Argumentation and reasoning have been an area of research in such disciplines as philosophy, logic and artificial intelligence for quite some time now. In the area of AI, knowledge needed for reasoning can be represented using various kinds of representation systems. The natural problem posed by this fact is that of possible incompatibility between heterogeneous systems as far as communication between them is concerned. This imposes a limitation on the possibility of extending smaller knowledge bases to larger ones. In order to facilitate a common platform for exchange across the systems unified formalisms for the different approaches to knowledge representation are required. This was the motivation for Dung [11] to propose in his 1995 paper an approach that later came to be known as an abstract argumentation framework. Roughly speaking, Dung's arguments are abstract entities which are related to each other by the means of conflicts between them. An intuitive graphical representation of Dung style framework is a graph whose nodes stand for arguments and whose edges stand for conflicts. A framework postulated this way is on one hand too general to be used on its own, but on the other hand it is general enough as to allow for varied extensions increasing its expressiveness, which indeed have been proposed. They include value-based argumentation frameworks by Bench-Capon et al. [6], preference-based argumentation frameworks by Amgoud and Cayrol [1] and bipolar argumentation frameworks by Brewka and Woltran [7], to name a few. The present thesis is concerned with yet another variation of Dung's framework: the concept of splitting. It was developed by Baumann [4] with one of the underlying purposes being that the computation time in frameworks which have been split into two parts and then computed separately may show some improvement in comparison to their variant without splitting. It was one of the main tasks of my work to develop an efficient algorithm for the splitting operation based on the theoretical framework given in [4]. On the other hand I hoped to confirm the expectation that splitting can indeed make a computation perform better.

La dégénérescence maculaire liée à l'âge (DMLA) touche actuellement un million de Canadiens, ce qui en fait la principale cause de perte de vision au Canada. La DMLA cause l’apparition d’une tache aveugle au niveau de la macula – la zone centrale de la vision. Cette tache aveugle affecte la vision centrale rendant les perceptions visuelles floues ou déformées. L’impact de cette condition est considérable puisqu’elle rend impossible la conduite, difficile la lecture et entraîne ultimement une cécité totale. La DMLA a également été identifiée comme facteur de risque de la dépression et de l’isolement sociale, ce qui porte d’autant plus atteinte à la qualité de vie des patients. Une des avenues de réadaptation pour les patients est d’améliorer leur utilisation de leur fonction visuelle résiduelle, notamment la vision périphérique. Le but de la présente recherche est d’investiguer le potentiel réadaptatif d’un entraînement imposant l’utilisation de la vision périphérique chez des participants en bonne santé en présence d’une perte de vision centrale simulée. Une compréhension des changements dans les comportements des mouvements oculaires en présence d'un scotome artificiel central aidera à développer des programmes de réadaptation pour les personnes atteint de DMLA et plus largement les personnes présentant une perte visuelle centrale. Les résultats démontrent une adaptation des stratégies visuelles des participants, entraînant une augmentation de la performance, une réduction des temps de réponse et une meilleure discrimination, suggérant ainsi que l’entraînement est susceptible de contribuer à la réadaptation des personnes atteintes de pertes visuelles centrales. / Age Macular Degeneration (AMD) currently affects one million Canadians, making it the leading cause of vision loss in Canada. AMD causes the appearance of a blind spot on the macula – the central area of vision. This blind spot affects the central vision making visual perceptions blurry or distorted. The impact of this condition is considerable since it impedes driving as well as reading and ultimately leads to total blindness. AMD has also been shown to be a risk factor for depression and social isolation, further compromising quality of life for patients. One of the avenues of rehabilitation for patients is to improve their use of their residual visual function, in particular their peripheral vision. The purpose of the present research is to investigate the rehabilitative potential of training requiring the use of peripheral vision in healthy participants in the presence of a simulated central vision loss. An understanding of changes in eye movement patterns in the presence of a central artificial scotoma will help develop rehabilitation protocols for people with AMD and more broadly people with central visual loss. Results demonstrate an adaptation of visual strategies among participants, resulting in increased performance, reduced response times and better discrimination, suggesting that training is likely to contribute to the rehabilitation of people with central vision loss.

Currently, little evidence has been gathered on the impact of listening to preferred music on the healing experiences of cancer patients, justifying the need for qualitative inquiry. Three disease-free women that survived breast cancer were invited to share their stories about how listening to preferred music assisted in decreasing their symptoms of depression, fatigue, and pain during their recovery. Data analysis followed a multiple case study methodology. Findings reveal the importance of listening to music and its affect on the emotional and physiological state of cancer patients, as well as their ability to cope with their illness. Four major themes emerged from the transcripts of participants: Music as Vibration, Music as Getaway, Music as Emotion Regulation, and Music as Spiritual Validation.

