305 research outputs found
Effects of pendent phenol functional groups on secondary coordination spheres of heme like Fe-salen complexes
No full textSince the beginning of industrial revolution, burning of fossil fuels has mainly led to increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 , a Green House Gas (GHG), from 250 ppm to 400 ppm between 1800 and 2012. One way to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and CO2 emission rate is to explore alternative carbon free fuels to meet the energy demand.This project aims at the synthesis and study of metal complexes inspired by biological models that will help better design catalysts to perform water oxidation more effectively.This poster won the Dean, Faculty of Science award (2020). Advisor: Dr. Linus Chiang, Departmen of Chemistry
21st-century scholarship and Wikipedia
No full textWikipedia, the world’s fifth most-used Web site, is a good illustration of the growing credibility of online resources. In his article in Ariadne earlier this year, “Wikipedia: Reflections on Use and Academic Acceptance”, Brian Whalley described the debates around accuracy and review, in the context of geology. He concluded that ‘If Wikipedia is the first port of call, as it already seems to be, for information requirement traffic, then there is a commitment to build on Open Educational Resources (OERs) of various kinds and improve their quality.’ In a similar approach to the Geological Society event that Whalley describes, Sarah Fahmy of JISC worked with Wikimedia and the British Library on a World War One (WWI) Editathon. There is a rich discourse about the way that academics relate to Wikipedia
An empowerment-based school physical activity intervention with adolescents in a disadvantaged community: A transformative mixed methods investigation
No full textIt is important for the health of adolescents to engage in regular physical activity. The majority of adolescents do not, however, engage in sufficient physical activity to meet contemporary guidelines, and adolescents of low socioeconomic status appear to be less physically active compared to adolescents of high socioeconomic status. As such, the overall aim of this thesis is twofold. First, the thesis aims to gain insight into adolescents’, from a multicultural community of low socioeconomic status, views on physical activity. Second, the thesis aims to describe and problematize the development and implementation of an empowerment-based school intervention, in a Swedish multicultural community of low socioeconomic status, and to evaluate the effects of the intervention focusing on basic needs satisfaction, motivation, and objectively measured physical activity.
This compilation thesis is based on four papers and is written within the ‘How-to-Act?’-project which has its starting point in a two-year empowerment-based school intervention. For the purpose of the ‘How-to-Act?’-project, one intervention school (n=54 7th graders) and two control schools (n=60 7th graders), situated in a multicultural area of low socioeconomic status in Gothenburg, were recruited. For paper I and II, focus group interviews were conducted with adolescents (n=53) in the intervention school, before implementation of the intervention, to illuminate what they convey concerning factors that facilitate respectively undermine their physical activity. Paper III describes and problematizes the development and implementation of the empowerment-based school intervention, which was continuously developed and implemented through cooperation and shared decision making, focusing on physical activity. For paper IV physical activity was measured with accelerometers and basic needs satisfaction and motivation through questionnaires at baseline (7th grade), midpoint (8th grade), and endpoint (9th grade), to evaluate the effects of the intervention.
On the one hand, the adolescents’ voices illuminated that, within their environment, it is difficult to establish healthy physical activity habits. More specifically, the adolescents expressed a profound awareness of tempting screen-based activities as undermining their physical activity, and several stereotypical gender norms were highlighted as undermining the girls’ physical activity. On the other hand, the adolescents mentioned that they enjoyed engaging in physical activity. According to the adolescents, enjoyment related to physical activity was promoted through variation and options, experiencing and developing physical skills, and the presence of peers. The adolescents also suggested that social support facilitated their physical activity, and proposed some ideas on how the school could become more supportive of their physical activity. Through the empowerment-based school intervention, the adolescents were offered opportunities to engage in a variety of physical activities and to assess and critically reflect upon health-related information and recommendations. Further, the intervention involved the adolescents in the decision-making process and thus, arguably, facilitated participation and empowerment. Nonetheless, the development and implementation of the intervention led to a number of ethical dilemmas that required cautious consideration.
