Everyday life revolves around the discovery and curation of digital information. People search the Web continuously, from quickly looking up the information needed to complete a task, to endlessly searching for inspiration and knowledge. A variety of studies have modeled information seeking strategies and characterized information seeking and curation activities on the Web. However, there is a lack of research on how existing Web applications support the discovery and curation of information, especially concerning the motivations behind them and how different approaches can be compared. In this thesis, I present a study of information discovery tools and how they relate to the nature of information seeking. I propose a conceptual framework that deals with Web application design elements that support different aspects of information discovery and curation. This framework can be used when designing, evaluating or updating Web applications. / Graduate / 0984

For a meaningful discussion of the effectiveness of ecological objectives and ecological quality standards, their terms and purposes must be examined and clarified. This study explores the terms and content of ecological quality objectives and ecological quality standards, based on the Water Framework Directive’s legal conceptualization of ‘ecological status’. This exploration is accomplished by analysing and describing the Water Framework Directive’s ‘ecological status’ aspect from a legal-ecological perspective. The analysis of ‘ecological status’ and its main constructs forms the basis for a possible alternative form of regulation, which addresses the shortcomings identified in the analysis.

In the last decade, PSS (Product/ Service System) emerged as a new effective business model in helping manufacturers increase significantly productivity and customer’s satisfaction, whist minimizing environmental impact. PSS contributes drastically to the development of an innovative transaction trend, in which rather than just providing physical products separately, industrial Companies are more focusing on integrated service offers and customer’s need fulfillment.    However, to implement successfully PSS, manufacturers have to overcome many challenges and uncertainties. The uncertainties in the PSS planning phase are related to market, environment or company analysis; reliability, product/service integration, supplier coordination etc in the design and development stages are considered as potential uncertainties. Uncertainty is defined as “State of deficiency of information related to a future event” (Sakao et al., 2009). In which, risks derived from negative side of uncertainties may reduce efficiency of the model or even make the implementation process fail to some extent. If the uncertainty is resolved in a favorable way, risks can be seen as potential business opportunities for the development of PSS Companies. While many Companies already have their own uncertainty management initiative; others just utilize their long time experience to treat uncertainties. Therefore, numerous Companies are seeking a comprehensive uncertainty management framework that could be applicable in most circumstances. In order to fulfill this urgent need, our thesis aimed to develop a holistic framework in order to manage risks occurred in PSS planning, design and development stages. Based on previous valuable PSS researches and useful empirical data collected, our dissertation first determined successfully critical uncertainty factors and potential business opportunities exploited from those. In addition, the research investigated elaborately PSS product quality thresholds and producers’ perception on reliability of their products before constructing a general uncertainty management framework. In which the whole management process based on Active Risk Management philosophy, included Risk Management Planning, Risk Identification, Risk Assessment and Prioritization, Risk Quantification, Risk Response Planning, Risk Tracking and Control were introduced as a helpful guideline to support PSS Companies to treat effectively uncertainties in PSS planning, design and development.

I många industriella tillämpningar används robotar för tunga och repetetiva uppgifter. För dessa tillämpningar är iterative learning control (ILC) ett sätt att fånga upp och utnyttja repeterbarheten för att förbättra någon form av referenseföljning. I det här examensarbetet har det tagits fram ett ramverk som ska hjälpa en användare att kunna untyttja ILC. Det visas handgripliga exempel på hur man enkelt kan avända ramverket. Övergången från den betydligt mer vanliga diskreta ILC algoritmen till det kontinuerliga tillvägagångssättet som anänds av ramverket underlättas av teroretisk  underbygga inställningsregler. Den uppnåeliga prestandan demonstreras med hjälp av ramverkets inbyggda plotfunktioner. / In many industrial applications robots are used for heavy and repetitive tasks. For these applications iterative learning control (ILC) is a way to capture the repetitive nature and use it to improve some kind of reference tracking. In this master thesis a framework has been developed to help a user getting started with ILC. Some hands-on examples are given on how to easily use the framework. The transition from the far more common discrete time domain to the continuous time domain used by the framework is eased by tuning theory. The achievable performance is demonstrated with the help of the built-in plot functions of the framework.

