Machine Learning has become more important for materials engineering in the last decade. Globally, automated machine learning (AutoML) is growing in popularity with the increasing demand for data analysis solutions. Yet, it is not frequently used for small tabular data. Comparisons and benchmarks already exist to assess the qualities of AutoML tools in general, but none of them elaborates on the surrounding conditions of materials engineers working with experimental data: small datasets with less than 1000 samples. This benchmark addresses these conditions and draws special attention to the overall competitiveness with manual data analysis. Four representative AutoML frameworks are used to evaluate twelve domain-specific datasets to provide orientation on the promises of AutoML in the field of materials engineering. Performance, robustness and usability are discussed in particular. The results lead to two main conclusions: First, AutoML is highly competitive with manual model optimization, even with little training time. Second, the data sampling for train and test data is of crucial importance for reliable results.

<p dir="ltr">Automated Driving Systems (ADS) have evolved significantly over the past decade. With conditionally automated driving systems still requiring constant driver supervision and human intervention upon system request, a driver’s readiness to take over from an ADS has significant safety implications. Research suggests that drivers using ADS are more likely to engage in non-driving-related tasks (NDRTs), and this engagement can deteriorate takeover performance. However, different NDRTs can involve engagement of physical, visual and/or cognitive resources, which all can affect the takeover process in different ways. The potential interaction effects among these factors may be the cause of mixed empirical findings regarding the influence of NDRT engagement on takeover readiness and performance. Additionally, with more advanced ADS, takeover scenarios are likely to be less urgent. Yet, the ways in which drivers behave in response to a takeover request to intervene during such less urgent scenarios while engaged in NDRTs is still not well understood.</p><p dir="ltr">The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a better understanding of drivers’ response behavior during a conditionally automated vehicle takeover process by analyzing drivers’ motor, visual, and cognitive readiness in response to a takeover request (TOR). The work was completed in two phases. The first phase focused on the effects of pre-takeover visual engagement on takeover readiness in urgent situations. Two experiments were conducted as part of this first phase. Particularly, Study 1 investigated drivers’ post-TOR visual attention allocation and cognitive readiness after continuous visual NDRT engagement before a TOR. Study 2 examined drivers’ pre-TOR visual attention allocation and takeover performance both during and after voluntary engagement with visual NDRTs. The second phase used a non-urgent takeover scenario to investigate drivers’ takeover behavior and visual attention allocation when prioritizing the engagement of visual-manual NDRTs that differed in terms of cognitive engagement levels.</p><p dir="ltr">Study 1 required continuous visual attention in NDRTs and manipulated only the location of visual attention before an auditory TOR. Dependent measures included duration, location, and directness eye-tracking measures after the TOR, as well as freeze-probe cognitive readiness scores. Overall, delayed visual attention re-allocation in the driving scene, less dispersed gaze patterns, and worse perception and comprehension of road hazards were associated with off-road visual NDRT engagement. In addition, no significant benefit of enforcing on-road visual attention before the TOR, compared to the baseline condition without NDRT requirements, were found. These findings highlight the need to investigate the effects of more naturalistic NDRT engagement on takeover attention reallocation and takeover performance.</p><p dir="ltr">Study 2 complemented Study 1 by allowing voluntary switching of visual attention between the NDRT and the driving scene prior to the TOR, with the driving task being a priority. In addition, Study 2 investigated drivers’ takeover quality and understanding of the takeover scene using the appropriateness of their takeover decisions. Dependent measures were pre- and post-takeover eye-tracking measures, aligning to those used in Study 1, in addition to motor response measures, longitudinal and lateral vehicle control measures, and decisions made in response to a road obstacle. Overall, the driver’s post-TOR behaviors were not significantly affected by NDRT conditions, but visual NDRT-induced differences in gaze distribution were associated with the appropriateness of takeover decisions.</p><p dir="ltr">Finally, Study 3 used knowledge from prior studies to isolate the effects of different levels of cognitive engagement in real-world visual-manual NDRTs. The purpose was to investigate the effects of cognitive engagement on drivers’ visual attention allocation before and during the takeover, as well as on takeover performance in non-urgent takeover scenarios, where NDRT engagement was a priority. Dependent measures included eye-tracking measures, takeover response time, and vehicle control measures, used in prior studies. In summary, engagement in NDRTs with higher levels of cognitive engagement resulted in significant differences in pre-TOR visual attention allocation and less stable takeover maneuvers.</p><p dir="ltr">The findings from this work contribute to a better understanding of the effects of different components of NDRT engagement on takeover performance in conditionally automated driving systems. Ultimately, this work can contribute to improving the design of next-generation human-machine interfaces in surface transportation, including driver monitoring systems and in-vehicle displays, that promote safer human-automation integration in future ADS.</p>

