Each year in the United States, thousands of people are readmitted within 30 days of being discharged from a hospital. Current research indicates that at least one-third of these rehospitalizations are preventable. The purpose of this project was to examine patient and environmental characteristics of those who were readmitted within 30 days of discharge for commonalities that may explain the gap in practice for a specific health care organization. The project was undertaken in response to the organization's need to improve a 50th-percentile ranking with the goal of reaching the top 10th percentile. A plan-do study-act framework was used as a guide to ensure no steps in the process were missed and the logical progression of the project was clear. Three fiscal quarters of data, including 515 readmissions, were examined. A data analytics cube on hospital-wide readmissions provided patient and environmental characteristics that were charted using common language for sorting purposes. Data analysis revealed that 77% of patients were admitted within 30 days of discharge with a diagnosis that differed significantly from the index admission. Potential gaps in practice identified were a need for more patient and family engagement and education by nursing during the inpatient stay in regard to the primary admitting condition, the management of comorbidities, and potential posthospital complications. Need exists for more intense whole-patient monitoring, communication, and education following the transition from hospital to home. A reduction in 30-day readmissions can reduce the psychological and physical burden on patients and families, on health care resources that could be used for other purposes, and on society in the form of financial costs that continue to rise.

This research aims to determine teacher perceptions on alcohol- and drug use among students, as well as how they implement the municipality framework against alcohol and drugs. The research was carried out in a midsized town in the centre of Sweden. It is characterized by an inductive approach and was performed through a qualitative method. Results were analyzed from a hermeneutic approach, and theories used are system theory, salutogenic approach and Mead’s symbolic interaction theory. One outcome from this research was the fact that teachers generally implement their work out of the municipality framework, even though teachers express their lack of knowledge about the content of the framework. Furthermore the research revealed that many teachers thought the relationship towards the students had a big impact on how they could manage to help them, that it was important that students felt that the teachers were trustworthy. The conclusion of this research is that there is a great variety regarding the commitment and knowledge among teachers when it comes to student usage of alcohol and drugs, even though teachers were given a common framework.

Safety is very important for our society. In contrast, it is hard to define what this term really means. Nevertheless, one area that is considered important for safety involves accident prevention. Many methods exist within this area which aims at preventing accidents from happening. One accident prevention method is called ‘The Safety Scanning Tool (SST)’. The study conducted in this thesis aimed at exploring whether the SST could improve the safety understanding of experts from the domain of aviation. The term ‘safety understanding’, as it is used in this thesis, refers to the understanding of central scientific concepts underlying safety. These concepts relate to the area of accident prevention and they were the results of a literature study on safety. Thus, the safety understanding was addressed on two levels of abstraction. The first general abstraction level concerned the basic assumptions for studying an organization’s safety culture relating to Schein’s (1992) framework cited by Guldenmund (2000). This relates to the area of accident prevention in a more general way. The second more specific abstraction level regarded 21 different safety issues important for accident prevention. These originated from the area of resilience engineering. Furthermore, this study was structured as a field experiment using a pre-post test and a within-group design.  In order to measure the different experts’ safety understanding, the data were gathered with the help of two surveys before and after the experts’ used the SST. The SST was applied to two groups of experts. In the first group, they were six people, and, in the second 16. The questions in the surveys were created with the help of the above mentioned literature study on safety. The results were analyzed with the help of the statistics program SPSS. In addition, the results were analyzed with the help of sources from academic literature. These were used in order to determine whether there was an improvement of the safety understanding or not. Based on the results from this study, it can be concluded that undergoing the SST caused several improvements of the experts’ safety understanding. These improvements were found in both groups of experts and on both abstraction levels of the safety understanding. However, one result relating to the basic assumption level in the second group of experts could be interpreted both as an improvement and as a decrease of the safety understanding. The results of this study indicate not only that the SST has the ability to detect safety problems in an early state, before they can develop to the outcome of an accident. It has also the ability to enhance its user’s safety understanding relating to factors important for accident prevention.

