Although typical clinical onset does not occur until adulthood, cardiovascular disease (CVD) may have a long natural history with accumulation of risks beginning in early life and continuing through childhood and into adolescence and adulthood. Therefore, it is important to adopt a life-course approach to explore accumulation of risks, as well as identifying age-defined windows of susceptibility, from early life to disease onset. This thesis examines characteristics in adolescence and adulthood linked with subsequent risk of CVD. One area is concerned with physical and psychological characteristics in adolescence, which reflects inherited and acquired elements from childhood, and their association with occurrence and outcome of subsequent stroke and coronary heart disease many years later. The second area focuses on severe infections and subsequent delayed risk of CVD. Data from several Swedish registers were used to provide information on a general population-based cohort of men. Some 284 198 males, born in Sweden from 1952 to 1956 and included in the Swedish Military Conscription Register, form the basis of the study cohort for this thesis. Our results indicate that characteristics already present in adolescence may have an important role in determining long-term cardiovascular health. Stress resilience in adolescence was associated with an increased risk of stroke and CHD, working in part through other CVD factors, in particular physical fitness. Stress resilience, unhealthy BMI and elevated blood pressure in adolescence were also associated with aspects of stroke severity among survivors of a first stroke. We demonstrated an association for severe infections (hospital admission for sepsis and pneumonia) in adulthood with subsequent delayed risk of CVD, independent of risk factors from adolescence. Persistent systemic inflammatory activity which could follow infection, and that might persist long after infections resolve, represents a possible mechanism. Interventions to protect against CVD should begin by adolescence; and there may be a period of heightened susceptibility in the years following severe infection when additional monitoring and interventions for CVD may be of value.

The World Health Organization has called stress-related illness “the health epidemic of the 21st century.” While the biochemical pathways associated with the acute stress response are well-characterized, many of the pathways behave differently under conditions of chronic stress. The purpose of this project is to apply high-sensitivity mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches to generate new insights into the biochemical processes and pathways associated with the chronic stress response, and potential mechanisms by which chronic stress produces adverse health effects. Chapter 1 describes the application of sets of targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches to analyze serum samples from a human epigenetic model of chronic stress in order to identify potential targets for further analysis. To test the resulting hypothesis that oxidative stress is a key feature of chronic stress, a new targeted multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-MS assay was developed for the accurate quantitation of aldehyde products of lipid peroxidation, as described in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, the validated method for quantitation of malondialdehyde (MDA) was t applied to mouse plasma samples from a model of chronic social defeat stress to determine whether animals exposed to psychosocial stress show increases in oxidative stress. Mouse plasma samples from this model were also analyzed by untargeted metabolomics using Fourier-transform (FT)-MS to identify other important metabolite features, particularly those that overlap with metabolites identified in the human epigenetic model. Analysis of metabolomic data from two very different models of chronic stress supports the consistent detection of a metabolomic phenotype for chronic stress that is characterized by the dysregulation of energy metabolism associated with decreased concentrations of diacyl-phospholipids in blood. Increased blood concentrations of fatty acids, carnitines, acylcarnitines, and ether phospholipids were also observed. In addition to metabolites associated with energy metabolism, chronic stress also significantly influenced metabolites associated with amino acid metabolism and cell death. This characteristic pattern of differences in metabolite concentrations was observed in the plasma of mice exposed to chronic social defeat stress, irrespective of whether or not they displayed outward signs of a chronic stress response; In fact, mice that were “resilient” to the behavioural effects of chronic social defeat stress displayed an exaggerated phenotype over mice that showed depressive-like symptoms following chronic stress exposure. This may suggest that the observed changes in fatty acid composition are protective against stress. However, changes in fatty acid composition are also known to be associated with a wide variety of pathologies including heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and mood disorders, so the lipidomic changes associated with chronic stress may also contribute to its health impact. Overall, the results provide further evidence that changes in energy metabolism are a central part of allostatic adaptation to chronic stress. / Graduate / 0487 / csobsey@gmail.com

