This study aims to explore how four Syrians, involved as case managers in Questscope’s mentoring program, describe and experience their lives in Zaatari Refugee Camp. The participants were asked to describe their experiences through qualitative interviews. The results were analyzed through the lens of Antonovsky’s salutogenic theory to examine each participant’s sense of coherence and what activities or people contribute towards a strong SOC. The results show that the participants face many challenges in Zaatari Camp, most notably the feeling that their lives have been reduced to a simple existence in which they are expected to be content with food and shelter. They express the feeling that their hopes and aspirations have come to a standstill and that camp conditions do not allow them to move forward in their lives, such as by completing university. However, their stories also include indications of strong SOC in that the participants make sense of their situation, perceive that there are resources available to deal with their situation, and have incentive to persevere in spite of their circumstances. They describe their work with Questscope, through which they are encouraged to take initiative and responsibility, as helpful and motivating because it builds their confidence, gives them purpose and allows them to hope and move forward.

Tyrimo objektas – moksleivių agresyvumas ir vidinė darna. Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti Kauno miesto 12-13 ir 15-16 metų paauglių agresyvumo raišką ir vidinę darną. Uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti paauglių agresyvumą ir vidinę darną, jų ryšį. 2. Išanalizuoti paauglių agresyvumą ir vidinę darną pagal lytį. Hipotezė: agresyvių paauglių vidinė darna yra mažesnė. Išvados 1. Atlikus tyrimą nustatyta, jog Kauno miesto mokyklų paaugliai pasižymi vidutiniškai išreikšta agresija (p<0,001). Manoma, jog agresyvus elgesys yra dažnas reiškinys mokymosi įstaigoje. Kauno miesto mokymosi įstaigų paaugliams buvo nustatyta vidutinė vidinės darnos reikšmė (p<0,001). Atlikus tyrimą, pastebėta, jog tie paaugliai kurie surinko aukštus agresijos klausimyno balus, pas juos vidinė darna buvo ženkliai mažesnė, negu tų paauglių kurie buvo surinkę žemesnius balus. 2. Išanalizavus, agresyvų elgesį pagal lytį, nustatyta, jog vaikinai surinko aukštesnius balus, nei merginos (P<0,05). Analizuojant vidinę darną, skirtumas tarp lyčių buvo statistiškai nereikšmingas (p>0.05). Rekomendacijos, pasiūlymai 1. Būtina skirti daugiau lėšų ir priežiūros, agresijos prevencinių priemonių, įgyvendinimui mokymosi įstaigose. 2. Neužtenka įrengti kameras mokymosi įstaigų kiemuose ar viduje, turi būti atsakingas už tai žmogus, ir visa tai stebėti. 3. Reikėtų skatinti mokinių bendradarbiavimą tarpusavyje pamokų metu, taip stiprinant mokinių ryšį tarpusavyje ir kartu mažinant mokinių atsiskyrimą, izoliaciją nuo klasės draugų. 4... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of research - students aggressiveness and sense of coherence . The aim – to identify connection between agression and internal coherence at Kaunas city in 12-13 and 15-16 years old adolescents. Objectives: 1. To indetify adolescent aggression and internal coherence. 2. To analyze adolescent aggression and internal coherence by gender; Hypothesis: The aggressive adolescent sense of coherence is lower. Findings 1. Research showed that aggressive behavior is a common phenomenon in the school. Descending the internal consistency of increased aggression, adolescents noted a lower level of internal coherence . 2. Analyzed the aggressive behavior by gender it‘s seen that both girls and boys average aggression occurs. Sense of coherence with the boys was slightly higher. 3. The connection between aggressive behavior and internal coherence is that adolescents are often more aggressive behavior if sense of coherence is lower. Recommendations, suggestions: 1. Necessary to devote more resources and maintenance to aggression prevention in learning institutions. 2. It is not enough to install cameras at learning institutions yards or inside, responsible worker should be to watch records. 3. Cooperation among the students during the lessons should be promoted to enhance student‘s relationship with each other and to reduce separation and isolation from classmates . 4. It is recommended to perform regular aggression prevention research and to draw conclusions.

