Anknytningen mellan förälder och barn utgör en viktig del för barnets fortsatta utveckling i livet. Inom familjevård möter kliniker föräldrar som är i behov av extra stöd i föräldraskapet. Det är viktigt att kliniker uppmärksammar och bedömer om eventuella riskfaktorer i föräldraförmåga föreligger för att kunna erbjuda insatser som ökar möjligheten för att det väntade barnet utvecklas gynnsamt. Utifrån åtta intervjuer med kliniker, familjebehandlare och barnmorskor, som möter blivande föräldrar har studiens syfte undersökts, vilken vikt som inom familjevård tillskrivs anknytningsperspektivet i barnets första levnadsfas. Vidare syftar studien till att ta del av verksamma socionomers, inom familjebehandling, och barnmorskors kunskap och erfarenheter kring att tidigt uppmärksamma och bedöma föräldrars förmåga att knyta an till sitt väntade barn. Resultatet av studien visar att samtliga respondenter är förtrogna med anknytningens vikt i barnets första levnadsfas och denna kunskap omsätts i praktiken genom att respondenterna bland annat informerar blivande föräldrar om anknytningens vikt. Genom samtal med föräldrarna uppmärksammas och bedöms riskfaktorer som explicit eller implicit kan påverka föräldrars förutsättningar att ge sitt barn möjlighet till trygg anknytning. Respondenternas totala bedömningar av föräldrars förmåga att tillgodose sitt väntade barns behov grundas på personlig erfarenhet, yrkeskunskap samt information som framkommer i mötet med föräldrarna. Respondenterna framhöll delade åsikter angående om bedömningsinstrument kan underlätta bedömningar av föräldraförmåga. / The attachment between parent and child is an essential part of a child´s development. Professionals within family care meet parents who are in need of extra support in their parenting. It’s important to observe and assess possible factors that may have bad influence in the parenting skills. This to offer these parents extra support and interventions during their parenting in order to prevent adverse development of their child. The purpose of the study was gained through eight interviews, held with professionals within family care, and it illustrates the meaning that professionals in family care attributes attachments influence in a child’s first period of life. The purpose of the study also aims to illustrate knowledge and experience related to attachment that the professionals possess. The results of the study indicate that the respondents are aware of the importance of attachment in the first period of a child’s life and they use their knowledge about attachment by, for example, informing parents who are expecting a baby about the importance to develop good attachment. The respondents get information through conversations with the parents that helps them to identify and assess factors that explicit and implicit can affect the parent’s ability to bond with their child. The respondents total assess of parenting ability are based on personal experience, professional knowledge and information revealed in the meeting with the parents. The respondents showed variety in the effects of using assessment tools during assessment of parenting ability.

The Metro Vancouver region is experiencing high levels of population and employment growth within a strictly limited land base. With increasing competition for land, industrial land in particular is under considerable pressure to be converted to other uses, such as residential and commercial, with the current supply of industrial land is expected to be exhausted within 15 years. Without the ability to expand the industrial land base to meet the region’s future industrial needs, more efficient use of existing industrial lands must be achieved. In recognition of this, the region is investigating intensification policies to encourage better utilization and intensification of industrial lands for industrial activities. The early work on industrial land intensification highlighted a gap in planning literature and practice with respect to how the intensity of industrial land use is defined and measured. A better understanding of intensification in the industrial land context is required for the region to develop industrial land intensification policies. This research practicum explores expanded definitions and measures of intensification. The inquiry develops a prototype analytical tool designed to communicate these definitions and measures and to facilitate the evaluation of industrial land intensification. The prototype tool is based on sustainability assessment tools used in sustainable development planning. Through semi-structured interviews with industrial land stakeholders, expanded definitions and measures of industrial intensification were considered and the prototype tool was refined. The project concludes with a discussion of future directions for the prototype tool, including the development of multiple versions of the tool at different scales and for different industrial sectors; the creation of an intensification rating system; and the adaptation of the tool into a checklist to be integrated into municipal development application processes. These evolutions of the prototype tool anticipate how it could be integrated into planning and development practices and inform industrial land intensification policies in areas such as the Metro Vancouver region. / October 2015

