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I evaluated twenty-eight years (1980-2007) of spatial-temporal water quality data from Deer Creek Reservoir in Utah. The data came from three sampling points representing the lotic, transitional and lentic zones. The data included measurements of climatological, hydrological and water quality conditions at four depths; Surface, Above Thermocline, Below Thermocline and Bottom. The time frame spanned dates before and after the completion of the Jordanelle Reservoir (1987-1992), approximately fourteen miles upstream of Deer Creek. I compared temporal groupings and found that a traditional month distribution following standard seasons was not effective in characterizing the measured conditions; I developed a more representative seasonal grouping by performing a Tukey-Kramer multiple comparisons adjustment and a Bonferronian correction of the Student's t comparison. Based on these analyses, I determined the best groupings were Cold (December - April), Semi-Cold (May and November), Semi-Warm (June and October), Warm (July and September) and Transition (August). I performed principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis (FA) to determine principal parameters associated with the variability of the water quality of the reservoir. These parameters confirmed our seasonal groups showing the Cold, Transition and Warm seasons as distinct groups. The PCA and FA showed that the variables that drive most of the variability in the reservoir are specific conductivity and variables related with temperature. The PCA and FA showed that the reservoir is highly variable. The first 3 principal components and rotated factors explained a cumulative 59% and 47%, respectively of the variability in Deer Creek. Both parametric and nonparametric approaches provided similar correlations but the evaluations that included censored data (nutrients) were considerably different with the nonparametric approach being preferred.

Remote sensing has been used as an effective chlorophyll-a detection method in inland lakes and reservoirs. Concentration estimates of chlorophyll-a approximate the amounts of algae and phytoplankton in a body of water, can indicate the existence of large blooms and high nutrient loading, and can be used as an indicator of water quality. These biomasses pose potential threats to the quality of the water and the local environment by depleting oxygen, influencing the taste of the drinking water and detrimentally affecting aesthetics and recreation. Deer Creek Reservoir exhibited eutrophic tendencies in the early 1990's, caused by phosphorus pollution. This was made evident by accelerated algae growth. Following remediation efforts, Deer Creek Reservoir, as well as nearby Jordanelle Reservoir have been closely monitored with regular field sampling. These field data have been used to develop remote sensing methods using Landsat images to provide supplementary information for reservoir management. These remote sensing methods allow for mapping of the distribution of chlorophyll-a, which provides spatial distribution average, and maximum estimates of chlorophyll-a concentrations, data and information that are not feasible with in-field sampling. In this thesis, traditional methods for remote sensing models are discussed, and a novel sub-seasonal approach based on seasonal algal succession is proposed and demonstrated. Each seasonal model is created using a standard stepwise regression using historic field data and the associated Landsat images and is statistically tested for leverage to ensure unbiased model development. These sub-seasonal detection models are applied to 5 reservoirs in the central-Utah region to provide a more comprehensive description of reservoir behavior and water quality trends over the past 30 years. Historic trends of the average and maximum chlorophyll-a estimates are provided for each of the reservoirs. Example color maps are presented to demonstrate the ability of remote sensing to represent the spatial distribution of algae (using chlorophyll as an indicator). Limitations for this approach are discussed, as well as applications for remotely sensed water quality data on a regional scale.

