I started this project with a mindset that I want to design something for younger generations living in the future megacities. After a while, trying to figure out their urban mobility needs, I came to this conclusion: Already today we have so many different options for urban com- muting as well as several different car sharing services. I couldn’t find a way to create some- thing new. I changed my approach and I started thinking; what is it that they don’t have? I pret- ty soon understood it. They have no nature. By the year 2040, 70% of world’s population is expected to live in urban areas. This, in turn, is diminishing the natural environments around the globe. Needless to say, that people are becoming more and more disconnected from nature. In my research I quoted George Monbiot from The Guardian: “If Children lose contact with nature, they won’t fight for it.” This de- scribes the problem to the core. Coming gen- erations need to know where all that we have comes from. This is why I decided to create a way, people in megacities can connect to nature instantly. Volkswagen V-Trek offers an instant escape to nature from megacities to conservation areas around the world. With an immersive full-body experience, V-Trek engages people with nature, as well as with Volkswagen as a brand. The concept is demonstrated in a visual story. The scenario of the events was created based on predictions and possible events in the future. Most of the time in my process I used for research about VR and other technologies related to the topic. As the physical movement is an important part of the concept, and because I wanted to enhance it on the platform, I spent time trying to figure it out. When things started to get together, I began to shape quick mockups in 3D for development of the form and archi- tecture. Later on in the process, it was easy to transform those mockups into sketch models and for testing in VR. The most important part of the project was the story and scenario, which justifies and ex- plains the whole concept. I started planning the scenario and the details early on which made it easier for me to visualize it in finalization phase. This project also raises a question: What comes next in the field of transportation and mobil- ity? For years’ cars and transportation have remained the same. We move from place A to B, this is what I call: Physical transportation. Right now we are living times of change as autono- mous technology is finally breaking through. However, cars have always been about the driv- ing experience and in autonomous future; trav- eling experience. Because of the changing atti- tudes towards cars amongst youth, cars are not seen as a pleasant experience anymore. Rather as a necessity. Experiences engage users with brands, whether it is a smartphone or a car, and this is what young users appreciate. When Physical transportation is no longer delivering that experience, car brands need to figure out a way to engage the users. This is where Mental Transportation changes the game. Mental Transportation is a term I came up with along the process and as the name suggests, it enables users to travel in their mind. With the idea of mental transportation, I want to chal- lenge everyone to think differently and with an open mind about the future of mobility and transportation.

What is Space Tourism? Space Tourism is when humans venture past 100km above the earth for recreational purposes. It could be for the view or just the thrill, either way space has captured our imaginations ever since we could look up and ask what is beyond our sky. What has happened in the past 10 years in the rocket industry has been amazing. We now have more private companies sending rockets to space at a rate faster than during the space race between the Soviets and Americans. At the current rate we will see the cost of traveling to space drop to a point where more and more people and companies will be able to afford such a flight. And so... it is only a matter of time before we see space tourism as a new industry. Designing something new like a space ship that has no 'standard'. Thus requiring a lot of research in order to contextualize its possibilities. Is it a HTOL (Horizontal Take Off and Landing) or a VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) or Multistaged or Single Stage Rocket? Seemingly endless possibilities are available. As a result the process to create the final design took on the form of a trdional industrial design process, not one that would be similar to the automotive industry. This isnt a project about perfect surfacing or all the proper lead ins. Its something bigger, the beginning of a new discussion. And so, collaborating was a key factor. One with an interaction designer who researched the before launch senario for such a space flight experience. And the other, an aviation geek who loves cool flying machines and finally an aersopace engineer. All allowing for idea bouncing and expansion on strategy and thoughts. Of course what followed was sketching, mood boarding, 3D, and VR and back and forth discussions that such activites provoke. In order to showcase the experience such a product would provide, a small video was finished alongside the final result. In the end this project resulted in 4 products a: Spaceship Exterior, Interior, Helmet and Spacesuit. All connected to each other (quite literally) and thus leading to a complete experience; a solved design. That design is the Aurora. A HTOL SSTO (Horizontal Take-Off and Land, Single Stage To Orbit) Spaceship for the year 2040. A year that will see the beginning of commercial spaceflight for the masses.

