A challenge for healthcare organizations is that operational efficiency suffers from variation in production. This is because variation in healthcare is hard to predict and the methods and IT-support tools for handling variation are suboptimal. The concept of production control can be used to describe the coordination of activities so that healthcare can be delivered on time, of adequate quality and at a reasonable cost, and thus includes the use of IT-support tools to handle variation. The objective of this report is to suggest improvements for production control in hospital departments through the development of a prototype for a new IT-support tool. In order to achieve this, a case study was conducted at the pediatric oncology department at Karolinska University Hospital (KS). The case study includes observations and interviews to investigate production control at department Q84, as well as associated roles and IT-support tools. Four IT-support tools were identified at the department, two of which were used interchangeably. Due to lack of integration between these systems and the fact that one system contained data manually synchronized from the other, handling changes required double labor. An improvement suggestion is therefore presented, consisting of a prototype which demonstrates that production control can be improved by automating the maintenance of a system at the department while fulfilling the organization’s information security policy. The development of the prototype was aligned with the lean philosophy which KS strives to adopt. Through an investigation of the production system, a role for production control and associated IT-support tools at a hospital department can be identified and analyzed and through the prototyping of an IT-support tool for production control, improvements and optimizations can be made.

Cette thèse constitue une recherche expérimentale pour évaluer la capacité des outils d’aide à la conception du « Game Design » de jeux vidéo. Elle cherche à dégager les éléments destinés à instrumenter et à améliorer le développement de ces outils.La production des jeux vidéos s’appuie sur de nombreux outils techniques allant des éditeurs graphiques et sonores jusqu’au moteurs de jeux. Mais, en amont, et à l’inverse des praticiens d’autres domaines du design, les concepteurs de jeux (Game designers) utilisent généralement peu d’outils dans leur travail quotidien. Bien que des modèles conceptuels et des outils logiciels aient été développés pour les assister, il manque une étude approfondie sur la pratique de ces outils. En prenant le point de vue d’un « Game Designer », notre étude se base sur une étude de terrain, menée par un participant–observateur, utilisant les outils sur 5 études de cas.Nous analysons dans un premier temps les pratiques du Game Design : les différentes activités impliquées et leur mise en œuvre dans le processus de conception. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement aux développe-ments et tendances actuelles.Le Chapitre 3 positionne le Game Design dans le contexte plus général des travaux en cours sur la critique et l’analyse du Design (Design Studies). Nous en concluons que le Game Design se situe plus comme dans le domaine de la conception artisanale (« craft-based ») et que l’utilisation d’outils serait une évolution vers une conception réflexive (« self-conscious »). Cette évolution constitue donc, à notre avis, une rupture par rapport aux pratiques actuelles.Le chapitre 4 retrace l’histoire du développement des outils de Game Design tant du point de vue de la recherche que de l’industrie. Ceci nous permet, au chapitre 5, de donner une définition plus précise et comparative des outils de Game Design.Le chapitre 6 formalise les questions de recherche de cette thèse et la nécessité d’une évaluation basée sur la pratique. Le point de vue méthodologique de notre travail est ensuite développé dans le chapitre 7.Nous présentons ensuite nos observations et analyses d’expériences réali-sées en utilisant une sélection d’outils reposant sur différentes approches. Parmi ces outils citons: « Articy:Draft », « Ludoscope » et « Progression Planning ». Nos critères d’évaluations sont tirés des publications sur le « Design Support » et le « Creativity Support Tool ».Au chapitre 12 nous décrivons et discutons les expériences effectuées avec un outil de design que nous avons développé dans le but d’évaluer et d’étendre l’approche « progression planning ». Nous explicitons les choix de conception de l’outil issus en partie du travail d’analyse mené dans cette thèse.La conclusion résume nos observations et introduit des principes d’amélioration des outils de « Game Design » et propose d’étendre nos travaux sur différents types d’outils et contextes d’utilisation non abordés ici. / This thesis contributes practice-led evaluation research to the question of whether game design tools can effectively support and expand game design practice. It offers insights that can be used to inform future game design tool development.Game designers, unlike most other design practitioners, typically do not use design tools in their work. While conceptual models and software tools have been developed to address this, we lack discussion and critique of how tools work in practice.Taking the point of view of a practitioner, this study of game design tools is based on longitudinal, practice-led evaluation research conducted as a par-ticipant-observer, applying game design tools to 5 contrasting game design case studies.Design tools support game design practice. In Chapter 2 I set out what that practice is today, reviewing the game design process and design activities, and giving particular attention to contemporary trends and directions.Chapter 3 situates game design within the broader context of Design Studies. After reviewing relevant ideas from this literature, I conclude that game design is best characterised as a crafts-based design discipline, and that adoption of design support would mean a shift towards “self-conscious” design. I argue that, within this context, the adoption of tools into current practice would represent a significant and disruptive change to current practice.Chapter 4 traces the history of development of game design tools within the game design and research communities. Chapter 5 goes on to offer a more precise definition of game design tools and presents a comparative review of the tools within this scope.In Chapter 6 I argue for the need bring practice-led evaluation research to this question. Here I set out my research goals and questions, before specifying the particular tools I practiced with for this study. Chapter 7 discusses methods used in relevant research fields and outlines the method used for this project.Chapter 8 introduces the game projects I used as case studies and describes how I worked with each. Chapters 9 and 10 present observations and anal-yses of my experiences using a selection of tools that vary in their approaches. These include (though not exclusively): Articy:Draft (Nevigo GMBH 2011), Machinations (Joris Dormans 2009), Ludoscope (Joris Dormans and Leijnen 2013), and “progression planning” (Butler et al. 2013). Evaluation themes and criteria are drawn from the Design Support and Creativity Support Tool literature. Chapter 11 refocuses attention on the practicalities, addressing the question of how game design tools integrate into the wider context of practice.In Chapter 12 I present and discuss my experiences with my own game de-sign tool, which I prototyped in order to evaluate and extend one of the tool approaches under study. I explain my tool design choices, some of which reflect the knowledge I have acquired through the course of this study.Chapter 13 summarises my conclusions in relation to how design tools might best support game designers, and offers ideas for further practice-led evaluation research related to this question.

