| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Fors, Vaike, 1969-
(författare)
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The Missing Link in Learning in Science Centres
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Science centres have been identified as an important resource in encouraging teenagers to choose higher education in science and technology. This is of interest to society, since there seems to be a problem in getting sufficient numbers to do so. And accomplishing this is sometimes described as a fatal question for a nation’s future prosperity and development. Still, there is an international trend where teenagers fail to visit science centres. Through research, little is known about what is interesting or useful to the public, as well as how to reach those who are ‘unengaged’. Considering teenagers as exponents for what distinguishes today’s society makes their apparent unwillingness to participate in science centres interesting to study with regards to what culture, history and ideology these centres were initially produced. Hence, from this point of view, what is missing in science centres that would make them interesting for the young people of today? Many studies of learning in science centres have come to focus on visitors who visit voluntarily and how well the embedded messages in the exhibits have been acknowledged by these visitors. This study focuses instead on teenagers who are reluctant to participate in science centres, with their perspective of science centres as the point of departure, specifically what kind of social activities are formed in their encounters with science centre exhibits. This encounter is regarded as an encounter between the two different practices of the science centre and the teenagers. The applied theoretical perspective is mainly assembled from socio-cultural theories of learning. This research is a microanalytic study of five teenagers who were equipped with video cameras and asked to film a visit to the local science centre, Teknikens Hus. The films were later discussed in a focus-group interview consisting of the teenagers and the researcher. Visual ethnography provided the theoretical framework for this research design. The results showed that the teenagers want to use exhibits to have the authority of interpretations and the possibilities to contribute to the meaning of the activity. At the same time, they want to use the exhibits in a way that the activities become places for developing social identity. To negotiate the meaning of the exhibits there is a need for an openness that may be constrained by too inflexible and limiting exhibit designs. This pattern is described as two different forms of participation in the exhibits; ignoring or extending the intended meaning of the exhibits. Meaningfulness also demands a closeness created by connections between the exhibit and the user’s personal experiences. This pattern is described as two different ways in which the teenagers identified the exhibits; exhibits which they dissociated from or to which they had an ongoing relationship. Providing a space for negotiation seems crucial to inviting teenagers into opportunities of meaningful experiences, even more significant than any specific physical feature in the exhibit. The teenagers’ agenda, in which forming practices where they can express themselves and contribute to the meaning seem to be very important, appears not to be greatly enabled by science centre exhibits. In this situation they learn to not participate. Science and technology represented in this matter show a ‘ready-made’ world that they cannot change. The missing link in learning in science centres is here described as the part of the meaning making process where the teenagers get to re-negotiate the meaning of the activities in the centre and use the exhibits as tools to accomplish this.
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| 13. |
- Vidman, Åsa, 1960-
(författare)
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Det är så mycket som kan spela in : en studie av vägar till, genom och från sjukskrivning baserad på intervjuer med långtidssjukskrivna
