The electrical transmission and distribution grid play a vital role in reaching the Paris agreement by electrification of society. Although the climate impact of electricity production is well documented, the climate impact of the distribution of electricity has only been investigated in a few previous studies. Therefore, this study aims to present the carbon footprint of the distribution grid in Sweden. The study has developed a tool to map the carbon footprint by applying a case study of an electrical grid company in Sweden. The tool includes activities in the company’s value chain associated with material production, installation, usage, maintenance, transportation of the electrical grid and office activities during one year in an electrical grid company. The tool was developed in excel by implementing the theoretical framework of the Greenhouse Gas protocol and life cycle assessment. According to the guidelines of the Greenhouse Gas protocol the CO2 emissions were allocated in scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3. Scope 1 includes direct emissions controlled or owned by the company. Scope 2 are emissions from purchased heat and electricity consumed by the company, and scope 3 includes other indirect emissions from the company's activities throughout the value chain. The result shows the carbon footprint of the electrical distribution grid during 2020 was 2,02 kg CO2e per distributed MWh. The total carbon footprint of the distribution company was 54 329 ton CO2e. A majority, 97 % of the CO2e emissions originated from indirect emissions within scope 3, where capital goods stand for 76 % of the company’s total emissions followed by 12 % from fuel and energy rated activities. This result indicates the importance of including indirect emissions when analyzing the carbon footprint of a company’s value chain. Our study also indicates, in line with previous studies, that a majority of the emissions originate from the manufacturing of cables.

<p>Chapter 1: Currently there is no hunting or trapping season on bobcats in Indiana. While a season is being considered by wildlife administrators, there is no basis for establishing a price or understanding potential demand for this species. We use contingent valuation to estimate furbearer hunter and trapper willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a hypothetical bobcat harvest permit in Indiana, USA. Using a mail survey of 2000 randomly selected Indiana registered hunters and trappers, we presented respondents with a description of a hypothetical harvest season, including season dates, equipment restrictions, check-in procedures, counties open for the legal harvest, bag limit (the number of animals that can be legally harvested per individual), and statewide quota (the number of animals that can be legally harvested in aggregate). Following the description, respondents were asked a single-bounded dichotomous choice question about purchasing the proposed permit. By applying the Turnbull estimation method to our collected data, we estimate mean WTP of $21.73 for the proposed permit. Our estimates are sensitive to scope effects, which may be linked to perceived congestion: if hunters believe the bag limit may not be filled, WTP may actually decrease with the bag limit due to perceived congestion, necessitating the simultaneous examination of the bag limit and statewide quota.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Chapter 2: One Health initiatives employed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention place emphasis on the interconnectedness of animals, people, plants, and the environment. As new disease threats emerge, the interactions of humans and animals with their environments becomes increasingly important. Deer represent a large, prolific, and suitable host for several diseases that are potentially threatening in the One Health context. Previous works have studied deer-related diseases, such as Bovine tuberculosis and Lyme Disease, and examined risks of transmission in households of varying compositions, such as with and without pets or children. However, research quantifying public perceptions of deer and their role(s) in modern society is lacking. Our research applies social media listening to study perceptions of deer among the general U.S. population through volume (number of mentions) and assessment of tone, in terms of positivity versus negativity (analyzed as online media net sentiment). We study media about five prominent deer-related diseases from January 2018 through December 2021 and demonstrate that while aggregate mentions of the deer diseases we study compose a small proportion of total mentions for deer, net sentiment surrounding outbreaks reflects the seriousness of the health consequences these present. Additionally, we explain fluctuations in deer-disease mentions and net sentiment through real-world events, and demonstrate seasonality in mentions and net sentiment for some diseases of interest. Better understanding of public perceptions of the roles of wildlife, particularly deer who are generally perceived as non-threatening wildlife, is particularly important in today’s One Health context.