Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984. / Typewritten.

One challenge in the Western world is the risk of functional impairmentand chronic disease accompanying older age. In Norway it is expected thatmost chronically ill older persons will continue to live at home and receivehelp from home nursing care. The inner strength of the oldest old, as seenin relation to the help that is given, and whether the help has contributed tostrengthen the will to live has been explored only to a limited extent.Meaning in life and daily routines can be related to the will to live,understood as enjoying life and having the courage to live. The aim of thisstudy is to develop knowledge in regard to chronically ill oldest olderpersons and the possibilities and limitations in their will to live when theyreceive help from home nursing care.This study uses the quantitative method (n=120, Article 1 and Article 2) todescribe the characteristics of inner strength using the questionnairesResilience Scale, Sense of Coherence Scale, Purpose in Life Test, and Self-Transcendence Scale. Inner strength was seen in relation to mental andphysical health using the questionnaire SF-36. The qualitative method wasused to illuminate how the oldest older persons experienced living at homewith chronic illness (n=13, Article 3) and receiving help from home nursingcare (n=11, Article 4). The participants in this study were 80 years old orolder, living at home with chronic illnesses, and receiving help from homenursing care. All participants were determined to have the mental capacityto take part in this study.The analysis showed in Article 1 that the oldest old had an inner strengthexpressed as ”sense of coherence” and ”purpose in life.” Their innerstrength was accompanied by the ability for self-transcendence. Mentalhealth was predicted by self-transcendence (p < 0.001) for the total sampleand for women. Physical health was predicted by self-transcendence (p <0.01) for the total sample. Low resilience contributed to vulnerability for theparticipants. They were vulnerable in terms of limited perseverance, selfreliance,and existential aloneness (Article 2). On the contrary, theyexperienced equanimity and meaning. Meaning in daily life (Article 3)sometimes meant feelings of insufficiency and dependency. In contrast,they also experienced joy in life, gratitude for living at home, and aneagerness to participate in activities that made them feel alive. Theyexperienced both good and bad days, which depended on their illness butwas also based on how their needs for help and support were met. InviiArticle 4, receiving help indicated different experiences. Being ill anddependent on help led to days with illness, treatment, and receiving care. Italso indicated they were in need of professional help. Receiving help couldmean being at the mercy of helpers, which could imply unworthy help, asthey had no influence on the help they got from incompetent nurses whofocused only on tasks, with limited flexibility in their work, using theirhomes as a working place. This situation of receiving help from busynurses caused the old person to feel inferior as a human being. Other timesit meant receiving help from nurses who took care with respect to the oldperson and confirmed him or her as a human being. The older personswanted to be seen, met, and supported to strengthen their courage to meetthe challenges of being old and ill.According to the ethics of caring, human beings are vulnerable andmutually dependent on each other. This influences the possibilities andlimitations of ”the other” in experiencing a will to live. ”Receiving theother” can contribute to the will to live, influenced by the help received inan asymmetric dependency in which the nurses are caught in the tensionbetween suffering and the will to live for the oldest older person in need ofhelp. In this tension, the will to live is dependent on help that is given in arelationship characterized by caring and responsibility for the other.

This report is a proposal for a compassion based recovery program for the treatment of chemical dependence. Chemical dependency is a growing problem with many individuals and families worldwide. Mindfulness and self-compassion are two new constructs in the new wave of positive psychology that have shown to be effective in alleviating many of the symptoms that are related to those whom are chemically dependent This report will list the current approaches to the treatment of chemical dependency. This report will also define mindfulness and self-compassion as well as give a basic framework on how a compassion-based recovery program might look as well as a basic design on testing the effectiveness of such a program. / text

Psychopharmacological and behavioural interventions are used to treat challenging behaviours (e.g., self-injury, aggression, stereotypy, bizarre vocalizations) in individuals with intellectual disability (ID), often in combination. However, little is known about the behavioural mechanisms underlying psychopharmacological treatment. Establishing a better understanding of these mechanisms could contribute to improving treatment efficacy. For this study, I conducted repeated functional analyses using single-subject experimental designs to assess the impact of naturally varying dosages of psychotropic medications on behaviour function. Four individuals with ID who engaged in challenging behaviour and were undergoing psychotropic medication changes participated. Medication impact across two topographies for one participant, and three topographies for another participant were assessed, for a total of seven cases. For Analysis 1, I calculated standardized mean differences between baseline and final drug administration phases to estimate the overall effect of medication. I used this information to examine whether response rate following drug administration was related to response rate during baseline, referred to as rate-dependency. Rate-dependency was not observed. Analysis 2 explored the relation between psychotropic medications and behaviour function identified through functional analyses. Challenging behaviour was the dependent variable, while functional analysis conditions and psychotropic medication level served as independent variables. The latter was a quasi-experimental variable given participants’ psychiatric team prescribed changes independent of the researchers. Behaviour function correspondence, defined as no function change after a medication manipulation, was observed across 14 of the 21 medication manipulations (67%). / October 2015