The application of Sustainability Assessment (SA) within Canadian municipalities is a recent notion, but is quickly becoming widespread. The Government of Saskatchewan alone has already released two SA checklists. However, such tools are normally aimed at communities of all sizes, ranging from rural municipalities to big cities, without considering differences in the capacity base, needs, and conditions among those types of communities. Additionally, practical implementation of SA often does not reflect the scope of scientifically established criteria for SA tools. This paper will present the analysis of the 2009 Saskatchewan Sustainability Checklist for Municipalities (comparing it to one of the most prominent frameworks for SA and other similar checklists developed in Canada and internationally) in order to identify possible areas for improvement so that the Checklist reflects established SA principles and is sensitive to a small town context. Based on the results of interviews with 16 small town administrators in Saskatchewan, this thesis demonstrates that, from a theoretical perspective, both of the existing SA tools are deficient in a number of important ways. The tools mainly focus on evaluating the municipal and service provision, rather than evaluating the sustainability of a community as a whole, including such areas as environmental conditions; social equity; livelihood sufficiency; resource maintenance; and intragenerational and intergenerational equity. However, the research reveals even if all of the above-mentioned criteria are integrated within the existing tools, it will be challenging for municipalities to perform a full sustainability assessment, since small towns’ administrations often have limited financial and human capacity to perform such exercises. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding on how to integrate the results of an assessment into decision-making, and a perceived inability to change some of the existing economic or social conditions in a town, due to the limited scope of influence that local municipalities have. There is a need for an alternative approach to sustainability assessment in the case of small towns; one that is sensitive to their unique pressures, circumstances, and capacities to enact change.

Bakgrund Sedering, delirium, agitation och smärta är viktiga områden inom intensivvård. Studier har visat på goda resultat vid bedömning av sederade patienter med validerade mätinstrument. Intensivvårdssjuksköterskan möter den sederade patienten dagligen i sitt arbete och ska enligt kompetensbeskrivningen ta hand om kritiskt sjuka patienter med svikt i ett eller i flera organ och utifrån patientens individuella behov förebygga, behandla, lindra och utvärdera omvårdnadsåtgärder. Den komplexa vården ställer stora krav på kunskap, kompetens och interprofessionellt omhändertagande på individnivå. Syfte Syftet med studien var att beskriva intensivvårdssjuksköterskors erfarenheter av teamarbete och bedömning av sederade patienter med validerade mätinstrument. Metod Kvalitativa individuella intervjuer valdes som metod för att besvara studiens syfte. Sju intensivvårdssjuksköterskor intervjuades och analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Deltagarna i studien var intensivvårdssjuksköterskor i åldrarna 33-59 år med 1-21 års erfarenhet av intensivvård. Fem av deltagarna var kvinnor och två var män. Resultat Resultatet presenterades under kategorierna: Kunskap om bedömning av den sederade patienten och Teamarbete kring den sederade patienten och styrks av citat. Resultatet i studien visar på en bred kunskap och kompetens inom området. Flera exempel på god vård, teamarbete och professionellt förhållningssätt beskrevs. Det framkom dock en del brister och flera av deltagarna kände frustration över exempelvis teamarbete. Det belystes att kunskapsnivån om validerade mätinstrument var ojämn samt viljan med att använda dem inte alltid fanns. Slutsats Mer utbildning samt en tydligare motivering och uppmuntran till varför alla instrument används önskades. Ett område som återkom var svårigheterna och utmaningarna med ett effektivt teamarbete.

Our purpose was to investigate when a specific phenomenon is taken out of context and used in a manner not originally intended for. Facebook is meant to be used in the private sphere as a way for individuals to communicate and keep in touch with family, friends and acquaintances. However, Facebook has begun to be used increasingly in the professional context like recruitment. We have through qualitative interviews explored how the respondents, professional recruiters and future job applicants, think about the use of Facebook in a recruitment process. By applying theories dealing with roles and lifestyles we have been able to pinpoint our empirical data. The results showed that the respondents agreed that Facebook is for private use and hence is Facebook a misleading assessment tool and can easily create false perceptions about an individual's suitability for a job. Although the recruiters showed a tendency to weigh in information from Facebook in some cases. Future job applicants said they did not adjust their Facebook profile for a possible review of recruiters. Our results indicate that this may be necessary to minimize the risk of being excluded in a recruiting process.

The aim of this case study has been to evaluate differences between the public and the private sector based on interest and knowledge of Life cycle assessments, LCA, of residential buildings. The construction and building sector have a major impact on the environment and the climate change. Methods and tools are required to measure and compare the environmental impacts generated from human activities and products within the sector. The entire life cycle must be known and kept in mind in order to value the total environmental impact of activities and products. The environmental life cycle of a product consists all the different stages, from raw material, through use, to waste management. Life cycle assessment is a method that makes it possible to value and then minimize the environmental impact throughout the whole life cycle. Telephone interviews with representatives from participant counties and companies have been made in order to compare their answers and to achieve great insight of how they work towards environmental questions. The results show that the sectors differ from each other. The private sector was further in the development, although a larger number of the counties had plans on using the assessment in the future. The interviews indicated LCA’s future role in the sector, and even though LCA’s is quite new in the area the future seems bright. The global population and the demand for residents are continuously increasing and the need to adopt the sector to sustainable development is substantial.