M.Ed. / The influence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as the significant impact it has left on children and adolescent who are left without parental guidance and support has huge implications for communities. As the epidemic spreads, adolescent-headed families are becoming more and more frequent in society, posing great challenges to extended families that have to care for additional children, causing a collapse on parental functions. This leads to the emergence of a new family structure where great strain is placed on children who are often left to fend for themselves. The absence of parental care and support often not only affect their social emotional development, but also their scholastic performance. This inquiry attempted to understand how these adolescents cope with difficulties related to living without caregivers, and as to how some can overcome the odds and still successfully progress with expectations placed by the school context. The inquiry utilized a phenomenological research design that is exploratory in nature. The data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with four participants, two boys and two girls. Each of the four participants also wrote narratives of their life stories. Two focus group interviews were also conducted, one with the four participant's educators and the other with another group of adolescents from adolescent-headed families. Data obtained was analysed using content analysis to determine the common themes and subthemes that emerged.

Bakgrund: Under hösten 2015 drabbades Europa av den största flyktingkrisen i modern tid. Av de totalt 163 000 flyktingar som passerade den svenska gränsen var många ensamkommande barn som fördelades ut i kommunerna av Migrationsverket. Kommunerna kan i sin tur delvis hantera detta mottagande genom ramavtalsupphandling av asylplatser, men behovet har tidigare år varit litet. Flyktingkrisen ökade således dramatiskt efterfrågan på platser, vilket försatte kommunerna i en pressad situation och ställde krav på resiliens. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva och förstå hur offentlig upphandling fungerar i en krissituation, genom att undersöka kommunernas upphandling av HVB-hem och konsulentstödda familjehem/jourhem under hösten 2015 samt se hur dessa hanterat sitt mottagande av ensamkommande flyktingbarn. Metod: Syftet uppnås genom en kvalitativ flerfallstudie fokuserad på ett fåtal undersökta kommuner. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom nio semistrukturerade intervjuer samt sekundärdata i form av en dokumentstudie. Slutsats: Offentlig upphandling är idag reglerat av en mycket strikt och tidskrävande lagstiftning som i detalj styr upphandlingsförfarandet för berörda myndigheter. Endast mindre upphandlingar tar minst ett halvår att genomföra, oavsett hur stort behovet på den aktuella varan är. Eftersom krissituationer karaktäriseras av tidsbrist och överraskning fungerar dessa således dåligt tillsammans, vilket var tydligt under flyktingkrisen. De ökade flyktingströmmarna skapade då ett stort platsbehov som snabbt behövde hanteras, men nya ramavtal skulle ändå inte finnas att tillgå förrän långt in på 2016. I krissituationer får därför upphandling ske genom direktupphandling, vilket dock kunnat innebära en betydligt högre prisnivå. Hur kommunerna sedan hanterat sitt flyktingmottagande har till stor del berott på vilka förutsättningar som funnits. De som kunnat bygga ut egna HVB-hem och överbelägga dessa och/eller haft det lättare att värva egna familjehem kunde rent ekonomiskt anta ett mer resilient bemötande av krisen än de kommuner som tvingats direktupphandla. Ur ett sammantaget perspektiv är bedömningen svårare då alla alternativ haft olika för- och nackdelar som måste vägas mot varandra. / Background: During the fall of 2015 Europe suffered from the most severe refugee crisis in modern time. Out of the 163 000 refugees that crossed the Swedish border about 35 000 were classified as unaccompanied minors, whom were later allocated to the municipals by Migrationsverket. The municipals in turn solve this reception partly by framework agreements of asylum accommodations. The refugee crisis dramatically increased the demand for accommodation, which put the municipals under pressure and raised the need for resilience from them. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe and to understand how public procurement functions in a crisis situation by investigating Swedish municipals procurement of homes for care and resident (HVB) and consultant supported foster homes during the fall of 2015 and to see how they have managed their reception of unaccompanied minors. Methodology: The aim is achieved by using a qualitative multiple case study focused on a small number of investigated municipals. The empirical material has been sampled from nine semi-structured interviews as well as secondary data in the form of relevant documents. Conclusion: Public procurement is regulated by a legislation which is considered very time-consuming as well as administratively demanding. Even minor procurements take at least six months to execute independently of how high the demand of the required good or service is. Since crises are characterized by surprise and time shortage, these work poorly together, something which became exceedingly apparent during the refugee crisis. The high number of unaccompanied minors rapidly increased the demand for accommodations, but new framework agreements could not be obtained until they had been in procurement for at least a year. In crisis situations, the use of accelerated procedure is therefore necessary. How the municipals solved their reception depended largely on their different prerequisites. Those who could find other ways to create new places besides using accelerated procedure could also out of an economic perspective withtake a more resilient refutation of the crisis. However, from a more multidisciplinary approach it is difficult to determine which alternatives that were the most resilient options for the municipals since all of them had advantages and disadvantages.

