INTRODUÇÃO: O Sangramento Uterino Disfuncional (SUD) é uma das causas mais prevalentes de sangramento uterino, estando relacionado a variações hormonais, independente de causas orgânicas. A ablação endometrial é uma das opções terapêuticas, porém está associada à necessidade de treinamento específico e apresenta alto custo. Este estudo tem como objetivo desenvolver modelo de ablação endometrial em ratas adultas. Além disso, avaliar os efeitos histológicos e histomorfométricos causados pelo ácido tricloroacético no útero desses animais, bem como a regeneração endometrial e o retorno do ciclo estral. MÉTODOS: 30 ratas fêmeas adultas foram divididas em dois grupos. Todos os animais foram submetidos à injeção intra-uterina de SF 0,9% em um corno uterino e de ácido tricloroacético (ATA) no corno contralateral. O primeiro grupo, constituído de 15 ratas, foi sacrificado após 1 dia da injeção e tiveram os úteros removidos (Grupo 1). O segundo grupo, constituído de 15 ratas, foi sacrificado após voltar a apresentar um ciclo estral normal, quando foram submetidos à coleta de esfregaços vaginais e eutanasiados em fase de diestro, o que ocorreu cerca de 20 a 30 dias após o procedimento (Grupo 2). As espessuras do epitélio superficial e do estroma endometrial, o número de glândulas endometriais por campo e a espessura miometrial foram comparadas entre os cornos uterinos de cada animal do Grupo 1. As mesmas comparações foram realizadas entre os cornos dos animais do Grupo 2. Por fim, foi avaliada a regeneração endometrial nos Grupos 1 e 2. RESULTADOS: Todos os animais apresentaram recuperação satisfatória do procedimento, não havendo sinais de toxicidade aguda associada ao uso de ATA. No grupo 1, as medianas da espessura do epitélio superficial do endométrio (ATA 0mm vs. Controle 0,05mm,p=0,0001), da espessura do estroma endometrial (ATA 0,325mm vs. Controle 0,525mm, p=0,0006), do número de glândulas (ATA 4,5 vs. Controle 6,5, p=0,0012) e da espessura miometrial (ATA 0,25mm vs. Controle 0,35mm, p=0,009) foram significativamente inferior no corno que recebeu a injeção de ATA. No Grupo 2, quatro animais (27%) morreram na segunda semana após o procedimento e, em seis animais (40%), o material obtido não pode ser avaliado devido à intensa destruição tecidual. Nos cinco animais restantes (33%) a mediana da espessura do epitélio superficial do endométrio (ATA 0,0mm vs. Controle 0,05mm, p<0,004), da espessura do estroma endometrial (ATA 0,325mm vs. Controle 0,725mm, p=0,011), do número de glândulas (ATA 3 vs. Controle 6,5, p=0,011) e da espessura miometrial (ATA 0,35mm vs. Controle 0,5mm, p=0,024), foram significativamente inferior no corno submetido à injeção de ATA. Quanto à mediana da espessura do epitélio superficial do endométrio (Grupo 1 0mm vs. Grupo 2 0mm, p=1) e à mediana da espessura do estroma endometrial (Grupo 1 0,325mm vs. Grupo 2 0,325mm, p=0,857), não houve diferenças significantes entre os cornos uterinos submetidos à injeção de ATA. A mediana do número de glândulas após a injeção de ATA foi superior no Grupo 1 em comparação ao Grupo 2 (p=0,003). CONCLUSÃO: O estudo permitiu o desenvolvimento de um modelo experimental viável de ablação de endométrio em ratas adultas. As alterações histológicas e histomorfométricas encontradas nos cornos uterinos mostraram que o ácido tricloroacético é um potente agente na destruição química endometrial. Não houve regeneração endometrial após retorno ao ciclo estral. / INTRODUCTION: Dysfunctional uterine bleeding is one of the most prevalent causes of uterine bleeding and it is related to hormonal variations without organic causes. Endometrial ablation is a therapeutic option but the methods are frequently expensive and dependent of high cost technologies. The objective of the present study is to develop an animal model of endometrial ablation in adults female rats. In addition, to evaluated the histological and histomorphometric effects after trichloroacetic acid (TCA) exposure into uterine cavity. METHODS: A total of thirty female adult rats were divided in two groups of 15 rats each. All animals were submitted to injection of 0,3 ml of TCA 90% in one uterine horn and the same amount of saline solution 0,9% (control) in the other. Group 1 was sacrificed in the following day of the procedure, whereas group 2 was sacrificed in phase of diestrous after recovery of normal estral cycle identified by vaginal smears, approximately 20 to 30 days after the procedure. Superficial epithelia of the