secondary market level), and (4) this adaptation would take place in a reasonable time frame. If the answer is “yes” to all, other products at the primary market level should be considered competitors. If the answer is “no” to any question, the market should be defined as the primary market product, as other products do not exert any competitive pressure.

Sleep-tracking technology is built into many available smart technologies and wearables; hence, designing for and with these data requires a broad understanding of the user and their relation to sleep. However, these technologies still focus on traditional 7–9 hours-per-night schedules – overlooking the varied nature of people's sleep – and focus on metrics that are difficult to influence, such as sleep stages, making them unactionable for a large portion of the users. This dissertation investigates what sleep tracking can do for users who put effort into managing sleep by studying what actions and challenges they already employ. Using qualitative methods and design approaches, I study how people `hack' their sleep,  the difficulties that arise from non-traditional sleep patterns, and how sleep technology is used in everyday life. The findings and contributions of this work include (1) rich descriptions of these participants, in terms of how they share and discuss sleep hacks in online communities, and insights and reflections on the social factors of sleeping outside normal hours; (2) design explorations of how sleep tracking technology could be built to support these practices; and (3) framing self-tracking technology as the design of the self – to design technology that centres on the actions and varying goals and bodies of the users. In the discussion, I discuss how this work relates the notions of bodies and users in human-computer interaction, how changes in modern work arrangements call for new technology to support the arrangement of sleep and life rhythms, and reflections on the norms and soft paternalism of sleep tracking technologies.

China has become a key player in peacebuilding, both supporting and sometimes obstructing international cooperation. It appears to adhere to certain established norms in global peace governance while simultaneously resisting and contesting others. For example, while China has supported the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, it has also backed actions and resolutions that challenge this. This leads to the research problem: How can we make sense of China’s seemingly contradictory behavior in global peace governance?

This compilation thesis argues that existing International Relations (IR) literature struggles to capture China’s complex and contradictory engagement in global peace governance. First, much of the literature relies on dichotomies to understand this behavior. It tries to categorize China’s behavior as driven by either material interests or by norms. It views China as a non-Western, non-liberal, and non-traditional actor that is the opposite of Western, liberal, and traditional actors. It also seeks to categorize China as either a status-quo actor or a challenger to the liberal international order.

Second, this literature on China’s engagement in peace governance predominantly draws on conventional IR approaches. This means it offers insufficient analysis of power asymmetries. The IR discipline’s established scholarly convention of adhering to paradigm-bound theories with rigid epistemic commitments also contributes to this limitation.

This thesis addresses these limitations by asking how we can challenge dichotomous and conventional IR perspectives to advance our understanding of China’s engagement. I argue that two moves can advance our understanding. The first is to employ analytic eclecticism which goes beyond fixed analytical boundaries. The second is to adopt different analytical lenses that allow for analysis of various power asymmetries. These moves are key to the methodological approach I adopt. Guided by analytic eclecticism, the thesis exercises methodological pluralism. The four articles employ different analytical lenses including a critical conceptualization of peace, insights from feminist IR, and ideas about norm contestation.

The thesis demonstrates the complex dynamics at work in China’s peace engagement and behavior in global peace governance. It develops three main arguments. First, it argues that China’s contradictory behavior can be explained as part of its broader contestation strategy, which it carries out primarily in the form of economic instrumentalism. Second, it argues that variations in China’s practices of norm contestation and compliance are linked to the institutional environment in which it is participating. Third, it argues that the dominant view, which portrays China’s approach and behavior as distinctively oppositional and problematic, can be misleading.

This thesis contributes to two main IR literatures: the literature about China’s engagement with peacebuilding and that about China’s norm contestation in global (peace) governance. It makes theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to these literatures. Its primary contribution is in challenging the dichotomous understandings adopted by existing research on China in global governance. It demonstrates how we can use analytic eclecticism and the integration of power dynamics to go beyond these dichotomies and provide greater understanding. The thesis offers a deeper understanding of China’s behavior in global peace governance.

