This thesis seeks to analyse military and civilian loss from violence during contemporary armed conflict in order to facilitate understanding of the evolution of war and its impact on human behaviour. It comprises four chapters; the first two concentrate on the 2033 Iraq War whilst the last two are focused upon global armed conflict during the recent past. Chapter 1 explores how and to what extent military deaths during the Iraq war affect US domestic opinion, proxied by various poll questions concerning war-related issues. Having addressed irregular frequencies of poll data that restrict time series application, this chapter renders a fresh perspective on casualty-opinion research, suggesting that cumulative military casualties prior to the poll did not have an immediate effect on the poll respondents' opinion regarding the continuation of military actions in Iraq, Instead, respondents are influenced by marginal casualty information from the previous time period, implying a slow adjustment in forming opinion through the Error Correction Mechanism (ECM). Chapter 2 presents a comparative analysis to gauge any different standards between the US department of Defense and the media in counting violent civilian deaths during the Iraq war. In spite of substantial discrepancies during the initial period of the war, non-parametric tests corroborate that the US military authority and media reports had a non-differential approach towards counting violent civilian deaths during the war period across the spatial and spatiotemporal dimensions. However, the conspicuously conservative count by the US military authority during the initial stage of the war may have hindered the US forces' ability to predict and prepare for the subsequent escalation of violence that brought about large-scale human loss as well as the prolongation of the war which lasted more than 7 years. Chapter 3 analyses to what extent warring actors intentionally used lethal force against civilians, through the employment of a Civilian Targeting Index (CTI), a newly invented measure to indicate the intensity of civilian targeting for each actor. Building upon Chapter 3, Chapter 4 further examines factors that lead to warring actors targeting civilians as opposed to engaging in battle with war combatants. A dynamic panel approach shows that an increase in the degree of civilian targeting in the previous year further intensified civilian targeting in the current year for the actors involved in prolonged armed conflict.

Virtual environments offer an exciting platform for social science research. The persistent nature of online virtual worlds such as Second Life however has increased the potential for both companies and institutions looking to establish a virtual presence and researchers looking to measure the evolving forms of human behaviour displayed when interacting within them. Since the use of the Internet has become widespread, commercial enterprises are particularly interested in exploring the opportunities that virtual environments may hold for them as the stereotype of what constitutes a ‘typical’ computer user gradually becomes broken down within contemporary society. Second Life and virtual worlds alike deviate from what might be categorized as a game, serving more as extensions of reality than escapes from it. Virtual worlds have been said to be dichotomous in that they may act as play spaces as well as extensions of the real world. Much existing research on computer-mediated communication and online behaviour has focused upon the differences between computer-mediated and face-to-face communication, and has provided in-depth reports on online communities. A growing body of research, however, focuses a more integrative view of computer mediated communication, looking at how online time fits with and complements other aspects of an individual’s everyday life. This work uses the virtual environment of Second Life to integrate the virtual and the real for real-world financial benefits and analyses the ways in which they intersect. The research presented here provides evidence for the thesis that the persistent online virtual world of Second Life can act as a valid and effective user interface metaphor for the financial services sector. The theory of social presence when applied to human-computer interaction provided the basis of this work. A practical metric is developed by which a bank could effectively create an optimum virtual environment to provide a new and innovative service for its customers by measuring levels of perceived social presence in interaction, collaboration and learning scenarios. Financial institutions and companies alike can use these results and turn them into practical tools to create a virtual environment for customers or staff to interact within that can project them to the forefront of technological innovation and add to a reputation as an ever developing and forward thinking company.

The scope of this piece of work is to reflect upon a series of past and recent publications as well as those in progress referring to innovations in architectural education which has already led and/or might lead to major shifts in future practices. This is an opportunity for the author to reflect on concepts and ideas for the future of architecture which is currently undergoing innovative developments by embracing new theories and enduring professional formation according to contemporary trends. This reflective work has been based on publication of research, including ongoing editorial work related to this topic. The author’s ideas and philosophy on human-oriented design and fractal patterns of social life has embraced dynamics of urban developments in modern and future cities. She has succeeded in considering, uniquely interpreting and further developing ideas and theories of established authors, such as Christopher Alexander’s concepts on patterns and principles of design and Nikos Salingaros’ thermodynamic models of the built environment. The author was inspired by teachers and renowned scholars in history, philosophy and practices of architecture; her own teachers’ experiences and their teaching had offered a singular momentum in her personal career path. This long process started when her teachers succeeded in placing urbanism and architecture side by side inside the Faculty of Architecture of Florence back in the 1970s. Hence the author reflects not only on recent publications, but also on others that have been published in the last decade or so. In this report it is evident that materials produced during these years have been essential and invaluable for her later endeavours in learning, teaching and the training of designers and architects in Great Britain and beyond.

