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Bakgrund & problem: Digitaliseringen har under det senaste årtiondet brett ut sig i Sverige. Under denna tid har det skett nya satsningar som påverkat arbetssättet inom olika verksamheter. Revisionsbranschen är en av flera institutioner vars arbetsprocess påverkats av digitaliseringens förändringar. Tidigare studier har undersökt revisorers upplevelser kring vikten av digitala verktyg. Det denna studie kan bidra med är en fördjupad kunskap kring revisorernas upplevelser av den förändring som revisionsarbetets digitalisering har inneburit.  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att bidra till djupare förståelse kring hur revisorer upplever digitaliseringen av revisionsarbetet. Metod: I denna studie utförs kvalitativ forskning utifrån en deduktiv ansats. Arbetsgången i studien har utgått från en fenomenologisk forskningsmetod för att fånga revisorernas egna upplevelser. Den fenomenologiska forskningsmetoden gav möjligheten att utföra en fördjupad analys av upplevelsernas essens. Detta illustrerades i de intervjufrågor som ställdes under de semistrukturerade intervjuerna som genomfördes med 8 revisorer från The Big 4. Vid analyserandet av empirin användes även en egenillustrerad teoretisk modell, baserad på Lewins trestegsmodell, för att uppnå syftet.   Slutsats: Revisorerna upplever i allmänhet att användningen av digitala verktyg har ökat legitimiteten i deras yrke. En central bidragande faktor till digitaliseringen av revisionsarbetet upplevdes vara att skapa och behålla konkurrenskraft. Även Covid-19-pandemin drev på den digitala utveckling i form av fler digitala möten och mindre resande. Det upplevdes att revisionsarbetet blivit roligare tack vare att digitala verktyg har möjliggjort automatiseringen av tråkiga uppgifter. De flesta respondenterna upplever att användandet av analysverktyg har bidragit till en säkrare och mer effektiv revision. / Background & problem: Digitalization has expanded in Swedish society during the last decade. There have been developments that affect the work process in different types of organizations. The auditing industry is one area that has embraced the changes caused by digitalization. Earlier research has studied auditors’ experiences of the importance of digital tools. This study can bring a deeper understanding of how auditors experience how digitalization has changed the audit work.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how auditors experience the digitalization of audit work.  Method: This study uses a deductive approach to perform qualitative research. A phenomenological research method has been used to capture the pure experiences of the auditors. This method enabled a deeper analysis of the essence of the captured experiences. This was made possible by the interview questions posed to the Big 4 interview subjects during 8 semi-structured interviews. To analyze the empirical data and fulfill the purpose, a unique and self-created theoretical model, based on Lewin’s changing model, was used.   Conclusion: The respondents experienced that the usage of digital tools improved the legitimacy of their profession. Creating and maintaining a competitive advantage was deemed to be a driving force behind the digitalization of the audit work process. The Covid-19 pandemic also furthered the digital developments by increased number of digital meetings which led to less traveling. The automation of dull tasks was seen as a reason for the job becoming more fun. Most interviewees experienced that the usage of analytical tools has contributed to making auditing more safe and efficient.

This thesis aims to offer practical guidance for organisational change to successfully implement the Digital Product Passport (DPP). Additionally, it aims to identify specific AI-Nudges that can foster the DPP implementation. The DPP, as proposed by the European Commission, is a unified tool designed to capture and store comprehensive product lifecycle data. It should promote sustainability and circularity in products by ensuring traceability, transparency, and accountability across the entire supply chain. Despite its potential, successful implementation of the DPP requires organisational change and overcoming a significant challenge: the Knowing-Doing Gap. This means that knowledge is not translated into action. A qualitative research approach was used with semi-structured interviews with behavioural economics, AI and organisational change experts and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that while many organisations are aware of the DPP, fewer have progressed to actual implementation. The analysis supported the existence of the Knowing-Doing Gap, highlighting barriers such as resource constraints, abstract goals, and insufficient technological infrastructure. To overcome these barriers, Kotter’s 8-Step Model of Change was contextualised, offering actionable steps for organisations, including interdisciplinary collaboration, stakeholder engagement, data management, and establishing new norms. Additionally, the study exemplified specific AI-Nudges that can support the implementation of the DPP. These included a Reminder-Tracking AI-Nudge for the project team and employees, a Data Usage AI-Nudge for project teams, an Decision-Making AI-Nudge for purchasing departments, and a Recommendation AI-Nudge for consumers. As a result, this study provided a theoretical framework and process model for the DPP implementation.