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Syftet med studien har varit att belysa erfarenheter och processer som är relaterade till långtidssjukskrivning, såväl till att bli sjukskriven, till att förbli sjukskriven under lång tid och till insatserna och arbetet för att återgå i arbete. Utgångspunkten har varit erfarenheter, upplevelser och uppfattningar hos personer som på grund av sjukdom eller annan funktionsnedsättning under lång tid varit utestängda från arbetsmarknaden. Studien har genomförts i Arvidsjaurs kommun där 17 långtidssjukskrivna personer intervjuats. Det var 13 kvinnor och fyra män i åldrarna 26 till 60 år varav de flesta var sjukskrivna på grund av problem med rörelseapparaten eller utmattningsdepression och liknande. Intervjuerna var öppna med karaktär av dialog, och analysen siktade till att förstå de konstruktioner de långtidssjuka skapat för att bringa mening i sin livssituation. Vid analysen framgick att intervjuerna förutom det som var direkt relaterat till studiens syfte – orsaker till sjukskrivning, om att vara sjuk under lång tid samt om stöd och hjälp för att kunna återgå i arbete – också handlade om hur sjukdom kan förstås, om könsskillnader samt om långvarig sjukdom och moral. Det övervägande intrycket är att informanterna ser sjukskrivningen som en konsekvens av många olika samspelande faktorer. Några har också varit med om olyckshändelser som endera bidragit till eller direkt orsakat sjukskrivningen. Bland annat beskriver de flera olika arbetsmiljöproblem som bakomliggande orsak. Dessa problem kan kopplas till den benägenhet att ta på sig stort ansvar som kvinnorna i studien ger uttryck för. Men tillvaron har varit kravfylld även utanför yrkesarbetet. Annat de tänker kan ha lett till den långvariga sjukskrivningen är hinder de upplevt i de olika hjälpsystemen. De flesta har också upplevt frustration och besvikelse över stödet och rehabiliteringen. Rehabiliteringsaktörerna upplevs inte beakta önskemål och initiativ från de långtidssjuka. De aktörer som beskrivs mest är hälso- och sjukvård samt Försäkringskassa. Informanterna är ambivalenta till de vanligaste insatserna – läkemedel och sjukgymnastik – från hälso- och sjukvården, och Försäkringskassan har upplevts som alltför regelstyrd och passiv. Det de efterfrågar är samtal och socialt stöd. Att vara långvarigt sjuk och därför utestängd från arbetsmarknaden ter sig olika beroende på tidigare erfarenheter, den totala livssituationen och vilka symtom man har. Med tiden har de fått kunskap som medfört att de kan undvika sådant som utlöser symtom, men kunskapen har då också fått en disciplinerande effekt. Informanterna har haft svårt att acceptera att de inte längre kan utföra sådant de tidigare gjort eller att de ska ha livslång värk. Relationerna till andra har förändrats och de sociala kontakterna har minskat. Informanterna i denna studie har problem som inte är uppenbara för omgivningen, vilket medfört att de upplever sig ifrågasatta. Överhuvudtaget har normen att man ska arbeta och försörja sig själv haft inflytande på informanternas situation – dels genom att de arbetat trots symtom av skilda slag och dels genom negativa attityder hos allmänheten. Allmänheten anser att sjuka oftast själva har förorsakat sjukdomen, och den som blivit sjuk ska också göra allt den kan för att återfå hälsa och arbetsförmåga. Många upplever misstro mot att de är sjuka och att andra tror de istället försöker hålla sig från arbete. Informanterna upplever därför misslyckande och skam. Moralen har stort inflytande på hur dessa människor beskriver sina liv – såväl hur de genom att uppfylla normerna till sist blivit sjukskrivna som de attityder de möts av genom att de är sjukskrivna. För att sjukdomen ska få legitimitet måste den också sanktioneras av läkare, så att de upplevda symtomen omvandlas till en diagnos. Diagnoser är socialt konstruerade och förändras över tid, men ger intryck av att vara konstanta. Medicinen uppfattas som en objektiv vetenskap och har också fått stort inflytande på våra vardagsliv, inte minst över sjukskrivning och rehabilitering. Detta trots att problemen många gånger i grunden är sociala. Även de rehabiliteringsaktörer som inte ingår i hälso- och sjukvården tycks ha influerats av medicinen. Rehabiliteringsaktörerna tenderar att förenkla den komplexa verkligheten för att det ska passa in i den uppsättning terapier eller åtgärder den egna myndigheten erbjuder. Arbetslivet och samhället har förändrats så det har skapats en konflikt mellan de normer som präglar arbetslivet och de traditionella förväntningarna. För kvinnorna i studien framstår situationen som extra sammansatt. De upplever att deras behov inte tillgodoses av myndigheterna. Regleringen utgår från att kvinnor och män lever jämställt, men så är inte fallet. Kvinnorna har i långt större utsträckning ansvar för hem och familj än vad män har och uppfostras till att ta hänsyn till andra. Deras egna behov prioriteras inte. Kvinnorna i studien upplever det som en extra påfrestning att inte längre kunna ta hand om barn och familj på det sätt de brukat.
