A common way of organizing Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers (WIMP) interfaces is to group tools into tool containers, providing one visual representation. Common tool containers include toolbars and menus, as well as more complex tool containers, like Microsoft Offices Ribbon, Toolglasses, and marking menus. The location of tool containers has been studied extensively in the past using Fittss Law, which governs selection time; however, selection time is only one aspect of user performance. In this thesis, I show that tool container location affects other aspects of user performance, specifically attention and awareness. The problem investigated in this thesis is that designers lack an understanding of the effects of tool container location on two important user performance factors: attention and group awareness. My solution is to provide an initial understanding of the effects of tool container location on these factors. In solving this problem, I developed a taxonomy of tool container location, and carried out two research studies. The two research studies investigated tool container location in two contexts: single-user performance with desktop interfaces, and group performance in tabletop interfaces. Through the two studies, I was able to show that tool container location does affect attention and group awareness, and to provide new recommendations for interface designers.

Metalinguistic awareness skills (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness) contribute to children’s spelling as well as reading. Although the multidimensional nature of these metalinguistic awareness skills has been acknowledged, little research has been conducted on the simultaneous investigation of these three metalinguistic skills, and it is especially true for Korean Hangul. The purpose of this study was to simultaneously examine these three inter-related constructs and the unique and shared contributions of each construct to English spelling as well as Korean spelling of typically developing fourth, fifth and sixth grade Korean-speaking students (n= 287). Korean metalinguistic awareness skills represented by three-first order factors (i.e., phonological, orthographic, morphological awareness) predicted 83% of the total variance in Korean spelling, and 52% of the total variance in English Word Spelling. It was particularly noteworthy that Korean metalinguistic awareness skills determined 12% of the variance in English Word Spelling, even after controlling for English vocabulary, demonstrating that there was a transfer effect between the two different orthographies. Findings from the present study provide strong support for the relationships between first language and second language literacy skills in terms of spelling and the concrete relationship between morphological awareness and spelling.

Modern context-aware applications no longer justify their decisions based only on their own information but on the decisions and information of other applications in a similar context.  Acquiring context information of other entities in an distributed system is difficult task when using the current content centric solutions such as DHTs.  This project aims to build a distributed index that provides storage for the so called Presentities solely based on the state of their context information.  Furthermore, the stored Presentities must be efficiently accessible even if only some information of their current context is available. To fulfill these requirements the PAST DHT was extended to support range queries and modified to use points on a space-filling curve as index values. The simulation of the system has shown very good accuracy rates, on average 99%, for range queries by maintaining a logarithmic relationship to the amount of required messages sent in the DHT.  Problems have emerged from the lack of load balancing implemented into the used DHT, but it is still the case that the proposed method of using space-filling curves to build a context centric decentralized index is both sufficient and effective. Keywords: context awareness, indexing, space-flling curves, Hilbert curve,Pastry, PAST

Nature is everywhere. Every day we have contact with it. Still, many of us do not realize how important it is for our survival. Descriptions of nature have always been present in novels. However, recently the aspect of nature in literature, as well as in other disciplines, has been dealt with in a slightly different way. As a result, an ecocritical approach to literature has been favoured. This essay shows nature's impact on the characters in Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers. Using this novel as an example, I start by studying how the concept of nature is often constructed through opposition. I then move on to show how stereotypical boundaries between nature and human beings may be challenged. Finally I study how nature function as a healing agent in The Stone Carvers. In my studies I combine the theories of ecocriticism with a psychoanalytical perspective through the concept of abjection.