The subject of this dissertation is the practice, progress and conditions of the artistry Eva Klasson during the 1970s. The aim is to deepen and simultaneously broaden the understanding of the artistry by analysing Klasson's context and network, artistic method, and a large number of works she created during the 1970s. Prior scholarly inquires have focused on a photographic historical perspective resulting in interpretations that primarily place Eva Klasson in contexts where a photographic craftsmanship is predominant. By studying archival materials and paying special attention to artistic processes as well as corporeal themes within the artworks, this study demonstrates connections and affiliations with the French body art movement, art corporel.

Three overarching questions focusing on the development of the artist, performative processes, and the relationship with contemporary artistic practices underpin the study. The first question addresses the development of the artist. It examines actors, places, processes, and networks that have influenced the shaping and direction of Eva Klasson's artistry. The second question investigates the relationship between verbal statements and practical methods in relation to Eva Klasson's performative and process-oriented artistic practice. The third question focuses on Eva Klasson's affinity with artists who also worked with the body as subject and material.

The theoretical framework is built upon the concepts of performativity and becoming. Together, they form a theoretical framework that helps trace the processual nature of the artist, both in terms of the practice and the works created during the 1970s. The concepts operate on different levels and in various ways within the chapters. They illuminate the developments of the artistry in relation to a contemporary artist identity, while also allowing for a theorization and contextualization of Klasson’s works and methods as performative. The study introduces the term becoming camera as a lens through which to analyse Klasson’s conceptualization of the camera as an extension of her body combined with an integration of creative and technical aspects of the artistic method. Additionally, these concepts also enable analyses of the artworks in relation to performative photography, performance photography, and works that create performance.

The dissertation, grounded in a material-centred approach, incorporates an extensive array of visual content, juxtaposing artworks with archival sources. Central to the analysis is Le troisième angle, a photographic series comprising 42 works (1975–1976) and an accompanying artist’s book featuring reproductions from the series (1976). These serve as a pivotal node, from which diverse materials and thematic inquiries radiate.

Meat holds powerful positions in Western food cultures, which have been propelled to diverse geographies across the globe throughout contemporary human history. Agro-industrialisation of food systems has led to mass production of animals for mass consumption of meat, with deeply unequal access. Meat production and eating is expected to increase globally; however, keeping, feeding, watering, medicating, transporting and slaughtering billions of animals for meat already occurs at scales which significantly contribute to human activities rapidly unravelling the tapestries of life. How to change, or transform meat and food systems towards sustainability therefore attract attention within research, in civil society, in politics and public debates. The aim of this thesis is to analyse whether ideas of ‘less but better’ seem to be working to alter the status quo of Western meat through studying forms of ‘less but better’ as theories of change. To do this, the thesis and five papers analyses two modes of ‘less but better’ meat present within practice and research today: as consumer-oriented where people are to shop, cook, eat or farm ‘less but better’ meat (Papers 1-3), and as projections of ‘less and better’ meat futures within resource or sustainability boundaries (Paper 4). Paper 1 provides empirical evidence of scientific interpretations and uses of ‘less but better’, conceptual interactions between ‘less’ and ‘better’, and prevalent meanings of more sustainable, ‘better’ meat as organic, free-range, local, and small-scale. Paper 2 and 3 provide empirical evidence of the sustainability implications of change towards ‘less but better’ meat in farming and eating in Sweden and Finland. Paper 4 explores ‘less and better’ through future meat scenarios thinking with biodiversity-based sustainability limits to ruminant animals. The thesis investigates mechanisms and functions of the two modes of ‘less but better’, as well as their embedded notions of change and understandings of food systems sustainability. Lastly, Paper 5 provides an alternative way of approaching change of meat for food systems sustainability, and discusses how unmaking meat could be a way to recentre the notion of strong coupling between ‘less’ and ‘better’ for transformative change. This thesis contributes to sustainability science and practice by studying ‘less but better’ as theories of change, and by bringing together diverse bodies of knowledges on sustainability problems and solutions to meat. Finally, the thesis captures and makes sense of diverse onto-epistemological underpinnings, while navigating an early career researcher journey into complex and strongly political realms of enquiry.

