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Direct-infusion mass spectrometry provides an efficient approach to molecular analysis by eliminating chromatographic separation and enabling rapid, high-throughput data acquisition. However, its application to complex biological samples is often limited by insufficient sensitivity, restricted molecular coverage, and challenges in achieving confident structural annotation, particularly for low-abundant and isomeric lipid species. This thesis aims to address these limitations by advancing direct-infusion mass spectrometry in both bulk and mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) workflows to accurately detect and identify isomers and challenging lipid classes, such as steroids and oxidised neutral species. 

A major component of this work explores the use of silver cationisation to enhance sensitivity and structural specificity. Silver cationisation substantially improves the detection of steroid isomers by inducing gas-phase conformational changes, which increases collisional cross-sections in ion mobility mass spectrometry and promotes charge-retention fragmentation in tandem mass spectrometry. In particular, for steroids, charge-retention fragmentation occurs along the steroid backbone and α-cleavage at the carbon adjacent to the hydroxyl group, enabling reliable localisation of functional groups and differentiation of structural isomers. When coupled with liquid-liquid extraction, silver cationisation extends the molecular coverage of shotgun lipidomics to steroids and oxidised neutral lipids. Moreover, integration with pneumatically assisted nanospray desorption electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry imaging, silver adduct fragmentation enables structurally resolved spatial mapping of biologically relevant steroids. 

This thesis also addresses broader challenges associated with tandem mass spectrometry imaging (MS²I), including acquisition speed, scale, and interpretability. Specifically, a parallel acquisition workflow was established and described that includes simultaneous acquisition of high-resolution MSI and large-scale (>100) MS²I datasets, and increased confidence in annotation. For the latter, a spatial-correlation-based approach, spatial similarity networking (SSN), was developed to deconvolute chimeric MS² spectra by grouping product ions based on their shared spatial distributions. The combination of MS²I and SSN provides a previously unexplored dimension for structural interpretation in MSI.

Collectively, the developments and workflows presented in this thesis expand the analytical capabilities of direct-infusion mass spectrometry, enabling more sensitive detection, greater structural specificity, and broader molecular insights in both spatial and shotgun lipidomics.

Fe^III complexes based on the [Fe^III(ImP)₂]⁺ motif (ImP = bis(2,6-bis(3-methylimidazol-2-ylidene-1-yl)phenylene)), where the ligand contains both carbene and cyclometalated moieties, are a promising class of photoactive materials made from this abundant metal. In this work, it is shown that bromo or furanyl substituents attached to the cyclometalating moiety of the ImP ligands stabilize the ²LMCT excited state to very different extent resulting in opposing effects on the ²LMCT lifetime. For [Fe^III(ImPBr)₂]⁺, the lifetime (255 ps) of its moderately stabilized ²LMCT state (1.85 eV) is slightly increased compared to the parent complex (1.90 eV, 240 ps) pointing to an increased barrier for deactivation via the ⁴MC state and enabling applications as photoredox catalyst. In contrast, the ²LMCT energy of [Fe^III(ImPFur)₂]⁺ is lowered substantially to a value of 1.63 eV due to the extended π-system of the ligands and the reduced energy gap favors internal conversion directly to the ground state resulting in a considerably reduced ²LMCT lifetime of 59 ps. These findings have general implications for design of ligand modifications aiming at extended LMCT lifetimes and/or modified ground and excited state potentials.

Analysis of ligand-induced structural changes in proteins is challenging due to the lack of experimental methods suited for detection and characterisation of both ligand binding and induced structural changes. We have explored biosensors with different detection principles to study interactions between ligands and acetylcholine binding proteins (AChBPs), soluble homologues of Cys-loop ligand gated ion channels (LGICs) that undergo similar structural changes as LGICs upon ligand binding. X-ray crystallography was used to identify binding sites and establish if the detected conformational changes involved small changes in loop C or major structural changes in the pentamer associated with ion channel opening. Experiments were initially focused on ligands exhibiting complex surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor sensorgrams or detected by second harmonic generation (SHG) biosensor analysis. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) and SHG biosensors confirmed that complexities in SPR data were indeed due to ligand-induced conformational changes. Grating coupled interferometry (GCI) biosensor sensorgrams were less complex, despite similar detection principles. switchSENSE biosensor analysis revealed that ligands resulted in either a compaction or expansion of the protein structure. X-ray crystallography of the protein-ligand complexes was only successful for 7 out of 12 ligands, despite nM-μM affinities. Crystals were not obtained for the two compounds shown by SHG analysis to induce large structural changes, while electron densities were not seen in the structures for some ligands. The work presented herein shows that several biosensor technologies have a unique capability to detect and discriminate binding and ligand induced conformational changes in proteins, also when interactions are rapid, weak and structural changes are small. However, they are complementary and provide different information.

Purpose: To validate the Swedish National Spine Registry (Swespine) for diagnostic accuracy and documentation of surgical procedures for central lumbar spinal stenosis (CLSS) and lumbar disc herniation (LDH), including an analysis of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Additionally, this study evaluates the accuracy and completeness of perioperative data and documented complications.

Methods: Of 41,312 patients registered in Swespine for CLSS or LDH between January 2017 and December 2022, 800 were randomly selected from four hospitals. The electronic patient records were used as the gold standard. Radiological criteria for CLSS and LDH were established through a review of MRI scans.

Results: The proportion of correctly classified diagnoses (PCC) was 98.5% for CLSS and 99.2% for LDH, while the PCC of the type of surgery was 99.7% and 98.5% in the CLSS and LDH cohorts, respectively. Preoperative MRI analysis showed that 94.2% of patients undergoing CLSS surgery at the narrowest spinal level were classified as Schizas C or D, with a mean cross-sectional area of 44.2 mm². In comparison, 85.0% of patients who underwent LDH surgery were classified with Pfirrman grade 3.

Conclusion: Swespine demonstrated high accuracy and completeness in diagnosing and surgically treating CLSS and LDH patients, as corroborated by preoperative MRI assessments. Most perioperative data, including complications, demonstrated acceptable to excellent registration. Improvements are recommended in the documentation of the American Society of Anaesthesiologists classification, patient weight and height, smoking status, use of implants and bone grafts, date of discharge, use of thromboprophylaxis, and previous surgeries.

Fe-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are recognized for their excellent soft magnetic properties, further tunable through thermal processing. In this study, we investigate the effects of zero-field and field-assisted annealing on crystallization and stress-driven magnetic properties of Fe_{8 0}B₁₂P₄Si_2.7C_1.3 melt-spun ribbons. Using Kerr microscopy and magnetic measurements, we analyze the evolution of magnetic domains, anisotropy, and stress relaxation under different annealing conditions. Our results reveal that magnetic-field-assisted annealing below the Curie temperature effectively suppresses crystallization while reprogramming magnetic anisotropy, leading to improved soft magnetic properties. Reprogramming the magnetic anisotropy by annealing in a longitudinal magnetic field of 16 kA/m is effective only when the system remains fully amorphous. In a partially crystallized system, local anisotropy dominates over field-induced anisotropy. These findings clarify the thermal and structural conditions required for controlled tuning of magnetic anisotropy and soft magnetic performance, providing deeper insight into the interplay between stress, crystallization, and magnetic anisotropy in Fe-based BMGs.