“In the future, virtually every function in the world of financial services will be displaced, disintermediated and decentralized. The Internet gave us a powerful way to share and access information. Blockchain now gives us a powerful way to share and access value.” During a February 2017 AICPA roundtable, Chairman of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance and previous Global Head of Trading Analytics at Thomson Reuters, Ron Quarantana spoke to the revolutionary scale of blockchain. Quaranta, viewed by many as an expert in financial technology, predicts that the adoption of blockchain, both by the Big Four accounting firms and their clients, will disrupt the accounting industry by greatly reducing the time and skill needed to perform a quality audit. Some, such as Thomson Reuters’ Jon Baron, even claim that blockchain may eliminate the need for financial statement audits altogether. To many, blockchain is synonymous with Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that, over the past three years, has returned 3,310%, compared to 35% and 36% returns of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), respectively. Blockchain, however, is much more than Bitcoin, with applications stretching further than cryptocurrency. Rather, it is a peer-to-peer hosted public ledger that does not require a central authority to support or verify transactions, and is unalterable in future periods. In this study, I propose to examine what blockchain technology means for the 887,000 people currently employed by the Big Four. More specifically, I seek to expand upon whether the potential adoption of blockchain in the coming years will reduce audit fees, impact audit quality, or perhaps do away with the audit completely.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-07-13Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:39:52Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 fonseca_amh_me_sjrp.pdf: 1042737 bytes, checksum: f9dd75259f6eb37c6e7099009f8f986f (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / O presente trabalho tem como tema central a perífrase verbal ir+infinitivo. Sob o ponto de vista da Gramaticalização, tratamos da formação da perífrase e de sua multifuncionalidade no Português Brasileiro, mais especificamente na variedade falada no interior do Estado de São Paulo. As amostras de fala integram o banco de dados Iboruna. Além da função de futuridade, a perífrase expressa também funções aspectuais, modais e de marcador discursivo, multifuncionalidade decorrente de diferentes estágios de sua gramaticalização. A partir das funções identificadas, relacionamos os graus de gramaticalidade da perífrase com a escala universal de gramaticalização das categorias verbais flexionais do complexo TAM (Tempo, Aspecto, Modo/Modalidade), comprovando a hipótese de que a escala de gramaticalização de ir+infinitivo obedece à ordem “universal” dos morfemas verbais flexionais como postulado em Bybee (1985). Sob o enfoque da Sociolinguística, procedemos ao tratamento variável da expressão de futururidade codificada por [IRPRESENTE INDICATIVO + Infinitivo] vs. [Futuro do Presente], no caso de Futuro do Presente, e por [IRPRETÉRITO IMPERFEITO + Infinitivo] vs. [Futuro do Pretérito], no caso de Futuro do Pretérito. Enquanto a expressão de Futuro do Presente não constitui regra variável na comunidade de fala investigada, visto que a mudança já se instaurou em favor da variante analítica, a expressão de Futuro do Pretérito na forma analítica é condicionada pelos seguintes fatores: estatuto sintático da oração (orações subordinadas), paradigma verbal do verbo principal (verbos regulares), tipo de estado de coisas (estado), tipo de texto (narrativo) e idade do informante (faixa etária mais jovem). Ao final, consideramos que a principal contribuição do trabalho foi a de mostrar o êxito da abordagem de um mesmo fenômeno na interface... / This study focuses on the ir+infinitive verbal periphrasis. From the aspect of Grammaticalization, this study approaches the formation of the periphrasis and its multifunctionality in Brazilian Portuguese language, especially in the variety used in the interior of São Paulo State. The samples of speech integrate the Iboruna database. Besides the function of futurity, the periphrasis also expresses aspectual and modal functions, and acts as discourse marker. This multifunctionality derives from different stages of its grammaticalization. Based on the functions identified, we have related the grammaticality degrees of the periphrasis to the universal scale of grammaticalization of flexional verbal categories of the TAM complex (Time, Aspect, Mode/Modality), proving the hypothesis that the grammaticalization scale of ir+infinitive follows the “universal” order