Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Marriage, Family, and Human Development, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-38).

Den här uppsatsen är skriven på uppdrag av GrenseTjänsten Morukulien, vilken är en organisation som hjälper personer, företag och andra organisationer som har ärenden i både Sverige och Norge. Syftet med uppsatsen är att jämföra levnadskostnaderna för en tvåbarnsfamilj i Arvika- och Kongsvinger Kommun. Detta görs genom att se vilken familj som har störst köpkraft. Med köpkraft menas hur mycket man kan konsumera för sin disponibla inkomst. Levnadskostnaderna jämförs för en genomsnittlig tvåbarnsfamilj. Undersökningen bygger på att alla kostnader läggs i boendelandet. Vidare utgås det ifrån att båda familjerna har samma konsumtionsbeteende som en genomsnittlig svensk tvåbarnsfamilj med jämförbar inkomst. Dessa antaganden förenklar undersökningen men riskerar samtidigt att undervärdera den norska familjens köpkraft. Den disponibla inkomsten är nästan 40 procent högre för den norska familjen än för den svenska. Då är inte växelkursen medräknad. Därmed skiljer det ännu mer om man går till banken och växlar pengarna. Men när det gäller köpkraften är vi intresserad av vilken mängd varor familjerna kan köpa i hemlandet för sin disponibla inkomst. Då de genomsnittliga kostnaderna är 22,2 procent högre i Norge än i Sverige utan hänsyn till växelkursen, blir slutsatsen av den här uppsatsen att den norska familjen har 14,0 procents större köpkraft än den svenska familjen. / This paper is written at the request of GrenseTjänsten Morukulien, which is an organization that helps people, companies and other organizations that have commisions in both Sweden and Norway. The purpose of this paper is to compare the cost of living for a family with two children in Arvika and Kongsvinger and to find out which family who has the biggest purchasing power. The purchasing power is how much you can consume for your disposable income. The cost of living is compared to a family with two children. The survey is based on the assumption that everything you consume, you consume in your native country. Furthermore it is assumed that both families and have the same consumption behavior as an average Swedish family with two children with a comparable income. These assumptions simplify the survey, but on the other hand, the risk of underestimating the Norwegian family´s purchasing power arises. If you exclude the exchange rate, the disposable income is almost 40 percent higher for the Norwegian family than for the Swedish family. Therfore there´s an even bigger difference if one goes to the bank and exchanges money. But when it comes to the purchasing power we are interested in how much the families can consume for the disposable income in their native country. The average prices are 22,2 percent higher in Norway than in Sweden, without consideration to the exchange rate. The conclusion of this paper is that the Norwegian family has 14,0 percent more purchasing power than the Swedish family.

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The purpose of the study was to describe the experiences of elderly people, living at home who receive hot meals that are distributed by their municipality. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the (n=13) interviews. The results showed that feelings of dependency, loneliness and gratitude were expressed by the participants in the study related to their meals being delivered home. Dependency was expressed as not having influence over the food products the meals were made from. Loneliness was expressed as being isolated and being confined at home alone due to difficulties getting out of the house, which was associated with the costs of taxis transportation. Gratitude was expressed by the sincere thanks for the possibility of receiving traditional meals delivered daily. The major conclusion of the study was the indication that greater attention should be paid to meet both the practical and psychological needs of elderly people.

Near-fall detection is important for medical research since it can help doctors diagnose fall-related diseases and also help alert both doctors and patients of possible falls. However, in people’s daily life, there are lots of similarities between near-falls and other Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), which makes near-falls particularly difficult to detect. In order to find the subtle difference between ADLs and near-fall and accurately identify the latter, the movement of whole human body needs to be captured and displayed by a computer generated avatar. In this thesis, a wireless inertial motion capture system consisting of a central control host and ten sensor nodes is used to capture human body movements. Each of the ten sensor nodes in the system has a tri-axis accelerometer and a tri-axis gyroscope. They are attached to separate locations of a human body to record both angular and acceleration data with which body movements can be captured by applying Euler angle based algorithms, specifically, single rotation order algorithm and the optimal rotation order algorithm. According to the experiment results of capturing ten ADLs, both the single rotation order algorithm and the optimal rotation order algorithm can track normal human body movements without significantly distortion and the latter shows higher accuracy and lower data shifting. Compared to previous inertial systems with magnetometers, this system reduces hardware complexity and software computation while ensures a reasonable accuracy in capturing human body movements.