Two of the biggest issues facing large organizations today are knowledge transfer from the retiring Baby Boomers to their younger replacements, the Gamers, and the retention of those younger employees. Retirees are replaced by people 34 years old or younger who think, learn, believe, respond, and work differently further increasing the cultural gap that must be traversed in order to successfully transfer knowledge. This younger demographic is raised on technology and may not remember a time when there were no computers, video games, mobile devices, and the Internet. Large organizations aspiring to stay relevant must learn to take advantage of these unique traits. For organization that utilize repetitive work processes involving ruggedized handheld computing tools, both of these issues mentioned can be remediated through the adoption of modern technology. Some ruggedized handheld device manufacturers, however, have been hesitant to embrace consumer-implemented solutions such as the removal of all physical keys in order to incorporate touchscreen only input. Using Baby Boomer and Gamer-aged workers from a large transportation company experienced with ruggedized handheld devices, a time and error evaluation was performed to determine which input type is best by generation. This study found that moving from physical keyed devices to ruggedized handhelds with touchscreens only is a productive move for an industrial workforce but it’s the Boomers who stand to benefit from this change the most, not the Gamers. This study also identified near future requirements for the next iteration of ruggedized handheld devices based on the expectations of members of the current and future workforce. Results showed that participants from all generations selected a device that followed the touchscreen only model for data input. Experienced users from all generations preferred a smaller device with a large screen size. Lastly, Lean and Six Sigma were combined and their benefits explored in an effort of implementing manufacturing quality tools into a global, service-based, logistics organization. These tools and principles were used to improve the quality and timeliness of selecting and implementing a new ruggedized handheld device for the line-level workers on a global scale.

Titel: Leder du dina medarbetare på bästa sätt? En kvantitativ undersökning av föredragen ledarskapsstil baserat på personlighet hos medarbetaren. Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi. Författare: Ludvig Friman och Wilma Söderberg Handledare: Lars-Johan Åge Datum: Juni 2023 Syfte: Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka medarbetares föredragna ledarskapsstil utifrån CPE-modellen relaterat till personlighetsdrag utifrån The Big Five. Metod: Studien bygger på en kvantitativ forskningsmetodologi med ett deduktivt tillvägagångssätt. Med teorin kring det identifierade forskningsgapet som bakgrund kunde hypoteser produceras. Dessa hypoteser testades mot det empiriska materialet som samlats in genom en enkätundersökning. Genom en analys av det empiriska materialet lyckades lösningar till problemformuleringen utvecklas. Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet visar på flera korrelationer mellan föredragen ledarskapsstil och medarbetarens personlighet. Några av korrelationerna är i enlighet med hypoteserna men andra korrelationer visar på motsägande eller ej förutsedda samband. Därmed kan studien presentera en slutsats som bygger på en kumulativ grund och empiriska resultat. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studiens bidrag, är att ge en ökad förståelse och kunskap till vilken slags ledarskapsstil som föredras av svenska fastighetsmäklare i Stockholms kommun. Målet är att förbättra ledarskapet inom mäklarbranschen och minska personalomsättningen. Då ledarskap är en av anledningarna till att mäklare slutar (Högskolan i Gävle, 2020) ses denna undersökning som en viktig pusselbit för att förbättra ledarskapet inom branschen. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett av våra förslag till vidare forskning är bland annat att det vore intressant att replikera föreliggande studie och göra den generaliserbar och utföra studien på alla registrerade fastighetsmäklare i hela Sverige. Sedan jämförs båda studiernas resultat. Vidare vore det intressant att utföra en kvalitativ undersökning med samma syfte som föreliggande studie. Nyckelord: Föredraget ledarskap, Ledarskapsstil, CPE-modellen, Personlighetsdrag, The Big Five. / Title: Do you lead your team in the best way? A quantitative study on preferred leadership and personality among employees. Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. Authors: Ludvig Friman and Wilma Söderberg Supervisor: Lars-Johan Åge Date: June 2023 Aim: The purpose of the present study is to investigate employees' preferred leadership style based on the model CPE related to personality traits based on The Big Five. Method: The study is based on a quantitative research methodology with a deductive approach. With the theory surrounding the identified research gap as a background, hypotheses could be produced. These hypotheses were tested against the empirical material collected through a questionnaire survey. Through an analysis of the empirical material, solutions to the theoretical problem were successfully developed. Result & conclusion: The results show several correlations between preferred leadership style and the employee's personality. Some of the correlations are in accordance with the hypotheses, but other correlations show contradictory or unanticipated relationships. Thus, the study can present a conclusion based on a cumulative basis and empirical results. Contribution of the thesis: This study's contribution is to provide an increased understanding and knowledge of what kind of leadership style is preferred by Swedish real estate agents in Stockholm municipality. The goal is to improve leadership within the brokerage industry and reduce staff turnover. Since leadership is one of the reasons why brokers quit (Högskolan i Gävle, 2020), this survey is seen as an important piece of the puzzle to improve leadership within the industry. Suggestions for future research: One of our suggestions for further research is, among other things, that it would be interesting to replicate the current study and make it generalizable and carry out the study on all registered real estate agents throughout Sweden. Then compare the results of both studies. Furthermore, it would be interesting to carry out a qualitative investigation with the same aim as the present study. Key words: Preferred leadership, Leadership style, CPE-model, Personality traits, The Big Five.