Since it was first proposed the quasi-realist project has been met with challenges as to how fulfill its purported aim: to account for the realist-seeming aspects of morality with expressivism as its fundamental moral framework. One such aspect that has challenged quasi-realists since its introduction is that we sometimes consider ourselves to be morally uncertain. In this paper I present a modified account of expressivism that allows for normative attitudes to count as beliefs, but which gives them a non-factual belief content, and evaluate its potential pairing with quasi-realism. I propose that by using interpretative expressivism rather than traditional expressivism quasi-realism can better account for moral uncertainty, and in extension earn the right to a realist-sounding discourse about morality.

Background and Objectives: Reports of suspected adverse drug reactions are of a great importance for the safety monitoring of new vaccines to identify potential safety risks promptly and to ensure necessary measures for risk mitigation. We reviewed the reports of fatal adverse drug reactions after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination with Comirnaty (R), Spikevax (R), and Vaxzevria (R) during the national vaccination campaign in Sweden.

Methods: Swedish reports of suspected adverse drug reactions with fatal outcomes after COVID-19 vaccines were retrieved from the EudraVigilance database. Vaccination data were obtained from the National vaccination register. Reporting rates were calculated by dividing the number of adverse drug reaction reports with fatal outcomes by the number of people exposed to at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines or by the number of vaccine doses given. A causality assessment of adverse drug reaction reports was performed by clinically qualified reviewers.

Results: More than 26 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered and 456 reports of suspected adverse drug reactions with fatal outcomes were reported during 27 December, 2020-31 May, 2023. The reporting rate was 5.7 fatal outcomes per 100,000 persons vaccinated with at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine or 1.7 per 100,000 vaccine doses given. Most of the fatalities were related to patients' pre-existing conditions, predominantly among people aged 70 years or older. Only ten of the reported fatalities (0.1 per 100,000 persons vaccinated) were assessed as consistent with a causal association to COVID-19 vaccination.

Conclusions: Adverse drug reactions with fatal outcomes after COVID-19 vaccines in Sweden were very rare. No new safety concerns were observed in this study.

The purpose of this article is to introduce a new complete multiple q-hypergeometric symbolic calculus, which leads to q-Euler integrals and a very similar canonical system of q-difference equations for multiple q-hypergeometric functions. q-analogues of recurrence formulas in Horns paper and Borngassers thesis lead to a more exact way to find these Frobenius solutions. To find the right formulas, the parameters in q-shifted factorials can be changed to negative integers, which give no extra q-factors. In proving these q-formulas, in the limit q & RARR;1 we obtain versions of the paper by Debiard and Gaveau for the solution of differential or q-difference equations. The paper is also a correction of some of the statements in the paper by Debiard and Gaveau, e.g., the Euler integrals and other solutions to differential equations for Appell functions, also without references to page numbers in the standard work of Appell and Kampe de Feriet. Sometimes the q-binomial theorem is used to simplify q-integral formulas. By the Horn method, we find another solution to the Appell phi(1) function partial differential equation, which was not mentioned in the thesis by Le Vavasseur 1893.

In this our second article on the fourth Lauricella function, we start with some lemmas where Lauricella functions with m equal variables or with m copies of 1 can be reduced to a similar function. In the same way, Lauricella functions with m parameters equal to -1 can be reduced to a sum of Lauricella functions times elementary symmetric polynomials of the variables. These formulas are used in the proofs, as well as transformation formulas for Lauricella functions from the first paper. Our method gives a transformation with Kamp & eacute; de F & eacute;riet functions, which could possibly be extended. Also summation formulas for the first Appell function are proved. Because of the symmetric proofs, some q-analogues of these formulas can be found at the end of paper. All proofs use Eulerian (q-)integrals. Several formulas are generalizations of Kummer's second summation formula. In particular, the Euler-Pfaff transformation formula can be generalized to Lauricella functions. The sections are ordered according to the respective substitutions, and the recurring theme is again the reduced roots, which turn up as variables in the formulas. The power substitutions lead to formulas with complex function arguments, only one example is given.

Using data samples of (10087 ± 44) x 10⁶ J/ψ events and (2712.4 ± 14.3) x 10⁶ ψ(3686) events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, we search for the CP violating decays J/ψ → K_S⁰K_S⁰ and ψ(3686) → K_S⁰K_S⁰. No significant signals are observed over the expected background yields. The upper limits on their branching fractions are set as B(J/ψ → K_S⁰K_S⁰) < 4.7 x 10^-9 and B(ψ(3686) → K_S⁰K_S⁰) < 1.1 x 10^-8 at the 90% confidence level. These results improve the previous limits by a factor of three for J/ψ → K_S⁰K_S⁰ and two orders of magnitude for ψ(3686) → K_S⁰K_S⁰.

Denna uppsats undersöker hur nationsaktiva studenter vid Norrlands nation i Uppsalabeskriver sin socialisering in i nationens gemenskap, samt hur sociala interaktioner, roller, och symboliska praktiker bidrar till formationen av individuell identitet och en gemensamgruppidentitet. Studien bygger på nio kvalitativa djupintervjuer med studenter som innehar eller har innehaft förtroendevalda positioner inom nationens verksamhet och/eller föreningar, samt grundar sig i ett sociologiskt fenomenologiskt och symbolisk-interaktionistisktperspektiv.

Resultatet visar att den sekundära socialisering som sker vid nationen grundar sig i normer om arbetsamhet, tillförlitlighet, öppenhet, och lojalitet. Dessutom framträder en symboliskt präglad miljö där aktörerna ställs i förhållande till Norrland och norrländskhet samt föreningsspecifika rolltypologier. Genom deltagande i arbete och verksamhet vinner aktören erkännande och detta bidrar till identifikation och ett ökat engagemang. Samtidigt visar studien att tillhörighet inte är given, utan kontinuerligt förhandlas i relation till andra aktörer och till nationslivets moraliska ordningar.

Genom att belysa nationsaktivas egna erfarenheter bidrar uppsatsen till en fördjupad förståelse av studentnationer som arenor för sekundär socialisering och identitetsarbete. Studien visar hur nationsengagemang kan fungera som en central social och kulturell praktik i studenters liv, där gemenskap, ansvar och meningsskapande sammanflätas.

In order to effectively extract the feature points of mobile network animation images and accurately reflect the main content of the video, an optimization method to extract the feature points of key frame images of mobile network animation is proposed. Firstly, the key frames are selected according to the content change degree of the animation video. The scale invariant feature transformation algorithm is used to describe the feature points of the key frame image of the animation video. The local feature points of the image are estimated by the constraint optimization method to realize the optimization extraction of the feature points of the key frame image of the mobile network animation. The efficiency of feature points extraction is analyzed from the number and effectiveness of feature points extraction, time-consuming and similarity invariance of feature points. The experimental results show that the proposed method has excellent adaptability, and can effectively extract feature points of mobile network animation image.