La programmation orientée aspects (POA) sépare les différentes préoccupations composant un système informatique pour améliorer la modularité. La POA offre de nombreux bénéfices puisqu'elle permet de séparer le code fonctionnel du code non-fonctionnel améliorant ainsi leur réutilisation et la configurabilitè des systèmes informatiques. La configurabilité est un élément essentiel pour assurer la résilience des systèmes informatiques, puisqu’elle permet de modifier les mécanismes de sûreté de fonctionnement. Cependant le paradigme de programmation orientée aspect introduit de nouveaux défis pour le test. Dans les systèmes de grande taille où plusieurs préoccupations non fonctionnelles cohabitent, une implémentation à l'aide d'aspects de ces préoccupations peut être problématique. Partageant le même flot de données et le même flot de contrôle les aspects implémentant les différentes préoccupations peuvent écrire dans des variables lues par d'autres aspects ou interrompre le flot de contrôle commun aux différents aspects empêchant ainsi l'exécution de certains d'entre eux. Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons plus spécifiquement aux interférences entre aspects dans le cadre du développement de mécanismes de tolérance aux fautes implémentés sous forme d’aspects. Ces interférences sont dues à une absence de déclaration de précédence entre les aspects ou à une déclaration de précédence erronée. Afin de mieux maîtriser l’assemblage des différents aspects composant un mécanisme de tolérance aux fautes, nous avons développé une méthode alliant l'évitement à la détection des interférences au niveau du code. Le but de l'évitement est d'empêcher l'introduction d'interférences en imposant une déclaration de précédence entre les aspects lors de l'intégration des aspects. La détection permet d'exhiber lors du test les erreurs introduites dans la déclaration des précédences. Ces deux facettes de notre approche sont réalisées grâce à l’utilisation d’une extension d'AspectJ appelée AIRIA. Les constructions d'AIRIA permettent l’instrumentation et donc la détection des interférences entre aspects, avec des facilités de compilation permettant de mettre en œuvre l’évitement d’interférences. Notre approche est outillée et vise à limiter le temps de déboguage : le testeur peut se concentrer directement sur les points où une interférence se produit. Nous illustrons notre approche sur une étude de cas: un protocole de réplication duplex. Dans ce contexte le protocole est implémenté en utilisant des aspects à grain fin permettant ainsi une meilleure configurabilité de la politique de réplication. Nous montrons que l'assemblage de ces aspects à grain fin donne lieu à des interférences de flot de données et flot de contrôle qui sont détectées par notre approche d'instrumentation. Nous définissons un ensemble d'aspects interférant pour l'exemple, et nous montrons comment notre approche permet la détection d'interférences. / Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) separates the different concerns of a computer software system to improve modularity. AOP offers many benefits since it allows separating the functional code from the non-functional code, thus improving reuse and configurability of computer systems. Configurability is essential to ensure the resilience of computer systems, since it allows modifying the dependability mechanisms. However, the paradigm of aspectoriented programming introduces new challenges regarding testing. In large systems where multiple non-functional concerns coexist, an AOP implementation of these concerns can be problematic. Sharing the same data flow and the same control flow, aspects implementing different concerns can write into variables read by other aspects, or interrupt the control flow involving various aspects, and thus preventing the execution of some aspects in the chain. In this work we focus more specifically on interference between aspects implementing fault tolerance mechanisms. This interference is due to a lack of declaration of fine-grain precedence between aspects or an incorrect precedence declaration. To better control the assembly of the various aspects composing fault tolerance mechanisms, we have developed a method combining avoidance of interferences with runtime detection interferences at code level. The purpose of avoidance is to prevent the introduction of interference by requiring a statement of precedence between aspects during the aspects integration. Detection allows exhibiting during the test, errors introduced in the precedence statement. These two aspects of our approach are performed through the use of an extension called AspectJ AIRIA. AIRIA ‘s constructs allow instrumentation and therefore the detection of interference between aspects, with facilities compilation to implement the interference avoidance. Our approach is designed and equipped to limit the debugging time : the tester can focus directly on the points where an interference occurs. Finaly, we illustrate our approach on a case study : a duplex replication protocol. In this context, the protocol is implemented using fine grained aspects allowing a better configurability of the replication policy.We show that the assembly of these fine-grained aspects gives rise to interference data flow and control flow that are detected by our instrumentation approach. We define a set of interfering aspects in this example, and show how our approach allows the detection of interferences.

