Traffic signals are very cost effective tools for urban traffic management in urban areas. The number of intersections in Sweden controlled by traffic signals has increased since the seventies, but efforts to study the traffic performance of the employed strategies are still lacking. The LHOVRA technique is the predominant isolated traffic signal control strategy in Sweden. Past-end green was originally incorporated as part of LHOVRA (the “O” function) and was intended to reduce the number of vehicles in the dilemma zone. Coordinated signal control in Sweden is often fixed-time with local vehicle actuated signal timing adjustments and bus priority. This research study was undertaken to increase the knowledge of the traffic performance impacts of these strategies. The aim was to evaluate the following control strategies using Stockholm as a case study: 1. The LHOVRA technique with a focus on the “O” function; 2. Fixed time coordination (FTC); 3. Fixed time coordination with local signal timing adjustment (FTC-LTA); 4. FTC-LTA as above + active bus priority (PRIBUSS); 5. Self-optimizing control (SPOT). Field measurements were used for study of driver behavior and traffic impacts as well as for collecting input data needs for simulation. The results from low speed approaches showed a higher proportion of stopped vehicles after receiving green extension. Moving the detectors closer to the stop line, and/or making the detectors speed dependent were suggested as measures to solve these problems. The VISSIM simulation model calibrated and validated with empirical data was used to study traffic performance and safety impacts of the LHOVRA technique as well as to test the suggested improvements. The simulation experiment results from these design changes were shown to reduce accident risk with little or no loss of traffic performance. TRANSYT was used to produce optimized fixed signal timings for coordinated intersections. HUTSIM simulations showed that local signal timing adjustment by means of past-end green was beneficial when applied to coordinated traffic signal control in the study area. Both delays and stops were reduced, although not for the main, critical intersection which operated close to capacity. To study the impacts of strategies for coordinated signal control with bus priority, extensive field data collection was undertaken during separate time periods with these strategies in the same area using mobile and stationary techniques. A method to calculate the approach delay was developed based on the observed number of queuing vehicles at the start and end of green. Compared to FTC-LTA, the study showed that PRIBUSS reduced bus travel time. SPOT reduced both bus and vehicle travel time. Future research efforts for the development of signal control strategies and their implementation in Sweden should be focused on strategies with self-optimization functionality. / QC 20100408

Research questions, results and Empirical Data This book studies the allocation of scarce resources among competing needs and wants. Chapter 1 – Luck, effort and Redistribution on procedural justice provides one possible explanation for the vast differences between US and Western European tax an redistribution levels. Chapter 2- Participation and Peers in Social Dilemmas on social norms investigates two potential reasons why solutions to social dilemmas in for instance insurance systems can persist without being destroyed by the negative forces of free-riding. Chapter 3 - Commitment and Impasses in Negotiation on conflict shifts focus to bilateral bargaining and the reasons for conflict and impasses. Whether they manifest as strikes, job resignations, or trade embargoes, failures of the negotiation process create tremendous loss of social welfare and are therefore important to further understand. Each chapter is based on observations of real human behavior in the lab. The empirical data consists of: 204 M.B.A. students and 96 M.Sc. students from Harvard university, the Stockholm School of Economics, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm university and Karolinska Institutet; 5 experiments over 21 experimental sessions generated 2,520 observations.

The dilemma of diversity is the tension that exists when prescriptive claims are required across reasonable pluralism. Scholar and philosopher Dwight Boyd believes that the dilemma of diversity must be addressed for the continued health of multicultural societies, and suggests that the solution can be found through democratic reciprocity. Though the International Olympic Committee (IOC) markets unity and peace through its Olympic Games, does the Olympics relieve the dilemma of diversity? By critically examining the IOC’s historic and recent treatment of Aboriginals, its encouragement of divisive nationalism, and its educational programs, it is clear that the IOC does not embrace reasonable pluralism. The IOC’s public pedagogy is one that conceals its dominance through diversity. In exposing this dominance, I will argue that the IOC must embrace democratic reciprocity that allows for conversation across difference. Adopting an authentic acceptance of difference will alleviate the IOC’s propagation of Western ideology through neo-imperialism.

The dilemma of diversity is the tension that exists when prescriptive claims are required across reasonable pluralism. Scholar and philosopher Dwight Boyd believes that the dilemma of diversity must be addressed for the continued health of multicultural societies, and suggests that the solution can be found through democratic reciprocity. Though the International Olympic Committee (IOC) markets unity and peace through its Olympic Games, does the Olympics relieve the dilemma of diversity? By critically examining the IOC’s historic and recent treatment of Aboriginals, its encouragement of divisive nationalism, and its educational programs, it is clear that the IOC does not embrace reasonable pluralism. The IOC’s public pedagogy is one that conceals its dominance through diversity. In exposing this dominance, I will argue that the IOC must embrace democratic reciprocity that allows for conversation across difference. Adopting an authentic acceptance of difference will alleviate the IOC’s propagation of Western ideology through neo-imperialism.