Com a expansão da Educação a Distância (EaD) no Brasil, nos últimos anos, avaliações são fundamentais para mensurar o seu desempenho. Contudo, a qualidade é muitas vezes questionada e possivelmente uma das causas é a falta de confiabilidade e validade dos instrumentos utilizados. Desta forma, o objetivo deste estudo foi criar uma arquitetura de orientação para a construção de instrumentos de avaliação de Programas de Educação a Distância com evidências de confiabilidade e validade. A investigação é uma pesquisa descritiva e explicativa, que congrega os enfoques qualitativo e quantitativo e é sustentada por um arcabouço teórico e metodológico. Além disso, parte do pressuposto de um sistema integrado, cuja natureza cíclica do método confere dinamicidade e flexibilidade, sobretudo em ações que lastreiam qualidade ao produto final. Para isso, propõe-se um conjunto de elementos que podem ser utilizados como referência para a construção de diferentes instrumentos de avaliação. A partir da arquitetura de orientação desenvolvida criou-se um plano de assessment, o qual foi aplicado em um caso específico. Os resultados demonstram que a arquitetura é viável e tem capacidade de atender diferentes modelos e contextos de EaD, de forma que qualquer tipo de Instituição de Ensino pode utilizá-la para a construção de seus instrumentos avaliativos (assessment) de Educação a Distância. Conclui-se, portanto, que a arquitetura de orientação integra componentes de confiabilidade e validade, o que assegura uma tomada de decisão segura e precisa. / With the expansion of Distance Education (DE) in Brazil in recent years, assessments are crucial to measure its performance. However, its quality has been frequently questioned and one of the reasons may be the lack of reliability and validity in the tools used for it. Therefore, the objective of this study was to create an architecture to guide the construction of assessment tools for Distance Education Programs, with evidences of reliability and validity. The investigation is a descriptive and explanatory research, which brings together the qualitative and quantitative approaches and is underpinned by a theoretical and methodological framework. Moreover, it is based on an integrated system whose methods cyclical nature allows dynamicity and flexibility, mainly in actions that assure quality to the final product. Hence, it proposes a a set of elements that can be used as reference for the construction of different assessment instruments. From the architectural guidance designed to create an assessment plan, which was applied in a particular case. The results show that the architecture is feasible and has the capacity to suit different contexts and models of distance education, so that any type of Education Institution can use it for building their evaluative instruments (assessment) of Distance Education. Therefore, it is concluded that the Architecture Guidance integrates components of reliability and validity, which assure a precise and trustworthy decision taking.

Esse trabalho teve como objetivo principal avaliar a estimação da imagem corporal por meio de dois métodos diferentes, entre mulheres eutróficas e com excesso de peso. A amostra foi composta por 80 mulheres adultas, com idades entre 20 e 50 anos, sendo que 40 delas pertenciam ao grupo Eutrofia e 40, ao grupo Excesso de Peso, de acordo com a classificação do IMC. As participantes foram recrutadas nas dependências do Campus de Ribeirão Preto da USP, sendo que as mulheres com sobrepeso e obesidade estavam inscritas no Programa de Reeducação Alimentar da USP (PRAUSP). Para avaliação perceptiva da imagem corporal foram utilizados dois instrumentos: o programa Body Size Distortion, a partir do método Adaptive Probit Estimation (APE), e a Escala de Figuras de Silhuetas para adultos brasileiros (EFS). Foram coletados também dados sociodemográficos e aplicados instrumentos para mensuração da insatisfação com a imagem corporal, EFS, e sintomas depressivos, BDI. A coleta de dados foi feita em uma sala do Laboratório de Nutrição e Comportamento, na FFCLRP mediante aprovação do projeto pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa desta instituição. Os resultados demonstraram que o IMC, sozinho, não prediz diferenças na acurácia da estimação entre os dois grupos amostrais, para ambas as metodologias utilizadas. A insatisfação foi apontada como importante variável interveniente, sendo mais preponderante do que o IMC na mediação dos valores de estimação, quando avaliada pela EFS. Apesar da correlação entre os valores dos dois instrumentos não evidenciar associação significativa, observa-se que as duas medidas estabeleceram, algumas vezes, associações com as mesmas variáveis. No entanto, apesar da maior sensibilidade do método APE, fornecendo valores de medida em frações decimais, a EFS foi associada com as variáveis do estudo em maior frequência e significância, confirmando sua validade. Em relação ao APE, foram também verificadas associações entre o componente sensorial (LD) e não sensorial (PIS), sobretudo no grupo excesso de peso. / This study aimed to evaluate the body image estimation through two different methods, among women with normal weight and overweight. The sample consisted of 80 adult women, aged between 20 and 50 years. The distribution of the sample was: 40 women composed the Normal Weight group and 40 was the Overweight group, according to BMI classification. Participants were recruited on the premises of the Campus of Ribeirão Preto, USP, and the overweight and obese women were enrolled in the Programa de Reeducação Alimentar (PRAUSP). Two instruments were used for assessment of perceptual body image: the Body Size Distortion program from the Adaptive Probit Estimation method (APE), and Figure Rating Scale for Brazilian adults (FRS). There were also collected sociodemographic data and there were applied tools for measurement of body image dissatisfaction, FRS, and depressive symptoms, BDI. Data collection was done in a room of the Laboratory of Nutrition and Behavior, in FFCLRP upon project approval by the Ethics Committee in Research of the institution. Results demonstrated that BMI alone does not predict differences in the accuracy of estimation between the two sample groups, for both methodologies. Dissatisfaction was identified as an important intervening variable and it was more prevalent than BMI in mediating the estimation values, measured by the FRS. Despite the correlation between the two instruments values did not show any significant association, it was observed that sometimes the two measures established association with the same variables. However, despite the higher sensitivity of the method APE, which provides measurement values in decimal fractions, the FRS was associated with study variables at higher frequency and significance, thus confirming its validity. Regarding the APE, there were also found associations between the sensory (LD) and non-sensory (PIS) components especially in the overweight group.