The aim of this dissertation is to advance knowledge about how different forms of drama in upper secondary chemistry education can support students’ learning in chemistry, spanning from disciplinary to humanistic perspectives, and how the drama may be designed to achieve that purpose. Teaching and learning are understood as complex processes of social interaction drawing on sociocultural and social-semiotic perspectives. The dissertation is based on two design-based research projects in upper secondary chemistry education. Project 1 focuses on disciplinary learning, and was conducted in three cycles in two different schools in collaboration with one teacher. Project 1 seeks to answer the first overarching research question: (1) In what ways can creative drama support students’ conceptual learning of electronegativity and chemical bonding in upper secondary chemistry education? Project 2 focuses on humanistic approaches, and was conducted in two cycles in two different schools in collaboration with three teachers. Project 2 seeks to answer the second overarching research question: (2) In what ways can process drama support students’ learning about wicked problems in upper secondary chemistry education? In both projects, research lessons were designed in an iterative process of collaboration with teachers and the lessons were implemented during ordinary teaching. The research lessons were video- and/or audiotaped. Findings from the dissertation are presented in four papers. Paper I shows, based on a social semiotic analysis, how creative drama may afford student meaning-making of abstract non-spontaneous chemical concepts related to chemical bonding. The creative drama supported different types of transductions and transformations which may afford student exploration of intra- and intermolecular forces, in particular when students use bodily mode in combination with other semiotic resources. Paper II reveals, based on a qualitative content analysis, that the creative drama activities enabled the students to bodily move between chemistry’s sub-micro and macro levels, and link the electronegativity and polarity of molecules to formations of molecular grid structures to represent how molecules are organised in different states of matter. Paper III shows, based on a qualitative content analysis, how a process drama dealing with the wicked problem of plastic waste/use enabled students and teachers to talk about plastic pollution and plastic use while drawing on perspectives of science as well as values and social science. Paper IV reports, based on a qualitative content analysis, how the use of imaginary transitions in time – in the form of historying and futuring in process drama – can afford nuanced understandings of wicked problems and a readiness to act for the future. Taken together, this dissertation contributes with knowledge about the bodily position as a semiotic resource, the importance of how the roles and the fictional situations are crafted for student learning, as well as how different features in the design of drama promote students’ collaborative engagement in chemistry. Based on the findings, design principles for designing creative drama and process drama in chemistry education are proposed.

The human chemical blood exposome reflects a lifetime of exposure to environmental chemicals from different sources, like water, food, air, and consumer products. Many of these compounds are persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). However, their blood concentrations and relative profiles vary between individuals. Current risk assessments, typically based on studies of single chemicals, do not reflect the actual exposure to complex mixtures and may underestimate the health impacts of environmental contaminants. It is therefore important to study the effects of real-world POP mixtures, particularly for sensitive toxicological endpoints like hormone signaling, which regulates vital processes such as growth, reproduction, and metabolism.

This thesis aims to bridge exposomics and in vitro toxicology through a novel proof-of-principle approach. Mixtures of POPs detected in the blood of different individuals were reconstructed using non-contact acoustic liquid dispensing. These mixtures were tested using optimized in vitro OECD assays, enabling medium- to high-throughput screening to assess effects on cell viability, testosterone and estradiol synthesis, and estrogen receptor activity for insights into endocrine disruptive potential.

The findings demonstrate that the reconstructed personalized mixtures from unique individuals induced various effects, including decreased cell viability and endocrine disruption, at concentrations found in human blood. Notably, these effects were not simply dependent on the total concentration or number of POPs in the mixture. Furthermore, population-based mixtures did not capture the diversity of effects observed in the reconstructed mixtures, underscoring limitations in generalized mixture testing and risk assessments. Testing personalized mixtures, divided into sub-mixtures by chemical class, revealed effects on testosterone synthesis that could explain the bioactivity of some but not all whole mixtures. The results also revealed effects from sub-mixtures not apparent in the whole mixture tests, highlighting the complexity of mixture toxicology, which warrant further studies into underlying mechanisms.