endometrium, estromal thickness, number of endometrial glands as well as of myometrium thickness were assessed and compared between the uterine horns of the same rats of group 1. The same evaluation was performed in group 2. Also, endometrial regeneration was evaluated comparing histological alterations in the uterine horn that was injected with TCA in group 1 and 2. RESULTS: All animals recovered satisfactorily from the procedure. In group 1, superficial epithelia of the endometrium (TCA 0,0mm vs 0,05 mm control, p=0,0001), estromal thickness (TCA 0,325mm vs 0,525 mm Control, p=0,009), number of endometrial glands (TCA 4,5mm vs 6,5 mm control, p=0,001) and mean myometrial thickness (TCA 0,25mm vs 0,35 mm Control, p=0,0006) presented a significant difference between the horns showing endometrial destruction on TCA uterine horn. In group 2, four rats (27%) died in the second week after the initial procedure and six rats (40%) had no viable material to be analyzed due to extent tissue destruction. The rest of the group (33%) showed a mean superficial epithelia of the endometrium (TCA 0,0mm vs 0.05 mm control, p<0,004), mean estromal thickness (TCA 0,325mm vs 0,725 mm Control, p=0,011), mean number of endometrial glands (TCA 3 vs 6,5 control, p=0,011) and mean myometrial thickness (TCA 0,35mm vs 0.5 mm Control, p=0,024) significant different between horns showing endometrial destruction on TCA uterine horn. There was no significant difference in the mean superficial epithelia of the endometrium (group 1 0mm vs. group 2 0mm, p=1) and mean estromal thickness (group 1 0,325mm vs. group 2 0,325mm, p=0,857) between TCA uterine horn from both groups. However, number of endometrial glands (4,5mm in group 1 vs 3 mm in group 2, p=0,003) was higher in group 1. CONCLUSION: The study developed a valid model for endometrial ablation in adult females rats. The histological and histomorphometric effects observed in the uterine horns showed that the trichloroacetic acid is a potent agent for endometrial ablation in rat model. In the current model no endometrial regeneration was observed after recovery of normal estral cycle.

Abstract                                                                            Ord: 14896     Title: My parent is an addict   A qualitative study about being a grown up child to addict parents.     Author: Johanna Lundgren     The purpose of the study was to investigate how adult daughters of addicts experienced their childhood and how they experienced being affected as children and adults. The study was based on a phenomenological approach and based its empirical data on semi-structured interviews with adult daughters of addicts. The main result showed growing up with several difficult events and the informants claim to have trust issues, a negative self-image or poor self-esteem and that they have taken unreasonable responsibility in relation to their age and situation. Problems in school are also highlighted by everyone in some form. An informant claimed to be a sober alcoholic and a use of other drugs had occurred among the informants. All informants themselves had been in relationships with addicts and all had some social involvement. The results were thematized and as an analysis tool Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and social learning theory were used. / Sammanfattning   Titel: Min förälder är en missbrukare   En kvalitativ studie om att vara ett vuxet barn till missbrukande föräldrar   Författare: Johanna Lundgren   Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur vuxna döttrar till missbrukare upplevt sin barndom samt hur de upplevde sig ha blivit påverkade som barn och vuxen. Studien utgick från en fenomenologisk ansats och baserade sin empiri på semistrukturerade intervjuer med vuxna döttrar till missbrukare. Det huvudsakliga resultatet påvisade uppväxter med flera svåra händelser och informanterna uppger sig ha tillitsproblem en negativ självbild eller dålig självkänsla, samt att de har tagit ett orimligt ansvar i förhållande till sin ålder och sin situation.  Problem i skolan belyses även av samtliga i någon form. En informant uppgav sig vara nykter alkoholist och en användning av andra droger hade förekommit bland informanterna. Samtliga informanter hade själva haft relationer till missbrukare och alla hade i någon mån ett socialt engagemang. Resultatet tematiserades och som analysverktyg användes Bronfenbrenners ekologiska systemteori samt den sociala inlärningsteorin.

