To better understand the formation and evolution of the early universe, galaxy evolution, suppressed star formation, the luminosity function, and mass accretion, we need to understand how supermassive black holes(SMBHs) formed. Since SMBHs are known at redshift z = 7, the question already arose as to how an object as massive as 109M⊙ would need to either let black holes (BHs) form massive or to let them grow at a fast rate in that short time. Several models have been proposed to answer this question. The models are normally classified as either heavy or light seeding models depending on the size of the SMBH, however, with insufficient data, these models cannot be tested. The estimated number of SMBHs at high z sets the proposed models apart. Then the number of sources per unit volume is a means to set the models apart and test their accuracy. In this thesis, we tried to measure the comoving number density of supermassive black holes during different redshifts. We attempted to observe active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as hosts for SMBHs through variability due to the variable magnitudes of AGNs. We measured the variability to give quantitative data and test the theoretical models. The images used were the Hubbleultra-deep field survey from 2012 (UDF12) and a re-imaging campaign of the same field to test the variability, with more than 10 years apart between them, to compare magnitudes for variability and obtain the redshifts by matching the measured sources against known galaxy catalogs. Our results reveal 16 known SMBHs and 200 possible SMBHscandidates, the comoving number density at redshift z ≈ 5.5 was measured to be 1.8 × 10−4/M pc3. The results are similar to previous results that have used broad line emission, the most applicable theoretical model for this specific result would be the Pop III.1 model with an isolation distance of 200 or slightly larger. Further studies would confirm the supermassive black hole candidates and expand the survey periods to have more images.

The majority of stars form in star clusters, initially deeply embedded in their birth cloud of gas and dust and only detectable at infrared (IR) wavelengths. Eventually ionizing radiation, stellar winds, and SNe explosions from the massive stars in the cluster will disperse the birth cloud. As the gas cloud disperses, the clusters becomes increasingly detectable at optical wavelengths, establishing the timescale for their emergence. In this framework, we refer to these stellar systems as emerging young star clusters (eYSCs). They are important for understanding the early phases of star formation and galaxy evolution.

In this thesis we study the eYSCs in the star-forming barred spiral galaxy M83, using JWST Near Infrared camera observations at 0.04′′ resolution. The goals of this thesis are to investigate the physical properties and emerging timescale of the eYSCs as a functio nof stellar mass and galactic environment. The methodology can be divided into two main steps. First, we extract the potential eYSCs from emission maps, tracing the ionized and atomic gas, and we divide them into classes based on their morphology. Secondly, we derive their photometric and physical properties by performing photometry and spectralenergy distribution (SED) fitting.

We find 1971 eYSCs younger than 10 Myrs, where ∼30% are younger than 3 Myrs, and with masses between 102.5 − 105 M⊙. We then study their physical properties, such as cluster mass, age, and attenuation of the whole galaxy, and investigate how these vary in the galactic environments. M83 presents four different environments: the center, the spiral arms, the bar, and the interarms. We find massive eYSCs (∼ 104 M⊙) in the center and the least attenuated eYSCs in the interarms. Furthermore, we find trends showing that the attenuation increases with mass, while decreasing with cluster age. 

We also derive an emerging timescale of 6 Myrs for the whole galaxy, while it varies for the different environments: 7 Myrs in the spiral arms and bar and 4 Myrs in the interarms. In addition, we also investigate how the timescale varies with stellar mass but we do not find significant trends due to the low statistics at the high mass. Lastly, we perform an unsupervised clustering analysis to investigate the differences between the eYSCs classes, which provides a first insight into how machine learning can be used to study eYSCs.

Today, vast numbers of organic compounds are in commerce, many of which end up in the environment as contaminants. Chemical biodegradation affects the fate of almost all organic compounds in the environment and is a key process in eliminating contaminants from the environment. The rate of biodegradation is often the largest source of uncertainty in assessing chemical exposure. It is usually quantified in the laboratory using biodegradation simulation tests, such as the OECD 309 test. However, the environmental relevance of existing standard procedures for assessing the biodegradation of compounds in aquatic environments has been questioned. In addition, no systematic investigation of the spatiotemporal variability in biodegradation rates provided by these tests has been done for multiple and diverse compounds. If a chemical has biodegradation rate constants that vary across space and time, the variability is likely to cause uncertainties in evaluating its environmental persistence and risk. This thesis aims to quantify the spatial and temporal variability in biodegradation rate constants through a more environmentally relevant test and to establish a scientific framework for more accurate extrapolation of rate constants across space and time.

In Paper I, a modified OECD 309 test was developed to increase the environmental relevance of the biodegradation rate constant outcomes. The results demonstrated that a modified OECD 309 test at low spiking concentration can provide good reproducibility and comparable results to no spiking. The environmental relevance of the measured rate constant can be further increased by focusing on initial biodegradation kinetics. Following the modified OECD 309 protocol developed in Paper I, the biodegradation rate constant was quantified for 96 compounds during four seasons in four river segments in Paper II to study the seasonality, and it was quantified for 97 compounds in 18 European river segments in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Greece in Paper III to study the spatial variability. The rate constants of almost all compounds varied seasonally and spatially in the experimental rivers with a median standard deviation corresponding to a fold difference of two and three, respectively. Biodegradation frequently deviated from Arrhenius-type temperature dependence. The seasonal and spatial variability of the rate constants was not fully explained by the variation in pH-dependent bioavailability, bacteria cell density, tested environmental factors, and the contamination level in the river segment. In Paper IV, we explored whether we could describe the spatiotemporal variability by a proxy of total microbial biomass or a benchmark chemical. We compiled a comprehensive dataset consisting of 2265 rate constants for 97 compounds measured in 38 modified OECD 309 tests in European (Papers II and III) and Australian aquatic ecosystems. The results indicated that a single proxy, either a total biomass proxy or a universal benchmark, could not well describe the biodegradation rate constants of compounds across ecosystems. The rate constants of some compounds showed significant correlations in space and time. Grouping chemicals based on these correlations increased the accuracy of predicting biodegradation by group-specific benchmarking.

Background and Aim: Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Radiation therapy is the primary treatment when surgery is not an option. However, accurately targeting the tumour is complicated by its movement during breathing. Typically, a 4DCT is used to assess tumour motion and this information is used to define a margin for the target volume to ensure tumour coverage. However, irregular breathing can introduce artifacts in the 4DCT images and complicate an accurate assessment of tumour motion. This study aims to evaluate a computer vision algorithm for the robust tracking of tumour motion using cine-MR images and to compare its performance with more conventional image registration methods.

Materials and Methods: This study included two patients scheduled for SBRT at Karolinska University Hospital. Cine-MR images were acquired for both patients, followed by image processing and analysis using Python scripts. The computer vision method SIFT was tested and compared with two traditional image registration methods. The motion found by these methods was evaluated by analysing tumour movement in the cranio-caudal direction, and visualised using probability-of-presence maps. The methods were compared by assessing similarity metrics between a transformed reference image and the subsequent cine-MR images.

