Thesis project (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-202).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Background: - Living wills have long been associated with end-of- life care. This study explored the promotion and use of living wills amongst general practitioners and frail care nursing coordinators directly involved in the care of the elderly in Howick, Kwa-Zulu Natal. The study also explored their views regarding the proforma living will disseminated by the Living Will Society. Participants: - Seven general practitioners and three frail care nursing coordinators, making ten in total. Design: - Qualitative in-depth interviews and analysis, using the Framework method. Results:- Both doctors and nursing staff understood the concept of living wills and acknowledged their varied benefits to patient, family and staff. They were concerned about the lack of legal status. They felt that the proforma document from the Living Will Society was simple and clear. Despite identifying the low level of use of living wills, they felt that third party organisations and individuals should promote living wills Conclusion: - GPs and frail care nurse coordinators were knowledgeable of living wills in general and the Living Will Society proforma document in particular. They valued the contribution that living wills can make in the care of the elderly, benefitting patients, their families, health care workers and even the health system. They also valued the proforma living will document from the Living Will Society for its clarity and simplicity. However, both GPs and frail care nursing coordinators viewed the living will process as patient- driven and their main role was as custodians and not advocates of the living will.

The provision of housing in rural areas has been identified as crucial for the long term sustainability of rural communities. However, there are questions about how rural developers are responding to legislative requirements to reduce carbon emissions, whether the fulfilment of a need for affordable housing in rural areas can be reconciled with higher energy performance and whether higher energy performance will affect thermal comfort when climate change is taken into account. To understand these issues a review of published and monitored case studies in rural areas of the UK was undertaken which highlighted a number of development models that might be applied by house builders in the Welsh context. An analysis of two exemplar projects in Pembroke Dock, West Wales, examined the following: the social, economic and legislative context of rural development; the significance of energy and carbon used to construct rural houses; and the quantity of energy required to keep rural dwellings at a comfortable temperature in a typical year. Dynamic thermal modelling was then used to investigate a number of design approaches highlighted in the earlier studies as significant including: increasing thermal mass; increasing south facing glazing; adjusting building form and the layout of the site; and higher levels of insulation. The application of these approaches on a housing scheme in West Wales established the benefits of incorporating thermal mass into the building fabric, maintaining a compact form and, where reasonable, using passive solar gain, to reduce heating load. This study identified that these approaches, if carefully combined, could achieve significant (i.e. 16.4%-29.8%) reductions in heating load without compromising the affordability of the original scheme. However, the study also identified that one possible consequence of improving the energy performance would be a reduction in thermal comfort as a result of higher internal temperatures. To gain a better understanding of this further modelling examined the potential for overheating using the following: current and future climate files; an algorithm based on window opening behaviour; detailed simulation of airflow; and bivariate data analysis techniques. The results from this study identified that thermal mass and ventilation techniques could be employed to address the issues of overheating.

Recent advances in genome sequencing are improving our better understanding of genetic variation. However, the investigation of the genotype-phenotype relationship is still challenging, especially for the interpretation of the myriad of discovered genetic variants that weakly relate to disease. Recently, researchers have confirmed that disease causing genetic variants typically occur at functional sites, such as protein-protein or protein-ligand interaction sites. Giving this observation, several bioinformatics tools have been developed. This thesis first details VarMod (Variant Modeller), an algorithm that predicts whether nonsynonymous single nucleotide variants (nsSNVs) affect protein function. The recent Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa demonstrated the potential for the virus to cause edipdemics and highlighted our limited understanding of Ebola virus biology. The second part of this thesis focuses on the investigation of the molecular determinants of Ebolavirus pathogenicity. In two related analyses knowledge of differing pathogenicity of Ebolavirus species is used. Firstly, comparison of the sequences of Reston viruses (the only Ebolavirus species that is not pathogenic in humans) with the four pathogenic Ebolavirus species, enabled the identification of Specificity Determining Positions (SDPs) that are differentially conserved between these two groups. These SDPs were further investigated using analysis of protein structure and identified variation in the Ebola virus VP24 as likely to have a role in determining species-specific pathogenicity. The second approach investigated rodent-adapted Ebola virus. Ebola virus is not pathogenic in rodents but it can be passaged to induce pathogenicity. Analysis of the mutations identified in four adaption studies identified that very few mutations are required for adaptation to a new species and once again the VP24 is likely to have a central role. Subsequent molecular dynamics simulations compared the interaction of Ebola and Reston virus VP24 with human karyopherin alpha5. The analysis suggests that Reston virus VP24 has weaker binding with karyopherins and we propose that this change in binding may reduce the ability of Reston VP24 to inhibit human interferon signaling.

End of life and changes in medical bioethicsThe issue of the end of life includes —necessarily— an analysis of human dignity in its social and legal dimension as a parameter and value of the cultural history of countries and societies. The vagueness of this term has created, in particular, many difficulties in the effort to define its boundaries. In particular, the use of human dignity to understand the dynamics of the end of life faces the issue of medical paternalism and theory of informed consent in the doctor-patient relationship. / El tema del final de la vida incluye —necesariamente— unanálisis de la dignidad humana en su dimensión social y jurídica, como parámetro y valor de la historia cultural de los países y de las sociedades. La indeterminación de este concepto ha creado, en lo concreto, muchas dificultades en el esfuerzo de concretar sus confines. En particular, el uso de la dignidad humana para comprender las dinámicas del fin de la vida enfrenta el tema del paternalismo médico y la teoría del consentimiento informado en larelación médico-paciente.

