My thesis explores older adult lifelong learners’ experiences in transitioning their continued education participation to an online model. This research acknowledges and situates itself in the geragogy contexts of older adult learners, drawing on their experiences of the pandemic and lifelong learning, in addition to their opinions on education for older adults. As such, a case study methodology was employed so that this case could be studied within boundaries created by the pandemic. In my study, 25 older adult learners participated in individual interviews and provided their opinions and perceptions about their experiences with the pandemic and its effect on their learning ambitions. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted these individuals differently based on their motivations and previous experiences with technology. Four distinct dialogue groups emerged based on the motivations that older adults have to participate in lifelong learning, which are social or instrumental, and also the opinions they have about technology, which are either positive or negative. The four dialogues are distinct in that they each hold alternate opinions about the two issues raised (motivators and opinions on technology) but there were no major identifiers within the groups that could characteristically distinguish one from another. The results indicate that not all discourses of lifelong learners are reducible to identities or recent experiences. My findings suggest that potential refinement in program delivery based on specific user needs could improve the experiences that older adults have in the virtual classroom, and that it is crucial to the administration of lifelong learning that older adults' unique needs are addressed in a collaborative manner. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This study investigated how older adults, who pursue lifelong learning in-person, have interpreted their transition to online learning because of COVID-19 pandemic meeting restrictions. Lifelong learners have had to transition from in-person learning to virtual formats, which has encouraged new older adults to become lifelong learners, and also for some lifelong learners to drop out of the practice entirely. The key goal of the study was to describe the Transitioners, New learners, and Dropout learners' experience with lifelong learning with respect to COVID-19’s impacts on their participation. Interviews were conducted with individuals who fell into these three categories and, through their responses, distinct dialogues emerged to describe their motivation to participate in lifelong learning, and their opinions on using technology as a means to access it. Confirming the motives to participate and how technology is appreciated by lifelong learners enables us to better develop and implement lifelong learning.

Background: Since March 2020, health systems around the world shifted to virtual care approaches as social distancing measures were recommended to stem the spread of SARS-COV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. For children and families living with type 1 diabetes, virtual consultations in pediatric diabetes care were rare prior to the pandemic but became the norm since the start of the pandemic. Data regarding glycemic outcomes and comorbidities in children living with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) during the pandemic are limited, and there is a need for these data to drive future care models design and delivery. Aim & Methods: The aim of this project was to assess the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with measures of glycemic control (HbA1c), hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and hospitalization for the period spanning March 2020-2021 at McMaster Children’s Hospital, a tertiary pediatric academic center in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Data from the onset of virtual care were compared with data from two years pre-pandemic. Results: The COVID-19 pandemic was not associated with changes in HbA1c (MD -0.14, p=0.058), hospitalization (OR 0.57, p=0.068), or hypoglycemia (OR 1.11, p=0.484), but was significantly associated with the increase in reported hyperglycemia (OR 1.38, p=0.003) and reduction in DKA presentation (OR 0.30, p=0.009). Conclusions: Glycemic control was stable during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual and hybrid care models prevailed in diabetes care. These results suggest that patients and their families were able to adapt to the uncertain circumstances of the pandemic. Virtual consultations for pediatric diabetes did not hinder glycemic control, and likely aided in the maintenance of diabetes management. Longitudinal studies are necessary before virtual consultations should be recommended to replace in-person clinic visits, but the initial data seem encouraging. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The COVID-19 pandemic restricted face-to-face healthcare-based interactions to limit the spread of the virus. These restrictions posed as a challenge for children and youth with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), who relied exclusively on in-person clinic visits as part of their care regimen pre-pandemic. In this retrospective study, we assessed the association of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic with measures of glycemic control (HbA1c), diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), hospitalization, hyperglycemia, and hypoglycemia, compared to two years pre-pandemic. We determined that children living with type 1 diabetes had no deterioration of glycemic control measures, apart from an increase in hyperglycemia, during the first 12 months of the pandemic. This study provides insights into health outcomes of children living with T1DM in the early stages of the pandemic and offers a roadmap to guide the further avenues of exploration needed to assess the full impact of the pandemic on this population.