Enligt tidigare forskning grundas gott ledarskap på förmågan att motivera, sätta upp mål och fatta kompetenta beslut (Bass, Riggio och Mahwah, 2006). Gott ledarskap grundas även på aktiv kommunikation och balanserade informationsflöden (Avolio, Gardner, Peterson, Wernsing & Walumbwa, 2008). Utan effektiv kommunikation är ledarskap i huvudsak irrelevant och kommunikation är som mest effektiv när den leder till delad förståelse (Neufeld, Wan & Fang, 2010; Chidambaram & Jones, 1993). Syftet med den här studien är att belysa fenomenet ledarskap och kommunikation från ett aktivt vardagligt perspektiv. Studien undersöker ledarskap och ledarskapets kommunikation med medarbetare genom en kvalitativ intervjustudie baserat på femton intervjuer med ledare, följt av en tematisk analys. Det undersökta fenomenet återspeglar ledarskap genom medvetenhet och ledarskapets kommunikation genom autenticitet. Studien beskriver ledares uppdrag, tydlighet och uppriktighet i kommunikation, fostran av positiv kultur genom engagemang och värdeskapande och vikten av förtroende och insikt i relationer. I studien diskuteras resultatet med tidigare forskning. Bland annat förs en diskussion om ledares starkare identifikation med organisatoriska värden jämfört med personliga värderingar. En slutsats som studien reflekterar över är betydelsen av att noggrant identifiera förväntningar och kommunicera dem uppriktighet med lyhördhet gentemot medarbetare. / According to previous research strong leadership is based on the ability to motivate, set goals and make competent decisions (Bass, Riggio and Mahwah, 2006). Good leadership is also based on active communication and balanced information flows (Avolio, Gardner, Peterson, Wernsing & Walumbwa, 2008). Without effective communication, leadership is essentially irrelevant and communication is most effective when it leads to shared understanding (Neufeld, Wan & Fang, 2010; Chidambaram & Jones, 1993). The purpose of this study is to highlight the phenomenon of leadership and communication from an everyday perspective. The study examines leadership and leadership communication with employees through a qualitative study based on fifteen interviews with leaders, followed by a thematic analysis. The investigated phenomenon reflects leadership through awareness and leadership communication through authenticity. The study describes the leader's assignment, clarity and sincerity in communication, nurturing of positive culture through engagement and creating value, and the importance of trust and insight in relationships. The study discusses the results with previous research. Furthermore, it discusses a stronger identification combined with organizational values compared to personal values. One conclusion that the study reflect upon is the importance of accurate identification of expectations and to communicate them with sincerity and sensitivity towards employees.

Pervasive computing is an important trend today. It concerns devices and services in a smart space that interact with users in a simple, natural, and harmonious way. Many problems in this domain have been studied from different perspectives in various projects. However, one important characteristic of pervasive computing, which is how to make it non-intrusive so that users can focus on their tasks, has received little formal attention. Nowadays, many computing entities including smart devices, and software components, are involved in our daily lives, and users need to deal with them as well as with other people. Besides, people are easy to reach with multiple devices. We believe there should be a systematic way to help users avoid intrusive ones. We propose a model for posing and answering two questions: will an interaction intrude on its receiver if delivered, and given that the interaction is deliverable, how can it be delivered effectively and not too overtly? With this model, the intrusion problem is analyzed and the essential factors are identified. A quantitative approach is used, so that factors have quantitative values for comparison and computation. We also apply context to refine them in order to achieve better results. We then illustrate how to materialize the model and build a system whose design is inspired by the Jabber framework that includes a collection of standards, technologies, and projects for instant messaging. The discussion is at a general level that does not depend on Jabber. However, by choosing Jabber in implementation, we reuse existing software and technologies, and benefit from Jabber/XMPP standardization, its low entry barrier for application developers, and its rich community support. The main contributions of our work are two-fold. First, we propose a model for intrusiveness in pervasive computing. Second, we address the problem at the system level by designing and realizing it. We also make use of standardized instant-messaging technologies, more precisely Jabber, in the system instantiation to reuse existing software, making the system more flexible and extensible.