<p>The study&rsquo / s main starting premises is that there is a disjuncture between the rich educational engagements of these students in their environmental space and how their learning practices are framed, informed and positioned in the institutional space. My study is underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm in terms of which I set out to describe and understand the meanings that the student respondents assign to their learning practices when they are involved in discursive practices of speaking, knowing, doing, reading and writing. Qualitative research instruments: field notes, participant and non-participant observations and formal and informal interviews were used in order to answer my research question and achieve the desired research aims of this thesis. The findings are presented in a narrative format after deriving at categories and themes using narrative analysis. Finally, my research shows how these students are positioned in and by their lived spaces (whether environmental or institutional) in specific ways, and they, based on their own resources, networks and interactions, and by exercising their agency, actively construct their own spaces of learning. I describe these active constructions by these students as their &lsquo / conceptual space of learning&rsquo / to highlight the complex ways in which they go about to establish their learning practices in their lived spaces. The study provides an analysis of the basis upon which each of these four students go about constructing their learning practices.</p>

Sammanfattning Stressrelaterad psykisk ohälsa såsom utmattningssyndrom, är en komplex problematik som varit mycket omdebatterad. Åtskilligt är publicerat i ämnet, men bara ett fåtal studier finns där personer med utmattningssyndrom själva fått möjligheten att beskriva orsakssambanden. Olika förklaringsmodeller och perspektiv beskrivs i litteraturen, men den rådande uppfattningen om varför människor drabbas utgår ofta från ett arbetsrelaterat perspektiv. Vi ville utforska om den rådande föreställning i ämnet stämmer överens med den uppfattning människor som drabbats av utmattningssyndrom har om orsakerna till symtomen. Vår ansats var även att undersöka om det kan finnas fler eller andra orsakssamband till utmattningsprocessen.   Vårt syfte med studien är; dels undersöka hur individer med utmattningssyndrom upplever vilka orsaker som är av betydelse för utmattningsprocessen, dels försöka beskriva och analysera dessa utsagor i ett vidare perspektiv.   Till studien valdes en kvalitativ metod och data samlades in med hjälp av intervjuer utifrån specifika forskarfrågor. Sju respondenter med utmattningssyndrom och närbesläktade stressrelaterade diagnoser deltog.   Resultatet visar att utlösande faktorer kopplade till bland annat arbetet är en orsak i utmatt-ningsprocessen, Studiens resultat visar också att bakomliggande faktorer är om möjligt ännu viktigare och som presenteras i Bohlin-Hogen-Henner modellen. Bakomliggande orsaker menar vi kan vara påfrestande och belastande livshändelser i uppväxten, vilka kan bidra till oförmåga att tillgodose egna behov och en prestationsbaserad självkänsla. Genomgående mönster har visat sig vara problematik med gränssättningen, det vill säga, dysfunktionell gränssättning som är en konsekvens av de olika bakomliggande faktorerna och har en avgörande betydelse för utmattningsprocessen. / Abstract Stress related psychological health-problems such as burn-out syndrome are complex issues which have been much debated. Much have been published on this topic but only a handful of studies have been conducted where individuals diagnosed with burn-out syndrome have been given the opportunity to describe the cause-effect of their condition. Different explanations and perspectives are described in the literature concerning this topic but the current view as to why people are afflicted by burn-out syndrome is based on a work-related perspective. We wanted to explore if the current view on the topic is in accordance with the diagnosed individuals view on the causes of their symptoms. Our intention was also to investigate into the possibility that there could be more or other causality behind the burn-out process.     The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to investigate how individuals with burn-out syndrome rate different causes in terms of importance to their process of burning out. Second, to try to describe and analyze these statements in a wider context.   For this study, we chose to use a qualitative methodology. Data were collected from interviews where adapted research questions were asked. Seven respondents diagnosed with burn-out syndrome or other stress related disorders participated.   The results show that work-related factors often are the triggers for the process of burning out, but hidden factors, such as conditions in the childhood and traumatic life events which can contribute to performance-based self-esteem, are even more significant. Overall patterns for burn-out syndrome show an inability to create personal boundaries, “dysfunctional personal boundaries”. This dysfunction is, in our opinion, the consequence of the hidden factors and in itself plays a crucial role in the burn-out process.

