In today&#039 / s world, composite web services are widely used in service oriented computing, web mashups and B2B Applications etc. Most of these services are composed manually. However, the complexity of manually composing web services increase exponentially with the increase in the number of available web services, the need for dynamically created/updated/discovered services and the necessity for higher amount of data bindings and type mappings in longer compositions. Therefore, current highly manual web service composition techniques are far from being the answer to web service composition problem. Automatic web service composition methods are recent research efforts to tackle the issues with manual techniques. Broadly, these methods fall into two groups: (i) workflow based methods and (ii) methods using AI planning. This thesis investigates the application of AI planning techniques to the web service composition problem and in particular, it proposes the use of the abductive event calculus in this domain. Web service compositions are defined as templates using OWL-S (&quot / OWL for Services&quot / ). These generic composition definitions are converted to Prolog language as axioms for the abductive event calculus planner and solutions found by the planner constitute the specific result plans for the generic composition plan. In this thesis it is shown that abductive planning capabilities of the event calculus can be used to generate the web service composition plans that realize the generic procedure.

In recent years, web services have become an emerging technology for communication and integration between applications in many areas such as business to business (B2B) or business to commerce (B2C). In this growing technology, it is hard to compose web services manually because of the increasing number and compexity of web services. Therefore, automation of this composition process has gained a considerable amount of popularity. Automated web service composition can be achieved either by generating the composition plan dynamically using given inputs and outputs, or by locating the correct services if an abstract process model is given. This thesis investigates the former method which is dynamicly generating the composition by using the abductive lanning capabilities of the Event Calculus. Event calculus axioms in Prolog language, are generated using the available OWL-S web service descriptions in the service repository, values given to selected inputs from ontologies used by those semantic web services and desired output types selected again from the ontologies. Abductive Theorem Prover which is the AI planner used in this thesis, generates composition plans and execution results according to the generated event calculus axioms. In this thesis, it is shown that abductive event calculus can be used for generating web services composition plans automatically, and returning the results of the generated plans by executing the necessary web services.

The Swedish preschool-model interlaces care, nurturing and learning and is organised to solve twin functions; providing children a playbased learning-environment and enabling parents to combine parenthood with work. The model was developed within the social sector then incorporated into the educational system 1998. This shift and the model´s “unique characteristics” praised by OECD formed the point of departure for this study. The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse the discussions and negotiations shaping the Swedish preschool-model during 1968-1998. The research questions address: discursive themes; actors involved; governmental intentions; claims about the preschool´s task, pedagogical content and the preschool´s institutional identity and relationship to the institutions: social service, school and family. The study utilized abductive textual analysis inspired by discourse analysis and narrative approaches. Main text sources are: official reports, bills, steering documents, the preschool teachers´ periodical 1968 -1998 and a media debate. The results illuminate preschool-teachers´ struggle for a pedagogical identity and the construction of the educareconcept as a flexible and pragmatic solution to several societal interests and values. Governmental intentions concerning equality, emancipation and democratization have had great influence on the process in combination with a recurring theme about a revised preschool pedagogy with a strengthened focus on children´s learning. Political efforts to foster a preschool for all in a future are identified and described as one of the main discursive themes. Different standpoints about earlier school start are analyzed.  The overall result is that the framework and core features of the model laid down by the National Commission on Child care still has a great impact on the launched syllabus (Lpfö) in the end of the period as on the curriculum in a broader sense.

In this study, Interpretivist epistemology and abductive research strategy were used to examine transcripts of sixteen two-hour focused interviews. The research sample was a group of technical experts who assumed managerial responsibilities within their organisations (transitional managers). The subjectively perceived experiences of the transition were examined as well as the respondents' intersubjective interpretations of the transition from the organisational perspective. The aim was to explore the perceived characteristics of the transitional experience. The main findings of this study could be summarised as follows: firstly, it was found that there were three main types of transitional managers: the unwilling, the pragmatic and the eager managers. Secondly, the key motivations to take the manager role for all three categories were higher remuneration, technical peer respect and the respondent's new role as an organisational decision-maker. The third finding of this study was that there were two types of transitions, the complete transition which the majority of the eager managers went through and the technical transition which was experienced by the unwilling and the pragmatic managers. Related to that finding was the link between the type of organisation, its culture and the leadership skills required in that organisation. The fourth finding was that, irrespective of the amount of time in the manager role (six months to eleven years) or the type of transition (complete or technical), all respondents in this study continued to identify themselves as technical experts with the respondents who underwent a complete transition also seeing themselves as managers. Related to this finding was the respondents' continued identification as technical experts being largely due to their need to identify with their peers (other technical experts). The fifth major finding of this study related to a lack of career planning by the respondents and little or no succession and management development planning by the respondents' organisations. In a contribution to the theory of leadership studies, this study examined leadership as a social process, building on the existing leadership concepts and theories and putting them in a social context of subjective efforts by the researcher to interpret the respondents' transitional experiences through typification of the leadership characteristics into seven themes. The need to apply an individual contextualisation was seen as essential to understanding the transitional managers' response to their own transition. In doing so, the study has contributed towards narrowing the existing empirical literature gap on the transition processes. The contributions of this study need to be seen in the context that explorative research such as the one carried out here is not considered generalisable, as its aim was to explore and describe particular phenomena. Nevertheless, insights from this study were eight

