This article describes the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-OLD (an add-on module to the World Health Organization's Quality of Life measure for older people) in a South African sample. International literature cites three short versions of the WHOQOL-OLD instrument. The psychometric properties associated with these three short versions of the WHOQOL-OLD are also described. The unique challenges posed by ageing populations are evident in both developed and developing countries. In South Africa the elderly population is also increasing dramatically. There is a disproportionate distribution of older persons per ethnic group, with white older people representing the largest group of older South Africans (21%, proportional to ethnic group). Regardless of integration policies in post-apartheid South Africa, especially in terms of housing arrangements, the majority of long-term care facilities in South Africa remain to be occupied predominantly by white older people. For this reason the participants of this study were mostly older white South Africans. It is, however, projected that this picture will change in future times due to more aggressive transformation-driven policies. A national audit of residential care facilities by the Department of Social Development in 2010 indicated a need for psychosocial interventions since the QoL of residents was found to be undetermined. QoL research in South Africa has largely been conducted from socio-economic and health-care perspectives and has tended to focus on specific societies in which older people are usually not explicitly included. Evidence exists of various qualitative studies among older people living in long-term care facilities, from a psychological perspective. However, the short supply of quantitative studies in this setting is significant. The lack of measurements developed for an older population also resulted in an increasing need for the development of gerontological QoL measurements with sound psychometric properties. Internationally, various measures of QoL utilised in older age groups have become increasingly popular. This study took particular interest in the WHOQOL-OLD instrument. Under the auspices of the World Health Organization Quality of Life group, a collaborative effort among numerous researchers from various countries has led to the development of a measure focussing on the QoL in older population cohorts. The initial development of the generic WHOQOL measures of quality of life occurred in 15 different centres worldwide, excluding South Africa. In the development of an add-on module, 22 centres around the world were involved (again excluding South Africa). It cannot be assumed that measuring instruments developed in a Western context are applicable in an African context. South Africa is a very diverse nation - the majority of ethnic groups lead a collectivistic existence. As a result the determination of the psychometric properties of such instruments, for use within South Africa, was needed. It is of importance to note that the participants of this study were more individualistically inclined, which is comparable to Western societies. This study was the first step in exploring the instrument’s reliable use within South Africa. Surveys were completed by 176 older people who were fluent in both Afrikaans and English. Participants of the study resided in long-term care facilities in Potchefstroom in the North-West province of South Africa. Their ages varied between 61 and 95 and the mean age of participants was 77 years. Of the respondents, 50 were male and 126 were female. All reported average to good health and cognitive ability. The current study found encouraging results related to the original factor structure of the WHOQOL-OLD as well as the three shorter versions of this instrument. Results from the data of the current sample seem to fit the original structure model well. The reliabilities associated with the various sub-dimensions point to a reliable instrument. The original WHOQOL-OLD questionnaire with its 24 items or any of the three short versions of this instrument can therefore be utilised in a South African context. / MA (Clinical Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Background: Fibromyalgia is a chronic disease that is difficult to treat and diagnose. The illness is of unknown etiology. The majority of the ill is women. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe women ́s experiences of living with long term pain associated with fibromyalgia. Method: A literature -based study was performed. The database Cinahl was used in the search process. This study includes 11 qualitative articles that have been analysed by a review template. The analysis resulted in two categories "experiences of a changed me" and "experiences of social life" with six subcategories. Results: The consequences of fibromyalgia were that the family life, spare time, social life and working life changed in different ways. The articles also showed that women with fibromyalgia did not receive the understanding they needed from their families or the environment. Conclusion: Women with fibromyalgia feel that they do not get understanding from the outside world. It is important that health care professionals understand and acknowledge these individuals' subjective experiences so that they can give professional care and support.

No description available.

Phenology is an integrative science that comprises the study of recurring biological activities or events. In an era of rapidly changing climate, the relationship between the timing of those events and environmental cues such as temperature, snowmelt, water availability, or day length are of particular interest. This article provides an overview of the observer-based plant phenology sampling conducted by the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), the resulting data, and the rationale behind the design. Trained technicians will conduct regular in situ observations of plant phenology at all terrestrial NEON sites for the 30-yr life of the observatory. Standardized and coordinated data across the network of sites can be used to quantify the direction and magnitude of the relationships between phenology and environmental forcings, as well as the degree to which these relationships vary among sites, among species, among phenophases, and through time. Vegetation at NEON sites will also be monitored with tower-based cameras, satellite remote sensing, and annual high-resolution airborne remote sensing. Ground-based measurements can be used to calibrate and improve satellite-derived phenometrics. NEON's phenology monitoring design is complementary to existing phenology research efforts and citizen science initiatives throughout the world and will produce interoperable data. By collocating plant phenology observations with a suite of additional meteorological, biophysical, and ecological measurements (e.g., climate, carbon flux, plant productivity, population dynamics of consumers) at 47 terrestrial sites, the NEON design will enable continental-scale inference about the status, trends, causes, and ecological consequences of phenological change.

Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) in terms of the replacement of the in-house production of IT activities by the use of third party suppliers had already started in the 1960s and has increased considerably. For 2013, the Gartner Group expected that the global ITO market would reach a volume of 288 bn US dollars. Until 2017, the market should grow on average about 5.4% yearly. Despite the rich set of experiences companies have already had with ITO, the chances of success are seen as at best 50:50. Currently, the dramatic growth of ITO is accompanied by backsourcing of formerly outsourced IT functions or reports about dissatisfaction and problems with ITO. Scientists put ITO failures or problems down to a lack of modelling of all the possible factors affecting ITO success and demand a specific ITO theory as a basis for better explaining and predicting successes and failures in an IT sourcing context. This thesis takes up this research gap. The aim of this thesis is to develop a novel ITO Model which aids organisations in planning and implementing ITO solutions by guiding them through the ITO process steps of preparation, selection, contract, transition, execution, and post-deal comprising a comprehensive picture of the weighted aspects relevant to ITO success and their interdependencies. In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives were established for this thesis: raising the topical level of scientific knowledge of the last decades about successinfluencing factors in the ITO field based on an extensive literature survey of 48 scientific articles deriving ITO success factors from empirical research work; structuring of this success factor knowledge by the development of two ITO taxonomies (taxonomy of success factors and taxonomy of success factor interdependencies); testing its practical applicability on the basis of 8 real long-running application outsourcing cases in the banking industry; further development of the success factor knowledge by identification of weightings and the temporal relevance of relevant success factors / success factor interdependencies within the ITO process. Design of the novel ITO Model based on the empirical knowledge gained by development of rules for relevant success factors and success factor interdependencies, by arrangement of these rules in temporal order within the ITO process and by assignment of these rules to four levels of environment.

Purpose: Postnatal depression has significant negative outcomes for both mother and baby. Cognitive-behavioural interventions have proven promising in its treatment, but there are a number of barriers, specific to the postnatal period, which lead to low take-up of treatment. Online interventions may circumvent some of these barriers. However, evidence of long-term follow-up is sparse, in spite of the importance of knowing how such treatments work over the longer-term. Methods: Long-term follow-up of postnatal women participating in a feasibility randomised controlled trial of NetmumsHWD, an online behavioural activation treatment with telephone support. Results: Retention rates of over 70 percent were obtained. There were small but non-significant effects of treatment on depressive symptomology and behavioural activation scores at 16 months post-randomisation. Baseline depression and behavioural activation scores predicted attrition prior to the implementation of outreach strategies for data collection; these systematic differences in attrition disappeared post-implementation. Measures of treatment adherence were not related to outcome. Conclusions: Collection of long-term follow-up data from postnatal women appears feasible. The findings demonstrate the importance of outreach in maximising retention, especially in relation to the generalizability of results. Future research should consider ways to assess treatment engagement and its relationship with outcome.