“The Weight of Expectations: Deciphering Baggage and Defining Character in ‘Olivia’s Retreat’” charts the conception and development of Stacey Ashworth’s feature length sibling drama while also discussing the subsequent lessons she learned over its seven month evolution. / text

<p>The study&rsquo / s main starting premises is that there is a disjuncture between the rich educational engagements of these students in their environmental space and how their learning practices are framed, informed and positioned in the institutional space. My study is underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm in terms of which I set out to describe and understand the meanings that the student respondents assign to their learning practices when they are involved in discursive practices of speaking, knowing, doing, reading and writing. Qualitative research instruments: field notes, participant and non-participant observations and formal and informal interviews were used in order to answer my research question and achieve the desired research aims of this thesis. The findings are presented in a narrative format after deriving at categories and themes using narrative analysis. Finally, my research shows how these students are positioned in and by their lived spaces (whether environmental or institutional) in specific ways, and they, based on their own resources, networks and interactions, and by exercising their agency, actively construct their own spaces of learning. I describe these active constructions by these students as their &lsquo / conceptual space of learning&rsquo / to highlight the complex ways in which they go about to establish their learning practices in their lived spaces. The study provides an analysis of the basis upon which each of these four students go about constructing their learning practices.</p>

This study was done to explore how modern Pastoral Care and Counselling models could be in dialogue with some valuable Xhosa traditional practices in the urbanised context around Umtata in the Eastern Cape. The intention is to provide a marriage enrichment programme to the congregants of the Methodist Church in this region. This has been offered in response to increase in the rate of divorce, separation and emotional distress experienced by many couples in the area. Chapter one offers the methodological framework for the entire theoretical and practical study. The second chapter explores various concepts of the family systems theory with particular focus on Murray Bowen's systems theory. This should bring forth a clear understanding of behavioural patterns which manifest in marriage when the system loses equilibrium. Grounded in the family systems theory is the concept of normal family processes. The third chapter looks into the understanding of normal family processes as brought across by various American authors. The chapter takes the interpretation further by looking into normal family processes in the original Xhosa cultural communities. The reason for the exercise is to bring awareness about what is normal before one can address what is abnormal. This is for widening the horizons so that what is culturally normal should not be labelled as abnormal. The fourth chapter prepares groundwork for the establishment of intervention and counselling strategies specifically within the Xhosa communities around Umtata. This chapter is field work done through interviews so as to gain an awareness about what the people of this region presently think, feel and say about marriage and family life experiences. The fifth chapter looks into the minister's uniqueness in marriage enrichment in comparison with his or her colleagues in medical, social work and family therapy or psychotherapy fields. A theological exploration is dealt with in the sixth chapter with a view to contend with biblical principles applicable to marriage. Chapter seven discusses a training model for a lay team of twelve members to promote the concept of the priesthood of all believers. The views of authors like Switzer, Clinebell, Colilns, Herbert Otto and others are consulted and opened to dialogue with Xhosa Traditional practices offered by oral sources. Chapter eight focuses on premarital education. Within this eduGative counselling, a hand-out on marriage contracts is prepared in both English and the vernacular language. Interdisciplinary work has been included through the engagement of resource personnel from the medical, financial and legal fields. Chapter nine actually presents the Marriage Enrichment Programme in a workshop form. Within the programme, theoretical and practical work is done in contextual bible study, communication and conflict resolution exercises as well as conscietisation about valuable Xhosa traditional marriage practices. The contextual model on marriage enrichment is offered to a group of forty-four congregants. The evaluation forms provide a positive result of this marriage enrichment model. The results express a need to address marital problems in our communities. This does give support to the Hypothesis that was tested. Modern pastoral care and counselling models can be adapted to traditional context with positive results. Lay involvement promotes maximum participation of the People of God in care giving. However, further results will be achieved with more workshops or retreats. More effectiveness will also come with the training of more lay teams. This demands large sampling in lay training, more interviewing and more involvement of the rural community elders for more information on traditional practices. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The purpose of the study is to analyse the relationship between the capitalist hegemonic order and the mass media, with the latter restricted to two elite newspapers (Swedish DN and Slovenian Delo) and the selection of news materials from three bodies of international media coverage: NATO’s military intervention in former Yugoslavia, 1999, the political demonstrations against the IMF and the World Bank in Prague, 2000, and 9/11, 2001. There are two sub-purposes, one theoretical-methodological and one political-democratic. The first sub-purpose is to accomplish an integrative kind of media analysis (Williams 1977) in which the approaches of political economy (emphasising the economic/material) and cultural studies/discourse analysis (emphasising the symbolic/discursive) are supposed to interact. The hypothesis is that such a ‘third way’ approach is possible to achieve through the qualitative analysis of journalistic modes of writing. The second sub-purpose (the political-democratic one) takes an interest in the modes’ political dimensions. In