The advent of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and increased patient awareness has led to patients being diagnosed with prostate cancer at an earlier stage and a younger age than previously. Adjuvant hormonal therapy to radiotherapy or prostatectomy has been shown to reduce the risk of tumour progression, and in some studies survival benefits have been demonstrated. The non-steroidal antiandrogen bicalutamide (‘Casodex’) has undergone extensive evaluation and is currently undergoing clinical trials as immediate therapy, either alone or as adjuvant to treatment of curative intent in patients with localized or locally advanced disease. Data from the first analysis of one of the studies in the Early Prostate Cancer (EPC) programme involving 3,603 patients have shown that, after a median follow-up of 2.6 years, the risk of prostate cancer progression was significantly reduced (by 43%) in patients receiving bicalutamide 150 mg compared with those receiving standard care alone (HR 0.57; 95% CI 0.48, 0.69; p ≪ 0.0001). The risk of PSA progression was also significantly reduced (by 63%). At this stage the survival data are still immature. Side effects of bicalutamide were mostly gynaecomastia and breast pain, which is consistent with its pharmacology. Overall withdrawal rates were similar in the bicalutamide 150 mg and standard care alone groups. In the bicalutamide 150 mg group, withdrawals were mainly due to side effects, whereas in the group receiving standard care alone, withdrawals were mainly due to disease progression. The programme is ongoing, and survival data are awaited. / Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Background: Disclosure of Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) is still a challenge to people living with the disease because of the discrimination, stigma and judgemental attitudes. Women prefer to keep their illness to themselves and make it a secret. The revealing of HIV status relies on an individual who is living with the illness. The concept of non-disclosure is a vital issue that threatens immediate families in which there are people, especially women battling the non-disclosure of their HIV status. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to explore and describe the experiences of concealing HIV positive status to the immediate family by women living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus at the selected villages in Limpopo Province. Methods: The qualitative and descriptive phenomenological method was followed. Due to saturation, ten women participated after being selected through purposive sampling from the database with the consideration of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in Sepedi. The data was transcribed, translated and analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: WLW-HIV continue to manage to live with a secret about their HIV status due to the unpleasant feelings they hold about the illness continue, still pointing fingers and sceptical about disclosing, particularly to their children. They further tell lies about their illness and hide their medications away from the members of their family. The reasons about concealing their status include among others fear of prejudice, lack of trust, fear of abandonment and rejection, fear of blame and humiliation, denial, misconceptions that people still hold about HIV and the view of it as a predicament. Others conceal because of the lack of support and the target of the disclosure. xii Conclusion: The outcomes of the study have uncovered that there is still less awareness by members of the society about HIV/AIDS, which puts pressure on the WLW-HIV to effectively deal with an HIV positive status and disclose to their family members. These factors contribute to concealment and compromise the level of support that WLW-HIV would get from their family members, further impacting negatively on adherence. Keywords: Concealment, HIV/AIDS, Phenomenological study, Stigma and Immediate family.

Background- Today online subscription based information products are becoming all the more common. A lot of them are using a immediate reward to compensate the quality uncertainty customer's experience. Even though an immediate reward creates a lot of customer attraction, some services today struggle with customer retention. Purpose- The purpose of this study is to examine how timing of rewards and quality uncertainty affects the choice of products. Method- For this study, four different surveys were conducted all representing one condition each. The survey was distributed to a total of 120 industrial workers from two different companies. A deductive reasoning lay as foundation for the construction of surveys. Result- Our result shows that under specific circumstances an immediate-and-delayed reward is preferable over an immediate reward alone. Also, when it comes to customer retention, a immediate-and-delayed reward is better at retaining customers when quality uncertainty becomes a factor. Conclusion- If customers have a reward upcoming, it is less likely they switch to the uncertain service even if there are an immediate reward present for the competing service. If they are going to switch service and have to give up their upcoming reward, they demand a significantly better quality at the competing service. Delimitations- This study focuses on the effects of timing of reward and quality uncertainty when customers choose or switch to an online subscription based information product. The study isolates timing of reward and quality uncertainty as major drivers for affecting purchase behaviour. / Bakgrund- Idag blir abonnemangsbaserade informationsprodukter allt vanligare. Många av dem använder en omedelbar belöning för att kompensera för kundens kvalitetsosäkerhet. Trots att en omedelbar belöning skapar stor kundattraktion, klarar flertalet av tjänsterna idag inte av att behålla kunder i samma utsträckning. Syfte- Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur timing av belöningar och kvalitetsosäkerhet påverkar valet av produkter. Metod- För denna studie genomfördes fyra olika enkätundersökningar med olika villkor. Undersökningen distribuerades till totalt 120 industriarbetare från två olika företag. Ett deduktiv resonemang låg som grund för utformandet av enkäterna. Resultat- Vårt resultat visar att under specifika omständigheter skulle en omedelbar-ochuppskjuten belöning vara att föredra framför enbart en omedelbar belöning. När det gäller att bibehålla kunder är det emellertid en omedelbar-och-uppskjuten belöning som bättre bibehåller kunder om kvalitetsosäkerhet är en faktor. Slutsats- Om kunderna har en kommande belöning, är det mindre troligt att de byter till tjänsten med osäker kvalité även om det finns en omedelbar belöning hos den konkurrerande tjänsten. Om de dock ska byta tjänst och måste ge upp sin kommande belöning, kräver de en betydligt bättre kvalitet vid den konkurrerande tjänsten. Avgränsningar- Denna studie fokuserar på effekterna av timing av belöning och kvalitetsosäkerhet när kunder väljer eller byter till en abonnemangsbaserad informationsprodukt. Studien isolerar timing av belöningar och kvalitetsosäkerhet som viktiga faktorer som påverkar köpbeteendet.

