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<p>Uppsatsen presenterar två studier som med den socialpsykologiska modellen ’teorin om planerat beteende’ (Ajzen, 1991) undersöker hur väl en webbaserad måltidsplaneringstjänst lyckas med att få dess användare att regelbundet äta varierat.</p><p>Tjänsten bestod huvudsakligen av en sökbar receptdatabas på 250 recept, en kalender för att planera in recepten i, och en inköpslista som genererades automatiskt utifrån recepten i kalendern. Tjänsten byggdes under tiden som uppsatsen skrevs, och författaren deltog som interaktionsdesigner i detta projekt.</p><p>I  uppsatsen presenteras  två sekventiella studier för att mäta användarnas intention till beteendet. I vardera studie presenteras först webbtjänsten och den funktionalitet den hade vid tiden för testet. Detta följs av en hypotes om tjänstens påverkan över användarnas vilja att äta varierat. I vardera studie genomfördes sedan ett användartest av tjänsten, där 13 respektive 15 personer fick använda webbsidan och svara på enkätfrågor. Enkäterna mätte attityd, subjektiv norm, upplevd beteendekontroll och intention till beteendet att regelbundet äta varierat, och en mätning gjordes före och en efter användartestet av tjänsten.</p><p>Testen visade på signifikanta ökningar för användarna givet att de skulle använda tjänsten; för upplevd beteendekontroll i den första studien; för subjektiv norm i den andra studien, och för intention i båda studierna.</p><p>Uppsatsen presenterar också interaktionsdesignsbeslut tagna för att anpassa tjänsten efter resultaten av mätningarna av användarnas intention. Avslutningsvis lyfter författaren fram forskningsfrågor för framtida studier i ämnet att förjupa sig i.</p> / <p>This report used the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991); a model from social psychology, to determine how well an online meal planning service succeeds in making its users regularly eat varied.</p><p>The service consisted mainly of a searchable recipe database of 250 recipes, a calendar to schedule the recipes, and a shopping list that was generated automatically from the recipes in the calendar. The service was being constructed during the time that this report was written, and the author participated as an interaction designer in this project.</p><p>The report consists of two sequential studies to measure the users’ intention to the behavior of interest. In each study are first presented the meal planning service and its current functionality by the time of the testing; followed by a hypothesis about the effect it should have on the user's intent to regularly eat varied. In each study were then held a user testing of the product, where 13 and 15 people, respectively, were using the website and answering survey questions. The questionnaires were measuring attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and intention to the behavior to regularly eat varied, and these measurements were made once before and once after the user test of the product.</p><p>The tests showed significant increases for the users given that they would use the service; for perceived behavioral control in the first study; for subjective norm in the second study, and for intention in of both studies.</p><p>The report also presents interaction design decisions made to adapt the service due to the results of the measurements of the users' intention. Finally, the author presents his proposals for future research work in this domain.</p>

<p>The purpose with this essay is to explore the social changes in relation to changes in mortality for the two largest ethnic groups in Estonia; ethnic Estonians and the Russian minority. Since this is a geographical essay, my purpose is also to explore these changes in relation to the country’s internal geography. As these changes appear over time in space, the content is partly rooted in a time geographical point of view. It is also rooted in a regional geographical point of view, since I have been comparing the mentioned changes between different areas in Estonia (with considerations on developments abroad).</p><p>Two different development lines can be seen as a consequence of the social changes taking place in the 1990s. While the ethnic Estonians situation has improved, the Russian minority’s situation has instead declined regarding to social existence and health. As a result the mortality has increased enormously for the Russian minority. The ethnic Estonians had also a mortality increase in practically all studied causes of death in all studied areas, but this increase wasn’t as high as for the Russian minority. Nevertheless, when comparing two different counties with each other as well as with the country as whole, the pattern seems to be more complicated. The Russians living in the western county of Läänemaa, have been affected more favourably by the social change than those living in the north-eastern county of Ida-Virumaa. Except for mortality by alcohol poisoning, the Russians living in Läänemaa had a much lower mortality increase than those living in Ida-Viruma and even compared with the country as whole.</p><p>It seems as those Russians living in the western parts of Estonia have been affected more favourably than those living in the north-eastern parts. These structures are very much depending on the history, since most of the Russians living in the north-eastern area immigrated during the Soviet era, while the western parts had a much earlier immigration of Russians. Considering the time and place of the Russian immigration, one can divide the Russian minority in two groups; those in the west, and those in the east.</p>

<p><strong>Study</strong> <strong>objects</strong>: Three different productions companies which the authors have chosen to be anonymous. <strong>Purpose</strong>: The purpose with this study is to examine why production companies choose to use 3D-animations in television commercials, and what different kind of aspects affects their decisions. <strong>Theoretical</strong>: The theoretical chapter reviews the history of 3D-animation andtelevision commercials and other fields that will be relevant laterin the analysis and discussion. <strong>Method</strong>: A case study has been made on three different companies, two of the companies are active in post-production and the other one is active in the consulting area. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with two of the companies. The last interview was conducted via e-mail. <strong>Conclusions</strong>: There were different ground aspects (economy, control, targetaudience, consumer impression) that affected a productioncompany’s decision in whether or not to use 3D-animation in theirproductions of television commercials.</p>

