A critical requirement for achieving ubiquity of artificial intelligence is to provide intelligent environments with the ability to recognize and understand human behaviour. If this is achieved, proactive interaction can occur and, more interestingly, a great variety of services can be developed. In this thesis we aim to support the development of ambient-assisted living services with advances in human behaviour analysis. Specifically, visual data analysis is considered in order to detect and understand human activity at home. As part of an intelligent monitoring system, single- and multi-view recognition of human actions is performed, along several optimizations and extensions. The present work may pave the way for more advanced human behaviour analysis techniques, such as the recognition of activities of daily living, personal routines and abnormal behaviour detection.

Business Process Management (BPM) emerged as a means to control, analyse, and optimise business operations. Conceptual models are of central importance for BPM. Most prominently, process models define the behaviour that is performed to achieve a business value. In essence, a process model is a mapping of properties of the original business process to the model, created for a purpose. Different modelling purposes, therefore, result in different models of a business process. Against this background, the misalignment of process models often observed in the field of BPM is no surprise. Even if the same business scenario is considered, models created for strategic decision making differ in content significantly from models created for process automation. Despite their differences, process models that refer to the same business process should be consistent, i.e., free of contradictions. Apparently, there is a trade-off between strictness of a notion of consistency and appropriateness of process models serving different purposes. Existing work on consistency analysis builds upon behaviour equivalences and hierarchical refinements between process models. Hence, these approaches are computationally hard and do not offer the flexibility to gradually relax consistency requirements towards a certain setting. This thesis presents a framework for the analysis of behaviour consistency that takes a fundamentally different approach. As a first step, an alignment between corresponding elements of related process models is constructed. Then, this thesis conducts behavioural analysis grounded on a relational abstraction of the behaviour of a process model, its behavioural profile. Different variants of these profiles are proposed, along with efficient computation techniques for a broad class of process models. Using behavioural profiles, consistency of an alignment between process models is judged by different notions and measures. The consistency measures are also adjusted to assess conformance of process logs that capture the observed execution of a process. Further, this thesis proposes various complementary techniques to support consistency management. It elaborates on how to implement consistent change propagation between process models, addresses the exploration of behavioural commonalities and differences, and proposes a model synthesis for behavioural profiles. / Das Geschäftsprozessmanagement umfasst Methoden zur Steuerung, Analyse sowie Optimierung von Geschäftsprozessen. Es stützt sich auf konzeptionelle Modelle, Prozessmodelle, welche den Ablauf zur Erreichung eines Geschäftszieles beschreiben. Demnach ist ein Prozessmodell eine Abbildung eines Geschäftsprozesses, erstellt hinsichtlich eines Modellierungsziels. Unterschiedliche Modellierungsziele resultieren somit in unterschiedlichen Modellen desselben Prozesses. Beispielsweise unterscheiden sich zwei Modelle erheblich, sofern eines für die strategische Entscheidungsfindung und eines für die Automatisierung erstellt wurde. Trotz der in unterschiedlichen Modellierungszielen begründeten Unterschiede sollten die entsprechenden Modelle konsistent, d.h. frei von Widersprüchen sein. Die Striktheit des Konsistenzbegriffs steht hierbei in Konflikt mit der Eignung der Prozessmodelle für einen bestimmten Zweck. Existierende Ansätze zur Analyse von Verhaltenskonsistenz basieren auf Verhaltensäquivalenzen und nehmen an, dass Prozessmodelle in einer hierarchischen Verfeinerungsrelation stehen. Folglich weisen sie eine hohe Berechnungskomplexität auf und erlauben es nicht, den Konsistenzbegriff graduell für einen bestimmten Anwendungsfalls anzupassen. Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt einen Ansatz für die Analyse von Verhaltenskonsistenz vor, welcher sich fundamental von existierenden Arbeiten unterscheidet. Zunächst werden korrespondierende Elemente von Prozessmodellen, welche den gleichen Geschäftsprozess darstellen, identifiziert. Auf Basis dieser Korrespondenzen wird ein Ansatz zur Konsistenzanalyse vorgestellt. Jener basiert auf einer relationalen Verhaltensabstraktion, dem Verhaltensprofil eines Prozessmodells. Die Arbeit führt verschiedene Varianten dieses Profils ein und zeigt wie sie für bestimmte Modellklassen effizient berechnet werden. Mithilfe von Verhaltensprofilen werden Konsistenzbegriffe und Konsistenzmaße für die Beurteilung von Korrespondenzen zwischen Prozessmodellen definiert. Weiterhin werden die Konsistenzmaße auch für den Anwendungsfall der Konformität angepasst, welcher sich auf beobachtete Abläufe in Form von Ausführungsdaten bezieht. Darüber hinaus stellt die Arbeit eine Reihe von Methoden vor, welche die Analyse von Verhaltenskonsistenz ergänzen. So werden Lösungen für das konsistente Übertragen von Änderungen eines Modells auf ein anderes, die explorative Analyse von Verhaltensgemeinsamkeiten, sowie eine Modellsynthese für Verhaltensprofile vorgestellt.

