Bakgrund: Alkoholberoende är en medicinsk diagnos som skiljer sig från risk- samt skadligt bruk. Beroende utvecklas i samspel med belöningssystemet och har en ärftlig komponent. Personer med alkoholberoende är en stigmatiserad grupp i samhället såväl som i sjukvården, och diagnosen innebär ett stort lidande för den enskilde personen. Därför är det viktigt att belysa personernas egna erfarenheter av vårdrelationer. Syfte: Att belysa erfarenheter av vårdrelationer hos personer med alkoholberoende. Metod: Litteraturstudie med sökorden Alcohol dependence, care, patient experiences. alcohol addiction, phenomenological, alcohol, treatment barriers, patient satisfaction, nursing, experiences och qualitative. Tio kvalitativa studier hämtade från databaserna Cinahl Complete, PubMed, Nursing and allied health source, PsycINFO och Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection analyserades och tematiserades. Resultat: Det övergripande temat som formades från resultatartiklarna var Vårdrelationens olika aspekter med fyra underteman. Dessa underteman var 1) Vikten av ömsesidig tillit och bekräftelse, 2) Betydelsen av kunskap och professionalitet, 3) Makt och delaktighet i vårdrelationen, samt 4) Att känna sig dömd och diskriminerad. Diskussion: Resultatet diskuteras mot Barkers Tidal-modell. Det diskuteras kring att mycket som framkom i resultatet var positiva erfarenheter och vad det kan bero på. Vidare avhandlas vad negativa attityder gentemot personer med alkoholberoende kan innebära för den enskilde personen och huruvida det är möjligt att utökade kunskaper kan förbättra attityderna. / Background: Alcohol dependence is a medical diagnosis and differs from alcohol abuse and harmful drinking. Dependence develops in interaction with the reward system and has a hereditary component. People with alcohol dependence are a stigmatized group in society as well as within healthcare, and the diagnosis means great suffering. It is therefore important to shed light on these individuals own experiences of caring relationships. Aim: To illuminate experiences of caring relationships in people with alcohol dependence. Method: A literature review with the keywords Alcohol dependence, care, patient experiences, alcohol addiction, phenomenological, alcohol, treatment barriers, patient satisfaction, nursing, experiences and qualitative. Ten qualitative studies collected from Cinahl Complete, PubMed, Nursing and allied health source, PsycINFO and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection were analyzed and thematized. Results: The overarching theme that was formed from the results was Different aspects of the caring relationship with four subthemes. These subthemes were 1) The importance of mutual trust and affirmation, 2) The meaning of knowledge and professionalism, 3) Power and involvement in the caring relationship, and 4) To feel judged and discriminated. Discussions: The results are discussed in relation to Barkers Tidal model. In the discussion it is noted that much that emerged in the results were positive experiences and what this may be due to. Further discussed is what negative attitudes towards people with alcohol dependence can mean for the person, and whether it's possible that extended knowledge can improve these attitudes.

The linewidths and line positions of 4I15/2 to 4I13/2 absorption transitions of trivalent erbium in CsCdBr₃ and CaF₂ were measured as a function of temperature from approximately 10 K to 300 K. By comparing the temperature dependence of these transitions with theoretical models of electron-phonon coupling the primary mechanism involved were determined. For Er3+ doped CaF₂ the Raman scattering processes dominated the line broadening, although the single-phonon direct processes were significant enough to drastically alter the values of the Raman scattering electron-phonon coupling constant. In comparison, the Er³⁺ doped CsCdBr₃ had negligible Raman scattering contributing to the line broadening. This is likely due to the exceedingly low Debye temperature and consequently low number of phonons, reducing the likelihood of two-phonon processes relative to single-phonon processes. The results were then analysed in terms of the bond length with the ligands and compared with other studies showing that as the bond length gets shorter the electron-phonon coupling constant associated with Raman scattering is expected to get smaller. To explain the line shifts in CaF₂:Er³⁺ it is necessary to treat the Debye temperature as a parameter. This indicates that the phonon modes causing the line shifts are different from those causing the line broadening, and in most of the cases are vibronic processes rather than Raman processes. In the case of CsCdBr₃:Er³⁺ there is very little difference between the fits using the fixed Debye temperature and a varied Debye temperature in over half of the cases examined. Given the distribution of phonon modes, it is likely that this small difference arises because combinations of these processes are of similar intensity, meaning that a combination of Raman and optical phonon modes are likely causing the line shift.

