Dans cet ouvrage sera décrite la synthèse de nouveaux analogues du sialyl Lewis X (sLex). A cet effet, nous avons préparé une librairie d’analogues synthétisée à partir d’une approche mettant en jeu un «espaceur» acyclique permettant d’avoir un biais conformationnel que nous avons défini comme la stratégie ATC-B. Nous avions déjà démontré que certains analogues portant un groupe benzoate en C-2 et en C-4 du galactose présentent une activité 50 fois supérieure à celle du sLex. Nous avions par ailleurs démontré qu’en l’absence du benzoate en C-2, l’activité devient alors trois fois plus faible. A présent, il paraissait interessant de synthétiser des analogues ayant seulement un groupe benzoate en C-4 pour evaluer l’impact de ce groupement sur la puissance de nos analogues. Par le passé, nous avions également mis en évidence le rôle des esters sur l’activité des analogues portant un «espaceur» acyclique dans le cadre de la stratégie ATC-B. Nous effectuerons donc des variations à ce niveau pour en évaluer l’impact. Enfin, nous avons préparé une nouvelle famille d’analogues de type dimère. Ceux-ci seront constitués de 2 unités des composés monomériques synthétisés précédemment. La synthèse de ces dimères fera l’emploi de la «Click Chemistry». Cette étude nous mènera a vous présenter la synthèse de ces composés et la méthodologie employée. / This work describes the synthesis of novel sialyl Lewis X (sLex) analogues. To this end, we have prepared a library of analogues by implementing a strategy that makes use of an Acyclic Tether which allows for defined Conformational Bias (ATCB strategy). We have previously shown that analogues bearing a benzoate group at both positions C-2 and C-4 of the galactose exert an activity 50-fold greater than that of sLex. Indeed, removing the benzoate at position C-4 while keeping the one at C-2 led to a three fold decrease in potency. We are currently preparing the corresponding analogues that have the benzoate only at position C-4 in order to fully evaluate its impact on the potency of the analogue. We have also previously elucidated the role of esters on the activity of analogues that have acyclic tether as part of the ATC-B strategy. Variations have been made at the level of the ester and their impact has been evaluated. Lastly, we have prepared a novel family of analogues consisting of two identical monomeric subunits linked together. Synthesis of these dimers was performed via «Click Chemistry». This study describes the synthesis of the compounds and the methodology employed.

No description available.

The starting point for this study is the question of why organizational visions are often interpreted by employees as unintelligible and insignificant. The knowledge gap in this area makes the study of communication about vision and goals both urgent and interesting. Accordingly, the purpose is to advance knowledge on communication processes in organizations through description and analysis of communication about strategy, encompassing vision, strategic objectives and common values, in a company. A case study design was chosen and a longitudinal qualitative study was conducted in the company, from April 1998 to January 2000. A combination of methods were used, including participant observation, discourse analysis and interviews. Communication about the strategy followed a typical top-down model, starting on group level and ending on department level. In this process, Balanced Scorecard was used as a tool to communicate the strategy. It was concluded that visions formulated by top managers met different realities constructed by managers at lower levels in the company. Managers’ attitudes, knowledge and interpretations were important individual factors that influenced communication about the strategy. Employees did not have the same detailed knowledge of the strategy as the managers, nor were they given the same opportunities to obtain it. The discourse analysis reveals power structures, conflicts, individual attitudes and perspectives. The study thus results in a deep understanding of communication problems in the organization.