Since a deficit in empathy is not only characteristic among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but categorically used in defining ASD, it is of utmost importance to explore educational avenues to build prosocial skills among this group. This study sought to explore the primary research question: What impact does the implementation of an empathy-focused video modeling intervention have on frequency of empathic behaviour among adolescents with ASD? The secondary research questions examined were: In what ways does employing a video modeling simulation intervention using the Model Me Kids Friendship program impact the ability of adolescents with ASD to demonstrate empathic behaviour? How do adolescents with ASD express or speak about their empathic behaviour following participation in a simulation intervention using Model Me Kids Friendship? How do the Educational Resource Facilitators (teaching assistants) perceive the same individuals’ empathic behaviour following participation in a simulation intervention using Model Me Kids Friendship (MMF)? This mixed methods study explores 1 particular video modeling simulation program as a focused approach to building empathic behaviour among adolescents with ASD. The theoretical framework presented blends theory of mind, simulation theory, and psychological theories of empathic behaviour including the inherent motor, cognitive, and emotional components. Individuals with ASD may not learn empathic behaviours solely through observation as typically developing children do, but findings suggest that through video simulation, practice may, in fact, lead to increased empathic behaviour. The quantitative findings were not significant but did show increase in motor empathy behaviour ratings among intervention group participants. Support for video modeling as a vehicle to teach empathic behaviour was provided by qualitative data collected over the course of 4 months contextualizing specific examples of empathic behaviour exhibited by participating teens with ASD. There is a link made between high levels of systematizing among teens on the spectrum (the drive to analyze and build a system) and video modeling as a means to foster empathic behaviour, thereby supporting an increased use of video simulation strategies to teach social skills among this group.

