Bakgrund: Demenssjukdom är ett globalt växande folkhälsoproblem när populationen blir äldre. Sjukdomen innebär försämring av kognitiva förmågor beroende på vilken del av hjärnan som påverkats. Demenssjukdom har inget botemedel men farmakologisk behandling kan bromsa symtom. Den kognitiva svikten påverkar vardagen och rätt insatser kan hjälpa personen att bibehålla vardagliga rutiner. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva demenssjuka personers upplevelser av det tidiga stadiet av sjukdomen. Metod: Tretton kvalitativa studier användes för en allmän litteraturöversikt i beskrivande syntes. Resultat: Deltagarnas upplevelser kunde sammanställas i två huvudgrupper: diagnosens känslomässiga påverkan på personer med tidigt stadie av demens och förutsättningar för att kunna hantera vardagen med demens i tidigt stadie. Resultatet visar att deltagarnas upplevelse var beroende på medvetenhet om sjukdomen. Vidare forskning behövs för att vidareutveckla förståelsen för upplevelser beroende på medvetenhet om sjukdomen hos personer med demenssjukdom i tidigt stadie. Slutsats: Upplevelser kunde variera mellan olika personer och hos den enskilda personen över tid. Upplevelsen av och i synnerhet lidandet som sjukdomen tillfogade dem berodde på personers visshet om sjukdomen och dess betydelse för självbild och förmågor. Förutsättningar för att hantera vardagen handlade om konkreta önskemål om behandlingar och bemötande från vårdpersonal och allmänna önskemål om hur man önskade leva sitt liv. / Background: Dementia is a globally growing public health problem as the population ages. The disease involves deterioration of cognitive abilities depending on which part of the brain is affected. Dementia has no cure but pharmacological treatment can slow down the symtoms. The cognitive impairment affects everyday life and the right efforts can help the person maintain everyday routines. Aim: The purpose was to describe people with dementia ́s experiences of the early stage of the disease. Method: Thirteen qualitative studies were used for a general literature review in descriptive synthesis. Result: The participants' experiences could be compiled into two main groups: the impact of the diagnosis on people with an early stage of dementia and conditions for dealing with everyday life with early stage dementia. The results show that the participants' experience was dependent on awareness of their disease. Further research is needed to develop the understanding of persons’ experiences of living with dementia in the early stages in relation to their awareness of their disease. Conclusion: Experiences could vary between different people and with the individual over time. The experiences of, and in particular the suffering that the disease inflicted on them, depended on people ́s certainty about the disease and its significance for self-image and abilities. Condition for dealing with everyday life were about concrete wishes about treatments and treatment from care staff and general wishes about how one wanted to live one ́s life.

Early-stage investors increasingly impact the surging video game industry. Thus, understanding their thought processes provides vital insight for entrepreneurs. This thesis explores how early-stage investors assess investment opportunities in the Swedish game industry by presenting semistructured interviews with three prominent angel investors. Thematic analysis was performed on the interview data to extract significant themes regarding investors’ thought processes. Themes were then contrasted with previous research on investor decision-making to establish emergent patterns in the game industry. Results indicate that investors regard the composition and reliability of the team and pursue long-term involvement in companies. It is particularly important for teams to inspire trust. If investors can connect to teams personally, it facilitates successful long-term collaboration. Future research should focus on interviewing investors in other flourishing game markets, such as the U.S. or Chinese. Congruent results may lay the foundation for a framework to aid developers with acquiring funds in the broader game industry.

The thesis is an outcome of a collaborative work between the author and an architect. It aims to answer design questions that were posed in the early stages by the team of a student architect and the author himself relating to the daylighting performance of the building located in Stockholm, Sweden. Two design elements of interest that were to be evaluated were decided: the orientation of the building and the effect of introducing an atrium in the building. Annual daylighting performance simulations were carried out and these two design elements were parametrically varied to see the effect on the daylight distribution inside the building for the given architectural model. For the same design parameters, an energy model was created and simulated to see the effect of these design alteration on the cooling loads of the building. The importance of early stage collaboration between engineers and designers have also been discussed which sets the contextual scene of the thesis.

