Många svenska barn lever idag i ogynnsamma hemförhållanden. I vissa fall är det bästa för barnet att placeras utanför sin hemmiljö, även om det innebär att barnet separeras från en person de knutit an till. Att separeras från en anknytningsperson kan ge negativa konsekvenser för barnet, det kan till exempel leda till anknytningsproblem. Det har i forskning visat sig att familjehemsplacerade barn i större utsträckning har anknytningsproblem än barn som bor med sina föräldrar. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka vilka faktorer som kan bidra till att familjehemsplacerade barn utvecklar anknytningsproblem. Detta har genomförts som en litteraturöversikt med en innehållsanalys av 15 artiklar som presenterar studier om faktorer som relateras till anknytningsproblem hos familjehemsplacerade barn. Resultatet visar att individrelaterade faktorer så väl som miljörelaterade faktorer kan bidra till att det familjehemsplacerade barnet utvecklar anknytningsproblem. Slutsatsen dras att faktorer hos barnet och faktorer i barnets omgivande miljö är avgörande för att barnet utvecklar anknytningsproblem. / Many children in Sweden are today living in a dysfunctional home environment. In some cases, it is for the child's best interest to be placed out of their home, even if that means to be separated from a person, they have an attachment to. Being separated from an attachment figure can have negative consequences for the child. Research has shown that children placed in foster home, seem to have greater issue in attachment when it compares to that of children who live with their parents. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that can lead to attachment issues in foster children. The chosen method was a literature review including 15 articles that has been analysed through a content analysis. The result of this study shows that individual as well as environmental factors can cause issues in attachmentin foster children.

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Increasingly, disability related literature recognizes the environment as an important factor in the participation in roles and in engagement in activities for individuals with disabilities; which would naturally make the environment an important concern for occupational therapists (Hammel et al., 2015). The language and methods to describe and analyze the characteristics of the environment that support or limit client participation in occupations are not as well developed in occupational therapy (Whiteneck & Djickers, 2009). This is an important gap in our practice that must be addressed. Guided by Person-Environment-Occupation Theory (Baptiste, 2017), this project attempted to address this need by developing a typology of terms for contextual factors that affect participation. It was completed with the belief that providing the terminology will increase the attention provided to these factors in practice. Environmental interventions can be more universal, are often less expensive, and change the focus from the individual’s deficits to how society can be more just and inclusive. We created the typology using a scoping review methodology to identify source literature and by searching through the selected literature for the environmental and contextual terms describing factors that impact participation. The resulting typology is divided into four areas with twelve categories of terms and 54 total terms. It aligns with the International Classification of Function (WHO, 2001) and the performance factors in the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (AOTA, 2014). The typology is designed and meant for use across OT practice areas, in OT education, research and scholarship. This will require wide spread dissemination. A dissemination plan based on Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers ,2010) starts by refining the typology with the guidance of assessment from stakeholders. After this refinement process, the typology will be introduced via outreach to occupational therapy programs, publications, and conference presentations. Widely used, this typology has the potential to expand the scope of occupational therapy and to make our interventions more effective in improving and increasing participation for more people.

M. Tech. (Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The impacts of information systems (IS) are often indirect and influenced by human, organisational, and environmental factors, therefore measurement of information systems (IS) success is both complex and elusive. Researchers have created models for success emphasizing the need for better and more consistent success metrics. This study endeavoured to measure IS success in SMEs in Gauteng, South Africa in order to find out its impact on these businesses. This research proposed a comprehensive multidimensional model of measuring success of information system in SMEs which suggests that system quality, information quality, service quality, intention to use, user satisfaction, use, self-efficacy, individual benefit/impact, use and organisational benefits/impact are success variables to be used. Online survey questionnaire was distributed to one hundred and twenty-six (126) participants. The data collection instrument fulfilled the reliability and validity tests. The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. The results enabled the derivation of a generic formal measure of IS success in SMEs with organisational benefits/impact variable as the subject of the formula. The formula can be used by SMEs to measure the success of IS in their respective organisations.

The overall efficiency of plants to remediate soils contaminated by metals depends on their growth ability especially on soils with low-fertility. For twelve weeks, the ability of Psoralea pinnata to grow well and remove chromium and iron from artificially contaminated soil was tested. The concentrations of chromium and iron in two soils obtained from different sources namely, University of South Africa premises (US) and commercial potting soil (PS) were 80 ppm, 130ppm, 180ppm, 230ppm, 280ppm, 330ppm, 380pp, 430ppm and 480ppm. Psoralea pinnata was transplanted into the contaminated soils and the experiments were watered daily to maintain 70% moisture at field capacity in a greenhouse. Shoot height and root length of Psoralea pinnata before and after planting were measured. Other parameters that were measured were number of leaves, wet shoot and dry weights, and wet root and dry weights. The growth of Psoralea pinnata, after 12 weeks of experimentation was noticeably affected by the concentrations of chromium and iron in the soil. The percentage increases in shoot height of Psoralea pinnata in the PS Soil (C-PS, 48cm from initial shoot height of 12.6cm) treatments were generally higher than the increases in the US Soil (C-US, 45.2cm from initial shoot height of 12.8cm) treatments. Psoralea pinnata in the (US) treatments accumulated Fe (50.02 ppm) from the soil more than Cr (32.38ppm). In the (PS) treatments, Psoralea pinnata also accumulated more Fe (60.57 ppm) than Cr (38.34 ppm). In the experiments containing both Fe and Cr, the US treatments with 40 ppm each of Cr and Fe, chromium was initially mostly accumulated by Psoralea pinnata (68%). At higher concentrations (320 ppm) of the combined metals (Cr and Fe) treatment, more Fe (55%) was accumulated in Psoralea pinnata. This study however showed that Psoralea pinnata may not be an efficient phytoextraction plant for hyperaccumulation. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the environmental factors that impact on childhood diarrhoea in children under five years old in Akakikality sub city Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of diarrhoea and to determine the environmental factors that impact on diarrhoea in children under five years old. A survey was done and a non-experimental approach was used in this descriptive and analytical quantitative study using a cross sectional study design. The instrument was a self-designed questionnaire. The target population for this study was all mothers or caretakers of children under five years found in the described study context – the sample size was 299. In this study 12.7% of the children had diarrhoea during the survey. Proper utilization of toilets, hand washing and safe storage of water in the households using narrow mouthed water containers were significant predictors of diarrhoea in the children. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

