The objective of this thesis study is to identify factors that influence Alberta food processors' food safety decisions. Data for this study were collected in a 2008 survey of Alberta food processors. It is hypothesized that pressures from government, industry, and consumers influence firms' food safety decisions. Data on respondent firms' perceptions, attitudes and characteristics are analyzed using nonparametric statistical approaches; logit models are estimated. Analysis indicates that firms perceive their consumers as viewing potential hazards to be more dangerous to food safety than the firms themselves consider these hazards. Firms' responses associated good manufacturing practices with both improved food safety and improved business performance. Only minimal support is found for government, industry and consumer pressures as influencers of HACCP adoption in Alberta. Structural issues are identified which may impact policy implementation. The conclusions provide insights into Alberta food processors' food safety strategies and may contribute to food safety policy. / Agriculture and Resource Economics

Research on aging indicates that older adults do not, as a group, report decreased health-related quality of life (HRQOL) despite age-related declines in physical health status. Several cognitive adaptation strategies have been suggested to underlie HRQOL stability in this population. Studies of older cancer patients nevertheless show substantial variance in post-treatment HRQOL outcomes, although cognitive mechanisms for individual differences have received little attention. The current study expanded on a developmental adaptation of self-regulation theory in which aging influences both self-vulnerability and perceptions of disease. A model was tested in which older age was hypothesized to predict better HRQOL via less severe illness perceptions in men treated for localized (Stage I and II) PC. Results indicated that age was not directly associated with HRQOL. However, older age was indirectly associated with better HRQOL via less severe PC perceptions. Further, this indirection association helped account for the positive association between age and HRQOL that three risk factors (income, comorbid disease burden, and sexual function) were shown to suppress. Perceptions of PC may promote HRQOL stability by mitigating age-related declines in health and income status. Disease perceptions thus represent critical components of health assessments and interventions for PC survivors of all ages, but particularly for men facing difficulties adapting to complex health profiles or normative lifespan challenges.

The purpose of this study was to assess the self-perceptions of leadership skill development and attitudes of experienced collegiate sophomore student leaders who elected to take an undergraduate collegiate leadership course. Leadership attitude, for the purpose of this study, consisted of one's group or leader orientation. The five leadership skills studied were working in groups, positional leadership, communication, decision-making, and understanding self. A post-then methodology was utilized with self-reporting as the process by which data was collected following completion of an academic leadership course. The major findings of this study were as follows: After the semester course, there were no significant differences among sophomore student leaders regarding their attitude toward the construct leadership orientation and their attitude toward the construct group orientation. In addition, the sophomore student leaders who completed the academic leadership course displayed a self-perceived increase in their ability to work in groups, work in positions of leadership, communicate, make decisions, and in their awareness of self. No relationship was found between the self-reported attitudes on leader or group orientation of sophomore student leaders with the amount of high school leadership courses that were completed. No statistically significant relationship was found between the self-reported attitudes on group orientation of sophomore student leaders and the amount of leadership activities in which the subjects participated in high school. A statistically significant positive relationship was found between the self-reported attitudes on leader orientation of sophomore student leaders and the amount of leadership activity participation in high school. No statistically significant relationship was found between the post-class self-perceptions of the leadership skills of sophomore student leaders and their high school leadership education. A statistically significant relationship was found between the self-perceived communication skills of sophomore student leaders and the amount of leadership activities completed in high school. The more high school leadership activities in which students participated, the less confidence the students perceived in their communication skills. Statistical analysis failed to reveal a relationship between an attitude of group orientation and any one type of leadership skill.

