Patient participation : what it is and what it is not

In general, patient participation is regarded as being informed and partaking in decision making regarding one���s care and treatment. This interpretation is common in legislation throughout the Western world and corresponding documents guiding health care professionals, as well as in scientific studies. Even though this understanding of the word participation can be traced to a growing emphasis on individuals��� autonomy in society and to certain dictionary defi nitions, there are other ways of understanding participation from a semantic point of view, and no trace of patients��� descriptions of what it is to participate can be found in these definitions. Hence, the aim of this dissertation was to understand patients��� experience of the phenomenon of patient participation. An additional aim was to understand patients��� experience of non-participation and to describe the conditions for patient participation and non-participation, in order to understand the prerequisites for patient participation. The dissertation comprises four papers. The philosophical ideas of Ricoeur provided a basis for the studies: how communication can present ways to understand and explain experiences of phenomena through phenomenological hermeneutics. The first and second studies involved a group of patients living with chronic heart failure. For the fi rst study, 10 patients were interviewed, with a narrative approach, about their experience of participation and non-participation, as defi ned by the participants. For the second study, 11 visits by three patients at a nurse-led outpatient clinic were observed, and consecutive interviews were performed with the patients and the nurses, investigating what they experience as patient participation and non-participation. A triangulation of data was performed to analyse the occurrence of the phenomena in the observed visits. For paper 3 and 4, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among a diverse group of people who had recent experience of being patients. The questionnaire comprised respondent���s description of what patient participation is, using items based on findings in Study 1, along with open-ended questions for additional aspects and general issues regarding situations in which the respondent had experienced patient participation and/or non-participation. The findings show additional aspects to patient participation: patient participation is being provided with information and knowledge in order for one to comprehend one���s body, disease, and treatment and to be able to take self-care actions based on the context and one���s values. Participation was also found to include providing the information and knowledge one has about the experience of illness and symptoms and of one���s situation. Participation occurs when being listened to and being recognised as an individual and a partner in the health care team. Non-participation, on the other hand, occurs when one is regarded as a symptom, a problem to be solved. To avoid non-participation, the information provided needs to be based on the individual���s need and with recognition of the patient���s knowledge and context. In conclusion, patient participation needs to be reconsidered in health care regulations and in clinical settings: patients��� defi nitions of participation, found to be close to the dictionaries��� description of sharing, should be recognised and opportunities provided for sharing knowledge and experience in two-way-communication.

Materialising bodies : there is nothing more material than a socially constructed body.

Over the last one of two decades, researchers within the physical education (PE) and sport pedagogy research frequently use the concept ���the material body���. An initial purpose of this article is to explore what a concept of a ���material body��� might mean. What other bodies are there? Who would dispute the materiality of bodies? I suggest that the use of a concept as ���the material body��� suggests a hesitation before the radicalism of the linguistic turn in the sense that the concept ���discourse��� does not include a material dimension. In this way ���the material body��� relates to an interpretation of ���the socially (or discursively) constructed body��� as void of matter. A further purpose with the article is to re-inscribe matter in the concept of ���discourse���. This is done by way of discussing what theorists like Michel Foucault and, in particular, Judith Butler, has to say about the materiality of the body. In their writings, discourse should not be limited to spoken and/or written language. Rather, discourse is understood in terms of actions and events that create meanings���that matters. One conclusion of the article is that it is important to problematise the mundane view of discourse as ���verbal interchange��� because it reinforces the promise of an objective knowledge that will eventually shed light on the ���real��� body and the mysteries of sexual difference, what its origins are, what causes it. Another conclusion is that the PE and sport pedagogy research should pay less attention to the body as an object (what it ���is���), and pay more attention to how the body matters, and e.g. how movements make bodies matter.

Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem with Genetic ALgorithm and Simulated Annealing

This Thesis Work will concentrate on a very interesting problem, the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). In this problem, customers or cities have to be visited and packages have to be transported to each of them, starting from a basis point on the map. The goal is to solve the transportation problem, to be able to deliver the packages-on time for the customers,-enough package for each Customer,-using the available resources- and ��� of course - to be so effective as it is possible.Although this problem seems to be very easy to solve with a small number of cities or customers, it is not. In this problem the algorithm have to face with several constraints, for example opening hours, package delivery times, truck capacities, etc. This makes this problem a so called Multi Constraint Optimization Problem (MCOP). What���s more, this problem is intractable with current amount of computational power which is available for most of us. As the number of customers grow, the calculations to be done grows exponential fast, because all constraints have to be solved for each customers and it should not be forgotten that the goal is to find a solution, what is best enough, before the time for the calculation is up. This problem is introduced in the first chapter: form its basics, the Traveling Salesman Problem, using some theoretical and mathematical background it is shown, why is it so hard to optimize this problem, and although it is so hard, and there is no best algorithm known for huge number of customers, why is it a worth to deal with it. Just think about a huge transportation company with ten thousands of trucks, millions of customers: how much money could be saved if we would know the optimal path for all our packages.Although there is no best algorithm is known for this kind of optimization problems, we are trying to give an acceptable solution for it in the second and third chapter, where two algorithms are described: the Genetic Algorithm and the Simulated Annealing. Both of them are based on obtaining the processes of nature and material science. These algorithms will hardly ever be able to find the best solution for the problem, but they are able to give a very good solution in special cases within acceptable calculation time.In these chapters (2nd and 3rd) the Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing is described in details, from their basis in the ���real world��� through their terminology and finally the basic implementation of them. The work will put a stress on the limits of these algorithms, their advantages and disadvantages, and also the comparison of them to each other.Finally, after all of these theories are shown, a simulation will be executed on an artificial environment of the VRP, with both Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithm. They will both solve the same problem in the same environment and are going to be compared to each other. The environment and the implementation are also described here, so as the test results obtained.Finally the possible improvements of these algorithms are discussed, and the work will try to answer the ���big��� question, ���Which algorithm is better?���, if this question even exists.

