Publikationer från Linköpings universitet
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Disclosing Public Documents? : Balancing Transparency and Security in Public Administration
No full textThe foundation of Swedish democracy rests on the principles of openness and transparency. In practice, a framework of laws and control mechanisms has been established to ensure adherence to these principles. Simultaneously, concerns regarding security and integrity have gained prominence as measures to safeguard Swedish democracy from undesirable influences seeking to destabilize Swedish society. This study consists of a comparative analysis of how official institutions manage to reconcile the competing values of security and transparency – through the unique constitutional right known as ‘handlingsoffentligheten’, which guarantees the public's access to important state information. Through the study I find some serious structural shortcomings, in that authorities’struggle to handle their democratic responsibilities, sometimes conflicting the law. The findings also reveal that significant disparities persist in how authorities comply with the requirements set to ensure uniform adherence to democratic objectives. For example one statement that can be made through this study is that almost one out of five authorities did not disclose public documents as rapidly as required. Seven out of ten sent the documents via e-mail, ten percent through ordinary mail whilst four percent sent encrypted files. Also twelve percent of the authorities censored information in the documents. The results thus underscore the need for explicit guidelines in order to assist public authorities in balancing the competing values of of security and transparency. Such harmonization could enhance public trust in both the authorities and the state. Moreover, the findings indicate that the use of encryption systems can facilitate public access to information in a manner that is both responsible and secure. It should therefore be recommended that all public authorities implement such practices in a unified manner
Moderate-To-Late Preterm Infants Benefit From the Early Collaborative Intervention: Primary Outcomes of an RCT
No full textAimThis study aimed to determine the longitudinal impact of the EArly Collaborative Intervention (EACI), a three-session early intervention designed to enhance parent-infant interaction, on the developmental outcomes of preterm infants born between 30 + 0 and 35 + 6 weeks of gestation.MethodsThis randomised controlled blinded study recruited families in two neonatal intensive care units in Sweden. In this one-year follow-up, 87 infants (standard care = 37, standard care with EACI = 50) were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. The primary study outcomes were cognition, receptive and expressive communication, and fine and gross motor development measured with the Bayley-III.ResultsAt one year of age (mean age 13.1 months SD = 0.64), there was a statistically significant effect in the intention-to-treat analysis on receptive communication F(1, 85) = 4.61, p = 0.035, eta 2 = 0.051. No statistically significant effects were found on the other Bayley-III outcome measures. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding gestational age, birth weight, gender, parents' education, or age at assessment.ConclusionThis new intervention indicates a small positive effect on moderate-to-late preterm infants' communication ability at one year of age. Though the attrition rate was relatively large, results are encouraging since clinical interventions supporting moderate-to-late preterm infants and parents are lacking.Trial Registration: NCT0203461
Delay-Constrained Grant-Free Random Access in MIMO Systems: Distributed Pilot Allocation and Power Control
No full textWe study a delay-constrained grant-free random access system with a multi-antenna base station. The users randomly generate data packets with expiration deadlines, which are then transmitted from data queues on a first-in first-out basis. To deliver a packet, a user needs to succeed in both random access phase (sending a pilot without collision) and data transmission phase (achieving a required data rate with imperfect channel information) before the packet expires. We develop a distributed, cross-layer policy that allows the users to dynamically and independently choose their pilots and transmit powers to achieve a high effective sum throughput with fairness consideration. Our policy design involves three key components: 1) a proxy of the instantaneous data rate that depends only on macroscopic environment variables and transmission decisions, considering pilot collisions and imperfect channel estimation; 2) a quantitative, instantaneous measure of fairness within each communication round; and 3) a deep learning-based, multi-agent control framework with centralized training and distributed execution. The proposed framework benefits from an accurate, differentiable objective function for training, thereby achieving a higher sample efficiency compared with a conventional application of model-free, multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithms. The performance of the proposed approach is verified by simulations under highly dynamic and heterogeneous scenarios.Funding Agencies|Excellence Center at Linkoeping-Lund in Information Technology (ELLIIT); Knut and Alice Wallenberg (KAW) foundation; Swedish Research Council [2022-06725, 2018-05973]</p
