Nowadays, millennials living in megacities are facing numerous issues. Most of them are currently experiencing an unsustainable lifestyle. Since this social group is destined to grow in number in the future years, its living status will strongly affect the development of sustainable cities. High frequency relocation, limited savings and lack of time are some of the Millennials’ main issues. Create appropriate solutions to their problems is therefore crucial for a sustainable development. The project aims to investigate Millennials daily life conditions through a human-needs approach performing and, at the same time analyze the possible business-based services that can help this social group to live more sustainable. This has been done through three needs-based service design methodologies that allowed to identify the reasons behind this social phenomenon: a day in life, questionnaires and phone interviews. Furthermore, a co-creation workshop allowed to investigate possible interactions between businesses realities and millennials. This project results demonstrate that there is a need of Business to Customers services which can contribute at the same time to create a sustainable lifestyle and to reduce the environmental impact of the contemporary consumerism-based society. Finally a concept of a product-based reuse service is for this reason developed considering the role of product life cycle in contemporary sustainable issues. To conclude, the importance of a needs-base approach to generate innovative solutions within the topic of service design is highlighted.

The policy of National Unity and Reconciliation in Rwanda has been the subject of much heated debate in recent years, prompted by the uncovering of repressive techniques of the current government. As the policy is designed to enhance the legitimacy of this government, the national rhetoric must be compared to its actions where reconciliation is concerned. Instead of promoting national unity and reconciliation, this thesis will show that the government actively obstructs Rwandan interpersonal reconciliation through the denial of acceptance and empowerment. The analysis is informed by the psychological needs-based model of reconciliation, bringing in aspects of psychological theory into a field largely dominated by law and political science.

Bakgrund Många patienter i vården drabbas av vårdskador till följd av avvikelser i vården. Ett antal studier pekar på faktorer som påverkar patientsäkerheten, bland annat att hög arbetsbelastning, otillräcklig bemanning och långa arbetstider inverkar negativt. Inom intensivvård är uppmärksamhet och vaksamhet viktigt för att identifiera förändringar hos patienten. Flera studier visar att längre arbetspass och veckoarbetstid förknippas med ökad fysisk och psykisk trötthet och risk för minskad vaksamhet vilket medför ökad risk för att avvikelser inträffar. Syfte Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur införandet av behovsanpassad bemanning relaterar till medarbetarnas upplevelse av stress, tid för återhämtning och arbetstillfredsställelse samt till kostnader och aspekter på patientsäkerhet. Metod Studien har genomförts med hjälp av en kombination av metoder. Enkäter lämnades ut före och ett år efter införandet av bemanningsmodellen. Fem fokusgruppsintervjuer genomfördes med medarbetare och arbetsledare och analyserades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Författaren har under studien verkat som vårdenhetschef och medverkat i, samt observerat, införandet av den nya bemanningsmodellen. Resultat Enkätstudien visar att 94 % av respondenterna upplever att de har tid till återhämtning varje dag eller vecka efter införandet jämfört med 74 % innan modellen infördes. 67 % rapporterar att de inte känner sig stressade mot 50 % tidigare. Intervjuerna visar att medarbetarna upplever att de kan påverka sina arbetstider, minska arbetstiden och att de har mer tid för återhämtning. Mindre positiva upplevelser var oro för lönen då man i hög grad påverkar den själv. Flera medarbetare menar att patientsäkerheten påverkas positivt eftersom medarbetarna är gladare och mer utvilade när de arbetar, det minimerar riskerna för att medicinska avvikelser inträffar. Patientsäkerheten påverkas också av att kompetensen har stärkts eftersom det är färre vikarier i tjänst. Ekonomiskt resulterade modellen i ett underskott på 1 % av personalbudgeten under 2011, men under 2012 har vi ett positivt utfall på ca 700 t kr under årets första 4 månader. Diskussion Den behovsanpassade bemanningsmodellen resulterade i att medarbetarna upplevde en större arbetstillfredsställelse och en ökad återhämtning samtidigt som verksamheten har fått en mer balanserad bemanning. Medarbetarna upplever att patienterna påverkas positivt dels då medarbetarna är gladare på arbetet, dels då kompetensen har stärkts eftersom det är färre vikarier. Ekonomiskt har modellen visats sig vara kostnadsneutral vilket var ett krav. / Background Many patients in care suffer health damage due to adverse events in health care. A number of studies point to factors that affect patient safety, including the heavy workload, inadequate staffing and long working hours have a negative impact. In intensive care, is attention and vigilance is important to identify changes in the patient status. Several studies show that the longer the work shifts and weekly working hours are associated with increased physical and mental fatigue and the risk of reduced vigilance resulting in increased risk of adverse events. Purpose The study aims to investigate how the introduction of needs-based staffing related to employees' perception of stress, time for recovery and job satisfaction as well as costs and aspects of patient safety. Method The study was conducted using a combination of methods. Surveys were released before and one year after the introduction of the staffing model. Five focus group interviews with employees and supervisors were conducted and were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. The author has during the study served as a head nurse and participated in and observed the introduction of the new staffing model. Results The questionnaire shows that 94% of respondents consider that they have time to recover every day or week after the introduction of the new model compared with 74% before its introduction. 67% report that they do not feel stressed to 50% previously. The interviews indicate that employees feel they can influence their working hours, reduced working hours and that they have more time for recovery. Less positive experiences were concerns about the salary when the employees have a significant impact on the salary by themselves. Many employees believe that patient safety is positively affected because employees are happier and more rested when they work, it minimizes the risks of adverse events. Patient safety is also affected by the skills have been strengthened because there are fewer agency staff on duty. Economic model resulted in a deficit of 1% of the personnel budget in 2011, but in 2012 we have a positive outcome of about 700 000 SEK during the first 4 months. Discussion The needs-based staffing model resulted in the employees experienced greater job satisfaction and increased recovery, and the clinic has had a more balanced staffing. Employees feel that patients are affected positively and when the employees are happier at work, partly because expertise has been strengthened because there are fewer substitutes. Economically, the model has proven to be cost-neutral, which was a requirement.