Denna uppsats syfte var att ta reda på vilken kännedom som finns om de svenska näringsrekommendationerna hos människor på ett antal svenska arbetsplatser. Syftet har även inne-fattat att ta reda på huruvida man använder sig av denna kännedom eller inte. Metod: En kvantitativ ansats i en tvärsnittsstudie har använts i denna undersökning och hundratio enkäter har blivit besvarade. Dessa enkäter har analyserats både kvantitativt och kvalitativt. Resultatet visade att majoriteten av respondenterna inte kände till de svenska näringsrekom-mendationerna. Majoriteten var också omedvetna om hur den procentuella energifördelningen såg ut. Jämförbart med tidigare studier så underskattade männen rekommendationerna för grönsaker medan kvinnorna hade mer kännedom om rekommendationerna som helhet. Båda könen överskattade rekommendationerna för protein och underskattade rekommendationerna för kolhydrater. Slutsats: Av de få respondenter som kände till de svenska näringsrekommen-dationerna, använde de sig inte av dessa i sin vardag. Det är därför viktigt att hitta nya sätt att kommunicera denna information, ett förslag kan vara via sociala medier. Denna information bör vara anpassad så att alla personer har en möjlighet att förstå den. / The aim of the study was to find out what information people have regarding the Swedish Nutrient Recommendations at some Swedish workplaces. The aim also included to find out how people use - or do not use - this information in their everyday lives. Method: A cross sectional study design was used and a survey was administered at various workplaces where hundred and ten questionnaires were answered. These surveys have been analyzed quantita-tively and qualitatively. The results showed that the majority of the respondents were not aware of the Swedish Nutrient Recommendations, including the percentage of the energy dis-tribution. Consistent with previous studies, men underestimated the recommendations for vegetables, while women had slightly more knowledge about the recommendations as a whole. Both sexes overestimated the recommendations regarding protein and underestimated the recommendations for carbohydrates. Conclusion: Out of the few respondents who were aware of the recommendations, most did not make use of them in their everyday life. In order to improve public health, it is important that through better or new ways of communication get more information about the nutrient recommendations.

The purpose of this degree project is to study if there is a intentional work with technology in the elementary school, preschool to fifth grade, in a municipality. The work will also study what conditions there are in the schools in order to work with technology. 95 questionnaires were distributed to the responsible teachers in all primary schools in the municipality, from preschool to fifth grade. The results of the survey show that more than half of the respondents do not consider themselves to work with technology in the school. The conditions, in order to work with the school subject technology in the municipality, are primarily external such as: material, facilities and the ability to divide students into smaller groups. The primary school teachers are experiencing a lack of knowledge within the subject technology and primarily desire further education to be able to work more with technology. One conclusion that emerged in the survey is that technology is a subject with low priority mainly because of lack of knowledge and competence among the teachers. / Syftet med examensarbetet är att studera om det på ett medvetet sätt arbetas med teknik i grundskolan, år F-5 i en kommun. Arbetet ska även studera vilka förutsättningar det finns på skolorna för att arbeta med teknik. 95 enkäter delades ut till ansvariga klasslärare på samtliga grundskolor i kommunen med ålderspannet F-5. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att mer än hälften av de svarande lärarna inte anser sig arbeta medvetet med teknik i skolan. De förutsättningar som finns för att arbeta med skolämnet teknik i kommunen är främst yttre förutsättningar, dvs. material, lokaler och möjlighet att dela in eleverna i smågrupper. Lärarna upplever en brist på kunskap inom teknikämnet och önskar främst fortbildning och kunskap för att kunna arbeta mer med teknik. En slutsats som framkommit i undersökningen är att teknik är ett lågt prioriterat ämne främst på grund av bristen på kunskap och kompetens hos lärarna.

Mathematics is perceived as a difficult subject to many students internationally and Sweden ranks among EU/OECD countries that perform poorly, cited in the TIMSS 2007 assessments. The aim of this essay is to investigate the causes of the poor performance in Mathematics in many of Swedish Secondary schools and it will contribute to the solutions of this problem. The framework of this essay takes into consideration issues on; school curriculum, instruction of knowledge by teachers, construction of knowledge by students, their interactions and experiences in the situation of learning. Teaching methods have been seen as the starting point upon which students can be invited to carry out communications, reasoning and arguments in mathematics. This can be useful in developing capabilities of solving mathematical problems as recommended in Secondary School regulations book. The interviewed teachers’ experiences and approaches in selecting teaching methods have been interpreted to correspond with students’ involvement in learning mathematics. The essay has found out that there is a positive effect on understanding mathematics if teachers can select teaching methods that suits a specific object of learning. This however, has left one disturbing question for further researchers to answer; to whether it is enough for highly motivated and hard working students to study mathematics based on memorized wisdom (ideas) as it does not promote mathematical awareness.

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