In this thesis scheduling problems with transportation aspects are studied. Classical scheduling models for problems with multiple operations are the so-called shop-scheduling models. In these models jobs consisting of different operations have to be planned on certain machines in such a way that a given objective function is minimized. Each machine may process at most one operation at a time and operations belonging to the same job cannot be processed simultaneously. We generalize these classical shop-scheduling problems by assuming that the jobs additionally have to be transported between the machines. This transportation has to be done by robots which can handle at most one job at a time. Besides transportation times which occur for the jobs during their transport, also empty moving times are considered which arise when a robot moves empty from one machine to another. Two types of problems are distinguished: on the one hand, problems without transportation conflicts (i.e. each transportation can be performed without delay), and on the other hand, problems where transportation conflicts may arise due to a limited capacity of transport robots. In the first part of this thesis several new complexity results are derived for flow-shop problems with a single robot. Since very special cases of these problems are already NP-hard, in the second part of this thesis some techniques are developed for dealing with these hard problems in practice. We concentrate on the job-shop problem with a single robot and the makespan objective. At first we study the subproblem which arises for the robot when some scheduling decisions for the machines have already been made. The resulting single-machine problem can be regarded as a generalization of the traveling salesman problem with time windows where additionally minimal time-lags between certain jobs have to be respected and the makespan has to be minimized. For this single-machine problem we adapt immediate selection techniques used for other scheduling problems and calculate lower bounds based on linear programming and the technique of column generation. On the other hand, to determine upper bounds for the single-machine problem we develop an efficient local search algorithm which finds good solutions in reasonable time. This algorithm is integrated into a local search algorithm for the job-shop problem with a single robot. Finally, the proposed algorithms are tested on different test data and computational results are presented.

Peer tutoring as an instructional strategy has been used by school personnel to increase academic achievement in the classroom setting. Traditionally, the peer tutoring concept relies on student partnerships linking higher achieving students with lower achieving students for structured reading sessions. Recently, new studies have focused on linking students with comparable reading achievements or cross-age peer tutors. Research suggests that using peer tutors may promote higher reading fluency in at-risk students as compared to teacher instruction. A potential reason for this phenomenon includes students’ comfort level with peers allowing for a more easy development of reading growth. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of cross-age peer tutoring on reading fluency and reading comprehension. The study involved 7 fifth grade struggling readers as tutors to 7 third grade struggling readers. Reading to Read was used as the intervention protocol. The dyads met for 5 weeks with progress monitoring conducted at the beginning of each week. Results indicated consistent benefit in improving reading fluency in 13 of the 14 participants. Several implications to the study can be identified. Peer assisted learning can benefit both participants in reading fluency. Participating in the peer assisted learning process improves the attitudes toward reading of below grade level readers. Further implications, limitations, and future research relating to the results of this study are also discussed.

