The aim of this master thesis is to analyze the influence of non-health factors on quality of life in member countries of the European Union. For the analysis, economic and developmental variables were used. The master thesis begins with analysis of life expectancy in the world due to quality of life directly affecting life expectancy. The next part is devoted to the analysis of the influence of GDP on quality of life and correlation between single dimensions of the Human Development Index. The Health index, Inequality-adjusted income index, Expenditure on public health and GNI per capita PPP were analyzed in order to illustrate their influence and importance in provision of quality of life. Unemployment of the age group 55+ and out-of-pocket spending were analyzed to demonstrate their influence on quality of life and life expectancy. Pension systems and retirement age were analyzed with connection to ageing of the population and fiscal problems arising from decreased fertility. Gender inequality is analyzed, drawing adverse consequences of a more equitable, but not a long-term oriented society. As a result of this master thesis, the conclusion was drawn in form of a Quality of life dilemma diagram. The diagram consists of all the variables analyzed in the master thesis displaying positive, negative and likely positive relationships between variables and quality of life. In the conclusion, the problem of sustainability of public finances, welfare state and competitiveness caused by longevity and low fertility affecting future quality of life in the European countries is summed up. The finding of this thesis is that quality of life is a very complex issue and in order to achieve a sustainable quality of life, all the variables have to be wisely governed. Short-term unbalanced improvements in quality of life will very likely retaliate in terms of deterioration of other variables in the future, pulling quality of life down.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / The COVID-19 pandemic presents threats, such as severe disease and economic hardship, to people of different ages. These threats can also be experienced asymmetrically across age groups, which could lead to generational differences in behavioral responses to reduce the spread of the disease. We report a survey conducted across 56 societies (N = 58,641), and tested pre-registered hypotheses about how age relates to (a) perceived personal costs during the pandemic, (b) prosocial COVID-19 responses (e.g., social distancing), and (c) support for behavioral regulations (e.g., mandatory quarantine, vaccination). We further tested whether the relation between age and prosocial COVID-19 responses can be explained by perceived personal costs during the pandemic. Overall, we found that older people perceived more costs of contracting the virus, but less costs in daily life due to the pandemic. However, age displayed no clear, robust associations with prosocial COVID-19 responses and support for behavioral regulations. We discuss the implications of this work for understanding the potential intergenerational conflicts of interest that could occur during the COVID-19 pandemic. / New York University Abu Dhabi

The thesis proposes the analytical review on how the Baltic States, namely, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia perceive Russia as a threat to their national security by addressing and evaluating the main changes in their security policies. To analyze the changes and differences in their perception, the securitization theory is applied. Following the most recent changes in the security environment in Europe, starting from the Ukraine crisis and annexation of Crimea in 2014, supplementary theoretic concept such as security dilemma is used for better understanding of the challenges that the Baltic States/NATO - Russia relations face. The main goal of this thesis is to provide a detailed overview of how Russian interference in Ukraine's domestic affairs, created a sense of anxiety in the Eastern Europe and affected security sectors of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Keywords: the Baltic States, Russia, Ukraine Crisis, Securitization theory, Security Dilemma, NATO

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Previous research on college students has found that cooperation in iterated prisoner's dilemma game is correlated with preference for delayed rewards in studies of temporal discounting. The present study attempted to replicate this finding in a drug-dependent population. Thirty-one individuals who intranasally abuse prescription opioids participated in temporal discounting and iterated prisoner's dilemma game procedures during intake for a treatment study. Rate of temporal discounting was determined for each participant at two hypothetical reward magnitudes, as well as proportion of cooperation in a 60-trial iterated prisoner's dilemma game versus a tit-for-tat strategy. Cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game and temporal discounting rates were significantly correlated in the predicted direction: individuals who preferred delayed rewards in the temporal discounting task were more likely to cooperate in the prisoner's dilemma game.