This dissertation is a study of a relatively new teacher function in nurse education, a teacher function that can be called clinical teacher, link lecturer, link teacher or lecturer involved in practice. The study departs from a constructivist perspective and the aim is to study the introduction, performance and regulation of this teacher function. The material consists of internationally and nationally published research 1978-2009, reports from the authorities, job ads for clinical teachers, job descriptions and contracts, archive material, evaluation studies, professional journals, texts on the Internet and 15 interviews with clinical teachers in Sweden. Using discourse analysis this material is studied in terms of interpretive repertoires, subject positions and ideological dilemmas. The primary focus of this dissertation concerns what problems the new teacher function is supposed to solve, how the problem should be solved, the effects of the chosen solutions and what´s staged, challenged and reproduced. Secondly, this dissertation highlights what categories of teachers are required and in demand for the new teacher function, how the teachers themselves manage their function and how the teacher function is maintained and challenged. The analysis identifies and highlights current interpretive repertoire, teachers possible subject positions and ideological dilemmas and how they are governed and challenged in the teaching function.

”Synen på barnet och barndomen borde vidgas till ett helhetsperspektiv, ett perspektiv som också innefattar en människosyn. […]: barn är också människor. Satsen ansluter till en humanistisk tradition där vördnaden för människans väsen förenas med ivriga studier av hennes egenskaper. Att studera barn är enligt min uppfattning att lära känna en av de mest respektingivande variationsformer som det mänskliga kan ikläda sig.”, skriver Sven G Hartman professor i religionsdidaktik i sin studie, Barns tankar om livet. Huvudfrågan i Hartmans studie är: ”Vad funderar barn på?" Med denna frågeställning har Hartman kunnat klargöra hur barn tänker och reflekterar om livet i ett helhetsperspektiv, dvs. både i socialt och individuellt sammanhang. Min tro är att det är särskilt viktigt att i skolan lägga detta perspektiv på arbetet med värdegrundsfrågor och på arbetet med vardagens etiska frågor. Jag anser att den viktigaste uppgiften en lärare har i kunskapsfostrandet är att hjälpa elever att se sammanhang i sitt lärande. Med det menar jag att det är viktigt att utgå från elevers egna beröringspunkter samt var de befinner sig i sin kognitiva och moraliska utveckling. Då först kan en djupare utveckling ske inom det etiska området. Det är därför angeläget att lära känna elevers tankar och åsikter för att kunna ge dem möjligheter att utveckla egna etiska redskap. Detta stämmer väl överens med vad kursplanerna för grundskolan anger som mål för ämnet religion. Mot bakgrund av detta har jag i mitt examensarbete valt att undersöka de uppfattningar och ställningstagande som några elever har när ett etiskt fall dyker upp. Mitt syfte och mål med detta examensarbete i ämnet religion är att undersöka de olika kategorier av uppfattningar som några elever har om etiska ställningstaganden. / Examensarbete på Grundskollärarprogrammet 4-9 ht 2001.

I denna uppsats belyses moralutveckling från tre olika forskningsperspektiv; det sociala inlärningsperspektivet, det psykoanalytiska perspektivet och det kognitiva utvecklingsperspektivet. Tyngdpunkten för denna uppsats har lagts vid det kognitiva utvecklingsperspektivet. Inom det kognitiva utvecklingsperspektivet, riktas i denna uppsats först uppmärksamheten mot Piaget; förgrundsgestalt inom den kognitiva stadieutvecklingen. Därefter belyses i huvudsak Kohlbergs utvecklingsteori inom moralutvecklingen. Kohlberg har delat in moralutvecklingen i sex stadier, utifrån vilka man sedan kan stadiebestämma individers moraluppfattning. Uppsatsens huvudfråga behandlar möjligheten att påverka elevers moralutveckling och därmed även deras etiska handlande. Många forskare har uttryckt sin åsikt om att skolan bör ta moralutvecklingen på allvar, och se det som sitt ansvar att hjälpa eleverna rusta sig med verktyg, med vilka de sedan kan fatta lämpliga beslut, samt motivera dessa beslut. En presentation av tidigare genomförda studier, visar tydliga tecken på att man med rätt sorts stimulans, aktivt kan påverka moralutvecklingen hos elever. Centralt i sammanhanget är även huruvida en ökad moralisk medvetenhet, och en högre moralstadietillhörighet, faktiskt resulterar i ett mer moraliskt agerande. För att komma denna fråga närmare, presenteras i uppsatsen teorier och studier som tycks peka på att det finns ett samband mellan moralisk kompetens och moraliskt handlande. Inför det moralutvecklande arbetet i skolan, betonas vikten av att som pedagog skaffa sig kunskap om sin egen roll som moralutvecklare. Av flera forskare betonas vikten av att man som pedagog känner sina elever, samt tränar upp sin förmåga att tolka elevernas argument, för att kunna hjälpa dem vidare. Arbetssätten kan sedan variera. Den mest beprövade metoden är gruppdiskussion. Studier av tidigare genomförda projekt, samt råd från moralutvecklingsforskare, pekar på nyttan med att kartlägga elevernas utgångspunkt, för att på ett effektivt sätt kunna starta arbetet där behoven finns. Mot denna bakgrund är uppsatsens empiriska undersökning genomförd. Undersökningen syftar till att utprova en metod för att enkelt kunna kartlägga en klass' sammansättning i moraliska frågor. I utvärderingen av undersökningen, konstateras att metoden kan användas i syfte att kartlägga elevernas inställningar och attityder i vissa frågor och sammanhang. / Examensarbete på Grundskollärarprogrammet 1-7 ht 1998. Uppsatsförfattaren har i tur och ordning burit följande efternamn: Larsson, Övermalm, Irisdotter och slutligen Irisdotter Aldenmyr.

