The psychology of working theory (PWT) postulates that certain contextual and structural factors determine if individuals are able to obtain decent work, and that decent work, in turn, leads to work fulfilment and general well-being. The theory assumes that this is the case, as decent work satisfies three fundamental human needs: survival and power, social connection, and self-determination (as per the self-determination theory [SDT]). Only recently has a measure been developed to assess the satisfaction of these needs (Autin et al., under review), which means that the proposed role of need satisfaction as mediator in the link between decent work and work fulfilment/general well-being has not yet been tested empirically. This formed the objective of this study. The study employed a descriptive research design with a correlational approach. Working individuals residing in South Africa’s Western Cape province (N = 150) rated their work experiences on the decent work scale (DWS), work need satisfaction scale (WNSS), index of job satisfaction (IoJS) scale, and satisfaction with life scale (SWLS). In this sample, adequate healthcare did not fall within the decent work concept. This might be because it is common for working South Africans, especially in lower income brackets, not to receive healthcare benefits, which would thus not be expected. The autonomy and relationship aspects of the SDT self-determination need formed one instead of two separate components. This may be a reflection of low levels of trust in low-income workers, which means that autonomy is only provided if there is a positive relationship. Decent work predicted work fulfilment and individuals’ well-being and, as expected, this relationship was mediated by the fulfilment of the hypothesised needs (survival and power, social connection, SDT relationship + autonomy, and SDT competence). The study thus indicates the applicability of the PWT in the South African context. Organisations should thus be encouraged to provide employees with decent work, as this, in turn, will likely increase employees’ work fulfilment and general wellbeing.

Artificial Neural Networks make up the core of mostMachine Learning algorithms. In the past decade Machine learninghave successfully taken on fields such as image recognition,Data analytics and medical technologies. As the area of usebecome less prone to mistakes, it raises the responsibility lookinto the black box of code and understand it to a deeper level. Inthis project, I built a Deep Neural Network from scratch, withouthigh level libraries, and trained it for a supervised classificationtask. The finished algorithm is flexible and can be adapted toany classification problem. The training method is based onBackpropagation and Gradient Descent. At last, the algorithmwas trained on the Modified National Institute of Standardsand Technology (MNIST) database, and performed with a 77%prediction acccuracy. There are a few optimization methods yetto be tested to further increase the performance. / Artificiella neurala nätverk utgör kärnan i de flesta maskininlärningsalgoritmer idag. Under det senaste decenniet har maskininlärning framgångsrikt tagit an områden som bildigenkänning, dataanalys och medicinsk teknik. När användningsområdena blir mindre benägna till misstag, ökar ansvaret av att titta under huven och förstå den djupare nivåkoden. I denna studie var syftet att bygga ett djupt neuralt nätverk från grunden, utan högnivåbibliotek, och träna det för en övervakad klassificeringsuppgift. Den färdiga algoritmen är flexibel och kan designas för flera klassificeringsproblem. Nätverkets träningsmetod är baserad på Backpropagation och Gradient Descent. Valideringsdatan kunde till slut köras med 77% korrekt noggrannhet, och det finns finns ytterligare optimeringsmetoder att testa för att höja prestationen. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2022, KTH, Stockholm

Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / As the nature of work continues to evolve and diversify in the 21st century, issues related to the attainment of high-quality work are paramount. Initially defined by the International Labour Organisation [ILO], Decent Work exists as a standard for the expected quality of work to which all should have access in modern society. Central to the definition of Decent Work is the guarantee that “women and men enjoy working experiences that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values, provide for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income, and permit access to adequate healthcare” (ILO, n.d.). While issues of work quality are relevant to all members of the workforce, young adults are at heightened risk of not securing work that is Decent, if they are able to secure work at all. Using nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 [ELS:02], this study investigates Decent Work attainment among young adults through the lens of their experiences as high school students ten years prior. The Psychology of Working Theory (Duffy et al., 2016) guides this investigation, explicitly accounting for both individual (student-level) and contextual (school-level) characteristics in the prediction of future Decent Work attainment and overall employment status. Results from a series of multilevel analyses indicate that most of the variability in Decent Work attainment and employment status exists at the individual level, as opposed to the high school level. Structurally, this suggests that schools are not the primary drivers of students’ contextual influences when it comes to their work outcomes. Furthermore, the collection of school- and student-level predictors found to be significantly associated with the various facets of Decent Work and employment status varies widely from model to model. This suggests that the Psychology of Working Theory is far from a one-size-fits-all theory, and that the predictors of work attainment are highly complex. Implications for education policy and future research are discussed in Chapter 5. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / As the nature of work continues to evolve and diversify in the 21st century, issues related to the attainment of high-quality work are paramount. Initially defined by the International Labour Organisation [ILO], Decent Work exists as a standard for the expected quality of work to which all should have access in modern society. Central to the definition of Decent Work is the guarantee that “women and men enjoy working experiences that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values, provide for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income, and permit access to adequate healthcare” (ILO, n.d.). While issues of work quality are relevant to all members of the workforce, young adults are at heightened risk of not securing work that is Decent, if they are able to secure work at all. Using nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 [ELS:02], this study investigates Decent Work attainment among young adults through the lens of their experiences as high school students ten years prior. The Psychology of Working Theory (Duffy et al., 2016) guides this investigation, explicitly accounting for both individual (student-level) and contextual (school-level) characteristics in the prediction of future Decent Work attainment and overall employment status. Results from a series of multilevel analyses indicate that most of the variability in Decent Work attainment and employment status exists at the individual level, as opposed to the high school level. Structurally, this suggests that schools are not the primary drivers of students’ contextual influences when it comes to their work outcomes. Furthermore, the collection of school- and student-level predictors found to be significantly associated with the various facets of Decent Work and employment status varies widely from model to model. This suggests that the Psychology of Working Theory is far from a one-size-fits-all theory, and that the predictors of work attainment are highly complex. Implications for education policy and future research are discussed in Chapter 5. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

Yes / The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) bring together environmental, social and economic concerns. They therefore have the potential to move society away from the dominant model of prosperity as purely economic toward a more holistic and ‘sustainable’ prosperity. But, the success of such a transformative agenda rests on its implementation. At the heart of planned implementation of the SDGs is a set of 230 indicators. Indicators have been strongly critiqued in a range of literatures. However, in the context of the SDGs, indicators have been described as ‘essential’ with little critical assessment of their role in implementation. Therefore, this chapter aims to provide this critical voice. To do this, the chapter reviews critiques of indicators from sustainability science, anthropology and sociology and provides illustrative cases of indicators implementation. From this review we are able to draw lessons for the use of indicators in SDG implementation. Specifically, the chapter argues that indicators are reductionist and struggle with contested concepts. Nevertheless, by making the operationalisation of concepts visible and enabling quantified analysis, indicators can have a useful role in SDG implementation. However, this requires that indicator critiques are taken seriously and inform indicator use. / ESRC Research Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, Grant Number ES/M010163/1

The majority of previous research investigating the role of vision in controlling adaptive gait has predominantly focused on over-ground walking or obstacle negotiation. Thus there is a paucity of literature investigating visuomotor control of step descent. This thesis addressed the importance of the lower visual field (lvf) in regulating step descent landing control, and determined when visual feedback is typically used in regulating landing control prior to / during step descent. When step descents were completed from a stationary starting position, with the lvf occluded or degraded, participants adapted their stepping strategy in a manner consistent with being uncertain regarding the precise location of the foot / lower leg relative to the floor. However, these changes in landing control under conditions of lvf occlusion were made without fundamentally altering stepping strategy. This suggests that participants were able to plan the general stepping strategy when only upper visual field cues were available. When lvf was occluded from either 2 or 1 step(s) prior to descending a step during on-going gait, stepping strategy was only affected when the lvf was occluded in the penultimate step. Findings suggest that lvf cues are acquired in the penultimate step / few seconds prior to descent and provide exproprioceptive information of the foot / lower leg relative to the floor which ensures landing is regulated with increased certainty. Findings also highlight the subtle role of online vision used in the latter portion of step descent to 'fine tune' landing control.

