<p>Ungdomars attityder och värderingar gentemot politik är något som sedan årtionden tillbaka undersökts. Det finns undersökningar som visar att ungdomars politiska intresse minskar. Sociologen Ulrich Beck förklarar det minskade intresset som ett led i individualiseringsprocessen, vilket är teorin i föreliggande uppsats. Uppsatsen grundar sig på en enkätundersökning i tre städer, Stockholm, Norrköping och Skänninge. I varje stad har en klass i år 9 svarat på enkäten. Enkäten består av 13 frågor varav 12 är strukturerade och en fråga är öppen. Undersökningen visar att det finns ett politiskt intresse hos de ungdomar som deltog. Dock ligger intresset i andra politiska aktiviteter än de som traditionellt tillhör denoffentliga politiken som bland annat innefattar politiska partier. Ungdomarna deltar gärna i demonstrationer, namninsamlingar och bojkotter för att visa sin politiska åsikt. Undersökningens resultat tyder på att ungdomarna deltar i individualiseringsprocessen samt att den rådande politiska strukturen och ungdomarna glider isär. Fortsätter individualiseringen tills dagens ungdomar tillträder politiken kan en omorganisering av den politiska strukturen bli aktuell.</p>

<p>The purpose of this degree thesis is to investigate what the English teachers in an upper sec-ondary school, think about teaching students in ability grouped classrooms. The questions that I have set out to investigate include what the teachers think about ability grouping in English, the school’s current organisation of ability groups, the pros and cons of ability grouping in English, differentiation in teaching and if students get more individualized teaching with abil-ity groups, how the teachers cooperate and what would be the optimal teaching situation in an English learning classroom.</p><p>I did a lot of theoretical research on the subject and studied old essays on similar subjects. I also did some classroom observations to use as background information for my interviews. I interviewed five teachers of different sex, age, and teaching experience. The teachers clearly had different views on the pros and cons of ability grouping and how to deal with the stu-dents’ different levels of English. They all agreed on the advantages it creates for the teachers, the main advantages being the small groups and the students being on almost the same level. They also agreed on the difficulty of individualised teaching, even with ability groups. Most of them also agreed that the main problem with ability grouping is how to deal with the weak-est or most basic level. It’s important that they have good pedagogical teachers who want to teach them and know how to. It also leads to problems amongst the teachers, in deciding who should or wants to teach which group and how to teach on a certain level. The teachers all had different ideas on how to improve the organisation of English teaching, from small mixed groups or only two ability levels, to a rotation of teachers between the groups and the different areas of English. In conclusion, upper secondary students are used to different groups, since they have chosen not only schools, but programs and individual courses. If the goal is small groups in English, maybe ability grouping is a possible solution. But above all, it has to be a possibility for the students, not the teachers.</p>

<p>This thesis studies youth from different perspectives. These are the life phaseand the generational perspectives, which have been studied via questions of establishment and individualisation. The main question is whether young people are different because they have not made socially important transitions into adulthood or if they are different because they have grown up under different circumstances than earlier generations. The consequences of the outcome are important because they can indicate what kind of society young people will reproduce. The following conclusions are drawn: First, there are clear effects of social structurations (class of origin and gender) in the lives of young people. They affect the distribution of attitudes towards welfare state expenditures as well as the economic effects in a long-term perspective. Second, there is rather weak importance of role transitions in relation to what young people believe is important for adulthood, role transitions’ importance for the distribution of attitudes towards the welfare state as well as role transitions’ importance in a long-term perspective. Third, increasing age and subtle socialisation processes may be an explanation to the rather weak meaning of role transitions, cause adjustments to surrounding contexts and people’s expectations. It is concluded that the life phase perspective is a more accurate way of viewing young people, mainly because of the impact of social structurations, which are believed to contribute to continuous reproduction rather than complete change of society.</p>

<p>This is a descriptive ethnographical study with the purpose of examining teachers’ and students’ experiences of oral examination at a State Pedagogical University in western Russia. The study also focused on finding the characteristics of oral examination and the contextual factors influencing its implementation. The research was done using participatory observations and interviews. The results show that interviewees experience oral assessment in general as positive. Their descriptions are summarised and analysed using a number of key concepts, of which flexibility, subjectivity, individualisation, and fairness are the most important. The study also shows that contextual factors such as culture, traditions, and organisational framework have large impact on how the examination is done. The conclusion is that oral examination has both gins and losses, since the teacher’s active participation creates possibilities for individualisation and deep probing of the students’ knowledge, but is also a source of bias because of its subjectivity.</p>

