<p>  </p> <p>Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a promising approach for training machine learning models on distributed data while ensuring privacy preservation and data locality. However, one key challenge in FL optimization is the lack of high probability guarantees, which can undermine the trustworthiness of FL solutions. To address this critical issue, we introduce Federated Averaging with post-optimization (FedAvg-PO) method, a modification to the Federated Averaging (FedAvg) algorithm. The proposed algorithm applies a post-optimization phase to evaluate a short list of solutions generated by several independent runs of the FedAvg method. These modifications allow to significantly improve the large-deviation properties of FedAvg which improve the reliability and robustness of the optimization process. The novel complexity analysis shows that FedAvg-PO can compute accurate and statistically guaranteed solutions in the federated learning context. Our result further relaxes the restrictive assumptions in FL theory by developing new technical tools which may be of independent interest. The insights provided by the computational requirements analysis contribute to the understanding of the scalability and efficiency of the algorithm, guiding its practical implementation.</p>

Research indicates that students perform better academically in schools with higher levels of trust than in schools with lower levels of trust. School leaders are primarily responsible for building cultures of trust but are often at a loss as to how to do so effectively. With the assumption that as perceptions of school leader trustworthiness improve, teachers will be more likely to place their trust in that school leader, this research seeks to clarify how Ugandan headteachers improve teachers' perceptions of headteacher trustworthiness. In particular, we examined how specific types of headteacher visibility related to teachers' perceptions of headteacher relational and competence trustworthiness. This qualitative research used grounded theory methodology to interpret and analyze the interview responses of 28 Ugandan secondary school teachers in eight schools in Mukono District, Uganda. Findings from this research suggest that teachers' perceptions of headteacher relational trustworthiness were strongly related to both the level of risk and formality of headteacher visibility. Additional findings suggest that perceptions of both headteacher relational and competence trustworthiness were influenced by differences in teacher and headteacher personal characteristics. The final finding indicates that certain types of headteacher visibility moderated the influence that teacher characteristics have on perceptions of trustworthiness. These findings can inform school leaders about how to more effectively improve teachers' perceptions of school leader trustworthiness. The grounded theory model presented will provide opportunities for further theory building and testing with respect to the relationship between school leader visibility and teachers' perceptions of school leader trustworthiness.

Due to the rapid digitalisation of mobility, and the emergence of cross-disciplinary businesses within the transport sector, transcending it from a traditionally product focused industry, into a service one. Therefore, the contextual understanding of mobility has become of even greater importance. With future mobility bringing possible solutions to a range of social problems it’s vital for researchers to understand how the adoption of these services can become even more substantial. By doing so, hopefully curtailing the negative effects that urbanisation has on society. This paper puts forward a method of how to involve young Swedish people in the development of future digitalised mobility (FDM). From the synthesis of insights from literature on adoption of future mobility and new intelligent technology a participatory design approach was used to explore how coming user perspective can be counted for in the development of FDM.

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The digital technology is growing, which challenges the traditional media of printed newspapers. As more people consume news online, technology has transitioned to the digital platform. One of the challenges with moving to a digital platform is that it is hard for the reader to interpret the credibility of news.In this “Research Through Design” project, the aim is to understand how to design for better credibility in public service news for young adults. The external client of this thesis is SVT Interaktiv and achieving high credibility for public service is important since the news agencies have a responsibility of maintaining high credibility in the public interest. Sustaining a positive user experience in these services is essential for maintaining the customer's trust.A data collection of remote co-design workshops and questionnaire was made with eight participants. This data was later clustered into six themes and articulated into design guidelines that could be used to improve credibility for news services. These seven design guidelines act as recommendations for developers and designers working within the news industry to increase credibility in their services and products.Keywords:

<p>The Stereotype Content Model was used to challenge the untested assertion of the social identity/self-categorization perspective that different others will be seen as untrustworthy. Results from a sample of 29 student teams showed that trustworthiness perceptions were positively related to cognitive and bio-demographic diversity. Member satisfaction was also positively related to cognitive diversity. Trustworthiness perceptions mediated the relationship between team diversity and members’ satisfaction. First round satisfaction predicted second round team performance. The results suggest that outgroup bias is not automatic; teams can be successful if members see each other as trustworthy, regardless of cognitive or bio-demographic diversity.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

An increase in consumer demand and scarcity of available resources has led industrialists to hunt for solutions related to the automation of traditional manufacturing and production processes, optimizing resource consumption while improving the overall efficiency of the process. The resultant revolution brought forward the concept of cyber-physical production systems. Furthermore, industries within the private sector have integrated artificial intelligence with their traditional production processes as Cobots (collaborative robots), thus introducing the concept of Autonomous Cyber-Physical Production Systems. Although these systems maximize the production or manufacturing process while efficiently using the available resources, the machine learning component integrated into the traditional cyber-physical production system brings about trust-related issues due to its possible lack of predictability and transparency. Implementing trust-related attributes within autonomous cyber-physical production systems alone cannot overcome the highlighted problem. Therefore, a detailed risk assessment is required to identify and assess any trust-related risks in the system, especially at the early stages of the software development life cycle, to avoid major incidents and reduce maintenance costs. Based on the above-stated facts, this research proposes a model-based risk assessment technique for evaluating the trustworthiness of autonomous cyber-physical production systems. The proposed technique focuses on the identification and assessment of trust-related risks originating from the dynamic behavior of the machine learning component in autonomous cyber-physical production systems. For this, we use existing standards and techniques proposed for risk assessment in cyber-physical production systems as common ground to facilitate better implementation of trustworthiness in autonomous cyber-physical production systems. The proposed technique is aimed at overcoming the structural and behavioral limitations reported in existing model-based risk assessment techniques when dealing with autonomous cyber-physical production systems.

