An Interoperable Fare Management system for public transport has been a struggle for the actors in industry of public transport. A lot of effort has been put into creating a smart card solution that enables the travellers to use the same card for paying and holding the ticket regardless geographical position in Sweden. That project has failed, mostly due to a lack of taking non-technical actors and aspects into consideration during the project process. This thesis highlights the major actors and their responsibilities. The ARKTRANS framework is used as analytical tool to identify different roles. Throughout the thesis a sociotechnical perspective is used. The developed method in this thesis is suitable for mapping of actors and responsibilities in a network surrounding a complex technical system. The method is especially suitable for analysing the on-going project in middle Sweden developing and implementing a new fare management system for public transport. The study has identified a lack of actors in the role as Fare Management Interoperability Provider. This absence is particularly interesting since the a collaboration in southern Sweden, which has a Fare Management Interoperability Provider, has succeeded in the struggle towards interoperability.

Powered orthotic devices can be used to restore mobility to the impaired user, and may thereby assist them in daily living tasks. An investigation is performed herein to examine the feasibility of a powered lower-limb orthotic in assisting the sit-to-stand task by 50% of the required torque. Feasibility is considered via simulation. A three-link sit-to-stand model, which is driven by kinematic data, is developed. Models of a Pneumatic Muscle Actuator and a DC motor are used to determine which of the two technologies can make a more appropriate contribution to the sit-to-stand task. Simulation revealed that both the Pneumatic Muscle Actuator and the DC motor are reasonable actuator choices, and neither limited the ability to achieve 50% torque assistance. The ability to assist the task was, however, limited by the ability to derive a control signal for the actuator from the user-orthotic interface. It was concluded that the user-orthotic interface requires further investigation. It was also found that while both actuator technologies are suitable for contributing 50% of the required torque, the Pneumatic Muscle Actuator is preferable due to its ability to scale to greater torques.

The importance of an authenticated key exchange (AKE) protocol has long been known in the field of cryptography. Two of the questions still being asked today are (1) what properties or features does a secure AKE protocol possess, and (2) How does one, in a step by step fashion, create a secure AKE protocol? This thesis aims to answer these two questions. The thesis contains two parts: one is a survey of previous works on the desired features of the Station-to-Station (STS) protocol, and the other is a study of a previously proposed design methodology in designing secure AKE protocols, as well as contributing an original idea of such methodologies. Descriptions and comparisons of the two design methodologies are included. The thesis surveys the literature and conducts a case study of the STS protocol, analyzes various attacks on STS through some known attacks to it, and extracts the desired properties and features of a secure AKE protocol via the case study. This part of the thesis does not propose any new result, but summarizes a complete list of issues one should take consideration of while designing an AKE protocol. We also show that at the end of this part, a secure version of STS which possesses the desired features of an AKE protocol. The other major part of the thesis surveys one design methodology of creating a secure AKE protocol by Bellare, Canetti, and Krawczyk; it is based on having a secure key exchange protocol then adding (mutual) authentication to it. The thesis then proposes another original design methodology; it starts with a secure mutual authentication protocol, then adds the secure key exchange feature without modifying overheads and number of flows of the original mutual authentication protocol. We show in this part the "secure" AKE protocol developed through these two design approaches is identical to the secure version of STS described in the other part, and thus possesses the desired features of a secure AKE protocol. We also give a proof of security of the secure AKE protocol developed under our design methodology.