A needs-based configurator is a system or tool that assists users in customizing products based on their specific needs. This thesis investigates the challenges of obtaining data for a needs-based machine learning house configurator and identifies suitable models for its implementation. The study consists of two parts: first, an analysis of how to obtain data, and second, an evaluation of three models for implementing the needs-based solution. The analysis shows that collecting house review data for a needs-based configurator is challenging due to several factors, including how the housing market operates compared to other markets, privacy concerns, and the complexity of the buying process. To address this, future studies could consider alternative data sources, adding contextual data, and creating surveys or questionnaires. The evaluation of three models: DistilBERT, BERT fine-tuned for Swedish, and a CNN with a Swedish word embedding layer, shows that both the BERT models perform well on the generated dataset, while the CNN model underperformed. The Swedish BERT model performed the best, achieving high recall and precision metrics for k between 2 and 5. This thesis suggests that further research on needs-based configurators should focus on alternative data sources and more extensive datasets to improve performance.

Within the helping professions there are contrasting epistemological views regarding the role of the helping professional, which have direct influences on learning support practices. Despite these views, it remains unclear what parents expect when seeking learning support for their children. This qualitative study explored parents’ constructions of the role of the helping professional in learning support. It specifically addressed parents’ expectations of the helping professional, what they value in their interactions with helping professionals as well as their understandings of their own roles in consultation and intervention for learning support. A case study approach was employed to gain access to participants. Specifically, three parents of children attending a school for Learners with Special Educational Needs [LSEN] were included as participants. These parents had had experiences with various helping professionals, both at the school and in private practice settings, in the course of seeking assistance for their children. It was thus thought that they would be able to provide in-depth perspectives as to their ideas of the role of helping professionals who assist children experiencing difficulties due to their exposure and experiences with helping professionals. Initial data collection was undertaken via semi-structured interviews with the participants. A content analysis of the interviews was subsequently employed to elicit affinities for use during a further modified form of Interactive Qualitative Analysis [IQA] with the contributors to the study. In total, fourteen affinities were generated and included Parental expectations, Professional characteristics, The helping process, Parents’ role, Status of the helping professional, Professional approach, Parents’ personal experiences, Parents’ emotions, Assessment, Recommendations, Stigma, a Team approach, parent-professional Interaction and Values. These affinity descriptions were corroborated and expanded on with the participants and the relationships amongst the affinities where then hypothesised by the participants themselves. A central outcome of the study was the research participants’ social representations of helping professionals. These representations comprise the thematic elements representing the participants’ discourse about the role of helping professionals in learning support and provide the participants’ in-depth ideas of the relationships amongst these elements. / Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Despite the past decade’s increased adoption of scientific methodologies by startups, most still fail to scale into large companies. The paralyzing plethora of advice, theory and models recommended to startups is poorly matched by practical advice on the applicability and implications of actually following the recommendations. In this action-based research I, an IT consultant for twelve years and founder/co-founder of several startups, try out and evaluate the applicability of methodologies for applying scientific management principles to innovation in early-stage startups. In the first part of my research, I use an naive explorative hands-on approach which results in insights into the limited applicability of popular methodologies such as Growth Hacking and The Lean Startup. These limitations are especially pronounced for early-stage startups who are yet to launch a minimum viable product (MVP), as well as those that have trouble to decide which hypotheses are the riskiest. Most actionable insights during this part stemmed from the engagement in various thought-experiments and reflections, and not from external customer feedback. To remedy this, and to thoroughly evaluate the applicability of a pre-launch market assessment method, I engage in market opportunity discovery following the recommendations set forth by Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI). This hands-on in-depth approach yielded seemingly high-quality actionable insights with direct implications for the product and marketing strategy of the studied early-stage startup. In the discussion part, I reflect over the applicability of the evaluated methodologies and argue that the main difference between applicable and non-applicable methodologies is whether they are manufacturing-based or needs-based. Finally, I reflect over possible implications and suggest that a startup community wide change of mindset from manufacturing-based methodologies such as The Lean Startup to needs-based methodologies such as Outcome-Driven Innovation will minimize the startup innovation-process variability and increase startup efficiency dramatically on a global scale.

