Yes / This qualitative study was designed to understand the impact of social distancing measures on people with dementia and carers living in the community in England and Wales during a period of social restrictions before the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with people with dementia aged 50-88 years, living alone or with a partner, and 10 carers aged 61-78 years, all living with the person with dementia. Three of the interviews were with dyads. Participants were recruited during November and December 2020. We used framework analysis to identify themes and elicit suggestions for potential solutions. We identified three interrelated themes. People with dementia experienced a fear of decline in capabilities or mood and attempted to mitigate this. Carers noticed changes in the person with dementia and increased caring responsibilities, and for some, a change in the relationship. Subsequently, reduced confidence in capabilities to navigate a new and hostile environment created a cyclical dilemma of re-engaging where an inability to access usual activities made things worse. People with dementia and carers experienced neglect and being alone in their struggle, alongside feeling socially excluded during the pandemic, and there was little optimism associated with the upcoming vaccine programme. People found their own solutions to reduce the effects of isolation by keeping busy and being socially active, and practising skills deemed to help reduce the progression of dementia. This and some limited local public initiatives for the general public facilitated feelings of social inclusion. This study adds understanding to existing evidence about the longer-term experience of social isolation several months into the pandemic. It highlights the importance of health and community groups and suggests how services can find ways to support, include, and interact with people with dementia and carers during and after social restrictions. / Economic and Social Research Council. Grant Numbers: ES/V004964/1, L001853, V004964. National Institute for Health and Care Research. Grant Number: ES/L001853/2. Department of Health. UK Research and Innovation. Health and Care Research Wales

The thesis is focused on analysis and comparison of the company's internal project methodology and official project methodology PRINCE2. This thesis aims to evaluate which of the methodologies is more suitable for management of projects in Ahold. A comparative qualitative analysis is used for the comparison of the project methodologies. The analysis is mainly focused on comparison of project phases, processes and documents. Furthermore concrete project is used to substantiate how each of these project methodologies would influence its realization. Comparing internal methodology and PRINCE2 methodology it was found that the internal project methodology that respects the specifics of Ahold is better for project management than official methodology PRINCE2.

Background: Fear of falling is now recognized as an independent fall risk factor due to its prevalence in older adults. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of fear of falling levels in community-dwelling older adults before and after attending a fall prevention clinic. Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used. The Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) tool assessed fear of falling levels before and after attending a fall prevention clinic (n=32). Semi-structured interviews were then conducted in a sample of these participants (n=12). Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the before (M=30.44, SD=9.8) and after (M=31.72, SD=8.3) FES-I scores. Three themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: 1. Concerns about falling, 2. Decreased concerns about falling and 3. An increased self-awareness of fall risks. Conclusion: Further use of cognitive-behavioural therapy should be considered in falls risk reduction interventions for community-dwelling older adults with fear of falling.

In this study, comparisons on job stressors and job strains have been made between American and Chinese employees. Data were collected from two jobs differing in social status: university professors and university administrative and support staff. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The quantitative part involved traditional Likert scales for measuring job stressors (e.g., lack of job autonomy, interpersonal conflict, and organizational constraints), and job strains (e.g., turnover intention, frustration, negative emotions, job dissatisfaction, depression, and physical symptoms). The qualitative part was an open-ended questionnaire asking about a stressful job incident. Independent t-tests were used to compare the United States to China on the job stressors and job strains for the quantitative data. Content analyses were applied on the open-ended answers. Finally, I conducted chi-square tests to examine if the frequencies of reported stressors/strains between the U.S. sample and the Chinese sample were significantly different. From the quantitative analyses on job stressors, American employees perceived more job autonomy and organizational constraints than Chinese employees. There was no significant difference between the two samples on interpersonal conflict. The analyses on the qualitative data revealed that heavy workload, interpersonal conflicts, and organizational constraints were the common job stressors for both the U.S. and Chinese samples. However, lack of job control was a unique stressor for American employees, while performance evaluations and work mistakes were specifically stressful for Chinese employees. The Chi-square analysis yielded a significant difference in the nature of reported stressors between the U.S. and Chinese sample. The qualitative analyses on job strain data revealed that, under high pressure, American employees tended to be angry and frustrated, while Chinese employees tended to feel worried and helpless. The most important physical symptom for the U.S. sample was tiredness and exhaust, while sleep problems was serious to Chinese sample. The Chisquare analysis yielded a significant difference in both psychological and physical strains between the U.S. and Chinese samples.

This report describes a program which automatically characterizes the behavior of any driven, nonlinear, electrical circuit. To do this, the program autonomously selects interesting input parameters, drives the circuit, measures its response, performs a set of numeric computations on the measured data, interprets the results, and decomposes the circuit's parameter space into regions of qualitatively distinct behavior. The output is a two-dimensional portrait summarizing the high-level, qualitative behavior of the circuit for every point in the graph, an accompanying textual explanation describing any interesting patterns observed in the diagram, and a symbolic description of the circuit's behavior which can be passed on to other programs for further analysis.

Comparative analysis is the problem of predicting how a system will react to perturbations in its parameters, and why. For example, comparative analysis could be asked to explain why the period of an oscillating spring/block system would increase if the mass of the block were larger. This thesis formalizes the task of comparative analysis and presents two solution techniques: differential qualitative (DQ) analysis and exaggeration. Both techniques solve many comparative analysis problems, providing explanations suitable for use by design systems, automated diagnosis, intelligent tutoring systems, and explanation based generalization. This thesis explains the theoretical basis for each technique, describes how they are implemented, and discusses the difference between the two. DQ analysis is sound; it never generates an incorrect answer to a comparative analysis question. Although exaggeration does occasionally produce misleading answers, it solves a larger class of problems than DQ analysis and frequently results in simpler explanations.