The present thesis investigates some long standing problems in radical polymerization (RP). The major aim is to consider the feasibility of using simple techniques to provide more insight into the kinetics of RP. This can contribute to fundamental knowledge of radical polymerizations, particularly with respect to the mode of termination (λ), average termination rate coefficient (<kt>), chain-length dependence of termination (CLDT) and chain transfer through in-depth investigations of the rate of polymerization (Rp) and molar mass distribution (MMD), the latter especially via mass spectrometric (MS) analysis. The termination process was first investigated. Observation of changes of <kt> (or equivalently Rp) and MMD by a variety of factors such as solvent, monomer and initiator concentrations, temperature, pressure and growing radical size were explored. Non-classical kinetics and chain-length dependency of termination were confirmed. Accessibility of CLDT information was clearly evident. Although observed results meet fully with composite-model expectations, issues such as chain transfer were found to have an effect on the CLDT parameters determined from rate measurements. Specifically, dilute-solution polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in methyl isobutyrate (MIB) showed evidence of such an effect. Scaling of quantities that are experimentally accessible such as <kt> with DPn yield CLDT parameters in good agreement with what has been reported from recent PLP experiments. This was confirmed for several monomers. The temperature dependence of termination was also investigated and found to show evidence for CLDT. In contrast, the variation of <kt> with pressure did not demonstrate similarly strong CLDT effects. Evidence for and determination of chain transfer to MIB was also obtained. This was followed up by investigations into the important parameter λ using the MS technique. Surprisingly little is known about λ despite its long history and its apparent importance to polymer properties. Firstly, the robustness of using MS was explored, with the method passing numerous consistency checks. Although no large dependence of MS instrument was found, electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) provided best resolution. Second, the type of initiator, the initiator concentration and the solvent were found to have no measurable effect on λ, even when chain transfer occurred. In further work, increasing temperature seemed to have an influence on λ, leading to an increase in the proportion of disproportionation. However, pressure was found to have only a small influence on λ. The effect of monomer on λ was also studied. In the final part of this work, a preliminarily investigation into the viability of using Raman spectroscopic techniques to study auto-acceleration, also called the gel effect, for bulk MMA radical polymerization was presented. The results showed the possibility of using such a technique to follow the reaction to high conversion. The effect of temperature and initiator concentration on auto-acceleration were also presented. The outstanding results of this thesis are: (1) The application of CLDT theory to better understand rate results from low-conversion polymerizations. (2) In particular, the use of CLDT principles to explain termination activation energies across a range of monomers. (3) The validation of the MS method for quantitative determination of mode of termination by carrying out an array of consistency checks. (4) Showing that MS results are consistent with CLDT theory. (5) Utilization of the MS method for the first ever reliable measurement of the variation of mode of termination with temperature, pressure and monomer.