This dissertation addressed the need for empirical research on the leadership of multinational virtual teams (Davis & Bryant, 2003; Early & Gibson, 2002; Ilgen, Lepine, and Hollenbeck, 1997; Prieto & Arias, 1997), particularly in the field of educational leadership (Cheng, 1995). This was accomplished through the development of a model based upon the cultural values discovered through the use of Hofstede's (1980, 2001) Values Survey Module 94 (VSM 94). As workers will bring values from their own cultures to the multinational workplace (Bochner & Hesketh, 1994), research was conducted to determine the cultural values of economics professors in the United States and Germany in order to formulate a cultural contingent leadership model based on Triandis' (1993) adaptation of Fiedler's (1967) contingency theory. Given a total response from 194 U.S. and German economics professors, it was discovered that faculty in both the United States and Germany had values that differed significantly from those that Hofstede discovered for his IBM employee samples in four out of five dimensions. However, it was found that the values for the U.S. and German faculties were a close replication of Hoppe's (1990) findings which were based on a sample that was similar to the economics faculties in both occupation and education. These findings add a cautionary note to the recommendation by Hofstede and Peterson (2000) that existing cultural values can be used by cultural researchers: Previous cultural value data can be used if the samples are closely matched to the previous samples in both nationality as well as educational and occupational background. The research thus indicated that differences in national culture, as measured by Hofstede's (1980, 2001) cultural dimensions, still exist. In addition, a direct comparison of the cultural values between the two faculties indicated that the U.S. and German economics faculties differed significantly in two of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, individualism and collectivism and masculinity and femininity. The two samples were not significantly different in the cultural dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long term orientation. Using the Triandis (1993) approach, application of the research results to Fiedler's (1967) LPC model indicated that a relationship oriented leader would be an in-match leader for a group of U.S. and German higher education economics faculty. This result was contingent upon the cultural values discovered for the U.S. and German faculties who would be involved in an endeavor with situational variables similar to that which would be found in an international joint venture to offer online distance economics education to students in a developing country.

The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, conclusions, a list of references (82 sources) and an annex including the blank forms of the applied methods. The volume of the master`s thesis is 169 pages. The introduction reveals the relevance of the chosen research problem, the level of development of the problematics; the objective and the tasks of the study are set, the subject matter and the scope of the research are determined, the basic and additional hypotheses. The first chapter includes a review of foreign and domestic literature on the research topic. Discusses the influence of the cartoon, as the product of the mass media on children, special attention is paid to the influence of gender images and aggressive scenes of violence in cartoons on children of preschool and younger school age. Conclusions on the first chapter are the results of the study of theoretical material. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. It includes a description of the organization and methods of the study, as well as the results obtained due to the applied methods. Тhe chapter presents the results of a study of preference of cartoons carried out on a sample of 250 children aged 7 to 10 years. For empirical research were used to develop a questionnaire and a modified drawing methods "My favorite hero of the cartoon". The assumption that children at younger school age prefer the cartoons which aren't corresponding to their age is confirmed. The assumption about the preferences of the cartoons in the Junior school age is concretized. The findings of Chapter 2 are the main results of the empirical study. In the conclusion, brief results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work are presented, as well as conclusions on the hypotheses. The practical significance of the study is substantiated and possible prospects for further development of the problematics are described. / Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, заключения, списка литературы (82 источника) и приложения, включающего в себя бланки применявшихся методик. Объем магистерской диссертации 169 страниц. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируются основная и дополнительные гипотезы, Первая глава включает в себя обзор иностранной и отечественной литературы по теме исследования. Рассматриваются проблемы влияния мультфильма, как продукта масс-медиа на детей, особое внимание уделяется влиянию гендерных образов и агрессивных сцен насилия в мультфильмах на детей дошкольного и младшего школьного возраста. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Вторая глава посвящена эмпирической части исследования. В ней представлено описание организации и методов проведенного исследования и результатов, полученных по всем использованным методикам. Представлены результаты исследования предпочтений мультфильмов проведенного на выборке 250 детей в возрасте от 7 до 10 лет. Для проведения эмпирического исследования применялись разработанная анкета и модифицированная рисуночная методика «Мой любимый герой мультфильма». Подтверждено предположение о том, что дети в младшем школьном возрасте предпочитают мультфильмы не соответствующие их возрасту. Конкретизировано предположение о выборе любимых героев мультфильмов, обусловленном половой принадлежностью. Результаты используемых методов в данной работе обработаны с помощью математической статистики. Выводы по главе 2 включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по выдвинутым гипотезам, обоснована практическая значимость исследования и описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики.

