The thesis is devoted to finding robust non-conflict paths in multi-agent path finding (MAPF). We propose several new techniques for the construction of these types of paths and describe their properties. We deal with the use of contingency planning and we create a tree plan for the agents where the specific path is chosen by the agents during the execution based on the current delay. Next we present an algorithm that increases robustness while maintaining the original length of the solution and we combine it with the previous approach. Then we will focus on the method of increasing robustness by changing the speed of agents. Finally we experimentally verify the applicability of these techniques on different types of graphs. We will show that all the proposed methods are significantly more robust than the classic solution and they also have certain advantages over previously known constructions of robust plans.

Behavioral contracts were used to reduce the socially inappropriate and stigmatizing behaviors of adult men diagnosed with an intellectual disability. All three participants were residing in an intensive residential habilitation facility and receiving 24 hour supports due to the intensity of their problem behaviors. A multiple baseline across subjects with a series of reversals within the intervention phase was used to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of two types of behavioral contracts: one based on the function of the behavior and the other based on highly preferred items. Brief functional analyses were conducted to determine the function of the participants' problem behavior and multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments were conducted to establish a hierarchy of highly preferred items. Based on the results of the brief functional analyses, all three participants' problem behaviors were likely to be maintained by attention. Results showed that the behavioral contracts resulted in a substantial decrease in maladaptive behaviors for all of the participants and, conversely, an increase in the use of functionally equivalent replacement behaviors; one of the participants showed differentiation between the treatment conditions, indicating that a functional approach might be more beneficial for some individuals.

Behaving in novel ways is essential to the development of the types of complex performances described by the term creativity, problem solving, and perseverance. Some research suggests that response variability is an operant and a critical component of novel behavior. However, other account of novel behavior may be more parsimonious. Topographical variability has rarely been examined, nor has operant variability with organisms with baselines featuring stereotypic responding. This study examined the effects of a variability-specifying contingency on the cumulative novel responses of undergraduate students. Using the PORTL apparatus, participants interacted with a ball with a single hand. When the variability-specifying contingency was in effect, novel topographies were reinforced. When a reinforce every response condition was implemented, the participants did not emit any novel responses. When variability-specifying contingencies were in effect, novel responses were rarely followed by subsequent novel responses. They were mostly followed by repeated emission of the same topography, or by other previously emitted topographies. Novel responding did not persist long, although the variability-specifying contingency remained in effect and the potential for novel responding was great. The variability-specifying contingency often resulted in stereotypic response chains. Each of these findings call into the question the assertion that variability is an operant and suggests other possible explanations for the observed novelty.

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Date: 2022-06-01 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Rahaf Alkhadra  & Jessika Melander  Title: Organisational Change in The Pervasive Digitalization Era Supervisor: Konstantin Lampou Research question: How is digital transformation as an organizational change implemented in organizations and how is it perceived by the individuals within the organization? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic digital changes within organizations, by investigating the process of implementing digital transformation and how it impacts organizational structure on both organizational and individual levels. Therefore, the practice of digital transformation, in which it is manifested as individuals’ perceptions of the change process will be pursued to better equip the notion of contemporary organizations when addressing organizational change. Method: Since the goal is to interpret a pervasive phenomenon, an abductive approach along with a qualitative design were followed to enable an accurate clarification of the subject. The data has been collected from 16 participants through semi-structured interviews with different organizations. Conclusion: The implementation process of DT contains three main phases (sensing, sizing, and transforming), where the transforming phase is where individuals’ perceptions can be comprehended since it is the key element of ensuring the goals of digitalization. Also, the duality of individuals’ perceptions manifested in the reasoning and sensemaking of the change and not in the digitalization per se.  Keywords: Organizational change, digitalization, digital transformation, contingency theory, individuals perceptions.

Odds ratios and risk ratios are useful measures of effect size in 2-group studies in which the response variable is dichotomous. Confidence interval methods are proposed for combining and comparing odds ratios and risk ratios in multistudy designs. Unlike the traditional fixed-effect meta-analysis methods, the proposed varying coefficient methods do not require effect-size homogeneity, and unlike the randomeffects meta-analysis methods, the proposed varying coefficient methods do not assume that the effect sizes from the selected studies represent a random sample from a normally distributed superpopulation of effect sizes. The results of extensive simulation studies suggest that the proposed varying coefficient methods have excellent performance characteristics under realistic conditions and should provide useful alternatives to the currently used meta-analysis methods.