Results: The deformable registration method captured the largest tumour displacements. For Patient 1, the motion measured was 14.7 mm using feature matching, 15.4 mm using rigid registration, and 17.9 mm using deformable registration. For Patient 2, the motion was 12.1 mm, 13.7 mm, and 13.8 mm, respectively. The median similarity values, calculated using the CC metric for each method, were 0.79, 0.86, and 0.88 for Patient 1. For Patient 2, the median values were 0.85, 0.91, and 0.95, respectively. The Probability-of-Presence maps showed that deformable registration localized the tumour over a somewhat wider area compared with the other methods. However, both rigid registration and feature matching produced qualitatively similar results, with rigid registration slightly outperforming feature matching.

Conclusions: Similarity metric evaluations indicated that the deformable registration method achieved the best motion determination quality. Further, this method demonstrated better reliability in registration compared with the other two methods. However, both feature matching and rigid registration successfully estimated the global pattern of the tumour motion. The findings from this study suggest that cine-MR acquisition over several breathing cycles, combined with image registration algorithms, could serve as a tool for tumour motion determination. This approach has the potential to enhance treatment precision and improve clinical outcomes in lung cancer radiation therapy. 

Den här uppsatsen undersöker sju högstadiepojkars attityder till litteraturundervisning i svenskämnet och hur deras motivation kring läsning påverkar attityderna. Ämnet är omdebatterat och trots att det forskats en del om ämnet är det inte helt glasklart hur attityderna ser ut och varför de ser ut som de gör. Attityderna varierar stort beroende på tidigare läserfarenhet och en rad andra faktorer. Detta påverkar attityden till både skolan och litteraturundervisning. I den här uppsatsen har sju stycken djupintervjuer gjorts med sju högstadiepojkar i årskurs nio. I samma klass har dessutom alla pojkar svarat på en enkät om deras attityder till litteraturundervisningen och hur deras läsvanor ser ut. Frågeställningarna den här uppsatsen har utgått ifrån är först och främst hur attityderna ser ut, men även hur motivationen kring läsningen på fritiden är. Resultatet visar att attityderna är relativt positiva och att litteraturundervisning kan ses som både ett nödvändigt ont och ett roligt inslag i svenskämnet. Motivationen varierar mellan pojkarna, men det som blir tydligt är att motivationen finns, men att andra saker i deras liv prioriteras framför läsningen. Uppsatsen behandlar också delvis anledningar till varför det ser ut som det gör och försöker hitta lösningar som gör att högstadiepojkar läser mer

Syftet med denna fallstudie är att undersöka hur kommunikativa aktiviteter hos en andraspråkstalande lärare ser ut i arbetslivet, på så sätt synliggörs kommunikationsstrategier i interaktion med kollegor och elever. För att kunna uppnå syftet har tre deltagande observationer och fyra halvstrukturerade intervjuer vid olika tidpunkter genomförts för materialinsamling. Resultaten visar att de professionella kommunikativa aktiviteterna är mest förekommande under denna andraspråkstalande lärares arbetsdag och att de sociala kommunikativa aktiviteterna sällan uppstod. Däremot kan informanten etablera en god relation med sina kollegor och elever under dessa arbetsrelaterade aktiviteter. Resultaten visar också att informanten främst använder expansionsstrategin i interaktion med kollegorna och eleverna, dessa strategier har även använts för att hantera svåra situationer, t.ex. konflikter. Studien har bekräftat tidigare forskning som har synliggjort utmaningar som andraspråkstalare kan bemöta i arbete, såväl språket som kulturen. Förutom detta är studiens nytta och tillämpbarhet att den genom ett positivt exempel kan inspirera andra utländska lärare till att utveckla sin kommunikation. 

This paper aims to highlight the Swedish foreign administration and its governance. This part of the Swedish administrative bureaucracy traces its roots to the war-ravaged 17th century and is a remarkably flexible, albeit traditional, case within the Swedish bureaucracy. The paper encompasses the governmental, departmental and agency level in relation to governance. It explores the bureaucracy’s boundedness to the dichotomous relationship of trust and control. 

The paper is theory-consuming and conceptualises two logics of governance through a revisit of the antique concepts of techne and phronesis in relation to the Weberian and Hegelian interpretations of a modern bureaucracy. This is further accomplished through gathering a plethora of theoretical perspectives within the concepts of bureaucracy, governance-government and rationality. The material covers both formal tools of government as well as informal governance methods. More precisely, the material mainly consists of regulation-letters and the experiences of several ambassadors. The analysis is carried out through a hermeneutical method.

The results show, somewhat unsurprisingly, that the governance encompasses logics within both the Weberian and Hegelian school of thought. Rather, it suggests that this branch of the administrative bureaucracy does not differ too much from the rest in the sense of how logics are applied to governance. However, the study finds more variation in between the different sets of agencies within the foreign bureaucracy. On the one hand, some agencies are governed through technical instructions and economic incitements. The embassies, on the other hand, are governed with a large amount of trust ensued, while also being under strict consequences if deemed necessary. Within the embassies themselves, the governance is largely based on ad-hoc and professionalism, appealing to the idea of phronesis. A further development of the Swedish foreign policy is also highlighted, where the future of its modelling seems to lean more towards a logic of traditional self-interest of the state. 

This study explores the recent transformations of environmental movements in France and the consequences thereof. To this aim, it focuses on the case of the environmental group Earth Uprisings (Les Soulèvements de la Terre) and its conflict with the French government. Formed in 2021, Earth Uprisings is an alliance of environmental activists and diverse actors, including radical-left groups, progressive farmers, and local associations. The group is known for organising locally-focused protests against industrial and development projects, employing direct action tactics such as blockades, land occupations, and sabotage. These actions have led to a contentious relationship with the French government, which labelled the group's activities as ecoterrorism and sought to outlaw it—a decision later overturned in court. The study focuses on the environmental activists who joined Earth Uprisings, analysing how their view on previous campaigns influenced the decision to join the movement. Additionally, it explores how the formation of Earth Uprisings has transformed environmental activism in France and has intensified its conflict with the government. The study employs Poststructuralist Discourse Theory and the Logics of Critical Explanation method, viewing the case through the lens of political discursive practices. To address the research purposes, this study primarily relies on data from interviews with Earth Uprisings members, supplemented by a variety of other sources to strengthen the analysis. The findings contribute to understanding the evolving dynamics of environmental movements and the resurgence of political conflicts around environmentalism in Europe, highlighting trends that warrant further investigation.

Anatomy of a Cowboy explores an archetype through postmortem and undressing. Each chapter picks through the cowboy, his bones, and attributes. We are building an image for and with artists while asking: “Why the cowboy? Why now? Why us?” Our postmortem also reveals the foundational innards of the cowboy’s sordid history. Violence is inherent to this character and the brutish things it represents. Through butchering the iconic effigy, along with its trappings, we collectively envision what would happen if the lone rider was stripped bare and captured by the arts. We’ve splayed him out nicely between these pages. We’re looking for something beneath all the bells and whistles, shrewdly stealing pieces from his being. Still suckers for the cinematic, we couldn’t help but scatter appropriations of some of the cowboy’s most enduring attributes. Hints of weather-beaten leather or loops of lasso parade through the texts and design. A dust cover serves to protect from a harsh reality and only just mutes flecks of pearl and steel. The material cowboy is reflected here.