At the outset, I dis-claim any knowledge or understanding what-so-ever, which is a peculiar stance to take for a nurse educator immersed in the language of “expertise,” “best practices,” and “champion” healthcare offerings. I do not dis-claim knowledge to absolve my professional accountability, nor do I absolve myself of being responsible for my text, rather I apprehend this journey of sentience and incarnation as an infant experiencing and learning the world in which it finds itself. It is only through a naïve, furtive play that I am able to proceed, through the difficulties and paradoxical tensions of constructed identities, without complete paralysis. As I play and ponder my way through multiple methodologies, a representational form emerges between repetitious moments of contemplation, remembering lived experiences, and reflecting on philosophical discourses. The difficulty or tension lies in the provocation of identities, as nurse, educator, and mother, among many other stances and formulations. Each identified discourse compels me to challenge the gaps in my knowledge in new ways. As I explore, I unravel the forms of text that are various incarnations of narrative reflection. The choices I make are about inquiring through concept, form and identification, which I both uniquely challenge as an individual and hold in common by being socially and historically situated. Each transition, contemplation and provocation is hopeful and volatile. I am always attuned to how it is that I live the spaces between each, unknowing my “self” as my otherness, letting go the ideal/real and becoming the (/) through a relational pedagogy.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of spinal deformity with physical function and self-perception in children with spina bifida. Ninety-eight eligible children with scoliosis and spina bifida were identified; 80 of them (82%) consented to participate. Spinal deformity was measured in many ways, including scoliosis, coronal balance, and pelvic obliquity. Measures of physical function included the Sitting Balance Scale, Jebsen Hand Scale, Hoffer Ambulation Scale, the Spine Bifida Spine Questionnaire, and the Activities Scale for Kids (ASK). Self-perception was determined with Harter's Self-Perception Profile. No relationship was found between spinal deformity and overall physical function (ASK). Of all aspects of spinal deformity, only coronal imbalance was significantly related to only one aspect of physical function (ie, sitting imbalance). No aspect of spinal deformity was related to self-perception. In conclusion, surgeons should be clear in their indications for surgery and recognize that in the short term the potential benefit of surgery may be, at best, to improve only sitting balance.

Despite a large prevalence of rotator cuff impingements or tears in the elderly population, little research has focused on understanding how this population adapts to perform tasks of daily living. Past research has focused on the analysis of upper limb kinematics of young healthy individuals while performing these essential tasks (Magermans, 2004, Murray and Johnson., 2004). The purpose of this thesis was to identify kinematic and shoulder loading differences between elderly mobile individuals and elderly individuals with rotator cuff impingements during specific activities of daily living. Motion capture techniques were used in combination with the Shoulder Loading Analysis Modules (Dickerson, 2005, Dickerson et al., 2007) to estimate thoracohumeral kinematics and calculate external joint moments. Two-tailed t-tests with injury status as the factor determined that differences in active range of motion in flexion/extension and humeral rotations existed between the two populations. Results of the ADL analysis showed that the impinged population tended to have decreased plane of elevation and humeral rotations during ADLs. Task was also a main factor for most variables examined. Perineal care, hair-combing and reaching tasks were the most demanding in terms of range of motion necessary to complete the task. The reaching tasks resulted in the highest shoulder moment. K-means clustering techniques proved to be unsuccessful in identifying different motion strategies between the two study groups. This investigation showed that developing adaptations for perineal care, hair-combing and reaching tasks should be considered a priority when working with patients with rotator cuff impingements, as these tasks demanded the largest ranges of motion as well as high shoulder moments.

Direct care worker turnover and shortages plague long-term care, weakening its quality, heightening costs for governments and employers, and cyclically breeding further turnover and shortages of workers. To address these issues, I investigate why direct care workers chose employment in long-term care (LTC), assisted living (AL) and specific AL facilities. Data come from a mixed-methods study of 45 AL facilities in Georgia, including interviews with 400 direct care workers. Findings include qualitative data analyzed using a grounded theory approach and descriptive quantitative data. Care workers’ motivations for employment in LTC, AL, and specific AL facilities reflect a split between moral and material values for care work, and care workers’ motivations illustrate a process of reconciling moral and material values. Individuals become care workers for reasons that are both materialistic, like earning a living wage, and moralistic, like the desire to care for others. They take employment expecting it to be consistent with their moral ideals and to satisfy their economic needs. Various individual, facility, industry, and community level factors influence workers’ motivations, and these factors reinforce the inconsistency between moral and material values for care work. Considering the heightening demand for LTC and short supply of care workers, as well as the deindustrialization of the economy, several recommendations are made for policies and practices that would support workers’ motivations for employment in LTC. Areas for future research also are highlighted.

Women outnumber men in assisted living (AL). This gender imbalance promotes the feminization of AL settings and affects men’s social experiences, particularly their co-resident relationships. AL research connects peer relationships to resident well-being and suggests gender that influences co-resident interactions. Yet, few studies have specifically examined men’s social experiences in AL. This analysis aimed to: (1) learn how men experience co-resident relationships in AL; and (2) identify the factors shaping these peer relationships. The analysis utilized qualitative data collected from two AL settings. Data collection involved participant observation and informal and formal in-depth interviews. Analysis was informed by principles of Grounded Theory Method and shows high variability in men’s co-resident connections. A range of individual- and facility-level factors promoted or constrained relationship development. Gender remains pivotal in structuring men’s social engagements. Individual- and facility-level factors often intersected with gender and influenced men’s social lives. Ultimately, co-resident relationships are consequential for men in AL.