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Chapter 3: The presence of deer in shared environments with humans may result in both positive and negative affinity towards deer. While literature shows deer-related damages to humans and their property, literature also suggests that deer are a way for humans to connect with nature. Managing deer populations is vital to balancing the positive and negative impacts of deer. Currently, hunting is the most cost-effective way to manage deer populations. We are interested in how hunting impacts the affinity for deer, in addition to how the COVID-19 pandemic plays a role in the perception of deer. Online media posts were analyzed using a social media listening platform, NetBase, for the time period of January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021. Volume of mentions and affinity via net sentiment were collected at the state level on a weekly basis, and the national level on a daily basis. We utilize an OLS regression with dummies for deer hunting season and COVID at the state level to determine the impacts of hunting seasons and the pandemic on net sentiment. We find that deer hunting being open negatively impacts net sentiment of deer. We utilize Pearson correlations to study the impact of deer management via OTC deer hunting privilege issuance in relation to affinity for deer. We find that OTC privilege issuance is positively correlated with affinity for deer in some states, but the impact on affinity may diminish over time.</p>

This thesis seeks to investigate the influence and applicability of three technical writing principles across electronic maintenance manuals in the aerospace defense industry: military standard (MIL-STD) guidelines, plain language, and audience scope. Aerospace defense technical writers are liaisons tasked with coherent communication on advanced technological developments for technicians maintaining equipment. Their primary responsibility involves synthesizing specialized content from subject matter experts to draft comprehensive instructions for personnel safety and product sustainment during critical military operations. Current literature insufficiently examines the significance between aerospace defense technical documents and product performance following routine maintenance. Poorly composed manuals contribute to technician misinterpretation or disregard due to convoluted procedures and disorganized appearances increasing malfunction probabilities. Writing-based MIL-STDs and Simplified English emerged as efforts to mitigate understanding obstructs amongst domestic and international novice technicians. Maintenance manuals must conform to governmental guidelines including product liability laws, cultural variables, and audience expectations. Interview findings with two practitioners each from a different aerospace defense company supports the prediction that technical writing theories considerably impacts maintenance manual quality and recipience throughout the aerospace defense industry.

No description available.

No description available.

To determine the impact of an administrator's decision on student placement in kindergarten classrooms, teachers were asked to share their perceptions on how that decision impacted their ability to deliver instruction and follow the district scope and sequence, as well as how that decision impacts student academic achievement and social and emotional development. This qualitative study was designed to gather data from kindergarten teachers using focus group interviews and individual interviews of campus principals from two campuses within the same district. The following two ways in which kindergarten classrooms were created were explored: (a) by random assignment or (b) knowledge of students' academic and behavioral performance based on information relevant to their Pre-K experience. Campus principal participants reported that they each chose their method to provide equity in the classrooms and fairness amongst their teachers. Teacher participants reported that overall, they preferred to have as much information about incoming students as possible and to be a part of the process of placing students into classrooms for the following year. By examining these teachers' perspectives, the findings from this study may positively influence policy and practice for campus administrators as they decide how they will place students in kindergarten classrooms. Continued qualitative examination of student achievement could help determine if one method of placement positively impacts student achievement. Data collected from a larger sample within the district or expanded to compare between districts could help campus administrators make positive classroom placements for kindergarten students. Also, a quantitative study using a survey might provide a more expansive view of the impact of administrators' process of assigning kindergarten students to classrooms.

