MPM / Department of Public and Development Administration

ISO 14001:2015 is a certifiable environmental management standard applicable to any enterprise, large or small, in all fields of manufacturing or trades and services. It is the updated version of the previous ISO 14001:2004 standard. The updated standard contains a new High Level Framework which is expected to be used in the future by all ISO management system standards. ISO 14001:2015 sets out to implement methodologies such as the environmental management system and prescribes certification criteria including environmental policy and goals, important environmental issues, pollution reduction and continuous improvement of environmental efficiency. This report starts by looking into the documentation regarding life cycle perspective in the context of the ISO 14001:2015 standard. The revised model adopts a holistic approach across the value chain and encourages companies to accept a "life cycle perspective" with regard to the product and service design and development process. The methodology of life-cycle assessment (LCA) is also explored. The report goes on to examine another important aspect in environmental management which is the concept of Design For Environment (DFE). More specifically it is examined whether adhering to DFE principles can also help companies to adapt to the ISO 14001:2015 requirements. The concept of sustainable development in the context of ISO 14001 was given due precedence and it was found that ISO certified organizations will have an implicit awareness of sustainability because of the way ISO 14001 is structured. Corporate sustainability strategies were also discussed and this shed more light into how companies can

Aus der Einführung: "Dräger ist ein international führendes Unternehmen der Medizin- und Sicherheitstechnik. Das 1889 in Lübeck gegründeten Familienunternehmen besteht in der fünften Generation und hat sich zu einem globalen börsennotierten Konzern entwickelt. „Technik für das Leben“ ist die Leitidee des Unternehmens. Ob im Operationsbereich, auf der Intensivstation, bei der Feuerwehr oder im Rettungsdienst: Dräger-Produkte schützen, unterstützen und retten Leben. Dräger bietet seinen Kunden unter anderem Anästhesie-Arbeitsplätze, Beatmungsgeräte für die Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin, Patientenmonitoring sowie die medizinische Versorgung von Frühchen und Neugeborenen. Mit Deckenversorgungseinheiten, IT-Lösungen für den OP und Gasmanagementsystemen steht das Unternehmen seinen Kunden im gesamten Krankenhaus zur Seite. Feuerwehren, Rettungsdienste, Behörden und die Industrie vertrauen auf das ganzheitliche Gefahrenmanagement von Dräger, insbesondere für den Personen- und Anlagenschutz. Dazu gehören: Atemschutzausrüstungen, stationäre und mobile Gasmesssysteme, professionelle Tauchtechnik sowie Alkohol- und Drogenmessgeräte. Darüber hinaus entwickelt Dräger gemeinsam mit seinen Kunden maßgeschneiderte Lösungen wie komplette Brandübungsanlagen, Trainingskonzepte und Schulungen. ..."

Coronaviruspandemin har tvingat Uppsala universitet att ställa om till onlineundervisning. Denna omställning har ökat betydelsen av att lärplattformen Canvas fungerar och används på ett effektivt sätt som främjar lärande. Akademiskt engagemang är en användbar indikator för bland annat resultat och avhopp i studier på universitetsnivå. Det är därför av intresse att undersöka hur denna omställning har påverkat studerandes akademiska engagemang. En enkät (n=50) utformades för att mäta nuläget för akademiskt engagemang på Campus Gotland. Tre lärare på institutionen för informatik och media intervjuades angående akademiskt engagemang, Canvas och distansundervisning under coronaviruspandemin. Resultaten tyder på en liten minskning av totalt akademiskt engagemang, men på större klyftor mellan sedan tidigare högt och lågt engagerade studerande, där de sedan tidigare lågt engagerade studerandena hamnat längre efter. Framtida studier rekommenderas som undersöker orsakerna till dessa resultat / The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has forced Uppsala University and many other universities to move towards online learning. This transition emphasizes the importance of Canvas, which is the learning management system in use at the university. Student engagement is a useful predictor for academic results and dropout frequency at the university level. It is of general interest to investigate how the forced transition to online learning has affected current levels of student engagement. A survey (n=50) was administered to measure student engagement. In addition, three lecturers at the Department of Informatics and Media at Campus Gotland were interviewed on their views of student engagement, Canvas, and distance learning in general during the Coronavirus pandemic. The results point towards an increased gap in engagement between students with previously high and low student engagement levels. Further studies investigating the causes of this increased gap are advised.