Overall, the results in thesis demonstrate the importance of personalized toxicology in assessing the effects of real-world chemical mixtures. The established approach is adaptable to a range of in vitro models and techniques for studying various endpoints and chemicals. The thesis underscores the need to consider population variability and interactive effects in chemical mixtures within toxicology studies. By supporting the implementation of specific and generic mixture allocation factors, this novel mixture testing strategy can improve risk assessments, protect sensitive subpopulations, and promote comprehensive public health measures.

The emergence of pretrained language models has profoundly reshaped natural language processing, serving as foundation models for a wide range of tasks. Over the past decade, pretrained language models have evolved significantly, leading to the development of different types of models and approaches for utilising them. This progression spans from static to contextual models and from smaller models to more powerful, generative large language models. The increasing capabilities of these models have, in turn, led to growing interest in exploring new use cases and applications across various domains, including education, where digitalisation has created opportunities for AI applications that leverage pretrained language models, particularly due to the abundance of text data in educational contexts.

This thesis explores the educational utility of pretrained language models, specifically by investigating how different paradigms of these models can be applied to address tasks in education. These paradigms include various methodologies for leveraging the knowledge embedded in pretrained language models, such as embeddings, fine-tuning, prompt-based learning, and in-context learning. For collaborative learning group formation, a clustering approach based on pretrained embeddings is proposed, enabling the creation of either homogeneous or heterogeneous groups depending on the specific learning situation. For automated essay scoring, a pretrained language model is fine-tuned using both the essay instructions and the essay text as input; the proposed method also highlights key topical sentences that contribute to the predicted essay score. For educational question generation, a method based on prompt-based learning is introduced and shown to be more data-efficient than existing methods. Finally, for educational question answering, certain limitations of the in-context learning (or prompting) paradigm, such as a tendency of large language models to hallucinate or miscalculate, are addressed. Specifically, workflows and prompting strategies based on retrieval-augmented generation and tool-augmented generation are proposed, allowing large language models to ground answers in specific learning materials and to leverage external tools, such as calculators and knowledge bases, within chain-of-thought reasoning processes. These strategies are shown to produce more reliable and transparent answers to complex questions.

Through five empirical studies, methodological innovations within each paradigm of pretrained language models are proposed and evaluated for specific educational use cases. In addition to contributing methodologically to natural language processing, the results demonstrate the potential utility of pretrained language models in educational AI applications, thereby advancing the field of technology enhanced learning. The proposed methods not only improve predictive performance on specific tasks but also aim to enhance the transparency of pretrained language models, which is essential for building reliable and trustworthy educational AI applications.