Tesis por compendio / [EN] Nowadays, online social networks (OSNs) have become a mainstream cultural phenomenon for millions of Internet users. Social networks are an ideal environment for generating all kinds of social benefits for users. Users share experiences, keep in touch with their family, friends and acquaintances, and earn economic benefits from the power of their influence (which is translated into new job opportunities). However, the use of social networks and the action of sharing information imply the loss of the users’ privacy. Recently, a great interest in protecting the privacy of users has emerged. This situation has been due to documented cases of regrets in users’ actions, company scandals produced by misuse of personal information, and the biases introduced by privacy mechanisms. Social network providers have included improvements in their systems to reduce users’ privacy risks; for example, restricting privacy policies by default, adding new privacy settings, and designing quick and easy shortcuts to configure user privacy settings. In the privacy researcher area, new advances are proposed to improve privacy mechanisms, most of them focused on automation, fine-grained systems, and the usage of features extracted from the user’s profile information and interactions to recommend the best privacy policy for the user. Despite these advances, many studies have shown that users’ concern for privacy does not match the decisions they ultimately make in social networks. This misalignment in the users’ behavior might be due to the complexity of the privacy concept itself. This drawback causes users to disregard privacy risks, or perceive them as temporarily distant. Another cause of users’ behavior misalignment might be due to the complexity of the privacy decision-making process. This is because users should consider all possible scenarios and the factors involved (e.g., the number of friends, the relationship type, the context of the information, etc.) to make an appropriate privacy decision. The main contributions of this thesis are the development of metrics to assess privacy risks, and the proposal of explainable privacy mechanisms (using the developed metrics) to assist and raise awareness among users during the privacy decision process. Based on the definition of the concept of privacy, the dimensions of information scope and information sensitivity have been considered in this thesis to assess privacy risks. For explainable privacy mechanisms, soft paternalism techniques and gamification elements that make use of the proposed metrics have been designed. These mechanisms have been integrated into the social network PESEDIA and evaluated in experiments with real users. PESEDIA is a social network developed in the framework of the Master’s thesis of the Ph.D. student [15], this thesis, and the national projects “Privacy in Social Educational Environments during Childhood and Adolescence” (TIN2014-55206- R) and “Intelligent Agents for Privacy Advice in Social Networks” (TIN2017-89156-R). The findings confirm the validity of the proposed metrics for computing the users’ scope and the sensitivity of social network publications. For the scope metric, the results also showed the possibility of estimating it through local and social centrality metrics for scenarios with limited information access. For the sensitivity metric, the results also remarked the users’ misalignment for some information types and the consensus for a majority of them. The usage of these metrics as part of messages about potential consequences of privacy policy choices and information sharing actions to users showed positive effects on users’ behavior regarding privacy. Furthermore, the findings of exploring the users’ trade-off between costs and benefits during disclosure actions of personal information showed significant relationships with the usual social circles (family members, friends, coworkers, and unknown users) and their properties. This allowed designing better privacy mechanisms that appropriately restrict access to information and reduce regrets. Finally, gamification elements applied to social networks and users’ privacy showed a positive effect on the users’ behavior towards privacy and safe practices in social networks. / [ES] En la actualidad, las redes sociales se han convertido en un fenómeno cultural dominante para millones de usuarios de Internet. Las redes sociales son un entorno ideal para la generación de todo tipo de beneficios sociales para los usuarios. Los usuarios comparten experiencias, mantienen el contacto con sus familiares, amigos y conocidos, y obtienen beneficios económicos gracias al poder de su influencia (lo que se traduce en nuevas oportunidades de trabajo). Sin embargo, el uso de las redes sociales y la acción de compartir información implica la perdida de la privacidad de los usuarios. Recientemente ha emergido un gran interés en proteger la privacidad de los usuarios. Esta situación se ha debido a los casos de arrepentimientos documentados en las acciones de los usuarios, escándalos empresariales producidos por usos indebidos de la información personal, y a los sesgos que introducen los mecanismos