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| 14. |
- Frishammar, Johan
(författare)
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Towards a theory of managing information in new product development
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with various information aspects of new product development (NPD). In total, the thesis consists of 6 research articles appended in full, and an introductory text that integrates and theorizes with and from these papers.The first paper is a review article examining the literature on and role of information in NPD. The main argument put forward here is that information processing can be understood in terms of three steps: acquiring, sharing, and using information. The second paper is a largescale survey that examines the relationship between market and entrepreneurial orien-tation and performance in NPD. A market orientation is to a large extent about acquiring, disseminating and using market information, while an entrepreneurial orientation partly is about ignoring such information, and instead trying to be innovative, proactive, and take risks. The results show that a market orientation and innovativeness are positively related to NPD performance, and that neither product nor environmental characteristics moderate these relationships. The third paper is also a survey, and investigates the extent to which management of external information is associated with innovation performance. The main findings are that scanning the technological sector of the environment was positively associated with innovation performance, while scanning customers, suppliers, and competitors proved to be negatively correlated with innovation performance. Crossfunctional integration in the form of collaboration as well as using information from the industry environment also proved to be positively related to innovation performance.The last three papers have a centre of gravity in “management of information & environ-ment”, and not so much in new product development per se. Paper four describes and com-pares different information processing approaches (e.g. environmental scanning, marketing research) in order to identify their similarities and differences, but also their underlying con-cepts and the course of events they represent. The main conclusion is that differences exist primarily in terms of focus and scope. Paper five is a review and tentative integration of different perspectives in organization – environment research: the adaptive, the resource-dependence, the cognitive and the population-ecology perspective. The review identifies differences and similarities among these perspectives, suggests tentative conclusions on why the adaptive perspective is so frequently utilized at the expense of the other three, and suggests constructivism as a feasible avenue for combining and integrating these perspectives. Finally, the sixth and final paper deals with information use in the context of strategic decisionmaking. With a case study approach, the questions of why information is used, what kind of information is used, where it is obtained, and how it is obtained were addressed, and the results from this paper are mainly descriptive.The purpose of the introductory text is two-fold. In addition to providing integration of the appended papers, the main purpose is theory construction (i.e. elicitation of constructs and propositions). In the introduction, all six appended papers together with a new literature search and a new pilot case study are used to generate propositions about management of information, information sources, and the need for cross-functional integration in three different phases of the NPD process. In addition, suggestions regarding theoretical connections are made. The introduction text concludes with reflections, managerial implications, limitations, and future research.
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| 15. |
- Halila, Fawzi, 1958-
(författare)
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The adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is an attempt to improve the understanding of the process of adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations. The thesis is based on two research projects. One project deals with the diffusion of environmental innovations and why they are less successful on the market than other innovations. The other project is about the adoption of environmental innovations by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and how to facilitate the adoption process.There are at least two good reasons why we should support the adoption and diffusion of eco- innovations. One argument from an environmental point of view is that successfully managing the environment is the greatest challenge facing us in the future and the global scenarios for the next decades are not encouraging. Another argument, from an economic point of view, for the need of eco-innovations is that the eco-industry is one of the most growing industries in the world and is likely to be worth around $600 billion worldwide by 2010.However, there are some indications that environmental innovations have a difficult time in gaining success in the marketplace and in spreading among potential customers, possibly more difficulty than some other kinds of innovations have.The overall objective of this thesis is to generate knowledge regarding the adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations. One purpose is to add to our understanding of environmental innovations and to their similarities and differences to “other” innovations. Another purpose is to understand and describe how networks can be used to facilitate the adoption of environmental innovations. The main research questions that I try to answer are:1) How can environmental innovations be classified? 2) Are environmental innovations less successful on the market than other innovations? 3) What are the main reasons for the differences in market success between environmental innovations and other innovations? 4) How could networks be used as a development method to facilitate the adoption of environmental innovations by SMEs?Several different methodological approaches have been used to develop a broader picture of different types of innovations and their development, adoption and diffusion. Two different approaches were used during the first project, dealing with the diffusion and market success of environmental innovations. The first one is mainly based on using questionnaires. The other approach is qualitative and based on case studies. Through a series of case studies of innovators and innovations we tried to achieve a better picture of the actual phenomena.The second project is about the adoption of an organizational environmental innovation by SMEs using a network. Since the goal of this project has been not only to observe the phenomena of the implementation of environmental innovation by SMEs using a network, but also to contribute to the development process, an action-oriented research approach was used in this project.Three main conclusions can be drawn on the basis of this thesis. Firstly, the new innovation classification system developed in this thesis improves the possibilities for distinguishing between innovations that are similar but not identical. A very large proportion of the analyzed eco-innovations are often classified as product redesign innovations. With the help of the new classification system it is possible to discern different types among those classified as product re-Vdesign innovations. Some are rather simple and accordingly classified as product care innovations, while others are classified as minor or major product improvements or even functional innovations. Secondly, our empirical studies results show that the environmental innovations are less successful on the market than “other” innovations. The empirical studies also show that there are mainly three factors which are especially important to consider in the improvement of environmental innovations’ marketing success. These three are: “Realism while evaluating one’s own innovation”, “Access to capital” and “Utilization of network”.Thirdly, to adopt an environmental innovation is not an easy task for small organizations, such as SMEs. But to be a part of and use a network is a possible way to facilitate the adoption process.