Superconductor-semiconductor hybrids have been shown to be useful for realizing the Josephson diode effect, where nonreciprocity in the supercurrents occurs due to the interplay of the Josephson effect and applied magnetic fields. With the same ingredients, these Josephson junctions can also host Andreev and Majorana bound states, whose interplay with the Josephson diode effect is, however, not fully understood. In this work, we consider short Josephson junctions based on superconductor-semiconductor systems under homogeneous Zeeman fields and investigate the Josephson diode effect in the presence of Andreev and Majorana states. Under generic conditions, the Zeeman field component parallel to the spin-orbit axis promotes an asymmetric lowenergy spectrum as a function of the superconducting phase, which persists in the trivial and topological phases hosting Andreev and Majorana bound states, respectively. Interestingly, this spectrum asymmetry originates supercurrents that are not odd functions of the superconducting phase difference as in common Josephson junctions, thereby developing a nonreciprocal behavior that signals the emergence of the Josephson diode effect. We show that the Josephson diode effect is particularly promoted under the presence of both zero-energy Andreev and Majorana bound states, revealing that Josephson diodes can be realized in the trivial and topological phases of superconductor-semiconductor hybrids. We then demonstrate that the Zeeman field evolution of the diode's efficiencies is able to map the topological phase transition and the formation of Majorana bound states via an oscillatory behavior that becomes more visible in long superconductors. While Josephson diodes generally exist in the trivial and topological phases of Josephson junctions, we discover that in the tunneling regime only a Josephson diode effect in the topological phase remains due to the finite contribution of Majorana bound states. Our findings help understand the Josephson diode effect in superconductor-semiconductor hybrids and can also be useful for guiding the realization of Majorana-only Josephson diodes as well as for identifying Majorana states.

This thesis centres on the interconnections between gender, sexuality, Sámi Indigeneity and Nordic settler colonialism. At its broadest, it asks how different epistemological trajectories are reinforced, navigated and challenged in the two distinct and overlapping Nordic feminist contexts; a feminist and queer studies archive and Sámi feminist and queer artistic knowledge production.

Grounded in Sámi feminist and queer theoretical studies, and by building on the international field of queer Indigenous studies, the thesis explores Nordic settler colonial logics of erasure and its impact on Sámi understandings of gender and sexuality, as well as how the relations between Indigeneity, gender and sexuality are being re-imagined in feminist and queer/trans Sámi art. The thesis approaches archives as diverse and complex sites for different contested epistemological claims and possibilities. 

The first part analyses a digitalised journal archive of Nordic feminist and queer studies, between 1977-2021, illuminating how gender studies has historically placed Sámi questions in the margins and assimilated Sámi women under hegemonic understandings of feminism, suggesting that Sámi Indigeneity is marked by a simultaneous absence and presence. While considering how Nordic feminist and queer studies remains haunted by settler colonialism, this part points to current efforts of changing the terms of Nordic feminist conversation. By learning to learn from Sámi epistemologies, the thesis argues that Nordic feminist and queer studies can find other ways of relating in the settler colonial present.

Part two is a dialogue with a woven archive of art by Katarina Pirak Sikku, Outi Pieski and Timimie Märak, highlighting how Sámi feminist and queer art critically explores Sámi relations. The artworks illuminate how Sámi epistemologies, where subjectivity exists beyond the human, have tools for re-negotiating Sámi relations of gender and sexuality. Through this re-negotiation, the Sámi artists work along and against settler colonial (knowledge) trajectories, that place Sámi Indigeneity as out of time, and shape the conditions for Sámi feminist and queer (knowledge) struggles in the settler colonial present. The thesis concludes in proposing that by creating decolonial soundscapes, Sámi feminist and queer art demonstrates how other worlds can be imagined in the settler colonial dystopian present.

This compilation thesis investigates the linguistic representation and evaluation of gender in American English across registers and historical periods. The overarching aim is to examine how language portrays and positions males and females, and how attitudes, viewpoints, or feelings toward them are expressed in relation to attributes such as personality traits, physical appearance, and societal importance. Representation is analyzed through syntactic framing (subjecthood, clause position) and semantic roles (e.g., agent, experiencer) of male/female referents, as well as the use of explicitly gender-marked forms. Evaluation is operationalized via adjectives co-occurring with gender-specific (pro)nominal expressions, typically conveying positive or negative meaning. A corpus-based methodology combining quantitative analysis with qualitative interpretation is employed to trace patterns of continuity and change, situated within broader sociohistorical contexts such as the women’s suffrage movement, second-wave feminism, and #MeToo.

The four articles address complementary aspects of the overarching aim. Article 1 examines contemporary American English, showing how evaluations of males and females vary across semantic domains, registers, and positivity/negativity. Article 2 takes a diachronic perspective, tracing continuities and shifts in gender evaluation spanning the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries across fiction, newspapers, and non-fiction. Article 3 investigates gender representation and evaluation in two ideologically distinct online news outlets (HuffPost and the Washington Examiner) before and after #MeToo, with particular attention to syntactic and semantic framing. Article 4 traces the evolution of gender-marked forms in American television and film across the 1970s, 1990s, and 2010s, focusing on feminizing suffixes, gendered premodifiers, and -man/-woman compounds.

The findings show persistent gender asymmetries in linguistic practice, with men evaluated more frequently and extensively than women. Even so, the analyses reveal gradual diversification in the linguistic portrayal of women’s roles and competencies, particularly in late-twentieth-century non-fiction and newspapers. Post-#MeToo news contains fewer overt evaluations but enduring stereotypes, with outlet-specific shifts in the portrayal of agency and vulnerability and modest changes in syntactic foregrounding. Explicitly gender-marked forms (especially -man terms) recede, though items like actress increase, and television moves toward neutrality faster than film, reflecting that linguistic change is uneven, context-dependent, and closely tied to ongoing negotiations of gender roles in society.

Every social situation that people encounter in their daily lives comes with a set of unwritten rules about what behavior is considered appropriate or inappropriate. These everyday norms can vary across societies: some societies may have more permissive norms in general or for certain behaviors, or for certain behaviors in specific situations. In a preregistered survey of 25,422 participants across 90 societies, we map societal differences in 150 everyday norms and show that they can be explained by how societies prioritize individualizing moral foundations such as care and liberty versus binding moral foundations such as purity. Specifically, societies with more individualistic morality tend to have more permissive norms in general (greater liberty) and especially for behaviors deemed vulgar (less purity), but they exhibit less permissive norms for behaviors perceived to have negative consequences in specific situations (greater care). By comparing our data with available data collected twenty years ago, we find a global pattern of change toward more permissive norms overall but less permissive norms for the most vulgar and inconsiderate behaviors. This study explains how social norms vary across behaviors, situations, societies, and time.

Comet Interceptor is an ESA science mission with payload contributions from ESA Member States and with an international participation by JAXA. It is the first mission that is being designed, built, and potentially launched before its target is known. This approach will enable the spacecraft to perform the first mission to a Long Period Comet from the Oort Cloud, as these comets have fleeting visits to the inner Solar System lasting only months to years from first discovery, too short for the usual process of mission development to be followed. In this paper we describe a number of factors that need to be considered in selecting a target for the mission, including scientific, orbital, spacecraft and instrument constraints, and discussion of different prioritisation strategies. We find that, in the case where we have a choice of targets, our decisions will mostly be driven by orbital information, which we will have relatively early on, with information on the activity level of the comet an important but secondary consideration. As cometary activity levels are notoriously hard to predict based on early observations alone, this prioritisation / decision approach based more on orbits gives us confidence that a good comet that is compatible with the spacecraft constraints will be selectable with sufficient warning time to allow the mission to intercept it.