In strategically rich settings in which machines and people do not fully share the same preferences, machines must learn to cooperate and compromise with people to establish mutually successful relationships. However, designing machines that effectively cooperate with people in these settings is difficult due to a variety of technical and psychological challenges. To better understand these challenges, we conducted a series of user studies in which we investigated human-human, robot-robot, and human-robot cooperation in a simple, yet strategically rich, resource-sharing scenario called the Block Dilemma, a game in which players must balance fairness, efficiency, and risk. While both human-human and robot-robot pairs typically learn fair and cooperative solutions over time, our results show that these solutions tend to be different when communication is permitted versus when it is not. While people followed a less risky and less efficient solution, pairs of robots followed a more risky but more efficient solution. This difference in humans’ and machines’ behavior appears to influence human-robot cooperation negatively, as our studies show that human-robot pairs did not frequently produce either form of cooperation without communication. These results speak to the need for machine behavior to be better aligned with human behavior. While machines may behave more efficiently and produce better results than people when following their own calculations, machines may often better facilitate human-machine cooperation by aligning their behavior with human behavior rather than expecting human behavior to become more efficient.

Statistik från Skolverket (2015) visar att var femte elev som går i svensk skola är berättigad modersmålsundervisning. Sverige är alltså ett land med många andraspråkstalare. Trots detta finns det ingen forskning som har berört att göra fritidshemsundervisning inkluderande i en flerspråkig elevgrupp. Det finns forskning om språk och inkludering i andra undervisningsformen men det svenska fritidshemmet är en unik undervisningsform som kan innebära nya möjligheter och utmaningar för att göra undervisningen inkluderande. Syftet med examensarbetet är att belysa den komplexitet det kan innebära att bedriva inkluderande fritidshemsundervisning i en flerspråkig elevgrupp. Resultat från en fallstudie på ett fritidshem med en flerspråkig elevgrupp kommer att presenteras. Resultaten har analyserats utifrån olika språkteorier, perspektiv på inkludering samt teori om grupper. I studien framkommer att det i undervisning uppstår flera dilemma som pedagogerna behöver ta ställning till. På den undersökta skolan råder en gemensam syn på att inkluderande arbete ska innefatta att alla elever ska känna sig delaktiga i gemenskapen och att alla elever ska ges lika möjlighet i att nå goda studieresultat. Ett dilemma uppstår då inte alla elever behärskar det svenska språket. För att elever alla ska känna sig som en i gemenskapen strävar personalen på skolan efter att det inte ska ses som att elever är avvikande på grund av etnisk bakgrund. Rektorn på skolan vill att elever i många fall ska få lov att tala sitt modersmål. Samtidigt uppstår det ibland situationer då en elev inte kan tala samma språk som resten av eleverna och blir exkluderad i sammanhanget. Informanterna menar också att det på fritidshemmet skapas grupperingar som inte finns i klassrummet och att de behöver anstränga sig för att bryta dem då olika grupper hamnar i konflikter med varandra. Informanterna är måna om att eleverna som går på fritidshemmet ska utveckla sin svenska. Olika teorier om språk förespråkar olika tillvägagångssätt och stora krav ställs därmed på att personalen använder utvecklande insatser på ett genomtänkt sätt. Resultatet av examensarbetet visar att inkludering är en komplex uppgift som blir svår att klara utan ett fungerande systematiskt kvalitetsarbete.

Ethical dilemmas often reflect expected concerns – alleviating distress, protecting confidentiality, and maintaining integrity in one’s work. But forensic fringe elicits what seemingly only exists in suspense thrillers. What if you (quite literally) know where the bodies are buried? What if a high-ranking politician publicly declares your client dangerous (and they’re not)? What if your research contributes to bad legislation? Here, enter an escape room of ethical reasoning. Contemplate interesting and intricate dilemmas involving unique client considerations, competing legal and political interests, questions of personal morality, values, and public safety, and the role of science in ethical research and clinical practice.

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