The interest for cell-to-cell variation has in recent years increased in a steady pace. Several studies have shown that a large portion of the observed variation in the nature originates from the fact that all biochemical reactions are in some respect stochastic. Interestingly, nature has evolved highly advanced frameworks specialized in dealing with stochasticity in order to still be able to produce the delicate signalling pathways that are present in even very simple single-cell organisms. Such a simple organism is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is the organism that has been studied in this thesis. More particulary, the distribution of the transport rate in S. cerevisiae has been studied by a mathematical modelling approach. It is shown that a two-compartment model can adequately describe the flow of a yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) between the cytosol and the nucleus. A profile likelihood (PLH) analysis shows that the parameters in the two-compartment model are identifiable and well-defined under the experimental data of YFP. Furthermore, the result from this model shows that the distribution of the transport rates in the 80 studied cells is lognormal. Also, in contradiction to prior beliefs, no significant difference between recently divided mother and daughter cells in terms of transport rates of YFP is to be seen. The modelling is performed by using both standard two-stage(STS) and nonlinear mixed effect model (NONMEM). A methodological comparison between the two very different mathematical STS and NONMEM is also presented. STS is today the conventional approach in studies of cell-to-cell variation. However, in this thesis it is shown that NONMEM, which has originally been developed for population pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) studies, is at least as good, or in some cases even a better approach than STS in studies of cell-to-cell variation. Finally, a new approach in studies of cell-to-cell variation is suggested that involves a combination of STS, NONMEM and PLH. In particular, it is shown that this combination of different methods would be especially useful if the data is sparse. By applying this combination of methods, the uncertainty in the estimation of the variability could be greatly reduced.

Understanding changes in materials properties as a function of size is crucial for both fundamental science development and technological applications. Size restriction results in quantum confinement effects that modify both energy level structures and electron dynamics of solid materials. This study investigates individual quantum states in a single nanocrystal. Single electron charging effects in gold and semiconductor nanocrystals are observed. Charging effects are found to be dominant in samples, where the nanocrystals are weakly coupled to the substrate. For nanocrystals strongly coupled to the substrate, nanocrystal-substrate tunneling rate is larger than tip-nanocrystal tunneling rate. Therefore, the resulting peaks in the dI/dV spectrum are attributed to tunneling through the energy levels of the nanocrystal. A newly developed nanocrystals BEES technique is used successfully to further explore quantized energy levels and electron dynamics in single gold nanocrystals. BEES samples were grown successfully by depositing $unit[10]{nm}$ thick gold on silicon substrates. Nanocrystals are chemically attached to the gold substrate using a self assembled monolayer (SAM) of xyelendithiol molecules. Immobile and single isolated nanocrystals were imaged at low temperature. A BEES turn-on voltage of $unit[0.84]{V}$ was found on nanocrystal-free region of the substrate. The BEES spectrum acquired on a single gold nanocrystal is found to be attenuated by a factor of 10 when compared with BEES acquired on the substrate. The attenuation is attributed to electron relaxation to lower energy states before tunneling out of the nanocrystal. The measured hot electron lifetimes from experimental data were found to be on the order of $unit[16]{picoseconds}$, which is a long time compared to lifetimes in bulk metals or large nanocrystals. The long measured lifetimes result from the molecular-like energy level structures of these small nanocrystals.

Aus der riesigen Vielfalt organischer Materialien sind gerade die Phthalocyanine dafür bekannt geworden, auf verschiedenen kristallinen Substraten geordnete Strukturen auszubilden. Außerdem dienen diese Moleküle als Modellsysteme für grundlegende Untersuchungen zur Einstellung elektronischer und struktureller Eigenschaften durch gezielten Einbau eines Metallatoms in den zentralen Hohlraum. Die Strukturen der Adsorptionsschichten von verschiedenen Metallphthalocyaninen, funktionalisierten Phthalocyaninen und Naphthalocyaninen auf der Basaldebene des Graphits werden verglichen, um die Adsorptionsstruktur der einzelnen Moleküle innerhalb der Adsorptionsschicht zu verstehen. Das erlaubt uns die Untersuchung der Molekül-Molekül- und Molekül-Substrat-Wechselwirkungen in Abhängigkeit von Molekularadsorption des zentralen Metallatoms, der Geometrie, einzelner funktionellen Gruppen oder ähnlichem am Molekül. Der Vergleich der Adsorptionsstrukturen von Phthalocyaninen wie PdPc und PtPc, welche d8-Metalle enthalten, dient dem Verständnis für den Effekt des Metallatoms, speziell bei großen Ordnungszahlen. Während beide Moleküle ähnliche Arten von Adsorptionsstrukturen ausbilden weist die PtPc-Adsorptionsschicht eine außergewöhnlich hohe thermische Stabilität auf. Das wurde auf die stark Molekül-Molekül-Wechselwirkung zurückgeführt, die durch die Metallatome in der Adsorptionsschicht vermittelt wird. Der Effekt langer molekularer ‚Flügel’ wird durch den Vergleich der Adsorptionsstrukturen ebener Naphthalocyanine mit denen von ebenen Metallphthalocyaninen demonstriert. Naphthalocyanine bilden viel lockerer gepackte Adsorptionsschichten als Phthalocyanine, was von der stärkeren sterischen Abstoßung zwischen den Wasserstoffatomen in benachbarten molekularen ‚Flügeln’ herrührt. Cyano-funktionalisierte metallfreie Phthalocyanine zeigen als Adsorptionsschicht eine poröse Netzwerkstruktur. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass durch die Sondenspitze hervorgerufene Störungen dieser Struktur durch die elektrostatische Wechselwirkung zwischen den Molekülen in der Adsorptionsschicht bald weider ausheilen. Schließlich ist durch den Vergleich von Adsorptionsstrukturen ebener Naphthalocyanine und nichtebener Zinn-Naphthalocyanine auch der Geometrieeffekt untersucht worden. Abweichend von allen anderen untersuchten ebenen Molekülen haben Zinn-Naphthalocyanine eine Adsorptionstruktur, die der des Graphits ähnlich ist (hexagonal). Deshalb überwiegt in diesem Fall die Wechselwirkung zwischen Molekül und Substrat, und die Adsorptionsstruktur folgt der Geometrie des Graphitsubstates. Darüberhinaus sind mit der Tunnelspektroskopie in Abhängigkeit vom Abstand zwischen der Spitze und der Probe die elektronischen Eigenschaften der Molekül-Substrat-Grenzfläche für Naphthalocyanin und Zinn-Naphthalocyanin untersucht worden.