Studien undersöker hur svenska riksdagspartier framställer och konstruerar könskvotering genom föreställningar om kön, makt och jämställdhet. Studien tog sin utgångspunkt i att könskvotering är en politiskt omstridd åtgärd som väcker frågor om rättvisa, kompetens och statens ansvar för att säkerställa jämställdhet i samhället. Genom en kritisk diskursanalys analyserades hur språket användes för att legitimera eller ifrågasätta könskvotering i en varsin riksdagsmotion från Vänsterpartiet, Miljöpartiet, Liberalerna, Moderaterna, Kristdemokraterna och Sverigedemokraterna. Analysen utgick från ett teoretiskt ramverk som möjliggjorde en tolkning av hur kön konstruerades, värderades och positionerades i den politiska diskursen. I resultat och analys presenteras det hur könskvotering konstruerades inom återkommande teman som strukturella hinder i arbetslivet, meritokrati och individuell prestation, statens roll i jämställdhetsarbetet, föreställningar om kön och normativa ideal samt hur politiska åtgärder legitimerades och motiverades. Resultatet visade att partierna formulerade könskvotering på olika sätt beroende på hur frågorna betonades. Vänsterpartiet och Miljöpartiet framställde könskvotering som ett nödvändigt verktyg för att motverka könade maktförhållanden i arbetslivet och en viktig byggsten för jämställdhet, medan Moderaterna, Kristdemokraterna och Sverigedemokraterna i högre grad beskrev åtgärden som ett hot mot meritokratiska principer och individuell frihet. Liberalerna intog en dubbelsidig position, där strukturella ojämlikheter erkändes men kvotering problematiseras till förmån för individuella meriter. Studiens analys visade hur språkliga strategier användes för att legitimera olika förståelser av politiskt ansvar. I vissa partiers argumentation beskrevs bristande jämställdhet som ett resultat av strukturer, normer och maktförhållanden i arbetslivet, vilket legitimerade politiska ingripanden. I andra diskurser framställdes bristande jämställdhet som en fråga om individens val och prestation, där statens roll begränsades till att skapa lika möjligheter snarare än att påverka utfallet.

Denna studie undersöker vad som motiverar anställda, hur motivation används som ett verktyg för organisatorisk kontroll samt hur denna kontroll upplevs av medarbetarna inom en svensk optikerkedja. Tidigare forskning visar att hög motivation relaterar med positiva resultat, vilket gör att motivationsstrategier kan användas som ett verktyg för social kontroll. Med utgångspunkt i studiens teoretiska ramverk analyseras materialet som har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomförts med anställda inom organisationen. Därefter har en riktad kvalitativ innehållsanalys genomförts för att tolka det empiriska materialet. Kodningen av materialet utgick från en deduktiv ansats där det teoretiska ramverket styr kodningen. Därefter identifierades underkategorier vilket innebär att analysen även innehåller induktiva anslag. Resultatet visar att de anställda i hög utsträckning motiveras av samhörighet och kompetens, vilka bidrar till att stärka den inre motivationen. Samtidigt framkommer att yttre motivationsfaktorer har en viss betydelse, där bonusar upplevs som motivationshöjande. Vidare använder sig organisationen av flera motivationsstrategier som ett verktyg för social kontroll inom organisationen. Organisationen använder sig av företagskultur och rekrytering på ett sätt som har lett till att de anställda internaliserat organisationens mål, samtidigt som detta har bidragit till att tillfredsställa deras behov av samhörighet. Tävlingar används även som strategi där de anställda belönas om vissa försäljningsmål tillfredställs. Vidare sker ett utövande av neo-normativ kontroll som motivationsstrategi där de anställda har begränsad autonomi. Dessa former av styrning hämmar inte de anställdas upplevelse av frihet. Motivationsstrategier som företagskultur och tävlingar har en främjande effekt på delaktigheten där anställda uppger att dessa styrtekniker ökar gemenskapen på arbetsplatsen. Neo-normativ kontroll utövas och upplevs inte hämma vare sig friheten eller delaktigheten, då de anställda upplever att de kan vara sig själva, trots att deras beteende styrs av såväl informella som formella regler.

Based on a sample of (1.0087 ± 0.0044) x 10¹⁰ J/ψ events collected at BESIII, the transition formfactor of the η meson is extracted by analyzing J/ψ → γη', η' → π⁺π^-η and η → γl⁺l^- (l = e, μ) events. The measured slope of the transition form factor is Λ^-2 = 1.668 ± 0.093_stat ± 0.024_sys (GeV/c²)^-2 for the di-electron channel and Λ^-2 = 1.645 ± 0.343_stat ± 0.017_sys (GeV/c²)^-2 for the di-muon channel. The branching fractions for η → γe⁺e^- and η → γμ⁺μ^- are measured to be B(η → γe⁺e^-) = (6.79 ± 0.05_stat ± 0.36_sys) x 10^-3 and B(η → γμ⁺μ^-) = (2.97 ± 0.12_stat ± 0.07_sys) x 10^-4. By combining with the results based on the J/ψ → γη and η → e⁺e^- events from the previous BESIII measurement, we determine Λ^-2 = 1.707 ± 0.076_stat ± 0.029_sys (GeV/c²)^-2 and B(η → γe⁺e^-) = (6.93 ± 0.28_tot  x 10^-3. In addition, we search for the dark photon (A') using the combined events. No significant signal is observed, and the upper limits on B(η → γA', A' → e⁺e^-) are set at the 90% confidence level for different A' mass hypotheses. l

Using (2712 ± 14) x 10⁶ ψ(3686) events collected with the BESIII detector, we perform the first amplitude analysis of the radiative decay ψ(3686) → γK_S⁰K_S⁰ within the mass region ^MK_S⁰K_S⁰ <2.8 GeV/c². Employing a one-channel K-matrix approach for the description of the dynamics of the K_S⁰K_S⁰ system, the data sample is well described with four poles for the f₀-wave and three poles for the f₂-wave. The determined pole positions are consistent with those of well-established resonance states. The observed f₀ and f₂ states are found to be in agreement with those produced in radiative J/ψ decays. The production behaviors of f₀ and f₂ poles in ψ(3686) → γK_S⁰K_S⁰ are qualified with their residues and the converted branching fractions. By comparing with J/ψ → γK_S⁰K_S⁰ decay, the ratios B(ψ(3686) → γf_0,2)/B(J/ψ → γf_0,2) are determined, which provides crucial experimental inputs on the internal structure of the f_0,2 states, especially their potential mixing with glueball components.

A search is presented for a heavy scalar (H) or pseudo-scalar (A) predicted by the two-Higgs-doublet models, where the H/A is produced in association with a top-quark pair (t t<over bar>H/A), and with the H/A decaying into a tt<over bar> pair. The full LHC Run 2 proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb^-1. Events are selected requiring exactly one or two opposite-charge electrons or muons. Data-driven corrections are applied to improve the modelling of the tt<over bar> +jets background in the regime with high jet and b-jet multiplicities. These include a novel multi-dimensional kinematic reweighting based on a neural network trained using data and simulations. An H/A-mass parameterised graph neural network is trained to optimise the signal-to-background discrimination. In combination with the previous search performed by the ATLAS Collaboration in the multilepton final state, the observed upper limits on the tt<over bar>H/A → tt<over bar>tt<over bar> production cross-section at 95% confidence level range between 14 fb and 5.0 fb for an H/A with mass between 400 GeV and 1000 GeV, respectively. Assuming that both the H and A contribute to the tt<over bar>tt<over bar> cross-section, tan β values below 1.7 or 0.7 are excluded for a mass of 400 GeV or 1000 GeV, respectively. The results are also used to constrain a model predicting the pair production of a colour-octet scalar, with the scalar decaying into a tt<over bar> pair.

