Over the years, teachers, administrators, and policy makers have been concerned with optimizing learning for all students. The No Child Left Behind Act put an emphasis on summative assessments, which measure what students have learned. In contrast, formative assessment has been shown in many studies to improve student achievement and motivation because it is applied while students are learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate, for middle and high school mathematics and science instruction, the validity and reliability of a newly developed observation instrument called AssessToday, which is used in a single class period to assess a teacher’s use of short-cycle formative assessment. The content validity of the instrument was supported through an extensive literature review, feedback from experts in the field of formative assessment, and an examination of 98 classroom observations. For assessing reliability of the instrument, inter-rater reliability coefficients were calculated using data collected by trained observers who independently rated teachers during the same class period using three measures: percentage of agreement between raters, Cohen’s kappa, and Fleiss kappa. Cohen’s kappa (N = 36 pairs) ranged from .62 to 1.00 for all observer pairs with an average kappa of .75 for mathematics (n = 16 pairs) and .76 for science (n = 20 pairs). The recommended threshold for kappa is k = .70. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the observation data and the determined factors related to the theoretical framework established in the literature. The results affirmed that the instrument is a tool to be utilized in short-cycle formative assessment with middle and high school science and mathematics teachers.

The railway track network is one of the major modes of transportation and among a country’s most valuable infrastructure assets. Maintenance and renewal of railway infrastructure have a vital role in safety performance, the quality of the ride, train punctuality, and the life cycle cost of assets. Due to the large proportion of maintenance costs, increasing the efficiency of maintenance through optimised planning can result in high amounts of cost-saving. Moreover, from a safety perspective, late maintenance intervention can result in defective track and rollingstock components, which in severe cases, can cause severe accidents such as derailments. An effective maintenance management system is required to ensure the availability of the infrastructure system and meet the increasing capacity demand. The recent rapid technological revolution and increasing deployment of sensors and connected devices created new possibilities to increase the maintenance strategy effectiveness in the railway network. The purpose of this thesis is to expand the knowledge and methods for planning and scheduling of railway infrastructure maintenance. The research vision is to find quantitative approaches for integrated tactical planning and operational scheduling of predictive condition-based maintenance which can be put to practical use and improve the efficiency of the railway system. First, a thorough literature review study is performed to identify improvement policies for maintenance planning and scheduling in the literature and also to analyse the current approaches in optimising the maintenance planning and scheduling problem. Second, a novel data-driven multi-level decision-making framework to improve the efficiency of maintenance planning and scheduling is developed. The proposed framework aims to support the selection of track segments for maintenance by providing a practical degradation prediction model based on available condition measurement data. The framework considers the uncertainty of future predictions using the probability of surpassing a maintenance limit instead of using the predicted value. Moreover, an extensive total maintenance cost formulation is developed to include both direct and indirect preventive and corrective costs to observe the effect of using cost optimisation and grouping algorithms at the operational scheduling level. The performance of the proposed framework is evaluated through a case study based on data from a track section of the iron ore line between Boden and Luleå. The results indicate that the proposed approach can lead to cost savings in both optimal and grouping plans. This framework may be a useful decision support tool in the automated planning and scheduling of maintenance based on track geometry measurements.