In this thesis, I examine whether unconditional cash transfers to poor femaleheaded households have an effect on children’s educational attainment. Using a historical Swedish child allowance policy that targeted unconditional cash transfers to widow mothers with an income below a poverty threshold, I lay out a credible identification strategy, to test the hypothesis with a regression kink design. The results, although statistically underpowered and thus to be taken with a pinch of salt, point towards that cash transfers at the extensive margin increased the probability of continuing school another year to eighth grade. While this tendency can not alone be interpreted causally, the method developed can be extended in future work. With the collection and matching of two uniquely rich micro datasets tracking individuals over their life trajectory, combined with this natural experiment setting, my study contributes to building the path to understanding the link between cash transfers and human capital development in childhood. Ultimately, it could add to the policy guidance literature.

Text in Afrikaans / Gemotiveerde onderwysers speel 'n belangrike rol in suksesvolle onderrig en leer. Die doelwit van hierdie studie was om faktore te identifiseer wat 'n invloed uitoefen op onderwysermotivering. 'n Kwalitatiewe navorsingsontwerp van individiduele onderhoud-voering met agt doelgerig geselekteerde deelnemers is gebruik ten einde antwoorde te kry op faktore wat „n invloed uitoefen op die motivering van grondslagfase-onderwysers. Die doelwitte van hierdie studie was ook om riglyne aan onderwysers te verskaf oor hoe om hulself te motiveer en aan skoolhoofde oor hoe om hul onderwysers te motiveer. Daar is bevind dat faktore wat 'n invloed uitoefen op die motivering van onderwysers verband hou met die spesifieke skoolomgewing, die finansiële vergoeding van onderwysers, die werksverhoudings met ander onderwysers, die invloed van ouers, die verhoudings met die skoolhoof en die gedrag van leerders. As belangrikste motiveringsfaktor geld die onderwyser se eie lewensingesteldheid wat of op 'n positiewe of negatiewe lewensuitkyk gesentreer kan wees. / Motivated teachers play an important role in successful teaching and learning. The aim of this study was to identify factors that have an influence on teacher motivation. A qualitative research design was used. Individual interviews with eight purposefully selected participants were held to get answers to the factors that have an influence on the motivation of foundation phase teachers. The aim of this study was also to give guidelines to teachers on how to motivate themselves and to school principles on how to motivate teachers. The results indicate that factors influencing the motivation of teachers have to do with the specific school environment, the financial reward of teachers, the work relationship with other teachers, the influence of parents, therelationship with the school principal and the behaviour of learners. The most important motivation factor is the teacher‟s own attitude towards lifewhichcanrepresenta positive or negative life view. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Onderwysbestuur)

Text in Afrikaans / Gemotiveerde onderwysers speel 'n belangrike rol in suksesvolle onderrig en leer. Die doelwit van hierdie studie was om faktore te identifiseer wat 'n invloed uitoefen op onderwysermotivering. 'n Kwalitatiewe navorsingsontwerp van individiduele onderhoud-voering met agt doelgerig geselekteerde deelnemers is gebruik ten einde antwoorde te kry op faktore wat „n invloed uitoefen op die motivering van grondslagfase-onderwysers. Die doelwitte van hierdie studie was ook om riglyne aan onderwysers te verskaf oor hoe om hulself te motiveer en aan skoolhoofde oor hoe om hul onderwysers te motiveer. Daar is bevind dat faktore wat 'n invloed uitoefen op die motivering van onderwysers verband hou met die spesifieke skoolomgewing, die finansiële vergoeding van onderwysers, die werksverhoudings met ander onderwysers, die invloed van ouers, die verhoudings met die skoolhoof en die gedrag van leerders. As belangrikste motiveringsfaktor geld die onderwyser se eie lewensingesteldheid wat of op 'n positiewe of negatiewe lewensuitkyk gesentreer kan wees. / Motivated teachers play an important role in successful teaching and learning. The aim of this study was to identify factors that have an influence on teacher motivation. A qualitative research design was used. Individual interviews with eight purposefully selected participants were held to get answers to the factors that have an influence on the motivation of foundation phase teachers. The aim of this study was also to give guidelines to teachers on how to motivate themselves and to school principles on how to motivate teachers. The results indicate that factors influencing the motivation of teachers have to do with the specific school environment, the financial reward of teachers, the work relationship with other teachers, the influence of parents, therelationship with the school principal and the behaviour of learners. The most important motivation factor is the teacher‟s own attitude towards lifewhichcanrepresenta positive or negative life view. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Onderwysbestuur)