So far, data warehousing has often been discussed in the light of complex OLAP queries and as reporting facility for operative data. We argue that business planning as a means to generate plan data is an equally important cornerstone of a data warehouse system, and we propose it to be a first-class citizen within an OLAP engine. We introduce an abstract model describing relevant aspects of the planning process in general and the requirements it poses to a planning engine. Furthermore, we show that business planning lends itself well to parallelization and benefits from a column-store much like traditional OLAP does. We then develop a physical model specifically targeted at a highly parallel column-store, and with our implementation, we show nearly linear scaling behavior.

With the hot topic of the climate change effects a desperate change is needed in the world ofthe national and global industry. A good start is an environmental management system, EMS.The main focus of the on-going process of an EMS is to organise the company’s work, to decrease the use of raw materials and energy, and to severely reduce pollutions to air, water and land. The EMS is a part of a sustainable development and a valuable tool for everyindustry who wants to better their image and keeping environmental concerned customers. Asia and Thailand are growing markets where SME and large-scale industries have started tointroduce ISO standards. The top management of these organisations have opened their eyes to the demand of the clients regarding less environmental impact from their products and services. The motive for this study, carried out as an MFS is to get an insight of the Thai industries and how well they have implemented their EMS. / www.ima.kth.se

Flooding over the last few years has become the most frequent and devastating of the natural disasters. This has accounted for approximately half of the death-rate and a third of economic losses as a result of weather-related events. Though these flooding events affect many cities across the globe, it is often the less fortunate who are disproportionately impacted by such events. There are many factors as to why this is the unfortunate case, with a high number of the underprivileged urban population finding themselves living in informal settlements. These settlements are often developed on environmentally-fragile land on steep sites or floodplains and lack the adequate waste and drainage systems that control the flow of water, further aggravating the flood risk within these areas. These uneven hardships are no different to Cape Town metropolitan region. Flooding has become an annual recurrence for the city during the wet winter months between May and September, with the informal settlements in the Cape Flats low-lying area bearing the brunt of this impact. The research therefore aims to explore how integrated flood control design within urban development can contribute to creating social and environmental sustainable interventions for flood resilience in informal settlements within the Cape Town municipality. One of the most important findings was the strong relation between waste as one of the largest contributors to the flooding events in these settlements, which became a key driver for investigation within the research. Kosovo informal settlement is one of the hardest hit communities during Cape Town’s high rainfall winter seasons and will used as the case study area for the research. The objective of the study is to investigate the existing condition and the involved stakeholders to develop well thought design strategies and toolbox for the municipality, planners, and residents. The design strategies and toolbox provides mechanisms to rethink flood prevention measures by shifting from creating barriers [interrupt], to mechanisms that engage with floodwater [interact] within a case study area. This research has attempted to position the community at the centre. Community participation and collaboration with key stakeholders will allow the residents to contribute with their local knowledge, experience and voices, sharing their views on the design solutions that are required to be integrated into their spaces.

Purpose – Gamification or related concepts such as serious games and playful design are discussed intensively in the field of academic education. Since 2011, gamification has continuously been recorded as a medium-term trend of online education in the annually published Horizon Report. In all areas in which engagement, participation, and motivation of individuals are the key success factors, strategies of gamification are considered. But, what are potentials of gamification in the field of higher education? How can educational technologies such as learning management systems be gamified? An essential part of this article is a study regarding the gamification of the learning management system OPAL. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a master thesis at the faculty of educational sciences, a study was conducted in order to investigate how the use of game elements can increase the attractiveness of OPAL for students. OPAL is the central learning management system at the Technische Universität Dresden. The study should answer the question: Which game design elements increase the attractiveness of OPAL for students? The research question was answered with a qualitative approach, while the collection of data was carried out by a focus group and expert interviews. The sample included six master’s students and one expert. The findings provide recommendations for redesigning OPAL. Originality/value – Often gamification is related to tools like points, badges, and leaderboards. But what elements exist beyond these? The contribution initially provides conceptual foundations and refers to game mechanics as the specifics of games. Based on this, the potential of gamification in higher education teaching was discussed. Practical implications – The article describes the concept of gamification and how this approach can be used in university teaching, especially for designing Learning Management Systems.