In the last decades, the technology in ICT sector has advanced significantly. Rapid improvement of Internet services and virtualization techniques have caused the birth of a handful of computing paradigms, including the cloud computing. There are a number of major global cloud service providers that offers various cloud services to individual and companies. Consequently, there are increasing numbers of companies that are moving to the cloud leading to proliferation of cloud computing market. This thesis explores the impact of cloud computing towards early stage startups in terms of usage, benefit, competitive advantage, and dependency in order to be sustainable in the focus of a specific country: Sweden. Stockholm has become one of the top tech startup scenes in Europe and has given birth to a great deal of startups, some of the internationally recognized ones including Spotify, Klarna, and King while there are other ones that have a potential to catch up with them. In order to give an insight about what the impacts of cloud computing towards the early stage startups, three Stockholm-based early stage startups from 3 different field of business were interviewed. To ensure the anonymity of the startups, the companies are referred to The Healthy Company, a startup that sells healthy food through pop-up bicycle; The Invest Company, a startup that develops mobile application to connect startups and investors; and The Learning Company, a startup that summarizes business books that take 8 hours to finish into just half an hour. Based on the findings of this study, there are several characteristics that are similar in all 3 startups regardless of their field of business.

No description available.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第23785号 / 医博第4831号 / 新制||医||1057(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 伊達 洋至, 教授 中本 裕士, 教授 鈴木 実 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

The motivation for development of energy efficiency and implementation of novel advanced materials applied in buildings can be traced to increasing energy costs in conjunction with an enhanced environmental awareness among people. This doctoral dissertation presents contributions towards sustainable building, where factors such as building technology, energy efficiency in buildings, workers' health issues during construction measures, and certain economic considerations for renovation of buildings have been considered. The research study aims to provide a knowledge base for motivating building owners to renovate buildings based on energy efficiency and improved indoor environment. The initial phase of the research study identifies a detailed description of common drivers, expected in renovation projects by building owners. In the second phase, an information base is identified which may facilitate the bidding processes for decision makers by means of technological, social and economic aspects. The aforementioned information base can also contribute to attentive decisions regarding sustainable renovation and energy saving measures. A strategy was developed within the Renovation Workshop of Riksbyggen, in order to promote energy saving measures concurrent with major renovations in residential buildings. This operational decision support process was applied in a tenant owners' cooperative in Sweden. The objective of this process was to showcase and more importantly to implement energy saving measures, based on knowledge transfer between different parties involved in the renovation project. For the conducted case study, this process was shown to be of great importance when decisions regarding energy saving measures in conjunction with scheduled renovations are being planned. A unique case study was conducted on two of the most commonly used environmental certification programs for buildings in Sweden; Environmental Building (Miljöbyggnad) and GreenBuilding. Following a granted access to a limited database of submitted applications to Sweden Green Building Council, the most common mistakes in these were identified and categorized. This study contributed to further understanding about the level of ability among building consultants, comprehension of environmental certification, and enhancement of the ability to produce high-quality calculations concerning building-related energy usage. In addition, this insight can provide a basis for planning of continuing education of consultants within the field of building technology. For a church building, a study was conducted subsequent to an exchange of an existing electric coil heating system to a hydronic ground source heat pump system. Analyses of the energy demand and energy signature, prior to and after installation were carried out. The replacement of the original heating system with a ground source heat pump system for the church building constitutes a reduced energy consumption level of approximately 66%, at the average outside temperature of -2.30 °C. This study demonstrated that data from a detailed electric bill can be utilized in order to obtain the energy signature of the building and henceforth assess the energy savings. One aspect of the research, examined the decision making process related to sustainable renovation and refurbishment in buildings. The utilized methodology identified three distinct phases in order to instigate an engagement in sustainable renovation, by means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. In particular, the attitudes of stakeholders in Sweden, Denmark and Cyprus to sustainable building were studied through three separate case studies. Within the framework of this study, it was identified that building physics and durability are among the most important drivers for energy renovation. The results provided an insight into the renovation process in the aforementioned countries and identified that drivers such as improvement of indoor air quality and elimination of moisture in the building envelope are also of crucial importance. Another aspect of the conducted research highlights workplace accidents occurring within the Swedish construction sector. The purpose of this study was to serve as a useful tool to track the working environments of construction workers in order to reduce health and safety issues within the construction sector. The findings of this research suggest that despite laws, regulations or additional factors that seek to ensure a safe and healthy environment for construction workers, the Swedish construction work force still faces challenges. Moreover, it is identified that construction workers participating in the study call for additional measures to ensure occupational health and safety. Improved knowledge of economic performance and technical results of renovations can contribute to a snowball effect, with more property owners recognizing the value of energy aspects and thus provide an increased level of energy savings. / <p>QC 20140127</p> / A Concept for promotion of sustainable retrofitting and renovation in Early Stages (ACES)