Ecosystem services are essential for human climate adaptation. As climate change is a direct driver of change for ecosystem service provisioning, it is of importance to care for our ecosystems to be able to cope with future challenges. Local governance has a central role in climate adaptation due to its responsibility in physical planning. To be able to plan for changes driven by climate change, a flexible, adaptive strategy is necessary. Ecosystem-based Adaptation, EbA, can provide this flexibility to an overall adaptation strategy. In this case study, the potential of EbA to help Nature-based Tourism, NbT, to adapt to a changing climate was spatially mapped to be a useful part of the basis for local physical planning. The mapping includes areas of biodiversity, water infrastructure and features that provide resilience to climate change. The results show that there are areas with potential for EbA that can address adverse effects of climate change for the NbT. These spatial mapped areas provide an instant overview of the key areas to consider when planning for climate adaptation. These mapped areas are also combined with a qualitative assessment of the potential for EbA. By providing decision-makers with information on where and how ecosystem services can assist local climate adaptation, decisions that support both the future of humanity and ecosystems are enabled. However, to reach enforcement of EbA, the knowledge has to be included in binding documents such as detail plans.

El periodo de violencia política en el Perú dejó una serie de secuelas psicosociales que afectaron en mayor medida a cierto grupo de la población. A los indultados por los delitos de terrorismo y traición a la patria se les reconoció como legalmente inocentes después de pasar años en prisión. Objetivo: Describir la relación entre la resiliencia y el autoconcepto personal en indultados por el delito de terrorismo y traición a la patria, quienes son parte de la población afectada por la violencia política en el Perú. Método: La muestra está conformada por 34 indultados y se les administró la Escala de Resiliencia (ER) y el Cuestionario de Autoconcepto Personal (APE). Resultados: Se encuentra una correlación positiva significativa y de magnitud moderada entre resiliencia y el componente Autorrealización e Integridad del autoconcepto personal (r = .657, p < .001). Conclusiones: La elaboración emocional de la vivencia de los indultados necesita ser trabajada para poder integrarla con las percepciones positivas. / The period of political violence in Peru left a series of psychosocial consequences that affected a certain group of the population to a greater extent. Those pardoned for the crimes of terrorism and treason were recognized as legally innocent after spending years in prison. Objective: To describe the relationship between resilience and personal self-concept in those pardoned for the crime of terrorism and treason, who are part of the population affected by political violence in Peru. Method: The sample consisted of 34 pardoned who were administered the Resilience Scale (ER) and the Personal Self-concept Questionnaire (APE). Results: There is a significant positive correlation of moderate magnitude between resilience and the Self-realization and Integrity component of personal self-concept (r = .657, p <.001). Conclusions: The emotional elaboration of the experience of the pardoned ones needs to be worked so that it can be integrated with the positive perceptions.

The notion of ‘organizational resilience’ has risen exponentially in recent years; it is the ability of an organization to ‘bounce back’ and continue key functions during disruptive events. The rise follows the will to better face the unforeseen and complex adversity that modern times throws at organizations. This study, following a single-case exploratory research design, aims to establish knowledge regarding organizational resilience in the humanitarian sector; by exploring the policy and practice of the United Nations. The author builds an Analytical Framework based on the leading research in the field of organizational resilience, in order to grasp an understanding of the organization's different beliefs, capabilities, and proficiencies necessary to establish and maintain a resilient organization. Concluding with the statement that while there are areas of challenges, the humanitarian sector provides a case not only to scrutinize, but also to learn from.