of flexional verbal morphemes, as postulated in Bybee (1985). Under the focus of Sociolinguistics, we proceed to the variable treatment of the expression of futurity encoded by [IRPRESENT INDICATIVE + Infinitive] vs. [Future of Present], in the case of the Future of Present, and by [IRIMPERFECT PRETERITE + Infinitive] vs. [Future of Preterite], in the case of the Future of Preterite. While the expression of the Future of Present does not constitute a variable rule in the speech community investigated – due to the fact that the change has already been established in favor of the analytical variant –, the expression of the Future of Preterite is conditioned by the following factors: syntactic statute of the clause (subordinate clause), verbal paradigm of the main verb (regular verbs), type of state of things (state), type of text (narrative) and age of the informer (youngest age-group). Finally, it is possible to consider that the main contribution of this study was to show the success of approaching the same phenomenon... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

This thesis concerned with understanding what makes young people as future leaders. It sets out to explore leadership development for secondary school students (12-to-18-year), focussing on what makes young leaders and how they become future leaders. The fundamental purpose of this explanatory and exploratory qualitative study was to investigate leadership development at the age of adolescence. There are three key objectives for this study: (1) to explore and investigate what contributes to forming young people as future leaders; (2) to clarify and understand how young people become future leaders; and (3) to create a multidimensional and holistic framework for developing secondary students as future leaders. These aims were achieved via conducting qualitative in-depth interviews (N=46) with established leaders (N=19) and university professors (N=27) in both the UK and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Additionally, as this study focuses on adolescence, it was important to conduct three focus groups with secondary school students in KSA (N=27). Succinctly this study aims to deepen our understanding of the issue of developing young people as future leaders. This study used multi-levels of analysis and multi-domains of purposive sampling via using maximal variation sampling, both leaders and academics are categorised into six domains (business, education, social, voluntary sector, YLD programmes directors, and developmental psychologists). The secondary school students were selected from government school, private school, and gifted students. Due to the extensive sample gathered (46 interviews and 3 focus groups) and significant data generated (287.000 words), the author’s study produces both emergent themes and abundant numerical results. However, these large quantities can encourage various quantitative studies in the future. There are several key contributions of value in this study; (1) creating and conceptually testing a comprehensive framework to develop young people as future leaders; (2) the theoretical contribution as the qualitative analysis has generated massive number of new emergent themes related to the research questions; (3) analysis of the empirical contributions revealed lots of variables, factors, criteria, tools; (4) a cross-cultural YLD which verify that there are both differences and similarities between the UK and KSA; (5) the findings proved that leadership for young people is learnable to a great extent; that adolescence is a critical period for developing leaders; that sparking the motivation to lead is important at this age; there are serious obstacles facing YLD; generic leadership is more applicable for YLD; and finally, one of the significant contributions of this study is its focussing of attention on a long-term approach for young people leadership development. The further contribution of this study is creating a multi-dimensional and holistic framework for YLD based on theories of adult leadership and intensively reviewing the literature review on YLD. It has been developed via pilot study and finally developed and validated throughout a cohort of stablished leaders and university professors (N=41). This study’s findings can benefit policy and practice to a great extent since it focuses on the secondary school students; as they are the future leaders, this study can be of significant help to the strategic planning of policy makers in the Ministry of Education, Youth Ministry, and generally within the political context, family business. This study inspires me to establish a leadership-based academy, which focuses on high-school students and develops them as national leaders.

