published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The aim of the study was to investigate how Dalsland’s environmental office have managed the yearly reports on fluorinated greenhouse gasses and substances that deplete the ozone layer during the period 2007-2013. The environmental office’s methods, existing routines, present regulations and guidelines have been studied. The purpose of this report was to present suggestions on how the managing of these yearly reports can be improved, and to construct a document of guidelines for the environmental officers, that can be used to make the managing more efficient. The Environmental Office of Dalsland was established 1 January, 2007, when the municipalities of Bengtsfors, Dals Ed, Färgelanda and Mellerud merged their environmental offices together under a joint Environmental committee. The supervision concerning the yearly reports on fluorinated greenhouse gasses and substances that deplete the ozone layer, have varied and the organization within the environmental office have changed over time. There are areas where improvements are needed in order to insure that the auditing of the reports becomes more efficient. The operators should be offered more guidance and information about the current legislation and the demands these rules make on them. Internal routines need to be established on how to register the information that the reports contains, in order to make it easier to extract information for statistical purposes.

A systematic investigation of the human mind's ability to self-reflect and create private interpretations of sensory data has been handicapped for years by conceptual prejudice and methodological bias. Until the arrival of the cognitive behavior therapists, little empirical attention was directed to the development of a methodology adequate enough to investigate the influence that distorted cognitive interpretations have on emotional arousal and inhibited behavioral performance. This study investigated these self-reflective mental capabilities in terms of outcome expectancies which were conceptualized in terms of guilt, and self-perceptions of performance ability which were conceptualized in terms of successfully refusing unreasonable requests. It was hypothesized that guilt entails both emotional arousal as well as the distorted and fabricated cognitive perceptions of tragic expectation, causal attribution and self-perceived helplessness and that these perceptions influence behavioral performance and self-perceptions of performance ability. It was also hypothesized that guilt relates significantly to resentment and depression. Seventy-three subjects volunteered to participate: fifty-eight women and fifteen men with a mean age of thirty-three. Subjects responded to both self-report questionnaires and open-ended self-report interviews. Seven independent raters judged the participant's responses to eight tape recorded stimulus situations to determine to what extent the responses fit the hypothesized categories. A stepwise multiple regression was used to analyze the data. The results were summarized and placed in tables. The results of the study supported the five hypotheses developed to test the general question.

Disertacijoje, taikant dinaminį pastatų energijos poreikių modeliavimą, nagrinėjamos viešosios paskirties pastatų energinio efektyvumo problemos. Pagrin-dinis tyrimo objektas yra viešosios paskirties pastato fasado įstiklinimo įtaka energijos poreikiams. Greta savo pagrindinės funkcijos – pakankamo natūralaus apšvietimo užtikrinimo, fasado įstiklinimas privalo būti energiškai efektyvus. Tai prieštaringi reikalavimai. Pagrindinis disertacijos tikslas – įvertinant natūralaus apšvietimo poreikį, kompleksiškai išanalizuoti viešosios paskirties pastato įstiklinimo charakteristi-kų įtaką pastato mikroklimato ir apšvietimo sistemų energijos poreikiams bei nustatyti, kokioms pastato įstiklinimo charakteristikoms esant, Lietuvoje bei panašaus klimato šalyse pastato energijos poreikius galima būtų sumažinti iki mažai energijos vartojančio pastato lygio. Darbe sprendžiami du pagrindiniai uždaviniai: pirmasis – atliekama įstiklinimo įtakos kondicionuojamo pastato energijos poreikiams analizė; antrasis – nustatomos efektyvios energiškai efektyvaus pastato įstiklinimo charakteristikos. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, keturi skyriai, rezultatų apibendrinimas, naudotos literatūros ir autoriaus publikacijų disertacijos tema sąrašai. Įvadiniame skyriuje aptariama tiriamoji problema, darbo aktualumas, aprašomas tyrimų objektas, formuluojamas darbo tikslas bei uždaviniai, aprašoma tyrimų metodika, darbo mokslinis naujumas, darbo rezultatų praktinė reikšmė, ginamieji teiginiai, pristatomos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Applying building energy simulations, the dissertation investigates the issu-es of energy efficiency of public buildings. The main object of research – influ-ence of the glazing of the public building on its energy demand. Next to its main function to ensure daylighting, glazing must to be energy efficient. So these requirements conflict. The aim of this dissertation is to perform the complex analysis of the influ-ence of glazing characteristics on the building‘s microclimate and lighting sys-tems energy demand, taking into account DL demand. Also define, what glazing characteristics in Lithuanian and similar climate countries, are able to decrease buildings energy demand to the level of the low energy building. The paper ap-proaches two major tasks. Task 1 is performance of the detailed analysis of inf-luence of glazing on energy demand of the public building. Task 2 is determina-tion of the efficient glazing characteristics of the energy efficient building. The dissertation consists of Introduction, 4 chapters, Conclusions, Referen-ces and list of published works of the author on the topic of dissertation. The introduction reveals the investigated problem, importance of the thesis and the object of research and describes the purpose and tasks of the paper, re-search methodology, scientific novelty, the practical significance of results examined in the paper and defended statements. The introduction ends in presen-ting the author’s publications on the subject of the... [to full text]

Applying building energy simulations, the dissertation investigates the issu-es of energy efficiency of public buildings. The main object of research – influence of the glazing of the public building on its energy demand. Next to its main function to ensure daylighting, glazing must to be energy efficient. So these requirements conflict. The aim of this dissertation is to perform the complex analysis of the influence of glazing characteristics on the building‘s microclimate and lighting systems energy demand, taking into account DL demand. Also define, what glazing characteristics in Lithuanian and similar climate countries, are able to decrease buildings energy demand to the level of the low energy building. The paper approaches two major tasks. Task 1 is performance of the detailed analysis of influence of glazing on energy demand of the public building. Task 2 is determination of the efficient glazing characteristics of the energy efficient building. The dissertation consists of Introduction, 4 chapters, Conclusions, references and list of published works of the author on the topic of dissertation. The introduction reveals the investigated problem, importance of the thesis and the object of research and describes the purpose and tasks of the paper, research methodology, scientific novelty, the practical significance of results examined in the paper and defended statements. The introduction ends in presenting the author’s publications on the subject of the defended... [to full text] / Disertacijoje, taikant dinaminį pastatų energijos poreikių modeliavimą, nag-rinėjamos viešosios paskirties pastatų energinio efektyvumo problemos. Pagrin-dinis tyrimo objektas yra viešosios paskirties pastato fasado įstiklinimo įtaka energijos poreikiams. Greta savo pagrindinės funkcijos – pakankamo natūralaus apšvietimo užtikrinimo, fasado įstiklinimas privalo būti energiškai efektyvus. Tai prieštaringi reikalavimai. Pagrindinis disertacijos tikslas – įvertinant natūralaus apšvietimo poreikį, kompleksiškai išanalizuoti viešosios paskirties pastato įstiklinimo charakteristi-kų įtaką pastato mikroklimato ir apšvietimo sistemų energijos poreikiams bei nustatyti, kokioms pastato įstiklinimo charakteristikoms esant, Lietuvoje bei pa-našaus klimato šalyse pastato energijos poreikius galima būtų sumažinti iki ma-žai energijos vartojančio pastato lygio. Darbe sprendžiami du pagrindiniai užda-viniai: pirmasis – atliekama įstiklinimo įtakos kondicionuojamo pastato energijos poreikiams analizė; antrasis – nustatomos efektyvios energiškai efek-tyvaus pastato įstiklinimo charakteristikos. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, keturi skyriai, rezultatų apibendrinimas, naudotos literatūros ir autoriaus publikacijų disertacijos tema sąrašai. Įvadiniame skyriuje aptariama tiriamoji problema, darbo aktualumas, apra-šomas tyrimų objektas, formuluojamas darbo tikslas bei uždaviniai, aprašoma tyrimų metodika, darbo mokslinis naujumas, darbo rezultatų praktinė reikšmė, ginamieji teiginiai, pristatomos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

This study is an initial attempt to investigate the relationship between the portrayal of Japanese OL or “Office Ladies” in different media: formal scholarly studies on OL and informal sources such as recruiting lectures, online articles, and Japanese magazines that target OL, specifically CanCam, Sweet, and JJ. The term OL has generally been used to describe a short-term low-paying clerical position, requiring minimal skills, for young women primarily age 20s to 30s. The OL position can thus be seen as a gendered profession with little corporate mobility. However, most of the websites and magazines for these working women feature articles on the latest styles and are full of fashionable attractive women advertising the latest designer goods and the up and coming designer must-have brands of the season. With the skyrocketing of the Japanese economy in the pose-WWII era, women have become the country’s primary consumers, and OL appear to be playing a central role in this new consumer-heavy culture. Thus using both scholarly and primary sources, this thesis will explore this gap between the reality of OL and the romanticized version portrayed in these magazines. Although scholarly sources often depict the OL lifestyle to be tedious, gendered, and overall unfavorable for workingwomen in Japan, my thesis hopes to explore the positive aspects of the OL lifestyle as well and examine the reasons why women buy into this OL culture via these magazines and sites.