College and university teacher education programs are not, and should not be, exempt from the growing demand for distance education opportunities. Science teacher education is no exception to this growing demand. While there are some distance-learning courses and even complete programs for teacher education, the majority of these are offered as continuing education or post-graduate education opportunities. The number of programs offered specifically in science teacher education (either undergraduate or post-graduate) is extremely limited. Those distance-learning classes that are available for teacher education rarely reflect the instruction expected from teachers by the National Science Education Standards when they enter the K-12 classroom. With the demand for distance education rising, it is important to determine if it is possible for the distance-learning format to be an effective form of delivery for quality preservice science teacher education programs. The research herein took the form of a qualitative case study of two sections of a Science Technology and Society Interaction (STS) course offered via a distance-learning format. (For the purposes of this study, distance-learning courses are defined as those that are offered using online delivery.) The research investigated the extent to which the course incorporated the principles of science education reform. The study took the form of an evaluative case study and provided a rich description of the course itself as well as the nature of the interactions and meanings constructed by students. The course was determined to be an example of a distance learning opportunity that exhibits the desired ideology. Insights gained here were used to illuminate some guiding principles for developing courses for distance delivery that exhibit principles consistent with science education reform.

abstract: The goal of science education in the United States is promoting scientific literacy for all students. The goal necessitates understanding the nature of science-what science is as a body of knowledge, explanatory tool, and human enterprise. The history of science is one of the most long-standing pedagogical methods of getting at the nature of science. But scientific literacy also encompasses education in scientific inquiry, and in the relationships among science, technology, and society (STS), as well as fact and theory-based subject-matter content. Since the beginning of the standards-based reform movement (circa 1983) many attempts have been made to codify the components of scientific literacy. National level voluntary standards have lead to state standards. Under No Child Left Behind, those state standards have become integral parts of the educational system. Standards are political in nature, yet play the role of intended curriculum. I examine one thread of scientific literacy, the history and nature of science, from its beginnings in science education through the political perturbations of the last thirty years. This examination of "the history and nature of science" through the history of standards-based reform sheds light on our changing conception of scientific literacy. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Biology 2011