This study examines small business owners at small firms in Västerbotten’s perception on board composition, board diversity and the role of the board together with its impact on firm performance. We were interested in knowing what kind of characteristics these firms are looking for in their board composition and explore their attitudes towards their choice ofinside or outside directors, and also the impact of homogeneity and heterogeneity in theboard. Further, we wanted to examine the general role of the board in small firms and get insight on whether the small business owners believe this had any impact on firm performance or not. The subject of board of directors can be found within the field of corporate governance, in which it has a central role. Existing literature on the subject left a gap of knowledge on board of directors in small firms, from which the opportunity of research was found. Since a vast amount of firms on the Swedish market are small firms, this subject is of significant meaning for understanding and gaining insight into how small business owners in these firms view the board of directors. To get a deeper view into the subject we explored if any differences were detectable between three different industries, and the selected industries were; IT, transportation and construction. This qualitative study was conducted by using a semi-structured interview technique. The objectives of having a qualitative study was to obtain in-depth understandings and perceptions from the participants in order to answer our research questions; What kind of characteristics are small business owners looking for when selecting new board members, what type of different resources can different types of directors bring, and what impact do small business owners believe this has on firms’ performance? The findings from this study revealed that small business owners at small firms in Västerbotten did not value and use the board in the same extent as larger firms had been found to do in other empirical studies. However, indications were found among our sample that small firms in the IT industry uses their boards in another way than other firms do. Moreover, it was of common occurrence that small firms only have one singe director on their boards both due to that they have a board solely due to legal reasons and also due to that the owners, which is also the directors in these firms, does not want to reduce their level of control over the firm. Overall, the impression from the participants’ perceptions and views were that the board was not used in the way it could be and that for many small firms the costof recruiting more directors is too high.

Somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) are a class of alterations that lead to deviations from diploidy in developing and established tumors. A feature that distinguishes SCNAs from other alterations is their genomic footprint. The large genomic footprint of SCNAs in a typical cancer's genome presents both a challenge and an opportunity to find targetable vulnerabilities in cancer. Because a single event affects many genes, it is often challenging to identify the tumorigenic targets of SCNAs. Conversely, events that affect multiple genes may provide specific vulnerabilities through "bystander" genes, in addition to vulnerabilities directly associated with the targets. We approached the goal of understanding how the structure of SCNAs may lead to dependency in two ways. To improve our understanding of how SCNAs promote tumor progression we analyzed the SCNAs in 4934 primary tumors in 11 common cancers collected by the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The scale of this dataset provided insights into the structure and patterns of SCNA, including purity and ploidy rates across disease, mechanistic forces shaping patterns of SCNA, regions undergoing significantly recurrent SCNAs, and correlations between SCNAs in regions implicated in cancer formation. In a complementary approach, we integrating SCNA data and pooled RNAi screening data involving 11,000 genes across 86 cell lines to find non-driver genes whose partial loss led to increased sensitivity to RNAi suppression. We identified a new set of cancer specific vulnerabilities predicted by loss of non-driver genes, with the most significant gene being PSMC2, an obligate member of the 26S proteasome. Biochemically, we found that PSMC2 is in excess of cellular requirement in diploid cells, but becomes the stoichiometric limiting factor in proteasome formation after partial loss of this gene. In summary, my work improved our understanding of the structure and patterns of SCNA, both informing how cancers develop and predicting novel cancer vulnerabilities. Our characterization of the SCNAs present across 5000 tumors uncovered novel structure in SCNAs and significant regions likely to contain driver genes. Through integrating SCNA data with the results of a functional genetic screen, we also uncovered a new set of vulnerabilities caused by unintended loss of non-driver genes.

This study analyzes the multiscalar interactions of the emerging carbon market and the social, environmental, and economic implications it may hold for small-scale landholders in the tropical rainforest. Based on a change detection analysis from a case study in Costa Rica, this report argues that 1) the scalar mismatch between national carbon trading markets and small scale agroforestry sequestration efforts is driven by insignificant land holdings; 2) secondly, the scalar mismatch limits the small scale landholders’ access to the carbon market; and 3) that in order to link global and local approaches to climate change we need to understand the local economic contexts within which these global markets are interacting. / text

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are widespread soil dwelling microorganisms that associate with plant hosts. AMF receive carbon from the host as a result of the mutualism, while the plant’s ability to acquire nutrients is enhanced by AMF. Additionally, AMF benefit their host in the form of pathogen protection. While it is known that increased AMF species richness positively correlates with aboveground plant productivity, the relationship between AMF diversity and pathogen protection is not well understood. In a growth chamber study, the plant host Leucanthemum vulgare, a non-native plant species in North America, was introduced to all combinations of three AMF species either in the presence or absence of the plant root pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. In the presence of the pathogen, the plant host increased its dependence on the AMF symbiosis. However, the richest AMF species assemblage did not provide the greatest pathogen protection. Understanding how diverse groups of AMF protect plants from pathogen attack provides insight into how plant communities are formed and structured. / NSERC

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This study examined the influence of two personality variables, Dependency and Self-Criticism, on mothers' postpartum adjustment. These dimensions were also examined in relation to social support and infant characteristics. During pregnancy, 204 primiparous women completed measures of Dependency and Self-Criticism, depressive symptomatology and mood, and social support. A subsample of 72 women, identified as Dependent, Self-Critical, Mixed, or Control, were assessed at 6 weeks and 3 months postpartum on measures of depressive symptoms, mood, and maternal characteristics. Infant measures were obtained at 6 weeks and 3 months. Multiple regression analyses revealed that Self-Criticism was a stronger predictor of depressive symptomatology and mood than Dependency and predicted a wider range of problems in maternal role functioning. Social support and infant characteristics made significant contributions to postpartum adjustment, and maternal depressive symptoms predicted less optimal infant socioemotional development. Results suggest the need to modify current conceptualizations of Dependency and Self-Criticism. Implications for identification and treatment of women vulnerable to adjustment problems during the transition to motherhood were discussed.