During the course of the two-year intervention, there was a credible decrease in controlled motivation, autonomous motivation, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. There were no credible effects of the intervention on controlled motivation, autonomous motivation, or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Future school-based physical activity interventions, in multicultural areas of low socioeconomic status, are recommended to include multidimensional intervention approaches across contexts to counteract the decline in physical activity during adolescence and to achieve lasting change in adolescents’ physical activity
How Many Answers Are Enough? Optimal Number of Answers for Q&A Sites
No full textWith the proliferation of the social web, questions about information quality and optimization attract the attention of IS scholars. Question-answering (QA) sites, such as Yahoo!Answers, have the potential to produce good answers, but at the same time not all answers are good and not all QA sites are alike. When organizations design and plan for the integration of question answering services on their sites, identification of good answers and process optimization become critical. Arguing that ‘given enough answers all questions are answered successfully,’ this paper identifies the optimal number of posts that generate high quality answers. Based on content analysis of Yahoo! Answers’ informational questions (n=174) and their answers (n=1,023), the study found that seven answers per question are ‘enough’ to provide a good answer
Economic evaluation of treatments for Alzheimer's disease
No full textAlzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, leading to progressive cognitive impairment and loss of functional abilities for die afflicted patient, a heavy burden on caregivers and high costs for society. New treatment strategies are being introduced setting focus on the need to make informed decisions on the allocation of resources to and within dementia care. This thesis develops a method for economic evaluation of treatments for AD and estimates the cost-effectiveness of existing and hypothetical interventions aimed at alleviating symptoms and slowing the progression of AD.Study I investigated the relationship between cognitive impairment, measured by the MiniMental State Examination (MMSE), and costs of formal care based on the Kungsholmen Project - a longitudinal population-based survey of subjects aged 75 years and above in Stockholm, Sweden. Costs for special accommodation, home help, and pharmaceuticals were estimated for patients in different MMSE states and the total cost of care was simulated for a cohort of patients over a period of 5 years. In a linear regression model controlling for age and gender, a decrease by 1 point in MMSE score was associated with an increase in annual costs by 15 000 SEK.Study II estimated the impact on costs of care from treatment of patients with mild to moderate AD with the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil. A Markov model was used to simulate the progressive cognitive impairment of a cohort of AD patients, based on Kungsholmen. Project data on costs and transition probabilities. Treatment effectiveness rates were derived from a clinical trial; donepezil caused a decrease in transition probabilities to more severe disease states by 46% (5 mg daily) or 48% (10 mg daily). Over a 5-year time period, treatment with donepezil was estimated to reduce the total cost of care by about 20 000 SEK, or 3% of total costs. Treatment was cost-neutral or cost saving in all scenarios investigated.Study III analysed the costs of medical care, community care and informal care for 272 AD patients and their caregivers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Data was collected by questionnaires at baseline, after 6 months and again after 12 months. Average annual costs ranged from 60 700 SEK (MMSE >25) to 375 000 SEK (MMSEStudy IV estimated the utility in different stages of AD using published population weights for the EuroQoL instrument. Patients rated their own utility to on average 0.833 with little variation across severity levels. Proxy-rated utility ranged from 0.690 (MMSE >25), to 0.329 (MMSEIn conclusion, the thesis shows that costs for community care, informal care and total costs of care increase, while proxy-rated utility and quality of life decrease with the degree of cognitive impairment in AD patients. The model simulations show that even modest and short-term effects on the progression of AD can be associated with important costsavings and gains in quality-adjusted life-years.List of scientific papersI. Jonsson L, Lindgren P, Wimo A, Jonsson B, Winblad B (1999). Costs of Mini Mental State Examination-related cognitive impairment. Pharmacoeconomics. 