Technostress is an emerging and significant psychological phenomenon associated with the use of technology. It impacts human behavior and distracts from living a healthy and meaningful life. As humans increasingly encounter computational technology on a daily basis, there is a need to understand and manage the anxieties and tensions that can result from these interactions. Using the lens of critical design, this thesis explores this concept of technology induced stress and promotes reflection, personal growth and awareness through three different design research methods. It further builds on the topic of slow technology which unfolds in the form of a design fiction, design probe and design artifacts, challenging our understanding of technostress while embracing constructive discussions and creative designs to speculate the human-technology relationship. / Master of Fine Arts

Research shows that adolescents use places in the natural environment much differently from the general population. Research also shows that, when asked, adolescents express environmental preferences that reflect these differences. These differences in use and preference reflect new design challenges. This paper and design project explores how to begin designing places that address the unique needs and preferences of adolescents. / Master of Landscape Architecture

As an exercise in self reflection, I created an AI version of myself using HuggingFace, an open source AI model, and conducted an interview with it about two manuscripts from my works.

Suppose that G is a finite, unitary reflection group acting on a complex vector space V and X is a subspace of V. Define N to be the setwise stabilizer of X in G, Z to be the pointwise stabilizer, and C=N/Z. Then restriction defines a homomorphism from the algebra of G-invariant polynomial functions on V to the algebra of C-invariant functions on X. In my thesis, I extend earlier work by Douglass and Röhrle for Coxeter groups to the case where G is a complex reflection group of type G(r,p,n) in the notation of Shephard and Todd and X is in the lattice of the reflection arrangement of G. The main result characterizes when the restriction mapping is surjective in terms of the exponents of G and C and their reflection arrangements.

The Project focused on self-reflection and insight, linking these processes to an artistic one – painting. As a way to respond to the research question: Does self-portraiture have the potential to guide us through self-reflection and insight? Workshops combining art and ways of thinking were designed and facilitated by the author, with the aim of improving the self-reflection and insight of students at LNU, based on theories of brain function and thinking. Using the workshop format, the author guided the participants through an experience of introspection through painting self-portraits. Areas of design included workshop, collaborative and critical design. A simple three-step design process was employed to create the Project, focusing on What, How and Why. Next steps included prototyping, designing the questionnaires which students completed, designing the art workshops, and advertising the workshops across campus. Results included nine respondents to questionnaires, four participants in the final workshop, and an array of findings regarding the self-reflection process and insight experienced by students through the design process. Although limitations were experienced, including a small number of participants, the results of combining self-portraiture and self-reflection and insight were mainly positive. It was concluded that this process could be proposed as a means to enhance self-reflection amongst students. Recommendations from the workshops included scaling up the process to include greater numbers of students and reaching an agreement with LNU to hold periodic self-portraiture workshops throughout the academic year, to enhance students’ self-reflection, insight and art skills. The author concluded that by holding workshops to paint self-portraits, along with exercises in self-reflection and insight, she had created a safe space for reflection. In future, students could be provided with guidance and support to use art as a platform for improving Self-reflection and insight, and at the same time enhance their art skills and potentially improve their well-being.

Studiens övergripande syfte är att bidra med kunskap om vilka förutsättningar som behövs för att lärare som ingår i gemenskaper skall uppleva att reflektion sker på ett meningsfullt sätt. Eftersom lärares kompetensutveckling idag, skall utgå från egna erfarenheter och initieras nerifrån av praktikerna, kan studien på längre sikt också bidra med att synliggöra framkomliga vägar för lärares kompetensutveckling, som ett led i skolutveckling och dessutom som ett led i att utveckla läraryrket till en profession.Studien ingick i ett aktionsforskningsprojekt där lärarna själva bestämde fokus, i syfte att utveckla sin egen praktik. Aktionen bestod av fyra faser på en grundskola. Hela aktionen pågick i ett och ett halvt år. Fas 4, studien, pågick under ett läsår. I de tre första faserna kartlades skolans förbättringshistorik och skolans kultur. Grundat på de tre första faserna, bestämde lärarna att den fjärde fasen skulle bestå av reflekterande samtal. De valde kollegahandledning som form. Träffarna spelades in och några träffar valdes ut som analysenheter. Data analyserades utefter vad lärarna pratade om och hur de pratade med varandra.Struktur, utgångspunkter och överlappning var de förutsättningar som framkom i analysen. I diskussionen sätts dessa i relation till frirum, gruppsammansättning och innehåll i samtal. Av detta framkom att skolor själva aktivt måste skapa frirum som ett led i skolutvecklingsprocessen. Det framkom också att inramningen för reflekterande samtal har betydelse, dels hur gruppen sätts samman men också hur tid kan avsättas och rum kan skapas för reflekterande arenor. Slutligen framkom det att utgångspunkter som förberedelse för reflektion har betydelse för vilket innehåll som behandlas och hur det behandlas. En sådan utgångspunkt var i studien bland annat en reflektionslogg. Genom den kunde lärarna öppna upp fönster till varandras praktik. / The study's overall aim is to contribute with knowledge about which conditions that are needed in order to that teachers, included in communities, will experience that reflection happens on a worthwhile way. Since today teachers' skill development will be paid from own experiences and to be initiated from below of practioners, the study can in a longer view also contribute with making visible passable roads for teachers to develop skill themselves, as a part of school development and also of developing teacher against a profession.The study was included in an action research project were the teachers decided focus, in aim to develop its own practice. The action consisted of four phases at a compulsory school. The entire action took place in one and a half year. Phase 4, the study, took place during a school year. During the three first phases the school’s improvement history and the school’s culture was examined. Based on the three first phases, the teachers decided that the fourth phase should consist of reflective deliberation. They choose collegial supervision as method. The meetings were taped and some were chosen out as analysis units. The analysis focused on what the teachers talked about and how the teachers talked with each other.Structure, starting points and overlap were the conditions that arrived in the analysis. In the discussion, these are set in relation to free room, group composition and contents in deliberations. Of this arrived that the schools actively must create free rooms as a part of a school development process. Moreover it arrived that the frame for reflective deliberations has importance, part's how the group is set together but also how time can be allocated and rooms can be created for reflective arenas. It also showed that starting points as preparation for reflection, have importance for which content that is treated and also how it is treated. Such a starting point was in the study among other things the reflection log. Through it the teachers could open up windows to each others practice.