CONTRIBUTORS: Slüshie Alexander; Jonatan Habib Engqvist; Lauren Johnson; Charlie ‘Scarz’ Keegan; Greil Marcus; Rikke Villadsen; Làura Viruly; Nathalie Viruly

EDITORS: Ester d’Avossa; Clara Donadoni; Hannah Ingvoldstad; Charlotte Keegan; Nathalie Viruly; Linnea Wästfelt

EDITORIAL BOARD: Valentina Sansone

CHAIR OF PROGRAMME AND COURSE LEADER: Robin McGinley

ART DIRECTION, GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATIONS: Antonio Gargiulo

ISBN: 978-91-89107-43-4

A method for the synthesis of benzoic acids from aryl iodides using two of the most abundant and sustainable feedstocks, carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water, is disclosed. Central to this method is an effective and selective electrochemical reduction of CO₂ (eCO₂RR) to CO, which mitigates unwanted dehalogenation reactions occurring when H₂ is produced via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In a 3-compartment set-up, CO₂ was reduced to CO electrochemically by using a surface-modified silver electrode in aqueous electrolyte. The ex-situ generated CO further underwent hydroxycarbonylation of aryl iodides by MOF-supported palladium catalyst in excellent yields at room temperature. The method avoids the direct handling of hazardous CO gas and gives a wide range of benzoic acid derivatives. Both components of the tandem system can be recycled for several consecutive runs while keeping a high catalytic activity.

The striking variation in brain morphology across the animal kingdom and the link to behaviour has fascinated scientists for centuries. Several factors coexist and interact during the evolution of brain morphology. Together with the complexity of brain function and morphology, evolutionary biologists have been challenged when seeking to identify general principles of how and why brains evolve. Extensive comparative research has identified patterns and formed hypotheses on the link between brain morphology and behaviour. Artificial selection on various aspects of brain morphology can complement comparative research and test such hypotheses on the relationship between brain morphology and behaviour.

In this thesis, I used an experimental approach to investigate two aspects of rapid changes in brain morphology and how such changes are linked to behaviour. The specific aims were to (i) examine the relationship between relative brain size and cognitive abilities, and (ii) brain region size and collective behaviours. First, we tested several aspects of learning in guppies artificially selected on relative brain size. We found that brain size improves cognitive abilities, but that cognitive divergence is mostly quantitative at the intraspecific level (paper 1). We also examined the effect of brain size on cognitive ageing. We found that while more fundamental aspects of cognitive abilities were maintained throughout the ecologically relevant lifespan in guppies, behavioural flexibility declined faster in large brain size selected guppies (paper II). Second, we assessed collective motion and collective decision-making in guppy shoals artificially selected for small or large telencephalon size. We found no effect of telencephalon size on collective motion when exploring an open arena (paper III). However, collective decision-making to avoid a model predator was faster in large telencephalon size selected guppy shoals (paper IV). This result suggests rapid mosaic changes in brain region size may be an important mechanism behind social behavioural variation with strong fitness implications. Taken together, this thesis strengthens the theory that increased investment in brain tissue can improve advanced cognitive abilities. While more fundamental cognitive abilities are unaffected by changes in brain morphology. It also indicates that mosaic brain evolution can be a highly cost-efficient driver of cognitive divergence.

Carcinoma of the cervix is a global problem, and brachytherapy is one of the main radiation therapy components used in the treatment of patients with this type of cancer. With the advent of scientific and technological developments in treatment planning, inverse optimization in brachytherapy and its thorough comparison with traditional manual optimization methods is warranted. In this work, the physical parameters; minimum dose received by 98% and 90% of the target volume represented by D98 and D90, respectively, were used to evaluate the treatment plans with respect to the target while the minimum dose received by 2cm³ volume, D_2cm3, was used to investigate complications in organs at risk. The conformity index, COIN, was used to describe the coverage of the target by the prescribed dose and the fraction of each organ at risk volume that receives the critical dose, which may cause complications. The treatment plan evaluation was also performed in terms of the radiobiological parameter complication-free tumor control probability, P₊. The physical and radiobiological evaluation corresponding to two brachytherapy inverse planning algorithms have been compared with homologous manual graphical optimization plans. The main observations from this study are that well tuned class solutions of inverse optimization methods may produce similar dose volume histograms to those produced with manual graphical optimization plans, and inverse methods have the potential to spare organs at risk while delivering an acceptable dose to the target. In addition, radiobiological indexes such as the P₊ can be useful complements to the physical parameters in treatment plan evaluation. The Elekta Leksell Gamma Knife^® unit has been successfully utilized in the management of intracranial malignancies for more than half a century. As required by national and international regulation, adequate knowledge of risks posed by ionizing radiation instrumentation is necessary in order to protect the patient, workers, public, and the environment. In that perspective, the Nuclear Physics research group at the Department of Physics of Stockholm University (Stockholm, Sweden) in collaboration with Elekta Instrument AB (Stockholm, Sweden) have conducted investigation on the radiation field in the vicinity of the Gamma Knife utilizing the High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector. As part of the ongoing research, the principal objective of the present work was to improve the modeling and characterization of the radiation field around the Gamma Knife to interrogate the efficacy of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) methodology for structural shielding design and evaluation for the Leksell Gamma Knife treatment room. Acquisition of high-resolution γ-ray spectra and ambient dose equivalent H*(10) in the field of the Gamma Knife-Perfexion^TM took place at the Division of Neurosurgery, Radiumhemmet (Department of Oncology), Karolinska University Hospital (Stockholm, Sweden). A p-type coaxial HPGe detector and a satellite survey meter were utilized to acquire the γ-ray spectra and H*(10), respectively. The measured configurations were simulated on Pegasos Monte Carlo system. A phase space on a cylindrical surface enclosing the Gamma Knife with open doors and the phantom assembled was used as the source of radiation. About 4·10⁷ γ photons were collected on the phase space corresponding to 2·10¹² decays. With the Gamma Knife doors open, most of the radiation was measured in the forward direction up to θ = 45^o in relation to the z axis. The Monte Carlo simulations reproduced the measured results and; therefore, good agreement was achieved between response measurements and simulated spectra. The recent Gamma Knife models Perfexion^TM, Icon^TM, and Esprit^TM are dosimetricaly equivalent and represent more than half the total number of Gamma Knife systems installed around the globe. Given the increasing importance of these machines in the treatment of patients with intracranial malignancies, research and development of tools for radiological protection around the Gamma Knife unit is topical and will continue to evolve, especially with the advent of new models or versions of Gamma Knife units integrating novel technology such as the satellite cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging system. The Monte Carlo method is a powerful tool for simulation of radiation transport in matter. It reproduced the measured results and may be used in structural shielding design calculations for γ-photons from the Gamma Knife.