Background: Rectal cancer 5-year survival has increased from 58% of those diagnosed in 1987-1989 to 68% of those diagnosed in 2003-2009. Rectal cancer patients commonly receive one of two surgical treatments: permanent ostomy (a resection of tumor following by a stoma) or anastomosis (a resection followed by a reconnection with or without a prior temporary ostomy). The multifaceted consequences of both types of surgery potentially can affect both long-term psychological well-being and financial concerns of patients and their families. The overall goal of this dissertation is to increase the understanding of the impact of depression on the quality of life of rectal cancer survivors. Methods: The research data were based on a quality of life survey conducted in 2010-2011 among long-term survivors (≥ 5 years post-diagnosis) of rectal cancer. Participants were identified through the Kaiser Permanente (KP) health systems in Northern California and Southwest Washington/Oregon. Data included both the 2010/2011 survey data and KP electronic medical records (EMRs). Results: 1) The 24.7% prevalence of self-reported current depression among long-term rectal survivors was observed with a higher prevalence of 31% among those with permanent ostomies. Although average perceived financial burden level was low in this population of insured cancer survivors, 20% still reported moderate-to-high burden. Perceived financial burden was especially high among those who recalled having depression immediately after surgery and reported depression at the time of survey.2) All self-reported measures showed low sensitivity varying from 26% to 56% and high specificity from 77% to 82.7% against either diagnostic scheme from EMRs. Using either diagnostic scheme, the MCS-12 measure, a Mental Composite Summary (MCS) score from the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey with a cut-off point of≤45.6 for a self-reported depression, performed better as compared to the other two self-reported measures. 3) Approximately one in six rectal cancer survivors experienced depression after their surgery of sufficient severity to result in a depression diagnosis. Among survivors with recurrent depression diagnoses, those with a permanent ostomy reported significantly lower psychological well-being than those with an anastomosis. Conclusions: Depression burden is elevated after receiving surgery and remains a problem long after cancer diagnosis and treatment. Types of rectal cancer surgery received and gender of survivors may complicate the extent of depression burden. Among long-term rectal cancer survivors, having depression is associated with higher perceived financial burden. Chronic or recurrent course of depression may exist in this group of rectal cancer survivors and has significant impact on long-term psychological well-being. Self-reported measures for depression, such as MCS-12 measure with a cutoff point≤45.6, have the potential to be utilized for epidemiological studies when common screening instruments, electronic medical records, or administrative databases are not available. Implications: These findings underline the significance of depression assessments after surgery for this population of rectal cancer survivors and the importance of symptoms monitoring throughout the cancer survivorship continuum. Depressive symptoms should be monitored and managed as early as after cancer diagnosis and surgery to optimize survivors' long-term emotional well-being. In addition, depression screening and treatment as well as discussion of financial issues may have important roles in long-term survivorship care planning, particularly for those with permanent ostomies.

Differences in cropping practices, including tillage, inputs and crop rotations are the driving factors affecting weed dynamics (weed abundance, composition and crop-weed competition), which can ultimately affect crop yields. Several experiments were carried out to assess the impact of long-term organic and conventional cropping systems on weed abundance, weed community composition, crop yield and yield loss using a long-term (18 year) alternative cropping systems study (ACS) at Scott, Saskatchewan, Canada. The ACS study consisted of three input systems, namely high (conventional tillage), reduced (no-till conventional) and organic input systems and three crop rotation diversities (low diversity, diversified annual grains and diversified annual-perennials). A statistical analysis of the 18-year rotation revealed that the organic rotations have four and seven times higher weed density and 32% and 35% lower crop yields than the reduced and the high input systems respectively. Weed community composition was consistently different in organic rotations compared to the two conventional rotations throughout the years, but year to year random variations were more profound. All cropping systems showed an increase in weed density, weed biomass and crop yields over time, probably due to an increase in rainfall over time. Increasing the crop rotation diversity with annual and perennial crops did not reduce weeds, but decreased crop yields in all systems. A two-year micro-plot experiment with four additional weed competition treatments on the ACS study revealed that the wheat yields were lower in the organic rotations even in the absence of weeds, implying that lower crop yields were due to soil fertility related factors. A greenhouse pot experiment from soils obtained from both organic and reduced rotations revealed that wheat yields were still lower in organic compared to the reduced input systems, even after excess mineral N and P were added. Furthermore, no differences in crop yield loss due to weed competition among cropping systems were identified. Overall, this study revealed that eliminating tillage and reducing inputs are possible without long-term changes in weed abundance, weed community composition or affecting crop yields. However, eliminating synthetic inputs as was done in the form of organic crop rotations resulted in increased weed abundance, changed community composition and decreased crop yields.