de privacidad. Los proveedores de redes sociales han incluido mejoras en sus sistemas para reducir los riesgos en privacidad de los usuarios; por ejemplo, restringiendo las políticas de privacidad por defecto, añadiendo nuevos elementos de configuración de la privacidad, y diseñando accesos fáciles y directos para configurar la privacidad de los usuarios. En el campo de la investigación de la privacidad, nuevos avances se proponen para mejorar los mecanismos de privacidad la mayoría centrados en la automatización, selección de grano fino, y uso de características extraídas de la información y sus interacciones para recomendar la mejor política de privacidad para el usuario. A pesar de estos avances, muchos estudios han demostrado que la preocupación de los usuarios por la privacidad no se corresponde con las decisiones que finalmente toman en las redes sociales. Este desajuste en el comportamiento de los usuarios podría deberse a la complejidad del propio concepto de privacidad. Este inconveniente hace que los usuarios ignoren los riesgos de privacidad, o los perciban como temporalmente distantes. Otra causa del desajuste en el comportamiento de los usuarios podría deberse a la complejidad del proceso de toma de decisiones sobre la privacidad. Esto se debe a que los usuarios deben considerar todos los escenarios posibles y los factores involucrados (por ejemplo, el número de amigos, el tipo de relación, el contexto de la información, etc.) para tomar una decisión apropiada sobre la privacidad. Las principales contribuciones de esta tesis son el desarrollo de métricas para evaluar los riesgos de privacidad, y la propuesta de mecanismos de privacidad explicables (haciendo uso de las métricas desarrolladas) para asistir y concienciar a los usuarios durante el proceso de decisión sobre la privacidad. Atendiendo a la definición del concepto de la privacidad, las dimensiones del alcance de la información y la sensibilidad de la información se han considerado en esta tesis para evaluar los riesgos de privacidad. En cuanto a los mecanismos de privacidad explicables, se han diseñado utilizando técnicas de paternalismo blando y elementos de gamificación que hacen uso de las métricas propuestas. Estos mecanismos se han integrado en la red social PESEDIA y evaluado en experimentos con usuarios reales. PESEDIA es una red social desarrollada en el marco de la tesina de Master del doctorando [15], esta tesis y los proyectos nacionales “Privacidad en Entornos Sociales Educativos durante la Infancia y la Adolescencia” (TIN2014-55206-R) y “Agentes inteligentes para asesorar en privacidad en redes sociales” (TIN2017-89156-R). Los resultados confirman la validez de las métricas propuestas para calcular el alcance de los usuarios y la sensibilidad de las publicaciones de las redes sociales. En cuanto a la métrica del alcance, los resultados también mostraron la posibilidad de estimarla mediante métricas de centralidad local y social para escenarios con acceso limitado a la información. En cuanto a la métrica de sensibilidad, los resultados también pusieron de manifiesto la falta de concordancia de los usuarios en el caso de algunos tipos de información y el consenso en el caso de la mayoría de ellos. El uso de estas métricas como parte de los mensajes sobre las posibles consecuencias de las opciones de política de privacidad y las acciones de intercambio de información a los usuarios mostró efectos positivos en el comportamiento de los usuarios con respecto a la privacidad. Además, los resultados de la exploración de la compensación de los usuarios entre los costos y los beneficios durante las acciones de divulgación de información personal mostraron relaciones significativas con los círculos sociales habituales (familiares, amigos, compañeros de trabajo y usuarios desconocidos) y sus propiedades. Esto permitió diseñar mejores mecanismos de privacidad que restringen adecuadamente el acceso a la información y reducen los arrepentimientos. Por último, los elementos de gamificación aplicados a las redes sociales y a la privacidad de los usuarios mostraron un efecto positivo en el comportamiento de los usuarios hacia la privacidad y las prácticas seguras en las redes sociales. / [CA] En l’actualitat, les xarxes socials s’han convertit en un fenomen cultural dominant per a milions d’usuaris d’Internet. Les xarxes socials són un entorn ideal per a la generació de tota mena de beneficis socials per als usuaris. Els usuaris comparteixen experiències, mantenen el contacte amb els seus familiars, amics i coneguts, i obtenen beneficis econòmics gràcies al poder de la seva influència (el que es tradueix en noves oportunitats de treball). No obstant això, l’ús de les xarxes socials i l’acció de compartir informació implica la perduda de la privacitat dels usuaris. Recentment ha emergit un gran interès per protegir la privacitat dels usuaris. Aquesta situació s’ha degut als casos de penediments documentats en les accions dels usuaris, escàndols empresarials produïts per usos indeguts de la informació personal, i als caires que introdueixen els mecanismes de privacitat. Els proveïdors de xarxes socials han inclòs millores en els seus sistemes per a