Subcutaneous injection is the preferred administration route for degradation-sensitive therapeutic peptides and proteins because it is patient-friendly and can provide sufficient bioavailability. However, both bioavailability and absorption rate vary considerably and are difficult to predict. As yet, no existing in vitro model can reliably estimate the pharmacokinetics of new drug compounds, highlighting the need for methods that offer mechanistic insight into transport processes under physiologically relevant conditions.

This thesis investigates the transport properties of model drugs with varying physicochemical properties in hydrogels that mimic the extracellular matrix of subcutaneous tissue. Partitioning and diffusion coefficients were measured in gels and in solution using confocal laser scanning microscopy and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). Experimental results were compared with theoretical models describing obstruction and electrostatic interactions, and the experimentally derived parameters were incorporated into a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model to predict subcutaneous absorption rate and bioavailability.

The results confirm that FRAP enables reliable quantification of local diffusion coefficients in heterogeneous gels. Combined with information on distribution within the gel and gel–solution partitioning, the method provides insight into interactions of the compounds with the gel matrix. Composite collagen–hyaluronic acid gels proved to be the most physiologically relevant, offering appropriate interaction sites along with reproducibility and stability.

Diffusivities in solution depended not only on molecular weight but also on molecular shape and oligomerization. In gels, near-neutral compounds generally showed reduced partitioning and diffusion, whereas highly positively charged peptides and proteins were enriched in polymer-dense regions. This enrichment substantially decreased diffusivity due to obstruction and electrostatic binding. The electrostatic interactions were decreased in the presence of human serum albumin for compounds containing a high-affinity albumin-binding domain, effectively facilitating their transport. Albumin also altered the apparent hydrodynamic size of some molecules by solubilizing oligomers or forming larger complexes.

Finally, it was demonstrated that diffusion and partitioning data from collagen–hyaluronic acid gels correlated with in vivo absorption rates of therapeutic proteins and could be used to improve PBPK model predictions. Overall, the presented method offers a valuable characterization tool that can facilitate the design of new drug candidates with predictable pharmacokinetic profiles.

A partial-wave analysis is performed on the decay J/ψ → γπ⁰π⁰π⁰ within the π⁰π⁰π⁰ invariant-mass region below 1.6 GeV/c², using (10.09 ± 0.04) x 10⁹ J/ψ events collected with the BESIII detector. Significant isospin-violating decays of η(1405) and f₁(1420) into f₀(980)π⁰ are observed. For the first time, three axial vectors, f₁(1285), f₁(1420), and f₁(1510), are observed to decay into π⁰π⁰π⁰. The product branching fractions of these resonances are reported.

Photovoltaic solar cell technology, based on semiconducting materials that absorb sunlight andconvert it into electricity, represents a green and sustainable energy solution. However, highmaterial costs and energy-intensive fabrication processes remain major challenges. Onepromising approach to reduce these limitations is the development of ultra-thin plasmonic solarcells, which can achieve high absorption despite very thin absorber layers.Localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) can enhance light absorption through improvedlight trapping and near-field effects. In this work, ultrathin gold (Au) films were deposited onglass and silicon substrates, forming gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and their optical properties inthe visible to near-infrared spectral range were investigated. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) ofhafnium dioxide (HfO₂) and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) was applied either before or after Audeposition to influence nanoparticle formation and stability, followed by thermal annealing.The impact of one or two ALD cycles on the thermal stability and optical response of AuNPfilms was studied using spectroscopic ellipsometry. The results show that ALD applied as acapping layer after Au deposition enhances the stability of the plasmonic response compared toALD applied beneath the Au film. In particular, HfO₂ capping layers provide improved stabilityagainst thermal annealing, with similar effects observed for a single cycle of Al₂O₃.These findings indicate that ultrathin oxide capping layers deposited by ALD constitute apromising strategy for stabilizing the optical properties of Au nanoparticle films. Furtherinvestigations are required to optimize thermal treatment conditions and fully understand thestructure property relationships of the fabricated materials.

Denna studies undersöker hur högkänsliga individer upplever att deras högkänslighet påverkar deras samspel med andra på arbetsplatsen och vilka möjligheter och utmaningar som högkänsliga individer ser i sitt arbetsliv. Goffmans rollteori och Arons teori om högkänslighet används tillsammans för att analysera och påvisa deltagarnas upplevelser. Fem intervjuer har genomförts. Resultatet visar att högkänsliga individer upplever sin arbetsmiljö både positivt och negativt, kopplat till sociala förväntningar och arbetskrav. Strategier för att hantera press och balans är viktiga aspekter i högkänsliga individens arbetsliv.

Lepton number violation decay ω → π⁺π⁺e^-e^- +c. c. is searched for via J/ψ → ωη using a data sample of (1.0087 ± 0.0044) x 10¹⁰ J/ψ events collected via the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. No significant signal is observed, and the upper limit on the branching fraction of ω → π⁺π⁺e^-e^- +c.c. at the 90% confidence level is determined for the first time to be 2.8 x 10^-6.

Measurements of W⁺W^- → e^±νμ^-/+ν production cross-sections are presented, providing a test of the predictions of perturbative quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak theory. The measurements are based on data from pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb^-1. The number of events due to top-quark pair production, the largest background, is reduced by rejecting events containing jets with b-hadron decays. An improved methodology for estimating the remaining top-quark background enables a precise measurement of W⁺W^- cross-sections with no additional requirements on jets. The fiducial W⁺W^- cross-section is determined in a maximum-likelihood fit with an uncertainty of 3.1%. The measurement is extrapolated to the full phase space, resulting in a total W⁺W^- cross-section of 127 ± 4 pb. Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of twelve observables that comprehensively describe the kinematics of W⁺W^- events. The measurements are compared with state-of-the-art theory calculations and excellent agreement with predictions is observed. A charge asymmetry in the lepton rapidity is observed as a function of the dilepton invariant mass, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. A CP-odd observable is measured to be consistent with no CP violation. Limits on Standard Model effective field theory Wilson coefficients in the Warsaw basis are obtained from the differential cross-sections.

Cancer detection is challenging, especially in patients with diffuse symptoms that overlap with non-malignant conditions. Here we show that plasma protein profiling can identify cancer among patients with non-specific symptoms. Using proximity extension assay-based proteomics of 1463 plasma proteins from 456 patients presenting with non-specific symptoms sampled prior to cancer diagnostic work-up and diagnosis, we identify 29 proteins associated with new cancer diagnoses. We develop a model able to stratify 160 cancer cases and 296 non-cancer cases with an area under the curve of 0.80, maintaining performance (0.82) in an independent replication cohort of 238 patients. The model also distinguishes cancer from autoimmune, inflammatory and infectious diseases. Designed as a triage tool, our model based on a blood test could help prioritize patients at higher cancer risk for rapid and highly sensitive diagnostic modalities such as positron emission tomography-computed tomography. These findings emphasize the potential of blood proteome profiling to support timely diagnosis and transform clinical medicine.