The history of HIV/AIDS dates back to 1985, when it was thought to be a disease affecting animals. Later, HIV/AIDS was regarded as an illness which affected gay individuals. However, research world-wide has shown that HIV/AIDS is a disease that affects everyone irrespective of race, gender, social status and sexual orientation. Research regarding the psychological well-being (coping, sense of coherence, locus of control and general health) of HIV infected persons in the workplace seems appropriate and relevant. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between sense of coherence, locus of control, coping, and general health. A cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve research objectives. For the purpose of this study, an availability sample of (n = 91) HIV infected individuals in the workplace was used. Four questionnaires were employed in the empirical study, namely the General Health Questionnaire, the Coping Orientations to the Problems Experienced Questionnaire, the Work Locus of Control Scale, and the Orientation to Life Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. Pearson correlations and canonical analysis were used to assess the relationships between sense of coherence, locus of control, coping strategies and general health. Approach coping strategies such as active coping, planning, seeking support for instrumental reasons, seeking support for emotional reasons, positive reinterpretation and growth, and acceptance were positively related to a strong sense of coherence and a low external locus of control. Avoidance coping strategies, such as focus on and ventilation of emotions, denial, behavioural disengagement, and mental disengagement were negatively related to sense of coherence and positively related to an external locus of control. HIV infected employees who measured high on planning, low on focus on and venting of emotions, and low on mental disengagement, experienced less anxiety and fewer somatic problems. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The primary aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate that Jonathan Edwards's "sense of the heart" as a principle of a new kind of perception or spiritual sensation given by the Spirit of God in regeneration, in which a believer tastes or sees God's beauty, can provide expository preaching with a meaningful direction for the restoration of religious experience. Chapter 1 focuses on the disappearance of religious experience in contemporary expository preaching and introduces, by illustrating the debate between the Old and the New Light in the First Great Awakening, an uncomfortable phenomenon in expository preaching that polarizes affectionate religious experience and cognitive-propositional truth. It argues that expository preaching should aim at affectional application because application is possible only when the listeners' fundamental affections are reoriented. Chapter 2 examines Jonathan Edwards's spiritual epistemology by analyzing Edwards's concept of the sense of the heart, through which the saints can experience God's beauty. The sense of the heart enables the saints to obtain a new habit or the heart that brings about new affections. The chapter contends that experiencing God's beauty through the sense of the heart is central to all genuine religious experiences. Chapter 3 defines the nature of Edwardsean religious experience as a spiritual-linguistic approach in the sense that the Spirit is the producer of genuine religious experience and the word of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit enables people to experience God's beauty and glory. It argues that expository preaching should create an experience for the listener, in Edwardsean sense, assuming that the conviction of the authority of the word of God and the encouragement of religious experience are completely compatible. Chapter 4 presents a homiletical analysis of Edwards's affective preaching. The chapter offers a comprehensive analysis of two of Edwards's sermons, as prime examples of his rhetorical strategies, to demonstrate how vivid and dramatic images are used in his sermons. The chapter suggests that expository sermons should pay more attention to language, just as Edwards recognized that the power in the sermon lies in the masterful use of language. Chapter 5 provides helpful implications for contemporary expository preaching. First, the chapter proposes preaching as a persuasion by illustrating Paul's use of rhetoric. Second, it indicates Edwards's power of imagination and suggests that expository preachers should pursue affective preaching by the use of their imagination and imaginative language. Third, it examines the implication of Edwardsean piety for expository preaching. Fourth, it offers preaching as a means of experiencing God's beauty. Chapter 6 summarizes the overall arguments established in the previous chapters. The goal of our preaching should be to touch the affections of our listener's hearts to bring them beyond a merely theoretical knowledge of spiritual realities.

Syftet med den här studien är att utveckla en förståelse för om eller hur den undervisning som förespråkas i Matematiklyftet skapar möjligheter till en ökad måluppfyllelse för SUM-elever (SUM-särskilda utbildningsbehov i matematik)? I studien har en kvalitativ textanalys av innehållet i Matematiklyftets modul ”Taluppfattning och tals användning årskurs 1-3” genomförts för att studera undervisningen och hur den möter SUM-elevernas särskilda utbildningsbehov i matematik. Studien visar att Matematiklyftet förordar en undervisning som i hög grad överensstämmer med forskning om lämplig undervisning för SUM-elever men genom studien har några svagheter identifierats. Bland annat har SUM-elever i regel behov av en mer strukturerad, explicit och lärarledd undervisning än vad som huvudsakligen rekommenderas i Matematiklyftet. SUM-elever är även i stort behov av en cyklisk undervisning med repetition och regelbundna återkopplingar till tidigare undervisningsområden något som inte framhävs tydligt i materialet. Trots dessa anmärkningar så menar vi att den undervisning som rekommenderas i Matematiklyftet både stärker och lyfter undervisningens kvalité för alla elever vilket borde skapa möjligheter till en ökad måluppfyllelse. / The aim of this study is to analyze if or how the teaching that is stipulated in Matematiklyftet creates opportunities for better achievements for SEN-students (SEN- special education needs). We performed a qualitative text analysis of the content of the module “Taluppfattning och tals användning årskurs 1-3” (Number sense and the use of number in grade 1-3) in Matematiklyftet to study how it meet the SEN-students special educational needs in mathematics . The study shows that teaching advocated for SEN-students in Matematiklyftet largely correspond with current research. However, the study also exposes some weaknesses in Matematiklyftet with recommendations not in line with available research. For example SEN-students usually needs a more structured, explicit and teacher-led instruction than  recommended in Matematiklyftet. SEN- students are also in great need of a cyclical teaching with regular feedback and rehearsal of past teaching areas which are not clearly highlighted in Matematiklyftet. We think that despite these weaknesses, Matematiklyftet will fulfil its role by strengthen and develop the teaching quality for all students, which should create opportunities for increased achievement.

