The current trend towards large-scale research projects with big quantities of data from multiple sources require robust and efficient data handling. This thesis explores techniques for automatizing research data pipelines. Specifically, two tasks related to automation within a long-term research project in cognitive neuroscience are addressed. The first task is to develop a tool for automatic transcribing of paper-based questionnaires using computer vision. Questionnaires containing continuous scales, so called visual analog scales (VASs), are used extensively in e.g. psychology. Despite this, there currently exists no tool for automatic decoding of these types of questionnaires. The resulting computer vision system for automatic questionnaire transcribing we present, called "VASReader", reliably detects VAS marks with an accuracy of 98%, and predicts their position with a mean absolute error of 0.3 mm when compared to manual measurements. The second task addressed in this thesis project is to investigate whether machine learning can be used to detect anomalies in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. An implementation of the unsupervised anomaly detection technique Isolation Forest shows promising results for the detection of anomalous data points. The model is trained on image quality metric (IQM) data extracted from MRI. However, it is concluded that the site of scanning and MRI machine model used affect the IQMs, and that the model is more prone to classify data points originating from machines and institutions that have less support in the database as anomalous. An important conclusion from both tasks is that automation is possible and can be a great asset to researchers, if an appropriate level and type of automation is selected.

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Using questionnaire survey generated data from a single school district, this study investigated the effects of family factors, peer factors, school problem behaviors, and psychosocial factors on adolescents' use of or abstinence from alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Following a review of literature, a theoretical framework incorporating family socialization theory was use to operationalize variables, develop indices, and generate hypotheses to be tested, as well as develop a general model of adolescent alcohol and other drug use and abstinence, incorporating the predictor variables. Using SPSSx procedures, factor analysis was used to develop the indices; the hypotheses were tested using Oneway Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and F-ratio tests associated with regression analysis. The path analysis models were developed using multiple regression analysis and bivariate decomposition tables. For both junior high school students and high school students, users of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs were found to score higher on the Family Factors index, the Peer Factors index, School Problems index, and the Psychosocial Factors index. The model differed between alcohol and marijuana users, defining the conditions under which an adolescent is more likely to use or abstain from marijuana. While both family and peer factors effected the adolescents' choices of use or abstinence, the strongest predictor of use/abstinence was the peer use and attitudes factor. Family factors tended to be stronger in the younger age/grade levels than in the higher age/grade levels, as predicted from the theoretical framework.

In the new Library Act of 2014, it is stated that public library supply should be characterized by quality. To investigate what this means for the library, I do a functional analysis of ideas of librarians' views on quality and how they work with purchasing, weeding and mediation. I have chosen to limit the essay to fiction for adults in Swedish public libraries. By combining the basal idea analysis, where I investigate librarians' ideas about quality, with an operational analysis of ideas, where I examine the effects librarians' quality ideas get for the daily work, Iwant to find out the librarians' quality ideals. The material I analyze consists of 18 questionnaires, filled out by librarians with responsibility for purchasing and / or thinning in libraries across Sweden. The analysis is done with an analytical schedule, that consists of a number of opposing ideal types taken from previous research on quality, purchasing, thinning or mediation. In this way I want to show how librarians quality idea and practical work relate to previous quality ideas and ways of working. The result shows two in many ways opposing ideas of quality: craftsmanship, where quality sits in the work's aesthetic, and impact on the reader, where quality arrisis in the meeting with the reader. Put in context, idea number one can be seen in quality definitions where quality is seen as relatively objective, where experts best can judge a work's quality. The second quality idea is often associated with a user-defined and subjective quality. One can also see how it is a special kind of impact, development, that is associated with quality. If we look instead at the operational analysis we can see how librarians, especially in the work of purchasing, promote the popular, both in terms of authors, titles and genres. The librarians purchase a lot on demand and use circulation figures to see what needs to be purchased: that which it lent much. Popularity rather than quality is what decides what should be purchased, except for literature of very low quality that is not bought at all. Also in weeding circulation figures is used; even though literature of very high quality is moved to the magazine instead of beeing weeded. Regarding the mediation of literature, librarians to some extent try to lead their users toward literature of higher quality, but they are careful not to judge neither reader or literature. When giving advice on literature, it is from one reader to another. It is important that the readers themselves choose what and how they want to read. User influence is what steer the work of purchase, weeding and mediation. The librarians quality ideas only to a very limited extent influence the librarians practical work, why I believe that it is impossible to speak of a quality ideal. Instead I want to describe the librarians' way of thinking about the library's literature as a value ideal. Furthermore, I would call the librarians value ideal a customer-driven value ideal, where the user is seen as an enlightened and well-informed customer with both the right and the knowledge to determine what the library should purchase and prioritize. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