Chronic ethanol (EtOH) exposure produces neuroadaptations within the NMDA receptor system and alterations in HPA axis functioning that contribute to neurodegeneration during ethanol withdrawal (EWD). Chronic EtOH exposure and EWD, as well as corticosteroids, also promote increased synthesis and release of polyamines, which allosterically potentiate NMDA receptor open-channel time at the NR2B subunit. The current studies investigated effects of 10 day EtOH and corticosterone (CORT) co-exposure on toxicity during EWD in rat organotypic hippocampal slice cultures, and alterations in function and/or density of the NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor that may mediate CORT-potentiation of toxicity during EWD. We hypothesized that toxicity during withdrawal following EtOH and CORT co-exposure would be greatest in the CA1 region due to increased NMDA NR2B receptor abundance and/or function. Cultures were exposed to CORT (0.01–1 μM) during 10 day EtOH exposure (50 mM) and 1 day EWD. Additional EtOH-naïve cultures were exposed to CORT for 11 days. Propidium iodide (PI) was used to measure toxicity in the CA1, CA3, and DG hippocampal regions. In EtOH-naïve cultures, 11 day exposure to CORT (0.01 – 1 μM) produced modest toxicity and in all regions. Exposure to CORT during EtOH exposure/EWD potentiated CORT-toxicity at all concentrations in the CA1 region. Ifenprodil, an NR2B polyamine site antagonist, significantly reduced toxicity from EtOH and CORT (0.1 μM) co-exposure during withdrawal. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot analyses were conducted for measurement of NR2B immunoreactivity in organotypic cultures, and autoradiography studies were conducted for measurement of polyamine-sensitive NR2B subunits with [3H]ifenprodil. Consistent increases in NR2B subunit protein were not detected with use of any methodology. Additional studies exposed cultures to a membrane impermeable form of CORT (BSA-conjugated CORT; 0.1 μM) with or without EtOH exposure and withdrawal. BSA-CORT exposure did not produce toxicity in any hippocampal region, suggesting that CORT toxicity was not mediated by membrane bound substrates. These data suggest that CORT and EtOH co-exposure result in increased function of polyamine-sensitive NR2B subunits, but this toxicity does not appear dependent on the number of hippocampal NMDA NR2B subunits.

The air kerma area product PKA is an important quantity used by hospital physicists in quality assurance and optimization processes in diagnostic radiology and is recommended by national authorities for setting of diagnostic reference levels. PKA can be measured using a transmission ionization chamber (kerma area product (KAP) meter) mounted on the collimator housing. Its signal QKAP must be calibrated to give values of PKA. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the factors influencing the accuracy of the calibration coefficients k= PKA/QKAP and of reported PKA-values. Due to attenuation and scatter in the KAP-meter and presence of extra-focal radiation, values of PKA depend on the choice of integration area A and the distance of the reference plane from the focal spot yielding values of PKA that may differ by as much as 23% depending on this choice. The two extremes correspond to (1) PKA=PKA,o integrated over the exit surface of the KAP-meter resulting in geometry independent calibration coefficients and (2) PKA=PKA,Anom integrated over the nominal beam area in the patient entrance plane resulting in geometry dependent calibration coefficients. Three calibration methods are analysed. Method 1 aims at determine PKA,Anom, for clinical use at the patient entrance plane. At standard laboratories, the method is used to calibrate with respect to radiation incident on the KAP-meter. Problems with extra-focal and scattered radiation are then avoided resulting in calibration coefficients with low standard uncertainty (±1.5 %, coverage factor 2). Method 2 was designed in this work to approach determination of PKA,o using thermoluminescent detectors to monitor contributions from extra-focal radiation and account for the heel effect. The uncertainty in derived calibration coefficients was ± 3% (coverage factor 2). Method 3 uses a Master KAP-meter calibrated at a standard laboratory for incident radiation to calibrate clinical KAP-meters. It has potential to become the standard method in the future replacing the tedious method 2 for calibrations aiming at determination of PKA,o. Commercially available KAP-meters use conducting layers of indium oxide causing a strong energy dependence of their calibration coefficients. This dependence is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations and measurements. It may introduce substantial uncertainties in reported PKA– values since calibration coefficients as obtained from standard laboratories are often available only at one filtration (2.5 mm Al) as function of tube voltage or HVL. This is not sufficient since higher filtrations are commonly used in practice, including filters of Cu. In extreme cases, calibration coefficients for the same value of HVL but using different tube voltages and filtrations can deviate by as much as 30%. If standardised calibration methods are not used and choice of calibration coefficients not carefully chosen with respect to beam quality, the total uncertainty in reported PKA–values may be as large as 40-45%. Conversion of PKA-values to risk related quantities is briefly discussed. The large energy dependence of the conversion coefficients, ε/PKA, for determination of energy imparted,ε, to the patient reduces to a lower energy dependence of calibration coefficients CQ,ε = ε/QKAP for determination of ε from the KAP-meter signal.