16(4): 409-16. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10623368II. Jonsson L, Lindgren P, Wimo A, Jonsson B, Winblad B (1999). The cost-effectiveness of donepezil therapy in Swedish patients with Alzheimers disease: a Markov model. Clin Ther. 21(7): 1230-40. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10463520III. Jonsson L, Eriksdotter Jonhagen M, Kilander L, Soininen H, Hallikainen M, Waldemar G, Nygaard H, Andreasen N, Winblad B, Wimo A (2003). Determinants of costs of care for patients with Alzheimers disease. [Submitted]IV. Jonsson L, Andreasen N, Kilander L, Soininen H, Hallikainen M, Waldemar G, Nygaard H, Winblad B, Eriksdotter Jonhagen M, Wimo A (2003). Patient- and proxyreported utility in Alzheimers disease using the EuroQol. [Submitted]</p
Att arbeta praktiskt med idrott och hälsa i skolan
No full textDetta kapitel belyser hur lärare kan använda ett autonomistödjande förhållningssätt och innehåller en sammanställning över tidigare interventioner där lärare i idrott och hälsa har utbildats till att bli mer autonomistödjande. Dessutom beskrivs i detalj hur det autonomistödjande förhållningssättet kan omsättas i praktiken, samt hur det med fördel kan kompletteras med struktur. Avslutningsvis identifieras potentiella utmaningar med att anamma det autonomistödjande förhållningssättet
Hur påverkar väglutning bränsleförbrukning? : Spatial analys av mönster i bränsleåtgång på snöplogningsvägar i Gävle
No full textSnöplogning är en fundamental beståndsdel av vinterväghållning i regioner med kallt klimat. Varje år medför snöröjning med fordon både höga ekonomiska kostnader samt negativ miljömässig inverkan på grund av dess bränsleförbrukning. Trots att korrelationen mellan snöplogning och bränsleförbrukning har undersökts i tidigare forskning saknas studier som visualiserar bränsleförbrukning i relation till väglutning. Därav ämnar denna studie att utvärdera och visualisera spatiala kluster av bränsleförbrukning relaterat till lutning på snöplogningsvägar i Gävle, Sverige. För att kartlägga spatiala kluster i denna studie har Ripley’s K-funktion, Global Moran’s I och Getis-Ord Gi* använts, då dessa metoder erbjuder möjligheten att bedöma statistisk signifikans av spatiala mönster. I studien har programvara för geografiska informationssystem använts för att applicera statistiska mått på snöplogningsvägar med lutning extraherad från en digital höjdmodell. Utfallen har kombinerats med uppskattad bränsleförbrukning och visualiserats med hjälp av kartor och diagram. Resultaten visade en tydlig förekomst av spatiala kluster. Den spatiala autokorrelationen per distans undersöktes för att identifiera vid vilket avstånd klusterbildningen var som mest frekvent. Vidare betonades områden med låg respektive hög bränsleförbrukning. Sammantaget kan resultaten användas för att stödja den strategiska planeringen av snöplogning, vilket i sin tur leder till reducerade kostnader och minskad miljöpåverkan.Snow plowing is a fundamental part of winter road maintenance in regions with cold climate. Each year, plowing with vehicles entails both high economic costs and negative environmental impacts due to its fuel consumption. Although the correlation between snow plowing and fuel consumption has been investigated in previous studies, there is a lack of research that visualizes fuel consumption in relation to road slope. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate and visualize spatial clusters of fuel consumption in relation to slope on snow plowing roads in Gävle, Sweden. To map spatial clusters, this study uses Ripley’s K-function, Global Moran’s I and Getis-Ord Gi*, as these methods provide the ability to assess statistical significance of spatial patterns. In this study, geographical information system software was utilized to apply statistical measures to snow plowing road data with slope extracted from a digital elevation model. The outcomes were combined with estimated fuel consumption and visualized through maps and diagrams. The results showed a clear presence of spatial clusters. Spatial autocorrelation by distance was analyzed to identify at which distance clustering was most frequent. Furthermore, areas with low and high fuel consumption were highlighted. Overall, the results can be used to support the strategic planning of snow plowing operations, which in turn leads to cost reduction and minimized environmental impact
En studie av klimatförändringarnas effekt på förekomsten och interaktionen mellan laxartade fiskar i svenska fjällsjöar