Although the development of small businesses is generally considered important for income generation and job creation, there has been relatively little research in developing countries such as Ghana on understanding why some small firms succeed and grow rapidly while others do not in. This thesis investigates the influences on small firm growth rates in Ghana using data from a random sample of 252 manufacturing and services firms from the database of the Association of Ghana Industries. The general hypothesis is that, growth is a function of the characteristics of the entrepreneur; characteristics of the firm; strategic factors; environmental factors; and cultural factors. Consequently, the research tests 36 hypotheses drawn from the five main categories of variables using the turnover and the employment growth measures. It also uses logistic regression analysis to isolate significant factors differentiating rapid-growth firms from slow-growth firms. Overall, the research finds strong evidence which suggests that, perception of a market opportunity; university education; multiple founders; entrepreneurs with marketing skills; workforce training; new product development; presence of a clear vision and mission statement; majority non-family members in management and membership of professional or business associations were associated with rapid-growth firms. iv Factors which were significant in discriminating between rapid-growth and slow-growth firms but were more likely to be associated with slow-growth firms included threat of unemployment or actual unemployment as a motivation for starting a business; production skills; legal form (limited liability companies); access to external equity (post-formation); exporting; access to public or external aid; unionization and frequent management meetings.

Due to heavy nutrient load and adverse climate change the occurrence of toxic cyanobacterial blooms have significantly increased during the last decades. Nodularia spumigena is one of the dominant toxic cyanobacteria which produces massive and inherent blooms in brackish water body, the Baltic Sea, particularly in late summer. Nodularia spp. are known to produce nodularins (NOD) and a range of other bioactive peptides such as spumigins and nodulopeptins, all of which have unclear function. In a recent study, three new nodulopeptins with molecular weight of 899, 901 and 917 were characterised from N. spumigena KAC 66. In the present study, N. spumigena KAC 66 was fractionated by reversed phase flash chromatography and their toxicity was determined by their lethality to Daphnia pulex and D. magna along with inhibition of protein phosphatase 1 assay (PP1). All fractions showed lethality to Daphnids and inhibitory activity against PP1, the toxicity was due to additional compounds as NOD and nodulopeptin 901 were only detected in 7 fractions. Pure NOD was lethal to D. pulex and D. magna LC50= 8.4 μg/mL and 5.0 μg/mL, respectively. The newly characterised nodulopeptin 901 was also tested against D. magna (LC50=>100 μg/mL). NOD and nodulopeptin 901 inhibited PP1 with IC50 0.038 μg/mL and 25 μg/mL, respectively. In common with many studies, the maximum amount of NOD was retained within the cells during the seven week growth experiment. In contrast, as much as ~50% of nodulopeptin 901 was detected in the growth media throughout the duration of experiments. To gain further insight on the effects of environmental stress on growth and production of bioactive metabolites in N. spumigena KAC 66, a range of parameters were investigated which included; temperature, salinity, nitrate and phosphorus. In the present study it was investigated that extreme growth conditions have a considerable effect on biomass and toxin levels by N. spumigena KAC 66. The light intensity ranged from 17.35-17.47 μmol/s/m2, 22°C and 11-20 ‰ of salinity were the optimal growth conditions to obtain maximum biomasses, intra and extracellular peptide contents. At 6.5 mg/L nitrate the maximum growth, as indicated by Chl-a and maximum concentrations of intracellular NOD and nodulopeptin 901 were detected found in week 5 and 4, respectively. Temperature had the greatest effect on peptide production. Whilst growth was similar at 22°C, 25°C and 30°C, increase in temperature had a profound effect on NOD production in that an increase from 22°C to 25°C resulted in a 50% decrease in intracellular NOD levels. At 30°C little or no NOD was detected. In contrast, whilst concentrations of nodulopeptin 901 decreased with increasing temperature, they were still detected at consistent levels suggesting they play an important role. The results from phosphate experiment showed Chl-a, cell biomass and peptide production did not show clear dependency on availability of PO-3 4. This is the first study to evaluate the effects of selected environmental parameters on NOD/nodulopeptin 901 production which ultimately may be helpful to explain the distribution, control of natural blooms and toxin levels of N. spumigena in the Baltic Sea and as well as laboratory based experiments. In an attempt further exploit cyanobacterial diversity, 20 strains were isolated from the Dian Lake and 6 from the Dead Sea. The UPLC-PDA-MS analysis of isolates, Microcystis spp. from Dian Lake, China indicated the presence of several peptides namely MC-LR, cyanopeptolin A and aerucyclamides A-D. These new isolates will be examined for biological activity and chemical characterisation in future studies.