This thesis contributes in several ways to the existing knowledge on estimation of truncated, censored, and left truncated right censored (LTRC) regression models. Three new semiparametric estimators are proposed, allowing for asymmetric error distributions. A bootstrap method for estimation of the covariance matrix of the quadratic mode estimator (QME) is proposed and studied. In addition, finite sample properties of estimators for truncated, censored, and LTRC data are studied within simulation studies and applications with real data. The first paper consists of a simulation study of the QME and other estimators of truncated regression models. The paper contributes with results suggesting the bootstrap technique being potentially useful for estimation of the QME covariance matrix. In the second paper estimators of truncated and censored semiparametric regression models are proposed. These estimators are generalizations of the QME and the winsorized mean estimator (WME) by allowing asymmetric ``trimming'' of observations. Consistency and asymptotic normality of the estimators are shown. By combining the two moment restrictions used to derive the estimators in the second paper, a consistent estimator of LTRC regression models is proposed in the third paper. The fourth paper contains an application where LTRC interpurchase intervals of cars are analysed. Results regarding the interpurchase behaviour of consumers are provided, as are results on estimator properties.

THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE YOUNG ADULTS EXPERIENCE´ OF RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT. THE STUDY WAS QUALITATIVE, BASED ON INTERVIEWS WITH FIVE RESPONDENTS WHO HAD STAYED AT A TREATMENT HOME FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME. THE FOCUS WAS ON THE RESPONDENTS´ EXPERIENCES OF MILIEU THERAPY AND THEIR VIEW ON NORMALITY. THE RESULTS WERE ANALYZED FROM EARLIER RESEARCH, THEORIES FROM SYMBOLIC-INTERACTIONISM AND ANTONOVSKYS´ THEORY ABOUT SENSE OF COHERENCE. THE RESULTS SHOWED THAT THE RESPONDENTS HAD TO EXAGGERATE THEIR DYSFUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOUR IN ORDER TO FIT AMONG THE OTHER RESIDENTS. THE GROUP OF RESIDENTS HAD A MAJOR IMPACT ON THE RESPONDENTS´ EXPERIENCE OF THE STAY. THEY ALSO EXPERIENCED THAT SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS WERE CONTAGIOUS WITHIN THE GROUP. AFTER THE TREATMENT THE RESPONDENTS FELT MORE SECURE IN THEMSELVES AND HAD A BETTER CONNECTION WITH THEIR FAMILIES. NORMALIZATION THROUGH EDUCATION SEEMS TO HAVE TAKEN PLACE SINCE ALL THE RESPONDENTS EXCEPT ONE ARE INVOLVED IN AN EDUCATION-PROGRAM NOW.

The comprehensive aim of the dissertation is to examine how ideas about mental hygiene have been elaborated and debated within the context of Swedish welfare. The dissertation is a compilation of four articles where issues of mental hygiene are examined in detail through an analysis of texts. In addition, a theoretical and methodological framework and a discussion of the concepts of mental health and normality are asserted to the dissertation. The subjects of research are (1) the launching of the movement in USA in the early twentieth, and the autobiographical narrative "A Mind That Found Itself" (Beers 1908), (2) the conception and the evolution of the movement in Sweden, (3) the psychosocial training within the education of social workers between the years 1939 –1989, and (4) the debate about the Mental health Campaign in 1969. The issues of mental hygiene and mental health discussed in the articles are elaborated in relation to the academic disciplines of Sociology of Health and Illness and the History of Public Health. The theoretical approach of these disciplines proceeds from a post-structural and social constructivist perspective of knowledge and language, a perspective also used in the interpretation of the textual materials. The section where the research methods are presented, consists of a description of how the textual materials have been selected and treated in relation to the theoretical and methodological standpoints. The outcome of the investigation of the autobiographical book "A Mind That Found Itself" (Beers 1908) in relation to the launching of the movement in the USA, is that the monomyth-character of the story supported an image of victory and hope, important for the movements aims to improve the reputation of psychiatry. Concerning the launching of the mental hygiene movement in Sweden two important conditions stands out as the course behind the rather hesitant start: the dominant position of custodial care and the antagonistic attitude towards psychoanalytical theories. The study of the psychosocial training of social workers showed how the skills of the clinical gaze were taught to the students by the technique of case-writing. The study of the Mental Health campaign in 1969 showed important divergences concerning the opinions of normality. Since the individual anatomy in the welfare system in Sweden is organised through the individuals position within the labour market, the issues of mental health and allied opinions of normality also contained the risks of exclusion. In conclusion, a comprehensive reflection concerning the results of the studies, is that the concept of mental hygiene, due to the mix of psychiatric and social knowledge, mediated shifting ideas about normality. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished and had s status as follows: Papar nr. 1: Manuscript; Paper nr. 3 Accepted Manuscript; Paper nr. 4: Manuscript.</p>