Notre recherche vise à établir un cadre pour améliorer la compréhension du marché de capital-risque européen et l’appariement entre entrepreneurs et fonds de capital risque qui a lieu dans ce marché. Nous présentons quatre essais qui permettent de connaître: la littérature théorique et empirique sur le domaine, les différents types des Fonds de Capital Risque qui participent au financement des entreprises en phase de démarrage et les dimensions qui comptent le plus dans les relations entre ces participants. / Our thesis aims to improve the understanding of European Venture Capital market and the matching that takes place between entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists. We present four essays that allow us to get to know: the theoretical and empirical literature on the subject, the different types of European venture capitalists participating in the financing of early stage ventures and the dimensions that count in this relationship.

Tanto as incubadoras como as aceleradoras são organizações especializadas no suporte de empreendimentos em fases iniciais, em especial, aqueles intensivos em inovação conhecidos como startups. Apesar da grande disseminação dessas organizações, há poucas informações na literatura que evidenciem as suas diferenças e as contribuições na jornada do empreendedorismo inovador. Assim, o objetivo principal deste estudo é comparar a diferença entre as propostas de valor das aceleradoras e das incubadoras a partir da percepção das startups que tenham sido tanto incubadas como aceleradas. Entre os objetivos específicos temos: discutir possíveis relações entre as aceleradoras e as incubadoras de negócios; apresentar a evolução das incubadoras e os fatores que induziram o surgimento das aceleradoras, descrevendo os diferentes arquétipos e as implicações que essas organizações têm no ecossistema de empreendedorismo; apresentar o cenário nacional do fenômeno de aceleração e de incubação. O levantamento de dados contará com duas etapas: análise documental de fontes de dados secundárias e estudos de caso com uso de técnica de entrevista e questionário semiestruturado. A análise documental foi feita a partir de banco de dados de artigos científicos, dados oficiais de governos, fundações, revistas e páginas web especializadas e editais de chamamento das próprias organizações. A análise documental fornecerá o retrato de como as incubadoras e as aceleradoras se promovem no ecossistema como organizações importantes no apoio às startups. Em seguida, através de abordagem exploratória descritiva e qualitativa, foram realizadas entrevistas com roteiros semiestruturados com fundadores de startups que foram incubadas e aceleradas, para compreender o valor que cada um desses processos forneceu ao desenvolvimento dessas empresas. Concluiu-se que existe uma dissonância entre o valor percebido pelas startups e o que as incubadoras e as aceleradoras promovem. Também foi possível identificar que a busca por recursos pelas startups tende a não seguir um processo linear, capturando as melhores oportunidades que estejam disponíveis no momento. Por fim, esta pesquisa é um passo exploratório para trazer novas evidências do fenômeno das startups e dos diferentes instrumentos que as constroem. Sugerem-se encaminhamentos que possam preencher lacunas na literatura a respeito dos fenômenos citados, indicando a necessidade de estudos futuros que adensem o conhecimento desse fenômeno. / Both incubators and acelerators are specialized organizations to support early-stage ventures, especially innovation-intensive ones known as startups. Despite the great spread of these organizations, there is a few information in the literature that show their differences and contributions in the journey of innovative entrepreneurship. The main objective of this study is comparing the difference between value porposition of accelerators and incubators from the perception of startups that have been both incubated and accelerated. The specific objectives are: to discuss possible relationships between accelerators and incubators; to present the evolution of the incubators and the factors that led to the emergence of the accelerators, describing the different accelerators archetypes and the implications in entrepreneurship ecosystem; to present the national scenario of acceleration and incubation. The data collection stage had two stages: documentary analysis of secondary data sources; and the case study using interview technique through semi-structured questionnaire. The documentary analysis was made from a database of scientific articles, official data from governments, foundations, journals and specialized web pages and incubators and accelerators calls for proposals. Documentary analysis provided a picture of how incubators and accelerators are promoted to the ecosystem and startups. Then, through a descriptive and qualitative exploratory approach, interviews were conducted with semistructured scripts with founders of startups that were incubated and accelerated to understand the value that each of these processes provided to the development of these companies. It was concluded that there is a dissonance between what the incubators and the accelerators promote and the value perceived by the startups, they are not being able to identify enough characteristics that distinguish them. The reason for it is the diversity of the needs and demands of the startups, different models of accelerators and incubators are formulated that, in many cases, overlap in the benefits offered. It was also possible to identify that the search for resources by startups, whether radical or disruptive startups, does not follow a linear process, capturing the best opportunities available in the ecosystem through a minimally tactical and selective approach. In order to contribute to the understanding of the growing formation of organizations supporting startups, such as incubators and accelerators, and considering the findings of this research, a tool was suggested to define the types of these organizations, loosely termed \"startup guiders\". This tool analyzes three basic dimensions: business model, value proposition and stage of intervention in the development of early-stages ventures. Finally, this research is an exploratory step in bringing new evidence of the phenomenon of startups and of the different instruments that construct them. It is suggested that there be gaps in the literature regarding the mentioned phenomena, indicating the need for future studies that increase the knowledge of this phenomenon.