Abstract The aim with the study was to describe and to compare nurse students' views about important caring behaviors in order to give good caring. An empirical comparative study was implemented on a college in the middle of Sweden. Nurse students in the beginning and at the end of their education sorted and prioritized 50 caring behaviors (CARE-Q). The result showed that the students' description of important caring behaviors has many similarities. However, the result also showed that there were significant differences between the student-groups where the students at the beginning of their education rated several caring behavior as significant more important than the students in the end of their education. The findings showed that there were significant differences in 7 caring behaviors. “Gets to know the patient as an individual person”, “Volunteers to do “little” things for the patient, e.g., brings a cup of coffee, a paper etc.”, “Offers reasonable alternatives to the patient, such as choice of appointment times, bath times etc.”, “Is cheerful”, “Introduces herself/himself and tells the patient what he/she does”, “Touches the patient when he/she needs comfort”, “Knows when to call the doctor”. The result showed on that there was not any significant difference between the study-groups in CARE-Q different dimensions. Conclusion; In those cases where differences were found between the student groups these most often concerned caring behavior of human nature, i e. the more fundamental in the nurse trade's area of responsibility and that students at beginning of their education assessed these as more important in order to provide good care. Keywords: Nursing student, Caring behavior, Perceptions, CARE-Q.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka tonåringars upplevelser av att leva med diabetes och vilka problem de stöter på i vardagen. Tonårstiden är en omtumlande period då förvandlingen från att vara barn till att bli vuxen sker. Att samtidigt anpassa livet efter en kronisk sjukdom som innebär strikta regler och regelbunden vardag gällande mat och medicinering är påfrestande. En litteraturstudie har gjorts för att sammanställa forskning på området. Artiklarna hämtades i databaserna Cinhal och Medline. Sökorden som använts var: ungdomar, diabetes typ 1 och upplevelser. 14 artiklar valdes ut och analyserades. Två huvudteman definierades, det första var att leva med diabetes med underrubrikerna fritid, medicinering, kost och motion, skola och vård samt livskvalitet. Det andra var relationer med underrubrikerna familjen, vänner och frigörelse. Resultatet visar att tonåringar med diabetes typ 1 känner att de skiljer sig från sina vänner. De måste följa en regelbunden kost och medicinering. De kan inte vara spontana utan måste alltid planera sitt liv efter sin sjukdom. Frigörelseprocessen ser annorlunda ut för ungdomar med diabetes. Flickor och pojkar upplever sin sjukdom på olika sätt, pojkar har svårare att acceptera sin sjukdom och försöker dölja den, flickor identifierar sig mer med sin sjukdom men har svårare att följa de strikta och regelbundna rutinerna. / The aim of this study is to look into the experiences of adolescents living with diabetes and what problems they encounter in everyday life. Adolescence is a difficult period in life in which children grow up to become adults. At the same time it is stressful to adapt life to a chronic disease, with strict rules for food and medication on a regular timetable. A literature review has been made to compile research. Articles were retrieved in the databases Cinahl and Medline. The keywords used were: adolescent, type 1 diabetes and experiences. 14 Articles were selected and analyzed. Two main themes were defined, the first was to live with diabetes with subheadings leisure, medication, diet and exercise, quality of life, health care and school. The second was relationships with subheadings family, friends and emancipation. The result shows that teenagers with type 1 diabetes know that they are different from their friends. They must adhere to a regular diet and medication. They can not be spontaneous because they have to plan life to their illness. Emancipation process is different for adolescents with diabetes. Girls and boys experience their disease in different ways. Boys have more difficulties accepting their illness and try to hide it, girls identify more with it but find it harder to follow the strict and regular routines.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how employees perceive their leader / manager. How the leader / manager perceives himself in relation to employees and what differences exist. Research Method: The information was made through a qualitative approach. The study includes interviews with semi-structured questions and a subjective selection. The authors interviewed seven respondents from a service company. Based on the information the authors have attempted to draw parallels between the leader’s behaviour and theories involving different leadership styles and see how the employees perceive the leader. Conclusions: The employees and the leader have the same ideas about what is a good leadership. The leader has the right knowledge to be a leader and to maintain the company. The leader works with different leadership styles. It’s the situation that determines how the leader will respond to the problem.

The aim of this study is to investigate how athletes and coaches perceive and experience success and failure. Objectives of the study consist of examining how athletes and coaches define, react and cope with success and failure, how they perceive consequences and how coaches help athletes to cope with success and failure. Ten (n=10) individual semi structured interviews was carried out with seven (n=7) elite athletes and three (n=3) coaches in track and field. An interview guide based on the objectives of the study was developed. 385 raw data units were identified. These were categorised according to the objectives. The analysis showed that athletes and coaches defined success as achieving goals and a typical reaction to success was to feel happy. A typical consequence that follows success was increased self confidence and athletes cope with this by setting new goals. The analysis of coaches showed that coaches create an understanding for the athletes, what they want and what they need. Failure was most frequently defined as injury. The most common reaction to failure was increased negative thinking and athletes coped with that by “clenching the fist”. Coaches help athletes to cope with failure by adapting the training. Development was considered to be a significant consequence of failure.