Language and interaction in online asynchronous communication in university level English courses

Interaction involves people communicating and reacting to each other. This process is key to the study of discourse, but it is not easy to study systematically how interaction takes place in a specific communicative event, or how it is typically performed over a series of repeated communicative events. However, with a written record of the interaction, it becomes possible to study the process in some detail. This thesis investigates interaction through asynchronous written discussion forums in a computer-mediated learning environment. In particular, this study investigates pragmatic aspects of the communicative event which the asynchronous online discussions comprise. The first case study examines response patterns to messages by looking at the content of initial messages and responses, in order to determine the extent to which characteristics of the messages themselves or other situational factors affect the interaction. The second study examines in what ways participants use a range of discourse devices, including formulaic politeness, humour and supportive feedback as community building strategies in the interaction. The third study investigates the role of the subject line of messages in the interaction, for example by examining how participants choose different types of subject lines for different types of messages. The fourth study examines to what extent features serving a deictic function are drawn on in the interaction and then compares the findings to both oral conversation and formal academic discourse. The overall findings show a complex communicative situation shaped by the medium itself, type of activity, the academic discipline and topic of discussion and by the social and cultural aspects of tertiary education in an online learning environment. In addition, the findings may also provide evidence of learning. ��

IT��-Forensisk��unders��kning��av��flyktigt��minne : P�� Linux och Android enheter

Att kunna g��r en effektiv unders��kning av det flyktiga minnet ��r n��got som blir viktigare ochviktigare i IT-forensiska utredningar. Dels under Linux och Windows baserade PC installationermen ocks�� f��r mobila enheter i form av Android och enheter baserade andra mobila opperativsy-stem.Android anv��nder sig av en modifierad Linux-k��rna var modifikationer ��r f��r att anpassa k��rnantill de speciella krav som g��ller f��r ett mobilt operativsystem. Dessa modifikationer innefattardels meddelandehantering mellan processer men ��ven ��ndringar till hur internminnet hanteras och��vervakas.D�� dessa tv�� k��rnor ��r s�� pass n��ra besl��ktade kan samma grundl��ggande principer anv��ndas f��ratt dumpa och unders��ka minne. Dumpningen sker via en k��rn-modul vilket i den h��r rapportenutg��rs av en programvara vid namn LiME vilken kan hantera b��gge k��rnorna.Analys av minnet kr��ver att verktygen som anv��nds har en f��rst��else f��r minneslayouten i fr��ga.Beroende p�� vilken metod verktyget anv��nder s�� kan det ��ven beh��vas information om olika sym-boler. Verktyget som anv��nds i det h��r examensarbetet heter Volatility och klarar p�� papperet avatt extrahera all den information som beh��vs f��r att kunna g��ra en korrekt unders��kning.Arbetet avs��g att vidareutveckla existerande metoder f��r analys av det flyktiga minnet p�� Linux-baserade maskiner (PC) och inbyggda system(Android). Problem uppstod d�� unders��kning avflyktigt minne p�� Android och satta m��l kunde inte uppn��s fullt ut. Det visade sig att minnesanalysriktat emot PC-plattformen ��r b��de enklare och smidigare ��n vad det ��r mot Android.

Upper Secondary Students��� Beliefs About Learning English as a Foreign Language : A contrast between the students��� beliefs and the Swedish curriculum

Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) entails different factors. Language learners use different strategies in order to make their language acquisition successful. Motivation and self-regulated learning are other factors that influence how successful the EFL learner is. This paper aims to analyze the beliefs of upper secondary students in a Swedish school about learning EFL, as well as how their beliefs relate to what is specified in the Swedish curriculum. An analysis of the differences between students��� beliefs and what is stated in the curriculum was done. A survey was conducted on a total of 54 students who were enrolled in the social sciences program. The results showed that students believed that motivation and self-regulated learning were important factors for a successful learning. For them, the language skill of reception is more important than production, which does not correspond with what it is stated in the national curriculum. First and second year students��� beliefs were similar in most of the cases, but not all of them.

Persons : their identity and individuation

This study is about the nature of persons and personal identity. It belongs to a tradition that maintains that in order to understand what it is to be a person we must clarify what personal identity consists in. In this pursuit, I differentiate between the problems (i) How do persons persist? and (ii) What facts, if any, does personal identity consist in? Concerning the first question, I argue that persons persist three-dimensionally (the endurance view), and not four-dimensionally (the perdurarne view), on the ground that objects must always fall under some substance sortal concept S (the sortal dependency of individuation), and that the concept person entails that objects falling under it are three-dimensional. Concerning the second question, I differentiate between Criterianists, who maintain that it is possible to specify a non-circular and informative criterion for personal identity, and Non-Criterianists, who deny that such a specification is possible. I argue against Criterianist accounts of personal identity on the ground that they are either (i) circular, (ii) violate the intrinsicality of identity or (iii) do not adequately represent what we are essentially. I further criticise three Psychological Non-Criterianist accounts of personal identity on the ground that they wrongly assume that 'person' refers to mental entities. Instead I formulate the Revised Animal Attribute View where person is understood as a basic sortal concept which picks out a biological sort of enduring animals. In this, I claim that the real essence of a person is determined by the real essence of the kind of animal he is, without thereby denying that persons have a real essence as persons.