The purpose of this study was to examine what previous research says about children’s experiences living in a low-income family. Its aim was to found out what children themselves say about their life living in a low-income family and what consequences, practical and emotional, low-income environment has on children. More specifically our aim was to find out how children themselves experienced their situation compared with their peer’s economical situation. We also wanted to see if there were any differences between what younger and older children say about their situation. Furthermore, we wanted to find out what meaning they added to “normality” and how they related to that phenomenon. The study was based on reviews of nine qualitative studies from Sweden, England, North Ireland and USA – all published between 1998 and 2011, focusing on children and their experiences of poverty. Five themes were identified that seemed to be important for children’s experiences: life circumstances, relationships, children as actors, school and future. The analysis was based on perspective of normality, focusing how impoverished life circumstances put children in a category which deviates from majority of society. Main results demonstrate that there are big differences in how younger and older children experience their situation where older children showed more discontent and the younger children seemed more satisfied about their situation. Overall the children appear as actors which have not given up hope to change and impact their situation – there was a major will to fit in and be like other peers. As a positive aspect the study shows that relationships seemed very important for these children where friends seemed to be a good support and the family ties were strong.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka vilket synsätt som råder bland lärare i de lägre årskurserna gällande begreppet bedömning. Studiens metodologiska - och teoretiska utgångspunkter grundar sig i Foucaultiansk teoribildning. Empirin har samlats in genom två stycken fokusgruppintervjuer och materialet har analyserats med utgångspunkt i begrepp som governmentality och disciplinär makt. Resultatet visar att lärarna använder sig av flera styrtekniker som inryms av en dold maktutövning, vars primära mål är att forma och styra subjektet. / The purpose of this study is to describe and discuss the function of assessment in primary school. The methodological and the theoretical foundation take its point of departure in theories formulated by Michel Foucault. The empirical data is collected through two focus group interviews and the material is analyzed through the concepts of governmentality and power formations. The results show that teachers use multiple control techniques which are governed by a hidden exercise of power, with the primary aim to shape and control the subject.

This dissertation includes two parts. Part 1 develops a geostatistical method to calibrate Texas NexRad rainfall estimates using rain gauge measurements. Part 2 explores the asymptotic joint distribution of sample space-time covariance estimators. The following two paragraphs briefly summarize these two parts, respectively. Rainfall is one of the most important hydrologic model inputs and is considered a random process in time and space. Rain gauges generally provide good quality data; however, they are usually too sparse to capture the spatial variability. Radar estimates provide a better spatial representation of rainfall patterns, but they are subject to substantial biases. Our calibration of radar estimates, using gauge data, takes season, rainfall type and rainfall amount into account, and is accomplished via a combination of threshold estimation, bias reduction, regression techniques and geostatistical procedures. We explore a varying-coefficient model to adapt to the temporal variability of rainfall. The methods are illustrated using Texas rainfall data in 2003, which includes WAR-88D radar-reflectivity data and the corresponding rain gauge measurements. Simulation experiments are carried out to evaluate the accuracy of our methodology. The superiority of the proposed method lies in estimating total rainfall as well as point rainfall amount. We study the asymptotic joint distribution of sample space-time covariance esti-mators of stationary random fields. We do this without any marginal or joint distri-butional assumptions other than mild moment and mixing conditions. We consider several situations depending on whether the observations are regularly or irregularly spaced, and whether one part or the whole domain of interest is fixed or increasing. A simulation experiment illustrates the asymptotic joint normality and the asymp- totic covariance matrix of sample space-time covariance estimators as derived. An extension of this part develops a nonparametric test for full symmetry, separability, Taylor's hypothesis and isotropy of space-time covariances.

For statistical estimation of population parameters, Fisher&rsquo / s maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) are commonly used. They are consistent, unbiased and efficient, at any rate for large n. In most situations, however, MLEs are elusive because of computational difficulties. To alleviate these difficulties, Tiku&rsquo / s modified maximum likelihood estimators (MMLEs) are used. They are explicit functions of sample observations and easy to compute. They are asymptotically equivalent to MLEs and, for small n, are equally efficient. Moreover, MLEs and MMLEs are numerically very close to one another. For calculating MLEs and MMLEs, the functional form of the underlying distribution has to be known. For machine data processing, however, such is not the case. Instead, what is reasonable to assume for machine data processing is that the underlying distribution is a member of a broad class of distributions. Huber assumed that the underlying distribution is long-tailed symmetric and developed the so called M-estimators. It is very desirable for an estimator to be robust and have bounded influence function. M-estimators, however, implicitly censor certain sample observations which most practitioners do not appreciate. Tiku and Surucu suggested a modification to Tiku&rsquo / s MMLEs. The new MMLEs are robust and have bounded influence functions. In fact, these new estimators are overall more efficient than M-estimators for long-tailed symmetric distributions. In this thesis, we have proposed a new modification to MMLEs. The resulting estimators are robust and have bounded influence functions. We have also shown that they can be used not only for long-tailed symmetric distributions but for skew distributions as well. We have used the proposed modification in the context of experimental design and linear regression. We have shown that the resulting estimators and the hypothesis testing procedures based on them are indeed superior to earlier such estimators and tests.