In the Canadian Arctic, ship traffic has been increasing at the same time as sea ice has been declining over the past decade-plus. The decrease in sea ice has been associated with trends in warm weather and atmospheric conditions in the summer seasons, which are expected to continue. Thus, it is anticipated that ship traffic will also continue to grow, as areas in the Arctic, including the Northwest Passage (NWP) and Northern Sea Route (NSR) experience less and less sea ice. The appeal of the opening of these major Arctic shipping routes, is that these routes are shorter in distance for commercial ships on international voyages in comparison to traditional routes that travel through the Panama and Suez Canals. Assuming safe and smooth sailing a shorter route can be beneficial monetarily for commercial shipping companies and as a result for other economic sectors reliant on the efficient shipment of goods. However, a major concern associated with the anticipated increase in Arctic ship traffic is the potential for an increase in the number and severity of maritime navigational related accidents. Thus, the overall aim of this thesis is to quantify recent historic links between ship traffic, sea ice, ship accidents, and accident rates within the Canadian Arctic as well as the global Arctic. There are three specific objectives including to: 1. Conduct a comparative statistical analysis between two ship traffic databases (NORDREG and AIS) within the Canadian Arctic to evaluate datasets strengths and weaknesses; 2. Use the best available data (see objective 1) to examine the statistical associations and trends for ship traffic, ship accidents, accident rates, and sea-ice extent within the Canadian Arctic during the shipping-season from 1990 to 2019; and 3. Derive and compare recent ship traffic accident rates to determine if statistical trends from 2012 to 2019 exist for ships across the global Arctic. Results of the study show that both NORDREG and AIS data is useful in understanding shipping traffic trends in Arctic Canada over time and that each dataset is effective depending on the temporal period of interest (Objective 1). NORDREG data is most effective for identifying ship positioning before 2012 (+106,811 more nm sailed per matched unique vessels and +9 overall unique vessels from NORDREG) and from 2012 onwards AIS is more accurate, highlighted by the year of 2018 (+84,149 more nm sailed and +169 unique vessels from AIS). Using available data sources from 1990 to 2019, it was revealed that although commercial and non-commercial ship traffic is increasing across in Arctic Canada, the total number of accidents and overall accident rate for commercial vessels has declined, whereas they have increased for non-commercial ships (Objective 2). There are significant positive trends in overall ship traffic for all ship types (+9,275 nm yr⁻¹), commercial ships (+5,011 nm yr⁻¹) and non-commercial ships (+4,658 nm yr⁻¹). Whereas there have been significant negative trends in ship accidents for commercial ships (-0.06 accidents yr⁻¹), ship accident rates, for all ship types (-6.31E-07 accidents/nm yr⁻¹). Sea ice extent at the monthly level during the shipping season has been significantly decreasing (-3,193 km² mo⁻¹). Results also indicate that there are significant negative correlations between monthly ship traffic and sea ice extent, for all ship types (-0.50), commercial ships (-0.49), and non-commercial ships (-0.48). At the global scale, ship traffic is increasing while ship accident rates are decreasing (Objective 3). For the global Arctic there are positive statistically significant trends for all ship traffic (+2.655 million nm yr⁻¹), commercial ships (+1.598 million nm yr⁻¹), and non-commercial ships (+1.446 million nm yr⁻¹); where there are statistically significant annual decreases in ship accident rates for all ships (-3.64E-07 ship accidents/nm yr⁻¹), commercial ships (-9.39E-07 ship accidents/nm yr⁻¹), and non-commercial ships (-1.19E-07 ship accidents/nm yr⁻¹). At the country level, ship traffic associated to Russia, Norway, and Iceland contributes the most to global increase for both commercial and non-commercial ships. Norway has the largest statistically significant negative trend for all ship and commercial ship accident rates. Future research should focus around expanding on the analytical approach taken for objective 3, as more years of AIS data become available, as currently, the focus is on a shorter time-period (2012 to 2019). Given that incident rates are low globally, for high impacts (i.e., large spills), working with a long time series allows for considering more incidents. It would also be beneficial to perform an analysis that determines if there are statistical associations between yearly accident rates and sea ice extent in the global Arctic, as well as for each country within the Arctic. This information can help to answer questions around ship safety in the global Arctic, specifically: (a) Has the shipping become safer (e.g., less accidents per distance sailed) for the global Arctic and the countries within the Arctic? (b) Are there statistical associations between sea ice extent and accident rates within the global Arctic and the countries within the Arctic? (c) Are there countries associated with a higher incident rate compared to others? This information would help target measures to specific country ships that may be less safe for navigation.