This research tests the application of job enrichment in a maintenance short-interval-task oriented organization. Data were collected from nine work groups involving twenty-nine employees. Results indicate enrichment in this type of organization is possible. Criteria were established to measure the fit of each work group to the five core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. A strong correlation between core job dimension scores and productivity levels was indicated. A work control program, compatible with job enrichment, is discussed and used to implement job content changes. Manipulation of the job content for poor performing groups with low core job dimension scores has resulted in significant reductions in nonproductive time.

Advanced Vehicle Systems promise improved safety and comfort for drivers. Steady advancements in technology are resulting in increasing levels of vehicle automation capabilities, furthering safety benefits. In fact, some of these vehicle automation systems are already deployed and available, but with promised benefits, such systems can potentially change driving behaviors. There is evidence that drivers have increased secondary task engagements while driving with automated vehicle systems, but there is a need for a clearer scientific understanding of any potential correlations between the use of automated vehicle systems and potentially negative driver behaviors. Therefore, this thesis aims to understand the state of knowledge on automated vehicle systems and their possible impact on drivers’ distraction behaviors. I have conducted two systematic literature reviews to examine this question. This thesis reports these reviews and examines the effects of secondary task engagement on driving behaviors such as take-over times, visual attention, trust, and workload, and discusses the implications on driver safety.

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The study “The Mobilization of Civil Disobedience” intends to shed light on how environmental movements frame climate change issues, present solutions and mobilize climate action through their communication on the social media platform Instagram. This study will examine the case of Återställ våtmarker (Restore wetlands), a Swedish movement known for its civil disobedience protests. The study’s theoretical framework consists of Collective action frames, Core framing tasks, and Emotional frames. The qualitative content analysis method is used to analyze the content together with the multimodal analysis tools of modality, lexical choices, denotation, and connotation to analyze both textual and visual modes.   The analysis showed that the organization makes a unique case by communicating strong emotions and opinions through its Instagram content. The main issue is explained as excavated wetlands that produce huge amounts of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. The cause of the issue was claimed to be the lack of action from the Swedish government, and they are also argued to be responsible for restoring the wetlands and saving the climate. However, the organization strongly emphasizes the Swedish citizens' democratic and civil responsibility to fight climate change and engage in protests. Occasionally, the organization even blames individual citizens for not prioritizing climate change or saving their children’s futures. The motivational reasons to act are made by an apocalyptic doom narrative, where the climate crisis is explained as urgent and as an ongoing catastrophe or a future “climate hell”. Despite the presence of moral emotions, such as guilt and shame, the organization sometimes offers a more hopeful motivational framing that citizens' collective action is a powerful and successful way to pressure politicians to act.