Background Guidelines recommend the use of perfusion computed tomography (CT) to identify emergent large vessel ischemic stroke (ELVIS) patients who are likely to benefit from endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) if they present within 6-24 hour (late window) of stroke onset. We aim to determine if the interrater and intrarater reliability among physicians when recommending EVT is significantly different when perfusion CT or non-perfusion CT is reviewed. Methods A total of 30 non-consecutive patients were selected from our institutional database comprising 3144 cranial CT scans (January 2018-August 2022) performed for acute stroke symptoms. The clinical and radiologic data of the 30 patients were presented in random order to a group of 29 physicians in two separate sessions at least three weeks apart. In each session, the physicians evaluated each patient once with automated perfusion images and once without. We used non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals and difference in agreement classification as criteria to suggest a difference between the Gwet AC1 statistics (κG). Results Twenty-nine raters successfully completed the first round of surveys, with all but one of them also completing the second. The interrater (κG) agreement amonth 29 raters is similar with non-perfusion CT neuroimaging compared to perfusion CT neuroimaging (κG = 0.487; 95% CI 0.327,0.647 and κG =0.552; 95% CI 0.430,0.675). The 95% confidence intervals overlapped and both κG signify moderate agreement. The intrarater agreement κG had overlapping 95% confidence intervals for all 28 raters. κG was either substantial or excellent (0.81-1) for 71.4% (20/28) of patients in both groups. Conclusions Our findings suggest that automated perfusion images and quantitative values that are present in the perfusion CT neuroimaging but not in non-perfusion CT neuroimaging do not significantly affect the reliability of the decisions made by physicians on EVT for late window ELVIS patients. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Background and Methods Strokes that are associated with a blood clot in the brain may be treated by endovascular thrombectomy (EVT), a procedure that involves pulling the occlusion out. In this study we wanted to know whether a particular type of way to image the brain, perfusion computed tomography (CT) compared to plain CT makes a difference in how doctors decide on whether to treat these patients or not. Perfusion imaging comes at a cost and may not be available in all centers. Both imaging techniques are used to determine which patients would benefit from EVT (Endovascular Treatment). The goal of imaging is to confirm a stroke and assess whether a significant portion of the brain is still salvageable, as performing the procedure may not be beneficial otherwise. Results and Conclusions Our study suggests that the decisions made by physicians when reviewing patients with either imaging are comparable.

Purpose – The demand for solar cells has increased, creating challenges for solar cell suppliers operating in a B2B context. Customers should be central to all companies, which is why it is important to examine their experience of service quality through the sales process of solar cell suppliers. Thus, the purpose of this study is: To identify improvement opportunities for solar cell suppliers’ sales process based on customers’ experiences from a service quality perspective. Based on the purpose, two research questions were formulated: [1] What strengths and weaknesses do customers perceive that solar cell suppliers' salesprocess have from a service quality perspective? [2] How can solar cell suppliers' sales process be improved from a service quality perspective? Method – The study is a case study, where data was collected from a selected case company and ten of their business customers. To be able to map out the case company's sales process, a document study, and an open interview with employees at the case company were carried out. Based on the collected data, interview questions were created for ten of the case company's business customers. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify the customers' experience of service quality through the sales process, whereupon suggestions for improvement could be identified. Results – The identified strengths meant a high experience of service quality according to the customers. The strengths were professional treatment, effective communication, detailed planning, well-executed execution as well as detecting and resolution of problems. The shortcomings identified through the sales process resulted in an experience of low service quality according to the customers. The shortcomings were slow response, overworked staff, lack of project management, inadequate material delivery, delayed projects, visualization problems and deficiencies in detecting defects. The main improvement proposal is to create a plan with instructions for who is responsible for collecting and transferring information between involved parties. Implications – By creating a plan for the collection and transferring of information, where it becomes clear who has responsibility between both internal and external parties, the service quality through solar cell suppliers' sales process can increase. Technology that creates a seamless service is an important part of the sales process, whereupon developed and efficient technology is important from a long-term perspective. For example, customers can be involved in solar cell suppliers' IT systems to be able to obtain information. Limitations – The study is a single case study, which means that data was collected from only one company. In addition, only ten business customers have been interviewed to collect data. These aspects may indicate that the generalizability of the study can be questioned. Key words – Customer satisfaction, customer value, selling process, service quality, solar cell supplier

