The chronically ill participants in this study are vulnerable experts in life’s uncertainties, and have become aware over time of multiple medical and social needs and practices. But, unlike the hypo-aware respondents documented in some studies of diabetes mellitus Type 1, these research participants are also conscious of their inability to recognise when their own fluctuating blood glucose levels are rising or falling to extremes, a loss of hyper- or hypo-awareness that puts their lives constantly at risk. Particular sources of better life management, increased self-esteem and means of social (re-)integration are trained medical alert assistance dogs who share the human home, and through keen olfactory sensitivity, are able to give advance warning when their partners’ blood sugar levels enter ‘danger’ zones. Research studies in anthrozoology and anthropology provide extensive literature on historic and contemporary human bonds with domestic and/or wild nonhuman animals. Equally, the sociology of health and illness continues to extend research into care practices performed to assist people with chronic illness. This study draws from these disciplines in order to add to multispecies ethnographic literature by exploring human-canine engagement, contribution and narrative, detailing the impact each member of the dyad has on the other, and by observing the 'doing' of the partnerships' daily routines to ward off hypo-glycaemia and hospitalisation. In addition, the project investigates the place, role and 'otherness' of a medical alert dog in a chronically ill person's understanding of 'the-body-they-do'. The perspective of symbolic interactionism assists in disentangling individual and shared meanings inherent in the interspecies collaboration by examining the mutualistic practices of care performed. The often-flexible moral boundaries that humans construct to differentiate between acceptable use and unacceptable exploitation of nonhuman animals are questioned within ethics-of-care theory, based on the concept of dogs as animate instruments and biomedical resources.

Sökhundar är ett viktigt verktyg som används av polis och tullverksamhet, men deras detektionsmetodik är inte helt känd. En substans doftprofil är en viktig aspekt i sökhundars detektion, men de är svåra att forska på kemiskt då det finns en diskrepans mellan koncentration och bidrag till doftprofilen. Målet med den här forskningen var att öka förståelsen för sökhundars detektionsmetodik i relation till adsorberade föreningar på damm, samt hur marijuanas doftprofil skiljer sig från doftprofilen av damm som kontaminerats med marijuana. Citron och lime utnyttjades som modellsystem och bitar av deras skal analyserades även direkt. Terpener och terpenoider var de främsta komponenterna av intresse. Forskningen hade ett tvåfaldigt tillvägagångssätt och inkluderade termisk desorption gaskromatografi masspektrometri (TD-GC/MS) samt sökhundsanalys i form av urvalsövningar. Kontorsdamm och köpt standarddamm i storleken av luftburna partiklar (PM) med en aerodynamisk diameter av cirka 10 µm kontaminerades med marijuana, citron, lime och en cannabis-terpenmix i exsickatorer i 1, 3, samt 7 dagar. En sekundär kontaminering med marijuana utfördes också, där dammprovet som kontaminerats med marijuana i 1 dag användes för att vidare kontaminera nya damm- och PM-prover, och dammprov togs även i förvaringsskåp för packade illegala droger. Från TD-GC/MS analysen av laborativ kontaminering av marijuana detekterades totalt 25 föreningar av intresse i dammprovet, och 57 i PM-provet. Från TD-GC/MS analysen av citron framkom det att fler monoterpener (C10H18) än sesquiterpener (C15H24) detekterades i direktanalysen av citronskal, och det motsatta i analysen av de kontaminerade damm och PM-proverna. Utgående från detta är det troligt att doftprofilerna från ren marijuana samt marijuana kontaminerad på damm eller PM också skiljer sig åt. Sökhundarna markerade dock på båda proverna som kontaminerats med marijuana under 1 dag med stor säkerhet, och vissa markerade även på prover med kortare kontamineringstid och proverna från förvaringsskåpet. Inga eller få föreningar av intresse detekterades med TD-GC/MS i vissa av de prover som hundarna markerade på, vilket exemplifierar att hundarna har en högre sensitivitet vilket försvårar forskningen kring doftprofiler som hundarna kan detektera. Användningen av sökhundsanalys på dammprover som tagits från platser av intresse kan vara en möjlig metod för att detektera marijuana, och eventuellt även andra illegala substanser. / Detection dogs are an important tool utilized by police forces and customs, but their method of detection is not fully known. The odor profile of a substance is of major importance during dog detection, but they are difficult to research chemically due to the disconnection between concentration and contribution to the odor profile. The purpose of this research was to increase the knowledge regarding the mechanism of detection dogs in relation to adsorbed components on dust, as well as of how the odor profile of marijuana differs to that of dust contaminated with marijuana. Lemon and lime were utilized as model systems and pieces of peel were analyzed directly. Terpenes and terpenoids were the main compounds of interest. The research consisted of a dual approach, utilizing both thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS), and detection dog analysis in the form of selection exercises. Office dust and bought particulate matter (PM)-like standard dust with an aerodynamic diameter of about 10 µm was contaminated with marijuana, lemon, lime, and a cannabis terpene mix in desiccators for 1, 3, and 7 days. A secondary marijuana contamination was also conducted, where the 1-day dust sample contaminated with marijuana was used to contaminate new dust and PM samples, and dust samples were also taken in storage units of packaged illicit drugs. From the laboratory contaminated samples with marijuana, a total of 25 compounds of interest were detected by TD-GC/MS from the dust samples, and 57 from the PM samples. From the direct TD-GC/MS analysis of lemon peel, it was evident that more monoterpenes (C10H18) than sesquiterpenes (C15H24) were detected, and the contrary was found for the lemon contaminated dust and PM samples. This entails that the odor profiles of marijuana as is and adsorbed on dust or PM is also likely to differ. Still, the detection dogs were able to detect the dust and PM samples which had been co-stored with marijuana for 1 day, and some also alerted to a few of the secondary contaminated marijuana samples as well as the samples from marijuana storages. None or only a few compounds of interest were detected by TD-GC/MS in some of the samples the detection dogs alerted to, which highlights the higher sensitivity of detection dogs, and thus the difficulty of chemically researching odor profiles the dogs can detect. All in all, detection dog analysis of dust collected at scenes of interest may be a viable method to detect marijuana, and perhaps other illicit drugs.