För den här studien har fem semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med fem lärare i religionskunskap vid högstadiet för att undersöka deras förståelse av sitt ämne och dess syfte. Två ämnesförståelser identifierades, identitetsorienterad ämnesförståelse samt kritiskt orienterad ämnesförståelse. I ett nästa steg analyserades ett urval av lärarnas examinationsuppgifter för att se vilken ämnesförståelse som återfanns i dem. Identitetsorienterad, kritiskt orienterad samt en bildningsorienterad ämnesförståelse påträffades. Studien har även undersökt vilka faktorer som, utöver lärarnas syn på ämnet, påverkar det urval och den metod lärarna väljer. Tre huvudfaktorer kunde urskiljas: elevförutsättningar, organisatoriska förutsättningar samt individuella förutsättningar. Undersökningen kommer även fram till att lärare med hög ämneskompetens är mer benägna till samtidsrelevant undervisning än lärare med lägre ämneskompetens. / For this study, five semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers of religious studies at the secondary level to elucidate their understanding of the subject and its purpose. Two understandings of the subject were identified: identity-oriented subject understanding and critically oriented subject understanding. In a subsequent step, a selection of the teachers' examination tasks was analysed to see which understanding of the subjectwas revealed in them. Identity-oriented, critically oriented, and also an educational-oriented subject understanding were discovered in them. The study also examined factors that, in addition to the teachers' views on the subject, influence the selection and method chosen by the teachers. Three main factors were discerned: student prerequisites, organizational prerequisites, and individual prerequisites. The investigation also concludes that teachers with high subject competence are more inclined towards teaching that is relevant to contemporary issues compared to teachers with lower subject competence.

Zahlreiche Untersuchungen belegen fundamentale Grenzen in der menschlichen Fähigkeit, mehrere Dinge gleichzeitig zu tun. Aktuelle Theorien zur Verarbeitung von Doppelaufgaben gehen davon aus, dass kognitive Kontrollprozesse den Verarbeitungsstrom mehrerer Aufgaben koordinieren. Funktionell-neuroanatomisch wird insbesondere der laterale Präfrontalcortex (lPFC) mit der Kontrolle zielgerichteten Verhaltens in Verbindung gebracht. Mittels funktioneller Magnetresonanztomographie (fMRT) wurde bereits eine Beteiligung des lPFC an der Verarbeitung von Doppelaufgaben nachgewiesen. Die neuronalen Mechanismen der Doppelaufgabenkoordination sind jedoch weitgehend ungeklärt. Die drei fMRT Studien der vorliegenden Dissertation spezifizieren die funktionelle Rolle des lPFC bei der Interferenzverarbeitung in Doppelaufgaben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen (1) die Allgemeinheit der lPFC-Beteiligung über verschiedenen Doppelaufgabensituationen hinweg, (2) die funktionell-neuroanatomische Dissoziierbarkeit verschiedener doppelaufgabenrelevanter Kontrollfunktionen im lPFC , (3) die Bedeutung der Interaktion des lPFC mit posterioren aufgabenrelevanten Regionen für die Kontrolle von Doppelaufgabenverarbeitung. / Numerous studies indicate fundamental limitations in the human ability to do multiple things at the same time. Recent theories on dual-task processing postulate the involvement of cognitive control processes in the coordination of the processing stream of multiple tasks. The most prominent neuroanatomical structure associated with the control of goal-directed human behavior is the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC). It has been show with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) that the lPFC is also involved in the processing of dual tasks. However, the precise role of the lPFC for the control of dual-task processing and the neural mechanisms of dual-task coordination are still widely unknown. The three fMRI studies presented in this dissertation specify the functional role of the lPFC in interference processing in dual tasks.The results show (1) the generality of lPFC involvement across different types of dual-task situations, (2) the functional neuroanatomical dissociability of different dual-task relevant control process in the lPFC, (3) the role of the interaction of the lPFC with posterior task-relevant brain regions for the control of dual-task processing