This dissertation offers a new understanding about wartime decision making in the face of likely, but unintended, harm to foreign civilians. It empirically identifies conditions under which leaders in democratic nations are more or less likely to choose to attack a target when confronted with a dilemma between pursuing national security objectives and avoiding civilian casualties. An innovative targeting decision model was constructed that described both the theorized structure of the decisions inputs and the process by which these inputs are assembled into a choice. The model went beyond the normal target benefit and civilian casualty cost considerations of proportionality to also include the contextual input of prospect frame. Decision makers were expected to address the same benefit and cost differently depending on whether they were winning or losing the conflict. This was because the prospect frame would influence their risk attitudes, as predicted by prospect theory. This model was then tested via two decision-making experiments that used military officers and defense civilians as participants. Additionally, a statistical analysis of data collected from an extended period of the second Intifada was done to seek evidence that the model also applied in actual wartime decision making. All three tests supported portions of the targeting decision model. Higher target benefit and lower civilian casualty estimates increased support for the planned attack. Prospect frame influenced decisions in the cases where both target value and the civilian casualty estimates were high and the resulting dilemma was very difficult. In these situations, those told that their forces were losing the conflict were less sensitive to humanitarian harm and more likely to support the attack than when they were told their side was winning. Furthermore, the Intifada data analysis of attacks approved by Israeli officials against Palestinians found this same effect of prospect frame held generally across all six years of observations.

Studies of life span development in everyday problem solving suggest two trajectories of change in adulthood: individuals become less effective at solving well-defined instrumental problems but more effective at managing ill-defined interpersonal problems. Two experiments were conducted to examine the ability of young and older adults to effectively manage an interpersonal problem that has a well-defined measure of instrumental success. Participants played an iterated Prisoner s Dilemma game with same-age, computer-simulated strangers (Experiment 1) and friends (Experiment 2). Success was dependent upon one s ability to put aside self-interest and cooperate with a partner. Computer-simulated partners reciprocated the participants decisions 100% of the time or behaved in a more self-interested manner. Young and older adults tendencies to create conflict with the reciprocating partner and their defensive reactions to the selfish partner were examined. Although young adults outperformed older adults when playing the game on their own, they did not carry this performance advantage into the interactive rounds. In fact, despite their success when playing alone, young adults were no more successful than older adults when interacting with others. Young and older adults both cooperated more with friends than with strangers and more with the reciprocating partner than the selfish partner. However, when the participants first interaction was with a selfish stranger, older adults were more cooperative than young adults and consequently accrued more reward. This is consistent with previous research demonstrating that older adults use more passive interpersonal problem solving strategies than young adults, and it also partially supports the prediction that advancing age leads to more effective strategy implementation when solving interpersonal problems.

Theory as an approach to generative composition and interactive computer music. Inspired by the notion of Performance Indeterminacy, software has been developed that attempts to simulate the interactions of improvising performers using a multi-agent system based on the ‘Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma’. Composition activities and programming activities have formed a symbiotic relationship throughout the creation of the portfolio as each has constantly informed the other. Stylistically, the works presented fall into the experimental genre, although individually they address a wide range of aesthetic goals. The main contribution of this portfolio is a new approach to generative composition based on behavioural models, creating a sense of form bottom-up through modelling the social dynamics of music performance. Through this approach, the direct modelling of musical structures is avoided; instead larger scale forms emerge through the interactions of an ensemble of ‘improvising’ agents. This method offers a departure from previous complex systems work in the area of music, creating computer models of specific musical situations. Links between the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma and music are also established and combined with current music technologies. / Thesis(Ph.D.)- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2008