The global analysis fields of the Met Office stratospheric assimilated data set have been investigated. Systematic biases for select years were identified through val- idation with independent satellite observations. Particular attention was given to analyses from January 2005 to October 2009 produced from a 50 level (L50) configuration of the UM with model lid at ∼0.1 hPa, and the impact on analyses fields from November 2009 to September 2010 when the middle atmospheric configuration of the UM was extended to ∼0.01 hPa using 70 levels (L70). Validation results from both the L50 and L70 analyses show that largest tem- perature biases occur at polar latitudes approaching the model lid in the meso- sphere, exhibiting a clear seasonal cycle. Here cold biases in the winter season of the L50 analyses and warm biases in the summer season of the L70 analyses would strongly suggest that the mean meridional circulation in the mesosphere is underestimated, and that small scale gravity wave forcing supplied by the op- erational Ultra Simple Spectral Parameterisation (USSP) scheme is insufficient. Based on the above validation results numerous experiments were conducted to investigate the temperature response in the mesosphere to increased gravity wave forcing. Such experiments concentrated on tuning the energy scale factor (β) in the USSP scheme and the application of a momentum conserving ”opaque” lid. Furthermore, the impact of developing the USSP scheme to include direct heating from gravity wave induced turbulent dissipation was also investigated. Maximum temperature responses in the summer polar upper mesosphere of ∼22 K were found when increasing the standard value of β=0.1 to β=0.14 combined with the application of an opaque lid. Magnitudes of direct heating rates due to gravity wave turbulent dissipation diagnosed via the USSP scheme were found to be consistent with previous estimates. However applying such heating would most likely have a negative impact on the L70 analyses, which already display warm biases in the upper mesosphere, strongly suggesting that additional phys- ical processes such as eddy diffusion must also be accounted for when applying direct heating from gravity wave breaking.

Knowledge integration is rather a new and not fully explored  concept in  business management. However there are many scholars, who have  researched knowledge integration in recent decades. This thesis is conducted in order to draw attention towards knowledge integration and its processual phenomena. Moreover, some scholars have mentioned that knowledge integration is dynamic. The dynamics of knowledge integration lead to the fact that the actual knowledge integration process is also dynamic and constituted of performance practices, while being dependent on different factors and conditions. In further understanding, knowledge ingratiation process cannot be implemented in a straight forward lineal fashion. For this reason it changes during the time of the knowledge integration project implementation. The interest of this research is to find out how does the knowledge integration process change during the evolution ofproject. For this purpose, we have researched a real company’s project, the objective of which is to reach the knowledge integration amongst different back office teams in a newly established Shared Service Centre (SSC). The study led us through the discovery of different aspects of knowledge integration process, including challenges that occur during its implementation and mechanisms that are adopted as the project evolves. The analysis of existent theory and practical interpretation of the company’s project allowed us to conduct a visualization of the change of knowledge integration process. This visualization summarizes the occurrence of knowledge integration challenges, which call the company management to alternate different performance practices in combination with the use of practice-based coordination’s. In this essence it becomes visible, that as project evolves, the process of knowledge integration adopts a non-lineal progression. This in later perspective builds a reason to argue that the more knowledge is integrated more challenges occur in this integration process and as a result more mechanism are needed to be adopted to sustain successful knowledge integration in the project.