<p>To increase the proportion of patients with successful drug treatment, dose individualisation on the basis of one or several patient characteristics, <i>a priori</i> individualisation, and/or on the basis of feedback observations from the patient following an initial dose, <i>a posteriori</i> individualisation, is an option. Efficient tools in optimising individualised dosing strategies are population models describing pharmacokinetics (PK) and the relation between pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD).</p><p>Methods for estimating optimal dosing strategies, with a discrete number of doses, for dose individualisation <i>a priori</i> and <i>a posteriori</i> were developed and explored using simulated data. The methods required definitions of (<i>i</i>) the therapeutic target, <i>i.e. </i>the value of the target variable and a risk function quantifying the seriousness of deviation from the target, (<i>ii</i>) a population PK/PD model relating dose input to the target variable in the patients to be treated, and (<i>iii</i>) distributions of relevant patient factors. Optimal dosing strategies, in terms of dose sizes and individualisation conditions, were estimated by minimising the overall risk. Factors influencing the optimal dosing strategies were identified. Consideration of those will have implications for study design, data collection, population model development and target definition.</p><p>A dosing strategy for <i>a priori</i> individualisation was estimated for NXY-059, a drug under development. Applying the estimated dosing strategy in a clinical study resulted in reasonable agreement between observed and expected outcome, supporting the developed methodology.</p><p>Estimation of a dosing strategy for <i>a posteriori</i> individualisation for oxybutynin, a drug marketed for the treatment of overactive bladder, illustrated the implementation of the method when defining the therapeutic target in terms of utility and responder probability, that is, as a combination of the desired and adverse effects.</p><p>The proposed approach provides an estimate of the maximal benefit expected from individualisation and, if individualisation is considered clinically superior, the optimal conditions for individualisation. The main application for the methods is in drug development where the methods can be generally employed in the establishment of dosing strategies for individualisation with relevant extensions regarding population model complexity and individualisation conditions.</p>

<p>Cefuroxime is a renally eliminated antibiotic used against a variety of different bacterial infections. The pharmacokinetics (PK) for cefuroxime was studied in 97 hospitalized patients using population analysis. To be able to measure cefuroxime in human serum a new sensitive analytical method was developed using mass spectrometry detection. The method was validated and shown to be sensitive and selective. Cystatin C was found to be a better covariate for cefuroxime clearance compared to the traditionally used creatinine clearance (CLcr). This relation might be useful when designing dosing strategies for cefuroxime and other renally eliminated drugs. </p><p>The time-courses of the biomarkers C-reactive protein (CRP), serum amyloid A (SAA), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and body temperature were studied for the first 72 hours of cefuroxime treatment and was related to the duration of illness previous treatment with cefuroxime and to time to step-down of treatment. When duration of illness was short, CRP and SAA were showed increasing levels. None of the biomarkers could be used to differentiate between early or late step-down of therapy.</p><p>By use of known PK and pharmacodynamic (PD) principles, dosing strategies based on CLcr for cefuroxime were estimated using minimization of a risk function. The risk function was constructed with the aim to expose patients to cefuroxime concentration above minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for 50 % of the dosing interval and to minimize the amount of drug administered in excess to reach the aim. Based on evaluation using wild type MIC distributions for <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> improved dosing strategies were selected.</p><p>In vitro experiments were performed exposing <i>Streptococcus pyogenes</i> to constant concentration of benzylpenicillin, cefuroxime, erythromycin, moxifloxacin or vancomycin. A semi-mechanistic PK/PD model characterizing the time-course of the antibacterial effect was developed using all data simultaneously. Internal validation showed the model being predictive and robust. </p>

Ungdomars attityder och värderingar gentemot politik är något som sedan årtionden tillbaka undersökts. Det finns undersökningar som visar att ungdomars politiska intresse minskar. Sociologen Ulrich Beck förklarar det minskade intresset som ett led i individualiseringsprocessen, vilket är teorin i föreliggande uppsats. Uppsatsen grundar sig på en enkätundersökning i tre städer, Stockholm, Norrköping och Skänninge. I varje stad har en klass i år 9 svarat på enkäten. Enkäten består av 13 frågor varav 12 är strukturerade och en fråga är öppen. Undersökningen visar att det finns ett politiskt intresse hos de ungdomar som deltog. Dock ligger intresset i andra politiska aktiviteter än de som traditionellt tillhör denoffentliga politiken som bland annat innefattar politiska partier. Ungdomarna deltar gärna i demonstrationer, namninsamlingar och bojkotter för att visa sin politiska åsikt. Undersökningens resultat tyder på att ungdomarna deltar i individualiseringsprocessen samt att den rådande politiska strukturen och ungdomarna glider isär. Fortsätter individualiseringen tills dagens ungdomar tillträder politiken kan en omorganisering av den politiska strukturen bli aktuell.

