Emergency contraception is a safe and effective form of contraception that is 75%-89% effective in preventing pregnancies within 120 hours of unprotected intercourse. Emergency contraception is a type of hormonal contraception, containing high doses of estrogen and progestin (ethinyl estradiol plus levonorgestrel) or progestin only (levonorgestrel). Wider access to emergency contraception has the potential to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has previously denied any over-the-counter (OTC) access to emergency contraception and only recently approved it for OTC status for women 18 years old and over; therefore, pharmacists continue to play a critical role in providing access to emergency contraception. For example, pharmacists can answer women's questions, dispel misconceptions, advise medical colleagues, and provide important information about the medication to clients. Although emergency contraception is a safe and effective medication, many pharmacists and pharmacies throughout the U.S. have either refused to fill prescriptions of emergency contraception or have refused to carry and stock emergency contraception. Pharmacists' perceptions and practice affect whether women have access to this form of contraception and whether pharmacies carry this medication. In addition, pharmacists' behavior, professional conduct, and ethical practice and training have major implications for public health and access to care for women, children, and families. This study has two purposes: First, because the attitudes and dispensing practices among pharmacists may be related to their understanding of the medication, a review of pharmacy school curricula in the U.S. was conducted, and involved (a) an assessment of course content related to emergency contraception and (b) an analysis of how this content is perceived by pharmacy students. The second purpose of the study is to assess emergency contraception knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and dispensing practices of pharmacists and to determine if pharmacists' emergency contraception knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are predictive of their dispensing practices. To reach these ends, a mixed-methods study design was employed using mixed methods data analysis techniques including coding methods, univariate, bivariate, and logistic regression.

Implementation of the common core state standards began in 2010 for public school districts across the United States, and research about the impact of these standards on teaching and learning in smaller rural schools is limited. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to describe how K-12 English language arts teachers in rural remote schools integrated the common core state standards into curriculum, as defined by Aoki's theory about planned and lived curriculums, which formed the conceptual framework for this research. Participants included 8 K-12 English language arts teachers from 2 rural remote public school districts located in a western state. Research questions addressed curricular and instructional alignment, and data were collected from individual teacher interviews and reflective journals, observations of instructional lessons, and curriculum documents. Data were coded and categorized to determine themes and discrepant data (Charmaz, Merriam, and Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña). A content analysis was used for documents. Results indicate that teachers aligned curriculum with common core state standards by using previously adopted textbooks, developing alignment documents to address standards, creating unit and lesson materials independently, and participating in limited collaborative planning with colleagues. Recommendations include continued investigation into rural teachers' professional development needs, collaborative planning practices, and use of curriculum materials within and across grade levels. This study contributes to positive social change because improved rural education impacts rural remote students, communities, and educators, who play a valuable role in developing a national curriculum.

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) significantly increases patient morbidity and mortality, length of stay, and organizational cost. In the 2 years prior to project implementation, the incidence of CAUTI increased by 15% in the local acute care, inpatient facility that served as the project site. Nursing leaders at the project site linked the increase in CAUTIs to a nursing knowledge deficit related to CAUTI prevention principles. The clinical question focused on the impact of CAUTI prevention staff training on the incidence of CAUTI, length of stay, and cost to the local acute care organization. After a review and critical appraisal of the literature, using Lewin's theory of planned change and the Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice Change, an evidence-based, CAUTI-prevention training program was piloted as a quality improvement initiative. The project purpose was to evaluate that initiative by tracking the incidence of CAUTI for 90 days postintervention. A 1-sample t-test of the mean incidence with a 95% confidence interval revealed no statistically significant (p = .732) decrease in the incidence of CAUTI. Similar initiatives with fewer than 12 months of evaluation data have failed to demonstrate statistically significant findings; therefore, additional data are needed to adequately assess the impact of the project. Recommendations include extending the pilot project and additional training of unlicensed nursing personnel. Proper evaluation of the project may provide support for the implementation of CAUTI-prevention training programs, promoting social change by reducing the rate of infection, improving patient outcomes, and demonstrating financial stewardship of the local acute-care organization.

Qualified and capable working age autistics face an 83% unemployment rate, thus, straining the economy and deteriorating their quality of life. This research examines potential contributing factors by inquiring what hiring agents' beliefs may be influencing their selection of qualified autistic candidates. This quantitatively weighted, concurrent, mixed methods (QUAN > qual), multiple linear regression study measured the influence of hiring agents' control, normative, and behavioral beliefs upon their selection of qualified autistic candidates. Through the theoretical lens of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, conceptually crystallized with other validated theories; a representative, simple, random probability sample of hiring agents throughout the contiguous United States (n = 212) participated in this study. This model statistically significantly identified hiring agents' beliefs influencing their selection of qualified autistic candidates to fill open positions (F(45, 73) = 36.067, p < .001, adj. R2 = .930). The inclusion of autistics in organizational diversity policies and practices (B = 0.266), overcoming dependability stereotypes (B = 0.195), and the fear of embarrassment (B = 0.187) were the most significant (p < .001) quantitative influencers. Participants (30%) qualitatively conveyed a desire for comprehensive autistic education. Future study should explore public policy aimed at organizational education relative to qualified autistic candidates. This increased scientific understanding could help develop expanded public policy leading to decreased unemployment rates for autistics, increased organizational performance for all business types, and improved socioeconomic stability across the nation resulting from increased economic contributions and decreased social service expenditures.