Noise between 25-500 Hz is a common problem in Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Handbook lists values of end reflection loss (ERL), a frequency dependent parameter describing energy reflected back up a duct at a termination impedance, to help engineers design and account for noise. The ASHRAE Handbook does not account for common termination variations and only lists ERL values using octave bands down to 63 Hz. This thesis experimentally determined the ERL of a variety of rectangular duct configurations and termination conditions between 25-500 Hz. This research also compared experimental ERL results with analytic predictions and ASHRAE Handbook values. Seven duct sizes were tested, from 6X6 to 18X54 inches. Duct termination baffle hardness was varied between acoustically hard (plywood) and soft (ceiling tiles) for the 6X6, 6X10, and 6X18 ducts. Five duct termination distances above the termination baffle were tested, between flush and 1D for the 6X10 and 6X18 ducts and between flush and 5D for the 6X6 duct, where D equals the duct s effective diameter. Diffusers and flex duct configurations were installed at the end of the rigid duct to test their effect on ERL on the 6X6, 6X10, and 6X18 ducts. ERL was determined using an adaptation of the ASTM E1050 Standard, an application of the two-microphone impedance tube method. Experimental results closely conformed to analytic predictions and are an improvement over ASHRAE Handbook ERL values. The results indicate that baffle hardness has a negligible impact on ERL, which contradicts the ASHRAE assumption that diffusers that terminate in a suspended lay-in acoustic ceiling can be treated as terminating in free space. Termination distance above the baffle has a negligible impact on ERL at distances less than six inches for the 6X6 duct. Termination distances above the baffle greater than six inches exhibit limited free space ERL behavior for the 6X6 duct. The use of flex duct greatly reduces low frequency ERL and this is not accounted for by the ASHRAE Handbook. The impact from flex duct usage also negates any influence from downstream termination variations.

The study area is located on the continental slope in the Green Canyon deep-water area of the Gulf of Mexico. This area is being investigated by the Bureau of Economic Geology as part of several active gas hydrate studies across the area. The chirp sonar profiles used in my study were collected with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) utilizing a frequency-modulated seismic (sonar) source that emitted a 2 to 8 kHz sweep (chirp) frequency signal (wavelengths less than 2 meters). The recording time is limited to about 50 milliseconds, with time zero occurring at the altitude of the AUV about 50 meters above the seafloor. The signal images to about 40 meters below the seafloor, and profiles are as long as 5 km. An interpretation of deep-water, near sea-floor geology has been conducted using both chirp sonar profiles and multibeam bathymetry. Seismic reflections from within the shallow sediments are caused primarily by contrasts in density, rather than acoustic velocity. Reflections were successfully simulated using a model with a constant velocity of 1560 m/s and densities of 2.1 g/cc for sand, 1.4 g/cc for mud, and 1.7 g/cc for silty sand. The chirp sonar profiles imaged near-seafloor geology at nearly a meter scale and allowed for detailed interpretation. The interaction of soft sediment deformation, creep movement and neo-tectonic activity related to gas expulsion controlled the actual topography of the sea-floor. The geologic time represented in the 50 milliseconds of chirp data recorded with the AUV, which is about 40 meters of depth, is approximately 0.050 Ma. B.P., consistent with a depositional rate of 0.8 meters per 1000 years. Reflection patterns are interpreted to be related to fluctuations in sea level. High reflectivities (density contrasts) are interpreted to be deposited during the last sea level low stand, and low reflectivities are interpreted as sedimentation during the last high stand. Sediments deposited during the low stand are proximal while others are distal, deposited in deeper water environments. Shallow structures observed in the chirp sonar profiles are mainly related to gas mobilization mechanisms, which shaped the topography of the seafloor in conjunction with soft sediment deformation and creep movement. The geomorphic features are related in some cases to gas expulsion zones such as pockmarks and mud volcanoes. Other structures are related to soft sediment deformation and creep mobilization. Soft sediment deformation is confined to the deepest part of the minibasin, while the other features are not depth dependent. Highly deformed intervals at the bottom of the sequence seem to control subsequent sedimentation. / text