Is the production affected by demographics? : A quantitative study on the effect of age demographics on the residential construction
No full textSambandet mellan åldersdemografiska variabler och bostadsmarknaden är inte ett outforskat ämne. Dock har det i tidigare studier främst undersökts hur åldersfördelningen hos en population påverkar bostadspriserna. Åldersdemografins påverkan på nyproduktionen, i kvantitativa termer, är därför mindre dokumenterat. För att undersöka huruvida åldersfördelningen påverkat nyproduktionen i Sverige mellan 2000–2023 genomför vi därför regressionsanalyser på tvärsnittsdata från Sveriges kommuner. Eftersom vi dessutom undersöker hur en eventuell påverkan förändrats över tid delar vi upp tidsspannet i fem separata tidsperioder vilket möjliggör för fem separata analyser. De åldersgrupper vi undersöker är 0–14 år, 15–29 år, 30–49 år, 50–64 år samt 65+ år, som andelar av den totala populationen. Vidare analyserar vi våra resultat utifrån etablerade teorier och fynd från tidigare forskning. Vi finner att befolkningsandelarna i åldersspannet 0–49 år har ett positivt samband med nyproduktionen och att resterande befolkningsandel är av negativ karaktär. Vi finner också att sambanden har skiftat mellan åren 2000–2023, vilket vi tillskriver makroekonomiska skiften i. Slutligen finner vi att åldersdemografin är en faktor kommuner bör ta hänsyn till vid planering inför befolkningens framtida behov och ekonomiska klimat på bostadsmarknaden.The correlation between age-demographic variables and the housing market is not an unexplored topic. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the relationship with the house prices, and the relationship with quantitative production output is therefore less documented. To explore whether the age distribution has affected the new housing production in Sweden between 2000–2023 we perform a regression analysis on cross-sectional data from Swedish municipalities. Since we also examine potential changes in the correlations over time, we split the time span into five separate time periods which enables for five separate analyses. In this study we examine the age groups 0–14 years, 15–29 years, 30–49 years, 50–64 years and 65+ years, as shares of the total population. We then base our analysis of the results on established theories and findings from previous studies. What we find is that the age span 0–49 years exhibit a positive correlation with new housing construction, while the remaining population share have an overall negative correlation. Further on, we also observe that the correlations have shifted between the separate time periods, which we attribute to corresponding macroeconomic shifts. Finally, we conclude that the age demographics is a factor that the municipalities should take into consideration when planning for the needs of the future population and economic climate on the housing market
Monocular Depth Estimation For Satellite Depth Map Enhancement
No full textMonocular Depth Estimation (MDE), the task of estimating depth from a single image, is a prominent topic in computer vision. However, no prior work has explored using MDE to enhance satellite 3D depth maps. This thesis investigates the application of MDE within the domain of Remote Sensing to predict depth maps with sharp edges and fine details. Several models, fine-tuned from Depth Anything V2, are trained with various loss functions on both real and synthetic satellite imagery from San Antonio and San Francisco. The corresponding ground truth is rendered from high-resolution aerial 3D models. These models are then validated and tested on comparable datasets from Las Vegas and Linköping. Additionally, this study explores how depth maps derived from stereo pairs can be improved by combining them with predicted depth. These are combined with three primary methods: Mean, Frequency, and Registration Alignment. This thesis concludes that the top-performing fine-tuned models significantly outperform the general-purpose Depth Anything V2 model. The results also indicate that pretraining on synthetic data can improve generalization. Moreover, incorporating a gradient-based loss term has proven beneficial for model training. Another key observation was that zoomed-in inputs led to predictions with finer detail. The best predictions successfully improved the baseline depth maps, generated from stereo pairs, across all three combination strategies. For all methods, minimum height correction was beneficial. Among these, the frequency alignment method achieved the best overall performance. In summary, the enhanced depth maps exhibited sharper edges and a closer resemblance to ground truth data. These findings suggest that MDE holds strong potential for improving 3D model quality in remote sensing applications