No full textPrevious studies suggest that global warming threatens populations of Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus L.) and that interspecific competition from brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) can have negative effects when the species occur in sympatry. The aim of this study was to investigate if populations of Arctic char have declined in the last decades in lakes where they in the past have coexisted with brown trout. I examined this by revisiting five lakes previously sampled in the mountain region of Västerbotten (Sweden) during the 1960´s. This study repeated earlier sampling methods and examined the population size, biomasses and individual size and weight of all fish. Results showed increased abundances of brown trout and a trend towards declining Arctic char populations in the five lakes. Both Arctic char and brown trout currently had higher mean lengths than previous sampling years. This study also examined the diet and growth rate of both species. The diet analysis showed that the species to some extent overlapped in diet, while they also showed clear differences, where Arctic charr e.g. consumed more pelagic zooplankton. The growth rate was higher for Arctic char and differed between lakes. The shift towards more brown trout dominated lakes could depend on both that the two species are differently affected by a warmer climate, and that fishing habits have changed since the 1960´s. A warmer climate likely changed the species interaction in favor of trout and could lead to more competition and predation on Arctic char
The role of basic needs satisfaction in the prediction of university students exercise behavior and well-being [Elektronisk resurs]
No full textPurpose: Despite the growing body of research supporting the positive effects of exercise on both psychological and physiological well-being, most people do not engage in regular exercise. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the purpose of this study was to examine relationships between basic needs satisfaction, self-efficacy, motivation, exercise behavior and well-being among Swedish university students.Methods: A set of instruments measuring basic needs satisfaction, barrier self-efficacy, motivation, well-being, and exercise behaviors was distributed at a university in southern Sweden. The respondents (n=260) were men (n=122) and women (n=138) with a mean age of 22. To analyze and process the gathered data, SPSS was used with Pearson’s r and Multiple Regression Analysis.Results: The results showed that competence, autonomy and relatedness were positive predictors of self-determined motivation. Identified regulation, intrinsic regulation and barrier self-efficacy were positive predictors for strenuous exercise. Moreover, positive correlations between all the basic needs, strenuous exercise and well-being were shown. No significant correlations between light or moderate exercise and the independent variables appeared.Conclusions: This study provides further support for Self-Determination Theory and Self-Efficacy Theory. To promote strenuous exercise and well-being among Swedish university students it appears important to create a need supportive exercise environment, where the basic needs can be satisfied.</p
Pharmacoeconomics of Cholinesterase Inhibitors in the Treatment of Alzheimer
No full textCholinesterase inhibitors constitute one of few treatment options available for Alzheimer Simulation models can be used to bring together existing data and make predictions of the long-term cost effectiveness of treatment. Most models have been built around cognitive function as a key parameter based on the observed relationship between cognitive function and costs of care. Patients with more severe disease attain higher total costs of care. Also, these patients have a higher share of formal care costs than do patients with mild disease, who are usually looked after by informal caregivers. The valuation of unpaid care is controversial, and the choice of method may affect results considerably. Another important issue is the measurement of health-related QOL in patients with Alzheimer It is likely that the increased drug costs incurred by the use of cholinesterase inhibitors will be offset (at least partly) by savings in other healthcare costs. However, these results should be viewed as preliminary, since we are still awaiting data from long-term follow-up studies. Also, the value of treatment for patients and caregivers in terms of QOL improvements has yet to be established.Alzheimer's-disease, Cholinesterase-inhibitors, Donepezil, Galantamine, Rivastigmine, Tacrine
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