Researchers have found evidence that when clinicians use an evidence-based feedback system that uses Clinical Support Tools (CST) for not-on-track clients, deterioration rates fall and success rates improve (Shimokawa et al., 2010). Despite multiple studies finding evidence in support of using the CST, there has been a discrepancy between effect sizes (i.e., d = 0.5; Simon et al., 2012). As such, further replicate of these past studies is needed to discover if small effect sizes still persist and if so, what possible variables may contribute to inconsistent findings. For the current study, it was predicted that the use of the CST would result in significantly lower OQ-45 scores at treatment termination after controlling for the intake OQ-45 score. Additionally, previous research indicated that the combined intervention of the progress feedback plus CST would significantly reduce deterioration rates with those NOT. Out of 1,122 participants, 172 were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: The CST feedback group (n = 71) and the no CST feedback group (n = 101). There was not a significant difference in the mean OQ-45 scores for the CST feedback group (M = 2.39, SD = 20.95) and the no CST feedback group (M = 4.17, SD = 19.74). The results of this study raise questions about how regularly the therapists were monitoring their clients' progress feedback and whether the CST are effective. Additionally, the author evaluates the timing of when the CST were administered to clients and when therapists reviewed the feedback.

Denna kvalitativa studie syftar på att undersöka musikers användning av digitala verktyg för att främja det kreativa arbetet. Mer specifikt: musikproducenters användning av så kallade CST:s - Creativity Support Tools - som i någon utsträckning implementerar AI. Forskningsfrågan som behandlas är: Hur vill musiker interagera med AI för att främja det kreativa arbetet? Studiens slutsatser bygger på insamlat material från en serie semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförda med musikproducenter i producenternas egna kreativa miljöer. Under intervjuerna har producenterna interagerat med olika AI-CST:s för att lösa olika uppgifter relaterade till produktionsprocessen. Intervjufrågorna har sin teoretiska grund i ramverket CSI - Creative Support Index. Studiens resultat visar: Ett samband mellan hur öppen man är för oförutsägbara resultat från verktyget man jobbar med beroende på vart i produktionsprocessen man befinner sig. Att producenter är ute efter att minimera vissa typer av manuellt arbete men bibehålla andra arbetsprocesser. Att producenter behöver verktyg med användargränssnitt som bättre representerar deras mentala modeller av musik samt att aspekten av kontroll är ett viktigt element i designandet av AI-verktyg. / This qualitative study is set to learn more about musicians' usage of digital tools to enrich their creative work. The study specifically explores music producers' usage of CST:s - Creativity Support Tools - that to some extent implement AI. How musicians want to interact with AI to enrich their creative work is the research question that will be discussed. The conclusions drawn are based upon material from interviews conducted in the musicians own creative environments. During the interview participants are given the opportunity to use different types of AI-tools to solve different tasks related to the music production process. The interview questions have their theoretical grounding in the framework CSI - Creativity Support Index. The studies conclusions show a connection between the openness to unexpected results and at what stage one is in the production process. That producers are open to streamline certain types of processes but retain full control over some. That producers need new types of user-interfaces that represent the mental models of musicians better and lastly that the aspect of control over the output is an important element in the design of AI-tools.