Experimental study of the designer plays a critical role in design research. However laboratory based study is often poorly compared and contrasted to practice, leading to a lack of uptake and subsequent research impact. The importance of addressing this issue is highlighted by its significant influence on design research and many related fields. As such the main aim of this work is to improve empirical design research by characterising the relationship between practice and laboratory-based studies for critical design situations. A review of the state of the art methods in design research and key related fields is reported. This highlights the importance and commonality of a set or core issues connected to the failure to effectively link study of practice and study in the laboratory. Further to this a technical review and scoping was carried out to establish the most efective capture strategy to be used when studying the designer empirically. Subsequently three studies are reported, forming a three point comparison between practice the laboratory (with student practitioners) and an intermediary case (a laboratory with practitioners) . Results from these studies contextualise the critical situations in practice and develop a detailed multi-level comparison between practice and the laboratory which was then validated with respect to a number of existing studies. The primary contribution of this thesis is the development of a detailed multi-level relationship between practice and the laboratory for critical design situations: information seeking, ideation and design review. The second key contribution is the development of a generic method for the empirical study of designers in varying contexts - allowing researchers to build on this work and more effectively link diverse studies together. The final key contribution of this work is the identification of a number of core methodological issues and mitigating techniques affecting both design research and its related fields.

A critical requirement for achieving ubiquity of artificial intelligence is to provide intelligent environments with the ability to recognize and understand human behaviour. If this is achieved, proactive interaction can occur and, more interestingly, a great variety of services can be developed. In this thesis we aim to support the development of ambient-assisted living services with advances in human behaviour analysis. Specifically, visual data analysis is considered in order to detect and understand human activity at home. As part of an intelligent monitoring system, single- and multi-view recognition of human actions is performed, along several optimizations and extensions. The present work may pave the way for more advanced human behaviour analysis techniques, such as the recognition of activities of daily living, personal routines and abnormal behaviour detection.

‘Women are supposed to be in the kitchen and take care of the children while men earn the money and go “job-hunting”.’ – Statements like this have been common in a lot of countries, cultures and families for many decades now. However, the world is constantly changing and so are the circum-stances the two sexes live in. During the last 20 to 30 years there has been a drastic change concern-ing the newly opened possibilities for females to enter leadership positions. The questions that come to our mind immediately when hearing those readings are such as: • What factors does a certain leadership style depend on? • Could there also be other reasons beside the gender aspect why humans react in a certain way? • What attributes and characteristics are required from today’s leaders? Although there are many more questions that can be asked regarding this topic, the ones mentioned above, which make up the research questions of this study, seem to be the most important ones. Following an inductive research process, empirical material was gathered through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. This collected information and the shared experiences are the representative data in this particular thesis from male and female leaders in different companies/organizations and various environments concentrating on our two home countries Sweden and Germany. Supported by a theoretical framework which consists of theories, books and articles of many well-known au-thors, especially the studies by the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the reader will get a wider knowledge of the empirical data. A separate chapter about the depending leadership styles and the ‘condition-theory’ by Immanuel Kant will help to explain certain behaviours by male and female leaders as well as describe the rea-sons why our society sees the leaders’ characteristics the way it does. The conditions that are relevant in this thesis are about the attitudes, soft skills such as communication aspects, attributes being used to describe daily situations as well as personal features of current and future leaders in prospect of career chances and risks. The following thesis aims for a clearer picture and greater awareness of particular settings and should be beneficial for current and future leaders from both sexes in all kinds of environments as well as people who work together with leaders frequently to gain a better understanding of their behaviours and decisions. Last, but not least there will be a part with a general review as well as personal reflections upon this topic and suggestions for further and future research areas besides the analysis of the whole thesis work.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Wild salmon face an alarming decline in numbers around the globe due to various reasons from which a great part serves the decrease of water quality and habitat destruction. Keeping in mind the benefits associated with wild salmon new measures and forms of social involvement are urgent before it becomes impossible to safeguard the species of interest. Followed by the international recommendations this study supported the use of a bottom-up working approach taking into account public opinion. A socio-economic field study was conducted regarding the values associated with wild salmon followed by the examples of several case studies obtained in Europe and overseas. The study used a contingent valuation method in order to draw the attitudes and the willingness to pay for the re-introduction of wild salmon in the River Ogre, Latvia. The study included analyses of different opinions towards the values of wild salmon. Two distinct respondent groups i.e. anglers/fisherman and non-anglers/fisherman living within the municipality of Ogre, Latvia were included in the sample reaching a response rate of 56 per cent. The average estimate as a single payment in 2015 of the willingness to pay reached a value of around 27±9, 95%, CI EUR/household/this year excluding zero and protest bids where the value lowered to 12±4, 95% CI EUR/household/this year when zero bids were included. The Welch Two sample t-test indicated that respondents under certain social categories such as fishermen/angler, men, respondents with family members fishing/angling and environmentally aware respondents were willing to pay more. Besides providing estimates on the willingness to pay, the study revealed that also non-fishermen/anglers gave a high importance of the values associated with wild salmon. A great deal of respondents ranked the benefits driven by non-use and non-consumptive values of wild salmon as “important” or “very important”. The outcome of the study has provided one of the first insights of the importance of wild salmon held by Latvian citizens. It is up to the public and researchers to be heard by the decision makers.

