The purpose of this study is to describe how, and if, discourses about self-harm in young people has been changed from the late 90-s until today. We chose to do this by studying films where the content of self-harm is a big factor. The study is built on a narrative research, we did however analyze it as a discourse method. The issues we have concentrated on are: Is there a significant quality that describes an individual who cut themselves? How can this phenomenon be seen from a gender point of view? Is there a specific group of people who is labeled as a person who cut themselves from the public? The result from this study show us that self-injury, from symptoms of a (bad) mental state, is a strong discourse where the views from the society lets it become more acceptable. However, there are other reasons for self-harm that is developed by the social difficulties, which is illustrated in these films. Norms and beliefs around what is male or female have not been changed from the beginning of the time period we have studied until today. Self-mutilation is still seen as a typical female thing – a woman problem. The persons who are pointed out as cutting themselves are typical white, young, dramatic girls. These girls also exhibit depth - and shame for the problem and its environment.

Problem: Financial strain has been reported by families of children with cancer. However, the specific costs and their impact on these families remain unknown. Objectives: (a) to identify the costs incurred by families of children newly diagnosed with cancer in Ontario, (b) to determine the variables that influence these costs, and (c) to explore the impact of these costs on families. Conceptual Framework: The conceptual framework incorporated the social, economic, disease, and treatment cost predictors with the direct and indirect cost of illness components. Setting: Two university-affiliated tertiary paediatric hospitals in Canada. Sample: English speaking parents of children newly diagnosed with cancer who were receiving treatment. Design: A prospective concurrent mixed method design. Instrumentation: The Ambulatory and Home Care Record © (AHCR) (Guerriere & Coyte, 1998) was used to record costs and an interview guide was developed to explore the impact of these costs on families. Procedure: Parents recorded the resources consumed and costs incurred during one week per month for three consecutive months beginning the 4th week following diagnosis and listed any additional costs incurred since diagnosis or between the face-to-face interviews. Parents also discussed the impact of these costs on their families in an audio taped interview. Data Analysis: Descriptive statistics and multiple regression modelling were used to describe families’ total costs (expressed in 2007 Canadian dollars) and to determine factors that influenced them. Descriptive qualitative content analytic methods were used to analyze the transcribed interview data. Results: In total, 99 parents including 28 fathers and 71 mothers completed three sets of cost diaries. The mean total three month expenditure was $28,475 (SD $12,670; range $2013 to $79,249) per family. There were no statistically significant factors that influenced families’ direct costs; however, 23% of the variance for indirect costs was explained by inpatient tertiary hospitalizations, language spoken at home, and distance to the hospital. Parents described the costs associated with their child’s illness and coping and management strategies used to lessen the financial impact including managing their expenses and seeking ways to increase their cash flow. Significance: Findings will inform health professionals and policy makers about families who are faced with potentially catastrophic costs following their child’s diagnosis with cancer.

With the increasing number of adoptees in Sweden, so has the amount of literature regarding different aspects of adoption. The aim of this study is to explore the construction of adoptees in children's literature. It takes on a social constructionism view, by regarding language as a narrative tool in which human beings construct versions of different phenomenon. By exploring the different discourses in the data within the context adoption, we can identify different versions of "the adopted child" and their needs as it is constructed in the literature. Also, by putting them in a bigger context, we are allowed to see the social structures and the discursive conditions that allow a certain child perspective of "the adopted child" to take place. Therefore, this study also explores aspects and discourses within the context adoption such as ethnicity, race and adoptees relations to the past.

Expressing the individual personality with the help of the products, people use, and the mass customization are getting closer to our daily life. As a result, more and more companies have begun to implement mass customization in different industries. Also, flexible production becomes a key factor to win the market after more online customization appear and connect different demanders across the borders. Between companies and customers, there exists an important connection which is the interactive process influencing mass customization. An interactive process consists of three parts which are named: information about customers, trans-formation of data and use of information to produce more products. However, there are a lot of factors that will affect the interactive process and finally set thereby requirements for mass customization. During this research, the authors use a qualitative case study and deductive ap-proach to obtain a theoretical model. Through interviewees with two managers of Dooria AB and a visit of the factory in Kungsätter, the authors identified high quality approach, experienced employees, high loyalty of employees, flexibility of human capital, flexibility of production, feedback of customers, education information flow and interaction as important factors which influence the interactive process. Hence, this investigation provides insights about the interrelations between these factors. So, manager in similar industries can identify the situation of their own company and improve the efficiency mass customization.