Denna studie handlar om hur covid-19 pandemin ett tag i Sverige, förändrade och stängde ner universitet och tvingade lärare till att hålla undervisningen digitalt. Restriktioner påverkade lärare, elever och studenter i hela Sverige och även runt om i världen. Denna studie undersöker studenters upplevelser när covid-19 pandemin, med sina restriktioner verkade i samhället och tvingade studenter och lärare att arbeta ifrån campus. Texten innehåller en sammanfattning av forskning som gjordes efter pandemin brutit ut i Sverige och skolorna blivit påverkade av restriktionerna, detta för att skapa en bild om hur det gick till i Sverige genom tidigare erfarenheter av pandemin. Sex kvalitativa intervjuer gjordes med universitetsstudenter för att samla in data om fenomenet. Intervjuerna analyserades med en tematisk analys där fyra teman skapades, kopplat till dimensioner i lärmiljön. I resultatet sammanfattas intervjuerna och studenternas upplevelser ur teman som skapades, vi diskuterade deras tekniska, pedagogiska, sociala och psykosociala upplevelser, där studenterna delade med sig hur det gått i sina studier under pandemin. Resultatet av intervjuerna ställs i diskussionen mot den tidigare forskningen för att skapa en diskussion kring hur lärmiljön kan utvecklas när det utförs genom digitala verktyg. / <p>Godkänd i Ladok 2022-06-03.</p>

The present study investigates which theological and ecclesial consequences adjustments of the holy communion, that have been recognized in the empirical material, motivated by societal circumstances (in this case the covid-19 pandemic), may result in regarding the Church of Sweden.  The empirical material has been obtained from interviews with the vicar responsible for the communion for the parish in question. The material has been analyzed against the background of the vital communion motifs described in the theoretical framework presented in chapter 2 of the essay. In two out of three cases, different forms of individual communal-cups have been practiced in a way that does not correspond with the Evangelical-Lutheran tradition regarding this matter. The theological consequences of the various practices that have been noticed in these three cases have the ultimate consequence that Christ’s real presence in the holy communion may be weakened and unclear. The communio motif in the holy communion is not clearly visible in the fact that the congregation does not partake in the consecrated bread and wine, which tends to diminish the communion and goes to waste. The consecrated bread and wine only partake as a symbol during the words of institution. When the communal gifts are only being used as a way to symbolize the congregation’s normal communal service it suffers consequences in all the communion motifs described in the essay. The corelines in the anamnesis-, communio- and atonement motifs, which is making Christ’s atonement now present and effective for every believer in the celebration of the eucharist, is being threatened. The Lord’s Supper is instead given the character of a symbolic act that celebrates the commemoration of Jesus’ death, a memorial service, that does not re-actualize Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross as a real event here and now. When bread and wine is used as symbols and only shown to the congregation and never broken during the breaking of the bread, it is similar to a medieval practice. The medieval communion practice meant that people believed that the sacramental bread had a special authority that made it sufficient only to observe the gifts in the eucharist. The risk is that this medieval notion re-updates the belief that the elevation is the highlight of the Lord’s Supper and that the watching of the hostia is more important than communication itself. This also relates to an emphasis on performance piety.  One of the cases that has been mentioned in the current essay also chose to celebrate the holy communion virtually. This was conducted by a live broadcast via a social medium in a way that can be defined as a partial online-communion. During the broadcast there were no congregation present in the church, as they joined the sermon virtually. The consecrated communion gifts were distributed in the church during a break in the broadcast. The parish members who chose to come to the church during the break received bread and wine in solitude. Celebrating communion virtually limits the individual’s participation in the whole event of the Lord’s Supper and endangers the congregation of losing vital components of the celebration. This has consequences for the ecclesiological motif of the Church as the body of Christ, as it is by participating in the sacrament of the Eucharist, with its complete liturgy in the context of the church, that humanity can access authentic contact with Christ. Liturgy and ecclesiology are interrelated which means that adjustments of the liturgy has direct consequences for how the church is perceived, whether there is an aware process or not. Ecclesiology on the other hand is also affecting how the service and the liturgy is executed. That means that adaptations of the liturgy, which are not based on a profound theological endeavor, may result in a church that has been altered.

For more than a year, COVID-19 has changed societies all over the world and put massive strains on its healthcare systems. In an attempt to aid in prioritizing medical resources, this thesis uses dynamic regression with ARIMA errors to forecast the number of hospitalizations related to COVID-19 two weeks ahead in Uppsala County. For this purpose, 100 models are created and their ability to forecast hospitalizations two weeks ahead for weeks 15-17 of 2021 for the different municipalities in Uppsala County is evaluated using root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). The best performing models are then utilized to forecast hospitalizations for weeks 19-22. The results show that the models perform well during periods of increasing numbers of hospitalizations during early 2021, while they perform less well during the last weeks of May 2021 where hospitalizations numbers have been falling dramatically. This recent decrease in forecasting performance is believed to be caused by an increase in vaccination coverage, which is not accounted for in the models.