Este estudo investigou as implicações pedagógicas da existência ou inexistência da perspectiva Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS) nos Cursos Técnicos em Geoprocessamento (CTGeo) e Meio Ambiente (CTMA) do Colégio Politécnico da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Sua relevância assenta-se no fato de que, a sociedade atual exige dos profissionais novos papéis e novas capacidades, além do domínio técnico dos conhecimentos. Assim como os estudos sobre CTS, constituem hoje, um campo que procura compreender o fenômeno científico-tecnológico no contexto social e suas consequências sociais e ambientais. A investigação é de cunho descritivo, combinando-se com métodos de análises qualitativos e quantitativos, caracterizada como estudo de caso. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram 16 professores, sendo 11 do CTGeo e 05 do CTMA. Os alunos somaram 37, sendo 17 do CTGeo e 20 do CTMA. A análise foi feita a partir de três instrumentos: a) um questionário semiestruturado, com o objetivo de conhecer a visão dos professores dos referidos Cursos Técnicos, sendo utilizada a Análise Textual Discursiva, de Moraes e Galiazzi (2011); b) outro questionário semiestruturado, onde se pretendeu identificar, na atuação do professor, aspectos da perspectiva CTS, como princípio pedagógico, com base nos objetivos CTS, extraídos dos documentos da instituição; c) o questionário VOSTS (Views on Science-Technology-Society), criado em 1989 por Aikenhead; Fleming; Ryan (investigadores canadenses) e revisado em 1992 por Aikenhead; Ryan, com o objetivo de identificar as compreensões dos alunos, sobre CTS. Foram utilizados 11 itens, da versão portuguesa adaptada por Canavarro (2000). Os resultados apontam para uma compreensão e visão dos professores e alunos, em dado momento, em consonância com os objetivos CTS e em outro momento, contraditórios Os alunos tendem a perspectivas plausível/realista, da ciência e das suas relações com a tecnologia, com poucas concepções simplistas, porém, na categorização das suas respostas sobre a compreensão se a ciência e a tecnologia influenciam na sociedade, emergiu a categoria visão salvacionista de CT. Na atuação do professor, nos exemplos de práticas docentes há indícios de que estão de acordo, com as orientações dos documentos institucionais, e as suas respostas, alinhadas com a Interdisciplinaridade e a Contextualização, pois foram as que apresentaram o maior quantitativo de variáveis. Existe uma tendência para a concretização de oportunidades para as discussões acontecerem sobre temas de relevância social e ambiental, durante as aulas, havendo correlação com a tomada de decisão e o pensamento crítico. Na formação para a cidadania, alguns professores demonstram certa fragilidade no ensino, porém, outros denotam preocupações e abrem espaço para discussões sobre controle social, reflexões sobre causas e consequências das inovações tecnológicas. Sentem dificuldade em abordar temas relacionados às interações CTS por falta de material que os apoie nessa tarefa. Essa pesquisa foi elucidativa quanto à Perspectiva CTS e apresentou contribuições, para futuras reflexões e avanços que vêm ampliar nossa capacidade de compreensão e intervenção em decisões que nos afetam e, em particular, nosso papel como educadores. / Environment (CTMA) Technical Courses at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria Polytechnic College. Its relevance lies on the fact that the current society requires new roles and new skills from professionals, besides the technical mastery of knowledge. Just as studies about STS presently constitute a field in pursuit of understanding scientific-technological phenomena within the social context and its social and environmental consequences. The investigation is of a descriptive nature in combination with qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis, being characterized as a case study. The research subjects were 16 professors, 11 from the CTGeo and 5 from the CTMA. The analysis was based on three instruments: a) a semi-structured questionnaire, with the objective of knowing the teachers' vision of the mentioned Technical Courses, using Moraes and Galiazzi's Textual Analysis Discursiva (2011); B) another semistructured questionnaire, that intended to identify, in the teacher's work, aspects of the CTS perspective, as a pedagogical principle, based on the CTS objectives, extracted from the institution's documents; C) the VOSTS (Views on Science-Technology-Society) questionnaire, created in 1989 by Aikenhead; Fleming; Ryan (Canadian researchers) and revised in 1992 by Aikenhead; Ryan, with the goal of identifying students' understandings about CTS. This research employed 11 items from the Portuguese language version adapted by Canavarro (2000). The results point towards a comprehension and views of professors and students in consonance with the STS at a given instance and contradictory at another Students lean towards plausible/realistic perspectives of science and its relations with technology with few simplistic conceptions; however, when their answers about their comprehension of whether science and technology have any influence in society were categorized, the salvationist view of the ST category emerged. As to the professors on the examples of teaching practices, there are indications of agreement with the guidance from the institutional documents, and their answers are in line with Interdisciplinarity and contextualization, with these being the ones containing the largest number of variables. There is a tendency for discussions about social and environmental relevance during class, and there is a correlation with decision-making and critical thinking. Regarding preparation for citizenship, some professors showed a certain weakness in teaching; however, others denote concerns and provide opportunities for discussions about social control, reflections on causes and consequences of technological innovations. They feel difficulty to approach topics related to STS interactions due to a lack of materials to support them in such a task. This research was enlightening with regards to the STS perspective and presented contributions for future reflections and advancements to witness the broadening of our comprehension and intervention skills on decisions that affect us and particularly our role as educators.