<p>Fast charging is crucial to the proliferation of electric vehicles. Fast charging is limited by lithium plating, which is the deposition of lithium metal on the anode surface instead of intercalation of lithium into the anode. Lithium plating causes capacity fade, increases cell resistance, and presents safety issues. A fast charging strategy was implemented using a battery management system (BMS) that avoided lithium plating by predicting the anode impedance. Commercial pouch cells modified with a reference electrode were cycled with and without the BMS. Cells cycled with the BMS avoided lithium plating but experienced significant degradation at the cathode. Cells cycled without the BMS underwent extensive lithium plating at the anode. Capacity loss was differentiated into irreversible and irretrievable capacity to understand electrode-based degradation mechanisms. Post-mortem analysis on harvested electrodes showed that the BMS cycled cells exhibited minimal anode degradation and had a two-times higher capacity loss on the cathode. The cells cycled without the BMS had extensive anode degradation caused by lithium plating and a seven-times higher capacity loss on the anode. </p> <p> </p> <p>Understanding and preventing the aging mechanisms of lithium-ion batteries is necessary to prolong battery life. Traditional full cell measurements are limited because they cannot differentiate between degradation processes that occur separately on anode and cathode. A reference electrode was inserted into commercial cylindrical lithium-ion cells to deconvolute the anode and cathode performance from the overall cell performance. Two configurations of the reference electrode placement inside the cell were tested to find a location that was stable and had minimal interference on the full cell performance. The reference electrode inside the mandrel of the cylindrical cell had stable potential measurements for 80 cycles and at different C-rates and had minimal impact on the full cell performance.<b></b></p>

Idégenerering är den första fasen i en innovationsprocess och för att hantera den så finns det idéhanteringssystem som kort fattat är till för att generera, hantera, utveckla och utvärdera idéer. Den här processen är väldigt svår, vilket oftast har lett till att företag väljer att använda sig av en, eller flera experter för att utvärdera de idéer som kommer in. Detta är förmodligen den bästa lösningen när det gäller effektivitet och inkrementella innovationer. Däremot så är det inte optimalt när det kommer till medarbetarnas motivation, engagemang, kreativitet, idéernas kvalité och de radikala/diskontinuerliga innovationerna. Därför så har det här arbetet undersökt hur ett deltagardemokratiskt idéhanteringssystem kan fungera personalägda företag. Detta undersöktes genom fem intervjuer med respondenter som jobbade på personalägda företag, litteratursökning inom områdena deltagandedemokrati, idéhantering och personalägande, samt idégenereringsmöten med sakkunniga. Resultatet av arbetet blev ett tvåstegssystem som ska kunna hantera komplexiteten av idégenerering, hantering, utveckling och utvärdering. Det första steget är en öppen plattform där alla i företaget kan lägga in idéer, diskutera idéer och ändra idéer. På den här plattformen kan medarbetarna sedan rösta upp de idéer som dem tycker är bäst och bör tas vidare. När en idé får många uppröstningar så tas den vidare till nästa del av systemet. Fördelarna med det här steget är att företaget kan mobilisera medarbetarens kreativitet och kunskap på ett mycket bättre sätt. Till nästa del sätts en grupp ihop av personer som berör eller berörs av idéen ihop för att använda sin kontextuella kunskap för att diskutera och utvärdera idéen. Om den första urvalsgruppen är för stor för detta så görs ytterligare ett urval, för att gruppen ska kunna diskutera idéen på ett effektivt och konstruktivt sätt. När denna grupp är klar så läggs det fram ett slutgiltigt förslag som denna grupp får rösta på om det ska gå vidare eller inte. Här skapas en större känsla av delaktighet hos medarbetarna och en större förståelse/acceptans för de beslut som tas. Med det här idéhanteringssystemet stärks också medarbetarnas motivation och engagemang. Allt detta redovisas i en modell som visualiserar hur systemet fungerar och vilka vägval som görs under processen gång.