Sammanfattning  Bakgrund: Hjärtsvikt är en folksjukdom och ca 250 000 människor i Sverige är diagnostiserade med sjukdomen. Hur drabbade personer upplever sjukdomen i vardagslivet är viktigt för att kunna hjälpa dem så mycket som möjligt. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva personers upplevelser av att leva med hjärtsvikt. Metod: En litteraturöversikt med kvalitativ och induktiv ansats är genomförd av 13 resultatartiklar. Resultat: Två kategorier framkom vid analysarbetet, känslomässiga och kroppsliga förändringar. Upplevelser som kunde utläsas i resultatet var hopplöshet, frustration och depression, men också glädje över det friska livet de hunnit leva, trygghet i att ha någon nära och viljan att fortsätta trots begränsningar. Slutsatser: Hjärtsvikt genererar många blandade känslor. Fynden visar att det är viktigt för vården att kunna identifiera utmaningarna med att leva med hjärtsvikt. Detta för att kunna stötta och utbilda de drabbade personerna. Kunskap om symptom är en bemästringsstrategi som skapar trygghet.  Nyckelord: Hjärtsvikt, trygghet och otrygghet, begränsningar, Teori om planerat beteende. / Summary  Title: Peoples experiences of living with heart failure - a literature review.   Background: Heart failure is a public disease and about 250 000 people in Sweden are diagnosed with the disease. How affected people experience the disease in everyday life is important in order to be able to help them as much as possible. Aim: The aim was to describe persons experiences of living with heart failure Method: A qualitative literature review with an inductive approach. 13 articles was used for the result. Result: Two categories emerged during the analysis work, emotional and physical changes. Experiences that could be learned in the result were hopelessness, frustration and depression, but also joy for the healthy life that has been, security in having people close and the will to keep going despite of the limitations. Conclusion: Heart failure generate a lot of mixed feelings. The findings show that it is of great importance for the health care system to be able to recognize the challenges of living with heart failure. This is to be able to support and educate the affected people. Knowledge of the symptoms is a coping strategy that creates security.  Keywords: Heart failure, security and insecurity, limitations, Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Little is known about time to return to work (TRTW) following planned medical events. This study was a secondary analysis (n=94) to determine predictors of time to return to work following a total knee replacement for osteoarthritis. Significant predictors of delayed TRTW following a knee replacement: 1) use of workplace modifications (in 6wks vs 5 wks) and 2) poor physical function (in 7wks vs 6 wks). These findings have large implications for workers undergoing knee replacement, orthopedic clinicians, and occupational health nurses.

Human activities worldwide have altered nature in ways that create new combinations of species and environmental processes. To understand so-called "novel ecosystems" it is important to consider both the natural and the societal factors that shape them, and how those factors are interconnected or "coupled." We used such an approach to explore options for managing a non-native invasive frog, the coqui, which has become established on the island of Hawaii and threatens to spread to other parts of the state. The nighttime calls of the coqui create a nuisance for property owners when populations become dense enough, as often occurs in Hawaii where the frogs have no natural enemies. Humans have tried various ways to eliminate coqui on the island of Hawaii with little success. Therefore we studied how property owners cope with their presence, both through management practices and psychological coping strategies. We also examined results of those efforts. People whose properties had more frogs were more likely to take action to reduce their numbers, but also attitudes toward the coqui were less negative when people had grown used to having to share their properties with the frogs. For those who cannot cope psychologically, we found it would be possible to manage properties to reduce densities but only when leaf litter and low shrubs were completely removed from near a home. Information campaigns about managing coqui should be different when targeting people that already host frogs and those that do not.