Mud crabs of the genus Scylla are widely exploited for aquaculture in the Asia- Pacific region. In the current study, a series of in vivo experiments were carried to assess the protein requirement, protein sparing effects of starch and the capacity of Scylla serrata to digest diets that contained different animal and plant-based feed meals and different levels and types of starch. Results from a protein requirement study indicated that juvenile S. serrata fed diets containing 45% or 55% protein demonstrated significantly higher growth responses than those fed the diet containing 25% protein. The subsequent study was carried out to determine if responses to dietary protein could be influenced by using purified wheat, potato, rice or corn starch to manipulate the gross energy level of fishmeal- based diets (18 or 15.5 MJ kg-1), i.e., to see if starch had a protein sparing effect in these animals. Overall, growth responses in this study appeared to be positively correlated with the level of protein in the diet with the highest growth rates achieved using diets containing 45% protein, regardless of the energy level of the diet. In addition, at a dietary protein level of 40% there was no evidence that the source of starch had any significant impact on growth performance or feed utilisation suggesting it had no protein sparing effect. By contrast, it was found that growth of juvenile S. serrata was strongly correlated with the intake of digestible dietary protein. The investigation of the capacity of sub-adult S. serrata to digest different animal and plant- based feed meals showed that apparent dry matter digestibility (ADMD) and apparent gross energy digestibility (AGED) values were not significant different for most selected feed meals (cotton seed, poultry, canola, fishmeal, soybean, and lupin meal). Apparent crude protein digestibility (ACPD) for all test feed meals were relatively high (86-96%). A subsequent study was carried out to determine if purified starch from different sources influenced the digestibility of fishmeal based diets. Overall, most diets containing starch were readily digested by mud crabs. In particular, there were no negative impacts on the digestibility of major nutrients (e.g. protein) observed following the inclusion of wheat, rice or corn starch in formulated feeds. Nevertheless, the apparent starch digestibility (ASD) of wheat starch decreased significantly as the inclusion level was increased from 15% to 60%, although there was no significant effect on ACPD values. At a 30% inclusion level, the ASD of diets containing different starches decreased in the order corn > wheat > potato = rice. Moreover, ACPD values were significantly higher for diets containing corn or rice starch than for those containing wheat or potato starch. The capacity of another species of mud crab commonly exploited for aquaculture in South East Asia, S. paramamosain, to digest the local plant-based ingredients (defatted soybean meal, rice bran, cassava and corn flour) was also conducted in Vietnam. Overall, the findings of this study showed that at a 30% inclusion level diets containing soybean meal or rice bran were well digested by mud crabs. In particular, the ACPD and AGED values for all diets containing soybean meal were not significantly different from the fishmeal based reference diet. Likewise, all digestibility values for the diet containing 30% rice bran were relatively high and not significantly different from the reference diet. By contrast, diets containing cassava flour appeared to be poorly utilised since their digestibility values for all parameters were lower than those from other testingredients. In summary, the apparent digestibility of dry matter, protein and energy was in the following order (from most to least digestible) soybean meal ~ rice bran > corn flour > cassava flour. In the next study the effects of attractants in diets (chicken meal, betaine, tuna oil and bait enhancer), temperature (26.5oC, 28.5oC and 30.5oC), sex (female and male) and size (small, medium and large) on feeding responses of S. serrata were investigated. Significant differences were observed in the behavioral responses of mud crabs to diets containing different attractants. Specifically, consumption of diets with chicken meal or betaine was significantly higher than for other treatments. With the exception of betaine, no significant difference in food consumption was observed when attractant inclusion levels were raised from 2% to 5%. Overall, small crabs consumed significantly more of the ration (as a percentage of body weight) than larger crabs. Temperature showed a significant impact on most behaviour of mud crabs, excepting continuation response and there was some evidence that females were significantly more active than males. Light intensity was considered as a main factor effect to crab response since there were extremely high percentage time of crab spent in half-shaded of the Y –maze which valued at 95.6%, 93.8 and 94.4% (corresponded to small, medium and large size respectively) in comparison to those of crabs spent in the unshaded side. Overall, the findings from these studies demonstrated that mud crabs have a high capacity to digest a range of plant based feed ingredients. In particular, soybean meal appeared to be well digested by both species of mud crabs examined. It was also shown that a range of purified starches were well digested by S. serrata although starch inclusion in diets did not appear to reduce the requirement for protein to promote growth. Subsequent attractant studies demonstrated that chicken meal and betaine produced significantly elevated feeding responses and food consumption when added to diets. Based on these results we propose that these ingredients can be utilised to increase the attractiveness and consumption of artificial mud crab feeds.

The main motivation for the study described in this dissertation is to benefit from the development in technology and the huge amount of available data which can be easily captured, stored and maintained electronically. We concentrate on Web usage (i.e., log) mining and Web structure mining. Analysing Web log data will reveal valuable feedback reflecting how effective the current structure of a web site is and to help the owner of a web site in understanding the behaviour of the web site visitors. We developed a framework that integrates statistical analysis, frequent pattern mining, clustering, classification and network construction and analysis. We concentrated on the statistical data related to the visitors and how they surf and pass through the various pages of a given web site to land at some target pages. Further, the frequent pattern mining technique was used to study the relationship between the various pages constituting a given web site. Clustering is used to study the similarity of users and pages. Classification suggests a target class for a given new entity by comparing the characteristics of the new entity to those of the known classes. Network construction and analysis is also employed to identify and investigate the links between the various pages constituting a Web site by constructing a network based on the frequency of access to the Web pages such that pages get linked in the network if they are identified in the result of the frequent pattern mining process as frequently accessed together. The knowledge discovered by analysing a web site and its related data should be considered valuable for online shoppers and commercial web site owners. Benefitting from the outcome of the study, a recommendation system was developed to suggest pages to visitors based on their profiles as compared to similar profiles of other visitors. The conducted experiments using popular datasets demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed framework for Web mining and recommendation. As a by product of the proposed method, we demonstrate how it is effective in another domain for feature reduction by concentrating on gene expression data analysis as an application with some interesting results reported in Chapter 5.