Today’s competitive market in the video game industry puts a lot of stress on companies to be ahead of competitors. The ability to predict the potential of a product gives companies an advantage over competitors on the market. Companies have therefore increased Competitive Intelligence (CI) departments in recent years and looked for ways to optimise forecasting capabilities. Researchers argue for the use of Machine Learning (ML) to forecast market potential of products, and have investigated varying methods of optimising the accuracy of models. Past studies have shown the existence of predictive value in online search traffic on Google. This study set out to investigate if Youtube search traffic holds similar predictive value. Results show that Youtube trends do have a degree of inherent predictive value, and the addition of the information enhances forecasting performance of ML models. However, the exact degree of the predictive value in Youtube trends is yet to be determined, as some evidence from testing implicated it to be strong while others weak.

Sustainable consumption is becoming more and more important when aiming to achieve a sustainable food industry in the future. A sustainable movement requires actions from diverse actors on the market such as politicians, organizations, retailers, consumers etc. This research focuses mainly on retailers and partly consumers. Past research examines consumer behaviour when it comes to sustainable consumption and companies’ incorporation of Corporate Sustainability. This research seeks to complement prior research by investigating two major retailers in the Swedish food industry, Axfood and ICA. Through semi-structured interviews, with Sustainability Managers working at these companies, the research collects qualitative data that contributes to a better understanding of the Swedish food retailing industry and how they address sustainability issues. The research highlight current trends on today’s market and identify crucial focus areas for the future.

As a practitioner in the field of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA), I have always been drawn to looking at literature and productions that challenge my preconceptions of what constitutes good theatre for youth. I enjoy the bold and innovative, versus the cute and playful. My training and education in this developing branch of theatre has undoubtedly exposed me to the many accomplishments of the American TYA system, but quite often - through attending conferences, as well as participating in class discussions - I find that many debates/conversations center around what more we need to do in this field or what else we can do to make this field more relevant and interesting to young people. In my experience, I've found that discussions and opinions center around Americans looking elsewhere for theatrical models on which to shape their own practices. I began looking at international models of TYA, particularly those of European countries. Historically, theatre has been recognized and valued as an essential part of traditional European life, and Sweden is often recognized as a forerunner in creating and supporting experimental art forms. With this, I question what American theatre educators and artists can learn from Swedish TYA as we work to create more artistic and educational outlets that incorporate the youth perspective of the 21st Century. For this thesis, my interest lies in what I can learn from Swedish TYA. I question how major social and cultural factors shape Swedish children's theatre as a field, and how those factors play out within the artistic arena. I dissect various social and cultural factors in Sweden that contribute to the TYA field, and examine if/how two pieces of Swedish dramatic literature for children reflect those trends and influences occurring in Swedish theatrical practice. Specifically, I also examine how Swedish TYA scripts use elements of non-realism, and deal with taboo topics. Through an exploration of The Dreamed Life of Nora Schahrazade and One Night in February, I find considerable use of elements that extend beyond realistic norms, and it is through those non-realistic approaches that the taboo issues are dissected and explored.

We analyzed chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentrations in shallow, turbid Utah Lake using Landsat data from 1984 to 2021. Utah Lake is ~40 km by 21 km, has a surface area of ~390 km2, an average depth of ~3 m, and loses ~50% of inflow to evaporation. This limits spatial mixing, allowing us to evaluate impacts to smaller lake regions. We evaluated long-term trends at the pixel level and for areas related to boundary conditions. We created 17 study areas based on differences in shoreline development and nutrient inflows. We expected impacted areas to exhibit increasing chl-a trends, as population growth and development in the Utah Lake watershed have been significant. We used the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test to evaluate trends. The majority of the lake exhibited decreasing trends, with a few pixels in Provo and Goshen Bays exhibiting slight increasing or no trends. We estimated trend magnitudes using Sen's slope and fitted linear regression models. Trend magnitudes in all pixels (and regions), both decreasing and increasing, were small; with the largest decreasing and increasing trends being about -0.05 and -0.005 µg/L/year, and about 0.1 and 0.005 µg/L/year for the Sen's slope and linear regression slope, respectively. Over the ~40 year-period, this would result in average decreases of 2 to 0.2 µg/L or increases of 4 and 0.2 µg/L. All the areas exhibited decreasing trends, but the monthly trends in some areas exhibited no trends rather than decreasing trends. Monthly trends for some areas showed some indications that algal blooms are occurring earlier, though evidence is inconclusive. We found essentially no change in algal concentrations in Utah Lake at either the pixel level or for the analysis regions since the 1980's, despite significant population expansion, increased nutrient inflows, and land-use changes. This result matches prior research and supports the hypothesis that algal growth in Utah Lake is not limited by direct nutrient inflows but limited by other factors.

Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB beslutade 2009 att bygga ett slutförvar av använt kärnbränsle i anslutning till kärnkraftverket i Forsmark. Tekniken för slutförvaret går ut på att omge kapslarna med bentonitlera som skydd mot vatten och bergsrörelser. Studier har dock påpekat att bentonitleran riskerar att kemiskt erodera om jonstyrkan (baskatjonerna) i grundvattnet som omsluter förvaringen blir för låg. Baskatjoner består av natrium, kalium, kalcium och magnesium. Dessa joner är viktiga för bland annat att neutralisera syror i mark och vatten. Förekomsten av dessa har sedan 90-talet minskat men kan påverkas av både ökad nederbördsmängd och ökad temperatur i vissa regioner. Baskatjoner kan lakas ur marken när pH minskar eller komma via deposition från nederbörden. Studien syftar till att utreda vilka faktorer som påverkar dels förekomsten av baskatjoner, dels dess trender i tre olika vattentyper i Forsmark: grunt grundvatten, sjövatten och vattendrag. Dataunderlaget för baskatjonerna kom från Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB och nederbördsmängd och temperatur från Sveriges Meteorologiska och Hydrologiska Institut. De statistiska testerna som utfördes var främst Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Spearmans rangkorrelation, Mann-Kendalls trend- test och Sen’s slope-metoden. Analyserna har utförts med statistikprogramvaran R och de geografiska med QGIS. Resultatet visade att flera provtagningspunkter låg på en låg altitud och inom samma delavrinningsområde. Det fanns små skillnader i baskatjonskoncentrationen i de tre vattentyperna oberoende av berggrund, jordart eller terräng. Dock återfanns högst koncentration i de flesta fall i grunt grundvatten vilket kunde bero på höga halter natrium från havsvattnet samt kalksten i jordlagren. Korrelationerna var få varav sulfat var den som tydligast visade på ett förhållande med baskatjonerna i alla tre vattentyperna. Inte heller kunde en samvariation med temperatur och nederbörd statistiskt säkerställas. Trenderna visade på minskande koncentration av baskatjoner i grunt grundvatten och i sjövatten. Om dessa trender fortsätter utifrån studiens resultat kan det på sikt finnas en risk för erodering av bentonitleran runt kapslarna till följd av landhöjning och utbyte av det nuvarande bräckta grundvattnet. / The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company decided in 2009 to build a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in connection with the nuclear power plant in Forsmark. The technology for the final repository involves surrounding the capsules with bentonite clay as protection against water and rock movements. However, studies have pointed out that the bentonite clay is at risk of chemically eroding if the ionic strength of the groundwater surrounding the repository becomes too low. Base cations consist of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. These ions are important for neutralizing acids in soil and water. The occurrence of these has decreased since the 90s but can be affected by both increased rainfall and increased temperature in certain regions. Base cations can further be leached from the soil when the pH decreases or come via deposition from precipitation. This study aims to investigate which factors affect the presence of base cations and their trends in three different types of water in Forsmark: shallow groundwater, lake water and stream water. The data set for the base cations came from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company and rainfall and temperature from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. The statistical tests performed were mainly the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Spearman's rank correlation, Mann-Kendall's trend test and Sen's slope method. The analyzes have been performed with the statistical software R and the geographic ones with QGIS. The result showed that several sampling points were at a low altitude and within the same sub-catchment. There were small differences in base cation concentration in the three water types regardless of bedrock, soil type or terrain. However, the highest concentration was found in most cases in shallow groundwater, which could be due to high levels of sodium from seawater and limestone in the soil layers. The correlations were few, of which sulfate was the one that most clearly showed a relationship with the base cations in all three water types. Nor could a co-variation with temperature and precipitation be statistically ensured. The trends showed a decreasing concentration of base cations in shallow groundwater and in lake water. If the trends continue based on the results, in the long term there may be a risk of erosion of the bentonite clay that surrounds the capsules because of land uplift and replacement of the current brackish ground water.

