To Örebro University

Software development (SD) projects are complex endeavors, and organizations employ software development methods (SDMs) both to add structure and to propel their projects. Nowadays, agile SDMs are the most used methods. Still, inefficient and ineffective use of SDMs is a challenge, and existing research shows cases of SD teams failing in their use of SDMs due to deviations made. Of course, methods should not be used in rigorous and textbook-like ways. Among practitioners, some of these deviations are referred to as cargo cult behavior; without, however, providing much of theoretical depth or any analytical tools to identify and characterize such behaviors. Although existing research has investigated SDM deviations, they have not been investigated as cargo cult behavior.

Against this backdrop, the aim of this thesis is to understand the challenges in succeeding with SDM use by developing a theory called SDM cargo cult theory (SDMCCT), to identify, analyze, and describe the cargo cult phenomenon in agile SDM use. The journey of this thesis takes its starting point in practitioners’ use of the buzzwords “cargo cult” when referring to flawed SDM use. By returning to the field of social anthropology and its studies of cargo cult, a definition of SDM cargo cult and an analytical framework are iteratively crafted through a longitudinal ethnographic study to constitute the SDMCCT. The research approach has been abductive and the SDMCCT builds on social action theory and work motivation theory.

The ethnographical study took place at an international industrial manufacturing company in Sweden that is using agile SDMs. This study includes three years of data collection, which includes observations, interviews, and gathering of business documents. The ethnographic study focused on three SD teams and their daily work using agile SDMs. The analysis using the analytical framework includes four agile SDM practices: daily scrum meeting, sprint demo, continuous integration, and visualization. In total, the analysis uncovered 36 deviations in the SD teams’ use of these practices, structured into 30 SDM cargo cult categories. In addition, this study shows that the framework is applicable to analyze and characterize effective SDM use as well, although it is not its main focus. The framework can be used by researchers to make similar analysis of cargo cult situations in other organizations, and the catalogue of cargo cult situations can serve as background knowledge for other organizations to study and improve their SD teams’ use of agile SDM practices.

Swedish students regularly take part in school partnership trips to Tanzania. Yet, little research looks at the extent to which these trips support global learning. This paper is interested in the discourses that enable and constrain ethical relationality in these educative encounters. It considers existing research on global citizenship education and school partnerships in relation to decolonial engagements then analyses interview data with four students who participated in an entrepreneurship themed trip to identify discourses available to them. Students articulated an overarching discourse of taken-for-grantedness. Several sub-discourses could enable but tend to constrain an ethical relationality in these educative encounters.

Introduction: This research investigates consumer acceptance of alternative methods for communicating information about wine, focusing on the alignment between sensory attributes and consumer expectations.

Methods: A survey was administered to wine enthusiasts to assess their attitudes toward crossmodal communication.

Results: The findings reveal significant associations between consumer behaviors and acceptance of alternative communication methods, highlighting the emerging field of crossmodal correspondences.

Discussion: These results suggest that leveraging crossmodal correspondences can enhance the match between a product’s sensory qualities and consumer expectations, potentially reducing wine wastage resulting from unmet consumer preferences. These findings have implications for improving communication strategies in the wine industry and enhancing consumer experiences.

A girl or young woman facing new or dangerous challenges without the support of a family is a recurring motif in Nnedi Okorafor’s multiple award-winning fiction. Okorafor’s protagonists tend to reinvent traditional conceptions of families and create new family constellations through assemblage. These may include members of different human tribes, or even extraterrestrial, engineered or magical nonhuman creatures – and such assemblages are driven by the desire to find new ways of being in the world and relating to others. This chapter examines the kinmaking strategies of four of Okorafor’s protagonists to show how they form cross-culture and cross-species kinships. Binti, Onyesonwu, Phoenix, and Fatima/Sankofa all reinterpret traditions and create new families ranging beyond biological reproduction or kinship ties. To some extent, all the texts under discussion here could be classified as coming-of-age stories, in which assembled families complement and often replace biological families; the assembled families populating Okorafor’s texts are both vehicles of individual agency and utopian expressions of malleable traditions in an ecologically fragile world fraught with racial tension. Although agential assemblage through naming and storytelling has utopian implications in Who Fears Death (2010) and the Binti Trilogy (2015–18), assemblage is also central in the death and dying in The Book of Phoenix (2015) and Remote Control (2021). The assembled families populating Okorafor’s fiction are both vehicles of individual agency and utopian expressions of malleable traditions in an ecologically fragile world fraught with racial tension. Assemblage thus seems central to Okorafor’s utopian Africanfuturist impetus, and the chapter therefore concludes with a brief reflection on the role of narration in Okorafor’s agential assemblages. 