This article addresses the complex issue of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data collection in workplaces, highlighting the intricate balance between fostering inclusion and mitigating potential harm and exclusion. This tension manifests uniquely across diverse cultural, legal, and organizational settings. We review existing literature, offer practical guidance for decision-makers, and outline future research avenues. While SOGI data collection in workplaces can enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and elevate the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) employees, challenges include the risk of discrimination, privacy concerns, and linguistic complexities. To address these, researchers and practitioners must consider the purpose, language, and cultural context of data collection, involving LGBTIQ+ stakeholders, and conducting reconnaissance studies. Future research opportunities lie in understanding employee willingness to share SOGI data, motivations of human resource (HR) and DEI professionals, and the impact on organizational culture. Reimagining LGBTIQ+ research to ease the tension between inclusion and protection, we conclude that responsible SOGI data collection demands a nuanced approach that prioritizes inclusion and equity while addressing privacy concerns and potential harm.

Job insecurity is a work stressor associated with various health-related impairments. As concerns about the ubiquity of job insecurity in academia have become increasingly prominent, the potential implications of job insecurity for the health and well-being of faculty require attention. Specifically, these implications may vary between groups within academia, yet little is known about such variations, particularly with respect to different indicators of health and well-being. This study aims to identify and examine profiles of job insecurity (including quantitative and qualitative dimensions) in relation to exhaustion, depressive symptoms, well-being, and work–family conflict among faculty in Sweden. Self-reports in questionnaires were collected in 2021 from a representative sample of faculty, with a doctoral degree, working in Swedish public higher education institutions (N = 2,729 respondents; 48% women; average age: 50 years; 82% born in Sweden). Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify profiles of job insecurity, followed by statistical comparisons on demographic covariates and health-related indicators across profiles. The latent profile analysis revealed five job insecurity profiles: the moderately insecure (n = 215), the secure (n = 1777), the secure; quality-concerned (n = 406), the insecure; employment-concerned (n = 177), and the insecure (n = 154). Twelve percent of the sample was identified as vulnerable, particularly the insecure profile, where these individuals may be most at a risk for exhaustion disorder and depression. Among faculty in Sweden, quantitative and qualitative dimensions of job insecurity appear to be closely connected, with the qualitative dimension seemingly more informative for health-related indicators.

Den dystopiska framtidsromanen Kallocain är den modernistiska författaren Karin Boyes mest kändaroman. I denna roman utforskar hon hur en totalitär stat kan se ut. 2015 kom Det grönare djupetskriven av Johanna Nilsson ut, en roman som kan ses som en uppföljare till Kallocain. I den häruppsatsen genomför jag en jämförande studie baserad på litteraturteoretikern Gèrard Genettesklassificeringar av intertextualitet för att undersöka hur uppföljaren förhåller sig till Boyes roman. Jaghar gjort det genom att jämföra vissa nyckelscener i romanerna som påminner om varandra. Genomdetta har jag kommit fram till att Nilsson spegelvänder handlingen i Kallocain i sin roman och attdrogen Kallocain och dess motsats Kallocain 2 är avgörande för handlingen i båda romanern

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between threeasymmetrically associated ordinal football variables and the possibility ofpredicting football teams ranking. Three-way correspondence analysis isa useful visualisation technique to find relationships between categoricalvariables. However the classical two-way and three-way correspondenceanalysis cannot be applied if there is the presence of an ordinal structureand asymmetric relationship between variables. This is because the Pear-son chi-square contingency table does not take these issues into account.We have used Emerson’s recurrence formula to calculate the orthogonalpolynomials to account for the ordinal structure of and asymmetric rela-tionship between the categorical variables. By using the trivariate momentdecomposition we have captured the characteristics of the ordinal struc-ture in the data set. The trivariate decomposition with orthogonal polyno-mials offers a prediction model that captures the total variation (inertia)within three-way contingency table. By using the orthogonal polynomials in the trivariate moment decomposition we integrate the asymmetricrelationships and ordinal structure of the variables in the analysis. Wehave applied an asymmetric triple ordinal correspondence analysis to pre-dict ranking in the highest ranking league in English football, the PremierLeague, given two predictor variables: tags and shots on target. By usingMarcotorchino’s index we measure the predictability of the response vari-able ranking, given the two predictors. In this paper we have evaluatedthe relationship between ranking, total shots on target and number of tagsfor each team for 12 seasons of Premier League between 2006/2007 and2017/2018. The results showed that one of the predictors, shots on tar-get, was significant when predicting final ranking in Premier League. Wehope that this paper will contribute further research areas of correspon-dence analysis in the field of football analysis.2   

Conventional discrete choice models have long been utilized to analyze port choice behavior. This thesis applies a hybrid model in a port choice setting and compares it to the field-dominant multinomial logit model. The hybrid model combines the data-driven efficiency of a machine learning method with the interpretability of a simpler discrete choice model. This thesis introduces a novel method to identify and estimate key factors in port choice and evaluates its usefulness in this setting. The results indicate that the hybrid model approach fits the data better, has a higher predictive accuracy, and produces significantly different coefficient estimates for identified key variables.

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences and challenges faced by male rape victims, with a particular focus on the support provided by a support function such as Venhälsan. The study examines societal attitudes towards male victims, which are often shaped by traditional notions of masculinity that stigmatize men who express vulnerability. These societal norms can lead to feelings of shame and self blame among male rape victims, discouraging them from seeking help or reporting the crime.

   This thesis includes a sociocultural perspective, which explores how heteronormative assumptions and Nils Christie's theory of the ideal victim contribute to the marginalization of male rape victims. Interview with staff at Venhälsan shows that male victims do not always count themselves as victims. Jens Lindberg's research shows the lack of specific protocols for the treatment of male rape victims, which exacerbates these challenges.

   The results suggest that support organizations for male victims are limited. However, many men often turn to informal support networks such as friends, family and the internet because of not knowing exactly where to turn. This thesis shows the need for improved knowledge among the victims and how the resources in healthcare and social services do not know how to be able to reach out to the victims.

Denna studie handlar om inkludering av barn i fritidshemmets verksamhet. Syftet är att skapa kunskap om hur lärare i fritidshem beskriver att de arbetar med att försöka bygga en inkluderande fritidshemsmiljö. Studien tar utgångspunkt i det relationella perspektivet och i barndomssociologi. Datamaterialet består av åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med lärare i fritidshem. Genom tematisk analys skapades fyra teman; Epitetet ”elev”, Från individ till helhet, perspektivväxling, Möjliggörandet av barn och Framgångsfaktorer. I studiens resultat framgår hur betydelsefullt det är, dels med relationen till barnen, dels att kunna se och förstå barnets likväl som gruppens behov. Dock finns det strukturella förutsättningar som påverkar lärare i fritidshems arbetet för inkludering. De slutsatser som kan dras av studien är att barns erfarenheter inte uttryckligen ses till i arbetet för inkludering och att inkludering görs i praktiken, men att det kan finnas tysta kunskaper om vad som innefattas i ett inkluderande arbete.