Since a deficit in empathy is not only characteristic among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but categorically used in defining ASD, it is of utmost importance to explore educational avenues to build prosocial skills among this group. This study sought to explore the primary research question: What impact does the implementation of an empathy-focused video modeling intervention have on frequency of empathic behaviour among adolescents with ASD? The secondary research questions examined were: In what ways does employing a video modeling simulation intervention using the Model Me Kids Friendship program impact the ability of adolescents with ASD to demonstrate empathic behaviour? How do adolescents with ASD express or speak about their empathic behaviour following participation in a simulation intervention using Model Me Kids Friendship? How do the Educational Resource Facilitators (teaching assistants) perceive the same individuals’ empathic behaviour following participation in a simulation intervention using Model Me Kids Friendship (MMF)? This mixed methods study explores 1 particular video modeling simulation program as a focused approach to building empathic behaviour among adolescents with ASD. The theoretical framework presented blends theory of mind, simulation theory, and psychological theories of empathic behaviour including the inherent motor, cognitive, and emotional components. Individuals with ASD may not learn empathic behaviours solely through observation as typically developing children do, but findings suggest that through video simulation, practice may, in fact, lead to increased empathic behaviour. The quantitative findings were not significant but did show increase in motor empathy behaviour ratings among intervention group participants. Support for video modeling as a vehicle to teach empathic behaviour was provided by qualitative data collected over the course of 4 months contextualizing specific examples of empathic behaviour exhibited by participating teens with ASD. There is a link made between high levels of systematizing among teens on the spectrum (the drive to analyze and build a system) and video modeling as a means to foster empathic behaviour, thereby supporting an increased use of video simulation strategies to teach social skills among this group.

The aim of this thesis is to perform marketing research of consumer behavior in the market of organic food through the suitably questionnaire. The research focuses on the questions - what is the source of information about organic food, whether and why consumers buy organic food, how often consumers buy organic food, what is the average monthly expenditure for organic food, what is the most popular place for purchasing organic food, what is main critical points in selecting of organic food, which factors are barrier for purchase, etc. The results of the research confirm that organic food is well known for most of consumers, but lower than half of consumers which purchasing it, either because of high cost or because of mistrust.