The thesis argues for a commitment to a comprehensive conceptualization of dignity in educational philosophy and practice that is meant to deepen moral reflection and ethically enrich educational relationships, particularly between children and adults in formal educational settings. To this end, the thesis reconstructs and revitalizes dignity at three levels: the ideal; the processual; and the qualitative. That is, dignity is re-theorized as a normative regulative ideal, as a process of relational becoming, and as a quality of moral awareness. By reconceptualizing different aspects of dignity, namely the intrinsic, the inflorescent and the attributed, towards more relationally attuned and dynamic conceptualizations, the thesis argues that the inherent ethical risks of objectification and instrumentalization of children due to formalized education’s fostering functions, can be, not overcome, but more gracefully lived with. The compilation thesis interprets and promotes the notion of dignity neither as yet another overarching aim of education, nor as an ideal cherished by just one philosophical persuasion or tradition. The dignity that the thesis reconstructs emerges from diverse philosophical sensibilities, mainly those of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum, Gert Biesta and Sharon Todd, in a critical dialogue that responds also to the challenges that the modern conception of dignity has encountered. This critical dialogue through diverse philosophies renders dignity something more than an intrinsically valuable ideal and process by proving that dignity is also a quality of moral awareness that has many aspects which frame the relations of adults and children. This quality of moral awareness is described as committed non-attachment, a theoretical stance, methodological approach as well as a relational attitude, that steers clear from both relativism and dogmatism by maintaining a faithfulness to an ethical vision, without rigid loyalty to a philosophical trend or tradition. From this lens, the reformulation of dignity does not come with a prioritization or exclusive attachment to one version of the term at the cost of excluding other versions, nor overlooking their synergy and tensions with one another. The non-rigidity of movement, relational attunement, and acceptance of the indeterminate nature of education that dignity as committed non-attachment requires of both philosophers and practitioners, is described through the metaphor of a dance. As the title suggests, there is an ambivalence in the movement. On the one hand, we are striving for dignity in our relationships with others, dancing with dignity as an ever present, yet also, rather elusive dance partner.  On the other hand, we are not just moving in a linear fashion towards a predefined ideal of dignity, but also striving to make the movement itself intentional and ethically meaningful to ourselves, others and the world, moving, or dancing, with dignity.

High-grade gliomas (HGGs) are a form of malignant brain cancer that includes glioblastomas (GBMs). In adults, GBM is the most common malignant primary brain cancer. Attempts to treat patients with GBMs have been conducted for over a century, but the prognosis has only marginally improved. Current standard treatment involves surgical resection of the gross tumor, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Despite the efforts, the median survival for patients diagnosed with GBMs is less than 15 months. Studies have shown that tumor recurrence has an increased probability of occurring near the edge of the resected volume. This suggests that the inability to accurately determine the full extent of the tumor-invaded regions in the brain may be the reason for the incurability of GBMs. 

In radiotherapy, microscopic infiltration of tumor cells into adjacent normal tissue beyond the boundaries of the gross tumor volume (GTV) is addressed by expanding the target to define a clinical target volume (CTV). This additional margin aims to encompass potential microscopic disease spread and has been associated with improved treatment outcomes by reducing the likelihood of local recurrence. Current recommended CTV margin  widths for GBMs range from 15 to 30 mm. Despite a generous margin, the persistent recurrence of GBMs following treatment indicates that the CTV delineations currently in use might fail to encompass the entirety of the tumor cell distribution, leaving clonogenic tumor cells untreated. To improve the CTV delineation and possibly treatment of GBMs, novel approaches in determining the tumor-infiltrated regions have been suggested in the form of mathematical modeling. 

The aim of this project is to develop a mathematical model for the infiltration of glioma cells into normal brain tissue and implement it into a framework for predicting the full extent of tumor-invaded tissue for HGGs. 

This thesis comprises Papers I–IV, complemented by an overview of the methodology, results, and discussion of the work. The work herein is presented in the following order: 1) model development; 2) model verification; 3) treatment planning accounting for the modeled tumor cell infiltration. Paper I explores the robustness and results of a mathematical model for tumor spread in terms of its input parameters. Applying the model to a large dataset enables a statistical analysis of its behavior, allowing for the identification of optimal input parameters. The results of the tumor invasion simulations were compared in terms of volumes to the conventionally delineated CTVs, which were found not to adhere to the pathways of the simulated spread. Paper II used the resulting simulated invasions from Paper I to predict the overall survival (OS) of the same cohort of cases. OS prediction was better predicted by the simulated volumes of the tumor spread than the size of the GTV. The results showed the potential of improving OS prediction and furthermore demonstrated a new methodology for indirect model verification that does not rely on histopathological data. Paper III applied clinical dose plans to simulated tumor spread and demonstrated that the distribution of surviving tumor cells correlated with tumor recurrence post-treatment at an early time point. This suggests that treatment outcomes could potentially be improved by incorporating modeled tumor spread. Lastly, Paper IV explored two methodologies for treatment planning on GBMs, which take modeled tumor spread into account.