BEBOP-3 is detached eclipsing binary star that shows total eclipses of a faint M dwarf every 13.2 d by a ninth-magnitude F9 V star. High-precision radial velocity measurements have recently shown that this binary star is orbited by a planet with an orbital period approximate to 550 d. The extensive spectroscopy used to detect this circumbinary planet has also been used to directly measure the masses of the stars in the eclipsing binary. We have used light curves from the TESS mission combined with these mass measurements to directly measure the following radii and surface gravities for the stars in this system: R-1 = 1.386 +/- 0.010 R-circle dot, log g(1) = 4.190 +/- 0.004, R-2 = 0.274 +/- 0.002 R-circle dot, and log g(2) = 4.979 +/- 0.002. We describe an improved version of our method to measure the effective temperatures (T-eff) of stars in binary systems directly from their angular diameters and bolometric fluxes. We measure T-eff,T- 1 = 6065 K +/- 44 K and T-eff,T- 2 = 3191 K +/- 40 K for the stars in BEBOP-3 using this method. BEBOP-3 can be added to our growing sample of stars that can be used test the accuracy of spectroscopic and photometric methods to estimate T(eff )and log g for solar-type stars.

Background: Cardiac arrest (CA) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Accurate prediction of neurological outcome and survival remains challenging. In this context, our study aimed to explore novel molecular biomarkers that could provide additional insights into the pathophysiology of brain injury after CA and potentially distinguish patients with no brain injury (CPC 1) from those with any degree of neurological damage from moderate injury up to death (CPC 2-5), and complement existing prognostic tools.

Methods: Whole blood samples collected 48 h after return of spontaneous circulation were analyzed by RNA sequencing in a subgroup of 50 CA patients from the monocenter North Pole cohort, and by quantitative PCR in 233 patients from the same cohort as well as in 511 patients from the multicenter TTM trial. The association of gene expression changes with 6-month neurological outcome (assessed by the Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) score) and survival was studied.

Results: In a discovery phase with a subset of 50 patients from the North Pole cohort (25 CPC 1 and 25 CPC 5), direct RNA sequencing identified the solute carrier family 2 member 1 (SLC2A1), a gene encoding a major glucose transporter at the blood-brain barrier (GLUT1), as significantly upregulated in CPC 5 patients (dead with severe neurological impairment) compared to survivors without neurological sequelae (CPC 1). This upregulation was confirmed by quantitative PCR and extended to the entire North Pole cohort (p < 0.001). SLC2A1 was an independent predictor of neurological sequelae or death in this cohort. In the TTM trial, SLC2A1 was also upregulated in patients with neurological sequelae or death (p < 0.001) and was an independent predictor of neurological sequelae or death, providing an incremental predictive value to a baseline clinical model (odds ratio = 2.06, 95% confidence interval 1.31-3.4, p = 2.82E-03, and likelihood ratio test p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Blood level of SLC2A1 is a tentative blood biomarker that may aid in neurological outcome prediction after CA and also provide new insights into post-CA injury mechanisms.

Most head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cases are diagnosed late, with an increased risk of recurrence and distant metastasis. In recent years, there has been a surge in the development of prognostic and predictive machine learning (ML) models for personalized treatment planning. However, only a small number of these have been externally validated. This study aimed to build a prognostic system by combining clinicopathological parameters and treatment-related factors as integrative inputs to build a machine learning (ML) model using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER, United States) program. We further validated the developed model using multicenter data obtained from the Thuringian Cancer Registry (Germany) and a multicenter prospective observational study obtained from the Uppsala University Hospital (Sweden) to estimate the overall survival (OS) of patients with HNSCC. Additionally, we explored the complementary prognostic potentials of these input parameters using permutation feature importance (PFI). A total of 40,164 patients with HNSCC were recruited from the SEER database and validated with 3950 cases obtained from the Thuringian Cancer Registry and 323 cases recruited from three University Hospitals in Sweden. We evaluated the prognostic significance of the input variables to predict OS in patients with HNSCC using permutation feature importance. The voting ensemble ML algorithm gave an area under receiving operating characteristics curve (AUC) of 0.76 and an accuracy of 70.0%. Independent external validation of the validation model with data from the Thuringian Cancer Registry and the Uppsala University Hospital gave AUCs of 0.68 and 0.76, with decreased performance accuracy in both cohorts. The PFI analysis of the base model showed that age at diagnosis, T stage, tumor site, marital status, and surgical treatment were the most important parameters for the predictive ability of the model for OS. External independent geographic validation is important for performance reproducibility and model generalization before recommending the model for further clinical evaluation. External independent geographic validation may not necessarily increase the performance accuracy. However, it can reveal and demonstrate the performance of the model outside the development data. A generalized ML can lead to individualized risk-based therapeutic decision-making. While independently validating the model may be possible during model development, data privacy and security-related issues may prevent including it as a prerequisite in the ML model development pipeline.

Probiotics have been widely used as an adjuvant therapy to treat or prevent various diseases. However, therapeutic effect is usually contingent on the ability of the probiotic cells to adhere to and colonize the gastrointestinal tract. Pediococcus pentosaceus Li05 has previously been shown anti-inflammatory effect, however, its mucoadhesive ability limited further application. In this study, MUC2 antibody was used as an adhesin and conjugated to the surface of Li05 (M-Li05) and our results demonstrated that the adhesion and colonization resistance were significantly improved in vitro. Moreover, competitive adhesion experiments in mice demonstrated that Li05 outcompeted Citrobacter rodentium; an effect even more pronounced with M-Li05. The study also showed that M-Li05 significantly reduced colonic histological injury, alleviated inflammation and decreased pathogens colonization in the C. rodentium-infected and DSS-induced colitis mouse model. In summary, the results demonstrated that M-Li05 showed promise for future application as a therapeutic strategy for colitis.

Persistent gaps in political participation among immigrant-origin citizens have led scholars and policymakers alike to emphasise the role of shared national identity in fostering democratic cohesion. However, empirical evidence for such effects remains uncertain as existing research relies mainly on cross-sectional designs. Furthermore, scholars disagree on the role of ethnic identities in political participation, with some arguing that it may foster participation when combined with a stronger attachment to the host country. This study addresses this research gap by investigating the association between national identification and voting intention using longitudinal data from the Dutch LISS panel between 2019 and 2025. In addition, it investigates whether this relationship is conditioned by the strength of ethnic identification and political efficacy. The results provide weak support for a causal effect of national identification on voting intention. However, the findings indicate that national and ethnic identification might play complementary roles in fostering voting intention under conditions of high political efficacy. Overall, the paper underscores the importance of methodological choices and the need to go beyond observational designs to draw more reliable conclusions about the role of social identities. 

Previous research indicates that Indigenous peoples are often marginalised in discussions about environmental issues. This thesis analyses how Indigenous peoples are depicted in modern corporate sustainability reports and how these depictions relate to larger colonial power dynamics. It investigates how mining companies represent Indigenous communities and whether these portrayals reinforce or challenge colonial structures, comparing contexts in Brazil and Sweden. The research is based on a qualitative content analysis of CSR and ESG reports from four mining firms, two from each country. The theoretical approach draws on decolonial theory, focusing on power, knowledge, nature, and being, and uses a comparative, mostdifferent systems design. Results reveal that modern corporate sustainability reports mainly frame sustainability as a technical and managerial task, depicting Indigenous peoples primarily as stakeholders or beneficiaries rather than as political agents with land and knowledge authority. Findings also show similarities in reporting standards across nations, but differences in how legitimacy and social licence to operate are constructed through sustainability reporting. These findings highlight the limits of global sustainability frameworks and show how CSR and ESG practices can perpetuate colonial structures.  