Studien undersöker preferenser för ledarskap bland män och kvinnor inom restaurangbranschen. Tidigare studier har lagt mycket fokus på att undersöka om det finns skillnader i det manliga kontra det kvinnliga ledarskapet. Det kan således anses finnas ett begränsat antal tidigare studier inom forskningsområdet för hur manliga och kvinnliga anställda vill att sin ledare ska vara. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och använder semistrukturerade intervjuer. Metodvalet grundar sig i att studien hoppas kunna identifiera likheter, skillnader och eventuella mönster i informanternas preferenser för ledarskap. Resultatet utgår från identifierade teman som baseras på det insamlade materialet. Resultatet indikerar att både män och kvinnor värderar egenskaper som självständighet, tillit och flexibilitet högt hos deras närmaste ledare. Det identifierades även vissa skillnader baserat på genus i informanternas preferenser. Kvinnliga anställda efterfrågar även lyhördhet hos en ledare medan manliga talar om vikten av tydliga direktiv från närmsta chef. Avslutningsvis kan inte studiens fastställa några specifika mönster mellan kvinnor och mäns prefererade ledarskap. Studiens resultat hoppas kunna hjälpa ledare inom restaurangbranschen att förbättra sin ledarstil och skapa en mer tillfredsställande arbetsmiljö för sina anställda. Studien är skriven på svenska. / The study examines leadership preferences among men and women in the restaurant industry. Previous studies have focused a lot on investigating whether there are differences in male versus female leaders. It can however be considered that there is a limited amount of studies that contribute to the research area of ??how male and female employees want their leader to be. The study has a qualitative approach designed and uses semi-structured interviews as the research method. The choice of method is based on the hope of identifying similarities, differences and possible patterns in the informants' preferences for leadership. The result is based on the identified themes from the collected material. The results indicate that both men and women value qualities such as independence, trust and flexibility highly in their immediate leaders. Certain differences were also identified based on the gender in the informants preferences. Female employees also request responsiveness from a leader as an important leading feature, while males talk more about the importance of clear directives from the immediate superior. In conclusion, the study cannot establish any specific patterns between women's and men's preferred leadership. However there are tendencies to identify patterns between men's and women's preferences for leadership, which also moves the study forward to continued research in the field. These findings can help restaurant managers improve their leadership style and create a more satisfying work environment for their employees. Following is this study written in swedish.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad högskolestudenter tycker är attraktivt på en framtida arbetsplats, samt om det skiljer sig mellan manliga och kvinnliga studenter när det gäller deras preferenser för en potentiell arbetsplats. Studien genomfördes med en kvalitativ metod varav den insamlade datan analyserades med hjälp av en tematisk analys, där materialet strukturerades upp i sju teman. De teman vi har tagit fram grundar sig på vad våra respondenter har uppgett som de främsta faktorerna som avgör val av arbetsgivare. Materialet analyserades med hjälp av teoretiska perspektiv på motivation, självbestämmande och genusaspekter.  Resultatet visar att både män och kvinnor värderar de inre faktorerna högst vid valet av framtida arbetsgivare, såsom arbetsuppgifter, utvecklingsmöjligheter och arbetsmotivation. I sammanställningen av resultatet går det att utläsa att det inte förekommer några större skillnader mellan kvinnor och män i vad de värderar högst i valet av framtida arbetsgivare. Studien bidrar till en ökad förståelse för vad som är en bidragande faktor för högskolestudenter vid deras val av framtida arbetsgivare. Resultatet av denna studie kan vara användbar för företag samt organisationer i deras rekryteringsstrategier för att attrahera och behålla nyexaminerade talanger. Avslutningsvis visar resultatet av vår studie att både manliga och kvinnliga högskolestudenter i stor utsträckning värderar samma attribut och kvaliteter vid val av arbetsgivare, framför allt inre faktorer som arbetsuppgifter och utvecklingsmöjligheter. Detta resultat ger bland annat företag en viktig insikt om vad studenter som ska ut på arbetsmarknaden efterfrågar, vilket gör det möjligt för dem att utveckla effektiva strategier för att attrahera ny kompetent arbetskraft. / The purpose of this study is to examine what university students find most attractive when choosing a future employer and whether there are differences in how men and women prioritize when selecting a future employer. The study was conducted using a qualitative method, and the collected data was analyzed through thematic analysis, organizing the material into seven themes. These themes are based on what our respondents identified as the key factors influencing their choice of employer. The material was analyzed using theoretical perspectives on motivation, self-determination, and gender aspects. The results show that both men and women highly value intrinsic factors when choosing a future employer, such as job tasks, opportunities for development, and work motivation. The analysis indicates that there are no significant differences between men and women in what they value most in a future employer. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that influence university students when choosing their future employers. The findings of this study can be useful for companies and organizations in their recruitment strategies to attract and retain newly graduated talent. In conclusion, the results of our study show that both male and female university students largely value the same attributes and qualities in choosing an employer, particularly intrinsic factors such as job tasks and opportunities for development. This result provides companies with important insights into what students entering the job market are looking for, enabling them to develop effective strategies to attract new, competent workforce.