The dataset is produced within the framework of the HORIZON 2020 project called MEDIADELCOM (Critical Exploration of Media Related Risks and Opportunities for Deliberative Communication: Development Scenarios of the European Media Landscape) in 2021-2022. The dataset is one of the 14 single-country data sets included in the consolidated file of country data sets (with 5623 entries), all in msw.xlsx format. All tables are searchable by 20 variables: full reference, year of publication, nationall/international publication, language, country the publication deals with, time of empirical data gathering, type of publication, open access/not OA, where referenced, focus on journalism domain, focus on media-related competences domain, focus on media usage patterns domain, focus on legal and ethical regulations domain, type of the approach, original key words, main topic, comments, country. As the data has been gathered specifically about the research done in four mentioned domains concerning potential ROs emanating from the news media development for deliberative communication, this database does NOT cover ALL the academic publications in the fields of media and journalism research. Consequently, the above-mentioned conditions limit the generalizations and comparisons based on the current database. 

Introduction: Chronic pain and sleep disturbance bidirectionally influence each other in a negative spiral. Although this academic knowledge is known by researchers, it is imperative to bridge it over to the general public because of its applied implications. However, it is unclear how academia and the general public reciprocally shape each other in terms of knowledge of the sleep–pain relationship. The purpose of this study was (1) to assess the longitudinal trajectories of research on the sleep–pain relationship and the general public’s interest in this topic and (2) to examine whether the academic interest leads to the general public’s interest, or vice versa.

Methods: We used a Big Data approach to gather data from scientific databases and a public search engine. We then transformed these data into time trends, representing the quantity of published research on, and the general public’s interest in, the sleep–pain relationship. The time trends were visually presented and analyzed via dynamic structural equation modeling.

Results: The frequency of both published articles and searches soared after 2004. Published research leads to an increased interest in the sleep–pain relationship among the general public but does not predict more published articles. Furthermore, the general public’s interest reinforces itself over time but does not predict published research.

Conclusion: These results are encouraging because it is essential for research on the sleep–pain relationship to reach a broader audience, beyond the walls of academia. However, to prevent a potential alienation between academic and practical knowledge, we encourage openness among researchers to being inspired by the general public’s knowledge of the sleep–pain relationship

This study investigates how an Immigrant identification affects musicians’possibilities to perform in Sweden. This is investigated through a discoursetheoretical analysis of interviews with seven musicians. The analysis showsseveral intersections where an Immigrant identification has affected theinformants’ lives and careers, hence contributed to shaping their workingconditions. For example, the Immigrant identification can be related tothe informants’ possibilities of being granted access to the stage. Severalinformants have experienced discrimination because of their appearancesand as a result taken preemptive measures to fit envisioned expectationsby changing name or by avoiding performing at certain music venues. TheImmigrant identity is also shown to be closely connected with music genresand ideas about authenticity, which limits the availability of musical pathways.This occurs, for example, when an artist considers which genre to engage inbecause of how the genre relates to an Immigrant identity. The study showsthat when musicians’ careers coincide with an Immigrant identification,participative conditions often prove immutable and hegemonic. There arehowever expressions of change and resistance toward prevailing participativeconditions among the informants, but they do not perceive these conditions tobe given enough attention in society or by the music industry.

When adopting and using a Software Development Method (SDM), it is important to stay true to the philosophy of the method; otherwise, software developers might execute activities that do not lead to the intended outcomes. Currently, no overview of SDM research addresses software developers’ reasoning behind adopting and using SDMs. Accordingly, this paper aims to survey existing SDM research to scrutinize the current knowledge base on software developers’ type of reasoning behind SDM adoption and use. We executed a systematic literature review and analyzed existing research using two steps. First, we classified papers based on what type of reasoning was addressed regarding SDM adoption and use: rational, irrational, and non-rational. Second, we made a thematic synthesis across these three types of reasoning to provide a more detailed characterization of the existing research. We elicited 28 studies addressing software developers’ reasoning and identified five research themes. Building on these themes, we framed four future research directions with four broad research questions, which can be used as a basis for future research.