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Bakgrund: Apoteksverksamheten är en verksamhet som genomgår en ständig förändring. Sedan omregleringen av apoteksmarknaden 2009 har det svenska apoteket genomgått flera förändringar som varit oförutsägbara tidigare. E-handeln har ökat, apotekens tillgänglighet har ökat och likaså har behoven. Hur framtiden kommer att se ut för apotekens del är något vi saknar kunskap kring till skillnad från omvärlden där forskning kring ämnet pågått sedan en lång tid tillbaka. Därav är det av stor vikt att undersöka hur personer på berörda myndigheter och organisationer tror att Sveriges apoteksverksamhet kan komma att se ut år 2030. Metod: Frågeställningen besvarades genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning som besvarades av olika apoteksaktörer samt myndigheter och organisationer. Enkätfrågorna bestod utav olika påståenden om hur framtidens apoteksverksamhet kan komma att se ut, som de sedan fick instämma i olika grad Resultat : Apoteksaktörerna respektive myndigheter och organisationer hade likadana åsikter inom majoriteten av frågorna. Båda parterna ansåg att e-handeln kommer att öka, apoteket i framtiden kommer att bli en del av sjukvården och att hälsotjänsterna apotek i apotek kommer att öka i omfattning. Diskussion: I vissa frågor var dock åsikterna motsägelsefulla vilket indikerar att det finns ett behov av vidare studier som reder ut frågan djupare samt preciserar innebörden av resultatet för samhället i stort. Slutsats: apoteksverksamheten utveckling i framtiden kommer att resultera i fler hälsotjänster på apotek samtidigt som samarbetet mellan apotek och hälso- och sjukvården i Sverige förbättras är 2030. / Background: The pharmacy business is a business that is undergoing constant change. Since the re-regulation of the pharmacy market in 2009, the Swedish pharmacy has undergone several changes that have been unpredictable. E-commerce has increased, the pharmacy's availability has increased and also has the needs. How the future will look for the pharmacy's part is something we lack knowledge about unlike the rest of the world where research on the subject has been ongoing. Hence the great importance to investigate how people at the relevant authorities and organizations believe that Sweden's pharmacy business may look like in 2030. Method: The question was answered by a quantitative questionnaire which various pharmacy actors and authorities/organizations answered. The questions consisted of statements about how the future pharmacy business might look year 2030, which they had to agree to different degrees.Results: The pharmacy actors and authorities /organizations had similar opinions in the majority of the questions. Both parties felt that e-commerce will increase, the pharmacy in the future will become a part of the healthcare system and that the health services in pharmacies will increase in the future. Discussion: In some questions, however, the views were contradictory, which indicates that there is a need for further studies that outweigh the question and clarify the meaning of the result for society as a whole. Conclusion: The pharmacy business development in the future will result in more health services at pharmacies, while the collaboration between pharmacies and healthcare in Sweden will improve by 2030.

abstract: Raising future generations is a culturally diverse, universally technological human project. This research brought the everyday work of raising children into the domain of sustainability scholarship, by first proposing a model of childrearing as a globally distributed socio-technical system, and then exploring the model with participants in two nodes – an elementary and middle school, and a children’s museum. In the process, the research objective shifted towards using methods that were less academic and more relevant to childrearing agents. The focus on participatory survey data was abandoned, in favor of autoethnographic documentation of a long-term engagement with a third node of the system, a child welfare setting. This approach yielded unexpected findings that fit the proposed model, identified characteristics of a Zone of Mutual Oblivion (ZMO) that exists between childrearing and sustainability, and clarified ways in which people prioritize their own needs and responsibilities, the developmental needs of children, the potential needs and capacities of future generations, and the functional integrity of ecological systems. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2019

The purpose of this dissertation is to make sense of two sets of reactions. On the one hand, Americans can barely lift a finger to help threatened and endangered species while on the other, they routinely come to the aid of human victims of disaster. I argue that in contrast to cases of human tragedy, for the biodiversity crisis conservationists are faced not only with the familiar yet arduous task of motivating the American public to care for living other-than-humans, but they are also saddled with having to overcome the motivation problem of future ethics. The motivation problem consists in eliminating or bridging a motivational gap that lies between knowledge of the effects of our actions on future generations and action taken based upon such knowledge. The gap exists because motives that typically move people to action are either ineffective or unavailable. What is more, the gap influences not only our ability to care for future humans, but it affects our ability to care for future other-than-humans as well. Biodiversity loss is in fact a subset of the problem of future generations, an identification hitherto little appreciated. I argue that conservationists can overcome the motivational gap not by appealing directly to the value of species or biodiversity, both of which are temporally distant, abstract and general moral patients, but indirectly, by focusing on the concrete and particular lives of extant and near future moral patients. By applying techniques that have been developed to overcome the motivation problem as it pertains to distant future human generations, conservationists have additional resources to draw upon in their efforts to motivate American citizens to preserve biodiversity. This dissertation’s contribution to the fields of environmental philosophy and conservation biology is both theoretical and practical. It is theoretically significant to elucidate the nature of moral failure for biodiversity conservation. In terms of broader impacts, identifying the basis of moral failure for biodiversity conservation allows me to assess educational campaigns and environmental policy, and to suggest solutions for bridging the motivational gap.