[pt] Este estudo investiga o papel do design frente a desastres naturais e parte do princípio que o design deve se ocupar de problemas complexos. Seus principais interlocutores foram Jorge Frascara - autor do livro Diseño Grafico para la gente, que defende que o fruto da atuação do design deve ser a transformação de realidades existentes em outras mais desejáveis –, Ulrich Beck – que, em seu livro Risk Society, apresenta a globalização dos riscos na sociedade contemporânea – e Adam Smith, que discorre sobre a importância da empatia nas relações humanas em obra intitulada A teoria dos sentimentos morais. Esta dissertação traz um panorama sobre desastres naturais e seus impactos sobre populações vulneráveis. Relata, também, estudo de caso realizado em lugares atingidos por catástrofes, como Nova Friburgo, região serrana do Estado do Rio de Janeiro e em Santiago de Cuba. Ao final, identifica as principais ações que precisam ser desenvolvidas antes, durante e depois fenômenos naturais de grandes proporções, apresenta meios pelos quais o design pode agir afim de minimizar os efeitos dos desastres e conclui que a sua atuação frente a esses eventos pode ser literalmente vital. Este trabalho teve como inspiração os Médicos sem Fronteiras – organização humanitária internacional comprometida com a prestação de socorro a populações em perigo e vítimas de catástrofes e conflitos, estando entre seus desdobramentos, a realização de workshops internacionais de design com foco em problemas complexos para voluntários em parceria com organizações como a Yunus Social Business e a própria MSF. / [en] This study investigates the role of design against natural disasters and assumes that design must deal with complex problems. It s main interlocutors are Jorge Frascara – author of Diseño Grafico para la gente, which argues that the objective of the design practice must be the transformation of existing realities into other ones more desirable – Ulrich Beck – who, in his book Risk society, presents the globalization of risks in contemporary society – and Adam Smith, who defends the importance of empathy in human relations in his work entitled The theory of moral sentiments. This dissertation provides an overview of natural disasters and their impact on vulnerable populations. Also reports case studies conducted in places affected by disasters such as Nova Friburgo, mountainous region in the State of Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Cuba. At the end, identifies key actions that need to be undertaken before, during and after natural disasters, presents ways in which design can act in order to minimize the effects of disasters and concludes that it s action against these events can literally be vital. This work was inspired by the Doctors without Borders – international humanitarian organization which provides assistance to populations in distress and victims of disasters and conflicts, and among its consequences are the development of international design workshops for complex problems, in partnership with organizations such as Yunus Social Business and the DWB itself.

<div> <div> <div> <p>With the prevalence of web and cloud-based services, there is an ever growing requirement on the underlying network infrastructure to ensure that business critical traffic is continually serviced with acceptable performance. Networks must meet their performance requirements under failures. The global scale of cloud provider networks and the rapid evolution of these networks imply that failures are the norm in production networks today. Unplanned downtime can cost billions of dollars, and cause catastrophic consequences. The thesis is motivated by these challenges and aims to provide a principled solution to certifying network performance under failures. Network performance certification is complicated, due to both the variety of ways a network can fail, and the rich ways a network can respond to failures. The key contributions of this thesis are: (i) a general framework for robustly certifying the worst-case performance of a network across a given set of uncertain scenarios. A key novelty is that the framework models flexible network response enabled by recent emerging trends such as Software-Defined Networking; (ii) a toolkit which automates the key steps needed in robust certification making it suitable for use by a network architect, and which enables experimentation on a wide range of robust certification of practical interest; (iii) Slice, a general framework which efficiently classifies failure scenarios based on whether network performance is acceptable for those scenarios, and which allows reasoning about performance requirements that must be met over a given percentage of scenarios. We also show applications of our frameworks in synthesizing designs that are guaranteed to meet a performance goal over all or a desired percentage of a given set of scenarios. The thesis focuses on wide-area networks, but the approaches apply to data-center networks as well.</p></div></div></div>