Background: Principles such as instructional alignment and step-by-step progression are often seen as crucial features of good assessment practices in school physical education (PE). These features are problematic from nonlinear educational perspectives, which are based on the idea that movement learning cannot be expected to take place in the same manner for all students. Without some resolution of the contradiction between nonlinear pedagogies and principles of good assessment, the likelihood of physical educators fully embracing any kind of nonlinear approach to movement education remains doubtful.

Purpose and research question: Our purpose in this paper is to illustrate how assessment for and of learning (AfL and AoL) can look when implemented in nonlinear movement education practices.  

Methods: Illustrations of AfL and AoL are drawn from an investigation in which one educator implements a nonlinear movement education module. The module focuses on juggling for students at high school (grade nine students aged approximately 15 years). The module provided students with 10 x 50-minute lessons to explore juggling. Data were generated through observations (film clips and field notes) and ethnographic-type interviews that were conducted with the students during the lessons.

Findings: In the context of the nonlinear movement education module, AfL became: Interacting with students in joint exploration; Introducing learning strategies; Encouraging students to clarify and verbalize the object of learning; Helping students identify critical aspects of the movement activity, and; Inviting students to consider alternative learning trajectories. The educator then evaluates the students’ learning experiences in the context of a group performance at the end of the module. This performance can be seen as an instance of holistic assessment within a nonlinear movement education practice. 

Conclusions: The suggested holistic perspective on PE assessment could help educators to: circumvent dichotomies such as mind-body and theory-practice; approach students as active meaning-makers; re-frame students’ actions as emergent and context-dependent; and replace direct instruction with explorative teaching and learning methods. The major contribution of this study is that it shows how assessment for and of learning can be implemented in nonlinear movement education practices within a linear, goal-related and criterion-referenced, education system.

The article expands on Joseph Margolis idea of artworks as physically embodied and culturally emergent. More specifically, how music emerges from the “precultural” sound in which it is embodied. This emergence of music is shown to follow a similar route as the development of a “sense of self”, as proposed by Daniel Stern, thus substantiating what Margolis suggests is a “strong analogy” between the emergence of artworks and of persons. The common precultural source is vitality affect, which we suggest is best seen as a form of protomusic. This common source explains music’s aptness to emotionally reinforce cultural and individual identifications in human cultures around the globe.

In this scholarly review we critically discuss the last 30 years of research on pluralism in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). Pluralism has been a focal point for a vast amount of theoretical and empirical studies in the research field. Since the journal Environmental Education Research (EER) was established, 158 articles have been published that to some extend refer to pluralism or pluralistic ESE. In this review we analyse the state-of-the-art of pluralism in relation to current societal changes and challenges. By placing three decades of research on pluralism in relation to key challenges that face democratic society and education, we outline prospects for future research and discuss what role pluralism can, and should, take in ESE research.

Utgifterna för forskning och utveckling (FoU) inom det svenska näringslivet är starkt koncentrerat till ett fåtal regioner och koncerner. I rapporten beskrivs i vilka branscher och regioner det sker mest FoU och hur utvecklingen har sett ut över tid. Dessutom analyseras vilka faktorer som är betydelsefulla för den regionala lokaliseringen (funktionella arbetsmarknadsregioner, FA-regioner). 

The report analyzes factors that affect the localization of research and development (R&D) within Swedish-owned multinational enterprises in different countries (including Sweden). It also aims to investigate how Sweden is positioned with regard to these factors in an international perspective.

With the aim of examining how literary texts can be used to reach curricular goals relating to global citizenship education and intercultural understanding, a reader study was conducted with ninety-two high school students around Yasmina Khadra’s The Sirens of Baghdad, a novel about an aspiring terrorist in Iraq. A twenty-seven-item survey was conducted, covering nine aspects of learning and engagement. The results suggest that the novel produced high levels of transportation, contextualized understanding, and identification with the protagonist’s emotions. No significant undesired effects, such as an appetite for violence, were observed. The underlying hypothesis that the studied type of fictional narratives are suitable for upper secondary education was tentatively confirmed, but more research is needed to generalize the findings. The present study has contributed to developing methods for such continued research.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remain public health concerns. Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent STIs is a novel promising intervention, which in a new study caused an similar to 65% reduction in incident STIs. However, long-term effects on STI prevalence, microbiomes and antimicrobial resistance among STI pathogens, non-STI pathogens and commensals need to be monitored.

Agent-based Simulation Modelling focuses on the agents' decision making in their individual context. The decision making details may substantially affect the simulation outcome, and therefore need to be carefully designed.