The classification of cancer has evolved over millennia, and centuries of work has laid the groundwork for modern cancer classification, which continues to evolve with advances in our understanding of cancer biology in tandem with improvement in the technologies, tools and frameworks used to characterize them. This thesis builds on the historical legacy of cancer classification by integrating single-cell transcriptomic approaches to explore the molecular complexity and intratumoral heterogeneity (ITH) of cancer. By defining and analyzing diverse transcriptomic states, known as metaprograms, in three aggressive cancer types—glioblastoma (GB), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and diffuse midline glioma (DMG)—this work offers a more refined and precise lens through which to understand tumor progression and develop personalized therapeutic strategies. Using high-resolution single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), spatially-resolved transcriptomics (SRT), and patient-derived organoid models, we identify distinct metaprograms that shape tumor progression, resistance, and patient outcomes.

Starting with DMG, we use spatial transcriptomics to map tumor-specific phenotypes, uncovering a novel neural stem cell-like population that interacts with the tumor microenvironment. This phenotype, defined by key progenitor markers, demonstrates plasticity, likely contributing to DMG’s resistance to therapy. By studying nonmalignant cells in the DMG microenvironment, we propose that specific cell types support tumor growth and evolution, highlighting potential therapeutic interventions. We then apply scRNA-seq to GB, revealing the presence of multiple metaprograms, including those linked to stem-like properties, invasion, and immune evasion. These metaprograms provide insights into how GB cells adapt and evolve in response to their microenvironment, uncovering potential therapeutic targets for this highly resistant cancer. In TNBC, we develop a comprehensive TNBC-Map by integrating single cell-datasets from patient biopsies, identifying nine core malignant metaprograms. These metaprograms encompass biological processes such as immune modulation, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and vasculogenic mimicry. By correlating these metaprograms with patient survival, we identify distinct patterns of molecular activity that could guide the development of more personalized and effective treatments for TNBC.

Across these studies, we assess the power of metaprogram analysis to dissect cancer heterogeneity, offering a deeper understanding of the functional states driving tumor progression. This knowledge enables the identification of patient-specific molecular signatures, paving the way for precision medicine approaches. This thesis lays the groundwork for metaprogram-based cancer diagnostics and provides a foundation for the future integration of multi-omic precision medicine strategies that target specific cancer cell states, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

This thesis investigates the role of non-associative algebras in the renormalization group flow of multiscalar theories in the large N limit. Renormalization group (RG) flow describes how the parameters of a quantum field theory (QFT) vary with the energy scale, which is useful for identifying theories with special symmetries. The large N limit is an approximation in which QFT calculations simplify, and by not explicitly relying on perturbation theory it can even yield non-perturbative results. 

The leading order RG flow of multiscalar theories in four dimensions can be described with non-associative algebras, which our research shows is particularly useful in the large N limit. Based on the algebraic description and simple scaling arguments we have developed a method for identifying sets of large N models that are well behaved to at least leading loop order. The novelty of the method lies in it not relying on diagrammatic or combinatorial analysis. For several models we have identified sets of large N limits which include known limits, such as the melonic limit of tensor models, and new limits with intriguing properties, yet to be analyzed to higher loop order. The algebraic approach, if further developed, has the potential of simplifying calculations and deepening our understanding of QFT in the large N limit and in general. 

Poor tumour oxygenation, namely hypoxia, is one of the major challenges that has been recognised in radiotherapy, yet it is not being accounted for in standard treatments. Hypoxia, resulting from a heterogeneous distribution of vessels (chronic hypoxia) or a loss in vascular perfusion (acute hypoxia), affects all kinds of solid tumours to different extents. Although over-sustained angiogenesis with vascular remodelling is one of the key hallmarks of cancer, the resulting tumour vasculature is often frail and lacking an organised structure, hence incapable of maintaining the same nutrients and oxygen supply standards of healthy vascular networks.