Background: Unit testing is essential in software development, ensuring the functionality of individual components like functions and classes. However, manual creation of unit test cases is time-consuming and tedious, impacting testing efficiency and reliability. Problem: Automated unit test generation tools such as EvoSuite and Randoop have addressed some challenges, but they’re limited by language specificity and predefined algorithms. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot powered by OpenAI’sGPT-3.5/4 offer alternatives, but face limitations like user input reliance and operational inconveniences. Solution: CodiumAI’s Codiumate IDE plugin aims to mitigate these limitations, making code quality assurance easier for developers. This study evaluates Codiumate’s trustworthiness in generating unit tests for the Python functions. Method: We randomly selected thirty functions from OpenAI’s HumanEval dataset, and wrote selection criteria for relevant test cases based on each function’s doc string to evaluate Codiumate’s trustworthiness using metrics such as Relevance Score, false positive rate, and result consistency rate. Result: Among all the suggested test cases by Codiumate, 208 unit tests, which consists of 48% of suggested test cases that were relevant. 70% of assertions from these test cases strictly meet selection criteria, while the other 30% while relevant were selected due to our basis and experience in software testing. The average false positive rate is15%. Function groups that have higher Relevance Scores are non-mathematical nature, and simple dependencies. High false positives arise in functions with string and float parameters. All generated unit tests are syntax-error-free, with 20% fail and 80% passed in all five test execution. Conclusion: Codiumate demonstrates potential in automating unit test generation, offering a convenient means to support developers. However, it is not yet fully reliable for critical applications without developer oversight. Continued refinement and exploration of its capabilities are essential for Codiumate to become an indispensable asset in unit test generation, enhancing its trustworthiness and effectiveness in the software development process.

Den konstanta närvaron och fortsatta tillväxten av sociala medier har resulterat i en mängd utmaningar och desslika möjligheter för företag och hela industrier. Idag är Instagram och bloggar två av de mest framstående sociala medierna där användare, konsumenter, marknadsförare, påverkare och organisationer kan skapa synergier för att utöka både närvaro och bredda sin målgrupp.Syftet med denna studie är att befästa hur marknadsförare kan dra nytta av nya marknadsföringstekniker såsom taggar och länkar som påverkar svenska konsumenter i deras köpprocesser online. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av en online-baserad enkät distribuerad till 300 respondenter identifierade genom ett snöbollsurval. Resultaten som har framkommit indikerar att trovärdighet är en viktig komponent i hur konsumenter agerar på nätet och vilka reklambudskap de är benägna att lägga märke till och acceptera. Det har också noterats att taggar och länkar inte nödvändigtvis leder till ett köp, men att taggar och länkar fungerar som mellanhänder som väcker ett intresse bland konsumenterna. Vidare har det fastställts att de konsumenter som faktiskt klickar på en tagg eller länk efter att ha sett dem i större utsträckning faktiskt fullföljer med att göra ett köp, alternativt använder taggen eller länken som en inkörsport för att visa andra produkter på samma webbsida. Slutligen har det framkommit att den största motivationen bakom ett klick på en tagg eller länk är för att fördriva samt ett intresse eller en nyfikenhet kring produkten.Resultaten från denna studie presenteras på engelska och kommer inte agera som en representation av hela Sverige utan snarare som en spegling av existerande attityder inom det berörda urvalet. / The constant presence and continuous growth of social media has resulted in new challenges and opportunities for brands and entire industries. Today, Instagram and blogs are among the most popular and frequently used social media platforms where users, consumers, marketers, influencers, and brands communicate and can join forces to create synergies and expand their presence and widen their targeted audience.The purpose of this study is to establish in which ways marketers can use the new marketing techniques of tags and ad links on Instagram and blogs that affect Swedish consumers in their online purchasing processes. The study was conducted through the distribution of an online self-completion questionnaire to a snowball sample of 300 respondents. The results that have been reached are that trustworthiness connected to the source plays a big role in how consumers decide to act online, and which advertising messages they are likely to seek out and accept. It has also been noted that the occurrence of tags and ad links does not necessarily have to result in a purchase, but that tags and ad links are important intermediaries that catches consumers attention and serves as a gateway. Once the tags and ad links have been noticed there is a great chance that the consumer will follow the link to the specifically linked product and make a purchase, or browse to through other products as a time passing activity, or due to a curiosity or interest in the product.The results of this study are presented in English and will most likely not serve as a representation of the entire Swedish population but more likely as a reflection of the attitudes existing within the concerned sampling frame.

Online services such as e-marketplaces, social networking sites, online gaming environments etc have grown in popularity in the recent years. These services represent situation where participants do not get to negotiate face to face before interaction and most of the time parties to transaction remain anonymous. It is thus necessary to have a system that rightly assesses trustworthiness of the other party in order to maintain quality assurance in such systems. Recent works on Trust and Reputation in online communities have focused on identifying probable defaulters, but less effort has been put to come up with system that make cooperation attractive over defection in order to achieve cooperation without enforcement. Our work in this regard concerns design and investigation of trust assessment systems that not only filter defaulters but also promote evolution of cooperativeness in player society. Based on the concept of game theory and prisoner's dilemma, we model business games and design incentive method, compensation method, acquaintance based assessment method and decision theoretic assessment method as mechanisms to assure trustworthiness in online business environments. Effectiveness of each of these methods in promoting the evolution of cooperation in player society has been investigated. Our results show that these methods contribute positively in promoting cooperative evolution. We have further extended our trust assessment model to suit the needs of a mobile ad-hoc network setting. The effectiveness of this model has been tested against its capability to reduce packet drop rate and energy conservation. In both of these the results show promise.