In this paper we contrast two decision making architectures: a process oriented approach in which agents generate expectations and a reinforcement-learning based architecture inspired by evolutionary game theory. We exemplify those architectures using a technology uptake model in which agents decide about adopting automation software. We find that the end result is the same with both decision making processes, but the path towards full adoption of software differs. Both sets of simulations are robust, explainable and credible. The paper ends with a discussion what is actually gained from replacing behaviour description by learning.

Background: Research show that internet-based CBT (iCBT) is an effective treatment for depression. However, little is known about how length of treatment text material affect outcomes. Accessibility to treatment would improve if treatment could be presented with less text, especially for patients with ADHD symptoms and lower reading speed.Objective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that a Condensed treatment would be non-inferior to a Full-length treatment. We further hypothesized that a Condensed treatment would be extra helpful for participants with a low reading speed and more ADHD symptoms.

Method: A single-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted (N = 267) comparing two versions of guided iCBT for depression; Full-length (60 000 words) and Condensed (30 000 words). Estimated between-group effect sizes and their confidence intervals were compared to a pre-determined non-inferiority margin (Cohen’s d = 0.4). Moderation analyses of reading speed and ADHD symptoms were conducted, as well as comparisons of treatment engagement and knowledge acquisition.

Results: The Condensed version of iCBT was non-inferior at endpoint for depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and quality of life compared to the Full-length version. There was a significant interaction effect between reading speed and treatment version. No significant differences between the treatment versions were found on measures of treatment engagement or knowledge acquisition.

Conclusion: A condensed version of iCBT for depression can be used with non-inferior results. A condensed treatment might be extra helpful for patients with lower reading speed. Given a high degree of missing data, these results need to be replicated.

BACKGROUND; Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most prevalent gastrointestinal disorder in developed countries and reduces patients’ quality of life, hinders their ability to work, and increases health care costs. A growing number of trials have demonstrated an aberrant gut microbiota composition in IBS, also known as ‘gut dysbiosis’. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been suggested as a treatment for IBS.

AIM: To assess the efficacy and safety of FMT for the treatment of IBS.

METHODS: We searched Cochrane Central, MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science up to 24 October 2022 for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effectiveness of FMT compared to placebo (including autologous FMT) in treating IBS. The primary outcome was the number of patients with improvements of symptoms measured using a validated, global IBS symptoms score. Secondary outcomes were changes in quality-of-life scores, non-serious and serious adverse events. Risk ratios (RR) and corresponding 95%CI were calculated for dichotomous outcomes, as were the mean differences (MD) and 95%CI for continuous outcomes. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the quality of the trials. GRADE criteria were used to assess the overall quality of the evidence.

RESULTS: Eight RCTs (484 participants) were included in the review. FMT resulted in no significant benefit in IBS symptoms three months after treatment compared to placebo (RR 1.19, 95%CI: 0.68-2.10). Adverse events were reported in 97 participants in the FMT group and in 45 participants in the placebo group (RR 1.17, 95%CI: 0.63-2.15). One serious adverse event occurred in the FMT group and two in the placebo group (RR 0.42, 95%CI: 0.07-2.60). Endoscopic FMT delivery resulted in a significant improvement in symptoms, while capsules did not. FMT did not improve the quality of life of IBS patients but, instead, appeared to reduce it, albeit non significantly (MD -6.30, 95%CI: -13.39-0.79). The overall quality of the evidence was low due to moderate-high inconsistency, the small number of patients in the studies, and imprecision.

CONCLUSION: We found insufficient evidence to support or refute the use of FMT for IBS. Larger trials are needed

When an emotionally heated discussion erupts in the social science classroom, it can bring the teachers and students into a topic or question that none of them had foreseen. Within the research field of social science education there is a growing interest for these unexpected teaching situations. The aim of this theoretical article is to further develop didactical theory of the unexpected in social science education with an emphasis on the didactical why-question. By drawing on Hannah Arendt’s theory of the subject and action, the article outlines a perspective on the unexpected in social science teaching. This perspective highlights how students’ actions can be understood as a distinct revealing of the individual that is unique, risky, and unexpected. The article puts this Arendtian perspective in relation to the citizenship ideal of the “the reflective spectator” that has been formulated within the research field. The article ends with a discussion on how to understand the conflict between different ideals of citizenship in the research field of social science education.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to deepen the knowledge about municipalities’ risk communication for preparedness. This objective was pursued by analyzing how risk communication functions were organized in municipalities and by scrutinizing tensions in risk communication management.

