Browsing by Author "Hansson, Alexander"

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Användarcentrerad Systemdesign
(2008-06-30T07:33:51Z) Hansson, Alexander; Rahbari, Saman; IT-universitetet i Göteborg/Tillämpad informationsteknologi; IT University of Gothenburg /Applied Information Technology
This essay focuses on the term usability while conducting a user centred system design. Usability means to what extent a user can use a product to achieve effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Development using a user centered system design means that knowledge about the end-users and it’s opinions becomes a crucial part of the development process. The question of this essay is if using user centred system design will lead to good usability. We used methods from a user centered system design point of view while developing an application for a Swedish bookstore company called Bokia AB. This included user and task analysis following by a close relationship between the developers and end-users by using sketches and showing them prototypes of the system while collecting feedback. After concluding our case study we determined that using methods from user centered system design could be used as a great tool to further improve the usability and to improve an applications success chances.
Medborgardeltagande som metod i planeringsprocessen Specifikt i Veberödsprojektet
(2016-11-01) Hansson, Alexander; University of Gothenburg/Department of Conservation; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för kulturvård
The aim of this case study is to evaluate Veberödsprojektet in relation to methodology and theory concerning citizen participation in planning processes. The project was presented before and during an internship and employment at the commune of Lund in southern Sweden. The projects aim was to use participants to thoroughly inventory the small town of Veberöd and to use their knowledge about history and stories concerning the town. The questions the study tries to answer regards the participants influence, the possible change of the roll of the expert and how well the project stands against theory and methods about citizen participation. The study was conducted during April and August of 2016 using the three sources of a case study: observations, interviews and literary studies. The observations took place during the employment during the first three months, the literary studies during July and the interviews during August. The qualitative interviews where recorded and transcribed to ensure a legitimate research process, as well as to be able to go back and ensure that no hypotheses were created during the process. The results of the observations and interviews shows that the questions about the project could be answered through theory and methods regarding citizen participation and the evaluation of the project could be done as well. However, the theories and methods also indicate that the project could be studied in a number of ways, which suggests that further research and perhaps other questions should be answered as well. The conclusion is therefore twofold, because either perspective projected onto the project will give you a different answer.
Tomorrow is yesterday: early-life conditions shape ectotherm life histories
(2023-09-29) Hansson, Alexander
Life history theory seeks to explain the overwhelming diversity of resource allocation strategies in nature by exploring how evolutionary forces optimise survival and reproduction within an organism’s environment. Central to this theory is that resources are finite, and thus increased investment into one trait may reduce resources available for another trait. Understanding proximate drivers of resource allocation is therefore of great interest in evolutionary biology. In ectotherms, temperature is the most influential external factor and affects most physiological and behavioural functions. While temperature can influence traits at any life stage, changes during development are often irreversible and therefore most influential to fitness. However, predicting the direction of effects is challenging as these are often context-dependent and vary considerably among species and populations. This thesis aims to add to our understanding of proximate and long-term effects of early-life thermal conditions on traits associated with survival and reproduction. This work is the outcome of a collaboration between the University of Gothenburg and the University of Tasmania. I used two well-established ectotherm systems; the Swedish sand lizard and the Tasmanian spotted snow skink, to explore early-life effects on long-term life history traits. Both these systems are ideal models with decades of accumulated research detailing their physiology, life history and population structures. Leveraging this knowledge, I combined experimental manipulations and long-term mark-recapture data to examine the effects of early-life thermal conditions on key life history traits. I initially explored how incubation temperature affected sex determination and sex-specific telomere dynamics in neonate sand lizards. Sex is a crucial factor shaping life history strategies across all life stages. Telomeres, which protect chromosome ends, are vital components for organismal health, and their shortening has been linked to individual fitness and population structures. I showed that certain incubation temperatures can override chromosomal sex causing an overproduction of daughters. Additionally, incubation temperature influenced neonatal telomere maintenance, but sex was the strongest predictor of telomere dynamics. Female neonates had longer telomeres and better maintained them compared to males. This is likely explained by sex-specific selection on telomere length, in which it is a better predictor of fitness in females compared to males. I then used longitudinal mark-recapture data to investigate the influence of early-life thermal conditions on the developmental rates of wild spotted snow skinks, and whether maturing decisions have costs to survival and reproduction later in life. Warmer early-life conditions caused females to mature earlier, grow larger, produce more offspring by midlife and live longer. This presented a life history paradox. To solve it, I applied survival trajectory models to the same long-term dataset to determine the latent costs of developmental rates. Specifically, whether females maturing early or large suffer increased rates of age-dependent declines in survival or fecundity (senescence). While maturing early did not cause increased rates of senescence, females that exhibited faster growth and matured large suffered significantly higher mortality rates later in life compared to smaller females maturing at the same age. This thesis highlights the importance of considering variation in early-life conditions as drivers of individual heterogeneity in life history traits and resource allocation strategies. With constantly rising global temperatures, thermal effects on such traits have never been more relevant and can clearly affect the future health of ectotherm populations and influence their evolution.