Tumour hypoxia correlates with worse disease prognoses when compared to normoxic tumours. Indeed, hypoxic cells require an up to three times higher radiation dose than normoxic tissues to achieve the same biological effect. However, many of its biological aspects remain only partially understood.

From this perspective, in silico modelling of the tumour key radiobiological features could instead represent a new frontier, as unprecedented computational power and numerical optimisation routines permit to expand virtually the set of possible microenvironmental situations, with simulations of real treatments and concurrent intercomparison of hypothetical scenarios. The fact that the real vascular anatomy of a deep-seated tumour is not fully accessible – and hence not precisely modellable – could be compensated by a large record of heterogeneous oxygenation patterns provided by the model, with inherent best- and worst- case studies. At the same time, in silico modelling would not replace in vivo functional imaging, but would rather act in synergy with that as an additional layer of study: based on the macroscopic information that for instance positron emission tomography or magnetic resonance imaging could offer, the underlying microscopic radiobiological nature of the tumour could be simulated.

This thesis consists of four published papers and an introductory overview of the topics, which provide the background needed for their basic understanding. Beginning with an account of tumour hypoxia and its radiobiological causes and implications for the outcome of radiotherapeutic treatments, the computational modelling aspects of hypoxia are also examined.  As the core of a comprehensive project developed during the PhD work, a novel three-dimensional radiobiological model of the vasculature and oxygenation is presented, including its application to treatment scenarios.

Since one of the main aims of this model is its implementation into a treatment planning system, a proof-of-concept of such integration will be presented, having in sight more clinically oriented studies of the efficacy of various treatment scenarios in terms of underlying tumour oxygenation and treatment choices regarding beam quality, fractionation, and total dose. Examples of these studies were performed in silico, with the support of High Performance Computing centres that could allow, among other things, the increase in size of the modelled tumours, and the development of a concept emerging nowadays, that of (in silico) virtual clinical trials, potentially enhancing considerably the current status of clinical trials.

Possible applications of the tumour model extended to other medical fields are also envisioned in this thesis. Finally, an outlook on the stages reached so far is given, with the aim of showing and with the hope that good ground has been paved for the goal of a better accounting of tumour hypoxia in the future. 

This thesis explores how bioinformatics advances the study of complex diseases by providing system-level models that capture intricate gene-protein interactions. Traditional reductionist methods focusing on isolated genes or proteins fail to explain the broader dysfunctions of complex diseases. The rise of diseases like cancer, cardiovascular and neurological disorders, and autoimmune conditions underscores the need for approaches leveraging high-throughput technologies and network-based models for comprehensive understanding.

Central to this research are functional association networks, which map direct and indirect functional relationships between genes and proteins. These networks integrate genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and functional data. Functional association networks are valuable resources in biological and biomedical research, enabling e.g. discovery of interaction partners, pathway enrichment analysis, and disease module identification. This thesis presents the 5th and 6th releases of FunCoup, a comprehensive resource of functional association networks, with upgrades in data integration, network framework, and user access via a redesigned website and Cytoscape app.

FunCoup 5 expanded to 22 species and generated around 70 million interaction links from 11 evidence types. Innovations included directed regulatory links, a SARS-CoV-2 virus-host network, and tissue-specific filtering for context-sensitive research.

FunCoup 6 expanded to all 640 species in InParanoiDB, with over 100 million links for the 23 primary species, including 1 million directed transcription factor-target links. A key improvement is the shift to a bin-free Bayesian training framework, using kernel density estimation of likelihoods of interaction from ten evidence types. New tools like MaxLink and TOPAS were added for disease module and drug target identification, together with built-in KEGG pathway enrichment via ANUBIX and EASE. Rebuilt in Python with a redesigned website, FunCoup 6 offers enhanced flexibility, scalability, and user access.

The FunCoup Cytoscape app uses the RESTful API to integrate FunCoup’s resources into Cytoscape, enabling network visualization and analysis across all 640 species with powerful Cytoscape tools and plugins.