Automated short-answer marking cannot 'guarantee' 100% agreement between the marks generated by a software system and the marks produced separately by a human. This problem has prevented automated marking systems from being used in high-stake short-answer marking. Given this limitation, can an automated short-answer marking system have any practical application? This thesis describes how an automated short-answer marking system, called IndusMarker, can be effectively used to improve learning and teaching.The design and evaluation of IndusMarker are also presented in the thesis. IndusMarker is designed for factual answers where there is a clear criterion for answers being right or wrong. The system is based on structure matching, i.e. matching a pre-specified structure, developed via a purpose-built structure editor, with the content of the student's answer text. An examiner specifies the required structure of an answer in a simple purpose-designed language called Question Answer Markup Language (QAML). The structure editor ensures that users construct correct required structures (with respect to QAML's syntax and informal semantics) in a form that is suitable for accurate automated marking.

People all over the world still lack access to safe drinking water service. Those with access experience several issues during the first few years of installation that impede on their overall access. In order to improve water services, not only is a proper decision-making tool necessary, taking into account key factors that impact sustainable water service, but proper monitoring and evaluation is also important in ensuring service for the long term. There are several developed assessment tools used for monitoring and evaluation of water systems post-construction, applicable in various scenarios. However, there are only few tools available to facilitate the decision-making process for stakeholders implementing water systems in the field. Ideally, one tool could be used across various life-cycle stages, like planning (decision-making) and post-construction (monitoring and evaluation). Currently, several stakeholder groups are working in Panama to improve the access of safe drinking water for rural and indigenous populations living in mountainous areas, where spring-sourced gravity-fed community-managed systems are common. Effective sustainability assessment tools including Rural Water and Sanitation Information System, SIASAR in Spanish, provide useful frameworks to create a decision making tool for this development context. This research focused on developing a Decision-Making Tool using three key assessment tools (SIASAR, Peace Corps Panama WASH Index, & Schweitzer’s Sustainability Assessment Tool), field experience, and relevant literature incorporating technical, social, economic, and environmental factors. The Decision-Making Tool was developed to build or rehabilitate a rural spring-sourced gravity-fed community-managed water system and also serve as a practical monitoring and evaluation tool. The tool has a total of 10 indicators and 20 measures used to score various scenarios or alternatives as sustainability unlikely, sustainability possible, or sustainability likely. The tool was successfully applied as a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tool for the rural indigenous community of Quebrada Cacao in the province of Bocas del Toro in Panama. A total of 5 alternatives scenarios with estimated costs, labor expenditure and environmental impact were developed using EPANET and SimaPro to help improve the community’s rural spring-sourced gravity-fed community managed water system. Using analytical hierarchy process with weights set by three stakeholder groups in Panama (Quebrada Cacao’s water committee, Panama’s Ministry of Health, and Peace Corps Panama), these five alternative scenarios were scored using the Decision-Making Tool. As a result, a feasible alternative was recommended for the community of Quebrada Cacao using the developed Decision-Making Tool. The tool was also successfully applied as a monitoring and evaluation tool, providing a baseline to develop applicable alternatives to improve the community’s sustainability score. This Decision-Making Tool fulfills an important gap useful for both planning and monitoring and evaluation. It provides a successful tool for application in Panama for building or rehabilitating rural spring-sourced gravity-fed community managed water systems and for other countries with a similar context. Finally, the tool also considers technical, economic, social, and environmental factors, ensuring a more holistic definition of sustainability when building or rehabilitating these water systems. Overall, this Decision-Making Tool can help reduce the number of people without access to safe drinking water around the world and also help ensure systems function sustainably for the long term.