Det är viktigt hur kontorsmiljöer utformas så att de kan skapa förutsättningar för lärande, välbefinnande och hälsa på arbetsplatsen. Syftet med aktivitetsbaserade kontor (ABkontor) är att ge de anställda möjligheten att välja den kontorsplats som bäst lämpar sig för den uppgift som ska utföras. Det innebär att ingen har en egen plats att gå till. Även om den här kontorstypen blir alltmer populär finns det begränsat med forskning som undersökt vilken effekt ABkontor har på kommunikation, stöd, hälsa och välbefinnande, särskilt ur ett lärandeperspektiv. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka om det finns skillnader mellan män och kvinnor i hur de skattar hälsa, välbefinnande och hur nöjda de är med olika förutsättningar för informellt lärande i ABkontor, samt om det finns ett samband mellan förutsättningar för informellt lärande på arbetsplatsen och upplevd hälsa och välbefinnande. Ett frågeformulär skickades ut till 174 arbetare på ett av Trafikverkets kontor och svarsfrekvensen var 53 %. Analyserna visar att det inte fanns någon signifikant skillnad mellan män och kvinnor i hur tillfredsställda de är med de olika förutsättningarna, generellt så skattades tillfredställelse högt. Ett signifikant samband hittades mellan informellt lärande och välbefinnande men inte mellan informellt lärande och hälsa. Vidare forskning behövs för att undersöka om informellt lärande faktiskt äger rum i ABkontor genom att undersöka en större population och en större variation av ABkontor för att reda ut den kausala relationen mellan informellt lärande och välbefinnande. / It is important how office environments get designed so they can promote conditions for learning, well-being and health in the workplace. The purpose of an activity-based office (ABW) is to give the employees a possibility to choose the workplace best suited for the task at hand, implying that no one has their own private office to go to. Although this office environment gets increasingly popular, there is a lack of research demonstrating the effects of ABW:s on communication, collegial support, health and wellbeing, especially from a learning perspective. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in how satisfied women and men are in an ABW with the conditions for informal learning, such as work-related information exchange, cooperation and social support and test whether it is a relation between informal learning at work and self-rated wellbeing and health. A questionnaire was sent out to 174 employees working at the Swedish Transport Administration and the response rate was 53 %. The analyses showed that there is no significant difference between men and women in how satisfied they are with the conditions for informal learning in the ABW, overall both genders gave high ratings on satisfaction. A significant relationship was found between informal learning and well-being but not between informal learning and health. Further research is needed to investigate whether informal learning actually takes place in the activity-based office, using a bigger sample and variety of ABW:s, to clear out if the relation between informal learning and well-being is causal.

