This paper presents a novel approach for designing and optimizing maintenance service contracts through the application of mechanism design theory. When offering a contract to its customer, the maintenance service provider seeks to specify contract terms - such as price, service features and incentives - that maximize the provider's profit, satisfy customer needs, allocate risks effectively and mitigate moral hazards. Optimal contract design has to account for asymmetric information and uncertainties associated with customer characteristics and behaviors. We illustrate our mechanism design approach by applying it to the contract design challenge of a gas turbine manufacturer, which also provides maintenance services for its aircraft engines. In our solution approach, we compute an optimal set of contracts. The entire set is presented to the customer and is designed such that the customer will accept one of the contract alternatives without negotiations. In addition to eliminating the costs and delays associated with negotiations, this approach also reveals the customer's private information to the service provider, which the provider can use to its benefit in maintenance management and future contract renewals. Furthermore, we design and incorporate win-win incentive mechanisms into the contracts, which reward the customer for actions that reduces maintenance costs. We present a deterministic and a stochastic mechanism design model, the latter accounting for uncertainties associated with customer actions, engine performance, and maintenance costs during the contract execution phase. / Master of Science

Since its inception in 2009, Blockchain (i.e., the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies) has sparked new potential to question the fundamental nature of things such as money and intermediaries. At the very core of this technology is a new type of trust embedded in the design of the information system that enables its functionality. Public Blockchain applications (e.g., Bitcoin) are examples of Semi-Autonomous Information Systems. Semi-Autonomous Information Systems are information systems that humans and algorithms jointly control. Trust in public Blockchain applications is produced through a decentralized network of actors transacting under an algorithmic authority – a new type of trust in Semi-Autonomous Information Systems. This study followed the information systems design method to develop a design theory that explains the process of designing trustworthy Semi-Autonomous Information Systems. The proposed design theory includes decentralization and algorithmic authority as new factors in building users’ trust in Semi-Autonomous Information Systems. As the IS literature lacks scales for these two factors, new decentralization and algorithmic authority scales were developed and validated following established guidelines. Following an extensive literature review, ten inductive interviews with subject-matter experts were conducted during the conceptualization phase. The initial measurement items list for these scales was evaluated and refined through 12 more interviews with qualified raters and a subsequent survey study of 126 MBA students to establish content validity for the proposed new items. Two independent samples, 200 participants each, were used during the exploratory and confirmatory analyses to validate the new scales. Then, the two new scales of decentralization and algorithmic authority were tested as part of a new trust model. The proposed model includes decentralization and algorithmic authority as two new cognitive-based trust factors. The model also includes perceived control and sense of community as two types of emotional-based trust. The pre-established factors of structural assurance, users’ trust beliefs in actors, and calculative-based trust are also included in the model. The model was empirically validated through a quantitative survey study of 450 Bitcoin users. The proposed design theory, two new scales, and the new trust model provide significant implications for theory and practice in this area. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

The McMillan sand filtration plant in Washington, D.C. is a significant industrial landscape that provided safe clean water to much of the capital during 1905-1985. At the outset, the McMillan Commission chose to make the plant and adjacent McMillan reservoir part of the park system it was mapping for Washington. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. was appointed to landscape the tract, a task completed in 1920. Closed to the public since WWII, the site was abandoned when its operation ended. This thesis looks at its future by exploring the thickness of landscape and the site's discovered geometry. Peeling back its uniformly level 25-acre surface broken only twice by rows of concrete towers, its horizontal layers, vertical elements and strong grids are revealed, offering clues for new design strategies. Examples of how landscape geometries have been considered and works of landscape built elsewhere are reviewed. Recalling water's historically central role in the site, the latter's potential for demonstrating responsible stormwater management and other sustainable practices is emphasized. Local stakeholder interests and proven ingredients of successful urban parks are noted. A design process is outlined that exploits the earlier exploratory findings to reconcile the transition between old and new, deciding what to remove and what to add. Details are provided on the resulting new "memorial park" that both celebrates its history and responds to contemporary interests and needs of the 21st century urban landscape. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Studiens syfte är att få inblick i hur elgitarrlärare arbetar för att få sina elever att lära sig notskrift. I bakgrundskapitlet beskrivs tidigare forskning om notläsning och notskrift. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt används ett designteoretiskt perspektiv, vilket fokuserar på hur människor använder olika tecken för att designa sin kommunikation och sitt lärande. Studien vilar på en kvalitativ forskningsansats med videoobservation som metod. Sex elgitarrlärare på olika kulturskolor har videoobserverats. Det inspelade materialet har sedan transkriberats och analyserats med fokus på de teckenskapande resurser lärarna använder i sin undervisning. I resultatet framkommer att lärarna använder såväl tal, sång, kropp, instrument, musikaliska termer och ljudande bakgrunder för att undervisa traditionell notskrift och/eller tabulatur till eleverna. I diskussionen berörs två övergripande undervisningssätt som har lyfts fram hos lärarna: en traditionell notbunden och musikteoribaserad undervisning och en tabulatur- och gehörsbaserad undervisning. / The study aims to gain insight into how guitar teachers working to get their students to learn musical notation. In the background chapter, previous research in music reading and notation is shown. As a theoretical basis the design theory perspective is used, which focuses on how people use different characters to design their communication and learning. The study is based on a qualitative research with video observation as method. Six electric guitar teachers at different arts schools have been observed using video recording. The recorded material was then transcribed and analysed with a focus on the character-building resources teachers use in their teaching. The result shows that teachers use speech, voice, body, instrument, musical terms and sounding backing tracks to teach traditional music notation and/or tablature for students. In the discussion two comprehensive teaching methods that have been highlighted by the teachers is discussed: a traditional sight-reading and music theory based teaching and a tablature and ear based instruction.