AbstractTitle: Private or public? A study of the content in the celebrity blog and the readers'comments. (Privat eller offentlig? En studie av kändisbloggens innehåll och läsarnaskommentarer)Number of pages: 36 (37 including enclosure)Author: Karoline FrankTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication studies CPeriod: Fall semester 2009University: Uppsala UniversityAim: The aim of this study is to examine the boundary between the private and the public asit is expressed in a number of blogs written by Swedish celebrities.Material/Method: Qualitative textual analysis of four blogs written by Swedishcelebrities.The total amount of analyzed blog posts were 120, since 30 posts from each of theblogs were selected. Also the comments on the blog posts, given by the blog readers wereexamined.Main results: The examined blogs written by celebrities contain both issues that can beconsidered as private and public. The celebrities write about their families, especially theirchildren but, also about their partners as well as they write about things such as movies orrestaurants that they recommend. They also express their emotions relatively often. Only twoof the celebrities wrote something that can be considered to associate with their professionbut, only in one blog post each. Also, two of the celebrities made a treatment against media.Keywords: celebrities, blogs, private, public, Thompson, Giddens, qualitative analysis,comments

This research identifies and analyzes the breadth and depth of the network of non-profit environmental organizations, sportsmen-oriented conservation groups, county conservation districts and state parks that advocate for or against Marcellus Shale drilling within northeastern and southwestern Pennsylvania where drilling occurs. The purpose of this study is to identify where resources are being mobilized and where environmental activities that focus on Marcellus Shale issues are underrepresented in the state. Results show that the counties with a higher number of gas wells do not necessarily have a higher level of environmental advocacy and that a lack of resources is a common barrier to this type of work. Organizations are better connected locally within the northeast. Counties which need to bolster their Marcellus Shale advocacy efforts in the northeast include: Carbon, Pike, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wayne; and in the southwest: Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Somerset and Washington. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy / MA; / Thesis;

ADHD är en vanligt förekommande neuropsykiatrisk störning bland barn, vilka uppvisar beteende som överaktivitet, uppmärksamhetsstörning och impulsivitet. För föräldrarna kan detta innebära svårigheter att hantera barnens beteende och sätta begränsningar. Syftet med studien var att belysa föräldrars upplevelse från sitt dagliga liv med barn med ADHD problematik. Metoden som använts var en litteraturstudie som analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys och baseras på sju vetenskapliga artiklar som motsvarade syftet för studien. I resultatet framkom: Föräldrarnas uppfostringsförsök, Föräldrarnas relation, Ett minskat kontaktnät, Behov av stöd och hjälp, Hopp och förtvivlan samt Kulturkrock och rollförväntningar. Det förekom i resultatet att föräldrarna hade ett svårthanterbart liv som berodde på barnets problematik. Många föräldrar hade svårighet att acceptera barnets diagnos, vilket gav upphov till blandade känslor som sorg, frustration, ångest, lidande men även välbefinnande. Barnets överaktivitet och impulsivitet hade en stor inverkan på föräldrarnas liv. Föräldrarna lärde sig olika tillvägagångssätt för att hantera barnets beteende. Resultatet visade också att föräldrarna upplevde en stor förändring av sitt sociala liv vilket innebar ett minskat kontaktnät för föräldrarna. Att ha barn med ADHD var påfrestande och föräldrarna upplevde sig jämt missförstådda och hjälplösa, men trots det accepterade de flesta föräldrar sin situation och gjorde det bästa av det.

ADHD är en vanligt förekommande neuropsykiatrisk störning bland barn, vilka uppvisar beteende som överaktivitet, uppmärksamhetsstörning och impulsivitet. För föräldrarna kan detta innebära svårigheter att hantera barnens beteende och sätta begränsningar. Syftet med studien var att belysa föräldrars upplevelse från sitt dagliga liv med barn med ADHD problematik. Metoden som använts var en litteraturstudie som analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys och baseras på sju vetenskapliga artiklar som motsvarade syftet för studien. I resultatet framkom: Föräldrarnas uppfostringsförsök, Föräldrarnas relation, Ett minskat kontaktnät, Behov av stöd och hjälp, Hopp och förtvivlan samt Kulturkrock och rollförväntningar. Det förekom i resultatet att föräldrarna hade ett svårthanterbart liv som berodde på barnets problematik. Många föräldrar hade svårighet att acceptera barnets diagnos, vilket gav upphov till blandade känslor som sorg, frustration, ångest, lidande men även välbefinnande. Barnets överaktivitet och impulsivitet hade en stor inverkan på föräldrarnas liv. Föräldrarna lärde sig olika tillvägagångssätt för att hantera barnets beteende. Resultatet visade också att föräldrarna upplevde en stor förändring av sitt sociala liv vilket innebar ett minskat kontaktnät för föräldrarna. Att ha barn med ADHD var påfrestande och föräldrarna upplevde sig jämt missförstådda och hjälplösa, men trots det accepterade de flesta föräldrar sin situation och gjorde det bästa av det.