The Re-Emergence of the Strong State is the theoretical pillar of Post-New Public Management (Post-NPM). However, what characterizes such a re-emergence remains unclear. In this thesis, I provide substance to this concept by developing a theoretical tool that bridges the gap to another field of research: politically driven bureaucratization. This represents my theoretical contribution. Two Swedish cases that have been highlighted in previous research as needing further exploration—systematic work environment management (with the Work Environment Authority as supervisory authority) and equal opportunities and antidiscrimination (with the Equality Ombudsman as supervisory authority)—illustrate such bureaucratization in public administration. These cases are of theoretical interest because the insights and real-world examples they provide can be used to address the key gap in Post-NPM by contributing to the development of definitions of The Re-Emergence of the Strong State, which makes them theoretically relevant beyond the Swedish context. By studying these cases, I also provide an empirical contribution. Through expert interviews and extensive analysis of public documents, this thesis offers new insights into what The Re-Emergence of the Strong State can entail. The results show that this may include the state raising the “formal bar” regulating what supervisory authorities can do, the “political bar” indicating what they should do, processes that reallocate accountability through bureaucratization, and the expansion of sanctioning powers and regulatory provisions for supervisory authorities. These shifts in governmental reasoning count as expressions of Post-NPM, even if they do not result in legal change.

This thesis sets out to explore whether or not Swedish municipalities adhere to and follow The Act of Public Access to Information and Secrecy, which in Swedish is called “Offentlighetsprincipen”. More specifically, it will analyse whether or not the municipalities follow the urgency requirement and if this compliance differs depending on municipal population size. Further, it also sets out to explore whether or not discrimination occurs when municipalities process requests for access to public documents. Although there are laws and clarifications from The Parliamentary Ombudsmen (Justitieombudsmannen) that require municipalities to process these requests within one day, previous research has found that a majority of municipalities do not follow this. Previous research has also found that although direct discrimination is not commonly occurring in Sweden, citizens with Swedish names generally are treated with warmer and more welcoming attitudes than foreign ethnicities when in contact with public officials in Sweden. The main body of data for this study was collected through a digital field experiment where 280 municipalities were contacted by two fictional aliases through email and requested to disclose the exact same type of public document. The results show that the municipalities do not follow the urgency requirement, and no statistically significant difference was found in treatment of the two aliases in the aspect of discrimination other than that the Swedish alias was greeted by name more often than the Arabic alias. Furthermore, the results show that there is a positive association between a larger population and a higher response rate among the municipalities, which could indicate that resources play a role in whether or not municipalities can uphold laws and principles.

Experiences of authoritarian rule are often assumed to produce heightened democratic vigilance among those who have lived under repression. This thesis examines how Cuban exiles draw on memories of authoritarianism when interpreting and evaluating democracy in the United States. Rather than treating authoritarian experience as a fixed background condition or a source of fixed political attitudes, the analysis approaches memory as an active interpretive resource through which democratic meaning is constructed, assessed, and justified. Drawing on qualitative interviews with Cuban exiles in the United States, the study employs a process-oriented analytical framework to trace how memories of authoritarianism are mobilized, reconstructed, and legitimized across evaluations of key democratic principles, including censorship, freedom of expression, the rule of law, and separation of powers. The findings show that authoritarian memory functions as a normative benchmark rather than a direct comparative template. Participants draw on their experiences of authoritarianism in Cuba as a reference point for what is perceived as democratically sufficient, vulnerable, or unacceptable in the U.S context. While such memories sharpen sensitivity to overt repression and power concentration, they also produce differentiated evaluative thresholds. For some participants, the continued existence of elections and formal rights is sufficient to affirm democracy, whereas others require visible institutional constraint and accountability for democratic legitimacy to remain meaningful.

Critical raw materials are an increasingly hot topic in national and European politics, with more extraction needed to meet the global demand. The media reports of these discussions often centre around green transition, competitiveness and geopolitics. Yet, the perspectives of locals living near the mines are less discussed. This thesis focuses on the representation of local perspectives in decision-making on critical raw materials at a national and European level. Through a framing analysis of official statements and plenary debates, the thesis explored the substantive representation of local framings of critical raw materials across the multi-level governance system, including Kiruna, Sweden, and the European Union. The analysis focused on how the extraction of critical raw materials is framed as a challenge, the reasons for extraction, positions towards it, and potential solutions to its challenges. Special consideration is given to the debate on the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act. Overall, the local framings were substantively represented at the national and European levels, but their specific contents varied. The challenges faced by indigenous peoples and local communities were found to be insufficiently represented above the local governance level. It was primarily the locals’ practical demands regarding financial benefits and support in balancing interests that the EU representatives failed to reflect, while the Swedish representatives mirrored some of them. Therefore, the delegation of authority within the multi-level governance system is discussed as a possible explanation for sufficient and insufficient representation. 

 This thesis aims to compare how female representatives of the Sweden Democrats in Sweden (SD) and Law and Justice in Poland (PiS) use feminist and nationalist coded themes in rhetoric directed at women voters. Using qualitative text analysis of public posts and texts, it examines how women are positioned as political subjects and how gender equality, security, and family are framed. The findings show that both parties link women’s safety and protection from violence to nationalist solutions that emphasise control, boundary making, and moral order. Women are positioned as protectable citizens, as mothers or potential mothers, and as carriers of national values, and at times as workers and welfare bearers. The comparison highlights contextual differences: the Sweden Democrats present gender equality as a national norm and marker of Swedish modernity, while Law and Justice ties women more strongly to family, motherhood, and national continuity in a more conservative gender regime. Overall, the thesis shows how care and security can legitimise exclusionary politics, with implications for women’s political subjectivity and marginalised groups.

Abstract: Swedish civil servants (officials) are underrepresented in the European Union (EU) institutions. The Swedish government is currently working to reverse this trend. The deficit of Swedes is viewed as problematic, since an even geographical representation in the EU institutions is expected to enhance the Swedish perspective on European policy matters. Simultaneously, the EU’s staff regulations stipulate that officials should be neutral and not favor any external party. 

In this thesis, I interview 27 Swedish officials in the European Commission. Scrutinizing current officials can help form our expectations on future ones. The officials express their views on the European Commission’s role in the EU political system, their loyalties and autonomy vis-à-vis Sweden. I find that Swedish Commission officials often are pragmatic: supporting more power to the Commission when the nature of the issue at hand demands it. Moreover, the officials are loyal to their employer and most do not adhere to carrying the Swedish policy perspective with them in their work. Lastly, the officials testify to limited and ad-hoc contact with Swedish government actors, making them quite autonomous in relation to their home country. However, the officials express a wish for more contact. 

My findings suggest that Swedish officials don’t inherently carry the Swedish perspective with them and that their views are Commission-oriented at large. Subsequently, EU recruitment efforts aiming to strengthen the Swedish perspective in policy matters could be complemented by a strengthened bond between Brussels and Stockholm, if Sweden’s objectives are to be achieved. 