Bakgrund: Sveriges äldre befolkning ökar samtidigt som medellivslängden bland äldre människor stiger. Forskning visar att malnutrition hos äldre har ökat och fler ligger i riskzonen för att drabbas av malnutrition. Som en konsekvens är det därför troligt att malnutrition som fenomen och problem kommer att öka hos äldre. Malnutrition diagnostiseras inte ofta och uppmärksammas inte tillräckligt inom vården, vilket kan ge negativa effekter hos de äldre. Syfte: Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att belysa orsaker till malnutrition och konsekvenser av malnutrition hos äldre från sextiofem år. Metod: Studien är en litteraturöversikt baserad på sexton vetenskapliga artiklar med kvantitativ design. Resultat: Samtliga artiklar berör vad som orsakar malnutrition samt vilka konsekvenser det kan få för äldre. Resultatet i denna studie redovisas i två delar; orsaker till malnutrition (genus, ålder, medicinering och demens) och konsekvenser av malnutrition (försämrad livskvalité, depression (psykisk ohälsa), högre mortalitetsrisk, högre infektionsrisk samt långa sjukhusvistelser). Slutsats: Studien visar att orsaker och konsekvenser av malnutrition hos äldre inte har uppmärksammats tillräckligt då prevalensen av malnutrition är hög och stiger. Klinisk betydelse: Trots att det forskas mycket om malnutrition hos äldre stiger antalet som drabbas av malnutrition. Det är därför av högsta prioritet att sätta in åtgärder som är anpassade till dagens vårdarbete och behov för att minska antalet som ligger i riskzonen att drabbas. / Background: Sweden's elderly population is increasing while the average life expectancy of older people increases. Research shows that malnutrition in the elderly increases and more are at risk of suffering from malnutrition. As a consequence, it is likely that malnutrition as a phenomena and problem will increase in the elderly. Malnutrition is often miss diagnosed and receives insufficient attention in health care, which can have negative effects in the elderly. Aim: The aim of this study is to illustrate the causes and consequences of malnutrition in elderly from sixty-five years old. Method: A literature study with sixteen articles with quantitative deign. Results: All articles are related to the causes of malnutrition and the impact it can have on the elderly. The results of this study are presented in two parts: the causes of malnutrition (gender, age, medication and dementia), and impacts of malnutrition (impaired quality of life, depression (mental health), higher mortality risk, higher risk of infection and long hospital stays). Conclusion: The study shows that the causes and consequences of malnutrition in the elderly has not been acknowledged enough because the prevalance of malnutrition is high and still rising. Clinical significance: Although malnutrition in the elderly is a widely researched topic the numbers of elderly suffering from malnutrition are still increasing. It is therefore of the highest priority to put in measures suited to today's health care work to reduce the number of elderly that are at risk of being affected.

Depuis le début de la décennie 2000, l’usage du concept de résilience est devenu récurrent, voire incontournable dans les domaines institutionnels de l’aide internationale (aide d’urgence, aide au développement) et de la sécurité civile (prévention, protection de la population, gestion des risques et des crises). Le concept de résilience fait parallèlement l'objet d'usages variés et parfois beaucoup plus anciens en psychologie, en géographie, dans le domaine de l'écologie, en sociologie, en science politique, en sciences de gestion et en ergonomie. Ce travail de thèse vise précisément à identifier et faire l'inventaire de ces différents usages académiques et institutionnels. La première partie recense les usages du concept de résilience dans les différentes disciplines et domaines de recherche précédemment évoqués. La seconde partie recense dans un premier temps l'usage du concept de résilience au sein des principales institutions et ONG d'aide internationale. Elle recense dans un second temps les usages du concept de résilience au sein des institutions et organisations directement concernées par les questions de sécurité civile au niveau international et européen et aux niveaux nationaux américain, britannique et français. Elle montre que l'usage du concept de résilience correspond à un processus de reconfiguration et de relégitimation de leurs activités dans un contexte de persistance des situations de crise qui a progressivement fragilisé les conditions de leur mise en œuvre. / Since the beginning of the decade 2000, the concept of resilience has been repeatedly used in the institutional fields of international aid (emergency aid, development aid) and civil security (prevention, population protection, risks and crises management) until becoming impossible to ignore. In parallel, the concept of resilience has been used in various disciplines for a much longer time, like in psychology, geography, in the field of ecology, in political science, in management studies and in ergonomics. This thesis work precisely aims at identifying and making the inventory of these different academic and institutional uses. The first part of the thesis provides an accounting of the different uses of the concept of resilience in the disciplines and search fields previously mentioned. The second part is primarly focused on the use of the concept of resilience by the main international aid institutions and NGOs. It is secondly focused on the uses of the concept of resilience by the institutions and organizations directly involved in civil security issues at an international and European level and at a national level with the United States, the United Kingdom and France. It shows that the use of the concept of resilience can be interpreted as a reconfiguration process of their activity in a context where crises persistently happen and progressively weaken their own legitimacy and conditions of action.