This study aims to explore householders’ perspective on photovoltaic application in Thailand using surveys which are distributed in a study area, Khon Kaen. The target groups are residents older than 15 years old who live in an urbanized area. There were no limitations for gender, level of income or education and living region in the study area. The purpose of this is to obtain different perspectives from different groups of people. The questions in the survey are designed to find out if solar home system interests those surveyed and what reasons they have to support their decision. The results show that 1) most of the householders are interested in adopting this technology and said ‘yes’, mainly because of environmental advantages although there are some barriers that block their access to this technology 2) some of them are considering it and answered ‘maybe’ but would change their answer to ‘yes’ if the technology would improve according to their conditions 3) few of them said ‘no’ and indicated financial reasons as the main barrier. When relating respondents’ answers to environmental awareness, it is shown that all of them provide a similar definition of ‘environment’. They also rate themselves quite high when it comes to environmental awareness. However, their answers about the solar home system depend on other issues that, in their perception, are more important than the environment.

Fördelarna med amning är många, trots detta tar allt fler mödrar beslutet att delvis amma/ inte amma sina barn. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att erhålla mer kunskap om samt undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar mödrars beslut att amma/ inte amma. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en deskriptiv litteraturstudie, där 12 vetenskapliga artiklar granskades. Resultat: Faktorer som påverkar mödrars beslut till att amma var: bröstmjölk anses vara den ultimata födan för spädbarnet, föräldrar har god kunskap gällande amning, bra stöd från närstående och vårdpersonal, högutbildade mödrar, tidigare erfarenhet av amning, partnern föredrar amning, amning är praktiskt och ger lycka till både modern och barnet. Faktorer som påverkar mödrars beslut till att inte amma var: okunskap hos modern, fadern och sjukvårdspersonal, amning känns genant, fysiskt smärtsamt och obehagligt, stressad personal, föräldrarna får otillräckligt med stöd och information från vårdpersonal, tidig återgång till arbete, spädbarnet är otillfredsställt av endast bröstmjölk, oroligheter över bröstmjölkens näring samt rädsla för viktuppgång och hängiga bröst. Slutsats: Bristande kunskap, information och stöd är faktorer som kan påverka moderns beslut till att amma/ inte amma. Föräldrar behöver mer information och stöd gällande amning både innan och efter förlossningen, så de kan grunda sitt beslut på relevant fakta.

Reasoners who adopt the perspective of another can increase the proportion of logically valid inferences they make (Thompson, Evans, & Handley, 2005). A possible explanation is that shifting perspective promotes analytic reasoning. If this were the case, then shifting perspectives should also reduce the belief-bias effect. Furthermore, strong evidence should be preferred over weak evidence. To test this, 256 participants read twenty-four research descriptions that varied in evidence quality and degree of personal belief content. Participants indicated whether the data supported the researchers hypotheses. Belief bias was reduced when participants evaluated the data from the researchers perspective relative to their own. Evidence strength was an important determining factor in decision-making and it was sensitive to perspective and individual differences.