Studiens syfte är att se ifall det är möjligt att under en kortare tid bli en bättre a-vistaläsare. För att undersöka detta har jag under en åttaveckorsperiod övat a-vista 15 minuter per dag, med hjälp av en bok just för a-vistaläsning. Ett urval av dessa övningstillfällen har jag videofilmat. Jag har också använt mig av loggbok för att dokumentera mina upplevelser av min egen process. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt har jag valt ett multimodalt designteoretiskt perspektiv. I resultatet visas hur olika resurser hanteras, samt hur progression i lärandet har varit. Det framkommer att jag under denna period har lärt mig att läsa a-vista bättre än innan. Jag använde mig av kroppsliga resurser i ganska stor utsträckning då jag övade a-vistaläsning. I diskussionen beskriver jag utifrån det designteoretiska perspektivet hur förutsättningarna utifrån den valda boken har varit, samt vilka resurser som användes vid lärandet. / The purpose of this study is to find out if it is possible to become better at sight-reading melodies during a shorter period, in this case eight weeks with 15 minutes of daily training. With a video recorder, I have documented a selection of daily training sessions based on a book that specifically focuses on sight-reading melodies. Furthermore, I have written a logbook to document my personal experiences during the process. Theoretical perspective is design theory. The results shows how different resources are handled, and the learning progression of the process are described. It appears that I during this period, have become better at sight-reading melodies and it is also clear that I use bodily resources quite a lot while practicing sight-reading. Lastly, in the last chapter I discuss the preconditions given by the book and what resources that has been created during my learning period.

Den föreliggande studien är en självobservation med syfte att studera hur min inlärningsprocess tar form vid instuderingen av stycket Old French Song för solokontrabas, och studien utgår ifrån ett designteoretiskt perspektiv på lärande. Instuderingsprocessen fortgick under fem veckor hösten 2018 med sammanlagt 22 övningspass. Av dessa dokumenterades fem med hjälp av videoinspelning. I resultatet presenteras de resurser som användes vid designen av inlärningen, och på vilket sätt de användes. Resultatet visar också på vilket sätt resurser kombinerades för att göra inlärningsprocessen multimodal. I diskussionen diskuteras resultatet med utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning om instudering samt i relation till det designteoretiska perspektivet på lärande. / The present study is a self-observation meant to study how my learning process takes shape during the studying of the piece Old French Song, played on the double bass. The study is based on a design theoretical perspective on learning. The learning process proceeded for five weeks during the autumn of 2018, making for a total of 22 separate practice occasions of which five was documented using video recording. The result shows the different resources used in the design of my learning process, and the different ways they were used.  It also shows in what way different resources were combined to form a multimodal learning process. The last section discusses the result based on previous research on the studying of musical pieces, and in relation to a design theoretical perspective on learning.

There are four orientations of cycles on four vertices. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for covering complete directed digraphs Dv, packing and covering complete bipartite digraphs, Dm,n, and packing and covering the complete digraph on v vertices with hole of size w, D(v,w), with three of the orientations of a 4-cycle, including C4, X, and Y.

