Background: Social exclusion of people with vision impairments is an ongoing issue. Since social inclusion emphasizes social and emotional aspects as distinct from academic ones and the aspects concerning opportunities, the focus is turned on the domain of social interactions and friendships. Adolescence is the time point when youth feels mostly the need to ‘fit in’ in social circles and groups and the social life and friendships are important aspects of young people’s well-being and development. Aim: The aim of this study is to review the existing literature on the social interactions and friendships of adolescents with visual impairments from their own perspective and investigate the interventions designed to improve their social interactions and friendships. Method: A literature search on the databases of ERIC, CINAHL and PsycINFO and a hand search on the reference lists of the relevant articles was conducted. The search was limited to recent peer reviewed studies published in English, reporting perspectives of adolescents (13-18 years old) with visual impairments on their social interactions and friendships and intervention studies aimed to support them in the aforementioned domain. Results: In the 18 included studies, adolescents with vision impairments engaged more in passive activities that were not highly interactive. They reported being satisfied with their networks and friends, however contradictions existed in the perceived quality of friendships and the feeling of loneliness. The context of school was presented often as problematic compared to other contexts, and friendships in schools were rare. According to adolescents’ voices, friendships helped to cope with the impairment, friends had a meaningful role in their life and they made school life more enjoyable. In comparison to their sighted peers, adolescents with vision impairments had smaller networks and less friends with whom they had different type of relationships. Lastly even though several barriers and facilitators were identified, which belong to domains of Body functions and structures and Physical, Attitudinal and Social environment, there was a lack of interventions aiming to support the social interactions and friendships of adolescents with vision impairments. Conclusions: Considering the importance of social interactions and friendships in adolescents’ life for them to learn, develop and enjoy, more interventions with social focus need to be designed in respect to the challenges that exist. A plethora of barriers and facilitators impacting the social interactions and friendships of adolescents with vision impairments were identified that need to be taken into consideration for future research and interventions since the existing literature provided so far is limited. Adolescents need to be engaged in this process so that their interests, preferences and their views are prioritized.

This thesis considers the environmental, economic, social, and cultural effects of increasing shipping activities around Sirmilik National Park of Canada, in order to develop possible scoping questions for future environmental assessments. Using a qualitative approach, 25 semi-structured interviews, two focus groups, observation, and field notes were used to collect data which are then analyzed for linkages between valued environmental and social components and the potential effects from shipping and associated activities. The most prominent concern that emerged regarded the potential impacts to migrating and breeding narwhal in the area. Many respondents also discussed economic and social issues because they perceive increasing shipping as a signal of economic growth. In total, 124 scoping questions were developed in 17 direct environmental impact areas identified by participants, as well as 53 scoping questions relating to cumulative effects and strategic issues. The thesis concludes with some broader management implications that flow from the analysis.

This thesis considers the environmental, economic, social, and cultural effects of increasing shipping activities around Sirmilik National Park of Canada, in order to develop possible scoping questions for future environmental assessments. Using a qualitative approach, 25 semi-structured interviews, two focus groups, observation, and field notes were used to collect data which are then analyzed for linkages between valued environmental and social components and the potential effects from shipping and associated activities. The most prominent concern that emerged regarded the potential impacts to migrating and breeding narwhal in the area. Many respondents also discussed economic and social issues because they perceive increasing shipping as a signal of economic growth. In total, 124 scoping questions were developed in 17 direct environmental impact areas identified by participants, as well as 53 scoping questions relating to cumulative effects and strategic issues. The thesis concludes with some broader management implications that flow from the analysis.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T16:01:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo8976_1.pdf: 2350079 bytes, checksum: 1eef40b33c036ecc8b5b613b08bff0a7 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Engenharia de Linhas de Produto de Software (ELPS) emergiu rapidamente como uma importante abordagem de desenvolvimento de software durantes os últimos anos. ELPS foca-se na identificação e gerenciamento dos pontos em comum (commonalities) e dos pontos de variação (variabilities) de um conjunto de produtos de software, de forma que artefatos (core assets) possam ser desenvolvidos e (re)usados para construir diferentes produtos com custo reduzido. Além disso, melhoria de produtividade, aumento de qualidade e redução do tempo de entrega dos produtos são alguns dos benefícios proporcionados pela abordagem. Neste contexto, o processo de escopo em linhas de produto de software é responsável pela definição da viabilidade a longo prazo da linha de produtos. Seu principal objetivo é identificar e delimitar produtos, funcionalidades, subdomínios e artefatos (componentes, documentos, etc.) existentes da linha de produtos, onde o investimento em reuso trará benefícios econômicos para a empresa. Normalmente, engenheiros de linha de produtos definem o escopo com informações extraídas da documentação de produtos existentes e baseados no conhecimento de especialistas de domínio. Esta é uma tarefa que demanda muito esforço, pois muito tempo é investido na realização de workshops e entrevistas com os especialistas de domínio. Além disso, frequentemente, os especialistas de domínio não tem tempo disponível para compartilhar o conhecimento deles e a documentação dos produtos existentes é inexistente ou está desatualizada. Assim, a fim de reduzir custos e tempo para a realização do processo de escopo, esta dissertação propõe uma abordagem para auxiliar o processo de escopo baseada no código fonte dos produtos já existentes na empresa. Além disso, são apresentados os requisitos, projeto e implementação de uma ferramenta com o objetivo de guiar os analistas de escopo na identificação de similaridades e variações no código fonte dos sistemas legados. Finalmente, esta dissertação também descreve um estudo empírico que foi utilizado para a elicitação de requisitos e um experimento que foi conduzido para avaliar a viabilidade da ferramenta proposta neste trabalho