O objetivo geral desta pesquisa foi realizar uma análise crítica de alguns aspectos relacionados ao Ensino de Botânica na Educação Básica no Brasil, a partir dos referenciais teóricos do ensino com enfoque Ciência-Tecnologia- Sociedade (CTS). Para isso, foram investigadas a produção acadêmica relacionada ao Ensino de Botânica e o principal instrumento pedagógico utilizado pelo professor da Educação Básica – o livro didático. Como metodologia, esta pesquisa caracteriza-se como quali-quantitativa, em que um levantamento bibliográfico das produções acadêmicas brasileiras acerca do ensino-aprendizagem da botânica no período de 2012 a 2017 foi realizado na base de dados Google Acadêmico, além de ter sido feita uma análise do conteúdo de botânica em cinco volumes de livros didáticos (edições de 2013/PNLD-2015) direcionados ao Ensino Médio. Os resultados do levantamento demonstram que existe preocupação na melhoria da qualidade do Ensino da Botânica no País, embora a produção acadêmica em ensino ainda seja insuficiente e, no que se refere à CTS, está no início do processo. Além disso, contatou-se que as produções estão muito pulverizadas em diferentes meios de publicação, que nos leva a sugerir a criação de um periódico pela comunidade acadêmica para facilitar o acesso de docentes a produções nesse âmbito. Quanto aos livros didáticos analisados foi possível verificar a preocupação em adequar o conteúdo a documentos educacionais oficiais brasileiros, ocorrendo pouco do ensino com enfoque CTS, o qual apareceu fora do conteúdo principal dos livros. Sendo assim, este trabalho aponta que o ensino sob enfoque CTS é um caminho favorável à contextualização (crítica e efetiva) da botânica (principalmente na escola), pois as realidades sociais, culturais, políticas, econômicas e ambientais (locais e globais) nas quais estão submetidos os estudantes poderão ser consideradas nas propostas pedagógicas dos docentes, favorecendo o desenvolvimento da Alfabetização Científica e um ensino mais interessante e contextualizado. / The general aim of this research was to perform a critical analysis of some Botanical Teaching aspects in the elementary and high schools in Brazil by means of theoretical references of the Science-Technology-Society approach (STS). For this, the academic production related to Botanical Teaching and the main instrument used by school teachers – the textbooks, were investigated. The methodology is characterized as a quali-quantitative research, where a bibliographic survey of academic Brazilian productions about Botanical Teaching between 2012 to 2017 was performed in the Google Scholar database, as well as a botanical content analysis in five high school textbooks (2013 editions/2015-PNLD). The bibliographic survey results demonstrated that a concern in improving the quality of the Brazilian Botanical Teaching is there, although the academic production in teaching is still insufficient. And when that referrers to STS approach it is in the beginning. Moreover, it was verified that the productions are inconsistent in all of the publications, so we suggested that the academic community create a central journal for teachers to have easy access to productions in that ambit. Regarding the analyzed textbooks, it was possible to ascertain a concern in adapting their contents to official Brazilian educational documents, and there were little aspects about the STS approach, which was appearing in the main content of those textbooks. Therefore, this work agrees that the STS approach is a favorable way to contextualize (critically and effectively) for the study of Botanics (principally in school), because the social, cultural, economic and environmental realities (local and global) in which students are exposed can be considered part of the teachers’ pedagogical proposals. This would improve to the Scientific Literacy and teaching will become more interesting and contextualized.