This study looks into researchers’ data management and publishing behaviours within archaeology by interviewing researchers in the field and data management and publishing specialists. It takes a socio-cultural perspective, and the aim is to gain an understanding of the elements influencing the decision to publish research data within the field and what the current publishing needs there are for researchers in archaeology. Each informant has an academic background in archaeology and a prominent connection to Uppsala University in Sweden. Special focus is placed on the Digital Scientific Archive (DiVA). Each researcher interviewed for this study was found through publications of primary datasets at DiVA and perceptions of publishing options is considered an element shaping the intentions to publish and the behavioural outcome.Documentation practices and perceptions of data management professionalism has tremendous effect on the outcomes of archaeology and publishing practices, which is closely linked with determining data quality, and are becoming more of a requirement within the field. This study is interested in how archaeological data management and publishing behaviour influence the professional interpretations of human history. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is applied to the study for the purpose of thoroughly examine researchers’ data publishing behaviours. The theory assumes that behavioural intention which is shaped by the beliefs about a certain behaviour, is the strongest factor determining actual behaviour. This assumption is evaluated against the accounts of the study’s informants by means of investigating researchers’ perspectives on data publishing in relation to their actual behaviours around, and experiences of, the publishing process.  This is a two years' masters thesis in Library and information science. / Den här studien undersöker forskares datahanterings- och publiceringsbeteenden inom arkeologi genom att intervjua forskare inom ämnet, samt datahanterings- och publiceringsspecialister. Studien baseras på ett socio-kulturellt perspektiv och syftet är att öka förståelsen för de element som påverkar beslutstagandet att publicera forskningsdata inom arkeologi, samt vilka data publicerings behov som finns idag. Informanterna har en akademisk bakgrund inom arkeologi och en tydlig koppling till Uppsala universitet. Speciellt fokus har lagts på det Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet (DiVA). Forskarna som valdes ut för undersökningen hittades genom deras publikationer av primärdata på DiVA och uppfattningar kring publikationsmöjligheter bedöms påverka publiceringsintentioner och beteendemönster kopplade till datapublicering.Det sätts allt större krav på dokumenteringspraxis inom fältet och uppfattningar om datahanteringsprofessionalism har stor påverkan på arkeologisk forskning och datapublicering, vilket är nära kopplat till den standard som sätts på datakvalité. Den här studien intresserar sig för hur arkeologisk datahanterings- och publiceringsbeteenden påverkar den professionella tolkningen av människans historiska, och förhistoriska, tider. Teorin ’Theory of Planned Behaviour’ används i studien för att noggrant kunna undersöka forskares datapubliceringsbeteenden. Teorin grundar sig på att intentionen att utföra ett beteende, vilket formas av synen på beteendet, har störst makt i avgörandet av beteendets resultat. Teorin vägs mot informanternas redogörelser genom att deras upplevelser och uppfattningar kring datahanterings- och publiceringsbeteenden inom arkeologi undersöks i relation till deras faktiska beteenden och erfarenheter kring publikationsprocessen.

Online transactions have been growing exponentially in the last decade, contributing to up to 11% of total retail sales. One of the parameters of success in online transactions are online reviews where customers have the chance to assign level of satisfaction regarding their purchase. This review system acts as a bargaining power for customers so that their suppliers pay more attention to their satisfaction, as well as benchmark for future prospective customers. This research digs into what actually causes customers to assign high level of satisfaction in their online purchase experience: Whether it is packaging, delivery time or else. This research also tries to dig into customer behaviour related to online reviews from three different perspectives: gender, culture and economic structure. Data mining methodology is used to collect and analyse the data, thus providing a reliable quantitative study. The end result of this study is expected to assist in marketing decisions to capture certain types of consumers who significantly place or purchasing decision based on online reviews. / Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management

The main motivation for the study described in this dissertation is to benefit from the development in technology and the huge amount of available data which can be easily captured, stored and maintained electronically. We concentrate on Web usage (i.e., log) mining and Web structure mining. Analysing Web log data will reveal valuable feedback reflecting how effective the current structure of a web site is and to help the owner of a web site in understanding the behaviour of the web site visitors. We developed a framework that integrates statistical analysis, frequent pattern mining, clustering, classification and network construction and analysis. We concentrated on the statistical data related to the visitors and how they surf and pass through the various pages of a given web site to land at some target pages. Further, the frequent pattern mining technique was used to study the relationship between the various pages constituting a given web site. Clustering is used to study the similarity of users and pages. Classification suggests a target class for a given new entity by comparing the characteristics of the new entity to those of the known classes. Network construction and analysis is also employed to identify and investigate the links between the various pages constituting a Web site by constructing a network based on the frequency of access to the Web pages such that pages get linked in the network if they are identified in the result of the frequent pattern mining process as frequently accessed together. The knowledge discovered by analysing a web site and its related data should be considered valuable for online shoppers and commercial web site owners. Benefitting from the outcome of the study, a recommendation system was developed to suggest pages to visitors based on their profiles as compared to similar profiles of other visitors. The conducted experiments using popular datasets demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed framework for Web mining and recommendation. As a by product of the proposed method, we demonstrate how it is effective in another domain for feature reduction by concentrating on gene expression data analysis as an application with some interesting results reported in Chapter 5.