Multi-core processors have emerged as an effective solution for handling complex tasks that cannot be efficiently processed by unicore processors. Their usage is driven by the potential to achieve high processing power while minimizing power consumption. However, the conventional multi-core hardware design poses a major challenge in the real-time community due to its inability to provide strict timing guarantees. Customized hardware platforms can be utilized to achieve timing predictability, but they are expensive and difficult to obtain. A cost-effective alternative to customized platforms is commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products, which are universal and easily accessible, but they still suffer from timing unpredictability. To address this, memory-centric scheduling can be employed by partitioning the total task execution into distinct memory and computation phases and restricting shared memory access to be exclusive. This study presents a 3-phase task execution framework on the RP2040 multi-core platform to eliminate memory contention and ensure predictable application development. The framework uses custom memory management for each core, specified by the linker script, and a template is provided to create tasks compliant with the phased execution. Four kernel benchmarks, created from the TACLeBench benchmark suite, are used to evaluate the framework. The tasks are statically scheduled and run for ten hyperperiods. The results indicate that the custom memory configuration achieves a setup where no contested accesses occur, resulting in no unexpected variations in total task execution timing, thereby achieving timing predictability on an RP2040. / Flerkärniga processorer har visat sig vara en effektiv lösning för att hantera komplexa uppgifter som inte kan behandlas effektivt av enkärniga processorer. Användningen av dem drivs av möjligheten att uppnå hög bearbetningskapacitet samtidigt som strömförbrukningen minimeras. Den konventionella hårdvarudesignen för flerkärniga processorer utgör dock en stor utmaning för realtidssamhället på grund av dess oförmåga att ge strikta tidsgarantier. Anpassade hårdvaruplattformar kan användas för att uppnå förutsägbarhet i fråga om tidtabell, men de är dyra och svåra att få tag på. Ett kostnadseffektivt alternativ till skräddarsydda plattformar är COTSprodukter (Commercial-off-the-shelf), som är universella och lättillgängliga, men som fortfarande lider av oförutsägbarhet i fråga om timing. För att lösa detta kan man använda minnescentrerad schemaläggning genom att dela upp den totala utförandet av uppgiften i olika minnes- och beräkningsfaser och begränsa åtkomsten till delat minne till att vara exklusiv. I den här avhandlingen presenteras ett ramverk för trefasigt uppgiftsutförande på RP2040-plattformen med flera kärnor för att eliminera minneskonflikter och säkerställa förutsägbar programutveckling. Ramverket använder anpassad minneshantering för varje kärna, som specificeras av länkningsskriptet, och en mall tillhandahålls för att skapa uppgifter som är förenliga med den fasvisa utförandet. Fyra kärnreferensmärken (benchmarks), som skapats från TACLeBench benchmark suite, används för att utvärdera ramverket. Uppgifterna är statiskt schemalagda och körs under tio hyperperioder. Resultaten visar att den anpassade minneskonfigurationen ger en inställning där inga ifrågasatta åtkomster förekommer, vilket resulterar i inga oväntade variationer i den totala tidsåtgången för utförandet av uppgifterna, vilket gör att tidsåtgången är förutsägbar på en RP2040.

Occupational roles are constantly changing in today's society. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a new EU directive that sets requirements for companies sustainability reporting, which may change the occupational role of HR managers. The aim of the study is to investigate if, and in that case, what changes in the occupational role the implementation of CSRD has led to in terms of tasks and role expectations and whether it has resulted in a changed role identity . In order to study whether there has been a change in the occupational role of HR managers, qualitative interviews have been conducted. The theoretical framework is based on the concepts: tasks, role expectations and role identity. The study's results show that the occupational role of HR managers has changed in some respects. A few new aspects have been added to the existing role, but the occupational role has not changed into a completely new role. The results also show that the changed occupational role has not lead to a changed identity. / Yrkesroller förändras ständigt i dagens samhälle. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) är ett nytt EU-direktiv som ställer krav på företags hållbarhetsrapportering vilket kan förändra HR-chefernas yrkesroll. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om och i så fall vad implementeringen av CSRD har lett till för förändringar i HR-chefers yrkesroll gällande uppgifter och rollförväntningar och om det resulterat i en förändrad rollidentitet. För att studera om det har skett en förändring av HR-chefers yrkesroll har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts. Den teoretiska referensramen baseras på begreppen: uppgifter, rollförväntningar och rollidentitet. Studiens resultat visar att HR-chefers yrkesroll har förändrats i vissa avseenden. Yrkesrollen har inte förändrats till en helt ny roll utan det har tillkommit vissa nya aspekter till den befintliga rollen. Resultatet visar även att förändringen av yrkesrollen inte lett till en förändrad identitet.