The thesis presents an analytic work of the MDA-framework and the promotional art of Halo 4 and Mass Effect 2 and how the two areas correlate with each other. The aim for the thesis is to investigate how the art style of the promotional art uses the elements of art to communicate the different gameplay of Halo 4 and Mass Effect 2, both set in a science fiction world, to their respective audiences in order to find how the elements of art can help to emphasize communication of gameplay information to the audience. This is reached by analyzing the gameplay of both games with the help of the MDA-framework by Hunicke, LeBlanc and Zubek enabling the analyses to reach a more comprehensive breakdown of the games. The analyses of the promotional artwork for both games are weighed against categories in the elements of art, the reason to find a more comprehensive breakdown of the promotional art. The data from both analyses are later compared with each other to find how the elements of art communicate information of the gameplay to the audience. In addition, it presents what categories of the elements of art in this analysis seems to be the most common for communicating gameplay information of the chosen promotional artworks. The conclusion is that the use of elements of art in promotional art in Halo 4 and Mass Effect 2 seems to carry more information that communicates to the audience than what might be the first to meet the eye. This leads to an understanding that the analysis of a broader sample size of promotional art from the games can open an opportunity of a better understanding how the use of elements of art in promotional art can communicate gameplay to the audience. Additionally this could also be applied to a larger range of games in order to find how different genres use the elements of art to communicate to their respective audience.

Currently, mobile computing is mandating or influencing the direction of new developments in information technology. The high level of adoption that mobile devices have among individuals allows for multiple opportunities for new developments applicable to academic communities, governments and businesses. Data of various types can be collected in a crowd-sourced manner. As such, this thesis examines the collection and application of data collected through a purpose-designed app relying on Bluetooth and geo-location technologies on mobile devices. Through three distinct development iterations and using Bluetooth connectivity, information about connectivity to other mobile devices can be obtained, and in this way the number, type, and device names of “connecting” devices are gathered and stored. Another interesting aspect associated with this type of data collection is that the mobile device may be either moving or stationary during the data collection process. Information can be collected and mined to help map real-life events such as traffic patterns or crowd movement within mass gatherings, as well as ethereal social interactions, and these data can in turn be used as input to various models and simulators. When geo-location technologies are incorporated, a higher level of detail can be obtained on the location of devices. This technology allows for mapping movement and contacts made between people, allowing for the gathering of more detailed social patterns of individuals. As part of this study, the technology developed using Bluetooth connectivity and geo-location is then taken to an additional iteration to develop a mobile system that is able to find and establish direct connections with other individuals and initiate real-life interactions. The work demonstrates that mobile technologies can provide a broad framework of action for the generation and collection of valuable data that can be used for behavioural studies, simulations and other type of research that involves real-life social interactions.

Questions have been are raised about the applicability (context specificity) and appropriateness (cultural relevance) of existing frameworks and the indicators used to measure and monitor food security in communities located throughout Canada’s circumpolar region. Developed primarily for use in more urban areas located to the south and with non-Aboriginal populations such frameworks have arguably failed to take into account the unique food perspectives and practices of the Inuit, First Nation and Métis peoples who live in the north. A call for both improved food security concepts and measures that are relevant to and capture the local characteristics of northern communities and its people are required. Taking a post modern ethnographic approach the purpose of the current study was to develop a holistic understanding of food security in Stony Rapids, a remote predominantly Aboriginal community in Saskatchewan’s far north. Immersed in day to day life for a period of three months an ethnographic record of household food security was produced through participant observation (P-O) activities, interviews and photographs. These activities occurred both within the community and within three households that agreed to participate in the study. Analysis occurred in two phases. The first phase was informal, occurred throughout the duration of the field work, and involved reading and rereading field notes and sharing of observations and insights with household participants and key informants. The second phase of analysis began after leaving the field and data collection had ended. In a formal process, thematic analysis grounded in the data was used to reduce, make sense, and derive meaning from the field notes and interviews. Emerging from the analysis, findings suggested that food moves into and within northern households via three dominant pathways that originate from the sources of food that are available to and accessed by households in Stony Rapids. The movement of food vis-à-vis these three dominant pathways was found to be dependent on a constellation of regional and/or community level factors as well as structural factors that were unique to each household. These factors taken together not only influence the capacity of households to access food but also influence how food is utilised within the home. This study produced a novel way of understanding northern food security that has relevance for the measures that may be developed to capture this issue and thereby inform appropriate and effective intervention strategies.

The Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC) is an innovative piece of legislation aimed at harmonizing Water Policy among the 27 Member States. This Directive, the reading of which may appear quasi-revolutionary due to its territorial and material scope, is a new policy instrument with, as of yet, still ongoing implementation. The final deadline for the complete implementation of the Water Framework Directive is 2015, when the good ecological status of the water bodies in the European Union should have been achieved. The purpose of this study is to analyze the development of the implementation on three essential aspects of the Directive: the transposition, the creation of the administrative authorities, and the public participation in the elaboration of the River Basin Management Plans. My thesis has two main research questions: 1) Have France and Spain implemented the WFD correctly? 2) Does the pervasive theory of the Mediterranean Syndrome apply to my study cases? In order to answer the first question, I use the scoreboard method to assess of the correctness of implementation of the three essential aspects of the Directive mentioned above, complemented by an examination of the domestic dynamics that shaped the implementation categorized into different modes of governance. To address the second question the two case studies I have chosen will test the doctrine of the northern leaders and southern laggards as based on institutional culture. The doctrine of the Southern Laggards (also known as the Mediterranean Syndrome doctrine) advocates that the Southern/Mediterranean states are doomed to fail implementing EU environmental policy. In my thesis, I address this doctrine by using a practical case study: the comparison of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive between France and Spain. The essence of these arguments is rooted in the mainstream doctrine of the goodness of fit. That is, a Directive is more likely to be correctly implemented where there is a matching institutional framework. In order to use this theory as a departure point to examine the hypothesis of likeliness of correct implementation of the WFD by France and Spain, I selected three main institutional features that are hallmarks in France and Spain and also practically opposed: political centralization versus decentralization, democracy and participation versus totalitarianism, and the status of economic development of each EU Member. I use them as indicators to determine the degree of fit of France and Spain´s institutional frameworks with the purpose, the policy style and the institutions required by the WFD. I conclude with highlighting the importance of this study for the contribution that it may make to two contemporary issues: the current Eastern/Western divide in the EU (can the doctrine of the Northern/Southern states usefully be extrapolated to the Western/Eastern Members?) and the thorny economic situation of the EU today. At the time of finishing writing this thesis, all the fingers point to Greece, immersed in a striking public debt that has shaken the rest of the Mediterranean countries: is the Mediterranean Syndrome attacking again? / Graduate

An integrated framework is created to assess national-level tourism plans and is applied to the Egyptian case. To date, the assessment of tourism planning has been a tedious, expensive process and detailed evaluations have not often been undertaken in a systematic manner. It is argued that much can be learned about tourism planning by examining tourism planning documents systematically according to a set of criteria. Although plans differ depending on their contexts, there are certain attributes that should be present in all tourism plans. In this dissertation a set of characteristics is delineated that should be present in national-level tourism plans. The proposed assessment framework is divided into four major components: goals and objectives, approach to tourism planning, institutional elements, and marketing. Each component is then further divided into key points drawn from pertinent literatures that suggest the characteristics of a good plan and, therefore, what should be assessed in plan evaluation. The framework is then applied to the Egyptian tourism plan to guide an examination and assessment of the documents. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made to improve Egyptian tourism planning. This research contributes to tourism planning by suggesting a framework that can be employed with relative ease to assess tourism plans for different national-level destinations, thus facilitating problem and issue identification, offering an opportunity for learning, and providing a structure for undertaking comparative studies.

In the wake of 21 year old Don Sanderson’s death (January 1st, 2009), the direct result of head injuries sustained during an on-ice hockey fight, the social and political appetite for eliminating violence in amateur hockey appears to be at an all time high. Unfortunately, due to a variety of methodological and conceptual limitations previous research is currently unable to provide a unified and valid explanation for sport-specific aggression (Kirker, Tenenbaum, & Mattson, 2000). One of the primary impediments facing our understanding of sport-specific aggression is the descriptive and fragmented nature of the current body of literature. Over the years a number of independent lines of research have been undertaken, through which several psychological and social factors have been identified as potential determinants. However, in many cases these constructs have yet to be tested against athletes’ actual aggressive behaviour in sport and thus their predictive contribution to our understanding is still unknown. Consequently, the purpose of the current investigation was to assess the predictive influence of several commonly cited psychosocial constructs on amateur hockey players actual within-competition use of aggressive behaviour over a competitive season. A trait aggressive personality disposition emerged as the strongest and most stable predictor of athletes’ aggressive behaviour, accounting for 10 – 40% of the statistical variance depending upon the age and competitive level of the athletes under investigation. Differences in the overt expression of the this trait aggressive disposition between age cohorts (bantam / midget) and competitive levels (house league / rep) suggests that environmental and contextual factors also play a significant role in facilitating or repressing athletes’ aggressive behaviour. As such, the results of the current study support an interactive explanation for hockey-related aggression, whereby situational (e.g., team norms, perceived reinforcement) and personal factors (e.g., trait aggressive disposition, ego orientation) interact to either increase or decrease an athlete’s likelihood for committing aggressive penalty infractions over a competitive season. The current results are plotted and discussed within the parameters of Anderson and Bushman’s (2002) General Aggression Model (GAM), which is a frequently cited interactionist framework used in the broader study of human aggression.