No / The relationship between the academy and the business community is currently perceived to be important to the future of both parties. Universities provide graduates to meet the needs and requirements of society and industry, and the latter supplies products and services to meet the needs of the market place. Whether public or private, industry increasingly seeks to use tools and techniques that increase efficiency and effectiveness, whilst at the same time maximizing quality and minimizing cost. The current trend towards companies outsourcing their R & D requirements to reduce corporate overheads and optimize staffing levels means that Universities can utilize the opportunity and bid to supply this expertise. Universities also generate their own spin-outs from intellectual property they create, as well as licensing technology to industry, rather than transferring it. However, the relationship between university and industry is not without its challenges, chief of which is the historical commitment of the academy to advance knowledge whether it is directly applicable or not. In addition, there are many fundamental and important long term research issues that many would argue are the primary duty of the academy to address, which may have no direct application in the short to medium term. This is resulting in increasing tensions in the academy, and in the priorities for national and international funding agencies. There can also be significant cultural differences and reward models between the academy and industry which give rise to difficult issues for staff at the interface. This chapter reviews the current developments and the issues at the interface between business and the academy.

Probabilistic model checking mainly concentrates on techniques for reasoning about the probabilities of certain path properties or expected values of certain random variables. For the quantitative system analysis, however, there is also another type of interesting performance measure, namely quantiles. A typical quantile query takes as input a lower probability bound p ∈ ]0,1] and a reachability property. The task is then to compute the minimal reward bound r such that with probability at least p the target set will be reached before the accumulated reward exceeds r. Quantiles are well-known from mathematical statistics, but to the best of our knowledge they have not been addressed by the model checking community so far. In this paper, we study the complexity of quantile queries for until properties in discrete-time finite-state Markov decision processes with nonnegative rewards on states. We show that qualitative quantile queries can be evaluated in polynomial time and present an exponential algorithm for the evaluation of quantitative quantile queries. For the special case of Markov chains, we show that quantitative quantile queries can be evaluated in pseudo-polynomial time.

Psychosocial work environment is a subject that has increased over the years. Questions surrounding psychosocial work environment include almost everything that has to do with employees’ mental health at their workplace, such as well-being, community, meaningfulness, influence, and personal development. Previous studies have shown that the number of reported occupational diseases has increased, and therefore it is interesting and important for organizations to get some knowledge on their employees’ psychosocial work environment and to enable them to actively work to improve their work environment. This essay has focused on learning more about the psychosocial work environment in municipal health sector. This was studied through a qualitative interview survey with six employees and two managers at two assisted living facilities with the aim of taking part in the interviewees' experiences of the psychosocial work environment. To get a deeper understanding of their experiences, theories about effort-reward and human relationships has been applied. The main results showed that the interviewee for the most part is satisfied with their work environment, but there is still room for improvement especially when it comes to manager presence, social affirmation, and higher salary. The results also showed that the interviewees to some extend feels stressed and overcommitted when it comes to work tasks.

Probabilistic model checking mainly concentrates on techniques for reasoning about the probabilities of certain path properties or expected values of certain random variables. For the quantitative system analysis, however, there is also another type of interesting performance measure, namely quantiles. A typical quantile query takes as input a lower probability bound p ∈ ]0,1] and a reachability property. The task is then to compute the minimal reward bound r such that with probability at least p the target set will be reached before the accumulated reward exceeds r. Quantiles are well-known from mathematical statistics, but to the best of our knowledge they have not been addressed by the model checking community so far. In this paper, we study the complexity of quantile queries for until properties in discrete-time finite-state Markov decision processes with nonnegative rewards on states. We show that qualitative quantile queries can be evaluated in polynomial time and present an exponential algorithm for the evaluation of quantitative quantile queries. For the special case of Markov chains, we show that quantitative quantile queries can be evaluated in pseudo-polynomial time.

En god arbetsmiljö är avgörande för god hälsa. Sjukfrånvaron inom vårdrelaterade yrken blir allt högre samtidigt som antalet äldre personer i behov av hemtjänst förväntas öka med 76 procent till 2040 och antalet personer i yrkesverksam ålder förväntas öka med 9,4 procent. Därmed kan vi se att vård- och omsorgsorganisationer har en ökad risk för under bemanning och ökad personalomsättning på grund av den ökade belastningen inom yrkesgruppen. Utifrån detta ser vi att det är av vikt att studera första linjens chefer inom hemtjänsten och deras upplevelser kring den psykosociala arbetsmiljön. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur första linjens chefer inom hemtjänsten handskas med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön genom att titta på chefernas förutsättningar för att arbeta med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön, studera deras upplevelser kring det stöd som de åtnjuter i arbetet med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön samt hur arbetet mot den ökande sjukfrånvaron ser ut. Datainsamling skedde via kvalitativ intervjustudie med induktiv ansats och data analyserades via tematisk analys. Resultatet visade att arbetet med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön i hemtjänsten är komplex och utmanande där första linjens chefer har stora personalgrupper som en försvårande faktor. Framgångsfaktorer som identifierades var närvarande ledarskap, låta medarbetare vara delaktiga i att planera tid för besök hos brukare, anpassning av arbetsuppgifter och fungerande stöd till chefer och medarbetare. Studiens resultat visar att första linjens chefer inom hemtjänsten har ett utmanande arbete med stora personalgrupper och höga krav på att hålla budget samtidigt som de ansvarar för arbetsmiljön och att det behövs omfattande arbete för att förbättra chefers förutsättningar och stöd. Studien bekräftar även tidigare forskning inom området och indikerar att det behövs ytterligare forskning inom området. / A good working environment is crucial for good health. The sick leave rate in healt care-related professions is increasing, while the number of elderly individuals in need of home care services is expected to increase by 76 percent, alongside a projected 9,4 percent increase in the working-age population. Consequently, we can observe that the healthcare organizations face an increased risk of understaffing and high turnover due to the growing demands in the profession. Based on this, it is important to study first-line managers in home care and their experiences with the psychosocial work environment. The aim of this study is to examine how first-line managers in home care manage the psychosocial work environment, by examining their prerequisites for addressing the psychosocial work environment, assessing how they experience the support they receive in this regard, and exploring the efforts made to combat increasing sick leave rates. Data collection was conducted through qualitative interviews using an inductive approach, and the data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The results revealed that the work concerning the psychosocial work in home care is complex and challenging, with the large size of the staff groups being a complicating factor. Success factors identified included present leadership, involving employees in planning time for client visits, task customization, and effective support for managers and employees. The result of the study shows that first-line managers in home care face challenging work with large staff groups and high demands to maintain the budget, while also being responsible for the work environment. There is a need for extensive efforts to improve managers conditions and support. The findings of the study also confirm previous research in the field and suggest the need for further research in this area.