Denna kvalitativa studie syftar till att öka kunskapen om hur förskollärare definierar skolberedskap och hur de använder dessa definitioner för att tolka och förstå läroplanen. Studien avser även att undersöka hur förskollärare uppfattar att konceptet skolberedskap kan påverka förskolans verksamhet, dess aktiviteter samt barns lärande och utveckling. Datainsamlingen genomfördes genom fem semistrukturerade intervjuer, varav tre var fokusgrupper med två personer i varje grupp, samt två individuella intervjuer.Resultaten från studien visade att förskollärare har olika uppfattningar om skolberedskaps definition. Deras uppfattningar var uppdelade på att förbereda barnen socialt eller kunskapsmässigt, med särskilt fokus på språkinlärning och matematik. Förskollärarna ansåg att skolberedskap synliggörs implicit i läroplanen genom den ökade betoningen på undervisningsuppdraget. Attityderna bland förskollärarna varierade gällande skolberedskapens påverkan på förskolans verksamhet, dess aktiviteter samt barns lärande och utveckling. Vissa hade en positiv inställning, medan andra uttryckte oro för att förskolan riskerar att omvandlas till en skola.

Background: This essay focuses on the importance of the work environment for our well-being in the workplace. According to the Swedish Environment Agency, there are different classifications of work environment: Organizational work environment, social work environment and psychosocial work environment. The psychosocial work environment is the combined organizational and social work environment. If there are shortcomings in the work environment, this can mean that the employee does not feel at ease in his workplace (AV, 2015). Previous research shows that working alone is common for drama educators. Furthermore, they meet other professions that have no in-depth understanding of drama or theatre, which can be perceived as a problem (Grip, Cedervall & Österlind, 2018), and aesthetic school subjects lack the weight that other more academic subjects have (Rasmusson, 1995).

The purpose: This study investigated how professional drama pedagogues experience their work environment while working with other professionals.

Theoretical framework: The study's theoretical framework was Herzberg et al.'s theory of job satisfaction (1993), the model of demands, control, and support (Karasek and Theorell, 1990), and KASAM (Sense of context), which has three central components: comprehension, manageability, and meaningfulness (Antonovsky, 1987).

Material and method: The study is quantitative with qualitative elements, and the respondents, via survey questions, were required to estimate their experiences according to the Likert scale (Denscombe, 2017). Inclusion criteria were that the respondents were members of the Organization for Authorized Drama Teachers (RAD) and worked in the municipal sector in Sweden with colleagues from other professions. Data has been collected via questionnaires and distributed by email from (RAD) to its members. The survey was created using Google Forms. The data was analyzed in Excel for Microsoft 365, and descriptive statistics were used to present the results.

Results: The results showed that the 33 drama pedagogues who responded to the study and work in the municipal sector in Sweden were fairly or very satisfied with their work environment based on the theories mentioned above.

Denna studie kombinerade kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod för att undersöka språklig komplexitet i ett vanligt använt läromedel i samhällskunskap för gymnasieelever. Studien syftade till att besvara vilken genre som utmärkte läromedlet samt kvantitativt och kvalitativt undersöka förekomsten av grammatiska metaforer, passivformer och abstrakta begrepp och deras bidrag till språklig komplexitet. Resultatet från frekvensanalys av genre samt frekvens-och textanalys av språkliga drag visade på ett läromedel präglat av en förklarande genre samt hög frekvens av nominaliseringar, passivformer och abstrakta begrepp. Studiens resultat visade på ett språkligt komplext läromedel och som i relation till forskning om andraspråksläsning kan indikera potentiella svårigheter för denna elevgrupp att tillgodogöra sig läromedlets språkliga innehåll.

The article examines two 17th-century manuscripts containing lectures on civil architecture copied in Rome by members of the Swedish aristocracy under the instruction of architects Vincenzo and Felice della Greca. The significance of these lectures is analyzed within the broader context of architectural culture and Sweden's nation-building ambitions during its Age of Greateness. 

The aim of this essay is to address the relationship between materiality and design in architecture, through the investigation of one of the most iconic Swedish buildings of the 20th century, Gunnar Asplund's Stockholm City Library, built between 1924 and 1928. In particular, the analysis will focus on the linoleum floor of the central hall, the so-called rotunda.

In this article, the methodological meaning of listening will be explored as an ethical-existential heeding. Grounded in an understanding of listening as a matter of heeding, I present a framework founded on Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy entitled Calling and Responding, in which human being’s relation to the world is conceptualised as a process of paying heed to a summons from the Other – followed by a responsible response to that summons – and in turn calling the Other. Such an understanding of the interactions in-between self and the Other is based on the premise that one has an auditory disposition when perceiving and dealing with the world. I elaborate the Buberian foundation of the concepts comprising the framework, clarify the method of philosophical conceptualisation, and present practical examples from the context of pedagogical relations.

The digital transformation in education has created many opportunities but also made it challenging to navigate the growing landscape of digital learning materials. The volume and diversity of learning resources create challenges for both educators and learners to identify and utilize the most relevant resources based on specific learning contexts. In light of this, there is a critical demand for systems capable of effectively connecting different learning materials to support teaching and learning activities and, for that purpose, natural language processing can be used to provide some of the essential building blocks for educational content recommendation systems. Hence, this thesis explores the use of natural language processing techniques for automatically linking and recommending relevant learning resources in the form of textbook content, exercises and curriculum goals. A key question is how to represent diverse learning materials effectively and, to that end, various language models are explored; the obtained representations are then used for measuring semantic textual similarity between learning materials. Learning materials can also be represented based on educational concepts, which is investigated in an ontology-based linking approach. To further enhance the representations and improve linking performance, different language models can be combined and augmented using external knowledge in the form of knowledge graphs and knowledge bases. Beyond approaches based on semantic textual similarity, prompting large language models is explored and a method based on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to improve linking performance is proposed. 

The thesis presents a systematic empirical evaluation of natural language processing techniques for representing and linking digital learning content, spanning different types of learning materials, use cases, and subjects. The results demonstrate the feasibility of unsupervised approaches based on semantic textual similarity of representations derived from pre-trained language models, and that contextual embeddings outperform traditional text representation methods. Furthermore, zero-shot prompting of large language models can outperform methods based on semantic textual similarity, leveraging RAG to exploit an external knowledge base in the form of a digital textbook. The potential practical applications of the proposed approaches for automatic linking of digital learning materials pave the way for the development of intelligent and adaptive learning systems, including intelligent textbooks.

Money laundering is a global problem. According to the International Monetary Fund, between 2-5 % of the global GDP is laundered. Sweden is not exempt from being targeted by money laundering. Various methods are used to launder money, with one of them being of particular interest, which is the Hawala-system. Hawala is a system of transferring money, without money actually being transferred. In short, the system is being used by criminals in Sweden to launder money. To combat money laundering, the Swedish parliament has legislated various forms of law, everything between criminal and administrative laws. Among these laws is the Act on Penalties for Money Laundering (2014:307) which contains a dedicated section on commercial money laundering (Section 7). This thesis has critically analysed section 7 of the law itself, as well in the light of Hawala. The paper uses the jurisprudential dogmatic method and has thus used source material such as legislation, preparatory works, case law and legal doctrine. 

The paper starts with examining the background to Swedish anti-money laundering legislation. Afterwards, the paper gives a deeper insight into commercial money laundering and explains each necessary condition. Due to the regulation of commercial money laundering being mainly abstract, case law is presented to concretize it. The Swedish supreme court has not made any precedent about Hawala; therefore, the writer presents three cases from the court of appeal. These cases have all in common that they address the regulation of commercial money laundering in the light of Hawala. Finally, the writer argues for a need to reform the regulation of commercial money laundering, suggesting the consideration of additional factors when assessing whether someone has engaged in commercial money laundering. This in particular for non-traditional economical transferring systems, such as Hawala. 