This thesis develops a paradigm for conceptual design based on the idea that dimensional analysis can improve the evaluation and comparison of concepts of solution during the conceptual design process. The conceptual design approach developed in this research is a combination of tasks which starts with the identification of the customer needs in a formalized manner is followed by the generation of design concepts taking into account the different phases of the physical life cycle and ends by the evaluation and adequacy analysis of the concepts of solution with the formalized needs.<br /><br />The General Design Theory (GDT) is used as the methodological basis of this work. Using the results of GDT, the research introduces a definition of the concept of function which is generic and not dedicated to a solution-based approach. Consequently the concept of function fulfils its intended objective of modelling the design problems at a general level. In addition to the concept of function, this thesis introduces a series of classifications based on generic concepts and rules aimed at generating concepts of solutions progressively. All these concepts are integrated into the developed metamodel framework. The metamodel provides a group of generic concepts associated with laws and mapped with a normalized functional vocabulary. The metamodel framework is an intermediate structure developed in order to provide guidance during the synthesis process and to meet the initial condition in order to transform the classification structure into a metric space. A metric space is a topological space with a unique metric. The transformation of the initial topological space into a metric space can be obtained when a series of conditions are verified. The first condition consists of clustering the concepts of solutions in order to underline the comparable aspects in each of them. This is done by using a set of dedicated rules. In addition three other fundamental conditions should be obtained. The metamodel framework ensures the first condition; an enhanced fundamental system of unit provides the second condition and a paradigm of separation of concept the third one. When all these three conditions are verified, it becomes possible to transform the design problems modelled by four types of generic variables into a series of dimensionless groups. This transformation process is achieved by using the Vashy-Buckingham theorem and the Butterfield's paradigm. The Butterfield's paradigm is used in order to select the minimum set of repeated variables which ensure the non-singularity of the metrization procedure. This transformation process ends with the creation of a machinery dedicated to the qualitative simulation of the concepts of solutions. The thesis ends with the study of practical cases.

<p>Reading and analyzing literature has a long tradition of being an essential part of the teaching of English in Sweden. As the offers of entertainment have increased in popular culture with the introduction <em>of computer games, internet and other media, interest in reading novels has decreased. Literature is still a compulsory part of English teaching and the question is how teachers of today use literature and what kind of literary instruction they use.</em></p><p>The aim of this study is to explore and discuss the literary instruction discourse in pedagogical texts, lessons, created by and for English teachers of Swedish Upper Secondary Schools. The lessons have been collected from the site <em>lektion.se</em>, where teachers are able to share knowledge and lessons. The study uses an analytical method based on Norman Fairclough´s <em>Critical Discourse Analysis</em> in order to analyze the lessons. In the analysis aspects of language, intertextuality and assumptions are discussed. As a theoretical base, Louise M. Rosenblatt´s and Judith Langer´s ideas of reader centered literary instruction is used as well as Design Theory.</p><p>The result of the study shows that the overall discourse is text orientated and, with few exceptions, there is little room for students to contribute to a creative, personal experience of literature. Furthermore, it is shown that literary texts are often used as an exercise of reading comprehension and specific literary reading is scarce. The study postulates that more effort should be put into involving the students in the reading, and less effort on literary terminology.</p>

Video mediated communication (VMC) is a two way real time audio and video communication between remote places. VMC has the potential to be applied favourably to many activities, services and functions in smart homes. The concept of smart homes refers to homes equipped with technological systems and appliances enabling centralised or remotely controllable integrated functionalities and services. The main question for the current research work is formulated accordingly: How can spaces for video mediated communication be designed and integrated into smart homes? The governing idea is that there are two main perceptions of space in the design and integration of video mediated communication into smart homes. One concerns the conception of private and public spaces, the other relates to the idea of physical and digital spaces. The interrelationship between these two concepts is supposed to become important when VMC is considered for smart home applications. This thesis is written from an architectural perspective. It refers to the functionalistic paradigm here defined basically as the set of essential functions of the home that have to be solved in order to achieve good dwellings. The function of the home can be described as the organisation of space and furniture to support activities and processes in and around it. The thesis is based upon five papers and a covering text providing background, analysis and reflection, as well as ideas on further development. The research method can be described as mainly explorative and design-oriented. A principal result from the study is that a novel modality of space, the public digital space, appears when VMC is introduced into smart homes. Further, it is advocated that this modality is a relevant issue for the architectural profession and architectural research.