Context. Flexibility in requirements management allows organizations to react quickly to changes in market demand. Organizations rely primarily on different documents to track projects, which are inefficient at maintaining traceability between requirements and other development artifacts. Finding a model to structure change impact analysis and change propagation is needed. Objectives. First, this thesis studies the current practice for enabling flexibility of scoping decisions. Second it evaluates the identified flexibility enablers – requirements centralization, requirements abstraction, and requirements grouping – in an industry context. The current practice is then contrasted with these flexibility enablers. Methods. To understand current practice, a case study was performed in industry. Data collection relied on interviews and document and repository observations, and grounded theory was used to analyze it. A solution containing the flexibility enablers was developed and evaluated at the organization where feedback on the tool was received. Results. The practitioners followed a strategy to handle changes in requirements where the impact analysis and decision making process were the most critical. Several challenges were identified which hindered flexibility for scoping decision. As a consequence, the studied project suffered from delay and budget overrun. The three presented enablers supported flexibility in decision making. The flexibility enablers facilitated decision making by providing a single, linked, consistent, and versioned set of requirements of multiple abstraction levels. Traceability between requirements was maintained which allowed propagation of changes between requirements. The multiple abstraction levels allowed for targeted viewing of the requirements based on role. Grouping requirements with implementation proposals provided traceability between the requirements and the design, which further helped change propagation. Conclusions. Although the studied organization followed standard procedures such as Change Control Boards (CCB) and change impact analysis (CIA) to enabling flexible decision making, they did not adopt any of the methods provided in recent studies. Additionally, the organization still depended on documentation to capture requirements and counted on their tacit knowledge to analyze the impact of changes. This hindered flexibility for scoping decision. Traceability as a strong point of centralization was aligned with previous studies in enabling flexibility while the family feature was a concept with no previous empirical evidence. We also proved that abstraction enabled flexibility, which has not been discussed in any previous studies. Similarly, we found no empirical evidence related to requirement grouping based on implementation proposals in enabling flexibility in decision making. Although the three enablers supported flexibility for scoping decision, the practitioners still had to invest a certain amount of manual work to benefit from them, since the tool did not handle everything automatically.

Bakgrund: Att genomgå en amputation är en livsomvälvande händelse som bjuder på utmaningar både fysiskt och psykiskt för den drabbade personen inte minst efter utskrivning från sjukhus. Syfte: Syftet med den här litteraturstudien var att sammanställa tidigare kvalitativ forskning om patienters erfarenheter av rehabilitering efter amputation av nedre extremitet efter utskrivning från sjukhus. Metod: Scoping review. Resultat: Resultatet av den här studien byggde på tolv artiklar och fem huvudteman identifierades samt femton subteman. Studien visade bland annat på hur informationsbrist råder från sjukvårdspersonalen till patienten på olika nivåer och att tilliten till personalen är viktig. Bristande ekonomi minskade följsamheten till rehabiliteringen av olika anledningar, men har även en direkt korrelation till patientens överlevnad. Kostnaden för sjukvården beskrevs även som en fråga om liv och död där fri sjukvård var avgörande för socioekonomiskt utsatta grupper. Konklusion: Konklusionen belyste att partner och familj är viktiga för hur patienten tacklar själva rehabiliteringsprocessen. Därför är det viktigt att sjuksköterskan är lyhörd vid vårdövergång från sjukhus till hemmiljö eftersom vårdbördan för familjen ökar och patienten är som mest sårbar. / Background: Going through an amputation is a life-changing event followed by challenges physically and mentally for the affected person not least after discharge from hospital. Aim: The aim of this literature review was to compile previous qualitative research of patients’ experience of rehabilitation after amputation of lower extremity after discharge from hospital. Method: Scoping review. Result: Based on twelve scientific articles five main themes and fifteen subthemes were identified. This study illustrated how lack of information exists from healthcare professionals to the patient on different levels and trust towards the staff is important. Lack of financial resources reduced the adherence to rehabilitation and had a direct correlation to patient survival. The cost of medical care was described as a matter of life and death where free health care was crucial for socio-economically vulnerable groups. Conclusion: The conclusion illuminated the importance of the partner and family for how the patient deal with the rehabilitation process. It is important that the nurse is responsive when care transition occurs from hospital to home environment as the burden of care for the family increases and the patient is the most vulnerable.

