This thesis investigates the use of static, adaptive, adaptable and mixed-initiative approaches to the personalisation of content and graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This empirical study consisted of three experimental phases. The first examined the use of static, adaptive, adaptable and mixed-initiative approaches to web content. More specifically, it measured the usability (efficiency, frequency of error occurrence, effectiveness and satisfaction) of an e-commerce website. The experiment was conducted with 60 subjects and was tested empirically by four independent groups (15 subjects each). The second experiment examined the use of adaptive, adaptable and mixed-initiative approaches to GUIs. More specifically, it measured the usability (efficiency, frequency of error occurrence, effectiveness and satisfaction) in GUI control structures (menus). In addition, it investigated empirically the effects of content size on five different personalised menu types. In order to carry out this comparative investigation, two independent experiments were conducted, on small menus (17 items) and large ones (29 items) respectively. The experiment was conducted with 60 subjects and was tested empirically by four independent groups (15 subjects each). The third experiment was conducted with 40 subjects and was tested empirically by four dependent groups (5 subjects each). The aim of the third experiment was to mitigate the drawbacks of the adaptive, adaptable and mixedinitiative approaches, to improve their performance and to increase their usability by using multimodal auditory solutions (speech, earcons and auditory icons). The results indicate that the size of content affects the usability of personalised approaches. In other words, as the size of content increases, so does the need of the adaptive and mixed-initiative approaches, whereas that of the adaptable approach decreases. A set of empirically derived guidelines were also produced to assist designers with the use of adaptive, adaptable and mixed-initiative approaches to web content and GUI control structure.

Title: A study on empowerment leadership and service recovery in the restaurant industry.   Level: Student thesis, final assignment for bachelor’s degree in business administration   Authors: Ellinor Strinnholm and Emma Söderstjerna   Supervisor: Svante Brunåker and Monika Wallmon   Date: 2020 – June     Aim: This study interprets empowering leadership's impact on frontline staff's initiative in service recovery in the restaurant industry.   Method: Through a qualitative-phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with both frontline staff in the restaurant industry as well as managers. Through a thematic analysis, connections were made between themes in the respondents' statements and Spreitzer's four dimensions.   Result & Conclusions: The results indicate that frontline staff do not feel that Spreitzer's four dimensions of empowerment leadership, are met. Instead, the study found that authoritarian leadership in various forms is implemented at all restaurants in the study, despite the fact that empowerment leadership is in demand.   Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes with frontline staff's views on empowerment leadership as well as key drivers for increased staff performance. In addition, the problems in the restaurant industry are highlighted today and how these can be linked to a certain kind of leadership.   Suggestions for future research: For future research, we recommend exploring further why empowerment leadership is not implemented in the restaurant industry today.

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Procedural content generation (PCG) can be a useful tool for aiding creativityand efficiency in the process of designing game levels. Mixed-initiative level genera-tion tools where a designer and an algorithm collaborate to iteratively generate gamelevels have been used for this purpose – taking advantage of the combination of com-putational efficiency and human intuition and creativity. However, it can be difficultfor designers to work with tools that do not respond to the common language of games:game design patterns.It has been demonstrated that game design patterns can be integrated into PCGalgorithms, but formally-defined and hierarchically-arranged game design patternshave not yet been used as a means of increasing gameplay-based control in mixed-initiative dungeon generators. We present a method for evolving dungeon rooms usingmulti-level game design patterns in the objective function of a genetic algorithm, aswell as an instantiation of this method in a mixed-initiative dungeon design tool. Ourresults show that we are able to control the frequency and type of design patterns ingenerated rooms using pattern-related input parameters, enabling us to create dungeonrooms containing a wide variety of patterns on different levels of abstraction.Results from a small-scale user study of professional game developers suggest thatthe use of game design patterns in mixed-initiative level design tools can be a promisingway of providing a good starting point when designing a level, as well as offeringmeaningful gameplay related feedback throughout the design process. We also identifychallenges that will need to be faced if game design pattern-based mixed-initiative leveldesign tools are to become a part of the game designer’s toolkit.