Ett problem svenska socialtjänsten står inför är att förtroendet från medborgarna minskar, desinformation delas i större utsträckning och år 2021 började LVU-kampanjen att spridas. Kampanjen hävdar att socialtjänsten omhändertar muslimska barn utan rättsligt stöd. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur socialsekreterare upplever att deras arbete påverkas av den pågående LVU-kampanjen. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie utförd med semistrukturerade intervjuer, fem respondenter deltog vilka samtliga är socialsekreterare från olika kommuner i Sverige. En tematisk analys har sedan använts för att hitta mönster och teman i empirin. Teorier som sedan applicerats i analysavsnittet är handlingsutrymme, socialkonstruktionism och makt. Studiens resultat visar att socialsekreterarnas arbetssituation påverkas av LVU-kampanjen men i varierande utsträckning. Bland annat så framkommer det att socialsekreterarnas relation och kontakt med deras klienter har förändrats och försämrats. Det framkommer även att det tar längre tid i möten med klienterna vilket är en bidragande faktor till att arbetsbelastningen har ökat. Dessutom visar resultatet att fler klienter avstår från att söka hjälp av socialtjänsten på grund av ökad rädsla att deras barn ska omhändertas. Socialsekreterarna upplever dessutom en större oro inför att utsättas för hot relaterat till kampanjen och dess anhängare. Vidare framkommer det att LVU-kampanjen diskuteras på samtliga arbetsplatser men att detta sker i olika forum och i varierande utsträckning. Socialsekreterarna själva uppfattar fenomenet bland annat som skadligt och oroväckande. Det framkommer även att få förändringar har gjorts på arbetsplatsen relaterat till kampanjen men att det som har förändrats är relaterat till säkerhet, likt begränsningar att filma och spela in ljud i offentliga utrymmen på socialkontoren. Resultatet visar även att handläggningsprocessen i ärenden inte påverkats av kampanjen. De förändringar som socialsekreterare anses krävs för att minska desinformationen är mer resurser, bättre kommunikationsvägar mellan klienter och myndigheter, fler politiker som intresserar sig för problematiken samt ett ökat samhällsengagemang. Slutligen framkom det att kampanjen som inledningsvis handlat om att muslimska barn omhändertagits utan rättsligt stöd, nu inkluderar oro från fler familjer oberoende av religiös tillhörighet / The Swedish social services are facing a problem where the citizens' trust is declining, disinformation is spreading and in 2021 a campaign started claiming that Muslim children are being taken into immediate care without legal support. The purpose of the study is to examine how Swedish social workers experience that their work is affected by the ongoing LVU-campaign. The study was carried out with a qualitative method and semi-structured interviews and five social secretaries from different municipalities participated. A thematic analysis was used to find patterns and themes in the material extracted from the interviews. Theories that were applied in the analysis section were margin for maneuver in work, social constructionism and power. The study’s results showed that social workers' situations are affected by the LVU-campaign in different ways. The meetings with clients take more time which is a contributory factor to the increased workload. Some of the study's key findings are that the contact and relationships with the clients have changed for the worse and also that clients are seeking less help because of fear. Social secretaries are also more worried about being threatened because of the campaign. The study also shows that the campaign is discussed at all of the social secretaries’ workplaces but that they talk about it in different forms and variations. The social workers themselves describe the phenomenon as damaging and alarming. Some more findings show that the different workplaces have made certain changes related to the campaign but that these are mostly related to security, like limitations to record sound or video inside public spaces in social services offices. The result also shows that the social secretary's work process in client cases has not changed due to the campaign. The changes that the social workers consider necessary in order to reduce the disinformation are more resources, better lines of communication between clients and authorities, more politicians who are interested in the problem as well as increased community involvement. Lastly the campaign is also considered to have spread from just being about muslim children being taken into immediate care without legal support to include concerns about the social services from more families regardless of their religion or nationality.

In the last decades, computational models have become useful tools for studying biological neural networks. These models are typically constrained by either behavioural data from neuropsychological studies or by biological data from neuroscience. One model of the latter kind is the Bayesian Confidence Propagating Neural Network (BCPNN) - an attractor network with a Bayesian learning rule which has been proposed as a model for various types of memory. In this thesis, I have further studied the potential of the BCPNN in short-term sequential memory. More specifically, I have investigated if the network can be used to qualitatively replicate behaviours of immediate verbal serial recall, and thereby offer insight into the network-level mechanisms which give rise to these behaviours. The simulations showed that the model was able to reproduce various benchmark effects such as the word length and irrelevant speech effects. It could also simulate the bow shaped positional accuracy curve as well as some backward recall if the to-be recalled sequence was short enough. Finally, the model showed some ability to handle sequences with repeated patterns. However, the current model architecture was not sufficient for simulating the effects of rhythm such as temporally grouping the inputs or stressing a specific element in the sequence. Overall, even though the model is not complete, it showed promising results as a tool for investigating biological memory and it could explain various benchmark behaviours in immediate serial recall through neuroscientifically inspired learning rules and architecture. / Under de senaste årtionden har datorsimulationer blivit ett allt mer populärt verktyg för att undersöka biologiska neurala nätverk. Dessa modeller är vanligtvis inspirerade av antingen beteendedata från neuropsykologiska studier eller av biologisk data från neurovetenskapen. En modell av den senare typen är ett Bayesian Confidence Propagating Neural Network (BCPNN) - ett autoassociativt nätverk med en Bayesiansk inlärningsregel, vilket tidigare har använts för att modellera flera typer av minne. I det här examensarbetet har jag vidare undersökt om nätverket kan användas som en modell för sekventiellt korttidsminne genom att undersöka dess förmåga att replikera beteenden inom verbalt sekventiellt korttidsminne. Experimenten visade att modellen kunde simulera ett flertal viktiga nyckeleffekter såsom the word length effect och the irrelevant speech effect. Däröver kunde modellen även simulera den bågformade kurvan som beskriver andelen lyckade repetitioner som en funktion av position, och den kunde dessutom repetera korta sekvenser baklänges. Modellen visade också på viss förmåga att hantera sekvenser där ett element återkom senare i sekvensen. Den nuvarande modellen var däremot inte tillräcklig för att simulera effekterna som tillkommer av rytm, såsom temporär gruppering eller en betoning på specifika element i sekvensen. I sin helhet ser modellen däremot lovande ut, även om den inte är fullständig i sin nuvarande form, då den kunde simulera ett flertal viktiga nyckeleffekter och förklara dessa med hjälp av neurovetenskapligt inspirerade inlärningsregler.

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