The aim of the study is to investigate how young men constructing identities in talk about their own use of violence. The study is based on a fieldwork at a youth detention home in Sweden. The data consists of individual interviews and video recordings of the treatment programme Aggression Replacement Training (ART). Detailed analyses have been made of conversations between the young men, between the young men and the trainers, and of the narratives generated in the individual interviews. The study has a social constructionist approach to identity, which is seen as constructed in a joint achievement in social interaction. An important analytical perspective in the study is how social categories and subcategories are constructed. The study has a particular focus on gender, primarily masculinity, but age and ethnicity are also being emphasised. The analysis draws on four empirical studies. It is shown how the young men construct a preferred self-presentation when talking about violent events. The narratives on violence are either based on experiences or talked about as a hypothetical use of violence. Violence based on personal experience is problematized and legitimized in terms of self-defence, defending friends, restraint and justified violence. Narratives of violence are shown to be interactional resources available to the young men. When talking about violence, the young men can be seen to regulate social relations, and to position themselves in relation to particular discourses of masculinity. The specific understanding of what it entails to be a man enables the use of violence with respect to social categorizations such as age, ethnicity or criminal identity. It is also argued that the treatment programme ART may, at times, facilitate maintaining a criminal identity. / Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är att undersöka hur unga män konstruerar identiteter kring berättelser om eget våldsutövande. Den bygger på en studie gjord vid ett särskilt ungdomshem i Sverige. Såväl enskilda intervjuer som videoinspelningar av behandlingsprogrammet Aggression Replacement Training (ART) har utgjort analysmaterialet. Ingående analyser har gjorts av samtalen mellan de unga männen, mellan de unga männen och behandlingspersonalen, och berättelserna i de enskilda intervjuerna. Avhandlingen bygger på en socialkonstruktionistisk ansats där identitet analyseras i social interaktion med andra. Ett viktigt analytiskt perspektiv i studien är hur sociala kategorier och underkategorier skapas. Ett särskilt fokus ligger på genus och då främst maskulinitet, men även ålder och etnicitet lyfts fram som viktiga perspektiv. Avhandlingen omfattar fyra delstudier. Studien visar hur de unga männen konstruerar en positiv självpresentation när de talar om våldshändelser. Våldsberättelserna är antingen erfarenhetsbaserade eller utgår ifrån tal om hypotetiskt våld. Det erfarenhetsbaserade våldet problematiseras och legitimeras genom att talas om som självförsvar, försvar av kompisar, återhållsamt eller rättmätigt. Studien visar att våldsberättelser är interaktionella resurser för de unga männen. Genom att tala om våld reglerar de sociala relationer och positionerar sig i relation till vissa maskulinitetsdiskurser. Den specifika förståelsen av vad det innebär att vara en man, möjliggör användandet av våld avhängigt andra sociala kategorier, så som ålder, etnicitet och kriminell identitet. Studien indikerar också att behandlingsprogrammet ART ger möjlighet att underlätta upprätthållandet av en kriminell identitet. / <p>Due to copyright matters, have the articles, published in chapter 4, 5, 6 and 7, been removed.</p>

Workplace misbehaviour is seen to be a neglected feature of organizational study (Ackroyd and Thompson; Vardi and Weitz, 2004). Where research has been undertaken into misbehaviour the emphasis tends fall into two broad categories. First of all, organizational behaviour theorists use the term misbehaviour as a means to highlight how the ‘negative’ behaviour of employees gets in the way of formal organizational goals. Secondly, radical sociologists tend to use the term misbehaviour as a means to critique Foucauldian labour process theory. Here an argument is made that suggests the disciplinary affects of new management practices associated with human resource management and total quality management have been overstated. Furthermore, radical sociologists also use the term misbehaviour as means to critique organizational behaviour accounts, which are believed to paint overly optimistic accounts of organizational life. However, on further examination it was discovered that neither a radical sociological approach, nor a traditional organizational behaviour approach, sufficiently addresses the current deficit in our understandings and explanations for workplace misbehaviour. Hence, one of the main themes of this thesis was to design a theoretical and methodological framework to address the deficit in our understandings and explanations. As such, a view was taken of how a radical sociological approach (orthodox labour process analysis) combined with an emerging social psychological perspective (a social identity approach (Haslam, 2001)) could help overcome previous theoretical problems associated with researching misbehaviour. Empirical support for this approach is provided by the detailed examination of the objective and subjective working conditions of four different sets of low status workers. The findings are based on longitudinal covert participant observations, as well as covert interviews and the covert gathering of company documents. The findings depart from previous insights into workplace misbehaviour in stressing the importance of acknowledging and investigating both the organizational and sub-group social identities of low status workers, in relation to such activities. As such, a great deal of the misbehaviour noted in the findings can be attributed to the poor treatment of low status workers by management, yet misbehaviour is equally if not more attributable to the empowering or inhibitive qualities of the many psychological groups that worker can associate with or disassociate themselves from. Recommendations are made about the direction of future research into workplace misbehaviour. There are many suggestions made and include examining misbehaviour in a wider range of settings, sectors and levels of organizations.