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Abdikalikova, Zamira
(författare)
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Some new results concerning boundedness and compactness for embeddings between spaces with multiweighted derivatives
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This Doctoral Thesis consists of five chapters, which deal with a new Sobolev type function space called the space with multiweighted derivatives. This space is a generalization of the usual one dimensional Sobolev space. As basis for this space serves some differential operators containing weight functions.Chapter 1 is an introduction, where, in particular, the importance to study function spaces with weights is discussed and motivated. In Chapter 2 we prove some new estimates for each function in a Tchebychev system. In order to be able to study compactness of the embeddings from Chapter 3 such estimates are crucial.In Chapter 3 we rewrite and present some results of L. D. Kudryavtsev, where he investigated one dimensional Sobolev spaces. Moreover, in this chapter we rewrite and discuss some analogous results by B. L. Baidel'dinov for generalized Sobolev spaces. These results are not available in the Western literatures in this way and they are crucial for the proofs of the main results in Chapter 4. In Chapter 4 we prove some embedding theorems for these new generalized Sobolev spaces. The main results of Kudryavtsev and Baidel'dinov about characterization of the behavior of functions at a singularity take place in weak degeneration of the spaces. However, with the help of our new embedding theorems we can extend theseresults to the case of strong degeneration.The main aim of Chapter 5 is to establish boundedness and compactness of the embedding considered in Chapter 4.In Chapter 4 basically only sufficient conditions for boundedness of this embedding were obtained. In Chapter 5 we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for boundedness and compactness of this embedding and the main results are proved in a different way.
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| 19. |
- Aitomäki, Yvonne
(författare)
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Online fibre property measurements : foundations for a method based on ultrasound attenuation
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents the foundations of a method for estimating fibre properties of pulp suitable for online application in the pulp and paper industry. In the pulp and paper industry, increased efficiency and greater paper quality control are two of the industry's main objectives. It is proposed that online fibre property measurements are a means of achieving progress in both of these objectives. Optical based systems that provide valuable geometric data on the fibres and other pulp characteristics are commercially available. However, measurements of the elastic properties of the fibres are not currently implemented using these systems. To fill this gap an ultrasound based system for measuring the elastic properties of the wood fibres in pulp is proposed. Ultrasound propagation depends on the elastic properties of a solid. Hence attenuation measurements from suspensions of fibres depend on their elastic properties. The method is based on solving the inverse problem where the output is known and the objective is to establish the inputs. In this case, attenuation is measured and a model of attenuation based on ultrasound scattering is developed. A search algorithm is used for finding elastic properties that minimize the error between the model and measured attenuation. The results of the search are estimates of the elastic properties of the fibres in suspension. The results show resonance peaks in the attenuation, in the frequency region tested, for fibres with radii of the order of 10 microns. These peaks are found in both the measured and modelled attenuation spectra. Further investigation of these resonances suggests that they are due to modes of vibration in the fibre where the fibre modelled as an infinitely long cylinder. These resonances are shown to aid in the identification of the elastic properties. The attenuation is found to depend heavily on the geometry of the fibres. Hence fibre geometry, which can be obtained from online optical fibre measurement system, provides the key to extracting the elastic properties from the attenuation signal. Studies are also carried out on the effect of viscosity on attenuation as well as the differences in attenuation between hollow and solid synthetic fibres in suspensions. The measurement method is also applied to hardwood and softwood Kraft pulps. The results of these studies show that using the model derived in the thesis and attenuation measurements, estimates of the elastic properties can be obtained. The elastic property estimates for synthetic fibres agree well with values from other methods. The elastic property estimates for pulps require further validation due to the difficulty in comparing between different testing methods and different types of pulp. The conclusions, based on the work so far and under three realisable conditions, are that the shear modulus and the transverse Young's modulus of pulp fibres can be measured. Once these conditions are met a system based on this method can be implemented. By doing this the industry would benefit from the increase in paper quality control and energy saving such system could provide.
