Prevalence of substance use in a Swiss psychiatric hospital: interview reports and urine screening.

BACKGROUND: Co-morbid substance misuse is common in psychiatric disorders, has potentially severe adverse consequences and may be frequently undetected. AIMS: To measure the prevalence of substance use among patients admitted to a Swiss psychiatric hospital and to examine the potential utility of routine urine drug screening in this setting. METHOD: 266 inpatients were included. 238 patients completed the interview and 240 underwent a urine drug screening. RESULTS: Lifetime prevalence of substance use among psychiatric patients was very high for alcohol (98%; 95% CI: 96-100), benzodiazepines (86%; 95% CI: 82-91) and cannabis (53%; 95% CI: 47-60), but also for "hard drugs" like cocaine (25% ; 95% CI: 19-30) or opiates (20%; 95% CI: 15-25). Regular current use of alcohol (32%; 95% CI: 26-38) or cannabis (17%; 95% CI: 12-22) was the most frequent. Substance use was associated with male sex, younger age, unmarried status and nicotine smoking. Urine screening confirms reports from patients on recent use, and remained positive for cannabis during hospitalisation, but not for cocaine nor for opiates. CONCLUSION: Substance use is frequent among psychiatric patients. Systematic interviewing of patients about their substance use remains essential, and is usually confirmed by urine screening. Urine screening can be useful to provide specific answers about recent use.

Using narratives to study the impact of social networks on the educational paths of immigrant students

This paper presents the qualitative data collection process aimed at the study of the impactsocial relations and networks have on educational paths of immigrant students. In theframework of a R & D longitudinal study funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation(2012-2014), the research team tracked the path of 87 immigrant students, from whom only 17successfully achieved the transition through the first and second year of Post-16 Education.A vast range of literature notes that relationships are an important part of migration process andsocial integration analysis, as well as school history in terms of success or failure. Through thefieldwork researchers collect the personal networks of all immigrant students from 3 highschools who were at that time attending last course of compulsory school. The network structureinfluences their social capital and therefore determines the resources, goods and types of supportindividuals can access. All these aspects are influential elements in the configuration anddevelopment of academic trajectories of immigrant students.At the end of the second year of Post-16 Education (two years later), the study captures personalnetworks of these students again, analyses and discusses their evolution and influence on theirpaths through qualitative interviews. Such interviews facilitated the discussion of theirrelationships while providing interesting narratives that are presented in the text. In order to do so, the biographical interpretive narrative method of interviewing is implemented.

Using narratives to study the impact of social networks on the educational paths of immigrant students

This paper presents the qualitative data collection process aimed at the study of the impactsocial relations and networks have on educational paths of immigrant students. In theframework of a R & D longitudinal study funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation(2012-2014), the research team tracked the path of 87 immigrant students, from whom only 17successfully achieved the transition through the first and second year of Post-16 Education.A vast range of literature notes that relationships are an important part of migration process andsocial integration analysis, as well as school history in terms of success or failure. Through thefieldwork researchers collect the personal networks of all immigrant students from 3 highschools who were at that time attending last course of compulsory school. The network structureinfluences their social capital and therefore determines the resources, goods and types of supportindividuals can access. All these aspects are influential elements in the configuration anddevelopment of academic trajectories of immigrant students.At the end of the second year of Post-16 Education (two years later), the study captures personalnetworks of these students again, analyses and discusses their evolution and influence on theirpaths through qualitative interviews. Such interviews facilitated the discussion of theirrelationships while providing interesting narratives that are presented in the text. In order to do so, the biographical interpretive narrative method of interviewing is implemented.

Les voix des contes : stratégies narratives et projets discursifs des contes de Perrault, Grimm et Andersen

Les contes de Charles Perrault, des frères Jacob et Wilhelm Grimm, et de Hans Christian Andersen sont parmi les plus connus du genre, mais leur rapprochement masque parfois le fait qu'ils n'ont pas été écrits à la même époque, ni dans la même culture, et qu'ils comportent de nombreuses différences, notamment du point de vue thématique. Il y a cependant aussi des textes extrêmement proches dans leurs recueils : « La belle au bois dormant » raconte comme « Dornröschen » (« Rose d'épine ») l'histoire d'une princesse condamnée à dormir cent ans, puis réveillée par un prince ; « Die sechs Schwäne » (« Les six cygnes ») et « De vilde Svaner » (« Les cygnes sauvages ») relatent tous les deux l'histoire d'une princesse à la recherche de ses frères transformés en cygnes par leur belle-mère. Ces cas-là aident à appréhender les différences essentielles entre les textes, mais aussi à mieux comprendre pourquoi, en dépit des différences, ils sont reconnus comme des parangons du genre. Avec une double approche linguistique et comparatiste, cette thèse s'attache à montrer que les auteurs construisent des manières de raconter particulières. Cela concerne par exemple la place du narrateur dans le récit, la logique selon laquelle s'enchaînent les événements, ou encore l'utilisation du discours représenté. Loin de constituer de simples préférences stylistiques, ces stratégies narratives doivent être mises en relation avec un « projet discursif » : en décidant de publier un recueil de contes, comment les auteurs envisagent-ils le genre, et comment se situent-ils dans le contexte littéraire et culturel de l'époque ? Bien que Perrault, les Grimm et Andersen développent chacun un projet différent, ils exploitent tous trois un mode d'énonciation particulier, à la façon d'un discours rapporté : le conte apparaît comme un enchevêtrement de voix où un conteur relate une histoire déjà racontée auparavant, comme s'il rapportait la voix d'un autre conteur, s'inscrivant ainsi dans une tradition où l'on parle toujours à la suite de quelqu'un. L'analyse des différences entre Perrault, les Grimm et Andersen permet ainsi de construire une poétique du genre : écrire un conte, c'est convoquer une tradition populaire et, d'un point de vue énonciatif, c'est inscrire sa voix dans le concert des voix généré par le conte.