Introduction Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East occupying the majority of the Arabia Peninsula. In 1934 the exploration of oil propelled this country from one of the poorest to one of the highest in per capita income. Islamic law forms the basis of Saudi Arabia's constitution, its civil and penal codes and guides the Saudis in their daily and family lifestyles, governing morals, dress, eating habits and business dealings. Between 1970 and 1980, there was a sharp increase in the rate of population. Currently the population is estimated at 20.8 million with a projected increase to 44.8 million by the year 2025, with approximately 49% under the age of 20. This rise in population has implications for the health care industry, of which expatriates make up more that 85% of the country's health care system. Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the social and cultural experiences associated with living and working as a registered nurse in a major teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia and to identify and understand how to develop critical thinking skills in Saudi nurses during a nursing education/intervention program in Saudi Arabia. Methodology The researcher reviewed the literature on critical thinking, which allowed the construction of a conceptual model (Appendix 1) to guide teaching and evaluation of critical thinking skills and maintained the focus on dialogue to stimulate interaction and participation in order to promote critical thinking abilities in Saudi nurses. This study adopted ethnography as a methodology and utilised Spradley's (1979)ethnographic research cyclical tasks for data collection and analysis, which are explained in the exploratory, descriptive and explanatory phases of the research. The researcher was a participant observer and collected ethnographic data in the social situation. A variety of data collection methods were employed, which included observation of students and clinical instructors, evaluation of clinical instructors teaching techniques in utilising critical thinking strategies, evaluation of students' responses in the use of critical thinking strategies, focus group interviews of students and clinical instructors and informal interviews conducted within the hospital setting with relevant informants. The use of multi-methods provided the opportunity to examine more fully the richness and complexities of the culture, by gathering data from various sources to validate the consistency of information to reflect the multiple realities of this cultural group. Cultural domains were identified after examining field notes and interviews for terms and clues repeatedly verbalised by informants, in particular students. The researcher organised the domains to formulate taxonomies, leading to cultural themes, which are answered within the research questions in Chapter 8. The research questions for this study are as follows: Research questions 1. What are the issues related to the implementation of critical thinking in a Professional Development Program to improve critical thinking in Saudi nurses? 2. What major elements are involved in creating and sustaining the Saudi Arabian nursing profession? 3. How might Saudi culture be used to support the development of professional nursing identity? Implications for the study This study has the potential to make a significant contribution to nursing education in Saudi Arabia in promoting critical thinking in nurses and in curriculum development for the following reasons. First, didactic instruction was replaced with an interactive approach by utilising critical thinking strategies and devices to facilitate the development of critical thinking abilities. Second, working with a conceptual framework or model made it easier to manage complex multifaceted concepts, such as critical thinking. The model maintained the focus on dialogue and experiential learning thereby assisting students and staff to integrate theory and practice. This model was effective for the program and if duplicated by other programs, could create a learning environment that would allow the effective development and evaluation of critical thinking. The model is reflected in Appendix 1. Recommendations for the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia * To establish the Nursing Practice Act which subsequently leads to the formation of a National Nursing Registration Board. * To transfer nursing into the higher education sectors, to be on par with their Western counterparts. To foster career incentives for men to meet the cultural needs of the people, increase Saudi nurses in the workforce and to raise the image of nursing. * To enact Saudiisation policy. * To incorporate Islamic nursing history into diploma nursing and other nursing educational programs and implemented into the workplace, government policy and the media. * To construct separate male and female hospitals to solve the gender issues. * To systematically collect, collate and analyse nursing data. * To develop continuing education programs to meet educational needs of nurses.