<p>Boij, A. 2002: Jorden är mörk och svart. Vad som rör pastorer i Svenska Missionsförbundet när de ska predika om samhället. (The world is black and dark. What concerns pastors in the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden when they preach about society). Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. <i>Psychologia et Sociologia Religionum</i> 16. 239 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-5488-7.</p><p>The dissertation reflects a study of what pastors in the Mission Covenant Church in Sweden say in their sermons about society and social responsibility and represents an attempt at finding factors such as gender, education, age, values, and faith behind what has been said in the sermons.</p><p>The results show that in general pastors have a negative picture of society irrespective of which of its aspects they are addressing. The pastors’ view of Christian responsibility for society is that it is primarily something for the individual to take, not for the congregation. Above all, Christian responsibility for society is about individual Christians' taking responsibility for her fellow human beings.</p><p>For theoretical clarification the findings are discussed within the framework of the concept of secularisation, following Casanova (1994) sub-divided into differentiation, decline of religion and privatisation. In the study differentiation is identified when pastors do not relate theological reflection to their description and analysis of society. Thus they do not provide an integrated system of meaning for everyday life. As for privatisation, even when pastors are mainly speaking about public events, they are unable to place those events in a religiously interpreted context. According to the pastors social problems are to be met with private and individual solutions through Christians' actions to the benefit of their fellow men. </p><p>The MCC is a part of what in Swedish can be called <i>a popular movement</i>, a kind of "social movement" or "voluntary organisation." The analysis shows that its pastors in their sermons do not embrace some of the central parts of the ideology that generally pertain to <i>popular movements</i>, namely concern with reforming society. </p>

This thesis consists of four constituent studies exploring several common themes: female participation in employment, normative assumptions regarding the proper roles of males and females, and social change. The underlying focus is gendered division of work, which is explored through the concept of family models. These models are conceptualized with reference to the interrelationships between female employment, availability of care services outside the family, and sharing of care work within the family. The empirical analysis is mostly based on the Baltic countries, but also includes Germany, Sweden, and Russia. By examining the variation between the countries, the research aims to highlight some common issues regarding the gendered division of work, issues that bridge the East/West divide. The data come from three sources: 1) available national descriptive statistics, 2) surveys, namely, the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) ‘Family and Changing Gender Roles’ modules and the European Values Survey (EVS), and 3) nineteen problem-centred interviews with women who experienced hardships in the Lithuanian labour market. The analyzed time period starts with the collapse of socialism. The studies call into question the assumption that strong support for the traditional ‘male breadwinner/female carer’ family model in post-socialist societies contributed to the exclusion of women from the labour market. Comparing male and female employment indicators revealed no general pattern of female exclusion from the labour market. Moreover, gender-role attitudes are neither uniform nor traditional in the studied societies. The most valid generalization would be that there is a trend towards less traditional attitudes over time, more precisely, towards greater acceptance of women’s working roles. Summarizing the current situation regarding the gendered division of work, with reference to policies, practices, and attitudes, reveals the presence of ‘adult worker’ family models in Eastern Europe.

An increased use of medical devices has been assumed to be a major cause of rising healthcare expenditures. Nations around the world are trying to keep costs down, but strong incentives still exist for the development and use of new devices. Innovation is, however, never exclusively good or bad and it is not easy to evaluate the net effect. Theories and empirical research on innovation have been produced for more than 100 years. In this, the diffusion of innovations has attracted the most interest, while other areas, such as the integration of technologies, have been less thoroughly researched. This thesis presents a model of medical device innovation in hospitals – from the first idea and invention effort to regular use of a new technology. The suggested model is built on three fundaments: (1) academic innovation literature, (2) empirical studies, and (3) observations of on-going innovation processes. The model is a synthesis of the accumulated knowledge in different innovation research traditions, and of empirical studies of the Swedish healthcare system and the medical device industry. The aim is to give a comprehensive picture of the innovation process, and to provide a theoretical model, which can be used for studying and influencing the paths of medical device innovations into healthcare practice. In order to achieve a balanced rate of change, with long-term societal benefits, an inter-disciplinary approach is necessary in the planning and regulation of medical device innovation. The new model combines academic views with political/entrepreneurial and healthcare views. Innovation, in this model, is suggested to occur in three integrated activity domains: invention, diffusion, and deployment. A great number of factors that influence these activities are investigated and described, and different roles and incentives are discussed. Deviations from traditional innovation theory are for example: (a) integration of invention activities as having an impact on later events; (b) inclusion of the inventor/developer as a main actor also in the diffusion and deployment domains; (c) increased focus of the concept of technology cluster innovation, and (d) the rationality of use and abandonment of knowledge as factors to be included in the estimation of consequences of innovation. Finally, the thesis suggests a number of model and methodology improvements and policy implications for management of innovation in hospitals.