Political parties in European Union (EU) member states are often criticised for failing to emphasise European issues in their election campaigns. This thesis assesses whether this critique applies to the 2024 European Parliament (EP) election. It analyses the extent to which 58 parties emphasised European issues in their 2024 EP election manifestos or other campaign texts. Specifically, it examines (1) what emphasis parties placed on European and national issues, and (2) how party characteristics – party family, Euroscepticism, party size, and government or opposition status – are associated with parties’ likelihood of emphasising European issues. To examine this, an original dataset was constructed through quantitative content analysis using a refined coding scheme. A hypothesis test for two-sample proportions is used to address the first research question, and multinomial logistic regression is applied to the second. The findings show that, overall, parties emphasised European issues more than national issues in their 2024 EP election manifestos. This finding contradicts the most classical theory of European elections, the second-order elections theory. Regarding party characteristics, green parties were more likely to emphasise European issues, whereas radical right parties were less likely to do so. No significant relationship was found between emphasising European issues and party size, or between emphasising European issues and government or opposition status. Overall, the results suggest that parties alone cannot be blamed for citizens’ lack of information about EU policies.

This thesis investigates how populist radical right parties (PRRPs) strategically interact with temporary protest movements through framing, a dynamic that remains underexplored. The aim was to better understand how four populist radical right parties, Rassemblement National (RN), Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Law and Justice (PiS) and Fidesz, strategically use framing to reflect and further their ideological agendas in protest contexts. A cross-level comparative framing analysis of 161 party statements addressing the 2023-2024 European farmers’ protests was conducted. Building an analytical framework based on populist radical right theoretical ideology of nativism, populism and authoritarianism, the analysis mapped the occurrence and variations of frame usage between parties at the national and EU levels. The results show that all parties use nativist, populist and authoritarian frames to a relatively large, albeit varying, extent. The analysis additionally demonstrates substantial variation in frame usage between parties and strategic differentiation across national and EU levels, confirming framing reflecting ideology as a strategic tool used in the 2023-2024 European farmers’ protests. The thesis contributes to our knowledge of how PRRPs operate in contemporary Europe and of the democratic challenges they pose, by providing a nuanced picture of how RN, AfD, PiS and Fidesz framed the farmers’ protests at the national and EU level. The results highlight the need for further research on how PRRPs operate in the context of large-scale protests and multi-level governance systems. 

Law and order, as well as integration and immigration, have over the past decade emerged as some of the most pressing political issues in the Swedish public debate. For nine of the last ten years, voters have ranked at least one of these issues as the single most important societal problem in Sweden, and organized crime is currently the greatest concern for public safety and democracy.

The following study explores how local politicians in the largest northern Swedish municipality, Umeå, have reasoned about and prioritized different policy measures aimed at preventing the emergence of disadvantaged areas, so-called utsatta områden. None of the current 65 disadvantaged areas in Sweden have emerged in the northern part of the country, despite the presence of several large cities in the region. No study has specifically examined how local politicians in northern Sweden perceive and reason about efforts to prevent the emergence of these areas, indicating a clear research gap that motivates this study.

The findings suggest that the municipality has maintained a sustained and systematic emphasis on collaboration and preventive approaches. It can also be observed that there has been little political conflict over, for example, designing new residential areas in ways that encourage interaction between people from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. At the same time, substantial resources have been invested in welfare services, alongside a clear prioritization of an active cultural and civic life in the municipality.

Legislation on social security portability has made within-EU migration significantly less complex. This said, existing research on the practical experiences of migrants points at the continued presence of challenges when moving between different welfare systems, creating space for intermediary actors to offer support. A highly mobile group of EU citizens so far neglected in this strand of research is students. This is problematic, as students are often relatively dependent on state support. This thesis aims to fill this gap. It does so on the premise that migrants possess knowledge gaps about their host country systems. These are informed by their knowledge of the home country welfare system in which they have been socialised. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with (former) students moving from the Netherlands to Sweden and Germany, respectively, to test the presence and impact of these knowledge gaps. Two forms of welfare are examined for each country dyad: student finance, where the Dutch and Swedish systems show similarity, and health care, where the Dutch and German systems show similarity. Based on interviews with eleven individuals, it is found that knowledge gaps about student finance are more prevalent in Germany than in Sweden, in line with expectations. Unexpectedly, knowledge gaps are present to a similar extent in both Germany and Sweden when health care is concerned, which could be due to the comprehensible nature of the universal Swedish system. Importantly, interviewees also possessed knowledge gaps about home country systems, which led to serious adverse consequences in three cases. 

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change. Experiencing these disasters may influence attitudes toward climate change by making its risks feel more immediate and real. This has prompted growing research on how personal or local exposure to a climate-related disaster shapes attitudes. However, less is known about how disasters influence public opinion through media coverage, even though this indirect form of experience may affect far more people. Furthermore, previous research on whether climate- related disasters influence attitudes has produced mixed findings, likely in part because of differences in the types of disasters examined, as theory suggests the effect depends on disaster characteristics.

This thesis contributes to the literature by analysing public opinion data from 34 European countries between 2012 and 2019 to investigate how climate-related disasters occurring within an individual’s country affect climate change salience. It also explores whether the disaster type matters by comparing the effects of four distinct types. The results provide robust evidence that climate disasters raise the perceived importance of climate change, although the increase is temporary and modest. In addition, the findings indicate that the type of disaster plays a significant role in shaping this effect.

In China, ideology has re-emerged as a central organising force with Xi Jinping Thought, alongside an expanded use of strategic narratives in both domestic and international contexts. Previous research has tended to treat ideology and strategic narratives as either interchangeable or analytically separate, making it difficult to explain how ideological meaning is translated into political practice or how narratives acquire political force. This thesis argues that previous approaches struggle to explain legitimacy under Xi, because they insufficiently conceptualise the relationship between ideology, narratives, and political performance. To address this gap, the conceptual framework of Strategic Storytelling is developed, integrating insights from the morphological approach to ideology analysis and narrative scholarship, where ideology and strategic narratives are treated as components of a single process of political meaning-making. The framework conceptualises ideology as a deep structure of political meaning, master narratives as culturally embedded storylines, strategic narratives as purposive communicative storylines, and storytelling as the performative enactment. The framework is then applied to three strategic narratives under Xi Jinping: Chinese reunification, China as a responsible major power, and cyber sovereignty. Through narrative analysis of official speeches, policy documents, and political practices, the thesis shows that political legitimacy emerges through the alignment of ideology, narratives and storytelling. The thesis contributes to debates on ideology and narratives, offering a framework that may be applicable beyond the Chinese case.

For decades, the development discourse has been dominated by Western voices. The voices of the Global South have long been ignored, both in media and academia. This study attempts tohighlight these unheard voices by examining how the media in recipient countries of China’s Beltand Road Initiative (BRI) frame the major development initiative. This study utilises a comparativeframe analysis, where the media reporting in Kenya and Pakistan, two major partners of the BRI, isanalysed and compared based on a set of predetermined frame categories which draw on bothframing and postcolonial theory. The study’s main finding is that the BRI is predominantly framedfrom a developmentalist perspective, where modernization, growth and progress are prioritized. This finding challenges previous studies on the BRI, which have primarily found it framed in geopolitical terms. This study contributes to academia by highlighting the valuable insights the Global South can offer and the important role it plays in shaping development discourses