Convection in a layer of fluid with a free surface due to a combination of thermocapillary stresses and buoyancy is a classic problem of fluid mechanics. It has attracted increasing attentions recently due to its relevance for two-phase cooling. Many of the modern thermal management technologies exploit the large latent heats associated with phase change at the interface of volatile liquids, allowing compact devices to handle very high heat fluxes. To enhance phase change, such cooling devices usually employ a sealed cavity from which almost all noncondensable gases, such as air, have been evacuated. Heating one end of the cavity, and cooling the other, establishes a horizontal temperature gradient that drives the flow of the coolant. Although such flows have been studied extensively at atmospheric conditions, our fundamental understanding of the heat and mass transport for volatile fluids at reduced pressures remains limited. A comprehensive and quantitative numerical model of two-phase buoyancy-thermocapillary convection of confined volatile fluids subject to a horizontal temperature gradient has been developed, implemented, and validated against experiments as a part of this thesis research. Unlike previous simplified models used in the field, this new model incorporates a complete description of the momentum, mass, and heat transport in both the liquid and the gas phase, as well as phase change across the entire liquid-gas interface. Numerical simulations were used to improve our fundamental understanding of the importance of various physical effects (buoyancy, thermocapillary stresses, wetting properties of the liquid, etc.) on confined two-phase flows. In particular, the effect of noncondensables (air) was investigated by varying their average concentration from that corresponding to ambient conditions to zero, in which case the gas phase becomes a pure vapor. It was found that the composition of the gas phase has a crucial impact on heat and mass transport as well as on the flow stability. A simplified theoretical description of the flow and its stability was developed and used to explain many features of the numerical solutions and experimental observations that were not well understood previously. In particular, an analytical solution for the base return flow in the liquid layer was extended to the gas phase, justifying the previous ad-hoc assumption of the linear interfacial temperature profile. Linear stability analysis of this two-layer solution was also performed. It was found that as the concentration of noncondensables decreases, the instability responsible for the emergence of a convective pattern is delayed, which is mainly due to the enhancement of phase change. Finally, a simplified transport model was developed for heat pipes with wicks or microchannels that gives a closed-form analytical prediction for the heat transfer coefficient and the optimal size of the pores of the wick (or the width of the microchannels).

En förändring är ett tillstånd som vi upplever under hela vår livstid, både privat och i arbetslivet. Företag måste förändras för att kunna bevara sin konkurrens-kraft. Motstånd till förändring kan anses som det största enskilda hotet mot ett framgångsrikt införande av en strategi på ett företag. Ett sätt att hantera detta motstånd är att använda sig av den delaktiga förändringsmodellen samt stävja rädslor och osäkerhet.   Syftet med detta examensarbete var att vi ville få en ökad förståelse för hur företag arbetar med produktionsförbättringar och om de känner av något motstånd vid dessa förändringar. De intervjuade företagen anger som sin absolut största förändring deras införande av ett eget produktionssystem med stort fokus på Kaizen – Ständiga förbättringar.   Under arbetets gång stötte vi på en psykologisk och vetenskaplig teori om Förändringens fyra rum som anses vara ett kraftfullt hjälpmedel vid alla förändringar. / A change is a state that everyone experiences during their whole life, both privately as well as at work. Companies must change in order to keep their competitiveness. Resistance to change can be considered as the largest single threat against a successful implementation of a strategy in a company. One way to deal with the resistance is to apply the participation change model as well as suppressing fears and insecurity.    The purpose of this thesis was to achieve a higher understanding for how companies work with productivity improvements and if they experience any resistance when making these changes. The interviewed companies state as their absolute largest change to be the implementation of their own production system with big focus on Kaizen – Continuous improvements.   During our work we encountered a psychological and scientific theory about Four rooms of change which is considered to be a powerful aid of assistance during all changes.