Optimization of time and cost in construction projects has been subject to extensive research since the development of the Critical Path Method (CPM). Many researchers have investigated various versions of the well-known Time-Cost Trade-off (TCT) problem including linear, convex, concave, and also the discrete (DTCT) version. Traditional methods in the literature for optimizing time and cost of construction projects range from mathematical methods to evolutionary-based ones, such as genetic algorithms, particle swarm, ant-colony, and leap frog optimization. However, none of the existing research studies has dealt with the optimization of large-scale projects in which any small saving would be significant. Traditional approaches have all been applied to projects of less than 100 activities which are far less than what exists in real-world construction projects. The objective of this study is to utilize recent developments in computation technology and novel optimization techniques such as Constraint Programming (CP) to improve the current limitations in solving large-scale DTCT problems. Throughout the first part of this research, an Excel-based TCT model has been developed to investigate the performance of traditional optimization methods, such as mathematical programming and genetic algorithms, for solving large TCT problems. The result of several experimentations confirms the inefficiency of traditional methods for optimizing large TCT problems. Subsequently, a TCT model has been developed using Optimization Programming Language (OPL) to implement the Constraint Programming (CP) technique. CP Optimizer of IBM ILOG Optimization Studio has been used to solve the model and to successfully optimize several projects ranging from a small project of 18 activities to very large projects consisting of more than 10,000 activities. Constraint programming proved to be very efficient in solving large-scale TCT problems, generating substantially better results in terms of solution quality and processing speed. While traditional optimization methods have been used to optimize projects consisting of less than one hundred activities, constraint programming demonstrated its capability of solving TCT problems comprising of thousands of activities. As such, the developed model represents a significant improvement in optimization of time and cost of large-scale construction projects and can greatly enhance the level of planning and control in such projects.

Optimization of time and cost in construction projects has been subject to extensive research since the development of the Critical Path Method (CPM). Many researchers have investigated various versions of the well-known Time-Cost Trade-off (TCT) problem including linear, convex, concave, and also the discrete (DTCT) version. Traditional methods in the literature for optimizing time and cost of construction projects range from mathematical methods to evolutionary-based ones, such as genetic algorithms, particle swarm, ant-colony, and leap frog optimization. However, none of the existing research studies has dealt with the optimization of large-scale projects in which any small saving would be significant. Traditional approaches have all been applied to projects of less than 100 activities which are far less than what exists in real-world construction projects. The objective of this study is to utilize recent developments in computation technology and novel optimization techniques such as Constraint Programming (CP) to improve the current limitations in solving large-scale DTCT problems. Throughout the first part of this research, an Excel-based TCT model has been developed to investigate the performance of traditional optimization methods, such as mathematical programming and genetic algorithms, for solving large TCT problems. The result of several experimentations confirms the inefficiency of traditional methods for optimizing large TCT problems. Subsequently, a TCT model has been developed using Optimization Programming Language (OPL) to implement the Constraint Programming (CP) technique. CP Optimizer of IBM ILOG Optimization Studio has been used to solve the model and to successfully optimize several projects ranging from a small project of 18 activities to very large projects consisting of more than 10,000 activities. Constraint programming proved to be very efficient in solving large-scale TCT problems, generating substantially better results in terms of solution quality and processing speed. While traditional optimization methods have been used to optimize projects consisting of less than one hundred activities, constraint programming demonstrated its capability of solving TCT problems comprising of thousands of activities. As such, the developed model represents a significant improvement in optimization of time and cost of large-scale construction projects and can greatly enhance the level of planning and control in such projects.