I Sverige och Finland sker idag ett kontinuerligt och växande arbete för att skapa ökad resiliens och för att mer effektivt kunna förebygga och hantera risker, sårbarheter och hot. Grannländerna har rätt likartade utgångspunkter på en rad områden men när det kommer till krisberedskap valde Finland en annan väg än Sverige under 1990-talets slut. De avvecklade inte sin omfattande försörjningsberedskap fullt ut som Sverige gjorde. Sedan 2017 har svenska myndigheter arbetat intensivt med återuppbyggnaden av det civila försvaret och den svenska livsmedelsberedskapen. Återuppbyggnaden har öppnat ett fönster av möjligheter att påverka hur livsmedelsberedskapen ska se ut, för parallellt har Sverige fördjupat samarbetet med Finland på en rad säkerhetsrelaterade områden. Under 2021 tecknades ett samarbetsavtal om krisberedskap, civilt försvar och räddningstjänst mellan länderna. Målet är att öka vår gemensamma förmåga att förebygga och hantera risker, sårbarheter och hot på både kort och lång sikt. Med hjälp av kvalitativ textanalys uppbackat av ett teoretiskt ramverk kopplat till hur en socioekologisk resiliens kan stärkas, har denna studie granskat de regeringsuppdrag som delats ut till de svenska myndigheterna tillsammans med två finska styrdokument som reglerar den finska livmedelsberedskapen. Därutöver har tre djupintervjuer genomförts med personer som jobbar nära livsmedelssystemet, två informanter från Sverige och en från Finland för att skapa ytterligare förståelse för livsmedelsberedskapens utmaningar och möjligheter. Studien kan konstatera att både den finska livsmedelsberedskapen och den svenska beredskapsplaneringen fokuserar i huvudsak på att öka robustheten i livsmedelssystemen och trygga handelsflöden men har en försiktig och inkrementell inställning till hur en transformering mot ett hållbart livsmedelssystem ska byggas. Följaktligen är beredskapsplaneringen inriktad på att hantera kortare störningar snarare än att hantera utdragna och mer komplexa störningar, som klimatförändringar. Riskhanteringen bör spegla de hot och sårbarheter som finns och även om en väluppbyggd robusthet kan motstå störningar idag föreslås livsmedelsberedskapen, liksom den övriga politiken utformas med målet att hämma de pådrivande orsakerna (risk drivers) som bidrar till den ökade sårbarheten, annars blir det förr eller senare svårt att upprätthålla beredskapen i systemet. / The two neighbours Sweden and Finland are constantly working to increase their resilience, and ability to prevent and manage risks, their vulnerabilities, and threats. The old neighbours share similar starting points in several areas, but when it comes to crisis preparedness, Finland chose another path than Sweden , as they did not entirely phase out their extensive security of supply stockpiles like Sweden did in the late 1990s. Though, since 2017, Swedish authorities have worked extensively with the reconstruction of the national civil defence and the Swedish food contingency planning. This development has opened a window of opportunity to influence what food contingency planning should look like because parallel to this development, Sweden has deepened its cooperation with Finland in several security-related areas. In 2021, a co-operation agreement was signed on crisis preparedness, civil defence and search and rescue services between the countries. The main objective is to increase our common ability to prevent and manage risks, vulnerabilities, and threats in both the short and long term.  Using qualitative text analysis backed by a theoretical framework linked to how a socio-ecological resilience can be strengthened, this study has examined the government orders regarding rebuilding the food contingency planning, that were handed out to the Swedish authorities. This paper also examines two Finnish policy documents regulating the Finnish food contingency planning. In addition, three in-depth interviews were conducted with people connected to the food supply system. Two informants from Sweden and one from Finland, to create a further understanding of the challenges and opportunities of rebuilding the Swedish food contingency planning.  This paper can conclude that both the Finnish food contingency planning and the upcoming Swedish food contingency planning focus mainly on increasing the robustness of the food system and to secure trade flows but are rather cautious and suggest incremental steps in transforming towards a sustainable food system. Thus, the current contingency planning is focused on dealing with shorter disruptions in supply flows rather than dealing with protracted and more complex disruptions, such as climate change. It seems reasonable that risk management should be aimed at dealing with the threats and vulnerabilities that exist. Even if a robust food supply strategy can withstand disruptions today, food contingency planning, is suggested to be designed with a dual purpose to reduce the effects from the risk drivers that contribute to the increased vulnerability, otherwise it will become increasingly difficult to maintain the food supply system.