Aim Despite the country's explicit political goal to establish equivalent living conditions across Germany, significant inequality continues to exist. We argue that premature mortality is an excellent proxy variable for testing the claim of equivalent living conditions since the root causes of premature death are socioeconomic. Subject and methods We analyse variation in premature mortality across Germany's 402 districts and cities in 2014. Results Premature mortality spatially clusters among geographically contiguous and proximate districts/cities and is higher in more urban places as well as in districts/cities located further north and in former East Germany. We demonstrate that, first, socioeconomic factors account for 62% of the cross-sectional variation in years of potential life lost and 70% of the variation in the premature mortality rate. Second, we show that these socioeconomic factors either entirely or almost fully eliminate the systematic spatial patterns that exist in premature mortality. Conclusion On its own, fiscal redistribution, the centrepiece of how Germany aspires to establish its political goal, cannot generate equivalent living conditions in the absence of a comprehensive set of economic and social policies at all levels of political administration, tackling the disparities in socioeconomic factors that collectively result in highly unequal living conditions.

This dissertation will use the philosophy of John Dewey to develop a conception of the individual using an ecological model as an alternative to the atomistic type more typical of Western philosophy. An ecological model presents the individual as part of a biological and cultural milieu, but, contrary to a number of critiques of the Deweyan individual, it does not subsume the individual beneath the larger processes of which it is a part or sacrifice the individual to the social institutions such as the state. The Introduction and Chapter One provide an overview of various critiques of Dewey's understanding of the individual before arguing that the Deweyan individual is best understood in ecological terms. This first section also argues in favor of Dewey's current relevance, as his philosophy provides a number of resources for addressing contemporary social problems. Chapter Two briefly examines the claim that there are possible absolutist tendencies in Dewey's thought before discussing the threat of absolutism, examining absolutist practices as types of monocultures, and arguing that far from supporting such tendencies, a Deweyan ecological individualism works against such practices. Chapter Three examines some of the implications of using an ecological model for the individual, shows that such an understanding of the individual drives home the precariousness of existence, and argues that this model thus provides the basis for a Deweyan existentialism. While Chapter Three emphasizes the ways in which our interdependence highlights the dangers that individuals face, Chapter Four responds to these worrisome implications by arguing in favor of a Deweyan art of living that builds upon our social and biological interrelatedness with a Deweyan care ethics that responds not only to our status as ecologically integrated entities with responsibilities to our social and biological communities, but that also emphasizes our need for self-care. The final chapter examines the ecological individual and moral community through the lens of a Deweyan radical democracy that emphasizes the need for ecological literacy, citizen engagement, a knowledgeable respect for our diverse heritage, and a willingness to work together continually to change our institutions and our practices toward democratic ideals.

This thesis is an ethnography of how children of Holocaust survivors interacted and connected with the March of the Living and Holocaust sites in Poland. This work explores how considering individual perspectives allows one to understand how the March works in complicated and nuanced ways to intensify connections with relatives and Jewish identity. In three chapters this work situates the experiences of four participants within theories of place-making and post-memory to consider methods they used to connect with Holocaust sites and what effect that connection had on their sense of identity.

Detta examensarbete är ett samarbete med Ellos Home där examensarbete och praktik har kombinerats. Arbetets huvudsakliga syfte har varit att ta fram en möbel till Ellos Homes sortiment utifrån ett compact living perspektiv. Examensarbetet handlar om hur jag gick från idé till första framställda prototyp ifrån fabrik. I fortsätta arbetet och i verkligheten krävs det ofta ändringar av produkten efter att den första prototypen har framställts men det är något som inte rymdes inom tidsramen för detta examensarbete. Idag flyttar fler och fler in till storstäder, bopriset ökar och kvadratmetrarna minskar. 37,7% av svenska befolkningen lever i singelbostäder (Johansson 2014) och enligt FNs prognos väntas befolkningen i städerna växa med 2.4 miljarder fram till 2050 (Moström 2013). Detta leder till att det byggs mer små bostäder vilket i sin tur leder till att vi bor på små ytor och får ett större behov av kvadratsmart inredning som optimerar vår boyta. Arbetet har drivits av en designprocess där research, enkäter, intervjuer, marknadsanalyser och observationer har gjorts för att identifiera ett behov hos användaren. I enkäten och intervjusvaren framkom det olika behov som efterfrågades, bland annat extra sittplatser, extra sovplatser, kunna spara pågående arbete och avgränsa ytor. Utifrån insamlad data i analysfasen utformades fyra olika lösningar ut efter de kartlagda behoven. Koncepten utvärderades efter vilka behov som uppfylldes, efter ytterligare intervjuer med användarna och i samråd med Ellos Home designteam för att sedan landa i ett valt koncept. Konceptutvecklingen skedde i en loopande process med återkoppling mot användaren som sedan resultera i en utdragbar fåtölj. Prototypen är en multimöbel som man kan använda som en vanlig fåtölj eller i utdraget läge som en extra sovplats. En bäddfåtölj! Slutgiltiga ritningar sammanställdes och skickades till fabrik för att få bäddfåtöljen tillverkad.