abstract: With the rapid growth of mobile computing and sensor technology, it is now possible to access data from a variety of sources. A big challenge lies in linking sensor based data with social and cognitive variables in humans in real world context. This dissertation explores the relationship between creativity in teamwork, and team members' movement and face-to-face interaction strength in the wild. Using sociometric badges (wearable sensors), electronic Experience Sampling Methods (ESM), the KEYS team creativity assessment instrument, and qualitative methods, three research studies were conducted in academic and industry R&D; labs. Sociometric badges captured movement of team members and face-to-face interaction between team members. KEYS scale was implemented using ESM for self-rated creativity and expert-coded creativity assessment. Activities (movement and face-to-face interaction) and creativity of one five member and two seven member teams were tracked for twenty five days, eleven days, and fifteen days respectively. Day wise values of movement and face-to-face interaction for participants were mean split categorized as creative and non-creative using self- rated creativity measure and expert-coded creativity measure. Paired-samples t-tests [t(36) = 3.132, p < 0.005; t(23) = 6.49 , p < 0.001] confirmed that average daily movement energy during creative days (M = 1.31, SD = 0.04; M = 1.37, SD = 0.07) was significantly greater than the average daily movement of non-creative days (M = 1.29, SD = 0.03; M = 1.24, SD = 0.09). The eta squared statistic (0.21; 0.36) indicated a large effect size. A paired-samples t-test also confirmed that face-to-face interaction tie strength of team members during creative days (M = 2.69, SD = 4.01) is significantly greater [t(41) = 2.36, p < 0.01] than the average face-to-face interaction tie strength of team members for non-creative days (M = 0.9, SD = 2.1). The eta squared statistic (0.11) indicated a large effect size. The combined approach of principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) conducted on movement and face-to-face interaction data predicted creativity with 87.5% and 91% accuracy respectively. This work advances creativity research and provides a foundation for sensor based real-time creativity support tools for teams. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Computer Science 2011

This thesis is focused on software testing, primarily on practical use of testing support tool HP Quality Center 11. Theoretical part of the thesis explains the basic concepts of testing, introduces the types of testing and pursues the role of testing in project management. Practical part demonstrates real use of HP Quality Center 11 in SEPA Direct Debit project in a financial institution, evaluates its benefits and shortcomings and suggests possible improvements.

The sound synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that has become commonplace in audio production for music, film, television and video games. Despite its widespread use, creating new sounds on a synthesizer - referred to as synthesizer programming - is a complex task that can impede the creative process. The primary aim of this thesis is to support the development of techniques to assist synthesizer users to more easily achieve their creative goals. One of the main focuses is the development and evaluation of algorithms for inverse synthesis, a technique that involves the prediction of synthesizer parameters to match a target sound. Deep learning and evolutionary programming techniques are compared on a baseline FM synthesis problem and a novel hybrid approach is presented that produces high quality results in less than half the computation time of a state-of-the-art genetic algorithm. Another focus is the development of intuitive user interfaces that encourage novice users to engage with synthesizers and learn the relationship between synthesizer parameters and the associated auditory result. To this end, a novel interface (Synth Explorer) is introduced that uses a visual representation of synthesizer sounds on a two-dimensional layout. An additional focus of this thesis is to support further research in automatic synthesizer programming. An open-source library (SpiegeLib) has been developed to support reproducibility, sharing, and evaluation of techniques for inverse synthesis. Additionally, a large-scale dataset of one billion sounds paired with synthesizer parameters (synth1B1) and a GPU-enabled modular synthesizer (torchsynth) are also introduced to support further exploration of the complex relationship between synthesizer parameters and auditory results. / Graduate

In the expansion of offshore sustainable energy systems, there is growing pressure on the environment and permit processes and the accumulation results in much higher total risk for accidents of future assets. Anticipating the problems at the design stage and improving verification is likely to increase energy development and reduce costs. This thesis explores offshore DST (Decision Support Tools) and risk verification of subsea cable assets.For subsea cables, a statistical method is proposed utilizing measurement data together with shipping traffic data (AIS) to estimate the environmental risk and risk of accidents of installed cable assets. This should partially solve issues of improving design using more data and surveys and utilizing mechanical and sensor-specific characteristics to improve the confidence and burial estimation, contrary to today’s methodology. The implication of the two studies of cable burial risk assessment techniques and verification shows how a developed methodology can solve issues for verifying the integrity of an installed asset. Putting our methodology into practice involves many challenges.  For the marine Decision Support Tool (DST) and sustainable energy development, to estimate potential savings if permit processes would be shorter and less burdensome without degrading the quality of the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment). A method is proposed to model various scenarios of effective savings from the development of a DST to reduce costs spent on EIA permitting by the offshore energy developers. The study of the implication of the marine EIA DST shows a quantifiable estimate of the savings potential for permit processes for sustainable offshore development, and results indicate a need for optimization of DST development, which can be an essential factor in its implementation and success.