Doctor of Philosophy / Aim and significance: The aim of this research was to explore the phenomenon of Australian nursing home care from the perspective of those who provide and receive it. Its focus is on the processes of ‘quality care’ provision and the meanings and evaluations that care providers attach to their work. In other words, its purpose was to shed light on the practices based on a conceptualisation of care that is entwined with the mechanisms of ‘care’ production and identity creation, or what actually happens in the daily life of the complex social phenomenon that is a nursing home. A related aim was to add to understandings of clinical nursing competence and develop tools that will assist nurses to conceptualise and implement positive change in this setting. Background: The provision of care to our elderly has become a major concern with the ageing of the world population. This is occurring in the context of decline in the capacity of families to take on the responsibility of elder care, and of increasing commercialisation of medical care. Governments have responded by shifting their responsibilities from direct care provision to become auditors of the business of care provision that is supported by public funding. However poor care delivery has largely been hidden from the public gaze. Governments present themselves as having systems in place, creating the illusion of rational control; in reality, like the market economy, there is a ‘black box’ of unknown factors driven by human impulse. The aim of this study was to open up the black box of ‘quality care’ to direct observation, drawing insights from the literature on organisational culture and with a focus on the frontline worker and the construct of quality assurance. Specific research objectives were to: • Document the beliefs and attitudes of care providers towards elderly people in general and the needs of nursing home residents in particular • Elicit the range of meanings and evaluations that care providers attach to their work • Describe their constructions of ‘care’ and ‘quality of care’ and the organisational factors they believe to impact (positively and negatively) on their ability to provide it. • Through in-depth understanding of a particular setting, generate grounded theoretical insights into the phenomenon of quality of residential care that are more widely applicable Method: The study adopted a paradigmatic bricoleur approach, seeking to develop connections between a diverse range of methodologies. These included combinative ethnography, phenomenology, hermeneutics and traditional grounded theory. Conceptual insights were drawn from organisational studies, psychosocial nursing and coping theory. The research site was an Australian for-profit suburban nursing home. The student investigator conducted more than 500 hours of participant observation, recording extensive field notes which were analysed through the perspective of a hermeneutic middle way horizon that directed an augmented constant comparison traditional grounded theory approach. Additional data were collected through formal indepth interviews with six key stakeholders. Interviews were tape recorded, transcribed in full and analysed to reveal themes that were brought within a hermeneutic circle that spiralled recursively from the whole to the part and back to the whole. Findings: Eight key interrelated factors in the production of care within the nursing home were identified: internal and external accountability (the accreditation system); economic considerations; management and training; advocacy; characteristic of residents; care providers’ working conditions and environmental stressors; organisational culture; and the work/care styles of individual care providers. I have categorised the latter into two main types: ‘tortoises’ and ‘hares’. This typology is then used to generate a process-driven schematic diagram that tracks a hypothetical novice care provider through the process of learning how to produce ‘care’. Specifically, I found that nursing home ‘care’ is the outcome of a complex social process involving the interplay between resident, relative, care provider, proprietor, quality assessors and government within the phenomenon of the nursing home. Such care, indeed the phenomenon of the nursing home itself, is not a stable, controllable entity but is in a constant state of flux – what I refer to as a moral ecology. In their everyday practice, care providers devise a construction of ‘quality care’ that is more clearly grounded in their own worldviews and the development of the own identity than in the formal quality assurance system of standards, guidelines and evaluations. Conclusion: Understanding the ‘black box’ of processes that produce care is the key to identifying courses of action that will improve care outcomes. The study findings also question the validity, assumptions and significance of the accreditation system, which only identifies some of the component variables, disregarding both the complexity within the ‘black box’ and failing to acknowledge that the quality of care outcomes is overwhelmingly dependent on individual care providers.

This research was based on the idea of creating a space of encounter and of an encounter in space. The initial idea was to create a participatory/immersive installation framed within relational aesthetics and contemporary circus: focusing on a vital language that celebrates movement /dance, play, imagination and the magic of life. But through the process I left the concept of installation and I aim for an encounter space: blurring the boundaries with fields such as Movement, Dance Theatre, Improvisation, Circus, etc… A research to explore and develop the relationship with others, specially the audience. And how the audience can become a participant through 1-2-1 performances. Furthermore, I wanted to focus on the process of the research (inspirations, methodology, detect obstacles, making space…) rather than the outcome. The main thread is: Connecting with the “Self” state. ____reVisionesA research in how to facilitate a state of connection, essence, spontaneity and honesty to oneself, though around the idea of an immersive experience for the visitor/participant. “reVisiones” aims to create a space of encounter where participants can focus on awareness of the connection between their Body/Mind/Spirit: a "Transitional Space" where they can observe, be moved or move within as they please.