Nos últimos anos, houve um incremento no número de denúncias e constatações de trabalho escravo na zona rural brasileira, apesar da vigência de normas jurídicas destinadas a proteger o trabalhador contra esta forma de exploração. O endividamento e o uso da violência são os principais instrumentos utilizados para obstar a liberdade do trabalhador. A compreensão jurídica do tema, a partir das normas nacionais e internacionais, possibilita o desenvolvimento de ações institucionais mais eficientes destinadas à erradicação do trabalho escravo. A observância do paradigma do trabalho decente é que permitirá que o trabalhador rural desenvolva a sua atividade em condições dignas. / During the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of denunciations and evidence of slavery work in the Brazilian rural zone, despite the presence of juridical norms aiming to protect the worker against this form of exploration. Indebtedness and the use of violence are the main instruments used to hinder the workers liberty. The juridical understanding on the subject, based on national and international norms, makes it possible the development of more institutional and efficient actions aiming the eradication of slave labor. The observance of the paradigm of decent work will permit the rural worker to develop his/her activity under dignified conditions.

Uppsatsen undersöker via fem intervjuer hur biståndshandläggare resonerar kring ett biståndsärende gällande hemtjänstinsatser i äldreomsorgen och hur de motiverar sina bedömningar och beslut. Intervjuerna har företagits på biståndsenheten i Östersund i Jämtlands län. En vinjett som beskriver ett påhittat biståndsärende har stått som utgångspunkt för alla intervjuer och en fenomenologisk hermeneutisk analysmetod har använts vid framtagandet och tolkandet av resultaten. Resultaten som framkommit i studien antyder att biståndshandläggarna i Östersund tenderar att se till både sociala, fysiska, medicinska och psykiska behov hos kunden vid biståndsbedömning. När det kommer till gränssättning av hemtjänstinsatsers omfattning tenderar handläggarna också att vara relativt generösa i sina bedömningar. Hur gränserna sätts verkar emellertid vara något otydligt, delvis eftersom de inte har hjälp av några fastställda riktlinjer och att begreppet skälig levnadsnivå är så pass svårdefinierat. Förslag på framtida forskning, som ges i uppsatsen, är dels att utreda om det stämmer att biståndshandläggarna i Östersund är lika bra på att se helhetsbilden vid biståndsbedömning som studiens resultat föreslår. Att mer noggrant undersöka hur socialtjänstlagens begrepp skälig levnadsnivå tolkas av biståndshandläggarna – och hur det påverkar dem i deras bedömningar – är också ett förslag till vidare forskning. / Through five interviews the essay examines how care managers reason about a case concerning home help services in elderly care and how they motivates their judgments and decisions. The interviews have been undertaken in the city of Östersund in Jämtland. A vignette describing a fictitious case has been the starting point for all interviews and a phenomenological hermeneutical analysis has been used in the producing and interpretation of the results.                       The results emerging from the study suggests that care managers in Östersund tend to look to both the social, physical, medical and psychological needs of the customer when making their decisions. When it comes to setting boundaries of home care interventions the care managers also seem to be quite generous. How to set the boundaries does however appear to be somewhat unclear, partly because they do not have the help of established guidelines and that the concept of decent standard of living (skälig levnadsnivå) is so difficult to define. One suggestion for future research that is proposed in the paper is to investigate whether it is true that care managers in Östersund are as good as it seems to see the big picture of customers needs as the study suggests. Another suggestion is to more closely examine how the concept of decent standard of living is interpreted by care managers and how it affects them when they make their judgments and decisions.