Estonia is the only country in the world, which is totally dependent on oil shale in its energy system. Although this fossil fuel exists in enormous quantities around the world, it has so far not been utilized on a larger scale. The reasons for this have been both economic and, in recent times, ecological. It can therefore be argued that in most cases, oil shale represents an inferior solution compared to other energy sources. This work examines why a technology utilizing oil shale has developed in Estonia and why Estonia appears not to be in a position to switch to other energy sources. In this work it is claimed that oil shale actually has been an appropriate solution to short-term concerns, despite the fact that its long-term drawbacks have been identified. These circumstances led to path dependence. Once the technology was in place, it advanced along its learning curve producing a satisfactory outcome, but not an optimal one. However, this situation has been accepted due to the extremely turbulent institutional environment Estonia has undergone in the 20th century. In Sweden, a somewhat similar (but smaller) oil shale industry was shut down in the 1960s because of poor economic performance, but also because of the competition from other energy sources. Such competition did not take place in Estonia, in part due to the specific institutional set-up of the Soviet Union. This made it possible for the Estonian oil shale industry to develop further, causing the present lock-in. Today the existing infrastructure, the knowledge-base, and the particular socio-political circumstances of Estonia effectively prevent change. Furthermore, it is argued that because there was only little oil shale-related technology developed outside Estonia, most technology had to be developed domestically. This in turn has forced the Estonian oil shale industry to make several highly inconvenient alliances in order to gain room to manoeuvre. Partially as a result of this, there is today wide-spread scepticism towards the industry, but no exit in sight in the foreseeable future. One purpose of this work is to contribute to a broader understanding why human societies have become dependent on fossil fuels and to extend our knowledge on where to search for an exit.

Within Swedish universities students are often required to work in groups to collaborate on projects or to write essays. A salient feature characterizing this type of work is the lack of a stable and fixed location wherein project- related activities can be carried out and accomplished. Thus, by regarding students as instances of nomadic workers, this thesis investigates the nomadic practices in the context of their group work, with particular attention to issues related to collaborative and coordinative aspects. Although the lack of a stable office has, somehow, always characterized students’ activities, the spread of mobile technologies raises relevant analytical issues concerning the relationships between individuals’ practices, the use of particular technologies and the physical environments in which interactions may occur. In this regard, this thesis provides an example of how a philosophical conceptualization of place as the product of human experience can assist in exploring: (a) the relationships between students’ activities, the locales they work at, and the situated use of specific technological artifacts; (b) how students occupy and experience places, by investing them with activities, meanings and values; (c) how different physical environments constrain and shape the way activities are performed. The data were collected by means of ethnographically-informed methods during two different field studies for which two design courses, held at a technical university, had been chosen as settings. Within both of them, the participants were to develop a prototype of novel IT technologies, and to account for the evolution of their projects by means of a report. The two studies aimed at understanding: (a) how students organize their activities at a number of locations, and how it reflects on the activities they engage with; (b) the strategies they adopt and the technologies they use to overcome problems deriving from the lack of a stable workplace, (c) the different ways a workplace is practically created, how it emerges from students’ interactions with the environment they inhabit, and how it is mediated by the technology they use (place-making). Observations, field-notes, video-recordings, semi-structured interviews were used during the phase of data collection. Some participants were also asked to fill in a diary and to take pictures of the different sites used for their project activities. In addition, a workshop, organized as a focus group, was arranged in order to unpack issues concerning students’ usage of various technologies, with respect to number of people involved, ongoing activities and the related chosen locations. The data analysis suggests that taking into account the way a place is disassembled and the way nomadic workers manage to move out of it is central to an understanding of their work practices. Moreover, it shows that the participants experienced planning the division of work as essential in order to manage coordination and collaboration within the groups, to organize collaborative and individual activities, and to allocate them to differing physical places. Furthermore, this thesis outlines in what way a focus on place may assist designers in reflecting on the design of educational environments, and of technological artifacts enabling students to share and integrate heterogeneous sources of information. / QC 20100806

Study objects: Three different productions companies which the authors have chosen to be anonymous. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to examine why production companies choose to use 3D-animations in television commercials, and what different kind of aspects affects their decisions. Theoretical: The theoretical chapter reviews the history of 3D-animation andtelevision commercials and other fields that will be relevant laterin the analysis and discussion. Method: A case study has been made on three different companies, two of the companies are active in post-production and the other one is active in the consulting area. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with two of the companies. The last interview was conducted via e-mail. Conclusions: There were different ground aspects (economy, control, targetaudience, consumer impression) that affected a productioncompany’s decision in whether or not to use 3D-animation in theirproductions of television commercials.