The research reported in this dissertation examines the dissemination of heart health promotion within the Ontario public health system. It contributes to a relatively new research agenda to understand how to enhance implementation of the new public health; to apply knowledge of effective community- and population-based prevention. Three studies are reported, which extend research conducted in Ontario from 1994 to 1998 as part of the Canadian Heart Health Initiative Ontario Project (CHHIOP). Study one combined diffusion and social ecological theories to examine the dissemination process at the level of the public health system and over a ten year period. Studies two and three examined the implementation stage in more depth, with a view to understand variability across Ontario communities. Study two was a quantitative path analysis to identify determinants of 1997 levels of implementation, and study three was a comparative case study to understand change in implementation from 1994 to 1996. Main data sources were quantitative and qualitative data from CHHIOP. Findings reinforce the need for a systems view of dissemination; that dissemination is a long-term, iterative process; and that organizational capacity building is a vital part of the dissemination process, especially when new practices represent a significant departure from traditional concepts and ways of doing business. The research demonstrates that the interplay of internal organizational factors (e.g. champions, leadership, organizational structure) and external system factors (e.g. research, political priorities, experiences of other jurisdictions, partnerships) helps to explain movement within and across dissemination stages. Findings suggest promising areas for dissemination research, including replicating similar research in other public health systems. Findings also suggest promising strategies to accelerate the dissemination of effective health promotion, including specific strategies to further enhance heart health promotion in Ontario. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Writing is a notoriously time-consuming and challenging activity that is difficult to avoid during the development of a game, and the steady increase in complexity behind producing games is putting pressure on the industry to cut unnecessary costs and streamline processes. With recent breakthroughs in Neural Network research the capabilities of causal language models like the GPT models made by OpenAI have reached a level where they could be used to assist with creative assignments that previously only could be done to an acceptable level of quality by a human writer. This paper aims to combine the power of a language model with the versatility and control of the Mixed-Initiative Co-Creation approach. In order to limit the scope of the artifact to a manageable size the focus will be to generate a shorter biography with backstory for characters and items in a level made in the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer by Alvarez et al. The artifact was evaluated with a user study in which both quantitative ratings and qualitative feedback was collected. The results suggest that the artifact has potential as it has the ability to generate compelling narratives and users attested that it had a positive effect on their work.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka rapporteringen av GRI-indikatorer i svenskabörsnoterade företags hållbarhetsrapporter samt ge en förklaring till vilka faktorer som påverkarvalet av GRI-indikatorer. I studien genomförs en kvantitativ undersökning som undersökersvenska börsnoterade hållbarhetsrapporter. För att undersöka GRI-rapporteringen har eninnehållsanalys genomförts på 223 hållbarhetsrapporter från år 2019. Hypoteser har testatsgenom en multipel regressionsanalys. Studiens resultat visar att endast två faktorer, storlek och miljökänslighet har ett positivt sambandmed rapporteringen av GRI-indikatorer. Faktorer såsom företagets synlighet och offentliggranskning av företagen är orsaken till att endast storlek och bransch har ett signifikant sambandmed rapporteringen av GRI-indikatorer. På grund av denna synlighet väljer företagen att GRI rapportera för att legitimera sin verksamhet både mot samhället i stort och mot inflytelserikaintressenter, då de finns en ömsesidig påverkan. Studiens teoretiska bidrag är en ökad kunskap inom forskningsområdet gällande rapporteringenav GRI-indikatorer, men även vilka faktorer som kan förklara att svenska börsnoterade företaganvänder GRI-indikatorer. Positiva och signifikanta samband hittades mellan GRI-indikatoreroch faktorerna storlek och miljökänslighet. Det praktiska bidraget denna studie ger är ett resultatsom visar att storlek och miljökänslighet ökar benägenheten med rapporteringen av GRIindikatorer. Resultatet är intressant för både företagsledare på Stockholmsbörsen samtkapitalmarknaden. Förslag på vidare forskning är att undersöka GRI-indikatorer i företags hållbarhetsrapporter somhar sitt huvudsäte i ett annat land än Sverige. Ett annat förslag på vidare forskning är att granskaföretag som är börsnoterade på en annan börs än Stockholmsbörsen. Årsredovisningslagenomfattar dessutom onoterade företag, vilket inte denna studie har fokuserat på, därför är detintressant att se huruvida börsnotering har eller inte har en påverkan på GRI-indikatorer ochhållbarhetsrapporten.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer among U.S. women; 63,610 new cases were estimated to have occurred in 2015. Prior studies found a reduced risk of colorectal cancer among antidepressant (AD) users, however, none adjusted for depression, which is itself linked to increased colorectal cancer risk and could confound this relationship. We assessed the relationship between ADs and AD drug classes with risk of colorectal cancer in a prospective cohort of 145,190 women between the ages of 50-79 without a previous history of cancer at enrollment. Current AD use was assessed at baseline. Over an average follow-up of 14 years, there were 5,280 incident cases of colorectal cancer cases. Cox proportional hazard ratios, adjusted for potential confounders including depressive symptoms, were used to estimate hazard ratios. Of all AD users, 51.1% used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), 40.7% used tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), and 15.1% used other ADs. No association was observed between total AD use, SSRI use, and/or other ADs and risk of colorectal cancer. We observed a reduced risk of colorectal cancer among TCA users, which was significant for colon cancer specifically (HR 0.68, 95% CI: 0.48-0.96). Although a reduced risk of colon cancer was observed for TCAs use for less than two years (HR 0.39, 95%: CI 0.19-0.82), no association was observed for TCA use for two or more years (HR 0.85, 95%CI: 0.57-1.26). Our data suggests a protective association between TCA use and risk of colorectal cancer, however more research is needed to verify these findings.