This study examines farm financial performance of Kentucky farms using Kentucky Farm Business Management data from 1998-2010. Logit models are used to estimate the likelihood of farm characteristics affecting whether financial ratios fall into critical zones or not. The results show that large farms in terms of total gross returns and total assets are less likely to experience repayment capacity problems. Total gross returns significantly affect all five financial measures. These findings will help farmers and lenders understand what factors influence farm financial performance. Profitability migration is tested to see if the migration probabilities differ across business cycles. Migration drift is also tested to determine if the Markov property of independence is violated. Results show substantial retention in return on equity (ROE) performance over time, and a tendency for trend-reversal if ROE changes occur. Results are compared to previous literature using ARMS data and Illinois FBFM.

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Revisionsplikten i Sverige avskaffades för några år sedan för de minsta aktiebolagen och idag är det ett omdiskuterat ämne. Det är dock först nu som effekterna börjar visa sig. Idag är det cirka 80 procent av de minsta bolagen som inte anlitar en revisor. Studien har utförts ur företagens perspektiv och syftet med vår studie har varit att undersöka om bolag som inte anlitar en revisor har fattat ett ekonomiskt rationellt beslut. För att genomföra studien har vi använt oss av kvantitativ metod med deduktiv ansats som utgått från positivistisk kunskapssyn.   Vi har bland annat undersökt om ett antal nyckeltal skiljer sig mellan reviderade och oreviderade bolag. Nyckeltalen som vi har undersökt är “avkastning på eget kapital”, skuldsättningsgrad samt två olika nyckeltal för räntenivåer. Det kan finnas många skäl till varför nyckeltalen skiljer sig åt mellan grupperna därför har vi även tagit ett antal förklaringsvariabler i beaktande. Exempel på sådana förklaringsvariabler är omsättning och bransch. Till vår hjälp har vi laddat ner data från företagens årsredovisningar från cirka 70 000 bolag genom en databas.   Vi har även undersökt om företagsägarna anser att nyttan med revision överväger kostnaderna samt om utbildningsnivån inom redovisning skiljer sig mellan bolag som anlitar och inte anlitar revisor. Vi undersökte också hur rationellt företagsägarna agerar samt ett av studiens delsyften var att undersöka om oreviderade bolag köper mer hjälp med bokföringen än reviderade bolag. Urvalsramen bestod av företag som inte omfattas av revisionsplikt. För att genomföra studien har vi skickat ut en enkät via sms till 2 000 små onoterade aktiebolag.   Totalt formades sju nollhypoteser varav fyra fick förkastas. Slutsatserna av studien visade att bolag inte fattar ett ekonomiskt rationellt beslut med att inte anlita en revisor om de är i stort behov av extern finansiering. Anledningen är att dessa bolag betalar högre räntor som vid en hög belåning kan skillnaden i ränta mellan reviderade o oreviderade företag vara högre än revisionsarvodet. För övriga bolag som inte har stora skulder finner studien bevis för att företagsägarna fattar ett ekonomiskt rationellt beslut med att inte anlita en revisor eftersom de inte påverkas av räntenivåerna. Studien visade också att bolag utan revisor har lägre omsättning och lönsamhet samt har en lägre skuldsättningsgrad. Från enkäten kom vi fram till att företagsägare som inte anlitar en revisor har en högre utbildningsnivå inom redovisning/bokföring. Vi fann däremot inga bevis för att oreviderade företag köper mer konsultation inom redovisning än reviderade bolag.