Structuration du raconter et évaluation de la racontabilité dans l'entretien médiatique

In this study, we assume that the organisation of storytelling activity is sensitive to emerging norms and, specifically, to what is worth telling from a participant's perspective. We associate the methods of conversation analysis with a labovian approach to oral narratives and examine how storytelling is collaboratively and sequentially built during a radio interview parody. After discussing the relevance of parodic data to understand how media practitioners see their own practices (here: telling a story during a media interview), we provide a detailed analysis of a deviant case by considering the relations between structuring the telling and evaluating the tellability. The analysis leads to show what kinds of interactional resources are used to accomplish the activity: for instance, concurrent topic formulations, shared configurations of grammatical constructions, adjacency pairs. The study also points out how competing agendas can configure the activity in dissimilar ways. Eventually, it underlines the issues of being the interviewee and the storyteller at the same time.

Sukupolvenvaihdos perheyrityksessä - menestystarinoita

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää perheyrittäjien kokemusten kautta menestyksellisen sukupolvenvaihdoksen keskeisiä teemoja. Tämä toteutettiin käyttämällä kvalitatiivista tapaustutkimusta. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on pyrkiä auttamaan sekä yrittäjiä että vaihdoksessa mukana toimivia ulkopuolisia asiantuntijoita ymmärtämään perheyrityksestä luopumiseen ja vastaavasti sen jatkamiseen liittyviä haasteita ja monimuotoista päätöksentekoprosessia. Tapaustutkimus toteutettiin teemahaastattelujen avulla. Teema-haastattelujen perusteella muodostettiin neljä yrityskohtaista tarinaa, joita analysoimalla löydettiin eräitä sukupolvenvaihdoksen avaintekijöitä ja teemoja. Tärkeimmät tekijät liittyvät sukupolvenvaihdosprosessin ajalliseen sidonnaisuuteen ja dynaamisuuteen, sekä luopujan ja jatkajan sosiaalisen todellisuuden merkitykseen. Olennaista on myös erilaisen ulkopuolisen tuen tarve. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että paraskaan suunnitelma ei ole automaattinen tae sukupolvenvaihdoksen onnistumisesta, vaan vaihdos edellyttää panostusta myös seurantaan ennen vaihdosta, sen aikana ja jälkeen.

Smiling in a job interview: When less is more

Two studies examined the effect of applicants' smiling on hireability. In a pre-test study, participants were asked to rate the expected behavior for four types of applicants. Newspaper reporter applicants were expected to be more serious than applicants for other jobs. In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to be an applicant or interviewer for a newspaper reporting job. Smiling was negatively related to hiring, and smiling mediated the relation between applicants' motivation to make a good impression and hiring. Hiring was maximized when applicants smiled less in the middle of the interview relative to the start and end. In Study 2, participants watched Study 1 clips and were randomly assigned to believe the applicants were applying to one of four jobs. Participants rated more suitability when applicants smiled less, especially for jobs associated with a serious demeanor. This research shows that job type is an important moderator of the impact of smiling on hiring.

Mediating the Immediate – Endogenous meanings and simulated narratives in ludic spaces

The thesis discusses games and the gaming experience. It is divided into two main sections; the first examines games in general, while the second concentrates exclusively on electronic games. The text approaches games from two distinct directions by looking at both their spatiality and their narrativity at the same time. These two points of view are combined right from the beginning of the text as they are used in conceptualising the nature of the gaming experience. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate two closely related issues concerning both the field of game studies and the nature of games. In regard to studying games, the focus is placed on the juxtaposition of ludology and narratology, which acts as a framework for looking at gaming. In addition to aiming to find out whether or not it is possible to undermine the said state of affairs through the spatiality of games, the text looks at the interrelationships of games and their spaces as well as the role of narratives in those spaces. The thesis is characterised by discussing alternative points of view and its hypothetical nature. During the text, it becomes apparent that the relationship between games and narratives is strongly twofold: on one hand, the player continuously narrativizes the states the game is in while playing, while the narratives residing within the game space form their own partially separate narrative spaces, on the other. These spaces affect the conception the player has of the game states and the events taking place in the game space itself.