From the perspective of child and youth science, this study aims at exploring how councellors at child and youth centers, girls’ helplines, and help centers for sexually victimized youth comprehend youth sexual self-harm and the support they themselves offer to young people seeking aid. Data was collected through twelve semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis methods. The analysis resulted in six themes. These include informants’ views on youth trauma, guilt, shame and self-hatred, their views on sexual consent, the ways they validate and contexualize youth sexual violence and the ways in which they promote agency in the lifes of these young people. The informants’ narratives reveal how they aim to support the young to exit sexual self-harm by making experiences of sexual violence substantive and by directing responsibility for these experiences away from the young. The study illuminates youth sexual self-harm as a complex phenomena.

The issue of detaining children has received significant attention due to the escalating gang violence in Sweden. This has raised the question of when children can be detained and under what circumstances. In Swedish law children and young people are treated differently in the criminal procedure. This applies especially to detention where the negative physical and psychological consequences of detaining children have been considered when drafting the regulation. According to 23 § Young Offenders Act people under eighteen can be detained if there are exceptional reasons. What “exceptional reasons” takes aim at is not entirely clear and there has been ambiguity around the requirement, especially as the legislator has not said when such reasons exist. However, it is established that the purpose behind the provision is restrictiveness of detaining children. Case law provides some guidance as to when the requirement is met. After a study of these cases, it can be stated that exceptional reasons exist when the case regards a serious crime in combination with the risk of collusion. Despite being able to draw this conclusion, these are not aspects that the court always explicitly have presented. There are still uncertainties around the kind of circumstances that lead up to such reasons. When it comes to children, it is important that it is clear what is required, and the courts need to lay down the reasons more clearly.  This field is associated with even more unclarity as the government has put forward a proposal to lower the requirement for exceptional reasons.  

Furthermore, the Swedish detention system regarding children has been widely criticised by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The critique has taken aim at the fact that Swedish law does not use detention as a last resort. Therefore, it has been important to review how this requirement relates to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 37 b) states that detention should only be used as a measure of last resort. The requirement in 23 § is equivalent to such a measure and there is nothing that indicates that there is no accordance in this matter. The fact that detention is more utilized is due to increased serious crime by young people. However, the compliance between exceptional reasons and the convention depends on whether these proposals and measures from the government are implemented or not. Only if the requirement lowers or abolishes, there will be no measure of last resort. Another aspect that needs to be considered is that the convention is abstract and general. This makes it difficult to ascertain what exactly the requirements of the convention addresses. This becomes evident since it has been said that it is up to the convention states to determine the last resort, yet there has been critique towards Sweden for not following this requirement.

There is a requirement according to article 5.3 in the European Convention on Human Rights that the court must give sufficient reasons to justify the detention. Regarding the assessment of exceptional reasons, the European Court of Human Rights has reiterated that a very important factor to consider and base the decision on is the defendant’s age. It is not enough to solely justify detention on the seriousness of the crime and collusion. When the national courts have assessed exceptional reasons there has rarely been an elaboration as to why the circumstances of the case qualifies as exceptional, and there has neither been an explicit reasoning about the age. Thus, 23 § is not in accordance with the convention.  

This thesis, which has examined exceptional reasons for detaining children, finds that there are many ambiguities. In the spirit of children’s rights, there is a wish for clearer guidance on when such reasons exist. The aim of all three provisions is to restrain from detention of children. However, it is not always the case that the requirement of exceptional reasons corresponds with the mentioned conventions. It appears that Sweden is gradually losing its perspective on children’s rights while trying to combat gang criminality.   

Research focusing on the educational strategies for students with severe/profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (S/PIMD) is strikingly scarce. Previous research has shown that the sensitive responsiveness of interaction partners, including school staff members, and motivating learning activities may promote interactive engagement (e.g., attention and initiation) in these learners. Interactive engagement is, in turn, considered important for learning and development more generally. Music interaction/therapy and multisensory storytelling are approaches that have shown positive results in supporting interactive engagement in individuals with S/PIMD. However, no known studies have investigated the effect of combining relevant elements from these approaches in educational settings with students with S/PIMD. The overall aim of the thesis was to develop new knowledge regarding how musical interaction with and without storytelling elements could support interactive engagement in students with S/PIMD using various methods in three sub-studies. Firstly, a scoping review of published peer-reviewed research was conducted to summarise the current evidence base on musical interaction with children and youths with S/PIMD (study 1). While the studies displayed great variation in quality and design, musical interaction was generally linked with positive outcomes for the participants with S/PIMD in several developmental domains, including communication, social interaction, engagement and cognition. Six categories of promising components of musical interaction were identified, namely the responsivity of the interaction partner, singing songs, structure and predictability in activities, a trusting alliance between interaction partners, long-term interventions, and using technology-mediated and multisensory music activities. Next, a novel pedagogical approach – MultiSensory Music Drama (MSMD) – was developed and empirically evaluated in terms of its effectiveness and social validity in school settings for students with S/PIMD (studies 2 and 3). To explore the effect of MSMD on interactive engagement, a study with a single-case-experimental design involving three participants was conducted (study 2). Data from the coded video observations showed higher levels of interactive engagement during MSMD relative to a control activity. Similarly, school staff members’ ratings of interactive engagement were higher for two of the students during MSMD. In the last study, a special education teacher and her student with S/PIMD working with MSMD were followed in a qualitative, longitudinal case study. The results showed how the teacher, in her day-to-day teaching, implemented and developed MSMD lessons, with the process summarised in the following categories: the reflective practitioner; enabling student agency; and the usefulness of MSMD. Conclusions and implications from this thesis point to the importance of finding motivating pedagogical activities to support interactive engagement in students with S/PIMD. This thesis shows that MSMD could be an effective activity that enhances interactive engagement in participants with S/PIMD. The findings from the thesis collectively show how theoretically motivated and concrete learning activities, focusing on musical interaction with and without storytelling, support interactive engagement for these students. Also, it is perceived as feasible and helpful to integrate these into the everyday activities in schools.

Developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) is a branch of toxicology that examines the effects of chemicals on the developing nervous system. Traditional methods for assessing DNT mainly rely on animal testing, which raises ethical concerns, is time-consuming, and expensive. Consequently, there is a shift towards alternative methods, such as in vitro and in silico approaches, which offer faster and more efficient testing. The overall aim of this thesis was to contribute to the development and integration of alternative methods for DNT assessment, employing both in vitro and in silico techniques. In this work, the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell line was utilized as a robust, cost-effective, and easy-to-use model for DNT evaluation. Through RNA sequencing and morphological observation, it was determined that the SH-SY5Y cell line can differentiate into a more neuron-like phenotype (Paper I). Additionally, neurite outgrowth and the mRNA expression of genes important for neuronal development were studied by exposing the cells to chemicals known to induce DNT (Paper II). The thesis has also focused on acrylamide, a neurotoxic compound that may also cause DNT. In Paper I, it was found that acrylamide inhibited neuronal differentiation by suppressing neurite outgrowth at non-cytotoxic concentrations. Moreover, acrylamide altered the expression of several genes involved in the retinoic acid and CREB signaling pathways. The hypothesis that acrylamide impairs neuronal differentiation by depleting glutathione, leading to oxidative stress, was tested but not supported in the SH-SY5Y cells (Paper III). In Paper IV, we performed an in vitro to in vivo extrapolation by using a novel physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) model for pregnant women, to assess the biological relevance of the acrylamide concentrations that affected neuronal differentiation of SH-SY5Y cells. The results revealed that doses that humans may be exposed to through food intake, resulted in fetal plasma acrylamide concentrations in the low nanomolar range. At these concentrations, attenuated neuronal differentiation has been observed in the SHSY5Y cells. Additionally, effects seen at micromolar concentrations were considered concerning for fetal health in cases of accidental exposure. In conclusion, human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells can serve as a useful cell model for initial screening in DNT assessment, particularly for studying neuronal differentiation as a key neurodevelopmental process. Furthermore, this thesis suggests that acrylamide may pose a risk to the developing brain, as indicated by its effects on differentiation in SH-SY5Y cells and the extrapolation of in vitro concentrations to in vivo doses, by PBTK modeling. However, to validate these findings, further testing in more complex cell culture models is necessary.

Water is a fundamental resource for human society and natural ecosystems.  Ensuring good water quality in the natural waters that provide water for drinking and other uses around the world is of forefront importance for management of this resource. Even after implementing substantial management strategies and measures for mitigating water pollution, water quality still remains too deteriorated in many freshwater and coastal water environments. A possible reason for this lack of quality improvements may be the formation of legacy sources, due to various physical and biogeochemical processes that delay (up to several decades or more) the waterborne pollutant propagation through hydrological catchments and the effects of efforts to mitigate this propagation. The resulting legacy source contributions of pollutants after such delaying processes contrast to the contributions of active sources, characterized by considerably shorter times (of around a year) of waterborne pollutant transport and associated propagation of mitigation effects through catchments.

This thesis aims at quantitative differentiation of the contributions of active and legacy pollutant sources to currently measured stream water quality. The research uses different types of data for various spatial and temporal scales, to explore variations and their dependence on monitoring resolution both in space and time. To this end, the thesis considers different types of pollutants, including nutrients, metals, dissolved carbon, and chloride, as well as common water quality variables measured by automatic sensors.

The theoretical framework used in this thesis hypothesizes, on mechanistic grounds, a significant linear relationship between pollutant loads and water discharges, which is here tested against data. Based on the support that data provide for the hypothesis, the obtained linear relationships are further used to quantify and differentiate between active and legacy source contributions to observed water quality conditions.  A main result from this work is significant indication that today’s measured water quality is strongly influenced by pollution history, with legacy source contributions dominating current concentration and load levels for all investigated pollutants in different catchments, of various scales, around Sweden and the world. This result can explain why recent water quality improvement efforts have been relatively unsuccessful in improving water quality in natural water environments of various countries around the world, as such efforts so far have mainly considered and targeted active sources. Furthermore, the thesis has quantified important relationships between legacy nutrient contributions and agricultural land, with widely consistent relationship parameters for nitrogen and more location-specific ones for phosphorous. For shorter-term water quality monitoring with fine (sub-daily) time resolution, the thesis shows that and why legacy source contributions are most influential under high flow conditions, while the active contributions are increasingly important for lower flows, which in turn drives distinct seasonal variation patterns in the water quality dynamics.

The methodological and result contributions of this thesis provide valuable tools and insights for distinction and quantification of legacy and active source contributions to water quality in natural water environments. The contributions apply across various scales, and for different pollutants and water quality variables, as basis for improved and more efficient water quality management.

The complexity of introducing ethics into technology design practices and the need to support practitioners’ ethical awareness and action are widely recognized in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. However, despite extensive research and academic propositions on ethical design, these research results are often underused in practice. To address this gap, this thesis investigates how designers of digital technology understand, do, and envision ethics at work.

Employing qualitative approaches, including semi-structured interviews and co-design workshops, the research explores practitioners' perspectives of ethics at work. The findings show the practitioners' general unfamiliarity with ethics, who are often more concerned with business metrics, like bounce rates and billable hours, rather than ethical considerations. Moreover, the empirical work shows that ethical responsibility is blurry and often thought of as someone else's problem, or even “boring.” This disconnect, further complicated by the lack of ethical considerations in everyday design practice, leads to inconsistent attention to ethical problems in design.

Addressing this, the thesis advocates for a recognition of ethics as both a critical and urgent matter that requires proactive attention. Moreover, it presents a range of concepts and toolkits—for instance, safe spaces and a design brief—co-designed with practitioners for cultivating design ethics at work. Finally, drawing on the concept of communities of practice, this thesis proposes that by approaching ethics as a collective effort, ethical knowledge and practice can be effectively developed through joint inquiry. This community-focused framing can support collective sense-making as well as meaningful change-making of ethical practice in the design industry.

The research contributes actionable knowledge for researchers who want to study and develop ethics in design practice, as well as for design practitioners who strive to sensitize themselves and their work communities to design ethics.

Plant-herbivore interactions contribute to the high variety of many insect families, as changes in plant-host use can result in herbivorous insect speciation. The sequential link between genetic alterations and plant-host use is an important consideration. Genetic changes before a plant-host shift can be regarded as pre-adaptation for the transition, whereas genetic changes after a plant-host shift can be considered as a response to changes in plant-host utilization. The current consensus is that the host insect changes first, then the genes change, and one potential mechanism is that gut microbes play a role in the relationship between genetic changes on the insects and plant-host use. According to recent theory, animals should no longer be regarded as autonomous entities, but rather as a biomolecular network composed of the host insects plus its associated microbes, a "holobiont" in which the collective genome is referred to as the "hologenome" and the gut microbiome participates in host insect metabolism as "the third malleable genome." Microbial inheritance, or the direct transmission of bacteria from parent to offspring, is a critical component in determining the extent to which the holobiont can be viewed as a unit of selection, and it can erode the link between microbial fitness and host individual fitness. In the case of heritable microbiome, a holobiont is a complete unit of selection, and selecting heritable symbionts maximizes host insect longevity and reproduction. Thus, one can hypothesize that changes in gut microbiomes is a possible mechanism allowing shifts in host use.

Our study system consists of six closely related leaf beetle species (Galerucella spp.). Females of four of the analyzed species lay a fecal string on top of the egg, which may aid in the transfer of gut microbiome, whereas females of the other two species do not. In chapters I, II, and III of my PhD thesis, I explored the crucial functions of the fecal string, particularly for transgenerational transfer of the gut microbiome. First, the roles of ecology and host phylogeny in the composition of gut microbial communities have been distinguished. I discovered phylogenetically controlled co-occurrence patterns between each of six closely related Galerucella leaf beetle species and their species-specific gut bacteria, indicating the possibility of host-bacterium co-evolution (Chapter I). Although it is critical to understand the co-evolutionary processes that occur between hosts and their gut bacterial communities, gut microbes are not just inherited from ancestors, but can also be obtained from food or the environment or acquired through social interactions. Even in the absence of co-evolutionary processes, diverse transmission mechanisms can influence host ecological traits. In Chapter II, I discovered that fecal strings in Galerucella species aid in the vertical transfer of gut bacteria between host insect generations, influencing gut bacteria diversity and dynamics. To learn more about how gut microbiomes influence variations in host use, I utilized antibiotics and microbial transfers between beetle species, comparing the impact of microbial transfers in Galerucella beetles that fed on their own host plants vs non-host plants in Chapter III. In Chapter IV, I presented evidence that fecal strings defend against natural enemies.