Sick leave due to mental illness has increased dramatically in recent decades and is today one of the main reasons why individuals become long-term sick. Social workers job situation within social service has in recent years attracted an increasing attention and the debate has largely been about the high workload in the profession. Mental illness for social workers is a growing problem and there are no signs of a positive trend shift. The purpose of this study was to create a wider understanding of why social workers are prevented to work due to mental illness, goes on medical leave, and find out if it is possible to identify which common factors in these social workers stories. To answer the study's purpose, two issues have been considered. Partly which factors long-term sick social workers identified as the reason for their mental illness that led to long-term illness, and how the long-term sick social workers describe their individual experiences before, during and after their sick leave. The methodology has been a qualitative design where eight long-term sick social workers scattered around the country conducted interviews via e-mail through a semi-structured interview guide. The result will be divided and presented in three themes; Social workers practical work which concerns the social workers descriptions of their work place in the social services and the factors of the organization that has affected their work situation. It also presents the social workers perception of the impact of political decisions concerning the field of social work. The theme of social workers profession presents the results that have emerged and concerns how social workers perceive and identify their professional role. The third theme of individual experiences by social workers presents the results concerning the personal reflections that social workers have about themselves and their future role as a professional social worker. The study results show that job related factors largely affected the individual's mental health. It is clear that the structures upon an organisational level, the complexity of the professional role contra individual ideals have affected and led to the social workers present situation of long-term sick due to mental illness. The concluding section of this paper discusses several components with potential for development as possible contributing solutions to the problematic situation that made these social workers sick. Social work education, leadership and skills development are areas that are challenged in our discussion. / Sjukskrivning på grund av psykisk ohälsa har ökat drastiskt de senaste decennierna och är idag en av de främsta anledningarna till varför individer blir långtidssjukskrivna. Socialsekreterares arbetssituation har under de senaste åren uppmärksammats allt mer och debatten har till stor del kommit att handla om den höga arbetsbelastningen inom yrket. Psykisk ohälsa för socialsekreterare är ett växande problem och trenden tycks vara svår att bryta. Syftet med den här studien har varit att skapa en ökad förståelse kring varför socialsekreterare blivit sjukskrivna på grund av psykisk ohälsa samt ta reda på om det går att urskilja gemensamma faktorer i socialsekreterarnas berättelser. För att besvara studiens syfte har två frågeställningar varit aktuella. Dels vilka faktorer som sjukskrivna socialsekreterare identifierat föranlett deras psykiska ohälsa som lett till långtidssjukskrivning och dels hur långtidssjukskrivna socialsekreterare beskriver sina individuella upplevelser innan, under och efter sin sjukskrivning. Metodvalet har varit av kvalitativ design där åtta långtidssjukskrivna socialsekreterare spridda över hela landet genomförde intervjuer via mail genom en semistrukturerad intervjuguide. Resultatet delas upp och presenteras i tre teman; socialsekreterarens arbete som berör socialsekreterarnas beskrivning sin arbetsplats på socialtjänsten och de faktorer i organisationen som påverkat deras arbetssituation. Här presenteras även socialsekreterarnas bild av hur de ser på socialpolitikens påverkan av deras arbete. I temat socialsekreterarens yrkesroll presenteras de resultat som berör hur socialsekreterarna upplever och identifierar sin yrkesroll. I det tredje temat socialsekreterarens individuella upplevelser presenteras de resultat som berör de personliga reflektioner som socialsekreterarna har kring sig själva och sin framtida roll som yrkesverksam socialsekreterare. Studiens resultat visar att faktorer på arbetsplatsen i stor utsträckning påverkat individens psykiska ohälsa. Det framgår tydligt att organisatoriska strukturer, yrkesrollens komplexitet och individuella ideal har påverkat och föranlett att socialsekreterarna blivit långtidssjukskrivna på grund av psykisk ohälsa. I uppsatsens avslutande del diskuteras flera komponenter med utvecklingspotential som möjliga bidragande lösningar på den problematiska situationen som gjort dessa socialsekreterare sjuka. Socionomutbildningen, ledarskap och kompetensutveckling är områden som utmanas i vår diskussion.

The present study aimed to examine the relationship between national culture and organizational innovation, sustainable leadership (SL), and leaders’ consideration of future consequences (CFC), based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. An online survey was developed and sent out to employees of private organizations located in Greece and Sweden. Analysis of the data collected from 133 participants indicated that: (a) national culture is marginally significantly associated to perceived workplace innovation; (b) national culture is not significantly related to SL based on employees’ perceptions; and (c) national culture is not significantly related to perceived leaders’ CFC. Contrary to previous research that examined the culture-innovation relationship on a national level, the results of this study suggest that national culture is not strongly related to organizational level innovation, although it is significantly related to two of its examined dimensions: creativity and lack of organizational impediments. Moreover, the results indicated that SL and leaders’CFC are not significantly related to national culture, although four of the dimensions of SL varied significantly between the two examined countries. Practical implications, limitations of the study and future suggestions are discussed.