Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication of pregnancy and population health studies have linked it to impaired cognitive performance in the offspring. GDM triggers inflammatory responses, which can critically affect development of neuronal circuitry. We hypothesized that GDM promotes inflammatory responses in the fetus that can disturb fine-tuning of neuronal networks during early development, resulting in lifelong impaired cognitive functions. The cognitive performance of 15 week old offspring exposed to diet induced GDM were assessed. The brain tissue of the 15 week old and neonatal (E20) offspring were analyzed by immunohistochemistry, western blot, and cytokine assay. Cultured microglial responses to elevated glucose and/or fatty acid levels mimicking GDM associated diabetic conditions were analyzed. Our data reveals chronic neuroinflammation in GDM offspring, which combined with deregulation of microglial functions may explain hippocampal CA1 layer neuronal derangement and synaptic degradation that correlates with impaired cognitive performance of GDM offspring. / October 2016

Retention in the field of adventure-based experiential learning (AEL) is a question that remained over decades. This study focuses on the challenge of evaluating the retention of the outcomes of AEL programmes over the long-term. The purpose of the study is to determine whether multiple AEL interventions will significantly increase the long-term retention of the outcomes thereof or not. Programme leaders can gain a better understanding of the roles that people play within combined teams as well as the functioning of people within such teams by studying the theories and models that relate to the field of AEL. Within the training situation a range of learning preferences can be catered for as the AEL facilitator can make use of different methods of transfer that can be changed and interchanged depending on the methods that the learners are most comfortable with. By using different activities boredom under learners is reduced and the learning takes place without the learners really realising it. AEL also helps the learner to process the learning quicker and easier, and to internalise it because the learning is linked to an experience. Different psychology and experiential learning theories and how these theories support one another in order to make learning easier for the individual, and to even use it for longer and more focussed behavioural changes, are described in this study. By making use of the existing teaching system and combining it with AEL, the learning process can be improved in terms of retention of the outcomes and the learning that took place. By combining both these educational methods the cognitive, affective, sensory and the behavioural development of the learners will take place. A strong theoretical basis can be very successfully supplemented by an AEL experience, consisting of frequent training sessions or interventions in line with the learning methods theory, which in turn will assist to internalise the theoretical learning methods theory. The study is conducted on two levels, i.e. a qualitative case study, which aims to describe the complexity and specificness of the situation as observed by the researcher, as well as a quantitative statistical analysis which aims to determine whether multiple AEL programmes significantly increase the retention of the desired outcomes or not. In terms of the qualitative case study, an AEL programme implemented over a six month period proved to have a meaningful impact on the hearing impaired learners which took part in this study and that progress made by the learners was observed easily. The hearing impaired community is a very closed-off community and strangers are not easily welcomed into the group, but despite this the learners still built a meaningful relationship with the researcher. This in itself proves that changes took place. The quantitive statistical part of the study shows that the number of programmes presented does not necessarily increase the retention, but that the quality and the length of these programmes do play a role. It also proved that the retention does not necessarily improve in terms of all the desired outcomes. The limitations of this study include the limited language proficiency of the learners, the school and group sizes that were fairly small, and the facilitation techniques and activities that did not always allow sufficiently for the learners’ hearing disability. It is recommended that a certain level of language proficiency be required of both facilitators and learners in order to be included on AEL programmes, that the programmes be presented at a venue away from the learners’ normal school environment, and that facilitation techniques and activities be found or adapted in order to sufficiently allow for the learners’ hearing disability. / Dissertation (MA (Human Movement Science))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences / MA / unrestricted

Bakgrund: Människan påverkas på ett socialt, mentalt och fysiskt plan av de förändringar åldrandet för med sig. En flytt till äldreboende kan bli aktuell när omvårdnadsbehoven blir för omfattande. Inom vården används husdjur på olika sätt. Dock finns en stor variation för hur mycket husdjur används på äldreboenden.Syfte: Syftet med litteraturstudien är att sammanställa resultat av husdjursinterventioner på personer som bor på äldreboende. Vidare är syftet att beskriva undersökningsgruppen i de inkluderade artiklarna.Metod: Föreliggande studie är en litteraturstudie som baserats på 15 kvantitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Artikelsökning har genomförts i databaserna Cinahl och PubMed.Huvudresultat: Husdjursinterventioner på äldreboenden har visat sig påverka flera faktorer så som social interaktion, beteendeförändringar samt psykisk hälsa. Efter interventionerna ökade social interaktion mellan deltagare, personal och djur samt minskade känslor av ensamhet. Störst ökning av social interaktion påvisades vid stimuli av levande djur jämfört med leksaksdjur. Beteendeförändringar som aggressivitet, vandringsbeteende, rastlöst beteende, avvikande beteende, ovilja att samarbeta och sömnstörningar minskade efter interventionerna, men i flera fall är dock effekten kortvarig. Även förändringar i beteenden kring måltidssituationen har påvisats. Den psykiska hälsan förbättrades efter interventionerna genom minskning av depressiva symtom, ångest, tvångshandlingar, somatisering, förbättrad kognitiv förmåga, bättre humör, bättre upplevd livskvalitet samt autonomi.Slutsats: Resultatet påvisar att husdjursinterventioner har positiva effekter och främjar hälsan för personer som bor på äldreboenden och kan användas som ett komplement till övriga omvårdnadsåtgärder. / Background: Humans are affected on a social, mental and physical way by the changes that come with aging. A move to a nursing home can be necessary when the need of care becomes too substantial. Pets are used in different ways in health care. However, there is a great variety in what extent pets are used in nursing homes.Aim: The purpose of this study is to compile the results of pet interventions on residents living in nursing homes. A further purpose is to describe the study group of the included articles.Method: The present study is a literature review based on 15 quantitative scientific articles. The literature research was executed in the databases Cinahl and PubMed.Main result: Pet interventions in nursing homes have been shown to effect several factors such as social interaction, changes in behaviour and mental health. After the interventions social interaction increased between participants, staff, pets and decreased feelings of loneliness. The greatest increase in social interaction was shown with stimuli by a living pet compared to toypets. Behavioural changes such as agitation, wandering, restlessnes, diverge behaviour, uncoorporative behaviour and sleep disorder decreased after the interventions, but in several cases the duration of the effects was short. Effects have also been shown on behaviours during mealtime. Mental health improved after the interventions by decreasing depressive symptoms, anxiety, compulsive actions, somatisation, improved cognitive function, better mood, better perceieved quality of live and autonomy.Conclusion: The result demonstrates that pet interventions have positive effects and promotes health for residents living in nursing homes and can be used as a complement to other actions of nursing.