reduir els riscos en privacitat dels usuaris; per exemple, restringint les polítiques de privacitat per defecte, afegint nous elements de configuració de la privacitat, i dissenyant accessos fàcils i directes per a configurar la privacitat dels usuaris. En el camp de la recerca de la privacitat, nous avanços es proposen per a millorar els mecanismes de privacitat la majoria centrats en l’automatització, selecció de gra fi, i ús de característiques extretes de la informació i les seues interaccions per a recomanar la millor política de privacitat per a l’usuari. Malgrat aquests avanços, molts estudis han demostrat que la preocupació dels usuaris per la privacitat no es correspon amb les decisions que finalment prenen en les xarxes socials. Aquesta desalineació en el comportament dels usuaris podria deure’s a la complexitat del propi concepte de privacitat. Aquest inconvenient fa que els usuaris ignorin els riscos de privacitat, o els percebin com temporalment distants. Una altra causa de la desalineació en el comportament dels usuaris podria deure’s a la complexitat del procés de presa de decisions sobre la privacitat. Això es deu al fet que els usuaris han de considerar tots els escenaris possibles i els factors involucrats (per exemple, el nombre d’amics, el tipus de relació, el context de la informació, etc.) per a prendre una decisió apropiada sobre la privacitat. Les principals contribucions d’aquesta tesi són el desenvolupament de mètriques per a avaluar els riscos de privacitat, i la proposta de mecanismes de privacitat explicables (fent ús de les mètriques desenvolupades) per a assistir i conscienciar als usuaris durant el procés de decisió sobre la privacitat. Atesa la definició del concepte de la privacitat, les dimensions de l’abast de la informació i la sensibilitat de la informació s’han considerat en aquesta tesi per a avaluar els riscos de privacitat. Respecte als mecanismes de privacitat explicables, aquests s’han dissenyat utilitzant tècniques de paternalisme bla i elements de gamificació que fan ús de les mètriques propostes. Aquests mecanismes s’han integrat en la xarxa social PESEDIA i avaluat en experiments amb usuaris reals. PESEDIA és una xarxa social desenvolupada en el marc de la tesina de Màster del doctorant [15], aquesta tesi i els projectes nacionals “Privacitat en Entorns Socials Educatius durant la Infància i l’Adolescència” (TIN2014-55206-R) i “Agents Intel·ligents per a assessorar en Privacitat en xarxes socials” (TIN2017-89156-R). Els resultats confirmen la validesa de les mètriques propostes per a calcular l’abast de les accions dels usuaris i la sensibilitat de les publicacions de les xarxes socials. Respecte a la mètrica de l’abast, els resultats també van mostrar la possibilitat d’estimarla mitjançant mètriques de centralitat local i social per a escenaris amb accés limitat a la informació. Respecte a la mètrica de sensibilitat, els resultats també van posar de manifest la falta de concordança dels usuaris en el cas d’alguns tipus d’informació i el consens en el cas de la majoria d’ells. L’ús d’aquestes mètriques com a part dels missatges sobre les possibles conseqüències de les opcions de política de privacitat i les accions d’intercanvi d’informació als usuaris va mostrar efectes positius en el comportament dels usuaris respecte a la privacitat. A més, els resultats de l’exploració de la compensació dels usuaris entre els costos i els beneficis durant les accions de divulgació d’informació personal van mostrar relacions significatives amb els cercles socials habituals (familiars, amics, companys de treball i usuaris desconeguts) i les seves propietats. Això ha permés dissenyar millors mecanismes de privacitat que restringeixen adequadament l’accés a la informació i redueixen els penediments. Finalment, els elements de gamificació aplicats a les xarxes socials i a la privacitat dels usuaris van mostrar un efecte positiu en el comportament dels usuaris cap a la privacitat i les pràctiques segures en les xarxes socials. / Alemany Bordera, J. (2020). Measures of Privacy Protection on Social Environments [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/151456 / Compendio

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Industrial-organisational (I-O) Psychology is known for specialising in the study of human behaviour in the workplace (Van Vuuren, 2010). It is clear that the problems associated with individuals in the workplace form the basis for the existence of I-O psychology. Veldsman (2001) stated that it is imperative to reflect upon the future of I-O psychology and that I-O psychology must be repositioned in future. Therefore, it is emphasised that additional roles should be elicited for I-O psychologists in South Africa (Barnard & Fourie, 2007). Moalusi (2001) has recognised the need for I-O psychologists to reposition themselves in future by focusing on significant workplace issues. Upon further investigation it should be noted that many factors that exert an influence upon workplace behaviour do not necessarily derive from the workplace. These factors, such as family responsibilities, cultural influences and traumatic events, suggest that the sphere of influence of the I-O psychologists stretches far beyond the physical borders of the workplace (Landy & Conte, 2004; Van Vuuren, 2010). According to Strümpfer (2007), it is the I-O psychologist who is concerned with the deep-rooted problems of individuals. The objective of the study was therefore to critically review the role I-O psychologists play as counsellors, and to determine whether counselling should form part of the I-O psychologist’ scope of practice. A qualitative research design was utilised in the study following a phenomenology strategy. Convenience and snowball sampling were used to identify (n=22) I-O psychologists across the Gauteng and North West provinces. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, where the participants were asked to reflect upon seven interview questions which were later transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. Nine themes were extracted from the data, namely, the meaning of counselling, counselling situations that I-O psychologists face, counselling skills required by I-O psychologists, characteristics displayed by I-O psychologist during counselling, counsellor competencies required of I-O psychologists, post graduate counselling training received by I-O psychologists, additional counselling training received by I-O psychologists, recommendations made for future training of I-O psychology students and lastly the inclusion of counselling in the scope of practice From the results it was clear the I-O psychologists are familiar with the meaning of counselling and that they are faced with a diverse range of counselling situations requiring a unique set of skills and competencies. Participants had divergent experience and opinions with regard to the training received in preparation of their role as counsellor. In relation to their training participants made recommendations for the future training of I-O psychologists. Finally, participants mentioned that it would be in their best interest if counselling is formally included in the scope of practice of the I-O psychologists. / MCom (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Industrial-organisational (I-O) Psychology is known for specialising in the study of human behaviour in the workplace (Van Vuuren, 2010). It is clear that the problems associated with individuals in the workplace form the basis for the existence of I-O psychology. Veldsman (2001) stated that it is imperative to reflect upon the future of I-O psychology and that I-O psychology must be repositioned in future. Therefore, it is emphasised that additional roles should be elicited for I-O psychologists in South Africa (Barnard & Fourie, 2007). Moalusi (2001) has recognised the need for I-O psychologists to reposition themselves in future by focusing on significant workplace issues. Upon further investigation it should be noted that many factors that exert an influence upon workplace behaviour do not necessarily derive from the workplace. These factors, such as family responsibilities, cultural influences and traumatic events, suggest that the sphere of influence of the I-O psychologists stretches far beyond the physical borders of the workplace (Landy & Conte, 2004; Van Vuuren, 2010). According to Strümpfer (2007), it is the I-O psychologist who is concerned with the deep-rooted problems of individuals. The objective of the study was therefore to critically review the role I-O psychologists play as counsellors, and to determine whether counselling should form part of the I-O psychologist’ scope of practice. A qualitative research design was utilised in the study following a phenomenology strategy. Convenience and snowball sampling were used to identify (n=22) I-O psychologists across the Gauteng and North West provinces. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, where the participants were asked to reflect upon seven interview questions which were later transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. Nine themes were extracted from the data, namely, the meaning of counselling, counselling situations that I-O psychologists face, counselling skills required by I-O psychologists, characteristics displayed by I-O psychologist during counselling, counsellor competencies required of I-O psychologists, post graduate counselling training received by I-O psychologists, additional counselling training received by I-O psychologists, recommendations made for future training of I-O psychology students and lastly the inclusion of counselling in the scope of practice From the results it was clear the I-O psychologists are familiar with the meaning of counselling and that they are faced with a diverse range of counselling situations requiring a unique set of skills and competencies. Participants had divergent experience and opinions with regard to the training received in preparation of their role as counsellor. In relation to their training participants made recommendations for the future training of I-O psychologists. Finally, participants mentioned that it would be in their best interest if counselling is formally included in the scope of practice of the I-O psychologists. / MCom (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014