Service quality has become one of the key aspects among other factors that contribute to business growth and leading position in the business environment with mass competition. Service quality also plays a significant role in service sectors since due to its untouchable nature the features cannot be spelled out for consumers to directly make judgment before decisions are made.  In order for businesses to improve and maintain a better positioning in the competitive era, it is necessary to evaluate the performance of the services rendered to their customers. In recent times, service provider companies spend a great deal of time and money in configuring high quality services to satisfy their customers. Satisfied customers in most cases are likely to become loyal to companies. Customer satisfaction can be evaluated through an assessment of the quality of service delivered by the service provider to their customers and the level of service quality can also be measured considering customers‟ expectations and perceptions.  Purpose: This study is aimed to apply the SERVQUAL instrument in assessing patients (students of Umea University) perceptions of service quality and the level of satisfaction obtained from the services rendered by the Norrlands Universitets sjukhuset. Method: The convenience sampling technique was used to obtain data from the chosen population to enable an evaluation of perceptions of service quality at the Norrlands Universitets Sjukhuset. Findings and Conclusion: The factor analysis was used to analyze finding and test validity. Meanwhile the Cronbach Alpha enabled the determination of internal consistency and reliability. The gap score between perceptions and expectations was also deliberated. Results show that items from the same dimensions fall under more than one component. Although the other dimensions had a single factor, items from one dimension are not regrouped under the same factor but are affected by the different factors except for the Empathy dimension that was grouped correctly, but Empathy dimension alone is not sufficient to determine the extent of validity of the instrument applied. In this study the overall reliability coefficient is 0,933 more than 0.9 being the standard coefficient indicating an acceptable level of internal consistency. In conclusion patients from a chosen sample size of 201 students at the NUS expressed higher expectations than what they perceived in four dimensions and expressed satisfaction in one dimension. Result shows that in all the dimensions customers‟ expectations were higher than perceptions except the dimension of tangibility score implying that although people expect quite much from the hospital they expressed a satisfactory level on the Tangibility dimension (physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel). This study contributes to the already prevailing knowledge and studies that have explored both the concept of service quality and customer satisfaction in the health care service sector with the help of the SERVQUAL instrument. The empirical results from this study can also help in guiding managerial operations in the health care service sectors.

There have been reports that rainfall in East Africa is changing or becoming more variable. This can have significant implications for conservation initiatives and the food security of this populace region that is heavily reliant on the rain fed agricultural system. The perceptions of farmers regarding rainfall along with 30 years of satellite data and 16 years of ground level observations were analyzed in order to characterize rainfall in and around Kibale National Park, a protected area in the Ugandan portion of the Albertine Rift. Two homogenous rainfall regions exist in the area, and the onset, cessation, and amount of rainfall during seasons is highly variable. The perceptions of farmers align with the analysis of rainfall data, indicating that the season beginning in March shows the highest degree of variability. Decreases in the amount of rainfall are found for both rainy seasons.

This thesis, comprising two studies, investigated whether negative expectations and self-perceptions relating to the aging process are associated with less physical activity (Study 1), and whether less active adults are likely to report age as a cause for physical activity failure than more active adults (Study 2). Using Sarkisian et al.’s (2002) Expectations Regarding Aging (ERA-38) survey, Study 1 first developed reliable and valid sub-factors for constructs relating to general aging expectations (GAE) and aging self-perceptions (ASP) by conducting exploratory factor analyses on 167 adults (M age = 59.5). Results revealed three acceptable GAE sub-factors relating to satisfaction/contentment, physical function and cognitive function, and three ASP sub-factors pertaining to functional, social, and sexual health. Subsequent MANOVA analyses showed that active adults reported higher GAE for satisfaction/contentment and cognitive function than less active adults. Regression analyses revealed that physical activity levels positively predicted satisfaction/contentment and physical function expectations among 45-54 yr olds. In Study 2, 177 adults (M age = 60.1) completed our Causal Dimension Scale for Aging (CDSA) and a survey asking whether age was a likely cause of failure in various physical activity contexts. Responses on the CDSA were used to validate ‘General Attributions towards Age’ (GATA), a measure which captured how adults view the aging effects. Subsequent analyses of variance determined that GATA interacted with physical activity status (active, less active) to influence the reported likelihood of age as a cause for failure. Less active adults with stable/uncontrollable GATA reported greater likelihood of age as a cause for failure than all other groups in gym, recreational/community program, and unstructured/spontaneous activity settings. Separate age group analyses indicated that these trends were pronounced in an unstructured/spontaneous activity setting for 45-54 yr olds, and in a generally recently inactive scenario for 55-64 yrs.