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Peu d'instruments évaluent les variables cognitives sous jacentes à l'Anxiété face à la Santé (AS) ou à l'Hypocondrie. Si des instruments mesurent la tendance à l'amplification sensorielle et la conviction d'être atteint d'une maladie, aucun questionnaire n'a réussi à déceler spécifiquement les croyances générales face à la santé ou les croyances associées aux inquiétudes face à la maladie. Ces deux variables cognitives peuvent maintenir les symptômes hypocondriaques. La présente recherche a pour but d'élaborer et de valider deux questionnaires: le Questionnaire des Croyances Reliées à la Santé (QCRS) et le questionnaire Pourquoi S'Inquiéter face à la Santé (PSI-S). L'étude 1 vise à épurer les items des deux questionnaires en éliminant ceux qui sont non pertinents et la seconde étude détermine leurs qualités psychométriques. Les versions finales du QCRS et du PSI-S possèdent 19 et 13 items respectivement. Leurs indices de validité et de fidélité s'avèrent excellents. Le QCRS possède cinq composantes: (1) responsabilité, (2) santé, (3) conséquences, (4) pensée magique et (5) vulnérabilité; le PSI-S en contient deux: (1) utilité et (2) pensée magique.

En salle de réanimation à l'urgence, la documentation des différents événements est un véritable défi pour les infirmières. Pour pallier à cette difficulté, une équipe formée de médecins et d'infirmières a développé un outil informatique muni d'un écran tactile permettant la saisie systématique de l'information essentielle en salle de réanimation. Cette étude a pour objectif de développer un questionnaire valide à partir de la Théorie du comportement planifié d'Ajzen (TCP) afin d'identifier les facteurs qui influencent l'intention des infirmières d'utiliser la plateforme informatisée. Un questionnaire a été remis à 70 infirmières travaillant dans un hôpital de la ville de Québec. L'intention d'utiliser la plateforme informatisée était élevée parmi les participants. Une régression logistique a démontré que la norme professionnelle était le principal facteur influençant l'intention des infirmières. Des interventions devraient donc être dirigées afin de mettre l'emphase sur le professionnalisme lié à l'utilisation de cette nouvelle technologie par les infirmières.

No / Patient-reported outcome measurement has become accepted as an important component of comprehensive outcomes research. Researchers wishing to use a patient-reported measure must either develop their own questionnaire (called an instrument in the research literature) or choose from the myriad of instruments previously reported. This article summarizes how previously developed instruments are best assessed using a systematic process and we propose a system of quality assessment so that clinicians and researchers can determine whether there exists an appropriately developed and validated instrument that matches their particular needs. These quality assessment criteria may also be useful to guide new instrument development and refinement. We welcome debate over the appropriateness of these criteria as this will lead to the evolution of better quality assessment criteria and in turn better assessment of patient-reported outcomes.

This study focuses on the teaching of RE in Zambian multireligious secondary schools. The problem faced in secondary schools is that currently RE is being taught with a single religious approach by the RE teachers instead of using a multireligious perspective as directed by the Ministry of Education (MoE). The aim of this study, therefore, was to find out why RE teachers tend to be reluctant to respond to the MoE directive in applying a multireligious approach to the subject. In order to achieve this aim, an empirical investigation was necessary. A quantitative and qualitative survey through self-administered questionnaires and in-depth interviews were undertaken by the 194 teachers teaching RE in selected secondary schools in the Copperbelt Province. The research reveals that the RE teachers' reluctance to respond to the Ministry's directive is a result of their different perceptions which are mostly influenced by their religious affiliations and the syllabuses they use. For example, the majority of the RE teachers involved in the teaching of RE in secondary schools are Christians, therefore, they are reluctant to teach RE that also includes non-Christian religions because they feel it would compromise their consciences and their own faiths. As a result, they prefer to teach the subject from a Christian standpoint. This approach differs from the MoE directive to teach RE from a multireligious perspective. In the light of the different perceptions concerning the problem of teaching RE in Zambian multireligious secondary schools, the following recommendations have been made: (i) Since the Zambian secondary schools have become multireligious, RE teaching should take a multireligious perspective if it is to be relevant to the needs of pupils of diverse religious backgrounds; (ii) The current RE syllabuses (2044 and 2046) require a critical evaluation and revision in order to ensure that they adapt to a multireligious tradition. Finally, the results of this study concludes that the teaching of RE should be firmly placed in an educational context by making no assumptions or preconditions from the personal commitment of RE teachers. The role of RE teachers is that of educators. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Didactics)