The purpose of this essay is to explore China's foreign policy through Joseph S. Nye's theory of power applied on the Belt and Road Initiative. It aims to answer whether or not China's foreign policy has changed during Xi Jinping's presidency and in what way Belt and Road Initiative can be explained in terms of power behaviour and power resources. The method used in this essay is that of a case study. The empirical evidence shows that China's foreign policy has changed in a direction that is meant to strengthen Xi Jinping's influence and that Belt and Road Initiative is a project with the intention to accumulate economic resources. It also shows that China's government and domestic policies weakens its "soft power" resources due to restraints in its civil society.  The essayc concludes that the Belt and Road Initiative is China and Xi Jinping's expansion strategy whose main objective is to create incentives for Chinese domestic, economic growth. It also concludes that Chinese "soft power" would increase if the domestic policies would aim for a more democratic course.

China’s influence is increasing steadily in all corners of the world. One of China’s foreign policy goals is to become a technological superpower by 2025. An important part of that goal is the Digital Silk Road (DSR), a sub-project to China’s massive infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative. The DSR is on one hand contributing to positive technological developments, especially in developing countries. But on the other hand, it has gotten substantial criticism for being a front for spreading China’s digital authoritarian model and for giving authoritarian regimes the tools to effectively repress citizens and violate human rights. The aim of this study is twofold. The first aim is to examine and map out how China might be promoting autocracy through the DSR, this will contribute to a deeper empirical understanding. The second aim is to give a theoretical contribution by categorizing autocracy promotion and testing the value of active and passive autocracy promotion in relation to China and the DSR. To conduct the analysis, I will draw on literature about autocracy promotion and digital authoritarianism. The existing literature is divided on whether or not China is promoting autocracy, and I will thus be arguing that technological advances, and the DSR, makes it problematic to claim that China is not engaged in autocracy promotion. Therefore, I seek to contribute to the existing literature. The results show that China is in fact involved in autocracy promotion through the different DSR projects. It also shows that China’s support, in some cases, have been crucial in providing authoritarian regimes with repressive technologies. The results also indicate that promoting autocracy might not be an outspoken goal or strategy from China, but rather an unintended consequence when trying to reach domestic political and economic goals.

This thesis presents the use of microscopic traffic simulation models to evaluate the effects of operational-level transportation projects such as ITS. A detailed framework outlining the construction and calibration of microscopic simulation models is provided, as well as the considerations that must be made when analyzing the outputs from these models. Two case studies are used to reinforce the concepts presented. In addition, these case studies give valuable insight for using the outlined approach under real-world conditions. The study indicates a promising future for the use of microsimulation models for the purpose of evaluating operational-level projects, as the theoretical framework of the models is sound, and the computational strategies used are feasible. There are, however, instances where simulation models do not presently model certain phenomena, or where simulation models are too computationally intensive. Comprehensive models that integrate microscopic simulation with land use planning and realistic predictions of human behavior, for instance, cannot practically be modeled in contemporary simulation packages. Other than these instances, the largest obstacles to using simulation packages were found to be the manpower required and the complexity of constructing a model. Continuing research efforts and increasing computer speeds are expected to resolve the former issues. Both of the latter concerns are alleviated by the approach presented herein. Within the approach framework detailed in this thesis, particular emphasis is given to the calibration aspects of constructing a microscopic simulation model. Like the simulation process as a whole, calibration is both an art and a science, and relies on sound engineering judgement rather than indiscriminate, formulaic processes. / Master of Science

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Substance abuse among adolescents is a Public Health concern globally with approximately 25 million adolescents (aged 13-15 years) who smoke tobacco, one in every ten girls and one in every five boys. In low- and middle-income countries, 14 % of girls and 18% of boys (13-15years old) are engaged in alcohol use. The Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health of 2018, reports that among the 15- to 19-year-olds, greater than a quarter were current alcohol drinkers. Cannabis (marijuana/dagga) is highly used globally with approximately 3.8% between 15 and 64 years, about 188 million people used it once or more times in 2017. The most commonly abused substances are alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis (marijuana/dagga). In South Africa, most adolescents are found in schools and the average age of drug experimentation is 12 years with early onset of use at about ten years of age.

Hållbarhetsredovisning för stora företag har inte alltid varit obligatoriskt. År 2017 infördes en lagändring i årsredovisningslagen (SFS 1995:1554) i Sverige som innefattade att det är obligatoriskt för stora företag att upprätta en hållbarhetsredovisning. Företagkan välja att följa Global Reporting Initiative standarder som ger riktlinjer för hur en hållbarhetsredovisning ska konstrueras, där bland annat principen om att både positiv och negativ information ska redovisas i företags hållbarhetsredovisningar.Syftet med studien blir att identifiera legitimitetsstrategier som används av de svenska storbankerna vid kommunikation av negativ miljömässig och social information. Vidare är syftet att studera kring hur bankerna ställer sig till lagändringen i årsredovisningslagen(SFS 1995:1554) samt Global Reporting Initiative under tidsperioden 2015-2019. I studiens referensram förklaras begreppen hållbar utveckling, hållbarhetsredovisning, Global Reporting Initiative och negativ information inom de sociala och miljömässiga dimensionerna. Vidare presenteras signalteorin, informationsasymmetri och kommunikation, legitimitetsteorin samt legitimitetsstrategier från tidigare studier för att analysera studiens empiri i analysen. Studien består av en kvalitativ forskningsansats där hållbarhetsredovisningar för fyra storbanker i Sverige har analyserats med hjälp av en innehållsanalys. Empirin presenterar studiens identifierade legitimitetsstrategier som har namngetts till: bortresonerande, utförd åtgärd, framtida åtgärd, okommenterad, angiven fakta och normalisering. Utifrån studiens empiri och analys kan det konstateras att storbankerna i Sverige använder legitimitetsstrategier vid kommunikation av negativ information för att bibehålla, skapa eller reparera legitimitet. Två av Chos (2009) identifierade strategier kunde sammankopplas med studiens strategier medan fyra av de sex identifierade strategierna i studien har kunnat sammankopplas med Hahn och Lülfs(2014) studie. Två identifierade strategier kunde inte sammankopplas med tidigare studier, därmed presenteras dessa som tillägg till tidigare studier. Utifrån studiens analys kan det  konstateras att lagändringen i årsredovisningslagen (SFS 1995:1554) inte har haft ett inflytande på hur storbankerna kommunicerar ut information. Det konstateras dock att GRI har haft ett inflytande på hur storbankerna väljer att kommunicera utinformation.