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία ασχολείται με τη χρήση πολωτικών φίλτρων στη φωτογραφία. Συγκεκριμένα, ερευνήσαμε το αν μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν τα πολωτικά φίλτρα σε συστήματα αναγνώρισης αντικειμένων και το ποια είδη φίλτρων μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν. Για το σκοπό αυτό, δημιουργήθηκε μία βάση δεδομένων με φωτογραφίες που βγάλαμε σε εξωτερικό χώρο του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, με τη βοήθεια διαφόρων ειδών πολωτικών φίλτρων. Η εργασία βασίστηκε κατά ένα μεγάλο μέρος σε άρθρα και πληροφορίες που συλλέξαμε από το διαδίκτυο. Τα αποτελέσματα ήταν αρκετά ικανοποιητικά και καταλήξαμε στο συμπέρασμα ότι, τόσο τα γραμμικά όσο και τα κυκλικά πολωτικά φίλτρα, μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν στην αναγνώριση υλικών ή αντικειμένων που φωτίζονται επαρκώς. / This project refers to the use of polarizing filters in photography. In particular, we researched if polarizers can be utilized in object identification systems and which kind of polarizers would be appropriate. For this purpose, we created a data base of photographs which were taken at an outdoor place of the University of Patras, using various kinds and orientations of polarizers. The project was based, mainly, on articles and information we found on the internet. The results were quite satisfying and we concluded that both linear and circular polarizers can be utilized in object identification under enough illumination.

Šio darbo tema suformuluota probleminiu klausimu: Vaižganto „Laiškai Klimams“: laiškai, dienoraštis ar autobiografija? Darbo tyrimo objektu neatsitiktinai pasirinkti „Laiškai Klimams“, nes, autorės nuomone, laiškų tekstai geriau nei bet kuris grožinės literatūros kūrinys reprezentuoja Vaižganto asmenybę. Viena iš darbo rašymo priežasčių yra noras giliau ir visapusiškiau pažinti ir atskleisti Vaižganto, o tiksliau Juozo Tumo, asmenybę, akcentuojant jo žmogiškuosius bruožus. Antra, bene svarbiausia priežastis, tai noras parodyti, kad Vaižganto asmenybė verta dėmesio, kad ne veltui apie jį taip entuziastingai kalbėjo amžininkai, todėl negalima susitaikyti su tuo, kad Vaižgantas yra išbrauktas i�� mokyklinių programų, kad jo asmenybė ir kūryba pristatoma tik kaip pasirenkama tema. Atviras klausimas, kas yra Vaižganto „Laiškai Klimams“: laiškai, dienoraštis ar autobiografija, yra siejamoji darbo gija. Aišku viena, kad šių laiškų tekstai sunkiai įspraudžiami į žanrines ribas. Prasminis matmuo teikia jiems žanrinį neapibrėžtum��, dėl šios priežasties nustatyti laiško, dienoraščio ar autobiografijos ribas yra praktiškai neįmanoma. Dienoraštinis ir autobiografinis žiūros būdai leidžia atskleisti Vaižganto asmenybės modernumą. „Laiškų Klimams“ tekstai parankūs dar ir tuo, kad juose išryškėja plati rašytojo visuomeninė, kultūrinė, politinė veikla. Pagrindinis dėmesys laiškų tekstuose krypsta į komunikacinį momentą. Išryškėja bendravimo būtinybe persmelktas rašytojo gyvenimas. / Theme of the present paper work is formulated in problematic question: „Letters to the family of Klimas“ written by Vaižgantas – letters, diary or autobiography? As subject of research not incidentally is chosen the piece „Letters to the family of Klimas“, as, in opinion of the author, texts of these letters better than any work of imaginative literature represent personality of Vaižgantas. One of the reasons of writing this paper work is desire to cognize and reveal personality of Vaižgantas, and to be precise, Juozas Tumas – Vaižgantas, more profoundly and comprehensively by emphasizing his human features. Second and maybe the main reason is a desire to show that personality of Vaižgantas is worthy of regard, and not in vain hope contemporaries talked about him so enthusiastically, therefore, the facts that Vaižgantas is excluded from the school programs and his personality as well as his oeuvre is presented only as optional theme can not be accepted. Open question what is the piece „Letters to the family of Klimas“: letters, diary ar autobiography, is a binding thread of the work. One thing that the texts of these letters are being hardly squeezed in the genre margins is clear. Notional dimension gives to them genre uncertainty, and because of such reason to determine margins of the letter, diary or autobiography is practically not possible. Diary and autobiographical viewing manners enable to reveal modernity of Vaižgantas personality. Texts of the „Letters to the family... [to full text]