Digitaliseringen kommer sannolikt att ställa andra krav på dagens organisationer. Molnbaserade ERP-system efterfrågas i allt högre grad, vilket innebär att organisationer måste anpassa sina aktiviteter i enlighet med de molnbaserade ERP-systemen. Denna studie undersöker hur åtta konsulter arbetar med organisationer för att ta dem från plastbaserade ERP-system till molnbaserade ERP-system. De åtta respondenterna, som bidrog med det empiriska materialet, representerar olika företag. Studien finner stöd för delar av den teoretiska bakgrunden, och andra delar av studien stödjer inte tidigare forskning inom området. Det finns empiriskt stöd för institutionaliseringsteori och för vad organisationer strategiskt behöver uppnå för att erhålla konkurrensfördelar. Studien presenterar olika utmaningar inom kontextvariablerna: organisationsstruktur, organisationssystem och strategi. Resultatet av studien visar att om organisationer framgångsrikt ska kunna övergå till molnbaserade ERP-system, måste organisationer vara flexibla, vilket organiska organisationsstrukturen är. Resultatet visar också att det finns utmaningar inom den normativa isomorfismen, vilket innebär ett motstånd från organisationens IT-avdelning. Slutsatsen i denna studie är att konsulter som arbetar med organisationer som genomför implementeringar av molnbaserade ERP-system måste överväga kontextvariabler för att få en förståelse för vilka organisatoriska mekanismer som påverkar vägen till molnet. / The digitalization will most likely require other demands on today's organisations. Cloudbased ERP-systems more and more becomes a fact in organizations, and this will mean that organizations have to adapt their activities accordingly. This study examines how eight konsultants work with organizations to take them from on-premise ERP-systems to cloudbased ERP-systems. The eight respondents, who provided empirical information represent different companies. The study finds support for parts of the theoretical background, and other parts of the study does not support earlier research in within the field. There is empirical support for institutionalization theory and for strategy needs to achieve competitive advantages.The study presents different challenges within the contingency variables: organizational structure, organizational systems and strategy. The result from the study is that in order to successfully transcend to the cloud organizations need to be flexible, which the organic organizational structure is. The result also shows that there are challenges within the normative isomorphism, which includes resistance from the organization's IT-department, which has a high probability to occur. The main contribution of this study is that konsultants who work with organizations that is implementing a cloudbased ERP-system needs to consider contingency variables in order to gain an understanding of what organizational mekanisms will affect the journey to the cloud.

Notre thèse propose, à partir du corpus psychanalytique, d’élever la notion de « surgissement » à la hauteur d’un concept suffisamment heuristique pour, d’une part, expliquer le phénomène de « cyberdépendance », d’autre part, justifier la possibilité d’intégrer le virtuel dans un dispositif psychothérapeutique. Au travers du « surgissement », notre thèse prend comme objet d’étude le rapport qu’entretient l’homme avec l’imprévu de la contingence qui selon nous caractérise principalement la phénoménologie numérique, gouvernée par des algorithmes humainement imprédictibles. Nous proposons donc un modèle de compréhension du virtuel qui se fonde sur la dialectique du hasard et du déterminisme telle qu’elle a été articulée par Freud. Cette recherche vérifiera au travers d’une méthode clinique nouvelle que le virtuel peut constituer un moyen avantageux d’investigation de l’inconscient par l’exploitation « d’instants de surgissements » en après-coup. Cette méthode se fonde sur le principe suivant : plus un sujet est en prise avec un désir refoulé, plus il entretiendra un rapport animiste avec le surgissement. / Originating from the psychoanalytic corpus, our thesis aims at raising "emergence" to the position of a heuristic enough concept able to explain on one hand, the phenomenon of "Internet and computer addiction" and on the other hand, legitimate the opportunity to integrate virtual world in a psychotherapeutic process. Through "emergence", our thesis focuses on the relationship between mankind and the unexpected contingency that we believe to be a main feature of digital phenomenology, ruled by algorithms which cannot be predicted by human beings. We are therefore offering a way, built on the dialectic of chance versus determinism as formulated by Freud, to comprehend virtuality. Thanks to a new clinical method, this research will establish that virtual world can prove to be a great mean of investigating the unconscious by exploiting brief occurences of "emergence" with the benefit of hindsight. This method is based on the following principle: the more a subject is confronted to a repressed desire, the more he or she will sustain a animist connection with the phenomenon of emergence.

During the past 50 years, air pollution has become a growing problem throughout the Intermountain West because of increases in personal vehicle ownership and usage. Scientists continue to design interventions to improve air quality by encouraging people to reduce their personal vehicle miles of travel (VMT). However, results of these interventions have only seen modest reductions in VMT because of some methodological and measurement issues. To address these limitations, a 14-week driving reduction intervention was conducted in Cache County, Utah. This intervention employed a prizebased contingency management system within a single-subject, A-B-A withdrawal research design that rewarded participants with prizes if they were able to reduce their VMT below their baseline mean. The VMT was measured each day with an in-car GPS electronic tracking device. Results of this intervention indicate both short- and long-term reductions in VMT as a result of the treatment. Specifically, 6 of the 10 participants showed a statistically significant reduction from the baseline to the intervention stage and maintenance of this reduction during the return-to-baseline stage. The other four participants exhibited a similar pattern but their change in vehicle miles of travel was not statistically significant. Interaction effects were not found between the quo;Choose Clean Airquo; social marketing campaign, gas prices, temperature, and PM 2.5 levels. Despite some problems with the transmission and recording of VMT data, this intervention provides further evidence for the application of prize-based contingency management systems to the reduction of a problematic behavior or encouragement of proenvironmental or pro-social behaviors. The in-car GPS devices improved VMT data collection and quality of the data but hardware and software improvements are still needed to prevent data loss. Further replication is necessary to determine the efficacy of driving reduction intervention that employs prize-based contingency management systems at the community or group level. Future research should also test the possible demographic differences between those that respond favorably to this type of intervention and those that do not, and the differences between prize delivery systems (immediate versus delayed) and prize magnitude (low- versus high-dollar amounts) on driving behaviors.