This study sought to better understand program evaluation capacity and competency amongst public health nurses. Program evaluation plays a vital role in public health and is an identified core competency for public health practice (Canadian Public Health Agency). In Part One, I conducted a scoping review to systematically map the current literature on this topic and to identify important areas for future research. Twenty-three articles were selected based on pre-established exclusion and inclusion criteria and the assistance of a secondary reviewer. The articles highlighted the value of program evaluation in public health and its importance as a nursing skill amidst the evolving health care sector. Themes identified included: a broader lack of public health competencies (including program evaluation) among all public health professionals; the complexities and challenges of evaluating public health interventions; and the uncertainty of what constitutes adequate evaluation competency in public health. Furthermore, my review noted inconsistent terminology to describe a public health nurse and the need for further exploration around the specific evaluation capacity of public health nurses. In Part Two, I explored the stated or expected evaluation competencies for public health nurses through a document review of relevant Canadian public health nursing core competencies, guidelines, and standards for practice. The identification of 52 stated evaluation competencies, demonstrates the assumption that public health nurses have competency and or capacity related to program evaluation and contrasts with the themes identified in my scoping review. Furthermore, the documents I reviewed included no specific reference to the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES), however some of the included content did align with the CES Program Evaluation Standards. This study demonstrates a misalignment between the discourse in the literature reviewed related to evaluation competency amongst public health nurses and the stated or assumed evaluation competencies put forth in leading public health nursing documentation. In the absence of any standardized evaluation training and preparation for public health nurses, further exploration is needed around what these broad evaluation competencies mean in practice and how they can be objectively assessed, exhibited, and better integrated into public health nursing education and evaluation capacity building activities. These questions warrant further investigation to ensure public health interventions are properly evaluated and that public health nurses have the competencies required for effective public health practice.

Background: People who use drugs (PWUD) are disproportionately burdened by rates of HIV and Hepatitis C, more likely to experience stigma, social exclusion, and as a result, have poorer health outcomes. To mitigate these inequities in health, people with lived experience of drug use are, and should be, included in decisions that affect them. There is evidence that including PWUD in the development and delivery of harm reduction programs, services, and drug policy ensures such initiatives addresses their needs most effectively. As such, the purpose of this thesis is to present the findings of a scoping review of the peer-reviewed literature examining the involvement of people who use drugs (PWUD) in the development and delivery of harm reduction programs, services, and drug policy. Methods: Scoping reviews represent an increasingly popular method used to review the literature of a particular topic. It is a process of summarizing, or ‘mapping’, a range of evidence in order to convey the breadth and depth of a particular field. This scoping review implemented a search strategy focused on three categories: search terms that describe ‘peer engagement’, search terms that describe ‘substance use’ and finally search terms that describe ‘harm reduction programs/services/policy’. Searches of five academic electronic databases were conducted. Peer-reviewed literature published between 2010 and 2020 that discussed the involvement of PWUD in the development and/or delivery of harm reduction programs, services, or drug policy was included in the scoping review. Results: The search strategy produced a total of 1902 references. After duplicates were removed, thirty-two references met the inclusion criteria and were included for analysis. This scoping review identified five characteristics from each study: 1) type of study, 2) location of study, 3) year of publication, 4) type of engagement/participation, and 5) peer roles. Conclusion: One critical finding of this scoping review is the highest level of participation among PWUD was achieved when drug-user organizations were involved. / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to scope the literature to understand how people who use injection drug (PWIDs) experience access to hepatitis C (HCV) testing and diagnosis. The design was a scoping review methodology, guided by Arksey and O’Malley, JBI, and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A search was conducted through seven electronic databases using a peer-reviewed search strategy. Five studies were yielded through two-level screenings. The extracted data were synthesized using conventional data analysis and reported using tables and narrative summaries. Four categories were found: Awareness and Knowledge, Stigma, Healthcare Service, and Psychological Responses. The studies were conducted in Australia, UK, and US published between 2014 to 2018. A total of 19 participant characteristics were extracted to contextualize their experiences. The World Health Organization’s definition of accessibility should be defined through the guidance of the constructed truths of the individuals in the current context. The lack of demographic data and connection to client quotes further exacerbates the inequities among the population through overlooking their intragroup identities.

This thesis looks at the process of reunification for Indigenous children following a time in the care of the child welfare system. To understand what has been studied in the area of reunification of Indigenous children back to their families, a scoping review process is undertaken to gathering and mapping the available research. The initial search produced a total of 1823 abstracts. After applying an inclusion and exclusion reviewing process, the scoping review resulted in a total of 44 literature sources for this study. This study uses Cindy Blackstock’s Breath of Life Theory as the theoretical framework to understand and reimagine the process of reunification from the perspective of the child, the family, the worker, and substitute caregiver. The review found support for the idea that research and programs relating to reunification for Indigenous children needs to use Indigenous methods and ways of thinking. Five themes emerged from this review, the use of Indigenous ways of knowing, this theme is central throughout the literature and informs the other four themes: structural vs. individual assessment/intervention, trauma/reconciliation, connections/relationships, and Indigenous research. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)