"In Africa, the struggle for human rights shares a great deal of common ground with the struggle against corruption. In fighting to improve the lot of a majority of the world's population, one must recognise that the fight for social and economic rights is often intimately linked to the fight against the monopolisation of resources by 'networks of patronage'. Corruption perpetuates discrimination, prevents the full realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, and leads to the infringement of several civil and political rights. In a move that acknowledged the fact that corruption is a pervasive problem in Africa, the African Union (AU) adopted the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AU Convention or Convention) in July 2003. This Convention is yet to enter into force. Likewise, in Nigeria and South Africa, the governments are on renewed campaigns against corruption using anti-corruption legislative and institutional frameworks. These anti-corruption legislation mainly address corruption by criminaliszing it. This is mainly because the phenomenon of corruption is being approached from an economic or pollitical viewpoint. No doubt criminal anti-corruption legislation and institutions are necessary, but this dissertation seeks to evaluate them in terms of their relative or possible successes and challlenges, especially in cases of widespread societal corruption. The premise of this disseration is that from a preliminary assessment, it would seem that the law is losing ground in the battle against corruption. It thus posits that the effectiveness of the law in the fight against corruption will continue to diminish if it fails to addres the social and economic factors that cause the initial problematic behaviour. Presently, the law concentrates on merely proscribing and punishing corruption. It is not being used to address the social and economic conditions that perpetuate corruption, hence, its ineffectiveness especially in cases where the incidence of corruption is so high as to be classified as systemic. In these situations, mere legislative and institutional responses may not suffice as anti-corruption measures. The underlying catalysts for such a hihg degree of corruption - the social and economic injustices resulting in a cyclical reproduction of corruption - are usually not addressed by these responses. In addition, these responses tend to underrate the need to empower those who are at the receiving end of corruption. They thereby concentrate solely on the empowerment of institutional machineries in the fight against corruption. This is the premise upon which this dissertation is built: the need to transcend the tratidional responses to corruption in a manner which hopes that by empowering people using a human rights approach, the underlying causes of systemic corruption may be reduced. Then, perhaps, the society would have discovered a veritable anti-corruption tool. ... This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter one provides the general introduction into the study. Chapter two then analyses the phenomenon of corruption and its impact on human rights in Africa. This analysis focuses on case studies and situations in Africa. Chapter three follows with an appraisal of the AU Convention and anti-corruption initiatives in Nigeria and South Africa. This appraisal begins with highlights of the normative framework of the Convention and goes on to assess the impact of such frameworks in the two countries under focus where they are already largely being implemented. Chapter four thereafter introduces a two-pronged human rights approach to combating corruption. This approach consists of a reinforcement of the guarantee of human rights, as well as the proposal for a freedom from corruption as human right. Chapter five consists of conclusion and recommendations." -- Introduction. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Angelo Matusse at the Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mocambique / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

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The purpose with this paper is to study potential enabling and preventing factors when introducing a Swedish project in India. I have introduced a Swedish projecin India. The project aims to strengthen young men's self-esteem and to discuss respect, equality and children rights. The basis for the project is the UN convention on the rights of the child. The project was introduced ten university students. These university students were trained in conversation methods and wilimplement discussion meetings with young guys. I have studied the implementation process and conducted interviews with the participants. The aim with this paper was to gain a deeper insight into how best to implement a Swedisproject in India. The result shows that implementation process is complicated, buthat the implementation of a Swedish project in India is more than possible.

Sexualization can affect individuals of all ages, colors, sexualities, and genders. Sexualization may affect women and girls more commonly and intensely, however. Sexualization occurs when one's value is placed solely on their appearance. Sexualization has been observed to happen through two main sources: the media and interpersonal relationships. Consequently, a third source may arise when girls internalize the sexualization. It has been demonstrated that sexualization can have negative and positive consequences for adolescent girls. Though sexualization may have positive consequences, such as sexual agency, the negative consequences seem to outweigh them. Despite the amount of attention this topic has received, there seems to be a lack of literature exploring ways to prevent or decrease sexualization among girls. However, research has shown that awareness-increasing interventions have been effective in changing health-related behaviors. The present study searched for common themes among previous awareness-increasing interventions. The results indicated 3 common themes: education, training, and monitoring. It is possible, then, that an intervention designed to increase awareness of sexualization, train the targets skills necessary for challenging sexualizing messages, and monitoring their progress could reduce sexualization. Finding a way to decrease sexualization aimed at adolescent girls could make more girls realize that their worth does not just lie within their appearance and not allow people to treat them as such.

In this paper theater is understood as a tool to communicate social transformation and the purpose of this study is to investigate the use of Theater for Development in relation to preventing violence and explore if, how and why the use differ in relation to preventing direct or structural violence. By analyzing the narrated experiences of Kenyan theaterpractitioners work through the theoretical perspectives presented by Homi K. Bhabha and John Paul Lederach this paper then argues that theater can create an elicitive Third Space where the passive spectators in the audience can be turned into empathetic, conscientized spect-actors and where conflicting communication can occur without violence. It then goes on to theorize on how the explanation to the differences exists in what the performance need to achieve in the elicitive Third space.