In recent years, one of the most significant pieces of environmental legislation in New Zealand has been the Resource Management Act (New Zealand Government 1991) that has empowered local government agencies to manage the use of natural resources in their regions. Three Government Departments have been responsible for developing policies directly relating to the use of natural resources in New Zealand. The Department of Conservation has been mainly concerned with the management of natural resources on public land. The Ministry for the Environment has particularly addressed environmental policy issues of national significance. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has worked with New Zealand's agricultural, horticultural and forestry industries to encourage sustainable resource use and development for the benefit of all New Zealanders. In general, local and central government agencies carrying out policy analyses have drawn upon highly goal driven theories such as Rational Choice or Incremental Policy Theories or alternatively they have applied more loosely framed theories such as Systems Policy Thinking or Garbage Can Theory. Policy formulation and instrument selection may have been based upon instrumentalist, proceduralist, contingentist or constitutivist selection criteria, depending upon the assumed influence of peoples' behavioural and social contexts in addition to the technical characteristics of the tools themselves. However, there has been a limited range of policy theories to guide the integration of policy analysis, and formulation and operational planning into a management strategy for effective policy delivery. Such theories would have assisted policy agencies to identify the human and social behaviours most closely related to policy issues and to better match policies to differences in the political and social context of each of the issues that they were dealing with. In academic articles a number of behaviour models from social psychology have been used to explain and predict human behaviour. One of those, the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has a long history of use in research and application. It has been adapted to suit the needs of policy makers in human health, marketing, and education. Applications of the TRA have been reported to have achieved coefficients of determination for behaviour of on average, 53% in one study and 71% in another. Some of the modified models based upon the Theory such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour, have in themselves been able to make additional contributions to peoples' understanding of how to explain and predict human behaviour in more complex situations. In this report, unless otherwise stated, references to the TRA are inclusive of all associated models, such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour. This thesis has examined the application of the Theory of Reasoned Action in the formulation of environmental policy. Five research questions were considered. 1. Could a human behaviour model based upon the Theory of Reasoned Action be developed sufficiently for environmental policy makers to explain landowner behaviour associated with managing indigenous vegetation? 2. How well could the social psychology model of human behaviour based upon the TRA have predicted public responses to a policy programme? 3. How well could the social psychology model of human behaviour based upon the TRA have distinguished between the policy-intervention needs of different stakeholder groups? 4. How much have peoples' values, attitudes and beliefs affected their behaviour? 5. What would be the immediate antecedents to peoples' behaviour and how have they led to behaviour change? This has been a quantitative study to develop and test models of human behaviour specific to the preservation of indigenous vegetation. Three data sets were compared from surveys of peoples' bush protection behaviour, the establishment of indigenous woodlots and the protection and planting of riparian areas with indigenous vegetation. The results from the analyses have shown that accounting for peoples' intentions could have been used to improve the estimates of peoples' use of policy-desired practices. The coefficients of determination in multivariate equations to predict peoples' natural resource behaviour based upon non-specific (external) variables, varied between 3 - 10%. By including intentions in the models, the level of explanation increased to 10 - 17%. The results may have been lower than expected from other examples in the literature due to poorly specified measures of behaviour relative to the measures used for intentions. When it came to estimating intentions (rather than the actual behaviours), the TRA variables in regression equations achieved coefficients of determination of 55 - 75% and these provided a measure of how well the underlying values, attitudes and beliefs could have given policy makers an understanding of peoples' behaviour. Comparing the beliefs of people with high and low intentions to perform the behaviours, clear differences have been identified that could have been the basis of policy strategies for behaviour change. After analysing and considering these examples, this thesis has argued that the TRA could be used in the future to provide policy agencies with an increased level of understanding of human behaviour and so enable them to formulate policy interventions for achieving predictable levels of behaviour change.

This research explores the relationship between intention and actual usage of self-service technology (SST), and investigates the effects of facilitating conditions and customer readiness on customer adoption of SST. In recent years, self-service technologies have created many new service contents; nevertheless, the actual utilization is not actually common yet. Therefore, this research try to explore the relationship between customer readiness and facilitating conditions on the actual use of SST, then focus on narrowing the gap between intention to use SST and actual usage of SST. We believe that this understanding is imperative for service providers to make proactive strategies for fostering customers’ intention and actual usage of the SST. The framework makes it possible to understand and predict customer trial related to using self-service technology by thoroughly examining underlying customer readiness degree and use the internet to illustrate how our framework can be applied to study customer behavior related to a specific self-service technology. To analyze the longitudinal effect, a two-stage survey was conducted and lasted for seven months. As it is well known that behavior intention does not necessary lead to actual behavior, our findings offer proactive strategies to service providers in turning intention into actual usage. Implications are discussed for managerial strategy as well as for future research. The research can be referred as marketing strategy for self-service or kiosk industry, and on academic contribution of narrowing the gap between intention and actual use. It is expected that it is helpful to facilitate self-service development and to enrich customer experience and competitiveness in Taiwan.

The main theme of this study is to analyze the Soviet economic theoretical debate in the period 1985 – 1991. This period of reconstruction gave possibilities of a more free debate. In the period up to 1989/90 the directive from the Central Committee of the Communist Party was to defend the socialist economic system and its supremacy over market economics. However, certain market economic ideas were deemed as functioning methods also in a planned economic system. One of the conclusions in this thesis is that the Soviet economists failed to solve some central theoretical problems in the Soviet economy and as consequence their thinking failed to have a stabilizing effect on the socialist economic theory. The Achilles heel was how to apply the labour theory of value on a planned economy. In 1990 and 1991 the discussion was very free and now a transition to market economy was accepted by the economists. The main issue between the Soviet economists became now whether a gradual transition to market economy was to be preferred to shock therapy. The majority of the economists recommended a gradual transition. Scholars have emphasized that old stationary structures are important in Russian and Soviet history. A conclusion in this thesis is that such structures seemed to have played a role in Soviet and Russian theoretical thinking in the period 1985 – 1991.