There is heightened risk for physical and mental health concerns among U.S. veterans. For instance, 26% of veterans experience insomnia (i.e., chronic difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep), compared to 15% of the general population. This may be due, in part, to the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, as veterans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with PTSD. Rumination or flashbacks focused on traumatic events (e.g., witnessing death) may contribute to problems with the onset and quality of sleep. However, not all veterans experience insomnia or PTSD symptoms, perhaps due to a positive future orientation (FO). Adaptive, goal-directed thinking may lessen risk for rumination about past actions or experiences (e.g., combat exposure), with consequent beneficial effects on sleep quality. Yet, to the extent that other negative emotions remain in the presence of FO, potential benefits may be thwarted. Specifically, feelings of shame (i.e., judging self as intolerable or defective) or anger may arise from discrepancies between military actions taken or witnessed and one’s moral beliefs. In turn, this may limit future-oriented coping abilities, with negative implications for PTSD symptoms and insomnia. At the bivariate level, we hypothesized that PTSD symptoms, insomnia, shame, and anger would be positively related, and that these variables would be negatively related to FO. At the multivariate level, we hypothesized that PTSD symptoms would mediate the relation between FO and insomnia, such that greater FO would be associated with fewer PTSD symptoms and, in turn, to fewer insomnia symptoms. Further, we hypothesized that shame and anger would moderate these linkages, reducing beneficial effects and exacerbating risk. Our sample of U.S. veterans (n=551) was recruited online from national organizations and social media groups and was primarily white (n=469; 85.1%) and male (n=382; 69.3%). Participants completed self-report measures, including the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory - Brief (future subscale), PTSD Checklist - Military Version, Insomnia Severity Index, and Differential Emotions Scale (shame and anger subscales). Bivariate correlations and moderated-mediation analyses, per Hayes (2013), were conducted, covarying age, sex, and ethnicity. In bivariate analyses, all variables were significantly related in hypothesized directions (p<.01). In mediation analyses, the total effect of FO on insomnia was significant (t=-5.336, p<.001), and the direct effect was nonsignificant when PTSD was added (t=-1.840, p=.07), indicating mediation. In moderated-mediation analyses, the PTSD-insomnia linkage was strengthened by shame (b2=-.011, t=-2.451, p=.015, CI=[-.019, -.002])and anger (b2=-.012,t=-3.1, p=.002, CI=[-.020, -.005]), in separate models. In our veteran sample, to the extent one is future-oriented, PTSD symptoms may be ameliorated, with consequent beneficial impact on sleep quantity and quality. Yet, shame and anger may exacerbate the linkage between PTSD symptoms and insomnia, suggesting that therapeutic interventions to reduce shame (e.g., Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and anger (e.g., cognitive reframing) may promote better sleep. Clinical strategies to promote positive future-oriented thinking (e.g., Cognitive Processing Therapy) may also help to alleviate PTSD symptoms and associated insomnia within the veteran population.