Bakgrund: Covid-19 är ett virus som fick sin spridning i Kina 2019. Virusetspreds snabbt till stora delar av världen och bekräftades senare som enpandemi. Viruset hade en stor påverkan på samhället och sjukvården. Attarbeta som sjuksköterska med patienter som drabbats av covid-19 kan varabåde utmanande och meningsfullt. Syfte: Syftet var att belysasjuksköterskans upplevelser av att vårda patienter med covid-19 inomslutenvården. Metod: Designen är en litteraturöversikt av kvalitativaansatser. Databaserna som användes var PubMed och Cinahl. 14orginalartiklar av kvalitativ design inkluderades i resultatet och enmanifest innehållsanalys har genomförts med stöd av Graneheim ochLundman (2004). Resultat: Resultatet baserades på 2 huvudkategorier och6 subkategorier. Huvudkategorierna resulterade i Att ge omvårdnad i en nyoch osäker situation och Att fylla en betydande roll. Och subkategoriernaresulterade i Psykiska och fysiska påfrestningar, Hinder i kommunikationen ochrelationsskapande, Att möta utmaningar i omvårdnaden, Att känna motivation,En känsla av tacksamhet och Att känna yrkesstolthet. Diskussion:Huvudfynden som framkom i resultatet har diskuterats utifrånpersoncentrerad vård samt Callista Roys adaptionsmodell. Vården somsjuksköterskorna utförde ansågs vara utmanande i många olika situationenmen trots detta kunde sjuksköterskorna ändå se en meningsfullhet i vårdende gav. Slutsats: Denna litteraturöversikt kan ge en ökad förståelse ochkunskap för vad sjuksköterskan kan behöva för verktyg för att förbättraomvårdnaden inför framtida pandemier. / <p>2023-11-03</p>

The purpose of this study is to analyze why The Plague of Albert Camus sparked the interest of readers after the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. The study first shows that this renewed interest is detectable in various statistics that show a correlation with the actual health situation. In order to reflect upon whether this phenomenon could be linked to this novel’s status as a “classic”, the classification of Italo Calvino of a classic work serves as a reading grid to explore articles and scientific studies about The Plague. Following this method, the study suggests that there is likely a link between the rise of interest for this novel during the COVID-19 pandemic and its canonical status.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第23808号 / 医博第4854号 / 新制||医||1058(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 長尾 美紀, 教授 西浦 博, 教授 朝長 啓造 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

This paper examines the use of convolutional neural networks to classify Covid-19 in chest radiographs. Three network architectures are compared: VGG16, ResNet-50, and DenseNet-121 along with preprocessing methods which include contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization and non-local means denoising. Chest radiographs from patients with healthy lungs, lung cancer, non-Covid pneumonia, tuberculosis, and Covid-19 were used for training and testing. Networks trained using radiographs that were preprocessed using contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization and non-local means denoising performed better than those trained on the original radiographs. DenseNet-121 performed slightly better in terms of accuracy, performance, and F1 score than all other networks but was not found to be statistically better performing than VGG16.

Increased mental health difficulties were reported in Canadian children as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, the pandemic has impacted families as well. The purpose of this thesis was: 1) to examine fluctuations in children’s mental health symptoms and mindful parenting across the 2020-2021 academic year; 2) to examine whether children’s symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year were associated with mindful parenting at the end of the academic year; 3) to examine whether children’s depressive and anxiety symptoms at the end of the year moderated this relationship and; 4) to examine how child age and gender affected these relationships. Parents of 114 young children in a large Canadian city participated in this study in the Fall of 2020 and the Spring of 2021. Parents completed several self-report scales used to measure children’s mental health symptomatology and mindfulness in parenting. While there were no significant changes in children’s mental health symptoms or mindful parenting across the time points, children’s symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity were significantly, negatively associated with mindful parenting across the pandemic year, and children’s depressive symptoms moderated this relationship. Specifically, when children’s depressive symptoms were low or average it was found that higher symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity were associated with lower levels of mindful parenting among parents of young girls. Results may inform practitioners about which families require additional support during the pandemic and beyond.