This thesis highlights applications in pathway enrichment analysis (EA) and disease module detection. Network-based EA tools simplify the analysis of differentially expressed genes by linking them to known pathways, providing a systems-level understanding of molecular changes. A new benchmark compared 14 EA methods across 82 datasets from 26 diseases, showing that network-based methods like ANUBIX outperformed traditional approaches, offering more accurate insights and guidance for method selection.

TOPAS, a new approach, uncovers complex molecular interactions using functional association networks and disease-gene association databases. Complex diseases arise from genetic and environmental factors creating clusters of dysfunction within networks. These "disease modules" reveal genetic interactions in disease phenotypes and help identify novel therapeutic targets. By clustering disease-related proteins, this work advances network medicine, showcasing the power of computational techniques in understanding complex diseases.

This thesis contributes to network biology and network medicine, advancing multi-omics data integration into functional association networks, with a focus on FunCoup and network-based applications.

The children of immigrants born in the host country—the second generation (G2)—encounter several challenges in the labor market and often lag behind the majority population (natives with two native-born parents) in many Western European countries. Overqualification, defined as possessing educational qualifications exceeding those required by one’s job, is one important yet understudied aspect of G2's socioeconomic integration. While previous research consistently reports that foreign-born immigrants (the first generation, G1) are overrepresented among the overqualified workforce, it remains unclear whether this disadvantage extends to the G2 and how it impacts their socioeconomic outcomes. This doctoral dissertation leverages Swedish register data to explore the relationship between overqualification and the socioeconomic integration of the G2 in Sweden, focusing on the accumulation of negative labor market and health consequences.

Study Ⅰ explores the patterns of overqualification among the G2 in Sweden, comparing them to both the majority population and the G1. It also investigates heterogeneity within the G2, considering their diverse ancestral origins. The findings reveal that although G2 individuals have better occupational returns to education than the G1, they still face higher probabilities of overqualification compared to the majority population. These patterns are especially pronounced among those with non-Western backgrounds and tertiary degrees.

Study Ⅱ investigates whether overqualification serves as a catalyst for career progression among the G2. By employing dynamic correlated random-effects multinomial logistic models, the study estimates the probabilities of transitioning between multiple labor market states—adequately matched employment, overqualification, and unemployment. The results indicate that for not group does overqualification act as a stepping stone toward better employment when compared to unemployment. In fact, for G2 individuals with non-Western origins, overqualification leads to higher unemployment risks, compared to the majority population, suggesting that overqualification may lead to a vicious cycle of labor market disadvantages. 

Study Ⅲ examines the impact of overqualification on earnings levels and annual earnings growth among the G2 compared to the majority population. Utilizing growth curve models, the study estimates differences in initial earnings at labor market entry and subsequent annual earnings growth by qualification mismatch status and ancestral origin. The findings reveal a counteracting relationship between overqualification and earnings. Overqualification contributes to larger earnings penalties at labor market entry between the G2 and the majority population, but it is also associated with accelerated earnings growth over time. Despite accelerated growth associated with overqualification, the initial earnings gap persists in the short term, partially challenging the predictions of career mobility theory.

Study Ⅳ investigates the association between unemployment, overqualification, and mental health among the G2 compared to the majority population. Employing Cox proportional hazards models, the study assesses the risk of first-time psychotropic medication prescriptions as an indicator of mental health problems, considering individuals’ origin and labor market status. The findings confirm that both unemployment and overqualification are associated with poorer mental health outcomes. Notably, mental health disparities between the G2 and the majority population are apparent only among the employed, suggesting that improving the labor market positions of the G2 may not necessarily reduce mental health inequalities.

Overall, this dissertation sheds light on an often-neglected dimension of the socioeconomic integration of the second-generation children of immigrants. It demonstrates that overqualification contributes to negative socioeconomic and health outcomes for G2 individuals despite their high levels of human capital. The findings underscore the need for policy measures aimed at improving employment quality, specifically by ensuring better alignment between educational qualifications and occupations, particularly for the G2.