Användandet av timanställning har ökat i flera arbetsbranscher, bland annat inom äldreomsorgen. Det är vanligare med lägre självskattad hälsa inom lågavlönade kvinnodominerade yrken, exempelvis vård- och omsorg i jämförelse med mansdominerade yrken. Många studier har undersökt samband mellan olika former av osäkra anställningar och en rad hälsoutfall, men få studier har undersökt enbart timanställdas självskattade hälsa. Syftet med denna studie är således att undersöka associationen mellan självskattad hälsa och anställningsform, samt associationen mellan självskattad hälsa och föredragen anställningsform bland anställda inom äldreomsorgen. Studien är en kvantitativ metod med tvärsnittsdesign och registerdata användes från forskningsprojektet Flexibelt Arbete (Flexa-A) i Högskolan Gävle. Urvalet bestod av 302 timanställda och 110 fast anställda inom äldreomsorgen i Sverige. En ojusterad och justerad logistisk regressionsanalys genomfördes, den justerade analysen inkluderar förväxlingsvariablerna; kön, ålder, ursprung, rökvanor och fysisk aktiv på fritiden. Resultatet från den ojusterade modellen visade att timanställda hade ungefär 3 gånger  högre odds att skatta sin hälsa högre än fast anställda  (P= 0,001, OR = 3,062) och efter justering visade modellen att timanställda hade fortfarande högre självskattad hälsa än fast anställda. Däremot identifierades inget samband mellan föredragen anställning och självskattad hälsa (P=0,9). Slutsatsen var att timanställda inom äldreomsorgen hade högre självskattad hälsa än fast anställda, däremot finns det inga skillnader i självskattad hälsa mellan timanställdas föredragna anställningsform. Eftersom att användningen av timanställning ökar inom olika arbetsbranscher, är det av vikt att fortsätta studera kring timanställdas självskattade hälsa och om det finns skillnader inom olika yrkesgrupper. / The use of zero hours contracts has increased in several workplaces including elderly health care. It is more common to have lower self- rated health in low-paid female-dominated workplaces, such as in health care, compared to male-dominated workplaces. Many studies have investigated the associations between various forms of job insecurity and a range of health outcomes, but few studies have specifically examined the self-rated health of zero hours contracts. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the association between self-rated health and employment type, as well as the association between self-rated health and preferred employment among employees in elderly care.  The study is a quantitative method with a cross-sectional design and uses register data collected from research project Flexible work: Opportunity and Challenge (FLOC) at the University of Gävle. The sample included 302 zero hours contract employees and 110 permanent employees in elderly care. An unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analysis were conducted; the adjusted model included the confounding variables: gender, age, origin, smoking habits and physical activity during leisure time. The result from the unadjusted model showed that employees with zero hours contract had 3 times higher odds of rating their health as high compared to permanent employees (P= 0,001, OR = 3,062), and after adjustment the model showed that zero hours contracts still had higher self-rated health than permanent employees. While there was no association between preferred employment and self- rated health (P=0,9). The conclusion was that employees with zero hour contracts in elderly care had higher self-rated health then permanent employees, and there are no differences in self-rated health between zero hours contracts employees preferred form of employment. Since the use of zero hours contracts is increasing within different work industries, it important to continue studying zero hours contract employees’ self-rated health.