<p>Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ intervjustudie om föräldrars erfarenheter av en vardag tillsammans med ett barn som har Downs syndrom, i synnerhet när det gäller barnets ungdomstid. Den insamlade empirin har tolkats med hjälp av Beckers (2006) teori om avvikelse, Goffmans (2001) teori om stigma samt Goffmans (2009) teori om interaktion i det vardagliga sociala livet. Föräldern ingår i ett allmänt system av normalitet, såsom övriga samhällsmedlemmar. Studiens fokus ligger på förälderns agerande utefter detta i förhållande till den situation som barnets funktionsnedsättning för med sig. Downs syndrom medför en utvecklingsstörning, vilket innebär att barnets kroppsliga och mentala utveckling inte alltid är i fas med varandra. En följd av detta är att småbarns- och ungdomstiden förlängs, vilket föräldrarna i vår studie upplever som en svårighet. Svårigheten ligger bland annat i att barnets självständighetsutveckling skiljer sig från det som i allmänhet anses vara normalt och därmed skiljer sig även förälderns roll i denna utveckling. Studien visar att föreställningar om normalitet ständigt är närvarande i föräldrarnas berättelser.</p> / <p>We have made a qualitative interview study about parents' experiences of every day life with a child who has Down syndrome, particularly with regard to the child's youth. The empirical data collected has been interpreted using Becker's (2006) theory of deviance, Goffman's (2001) theory of stigma and Goffman's (2009) theory of interaction in everyday social life. The parent are included in a general system of normality, just as any other member of society. The focus of the study is parent's acting in relation to normality and to the situation that the child's disability causes. Down syndrome results in a development disorder, which means that child's physical and mental development not always is in phase with each other. This causes an extension of the childhood and youth, which the parents in our study perceive as difficult. The difficulty lies among other things in that the child's development of independence differs from what is generally considered to be normal and that the parent's role in this development consequently also differs. The study shows that ideas of normality are constantly present in the parents' narratives. </p>

ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is a phenomena that is much talked about in both schools and in communities. Today, there is a conflict surrounding the diagnosis ADHD. A part of the conflict takes part between the sociologist Eva Kärfve and Christopher Gillberg, professor in child- and teenage psychology. The roots of this conflict surrounds the much debated line of what is seen as normal and “too” different, basically how many children that actually should have the diagnosis. The purpose with this study is to show five different views of the diagnosis ADHD, using five teachers. To make this study possible, five informants have participated and shared their view on the diagnosis ADHD as well as their experience with the diagnosis. The informants work at a school in the municipality of Huddinge. The school has students from the 6th to the 9th grade, one preparation class, on special school class and one study group for students with concentration difficulties. The study is based on a method of study which focuses on interpretation of the empirical material. The result of this study is that the informants were of the opinion that medication was a big advantage with the diagnosis, so that the students could work in a school environment. Though there were separate opinions on whether or not the medication should be used and to what degree. The result was that certain informants thought that there were many tricks in the physical environment that could be useful, before adding medication to the equation. The informants thought that one big disadvantage with the diagnosis were that the students were very careful with not sharing the information about the diagnosis to other students. The informants believe that students with the diagnosis ADHD could get some form of “label” on them from their classmates and the teachers.   Keywords: ADHD, medication, diagnosis, normality, stigma, individualization Nyckelord: ADHD, medicinering, diagnos, normalitet, stigmatisering, individualisering

The purpose of this essay is to examine the construction of the norm-breaking characters Saga from the young adult novel Tusen gånger starkare written by Christina Herrström and Pippi Longstocking from the books written by Astrid Lindgren. In order to do this I have applied queer theory as well as theories of narrative in my analysis. To be able to study the breaking of norms, it has been essential to first examine the way the norm itself is manifested in the books. Because of this I have chosen to begin my analysis with an examination of two other characters who by their normative behavior contrasts against Pippi and Saga, namely Signe and Annika. The understanding of the normative discourse that Signe and Annika represent is crucial in understanding the way Saga and Pippi later turn against it. After that I examine in which ways Saga and Pippi breaks prevalent norms and how they as characters are constructed as being different. Subsequently I study the effects of Saga’s and Pippi’s norm-breaking, taking focus on how it influences Signe and Annika. Finally I discuss the view of Saga and Pippi as subversive characters, and however the books can be said to have a subversive effect. Even though the norms are revealed as arbitrary through Saga’s and Pippi’s behavior, the books about Pippi as well as Tusen gånger starkare send out a clear message about what the expectations of normative behavior look like.