Cost-effective machining of hardened steel (>60 HRC) components such as a large wind turbine bearing poses a significant challenge. This thesis investigates a new laser tempering based hybrid turning approach to machine hardened AISI 52100 steel parts more efficiently and cost effectively. The approach consists of a two step process involving laser tempering of the hardened workpiece surface followed by conventional machining at higher material removal rates using lower cost ceramic tooling to efficiently cut the laser tempered material. The specific objectives of this work are to: (a) study the characteristics of laser tempering of hyper-eutectoid 52100 hardened steel, (b) model the laser tempering process to determine the resulting hardness, and (c) conduct machining experiments to evaluate the performance of the laser tempering based hybrid turning process in terms of forces, tools wear and surface finish. First, the microstructure alterations and phase content in the surface and subsurface layers are analyzed using metallography and x-ray diffraction (XRD) respectively. Laser tempering produces distinct regions consisting of - a tempered white layer and a dark layer- in the heat affected subsurface region of the workpiece. The depth of the tempered region is dependent on the laser scanning conditions. Larger overlap of laser scans and smaller scan speeds produce a thicker tempered region. Furthermore, the tempered region is composed of ferrite and martensite and weak traces of retained austenite (~ 1 %). Second, a laser tempering model consisting of a three dimensional analytical model to predict the temperature field generated by laser scanning of 52100 hardened steel and a phase change based hardness model to predict the hardness of the tempered region are developed. The thermal model is used to evaluate the temperature field induced in the subsurface region due to the thermal cycles produced by the laser scanning step. The computed temperature histories are then fed to the phase change model to predict the surface and subsurface hardness. The laser tempering model is used to select the laser scanning conditions that yield the desired hardness reduction at the maximum depth. This model is verified through laser scanning experiments wherein the hardness changes are compared with model predictions. The model is shown to yield predictions that are within 20 % of the measured hardness of the tempered region. Using the laser scanning parameters determined from the laser tempering model, cutting experiments using Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) tools and low cost alumina ceramic tools are conducted to compare the performance of laser tempering based hybrid turning with the conventional hard turning process. The machining experiments demonstrate the possibility of higher material removal rates, lower cutting forces, improved tool wear behavior, and consequently improved tool life in the laser tempering based process. In addition, the laser tempered based hybrid turning process produce is shown to yield lower peak-to-valley surface roughness height than the conventional hard turning process. Furthermore, it is found that lower cost ceramic tools can be used in place of CBN tools without compromising the material removal rate.

The purpose of this paper is to provide information on how organizations prepare for organizational change by examining how they work for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into action in May 2018. The following questions have been used in order to approach this action: How do municipal organizations prepare effectively for the changes that the EU Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) implies? What steps are particularly problematic in the change work? How can change leaders handle these steps? During the study, a qualitative method has been used through semi-structured interviews. Respondents have key positions in the preparatory work for GDPR within three municipal organizations. One respondent for each organization. As a theoretical reason, Kotter's eight- step change model and previous research on the importance of an individual perspective in change work have been used and the empirical material has been analyzed using content analysis and opinion concentration. The results show that the preparation work for the change looks different in different organizations. You then have a problem of communicating the vision of change when instructions from the EU and the Data Inspectorate for the new regulation are not fully met. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the importance of organizational understanding and knowledge of change, by the change leader, to introduce a new way of working in a municipal organization.

Title: Dose-response curves Author: Martin Hezoučký Department: Department of Probability and Mathematical Statistics Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Zdeněk Hlávka, Ph.D., Department of Probability and Mathematical Statistics Abstract: In this thesis, we deal with the process of research and development of new medical substances with a focus on statistical methods used to determine appropriate doses. For this purpose, we examine the dose-response relationship. First, we describe a typical procedure for the development of a new drug. Second, we focus in detail on the MCP-Mod method. Third, we propose a new method based on the theory of gradual change models. This approach tests whether the administration of the drug has a significant effect. If so, the dose with desired effect is estimated using an appropriate model. Specifically, we provide an esti- mate using linear, quadratic and Emax gradual change models. We also describe a construction of a confidence interval for the point of change and also for the dose with the desired effect. The advantage of the proposed method over the MCP-Mod is the determination of the confidence intervals. Finally, we apply the above mentioned methods to data from the U.S. Tox21 research program and compare the results based on several tested substances and clearly demonstrate the...