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Customers' demand and more customisable products create challenges for companies that need a higher degree of flexibility in their processes to handle the variation. A modular product architecture helps companies customise their product by swapping and sharing components, simultaneously adapting mass production strategies to reduce cost and production time.  This thesis aims to analyse how low volume production with high customer customisation organisation gets affected by its complex product and what aspect can reduce complexity and shorten lead time. The purpose is to identify aspects which can reduce complexity in product configurations and processes and aspects which can shorten the lead time in a configuration to the assembly process. A literature review embracing modularisation, Lean, organisation configuration, design for assembly, innovation, and value stream mapping was constructed to help explain the situation in a case organisation. An abductive approach with a mixed-method explanatory approach was performed with a value stream map, a self-completing questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews to understand the current situation. The value stream map visualised the process and explained the performance of the organisation's Machine Order to Ex-Work process, the questionnaire explained the general department’s perception of the process, and finally, the interview contextualised the perceptions.  The finding was that the customer order decoupling point is positioned at the assembly's first operation and indicates that the process is order-driven. Additionally, the questionnaire and interview findings explained that different perceptions in the organisation are palpable and that thirteen themes were identified as areas of creating complexity. The work concludes to improve lead time for low volume and high customisation organisations a radical change in strategy is necessary to achieve more efficiency.

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This is a case study of the political situation in Sweden where a present and growing far-right has generated an outcome of political fragmentation. The process between this probable cause and outcome will be investigated to find the best possible explanation for how an isolated party could generate the outcome of political fragmentation despite their denied political participation with the other parties. The process will be analyzed through mainstream parties’ political discourse about the far-right and how they give expression for their strategies to deal with their presence. This will be done through an abductive discourse-pathway analysis, wherein mainstream parties’ dynamics towards the far-right and how it has changed over time will be analyzed. The result from the analysis showed that there are three possible outcomes when dealing with the far-right: political fragmentation, political unity and political polarization. The conclusion is that political fragmentation occurs when mainstream parties are pulled in different directions regarding what strategies to use when they ought to deal with a growing far-right presence.

Under 1990-talet skedde stora förändringar inom vård och omsorg i kommunal verksamhet på grund av kommunallagsändringen vilket innebar omorganiseringar, nedskärningar och effektiviseringar. Detta bidrog till sämre arbetsmiljö särskilt inom vård och omsorg. Belastningsskador och stress ökade. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka enhetschefers möjlighet att utöva närvarande ledarskap samt deras och medarbetares upplevelser av ledarskap och psykosocial arbetsmiljö och hälsa. Två äldreboenden i Umeå kommun ingick i studien i sammanlagt tre fokusgruppsintervjuer, en med enhetschefer och två med medarbetare totalt 12 deltagare. En abduktiv kvalitativ innehållsanalys genomfördes. Resultatet utmynnade i sju teman och visar att enhetscheferna upplevde att de inte har någon möjlighet att vara närvarande, att det är hög arbetsbelastning för både enhetschefer och medarbetare, att det upplevs saknas socialt stöd för enhetschefer och mellan enhetschef och medarbetare, att det brister i kommunikationen, delaktighet och rättvisa. Hälsan påstods vara bättre för enhetschefer än medarbetare men trivseln är bra i båda grupperna. Närvarande ledarskap ansågs i dagsläget svårt att utöva då det saknas både tid och stöd och det finns brister i den psykosociala arbetsmiljön som påverkar medarbetarnas hälsa negativt. / In the 1990s, major changes took place in elder care in municipal activities due to changes in the municipal law which led to reorganizations, downsizing and streamlining. This contributed to poor working environment especially in health care and musculoskeletal disorders and stress increased. The purpose of this study was to examine the unit managers’ opportunity to exercise present leadership and how the psychosocial work environment is perceived by unit managers and their employees. Moreover, how leadership is perceived by the employees and how psychosocial working environment and health is investigated. Two nursing homes in Umeå municipality were included in the study. In total, three focus group interviews were conducted, one with managers and two with employees, 12 participants in total. An abductive qualitative content analysis was performed. Seven themes were found in the material. These show that the unit managers perceive that they have no opportunity to be present, and that both managers and employees perceive a high workload, lack of social support for unit managers and between unit manager and employees, and lack of communication, participation and justice. Health was perceived to be better among unit managers than employees. However, job satisfaction was reported to be good in both groups. Present leadership is in the current situation difficult to exercise due to lack of both time and support and there are deficiencies in the psychosocial work environment affecting employee health negatively. / Hälsofrämjande arbetsplats