One of the most visible impacts of climate change in Arctic environments is declining sea ice. Due to an absence of spatially coarse quantitative data, there is a lack of understanding on declining sea ice on a community scale. This study seeks to document historical trends in air temperature, sea ice thickness (SIT), break-up dates (BUDs) and freeze-up dates (FUDs), correlate sea ice behaviour to air temperatures, and document the socio-economic impacts of sea ice change in Resolute Bay Nunavut, using traditional Inuit knowledge (TIK) and scientific methods. During the scientific portion of this study linear regression, statistical significance, anomaly analysis, and change point detection were used on time series of sea ice concentration (SIC), SIT, and air temperature. Two SIC datasets were accessed to characterize BUDs and FUDs, Canadian Ice Services archived sea ice charts from 1982-2022 and Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S) gridded satellite derived SIC from 1979-2015. The BUD was defined when SIC fell and stayed below 20%, and the FUD was when SIC returned and stayed above 50%. By applying a statistically significant linear regression to both datasets, the BUD was shown to occur 37.5 days earlier and the FUD occurred 23.4 days later in 2022 than in 1979. This study accessed two SIT datasets, Environment and Climate Change Canada fast ice measurements from 1947-2022 and C3S satellite derived sea ice freeboard measurements from 2002-2020 at four locations in the Barrow Strait. After applying change point detection algorithms, this study found annual maximum fast ice thicknesses increased 32.5 cm from 1948-1981 and decreased 33.2 cm from 1981-2021. Fast ice decreased most substantially in the months of April and May. Sea ice freeboard decreased by 260.8 cm on average from 2002-2020 in the Barrow Strait. Freezing degree days (FDDs) were used to correlate sea ice behaviour to air temperature. As FDDs decrease, sea ice freeboard was the most rapidly changing sea ice parameter and fast ice thickness was most strongly correlated to FDDs. Both these results indicate that air temperature has a greater effect on SIT than the BUD and FUD. During the TIK investigation of this study, seventeen community members from Resolute Bay, Nunavut, ranging from age 19-81 were interviewed about their perception of changes in SIT, BUD, FUD, and seasonal weather patterns. Participants were interviewed about the socio-economic impacts of sea ice change, traditional Inuit methods of determining thickness, and asked to indicate typical areas of thin and thick ice, areas that break-up and freeze-up first, and hunting and travel routes on printed maps. The interviewees described a decline in sea ice thickness, areas of thin ice in the Barrow Strait, north of Cornwallis Island, and between Bathurst and Devon Island, less frequent use of the sea ice, less traditional food available in the community, increased vessel traffic, a decrease in seal population, new species and birds in the area, and detailed traditional methods of determining ice thickness through observation of color and use of the harpoon. Agreement between traditional knowledge and the scientific data was present in typical break-up and freeze-up patterns, and annual maximum thickness decreasing over time. While most respondents indicated FUD was later and BUD earlier, more participants responded there have been changes to the FUD than the BUD, whereas the scientific data showed more severe changes to the BUD than FUD. During interviews, there was consensus that summer temperatures are getting warmer but there was variability in responses when asked about winter temperatures. The scientific results showed less warming in the summer (Jun-Aug) than winter months (Jan-Mar) with the most warming in the fall (Sept-Nov). The lack of agreement between these results could be attributed to local perceived changes to winter weather referring to storminess rather than strictly temperature. TIK provided small scale information about the sea ice that the current state of scientific observation can not. In conclusion, a more holistic understanding of sea ice behaviour can be achieved by including Inuit traditional knowledge in partnership with scientific methods.