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| 20. |
- Alakangas, Lena
(författare)
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Sulphide oxidation, oxygen diffusion and metal mobility in sulphide-bearing mine tailings in Northern Sweden
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Large quantities of sulphide-bearing mining wastes produced from ore processing are deposited throughout the world. Sulphide oxidation in the wastes may release acidic water with high concentrations of metals to the environment. Remediation strategies are usually site specific, since the physical and chemical properties of the wastes vary. Therefore, sulphide oxidation, oxygen diffusion and metal mobility in unoxidised and oxidised, remediated and unremediated wastes have been studied in the present work. The efficiency of different cover systems on unoxidised tailings from Kristineberg, were studied in pilot-scale test cells (5*5*3 m3)under field conditions. Clayey till, sewage sludge, apatite and Trisoplast were used as sealing layers and unspecified till as a protective cover. In one cell tailings were left uncovered. Unoxidised tailings in the test-cells in the initial stage after deposition showed relatively low sulphur release (600- 800 mg/l)in leachate waters, which probably was an effect of high moisture content in the tailings prior to deposition. Near-neutral pH found in the leachates was an effect of neutralisation by carbonate minerals present and lime (Ca(OH)2) added prior to deposition. Similar sulphur concentrations were found also in the uncovered tailings. The sulphide oxidation rate increased with time in the uncovered tailings, and decreased in the covered. The lowest oxygen concentrations were observed below the cover system with sewage sludge, which was the most effective barriar against oxygen in a short-term perspective. The oxygen fluxes through the clayey till and apatite layers were within the same magnitude and varied between 0.5 and 4 mole/year,m2. The Trisoplast layer seemed to have failed as a barrier against oxygen. Tailings studied at field scale at Laver and Kristineberg had oxidised for more than 50 years. The tailings at Kristineberg have high pyrite content (c.25% and 50%) and those at Laver have low grade of pyrrhotite (2-3%). The Laver tailings are unremediated, while at Kristineberg the tailings were remediated in 1996. The transport of metals in the drainage water at Laver decreased during a study period of 8 years. The transport of dissolved sulphur indicated a declining trend of sulphide oxidation rate in the tailings, which was confirmed by oxygen measurements in the tailings and weathering rate estimations. The decline was considered to be natural as a result of the increased distance that oxygen has to travel to reach unoxidised sulphide grains. The major part of the amounts of metals released by sulphide oxidation were secondarily retained in the tailings, and to a small extent in layers cemented by jarosite and Fe-(oxy)hydroxides. Sequential extraction of these layers showed that metals such as Cu and Pb were mostly associated with crystalline Fe-(oxy)hydroxides. Most important retention mechanism was, however, sorption onto minerals surfaces below the oxidation front. The studied Impoundment 1 at Kristineberg was remediated by two different methods; on one part a dry cover consisting of a sealing layer and a protective cover were applied, and the groundwater table was raised and a single dry cover applied on the other part. When the groundwater table was raised in oxidised tailings, secondarily retained metals such as Fe, Mg, Mn, S and Zn were remobilised resulting in increased concentrations in the groundwater. The concentrations declined with time, due to dilution by inflowing uncontaminated water. Decreased concentrations of Fe, Mg, Mn, S and Zn were observed also in the groundwater below the dry cover as the amount of percolating water decreased. The concentrations of trace elements such as Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni and Pb were almost depleted in the groundwater, since these metals were retained within the tailings by mechanisms such as co-precipitation, precipitation and sorption. Analysis of pyrite grains by LA-ICP-SMS showed that pyrite surfaces were important for retention of As and Cu, in particular, but also for Cd and Zn. This study shows that the physico-chemical conditions expressed by pH and redox potential have a large impact on element mobility’s. For example, As was mobilised as a result of remediation, while the concentrations of most metals decreased in the drainage waters.
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