Psykisk ohälsa förekommer i yrkeslivet. Att ha en hög grad av psykisk ohälsa kan leda till otrivsel på arbetet. Studien avsåg att undersöka sambandet mellan psykisk ohälsa och KASAM och arbetsrelaterad KASAM samt ålder, kön, etnicitet, anställningstid, anställningsform och befattning som kan antas vara relaterad till psykisk ohälsa. Detta undersöktes genom nio hypoteser och en frågeställning. 95 individer som arbetade inom hemtjänsten deltog i undersökningen och besvarade en enkät bestående av KASAM-skalan, arbetsrelaterade KASAM-skalan samt General Health Questionnarie 12. Via korrelationer och regressionsanalyser undersöktes materialet. Resultatet visade att hemtjänstpersonal med hög grad av psykisk hälsa hade en hög grad av KASAM och arbetsrelaterad KASAM, samt att andra faktorer såsom anställningsform och ålder relaterar till viss del med psykisk ohälsa. Studien gav en indikation på att höga värden på KASAM och arbetsrelaterad KASAM ger förutsättningar för individerna att klara av stressorer bättre, som också påverkar psykisk ohälsa

Prior studies suggest that proximity to nuclear power plants do not affect concerns regarding perceived risks of nuclear power. This thesis applies and compare Swedish plant Ringhals with prior studies but with the added intent of addressing the relationship between plant and population. The host community Bua is positive towards Ringhals and the changes it has brought. To some degree more so than results of prior studies with a higher than national average percent of study respondents being in favor of nuclear power. When Ringhals was established, Bua was small and had little power to impact the decision. Today, the population is bigger and have a better chance to affect future pathways for their community. While positive towards nuclear power the population expresses concerns over possible future changes. A large scale change like the construction of a power plant is less likely to happen again.

This investigation proposes a powerful formalization of common sense knowledge based on function-free normal deduction graphs (NDGs) which form a powerful tool for deriving Horn and non-Horn clauses without functions. Such formalization allows common sense reasoning since it has the ability to handle not only negative but also incomplete information.

The uncontrolled usage of hashtags in social media makes them vary a lot in the quality of semantics and the frequency of usage. Such variations pose a challenge to the current approaches which capitalize on either the lexical semantics of a hashtag by using metadata or the contextual semantics of a hashtag by using the texts associated with a hashtag. This thesis presents a hybrid approach to clustering hashtags based on their semantics, designed in two phases. The first phase is a sense-level metadata-based semantic clustering algorithm that has the ability to differentiate among distinct senses of a hashtag as opposed to the hashtag word itself. The gold standard test demonstrates that sense-level clusters are significantly more accurate than word-level clusters. The second phase is a hybrid semantic clustering algorithm using a consensus clustering approach which finds the consensus between metadata-based sense-level semantic clusters and text-based semantic clusters. The gold standard test shows that the hybrid algorithm outperforms both the text-based algorithm and the metadata-based algorithm for a majority of ground truths tested and that it never underperforms both baseline algorithms. In addition, a larger-scale performance study, conducted with a focus on disagreements in cluster assignments between algorithms, shows that the hybrid algorithm makes the correct cluster assignment in a majority of disagreement cases.

The aim of this project was to investigate the nature and possible significance of first-person kinaesthetic vocal sensations observed in association with musical listening. Hearing and voice are known to be closely linked but the mechanisms that underlie their close relationship are not yet understood. The presence of kinaesthetic vocal sensations challenges accounts of auditory processing that are divorced from peripheral vocal input and, instead, suggests the hypothesis that auditory and vocal processing mechanisms rely on shared peripheral substrates in addition to their increasingly recognized shared (brain-based) central substrates. To investigate this hypothesis, I used MRI and developed a measurement protocol (informed by established methods in cephalometry) that would allow me to relate vocal structures to their direct and indirect bony attachments to the craniofacial skeleton, cervical spine and sternum. After establishing the method's validity in subjects at rest, I acquired midsagittal MR images (under conditions where articulatory and postural input was negligible) while subjects (1) hummed and (2) listened (in a focused way) to low and high notes at each end of their range. Geometric and shape analysis of craniocaudal, craniocervical and anteroposterior variables revealed significant differences between low- and high-note conditions and widespread correlations between variables for both humming and listening investigations. An unexpected association between pitch change and changes of cervical alignment was also found. These results were complemented and extended by using the same MR images to build an active shape model (ASM). In addition to showing how vocal structures move together, ASM showed goal-related vocal activity to consist of one or more independent modes of variation. Together, the observations, experimental results, and evidence from diverse historical and contemporary sources, support the hypothesis that mechanisms underlying auditory and vocal processing rely on shared central and peripheral substrates. Wide-ranging implications arising from this hypothesis are also discussed.