I Sverige köps det idag 13,1 kg kläder per person och år, av dessa slängs 8 kg kläder per person och år. Cirka 60 procent av det som slängs skulle dessutom kunna användas igen. Detta är en inte en hållbar resurshantering och för att ta tillvara på kläderna behövs en omställning där kläderna ses som en resurs. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka varför svenska klädföretag arbetar med cirkulär ekonomi, hur de arbetar och vilka svårigheter som kan uppstå med arbetet. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av åtta stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer inom ett brett spektra av svenska klädföretag. De klädföretag som har intervjuats är H&M, Filippa K, Björn Borg, Myrorna, Swedish Stockings, Odd Molly, Fjällräven och Houdini. Erfarenheterna från respondenterna redovisas i fyra olika teman – kläder som resurs, beteendeförändringar, ansvar och överlevnad och förändrad marknadssyn. Det empiriska materialet ställs mot varandra och jämförs med tidigare forskning. Resultatet av studien visar att klädföretagen ser cirkulär ekonomi som deras framtida överlevnad. Det är viktigt att börja se kläderna som en resurs efter användning och det krävs mer arbete i designfasen för att verkligen göra skillnad. Det har även visat sig att det krävs beteendeförändringar för att kunna ställa om till en cirkulär ekonomi. / In Sweden people purchase 13.1 kg garments per person per year, of these garments 8 kg per person per year gets discarded. Approximately 60 percent of the discarded garments could be used again. This is not a sustainable resource management and to take advantage of the garments a transition is needed because the garments have to be seen as a resource. This study aims to investigate why Swedish clothing companies work with circular economy, how they are working with this and what difficulties may arise during the process. The study was conducted with the help of eight semi-structured interviews in a wide range of Swedish fashion companies to share their views and experiences. The clothing companies that have been interviewed are H&M, Filippa K, Björn Borg, Myrorna, Swedish Stockings, Odd Molly, Fjällräven and Houdini. The experience of the respondents are presented in four different themes - clothes as a resource, behavioural changes, responsibility and survival and change in market view. The empirical data are compared against each other and also compared with previous research. The results of the study show that the clothing companies are seeing circular economy as their future survival strategy. It shows that it is important to begin to see the clothes as a resource and further work is required in the design phase in order to really make a difference. It has also been shown that it requires behavioural changes in order to adjust to a circular economy.

Bentham’s 1832 Greatest Happiness Principle states that the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people should be the goal of public policy. When people are asked what they wish for in life, health and happiness are consistently mentioned. This thesis examines the relationship between health and happiness. However, as happiness is difficult to consistently operationalize across different studies and scientific disciplines, life satisfaction is used as a proxy for happiness. This thesis studies the relationship between health and life satisfaction with a particular focus on the directionality of the relationship and the tentative processes indicated to be involved with this process. This study is accomplished through a literary review of the scientific literature related to life satisfaction, its neural correlates and their relationship with physical health. This study is modelled on the top-down, bottom-up and bidirectional debate within the larger Subjective Well-Being (SWB) literature. The results indicate that the correlation between life satisfaction and health appears to be robust, but the exact directionality and causality is unclear and difficult to establish with a literary review, with only predictive ability of life satisfaction on later physical health or vice versa established. Furthermore, the results appear to indicate that the central process linking this relationship is resilience - the ability to adaptively respond to stressors. Enhancing resiliency through psychological interventions may be a method to promote happiness and health in individuals as well as in society as a whole.

Constant exposure to community violence has very detrimental and pervasive effects on children. These effects range from behavioural, cognitive and neuro-developmental problems to a variety of psychiatric disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Karate programs can be used in violent communities to help children circumvent these detrimental effects of exposure to violence. This study adopted a qualitative research approach and the epistemological framework used was social constructivism. Group interviews were conducted with the research participants. The case study method was chosen, and thematic analysis was used as the method of analysis of the children’s stories. These stories were reconstructed in terms of themes. The themes that emerged included: anxiety, fear, discipline, respect for self, others and authority. After exposure to a traditional karate program for a period of time, the participants’ attitudes towards violence changed. They believed that violence was a last resort and that there were better ways to deal with conflict. They began developing more self-discipline, not just in the dojo but in other areas of their lives as well. The participants learnt to respect others, as well as themselves and their instructors, teachers, parents and friends. They also felt less afraid to be in their community and developed more self-confidence. Karate programmes can be used in violent communities to help prevent the negative outcomes in children associated with exposure to violence. These programmes can be used in conjunction with other developmental programmes to help improve the outcomes of these children. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)