what manners do the identified modes counter-act, or co-produce, miscellaneous political struggles? In addition, the purpose of the study also includes a more practical dimension. In the light of the results, how should one nowadays imagine an emancipating kind of journalism that tries to explain, unmask, or even counteract the mechanisms of the contemporary global capitalist system? The news media material consists of 438 items (articles, photos etc.), which are analysed by means of a cultural materialist CDA (critical discourse analysis). An identified journalistic mode is analysed as: (1) a practice with certain cognitive, discursive and linguistic characteristics, (2) a structural product (as constituted by underlying social and material structures), and (3) a dialectical force, being a potentially active part of an ongoing mode of production (the capitalist or another mode). The last analytical moment is the central one. Two categories of journalistic modes are identified. To begin with, the modes of de-permanence (The Remote control mode, Differentiation, Semiotic compression), which comprises modes that are part of the ‘new economy’, of reflexivity, individualism, consumption, mobility, and flexibility. The political dimension of these modes is that they counteract radical (leftist) politics by reducing emancipation, freedom, justice etc. to a matter of individualism and privatisation. The second category is the modes of permanence (Disconnection, Cognitive recycling), which involves an opposing structural dimension of the capitalist system: the production of reification, i.e. the repression of the complex nature of reality – how seemingly autonomous ‘things’ (spaces, objects etc.) are de facto interwoven with a ‘complex whole’ of various social, material, cultural, economic relations that are in constant motion. More precisely, the here identified modes reify and eternalise an explanatory structure (the modern division of explanatory labour), a particular power (the US) and a particular territory (the nation state), generating the impression that social reality works ‘as usual’ while repressing the complex network-like development of global capitalism and its impact on our lives. By sustaining these increasingly archaic structures, what is politically counteracted is the emergence of ‘the new’: transnational politics and democracy (Beck 1998). The analysis of modes (in total 8) furthermore demonstrates that Swedish DN is more integrated with the capitalist system than Slovenian Delo. The study emphasises the democratic importance of creating new journalistic modes endowed with a transnational journalistic epistemology that decisively include the reality of global capitalism in everyday (local) news reporting when covering and explaining social, political, cultural etc. issues.

A healthy and positive relationship between educators and learners is an important aspect in the establishment and sustainability of a nurturing and enabling school environment. However, research pertaining to South African schools shows that schools currently face many challenges that threaten relationships in schools and adversely affect the general well-being of the individuals concerned. The situation is problematic in every school context, but even more so in schools where risk factors are present in a concentrated form, as is the case in schools of skills. The researcher has been involved as a school counsellor at various schools of skills in the Western Cape for the past three years and has noticed that schools of skills are often exposed to various risk factors that influence the daily interaction between educators and learners and also impede the fostering of a healthy relationship between educators and learners. It is therefore logical that the relationship between educators and learners in schools of skills is influenced by the particular circumstances and that the relevant risk factors could be contributing to the current situation in schools of skills. Limited research about the relationship between educators and learners in the context of schools of skills impedes the situation even more. This research study aims to make a contribution to the solution of the identified problem by investigating ways in which the relationships between educators and learners can be improved within the context of schools of skills in the Western Cape. A literature study and empirical investigation were undertaken to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between educators and learners in schools of skills and the way the respective parties experience it (the relationship). Therefore, the nature of the structure of this research study is qualitative phenomenological because it incorporates an investigation into the social relationships that connect educators and learners. The research study was done in four schools of skills in the Western Cape that is representative of the different settlement contexts in South Africa, namely urban, semi-urban and rural. The participants in the four various schools include educators (n=42) and learners (n=122). The collection of data took place in four phases and the following qualitative data collection methods were used: qualitative open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured individual interviews for educators as well as collages and semi-structured focus group interviews for learners. Thematic analysis of the respective data sets showed that the relationships between educators and learners can be improved by considering the contextual challenges both educators and learners are confronted with. Besides considering the contextual challenges it is also important to create spaces where relationships can be improved and learners can feel safe. This seems to be mainly the responsibility of the educators and can be done by setting clear boundaries and upholding healthy discipline. It was further demonstrated that the relationship between educators and learners in schools of skills can be improved by acting towards each other in such a way that mutual respect, mutual trust, the provision of care and support and open communication can be established as relationship-improving interaction patterns. In the light of the study’s findings, specific guidelines are provided to the educator at the school of skills and clear recommendations are made to the Department of Education with the aim of improving classroom relationships in schools of skills. In conclusion, recommendations are also made about further research to improve relationships between educators and learners in schools of skills. / Thesis (MA (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.