Darbo tikslas: įvertinti ankstyva Parkinsono liga (PL) be demencijos sergančių asmenų pažinimo funkcijas naudojant Kembridžo kompiuterinės neuropsichologinio ištyrimo sistemos testų rinkinį, palyginti rezultatus su kontrolinės grupės asmenų duomenimis bei nustatyti kognityvinių rodiklių ryšius su biologiniais žymenimis ir klinikiniais nekognityviniais PL simptomais. Darbo uždaviniai: ištirti ankstyva PL sergančių asmenų dėmesio, atminties, regos erdvinę ir vykdomąsias funkcijas, naudojant kompiuterizuotų testų rinkinį CANTAB eclipse 3.0.0, ir palyginti juos su kontrolinių asmenų duomenimis; nustatyti pacientų kognityvinių funkcijų ryšį su UPLVS skale įvertintu ligos sunkumu, transkranijinės sonografijos (TKS) metodu nustatytu juodosios medžiagos (JM) echogeniškumu, presinapsinio dopamine transporterio koncentracija dryžuotame kūne, nustatyta radionuklidinės kompiuterinės tomografijos (RKT) su I¹²³-FP-CIT būdu, miego, nuovargio bei demografiniais veiksniais, gyvenimo kokybės rodikliais, PL gydyti skiriamų vaistų vartojimu; išanalizuoti kompiuterizuotais testais įvertintų kognityvinių funkcijų diagnostinę vertę sergant ankstyva PL. Metodai. Tyrimas atliktas Vilniaus universiteto ligoninės Santariškių klinikų Neurologijos centre. Atrinkta 115 pacientų, sergančių ankstyva kliniškai tikėtina PL, kurie atitiko įtraukimo kriterijus bei nebuvo neįtraukimo kriterijų, ir 42 pagal amžių, lytį, mokymosi trukmę atrinkti kontroliniai tiriamieji, kurie nesirgo PL ar kitomis... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of the study: to evaluate the cognitive functions of patients with early-stage Parkinson‘s disease (PD) without dementia using Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB Eclipse 3.0.0), to compare the obtained results with the data of control subjects, to determine the associations of the variables of cognitive testing with biological markers and clinical non-cognitive symptoms of PD. Objectives: to examine attention, memory, visuospatial and executive functions of patients with early-stage PD without dementia using CANTAB Eclipse 3.0.0 and to compare the obtained results with the data of control subjects; to investigate the relationship between the cognitive functions of patients with early-stage PD and the severity of disease measured by UPDRS score, the echogenic properties of brainstem nigral substance (SN) examined by transcranial sonography (TCS), the striatal binding of presinaptic dopamine transporter determined by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with I¹²³-FP-CIT, sleep, fatigue, demographic factors and quality of life scores, the usage of medications for early-stage PD; to analize the diagnostic characteristics of particular computerised tests for evaluation of cognitive function in patients with early-stage PD. Methods. The study was performed at the Department of Neurology of Vilnius University Hospital Santariškių Klinikos. 115 patients diagnosed with clinically probable early-stage PD who met inclusion criteria and... [to full text]