Logistics is a talked about but also difficult to define concept as this concept has several different interpretations. Actually, logistics is primarily about more efficient material flows, which in turn should create more efficient work processes in production. In literature research, knowledge has been sought about efficient logistics and lean, which in turn led to investigating the various areas and factors that lead to waste. Logistics within the construction industry, and not least production, is today an area that is well debated and is one of the more important aspects to achieve more efficient production. Based on the knowledge gathered, a measurement tool has since been developed which is intended to be used within construction production to measure the actual efficiency of logistics. This means that the tool can, if desired, be used in more projects than those processed and treated in this scientific report. This scientific report will answer the following questions: 1. What shortcomings are found in logistics in the construction industry 2. Are there one or more widespread deficiencies? 3. Develop a measurement tool that should be able to measure the efficiency of logistics in projects within construction production. The result shows that with well-planned logistics, more efficient logistics can be achieved and thus profit can be achieved in the form of both time and money. This scientific report will provide an insight into the field of logistics during construction production. Furthermore, the work will highlight the shortcomings that appear in the efficiency of logistics within the investigated projects and give suggestions on how this can be remedied.

Afferent Inhibition is the reduction in motor output when Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex is preceded by peripheral nerve stimulation. Afferent inhibition can be subdivided into two circuits of Short- (SAI) and Long-Afferent Inhibition (LAI). Reliability reflects the repeatability of a measure and can be measured in terms of both absolute and relative reliability. Relative reliability refers to the ability of a measure to identify individuals on repeated testing, measured through the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC); absolute reliability is the repeatability of scores through repeated testing, measured through Standard Error of Measurement (SEM) and Smallest Detectable Change (SDC). Current literature has highlighted only the intersession reliability of SAI and LAI, but measures of the intrasession reliability are also needed. This study aims to quantify the intrasession reliability of SAI and LAI, alongside identifying the minimum number of trials needed to obtain a reliable measure. 30 healthy individuals (21.17 ± 2.84 years) took part in one session, with SAI and LAI obtained three times at 30-minute intervals. To identify the minimum number of trials required to reliably elicit SAI and LAI, relative reliability was assessed at running intervals of every 5 trials. Results indicate that SAI had moderate–high, and LAI had high-excellent relative reliability. Both SAI and LAI had high amounts of measurement error. LAI was seen to have high relative reliability when only 5 frames of data were included, whereas for SAI, ~20-30 frames of data resulted in high relative reliability. For LAI, a minimal sample size of 19 is needed to have an SDCGroup < 10, whereas for SAI, a sample size of 22 is needed to achieve the same. These results can be used to inform future work regarding the clinical utility of these measures, particularly in terms of their diagnostic ability. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The power electronics market is valued at $23.25 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $ 36.64 billion by 2027. Power electronic systems (PES) have been extensively used in a wide range of critical applications, including automotive, renewable energy, industrial variable-frequency drive, etc. Thus, the PESs' reliability and robustness are immensely important for the smooth operation of mission-critical applications. Power semiconductor switches are one of the most vulnerable components in the PES. The vulnerability of these switches impacts the reliability and robustness of the PES. Thus, switch-health monitoring and prognosis are critical for avoiding unexpected shutdowns and preventing catastrophic failures. The importance of the prognosis study increases dramatically with the growing popularity of the next-generation power semiconductor switches, wide bandgap switches. These switches show immense promise in the high-power high-frequency operations due to their higher breakdown voltage and lower switch loss. But their wide adaptation is limited by the inadequate reliability study. A thorough prognosis study comprising switch degradation modeling, remaining useful life (RUL) estimation, and degradation-aware controller development, is important to enhance the PESs' robustness, especially with wide bandgap switches. In this dissertation, three studies are conducted to achieve these objectives- 1) Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) degradation modeling and RUL estimation, 2) cascode Gallium Nitride (GaN) Field-Effect Transistor (FET) degradation modeling and RUL estimation, and 3) Degradation-aware controller design for a PES, solid-state transformer (SST). The first two studies have addressed the significant variation in RUL estimation and proposed degradation identification methods for IGBT and cascode GaN FET. In the third study, a system-level integration of the switch degradation model is implemented in the SST. The insight into the switch's degradation pattern from the first two studies is integrated into developing a degradation-aware controller for the SST. State-of-the-art controllers do not consider the switch degradation that results in premature system failure. The proposed low-complexity degradation-aware and adaptive SST controller ensures optimal degradation-aware power transfer and robust operation over the lifetime.

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