This dissertation is located at the intersection of the study of religion and the history of learned magic. It analyzes a specific type of religious practice in which rituals are designed to invoke and interact with the presence of superhuman agents. The experience of superhuman presence has been studied in the psychology, phenomenology, cognitive science, and anthropology of religions. However, we lack an understanding of how arrangements of the ritual space relate to perceptions of superhuman presence. Through its wide array of rituals to summon spiritual beings to perceptual appearance, late-medieval learned magic offers unique material to approach such relationships and to investigate the notion of presence in the study of religion. As a form of procedural knowledge circulating in manuscripts, a central part of learned magic concerned the arrangement of suitable ritual spaces for such encounters. Nonetheless, space has remained an under-researched topic in the history of learned magic. We lack knowledge of why practitioners designed ritual spaces in specific ways, using certain objects and materials, but also of where these layouts originated, and why medieval practitioners believed these arrangements could be effective.

The study analyzes the relationship between superhuman presence and spatial design by a) exploring the different spatial arrangements available to practitioners for encountering spiritual beings, b) examining the relationship between the various spatial layouts and the cosmological frameworks that characterized the syncretic sources of learned magic, and c) analyzing the elements of material culture that might have conveyed a sense of efficacy. To do so, the study takes a comparative approach across three genres of learned magic explicitly concerned with the interaction between human and superhuman beings: demonic magic, angelic magic, and astral magic. The research covers a significant period, from the 13th to the 15th century, characterized by cultural encounters that shaped these diverse genres. The study approaches the relationship between textual and visual ritual instructions at three different levels of analysis: first, interpretation of the ritual event for the sacralization of space; second, structural analysis of the interactional space; and third, semiotic analysis of diagrams, images, and material culture.

The study argues that medieval practitioners expected to experience spiritual beings in different modalities, ranging from internal and imaginal vision to external and corporeal appearance. The study introduces the notion of rituals of perceptual presence (RoPPs), which refers to rituals that aim at interacting with the corporeal presence of superhuman agents. To make such interaction happen, practitioners had to construct ritual spaces that could plausibly allow spirits to take on corporeal form and be perceived and interacted with in the practitioner’s veridical space. The study develops a typology of five spatial paradigms for RoPPs found across different genres of learned magic, which correlate with different cultural matrices. Through the novel comparisons facilitated by this approach, the work seeks to expand the cultural horizons of the reception history of learned magic in the late Middle Ages and shed new light on its ritual dynamics.

Emily Dickinson och Edith Södergran var pionjärer inom modernistisk lyrik. Dickinson var amerikan, som skapade lyrik under 1860- och 1870-talet. Södergran, finlandssvensk med kosmopolitisk utbildning, publicerade sig mellan åren 1916 till 1923. Trots olikheter i deras boigrafier bidrog båda till att förnya lyriken. Fri vers, frånvaro av rim och lyrisk metrik kännetecknar deras poesi. Motiven hämtades från livet som kvinna, naturen, religionen och existentiella tvivel. 

Uppsatsen har fokus på användningen av stilfigurerna hyperbol och litotes i deras lyrik. Dickinson använder oftare litotes än hyperbol. I Södergrans första diktsamlingar är hyperbol ofta förekommande, men i hennes sista diktsamling, den postumt utgivna Landet som icke är, minskar användning av hyperbol när motiven inriktas mot himlen, kosmos och döden. Södergran brukar sällan stilfiguren litotes, i stället är hon mer expressivt konkret i sitt lyriska bildspråk. Dickinson däremot, utvecklar ett "antydningens språk", bland annat med hjälp av stilfiguren litotes.

The objective of this study was to develop and validate an automated software for processing dynamic 15O-water positron emission tomography (PET) brain images to assess cerebral ischemia and neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, it aimed to investigate age and sex dependence of cerebral blood flow. Methods: The software was developed using Python and advanced image processing libraries, incorporating motion correction, downsampling, kinetic modelling, and stereotactic surface projection. The arterial input function was either measured using arterial sampling or using a second scan over the heart. Perfusion parameters, including 𝐾1  (perfusion), 𝑉𝑇  (volume of distribution), and 𝑉𝑎 (arterial blood volume), were computed using a basis function implementation of the single-tissue compartment models and compared with values obtained through non-linear regression. The software was then used to analyse 21 healthy subjects dynamic PET images to assess age- and sex-related differences in cerebral blood flow. Results: A high correlation and agreement between basis functions and non-linear regression methods was found for 𝐾1 (𝑅2 = 0.997), 𝑉𝑇 (𝑅2= 0.986), and 𝑉𝑎 (𝑅2= 0.937). Bland-Altman plots showed good agreement for 𝐾1 (-0.33 % mean difference), 𝑉𝑇  (-2.13 %), and 𝑉𝑎  (-28.78 %). While the basis function method significantly underestimated Va at low values, this had minimal impact on 𝐾1. Mean brain perfusion showed a significant decline with age (p = 0.049). Females exhibited significantly higher median brain perfusion than males (p = 0.003). Conclusion: The automated software accurately estimates perfusion parameters from 15O-water PET brain scans, providing reliable assessments of cerebral blood flow. Despite a significant underestimation of Va, the impact on 𝐾1  estimation is minimal. Age-related declines and sex differences in brain perfusion were consistent with previous studies. This software enables automated analysis of PET-based data for assessment of cerebral ischemia and neurodegenerative diseases evaluations. 

This qualitative case study examines a selection of interpretative signs in Hagaparken (“Haga Park,” or simply “Haga” – a park located just north of Stockholm, Sweden), focusing on their condition, placement, and design, as well as their role in interpreting cultural heritage. The overarching aim is to assess how the park and its history is conveyed through these signs.  

Employing the concept of place, as defined within humanistic geography, the thesis also explores the extent to which the signs’ contents might contribute to visitors’ perception of Haga as a unique place rather than a generic space.  

Data were collected through field studies conducted in Hagaparken, focusing on its signs. They were later analyzed in relation to literature and research associated with the thesis’ key themes.  The findings indicate that the signage in Hagaparken is well-designed and informative. A few issues were noted, including signs of wear, linguistic errors, as well as the presence of a factual detail in one of the signs that, according to the thesis’ research, lacks support from reliable sources.  

Ultimately, the study identifies three representations of the park conveyed through the signage: the historical Haga, the contemporary Haga, and the immaterial, symbolic Haga; the latter reflecting King Gustav III:s grand visions for the park in the late 1700’s, many of which were never realized. The author argues that it is through understanding of these representations, and of how they individually and collectively imbue the place with meaning, that Hagaparken can be experienced in its truest form. This understanding is facilitated by the signage in an overall commendable manner.