This study discusses the work of women in the Civil State of Rio Grande do Sul Police, from the perspective of decent work criteria of the International Labour Organization. The research is affection to the field of sustainability, social, related to corporate social responsibility, in search of the necessary sustainable public management. The research question is related to the corporate environment and the care of vectors proposed by the ILO related to freedom, equality, fairness and dignity. The general objective was environmental analysis for women, based on decent work criteria. The theoretical framework deals with labor and public safety, divided into topics on sustainability, decent work, women's work, Civil Police and the Rio Grande do Sul Police. Data collection was carried out from various sources of evidence, making himself use of primary and secondary data. The study is qualitative, from an observation script and a flexible instrument made with open questions. The note took into account aspects of building, vehicles, staff and working conditions. In addition to observation, primary data were collected through interviews with ten delegates and police servants, and secondary data from documents. The interpretation was performed using content analysis procedure. The main results show that the Civil Police of RS incorporates a larger system of public security and is responsible for criminal investigation, among other functions. The woman went on to win opportunity from the 1970s and now occupies a prominent place, on par with men, despite some evidence of limited opportunities. The general perception is disagreement with the ILO indicators are excepting-criteria related to security and social dialogue, as well as stability and income, which were considered fully or partially met. In the other points there is no adaptation of police work to the vectors of the ILO, especially security, equality, opportunities, conciliation and working hours. The study brought as a result the transformation of empirical findings on scientific evidence able to assist the understanding of police work, especially the work of women. Also it provided notice of police work by the scientific perspective, increasing the need for new studies to broaden the understanding of the issue and contribute to more focused management strategies on sustainability by the bias of social responsibility. / Este estudo aborda o trabalho da mulher na Polícia Civil do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, sob a ótica dos critérios do Trabalho Decente da Organização Internacional do Trabalho. A pesquisa encontra-se afeto ao campo da sustentabilidade, na vertente social, relacionada à responsabilidade social corporativa, em busca da necessária gestão pública sustentável. A questão de pesquisa está relacionada com o ambiente corporativo e o atendimento dos vetores propostos pela OIT, relacionados à liberdade, igualdade, equidade e dignidade. O objetivo geral foi a análise do ambiente para as mulheres, com base nos critérios do trabalho decente. O referencial teórico trata de trabalho e segurança pública, subdividido em tópicos sobre sustentabilidade, trabalho decente, trabalho da mulher, Polícia Civil e Polícia do Rio Grande do Sul. A coleta de dados foi realizada a partir de diversas fontes de evidência, fazendo-se uso de dados primários e secundários. O estudo tem natureza qualitativa, a partir de um roteiro de observação e um instrumento flexível composto com perguntas abertas. A observação levou em conta aspectos relativos a prédio, viaturas, funcionários e condições de trabalho. Além da observação, os dados primários foram coletados por meio de dez entrevistas com delegadas e servidoras policiais, e os dados secundários a partir de documentos. A interpretação foi realizada utilizando-se procedimento de análise de conteúdo. Os principais resultados revelam que a Polícia Civil do RS integra um sistema maior de segurança, responsável pela investigação criminal, dentre outras funções. A mulher passou a ganhar oportunidade a partir da década de 1970 e hoje ocupa lugar destacado, em paridade com os homens, não obstante algumas evidências de limitação de oportunidades. A percepção geral é de desconformidade com os indicadores da OIT, ressalvando-se os critérios ligados à seguridade e diálogo social, bem assim estabilidade e rendimentos, que foram considerados total ou parcialmente atendidos. Nos demais pontos não há adequação do trabalho policial aos vetores da OIT, especialmente segurança, igualdade, oportunidades, conciliação e jornada de trabalho. O estudo trouxe como resultados a transformação de achados empíricos em evidências científicas aptas a auxiliar a compreensão do trabalho policial, em especial o trabalho da mulher. Proporcionou também a observação do trabalho policial pela ótica científica, potencializando a realização de novos estudos com vista a alargar a compreensão sobre a temática e contribuir para estratégias de gestão mais focadas na sustentabilidade pelo viés da responsabilidade social.

Nos últimos anos, houve um incremento no número de denúncias e constatações de trabalho escravo na zona rural brasileira, apesar da vigência de normas jurídicas destinadas a proteger o trabalhador contra esta forma de exploração. O endividamento e o uso da violência são os principais instrumentos utilizados para obstar a liberdade do trabalhador. A compreensão jurídica do tema, a partir das normas nacionais e internacionais, possibilita o desenvolvimento de ações institucionais mais eficientes destinadas à erradicação do trabalho escravo. A observância do paradigma do trabalho decente é que permitirá que o trabalhador rural desenvolva a sua atividade em condições dignas. / During the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of denunciations and evidence of slavery work in the Brazilian rural zone, despite the presence of juridical norms aiming to protect the worker against this form of exploration. Indebtedness and the use of violence are the main instruments used to hinder the workers liberty. The juridical understanding on the subject, based on national and international norms, makes it possible the development of more institutional and efficient actions aiming the eradication of slave labor. The observance of the paradigm of decent work will permit the rural worker to develop his/her activity under dignified conditions.