Restoration landscape theories propound the observation that landscape mitigates human emotion, mental functioning, and behaviour. Those environments that positively affect these spheres are called "restorative". In recent years, many attempts have been made to quantify restorative landscapes, so that landscape architects and others can replicate them in the manipulated environment. An understanding of how certain combinations of landscape attributes affect humans is important in knowing the ramifications of certain designs. A major finding in recent years is that preferred landscapes—or those high in scenic beauty—are generally more restorative than less-attractive environments. One realm of the environment not dealt with, however, is the sacred landscape. One reason for this is the relative difficulty in narrowing down the term “sacred” to something measurable. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nature of sacred landscapes, and then to test sacred landscapes against preferred landscapes to measure their restorative potential. This testing involved subjecting participants to a psychological stressor, and then exposing them to slides rated highly in either sacredness or preference. A control group was also tested, but viewed a blank screen rather than images. Implications of this research impact both researchers and practitioners in the fields of landscape architecture, environmental psychology, public land management, and visual resource management. This study found that sacred landscapes are very restorative, although not quite as restorative as environments that rate highly in scenic beauty. This confirms previous research efforts, and opens the study of restorative environments to other landscape typologies as well.

Emergency response agencies that need to care for large crowds in real-life events, report a constant lack in human volunteers in large numbers for training purposes. Moreover, existing computerized training aides either totally omit affected crowds in their scenarios, or represent them as computer generated models. A potential solution that can provide real human input in large numbers for training purposes can be found in the form of Massive Multi-user Online Role-Playing computer Games (MMORPGs) that attract millions of users on a daily basis. In order to evaluate the use of MMORPGs as an emergency simulation platform I had to examine the in-game behaviour of participants, usability issues, data collection methods, and data reliability. I did so by constructing a multi-user computer game that included food shortage and a pandemic spread scenarios. Data collected included every possible item that could be technically logged, both qualitative (questionnaires, user’s self tagging of events) and quantitative (all in-game actions and their coordinates, players and virtual environment in-game status). The abundance of data enabled easy triangulation and verification. The main findings were: participants attention span was about 90 minutes, they demonstrated only a narrow range of behaviours necessary for their in-game survival, and this behaviour followed loosely real life behaviour patterns. Usability wise participants ignored interface components and in-game tasks that interfered with their game flow. Data reliability: unlike other methods that rely solely on participants accounts, the game had the ability to compare between actions to questionnaire answers, and was able to detect inconsistencies between people’s actions within the game and their accounts of their actions. The ability to create spatial maps of event types enabled a fast way to visually analyze data. The research concludes that MMORPGs can be used as an emergency simulation platform if: 1) its duration fits the participants’ attention span (as a result aspects of human behaviour that happen over a prolonged period of time will not be demonstrated); 2) the demographic composition of participants fits that of the population examined by the simulation; 3) participants should be properly reimbursed for their time; 4) it is known that participants’ in-game behaviour might be negatively influenced by lack of real-life experience of similar events; 5) in-game rules and mechanisms are set to filter out game abuse; 6) preliminary sessions are run to determine ideal attention span and data skewing factor.