To increase the proportion of patients with successful drug treatment, dose individualisation on the basis of one or several patient characteristics, a priori individualisation, and/or on the basis of feedback observations from the patient following an initial dose, a posteriori individualisation, is an option. Efficient tools in optimising individualised dosing strategies are population models describing pharmacokinetics (PK) and the relation between pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD). Methods for estimating optimal dosing strategies, with a discrete number of doses, for dose individualisation a priori and a posteriori were developed and explored using simulated data. The methods required definitions of (i) the therapeutic target, i.e. the value of the target variable and a risk function quantifying the seriousness of deviation from the target, (ii) a population PK/PD model relating dose input to the target variable in the patients to be treated, and (iii) distributions of relevant patient factors. Optimal dosing strategies, in terms of dose sizes and individualisation conditions, were estimated by minimising the overall risk. Factors influencing the optimal dosing strategies were identified. Consideration of those will have implications for study design, data collection, population model development and target definition. A dosing strategy for a priori individualisation was estimated for NXY-059, a drug under development. Applying the estimated dosing strategy in a clinical study resulted in reasonable agreement between observed and expected outcome, supporting the developed methodology. Estimation of a dosing strategy for a posteriori individualisation for oxybutynin, a drug marketed for the treatment of overactive bladder, illustrated the implementation of the method when defining the therapeutic target in terms of utility and responder probability, that is, as a combination of the desired and adverse effects. The proposed approach provides an estimate of the maximal benefit expected from individualisation and, if individualisation is considered clinically superior, the optimal conditions for individualisation. The main application for the methods is in drug development where the methods can be generally employed in the establishment of dosing strategies for individualisation with relevant extensions regarding population model complexity and individualisation conditions.

The purpose of this degree thesis is to investigate what the English teachers in an upper sec-ondary school, think about teaching students in ability grouped classrooms. The questions that I have set out to investigate include what the teachers think about ability grouping in English, the school’s current organisation of ability groups, the pros and cons of ability grouping in English, differentiation in teaching and if students get more individualized teaching with abil-ity groups, how the teachers cooperate and what would be the optimal teaching situation in an English learning classroom. I did a lot of theoretical research on the subject and studied old essays on similar subjects. I also did some classroom observations to use as background information for my interviews. I interviewed five teachers of different sex, age, and teaching experience. The teachers clearly had different views on the pros and cons of ability grouping and how to deal with the stu-dents’ different levels of English. They all agreed on the advantages it creates for the teachers, the main advantages being the small groups and the students being on almost the same level. They also agreed on the difficulty of individualised teaching, even with ability groups. Most of them also agreed that the main problem with ability grouping is how to deal with the weak-est or most basic level. It’s important that they have good pedagogical teachers who want to teach them and know how to. It also leads to problems amongst the teachers, in deciding who should or wants to teach which group and how to teach on a certain level. The teachers all had different ideas on how to improve the organisation of English teaching, from small mixed groups or only two ability levels, to a rotation of teachers between the groups and the different areas of English. In conclusion, upper secondary students are used to different groups, since they have chosen not only schools, but programs and individual courses. If the goal is small groups in English, maybe ability grouping is a possible solution. But above all, it has to be a possibility for the students, not the teachers.

This is a descriptive ethnographical study with the purpose of examining teachers’ and students’ experiences of oral examination at a State Pedagogical University in western Russia. The study also focused on finding the characteristics of oral examination and the contextual factors influencing its implementation. The research was done using participatory observations and interviews. The results show that interviewees experience oral assessment in general as positive. Their descriptions are summarised and analysed using a number of key concepts, of which flexibility, subjectivity, individualisation, and fairness are the most important. The study also shows that contextual factors such as culture, traditions, and organisational framework have large impact on how the examination is done. The conclusion is that oral examination has both gins and losses, since the teacher’s active participation creates possibilities for individualisation and deep probing of the students’ knowledge, but is also a source of bias because of its subjectivity.