Purpose: The aim with this study is to compare perceived productivity and job satisfaction between activity based offices and traditional offices. The goal is to investigate, through a quantitative comparison, productivity and job satisfaction between the office types, and if generations perceive this differently. Method: The method used in this study is a quantitative method, in form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire used was taken from a study made by Sahlström and Severin (2015) at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The same questionnaire was taken because it had already been quality assured and had good content for the survey. Four IT companies were included in the study. Two of them had activity based offices and two of them had traditional office type. Literature review has also been a method in order to get a deeper understanding of the subject. Findings: The results of the study show that there are differences between the two office types in perceived productivity and job satisfaction. The traditional office type showed the best results. However, this result can be discussed since the two traditional offices differed widely in their responses. The results also show that there are differences between the generations experiencing productivity and job satisfaction of the various offices. The elder generation, Baby boomers, shows better results on the traditional office type and the younger generation, Generation Y, shows better results on the activity based offices. Implications: One conclusion to be drawn from this is that employees at traditional offices are more satisfied with their working place and experience increased productivity than employees on activity based offices. However, these results may be due to other factors than how the office environment affects the employees. Therefore, these results will not be recommended. Another conclusion is that the Baby boomers are experiencing higher productivity and job satisfaction of traditional office and Generation Y experiences higher productivity and job satisfaction on activity based office. These results can be recommended. Limitations: The limitations of this study are to examine only IT companies in Sweden with a maximal amount of employees of 150 persons. The results are, apart from the scattered results in the first issue, generally valid and can be applied to other IT companies. To succeed fully applicable results, a survey with more companies involved had been better. Then, detections of anomaly would easier have been discovered and possible disregards of certain results could have been done. Keywords: Perceived productivity - Self-rated assessment of employees on their own productivity. Traditional offices - In this work traditional offices includes cell offices and shared rooms. Activity based offices - Office where employees have no fixed work place and there are often zones to support different types of working. / Syfte: Syftet med detta examensarbete är att jämföra upplevd produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse mellan aktivitetsbaserade kontor och traditionella kontor. Målet är att genom en kvantitativ jämförelse undersöka upplevd produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse mellan kontorstyperna, samt om generationer upplever detta olika. Metod: Metoden som har använts i detta arbete är en kvantitativ metod, i form av en enkätundersökning. Enkäten som användes är tagen från en studie av Sahlström och Severin (2015) som gjordes på Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan i Stockholm. Samma enkät användes då den redan hade kvalitetssäkrats och hade passande frågor för vår undersökning. Fyra IT-företag var med i undersökningen, varav två av dem hade aktivitetsbaserat kontor och två av dem hade traditionell kontorstyp. Litteraturstudie har även varit en metod för att få djupare förståelse inom ämnet. Resultat: Resultaten från studien visar att det finns skillnader mellan de två kontorstyperna i upplevd produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse. Den traditionella kontorstypen visade högst resultat. Dock kan detta resultat diskuteras då de båda traditionella kontoren skiljde sig mycket åt i svaren. Resultaten visar också att det finns skillnader mellan hur generationer upplever produktivitet och tillfredsställelse på de olika kontoren. Den äldre generationen, Baby boomers, visar högre resultat på den traditionella kontorstypen och den yngre generationen, Generation Y, visar högre resultat på de aktivitetsbaserade kontoren. Konsekvenser: En slutsats som kan dras från detta är att anställda på traditionella kontor är mer tillfredsställda med sin arbetsplats och upplever högre produktivitet än anställda på aktivitetsbaserade kontor. Däremot kan resultaten berott på andra faktorer än hur kontorsmiljön påverkar de anställda. Därför rekommenderas inte just dessa resultat. Ytterligare en slutsats är att Baby boomers upplever högre produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse på traditionella kontor och att Generation Y upplever högre produktivitet och arbetstillfredsställelse på aktivitetsbaserade kontor. Dessa resultat kan rekommenderas. Begränsningar: Avgränsningar som har gjorts är att endast undersöka IT-företag i Sverige med maximalt 150 anställda. Resultaten är, med undantag från de spridda resultaten i första frågeställningen, generellt giltiga och kan tillämpas på andra IT-företag. För att lyckas få helt applicerbara resultat hade en undersökning med fler företag medverkande varit bra, eftersom man då hade kunnat upptäcka avvikelser lättare och eventuellt bortse från vissa resultat. Nyckelord: Upplevd produktivitet - Självuppskattad bedömning av anställda på deras egen produktivitet. Traditionella kontor - I detta arbete innefattar traditionella kontor cellkontor och delade rum. Aktivitetsbaserade kontor - Kontor där de anställda inte har några fasta arbetsplatser och där det ofta finns zoner för att stödja olika typer av arbete.