Erfarenheter av den palliativa vården har studerats, men i huvudsak ur ett anhörig- och sjuksköterskeperspektiv och mindre fokus har lagts på att studera patientens perspektiv på vården som erbjuds. Syftet med litteraturstudien var att belysa erfarenheter av palliativ vård ur ett patientperspektiv. Fjorton vetenskapliga artiklar valdes för granskning, analysering och bearbetning för att svara på föreliggande studies syfte. Bearbetningen resulterade i fem resultatkategorier, erfarenheter av; kommunikationen, informationen, bemötandet, tillgängligheten och vårdplatsen. Patienterna som var i behov av palliativ vård tyckte framförallt att kommunikationen var tillfredsställande. Brister i kommunikationen mellan olika vårdinstanser och professioner upplevde patienten som negativt. Sjuksköterskan upplevdes som en källa för information och kunskap. Erfarenheter av bristfällig information resulterade i nedsatt självbestämmande. Sjuksköterskans bemötande och tillgänglighet påverkade erfarenheten av vården. Vårdplatsen för patienterna var sjukhus, hospice eller hemmet och en gemensam nämnare var att alla platser skapade trygghet hos patienterna. Under yrkeskarriären möter sjuksköterskan patienter i behov av palliativ vård och för att få en grund att stå på i mötet med patienten behöver grundutbildningen för sjuksköterska innefatta obligatorisk undervisning om palliativ vård. Ett ökat samarbetet mellan vårdprofessionerna och en fortlöpande forskning kan bidra till att förbättra patienters erfarenheter av och livskvalitet i den palliativa vården. / The experience of palliative care have been studied, but mainly from a next of kin and nursing perspective and little has been devoted to study the patient perspectives of the care offered. The purpose of this study was to illustrate experiences of palliative care from a patient perspective. Fourteen scientific articles were selected for review, analysis and processing in order to answer the present study purpose. The processing resulted in five categories, experiences of; communication, information, treatment, accessibility and place of care. Patients’ in need of palliative care experienced the communication as satisfactory. Deficiency in communication between care professions and the patient was experienced as negative. The nurse was perceived as a source of information and knowledge. Lack in given information experienced to result in decreased self-determination. The nurse treatment and availability affected the experience of care. The place of palliative care was at hospital, in hospice or at home and one common denominator was that all sites created safety for the patients. Nurses will during their careers face patients in need of palliative care. The nurses need a foundation to stand on in the meeting with the patient and it requires that the basic education includes mandatory education about palliative care. Greater cooperation between health professions and an ongoing research may help improve patients' experiences and quality of life in palliative care.

EU is an organization that has expanded really fast during the last years. When you read about different EU membership processes you notice that some processes have been much faster than others. Spontaneously you think that this depends om that some countries have not been fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria. However, during the last decennium some scientists have written articles about motives that have affected the membership processes. The basic problem in my essay is how we are supposed to understand a membership process? Since I was interested in if I could see the same inconsistent behavior pattern in other membership processes I chose to study Turkey and Croatia. The purpose with my essay is to see how the Copenhagen criteria is or has been used in Turkey's and Croatia's processes and which motives that have been emphasized by scientists. After I have been reading official documents and articles I can conclude that both countries fulfill the political and economic criteria, but it is only Croatia that fulfills the administrative criteria. However, both countries have received critique about their treatments of minorities during the whole processes. According to scientists, security and identity have been strong motives in both countries' processes. When I have analyzed my material from an institutional perspective I can also conclude that EU's enlargement policy has affected the both countries' behavior and development. On the other hand, EU's enlargement policy has been affected by the context both within and outside the organization. Besides the policy has not seem to change the memberstates' preferences, which has resulted in that single memberstates have been acting on their own benefits.

Abstract“Development” is an essentially contested concept within academia and some critics, the so-called post-development school, argue that the concept and practice of development is a world-view monopolizing our imagination. The school of thought promotes alternative ways to think about development but is merely at the theoretical level and lacks taking into account empirical cases. Therefore, this theoretical approach is to test and develop existing literature and the theory is originating from the work of Michel Foucault and theory of post-development’s presented hegemonic development discourse. The aim is to study Peruvian NGO executives’ perceptions on development and alternative development collaborations through in-depth interviews and a critical case study design. The study reveals an alternative thinking about “development” and local perceptions challenge the “truth” of the hegemonic development discourse. A donor-recipient relation is visible where local knowledge is limited and local NGOs are coerced into new behaviors to satisfy donors’ demands. Studying “periphery” grass-root voices from the Third World is important to be able to imagine “development” differently in discourses silenced, limited and at the margins.