Mixed-initiative systems highlights the collaboration between humans and computers infostering the generation of more interesting content in game design. In light of theever-increasing cost of game development, providing mixed-initiative tools can not onlysignificantly reduce the cost but also encourage more creativity amongst designers. Thisstudy focused on the improvement of mixed-initiative aspects for a previously developedtool called Evolutionary Dungeon Designer or Eddy for short. Eddy placed a focus onusing its genetic algorithms to produce content that adhere to game design patterns.Using the feedback from Eddy 2.0’s user study and studying other related works, newfeatures have been planned and implemented to improve the elements of mixed-initiativein Eddy for version 3.0. The results primarily feature a new and improved workflow aswell as enhancing a room’s context with the addition of a logical world grid. This in turnimproves the program’s intuitiveness and makes it possible for the designer to createmore complex designs of their preference while maintaining the general functionalities ofthe original Eddy.The study was evaluated with a small scale user study of five users at a gamedevelopment company with most of the feedback being positive in nature. From thefeedback more features have been planned for a future version of Eddy being version 4.0.

Procedural Content Generation (PCG) is a tool for developers to take advantage of the computational power of the computer in order to create new content. There are many different method that a PCG program is able to utilize but finding the most optimal may be very challenging. In this paper we improved Evolution Dungeon Designer (EDD) by integrate symmetry and similar fitness function. We evaluated them with experiments and a user study that involved participants that are active in the field of game development. We can see that both symmetry and similar functions can easily be integrated for creating 2D dungeon rooms but has the potential of overwhelm the existing functions.

Overabundance of shrubs poses a major threat to semiarid ecosystems due to degraded understory vegetation. Previous efforts suggest a need for greater understanding of which management practices work best to improve these ecosystems. I sought to develop a better understanding of how the relative performance of commonly seeded species is influenced by three sagebrush removal techniques. I calculated effect sizes for cover and frequency to estimate relative changes in abundance of 15 common plant species seeded at 63 restoration sites throughout Utah. Shrubs were reduced by fire or mechanical treatment. Effect sizes were assessed using meta-analysis techniques for two post-treatment timeframes. Introduced grasses and shrubs had greater increases in cover and frequency following treatment, respectively. The introduced shrub Bassia prostrata experienced the largest increases in abundance following treatments. Forb abundance was highest when treated with fire. Over the long term the fire treatment resulted in greater increases for four of the seven grass species. Large increases in perennial grasses over time suggest that seeding efforts contributed to enhancing understory herbaceous conditions. My results provide new insights regarding the interactive effects of species and shrub-reduction treatments. Secondly, I evaluated emergence patterns of six commonly seeded restoration species in soils collected from Wyoming big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. wyomingensis [Beetle & A. Young] S.L. Welsh) and mountain big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. vaseyana [Rydb.] Beetle) plant communities. I developed a novel experimental design that regularly wetted soils to field capacity and allowed them to naturally dry by evaporation, which resulted in distinct differences in the duration of wet-dry cycles. Results showed that inherent differences in soil texture and organic matter between vaseyana and wyomingensis soils translated into fundamental differences in soil water holding capacity. Although species collectively exhibited greater emergence in vaseyana soils than wyomingensis soil, patterns were vastly different among species and differences between soils became more pronounced under low soil water for two of the test species. I concluded that the manner in which soils and water uniquely influenced emergence patterns provide new insights in species suitability for restoration sites and how inherent soil differences may constrain seeding success.

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The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) implemented the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative (MBHI) in summer 2010 to provide wetlands for waterbirds inland from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. To evaluate MBHI and associated wetland management practices, I estimated seed and waterbird densities in MBHI and non-managed wetlands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) of Mississippi and Louisiana. Although not statistically different, wetlands enrolled in MBHI contained 1.26 and 1.53 times more seed biomass and seeds consumed by waterfowl than non-managed wetlands, respectively. I also detected 3 times more dabbling ducks and all ducks combined on MBHI wetlands. When I combined density data for all waterbird species, MBHI wetlands contained more than 2 times as many birds than control wetlands. Management via MBHI increased waterbird and potential food abundances, suggesting NRCS consider sustaining MBHI and provide financial incentives to landowners for management of wetlands in the MAV and United States.