Growth Under Pressure : Assessing the Economic Impact of Sanctions on Target and Sender States
No full textThis study investigates how economic sanctions affect growth in both target and sender countries. The thesis is based on models such as the Swan-Solow model, Lucas' endogenous growth model, and the convergence theory to analyze how sanctions can function as external shocks to economies. Particular emphasis is placed on asymmetries between sanction-imposing and sanctioned states. As an empirical tool, a weighted sanctions index is constructed using data from the Global Sanctions Database. Several linear regressions are conducted using panel data ranging from 2003–2023. The panel structure enables analysis of both absolute effects and cross-country comparisons. The results show that sanctions, and in particular financial sanctions, have a negative and statistically significant effect on growth. At the same time, an asymmetric effect is observed, where sender countries tend to be affected less severely by a rising global sanction index, or not at all. The human capital index exhibits an unexpectedly weak effect, which is discussed in relation to potential measurement issues. This thesis contributes to the field by integrating growth theory with a new sanctions index and highlighting the nuanced effects of different types of sanctions. The conclusions are relevant for both economic policy and international decisions regarding the design of sanctions
Nurse anesthetists’ experiences of parental presence in the operating room during a child's preoperative preparation and anesthesia induction : an interview study
No full textBakgrund: Sjukhuset kan vara en ny och främmande plats för barn och föräldrar. Som blivande anestesisjuksköterskor är det väsentligt att få en inblick kring vården av barn inne på operationssalen och på vilket sätt föräldrar kan vara till stöd för barnet och anestesisjuksköterskan. Då det finns fåtal studier som tydligt presenterar anestesisjuksköterskans erfarenheter kring föräldrars närvaro vid anestesiinduktion av barn, finns det skäl att närmare studera detta. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa anestesisjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att ha en förälder närvarande vid preoperativa förberedelser och anestesiinduktion av barn Metod: Detta var en empirisk studie med induktiv ansats. Data samlades in genom intervjuer och analyserades med konventionell innehållsanalys. Totalt deltog elva anestesisjuksköterskor. Intervjuerna genomfördes på tre olika sjukhus i Sverige. Resultat: Dataanalysen resulterade i ett övergripande tema: "föräldrarnas insats för ett tryggt barn”. Fyra kategorier fastställdes: “etablera kontakt”, “föräldrar som en resurs”, “föräldrars påverkan” och "delaktighet", vilka inkluderar sju subkategorier. Dessa sammanfattar anestesisjuksköterskornas erfarenheter av att ha föräldrar närvarande inför och vid barnanestesi. Slutsats: Att ha föräldrar närvarande underlättar anestesisjuksköterskornas arbete avsevärt, både preoperativt och vid anestesiinduktion. Förberedda föräldrar och barn skapar en god grund för anestesisjuksköterskan att bygga en allians med barnet.Background: The hospital can be a new and unfamiliar place for children and parents. As future nurse anesthetists, it is essential to gain insight into the care of children in the operating room and how parents can be helpful to both the child and the nurse anesthetist. Since there are few studies that clearly present the nurse anesthetist's experiences on parental presence during anesthesia induction in children, there is reason to study this more closely. Aim: The aim was to highlight nurse anesthetists’ experiences of having a parent present during preoperative preparations and the induction of anesthesia in children. Methods: This was an empirical study with an inductive approach. Data were collected through interviews and analyzed using conventional content analysis. A total of eleven nurse anesthetists participated. The interviews were conducted at three different hospitals in Sweden. Results: The data analysis revealed an overarching theme: "parental involvement for a safe child". Four categories were discerned: "establishing contact," "parents as a resource," "parental influence," and "participation", which include seven subcategories. These encapsulate the experiences of nurse anesthetists regarding parental presence before and during pediatric anesthesia. Conclusion: Having parents present significantly facilitates the work of nurse anesthetists, both during the preoperative phase and at the induction of anesthesia. Prepared parents and children provide a solid foundation for the nurse anesthetist to build an alliance with the child