Background: There is a great need for effective treatments for mental health problems. Randomised controlled trials are the gold standard for evaluating treatments, however recruitment into trials is challenging, highlighting a clear need for evidence-based recruitment strategies. This thesis aimed to systematically develop a recruitment intervention and evaluate its effectiveness for improving the recruitment of participants into mental health trials. Methods: A mixed-methods approach, adopting the Medical Research Council’s complex interventions framework: 1) a systematic review to identify the evidence base and describe the factors affecting recruitment into depression trials; 2) a qualitative study to understand patients’ decision-making process in declining to enrol in a depression trial; 3) development of a recruitment intervention, using Participatory Design methods; and 4) evaluation of the recruitment intervention, using a randomised controlled trial, embedded in an ongoing mental health trial (the EQUIP trial). The primary outcome was the proportion of participants enrolled in EQUIP. Results: From the systematic review, a conceptual framework of factors influencing the decision to participate was developed, which highlighted that the decision to enrol involves a judgement between risk and reward. Findings suggested that patient and public involvement in research (PPIR) might be advertised to potential participants to reduce such perceived risk. The qualitative study found positive views of trials. Interviewees’ decision making resembled a four-stage process; in each stage they either decided to decline or progressed to the next stage. In Stage 1, those with an established position of declining trials opted out – they are termed ‘prior decliners’. In Stage 2, those who opted out after judging themselves ineligible are termed ‘self-excluders’. In Stage 3, those who decided they did not need the trial therapy and opted out are termed ‘treatment decliners’. In Stage 4, those who opted out after judging that disadvantages outweighed advantages are termed ‘trial decliners’. While ‘prior decliners’ are unlikely to respond to trial recruitment initiatives, the factors leading others to decline are amenable to amelioration as they do not arise from a rejection of trials. We recruited a host mental health trial (EQUIP), and worked with key stakeholders, including mental health service users and carers, to develop an intervention using a leaflet to advertise the nature and function of the PPIR in EQUIP to potential trial participants. 34 community mental health teams were randomised and 8182 patients invited. For the primary outcome, 4% of patients in the PPIR group were enrolled versus 5.3% of the control group. The intervention was not effective for improving recruitment rates (adjusted OR= 0.75, 95% CI= 0.53 to 1.07, p=0.113). Conclusions: This thesis reports the largest ever trial to evaluate the impact of a recruitment intervention. It also reports the largest trial of a PPIR intervention and makes a contribution to the evidence base on trial recruitment as well as to that assessing the impact of PPIR. Two further embedded trials are underway to evaluate the effectiveness of different versions of the recruitment intervention in different trial contexts and patient populations. This will also allow the results to be pooled to generate a more precise estimate of effect; to evaluate the impact of the intervention on trial retention; and to explore patient experiences of receiving the intervention.

This work considers the theoretical, epistemological and methodological criteria for a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to the study of spiritual experience founded within a qualitative paradigm. Spirituality is noted to be of increasing significance in society and as a developing discipline within the academy and spiritual experience is offered as an opening to greater understanding and appreciation of an individual's understandings of their spirituality. The methodology provides an interpretative approach towards an opportunity for resonance, identification and empathy between individual and reader through richly descriptive narratives offering insights into such experiences and developing themes and threads of particular interest prior to seeking universal and semi universal traits between or amongst narratives. Practical methods for applying the methodology are considered, including ethical and researcher reflexive issues. The assessment of the methodology includes its application to a case study, located within contemporary Christianity in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, which due to limitations of space focuses particularly on the notion of the Gift and assists in the determination of the efficacy and validity of hermeneutic phenomenology in the study of spiritual experience.