Design/methodology/approach: The study relies on 19 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with communication practitioners in Swedish municipalities. The sample was purposive and included Swedish municipalities varying in number of inhabitants, geographical location, degree of urbanization, size and risk profile.

Findings: Risk communication is seen as a sub-field of crisis communication in municipalities’ communication management. The task of initiating risk communication activities and campaigns is frequently assigned to the municipalities’ safety units or emergency coordinators and is normally not part of communication practitioners’ duties. Municipal communication practitioners often face challenges in trying to demonstrate the significance of the practitioners’ role in risk communication and other risk-related activities within the municipality. The practitioners’ work is characterized by four categories of tensions that are identified as follows: constitutional/legal, organizational, cultural and technological.

Practical implications: The identified tensions in risk communication are important for reflexive practitioners to consider, and the paper suggests three steps that municipal communication managers can take to handle them.

Originality/value: The study contributes with novel knowledge about municipal communication management in a context of risk communication. The study challenges the existing and dominant risk communication research and offers amore contextual and reflexive understanding of actual risk communication processes inmunicipalities.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairing levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity. Symptoms of ADHD, which typically emerge in childhood, may persist until older age with a substantial adverse impact on health and functionality. Yet there is a notable knowledge gap in research on ADHD in older age and the potential associations of adult ADHD with disorders that are common in older age (i.e., age-related disorders). Thus, this thesis aimed to investigate the prevalence rates of ADHD in older age and whether ADHD in adulthood is associated with an increased risk of age-related disorders. 

Study I, a systematic review and meta-analysis, suggests that a considerable number of older adults report elevated levels of ADHD symptoms, while the prevalence of treated ADHD is less than half of the prevalence of clinically diagnosed ADHD. In Studies II, III, and IV, we used data from Swedish population registers. We found that ADHD is associated with an increased risk of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (Study II), which substantially attenuates after controlling for psychiatric comorbidity. Further, ADHD symptoms in adulthood are associated with an increased risk of subsequent cardiometabolic disorders (Study III). The associations attenuate after controlling for educational attainment, psychiatric comorbidity, and lifestyle factors, and they are confounded by genetic factors. Finally, the prediction of cardiovascular risk in adults initiating pharmacological treatment for ADHD may improve by considering novel risk factors (i.e., psychiatric comorbidity and use of other psychotropic medications) in addition to traditional predictors (Study IV). 

Overall, the findings indicate that a substantial number of older adults have increased levels of ADHD symptoms and that ADHD in adults is associated with an increased risk of age-related disorders. Further longitudinal studies, based on both community samples and epidemiological data, are needed to explore the risk of age-related disorders in ADHD, and the underlying mechanisms, until a more advanced older age. 

Styrelseledamöter har ett antal skyldigheter när ett aktiebolag får ekonomiska svårigheter. Vilka regler som aktualiserar bolagsledningens ansvar beror på om ett aktiebolag har betalningsproblem eller balansproblem. Avseende balansproblemet finns regler om så kallat medansvar för styrelseledamöter och andra företrädare i 25 kap. aktiebolagslagen (2005:551). Syftet med kapitalbristreglerna är att tillse en snabb avveckling av ett kapitalsvagt aktiebolag och därvid skydda borgenärskollektivet. Utöver medansvarsreglerna finns det regler om skadeståndsansvar för bland andra styrelseledamöter för skador de åsamkar bolaget, aktieägare eller andra, exempelvis borgenärer. Vid ett aktiebolags betalningsproblem aktualiseras obeståndsrelaterade ansvarsregler i de fall betalningsoförmågan inte bedöms vara endast tillfällig. Härvid kan särskilt nämnas borgenärsbrotten i 11 kap. brottsbalken (1962:700), vilka förutsätter gäldenärens obestånd eller att påtaglig fara för obestånd föreligger. Därtill aktualiserar den särskilda oförmågan att betala förfallna skatteskulder det skatterättsliga företrädaransvaret i 59 kap. skatteförfarandelagen (2011:1244) (SFL) och för det räcker att betalningsoförmågan är endast tillfällig. Avhandlingen syftet är att systematisera och utvärdera reglerna om skyldigheter och personligt ansvar för styrelseledamöter när bolaget befinner sig i insolvenszonen, det vill säga när det är risk för obestånd eller obestånd är ett faktum. I syftet ingår att undersöka regleringens ändamålsenlighet.