Evaluation of Driving Instructor’s Perceived Usefulness and Ease of use of the GDE-Matrix : A quantitative study on the user experience of the GDE-matrix
No full textGDE-matrisen utgör en central del av Sveriges kursplan för B-körkort, men den utvecklades ursprungligen för forskningsändamål och var inte avsedd som ett pedagogiskt verktyg. Tidigare studier har visat att trafiklärare uppfattar matrisen som svår att tillämpa i praktiken, och att de konkreta förändringarna inom undervisningen har varit begränsade – trots att kursplanen och undervisningsmaterialet har integrerat GDE-matrisen mer tydligt. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka trafiklärares uppfattning av GDE-matrisen i utbildningen för B-körkort, vilket kan bidra till framtida förbättringar av design och implementering. Studien besvarar följande forskningsfrågor: (1) Hur upplever trafiklärare GDE-matrisens användbarhet (Perceived Usefulness, PU)? (2) Hur upplever trafiklärare GDE-matrisens användarvänlighet (Perceived Ease-Of-Use, PEU)? För att besvara frågorna genomfördes en kvantitativ enkätstudie i två delar: Del 1 undersökte trafiklärares förståelse av GDE-matrisen, medan Del 2, baserad på Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), analyserade uppfattningar om PU och PEU. Resultaten visar att GDE-matrisen uppfattas som användbar, men att dess användarvänlighet är lägre (PU = 59,2; PEU = 56,6). Frågorna gällande trafiklärares förståelse av GDE-matrisen visar liknande uppfattning hos deltagarna men att det fortfarande kan finnas behov av förbättringar av matrisen för att öka förståelsen och därav dess användning av GDE-matrisen i praktiken. Förbättringsåtgärder kan stärka förståelsen, PU och PEU av GDE-matrisen, vilket kan göra trafiklärare mer trygga i att använda och förklara GDE-matrisen
Visualization for genomics data review in clinical contexts : Analyzing large, sparse data with multilevel structures
No full textVisualization is an interdisciplinary field related to data science and cognition, concerned with visual representations of data. Visualization research is often conducted in collaboration with researchers from other disciplines, for example, climate and environmental sciences, urban planning, and medicine. One such application area is genomics data, which is increasingly being used within healthcare for diagnosis and treatment selection. However, genomics data is often large and error-prone and requires interpretation to be of use to the treating physician. These challenges can be addressed with visualization. This thesis maps out the challenges and requirements of genomics data in clinical contexts from a visualization perspective. It contains an analysis of the tasks users performed and what data features were important to them. Several visualization environments for genomics data were designed and evaluated, based on these analyses. In general, the emphasis of the designs was on position and navigation, along with data aggregation and comparison of different data types. This was especially important for the work on copy number variant review, where several data sources were combined in a glyph. Therefore, genomics visualizations often benefit from combining multiple views, zooming, and different visual representations. Several of the challenges that were encountered in developing the genomics visualization environments generalize to other sequence data visualizations, such as timelines. Therefore, we studied how the sequence axis should be designed for these visualizations in general. In one study, graphs with straight layouts were compared to circular layouts. Another study investigated whether the x-axis could be stretched and compressed to reduce whitespace. The findings indicated that compressing axes can increase item visibility while the viewer maintains an understanding of the data distribution. A prominent recurring theme in the thesis is the utilization of position and the possibility of modifying the graph axes. Which axis type is most appropriate depends on the data, the task, and the user. In particular, it depends on how important the position along the axis is in comparison with all other data features. For genomics data, the position is typically not the most important feature. Therefore, axis manipulations can be both justified and appropriate.