The purpose of the thesis is to understand and analyze the present situation of gender equality in politics in the Philippines, investigate women's opportunities to be politically active and to exercise political influence. Finally find out if there is a difference in horizontal and vertical positions between women's and men's representation in politics and investigate further possibilities and problems that might be associated with women's political representation in the Philippines. The empirical material for this thesis has been gathered through qualitative interviews with male and female politicians from Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The theoretical framework is divided into different parts which are used to analyse various points from the empirical material. In this chapter, we included theories about differences between gender experiences and why women should be politically active. As well as the meaning of an overrepresentation of a certain group in politics and the possible reasons to women’s underrepresentation in politics as well as the arguments about women's presence in politics, and also the horizontal and vertical segregations. To analyse the empirics from a theoretical point of view, we have divided the results into three sub-categories which are the respondents' attitude to the present situation of gender equality in politics, women's opportunities to be politically active and to make political influence and the horizontal or vertical divisions between women and men's positions in politics.  The results from this thesis shows that women are as competent as men in the political field, and they have a lot of experiences to contribute with in politics that benefit all the citizens, but it is easier for women to come in politics if they are a part of a political clan. But these women, who replace their family members, usually pursue those members’ decision, but do not act according to their own will.

Jämställdhet är ett ämne som frekvent diskuteras inom musikbranschen, men trots det finns det en tydlig manlig dominans på ledande och kreativa poster. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie där vi har undersökt hur organisationer inom musikbranschen arbetar internt och externt med jämställdhet samt hur de avser komma till rätta med problematiken att kreativa och ledande positioner domineras av män. Vi har genomfört semi-strukturerade intervjuer med respondenter för att låta deras röster komma till tals. Slutsatsen visar att jämställdhet är något hela branschen anser viktigt att arbeta med, men det finns olika åsikter hur förändringen konkret ska gå till väga. Organisationerna tycks gå mot en jämn könsfördelning, men problematik med horisontell och vertikal könssegregering är fortfarande högst aktuellt, varför en normkritik på den egna organisationen är viktigt. Ett konkret verktyg för förändring är en medveten rekrytering. Något som efterfrågas är högre krav från samhället på jämställdhetsarbete, då det tvingar organisationer och påskyndar förändringsprocessen. För att vi ska nå ett jämställt samhälle krävs det att alla organisationer i samspel med samhället tillsammans strävar mot samma mål. / Gender equality is a subject that is frequently discussed within the Swedish music business, but there is despite that still an evident male dominance on leading and creative positions. We have done a qualitative research where we studied how organisations within the music business are working internally and externally with gender equality, and how they intend to solve the issue of men and women not having the same possibilities to achieve career. We have done semi-structured interviews with respondents, to let their opinions be heard and make their perspective the main focus of our research. The conclusion of this study is that the Swedish music business believe that gender equality is important to work with, but the opinions on how to do so differs depending on whom you ask. The organisations tend to move towards an even distribution between the sexes, but issues with horizontal and vertical gender segregation is still very current, why it is important to question the existing norms within one’s organisation. A specific tool to achieve a more gender equal organisation, is to be more aware when recruiting. Something that is being requested is that society make higher demands on gender equality work, as that would force organisations to change more rapidly. To reach a gender equal society, all organisations together with the society must have the same goal and collectively work to reach it.

I denna kvalitativa intervjustudie undersöktes hur barn med neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar beskriver flytten från en vanlig skola till en specialutformad skola. Det undersöktes i vilken utsträckning barnets perspektiv beaktades under processen av skolbytet. Studiens övergripande fynd visar att elever med neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar har begränsat aktörskap och låg delaktighet i skolan och att bytet till en specialutformad skola har konsekvenser för barnens identitetsformering. Med hjälp av den narrativa analysen framkom att eleverna upplever en dålig situation i den gamla skolan, där de inte får den hjälp de behöver. Elevernas delaktighet och inflytande åsidosätts och de har svag röst i fråga om bytet till en annan skola och de sällan deltar i beslut som berör dem. Studiens resulat tyder på behovet att reflektera om hur skolans verksamheter skulle organiseras så att alla barn får den hjälp de behöver, beakta barns rätt att själv utöva makt över sitt eget liv och att delta i beslutsfattande processer som rör dem samt att beakta barnets perspektiv vid alla skolrelaterade överväganden.

<p>Recent technological advances enable us to examine bacterial population dynamics with high temporal resolution with capacity for collecting high throughput data. Precise quantification of bacterial population dynamics can help us to further extend our understanding of how bacteria respond to environmental conditions. Such analysis provides critical information for improving antibiotic treatment protocols and for predictable engineering cellular behavior with synthetic gene circuits. </p><p>A fundamental question in bacterial population dynamics is how fast bacteria are killed in response to antibiotics. Due to their mode of action, β-lactams are more effective against fast-growing bacteria than against slow-growing bacteria. Indeed, it has been recognized that the rate of lysis by β-lactam antibiotics depends on the growth rate of the bacteria, based on previous works. However, past studies examined the growth rate modulation of lysis only during balanced growth and for very limited combinations of bacteria and drugs. Although there is evidence that growth plays key role in determining bacterial response to antibiotics, more comprehensive understanding on how wide range of growth rates affect antibiotic dose response had been overlooked. Instead, bacterial growth has been largely described to be in either growing or non-growing states. </p><p>To examine the general applicability of this growth rate dependence of antibiotic response, I examined how growth rate influences the lysis rate induced by beta-lactams. I found that there is a robust correlation between growth and lysis rates beyond what had been demonstrated in the previous work. Even during unbalanced growth, and regardless of how growth rate was modulated, the robust correlation between growth and lysis rates in bacterial populations were observed. Also, my data suggested a striking versatility of this correlation in different bacterial specie-drug pairs. Thus, my quantification greatly expands previous work by further examining the dependence of lysis rate on growth rate, and extends our understanding of the phenomenon associated with β-lactam antibiotic treatment, and of possible consequences arising from variable lysis rate. My strategy on modulating growth rates and measuring corresponding lysis rates demonstrates a simple and robust method for examining this phenomenon. These results have direct implications in two aspects.</p><p> First, my quantification method allows greater degree of freedom in modulating growth states of bacteria. Indeed, I was able to examine a wide range of growth rates in bacteria that allowed analyses of robust correlation in growth and lysis rates. The simple correlation reported from my work suggests the underlying reasoning for slow or fast lysis of bacterial population that can lead to designing optimal protocols depending on the growth rates of bacterial population. Due to frequent observation of slow-growing cells under conditions such as biofilm of pathogenic bacteria that complicates clinical symptoms and treatments in patients, they have been an important aspect of study for antibiotic tolerance. A quantitative understanding of the robust correlation between growth and lysis rates is critical for designing effective treatment protocols using β-lactams. </p><p> Second, the robust correlation serves as a foundation for predicting dynamics of synthetic gene circuits engineered for practical applications. In my work, I developed a prototype microbial swarmbot, which employs spatial arrangement to control growth dynamics of engineered bacteria. I demonstrated an engineered safeguard strategy to prevent unintended bacterial proliferation with this platform technology. In this work, I adopted several synthetic gene circuits to program collective survival in Escherichia coli: the engineered bacteria could only survive when present at sufficiently high population densities. When encapsulated by permeable membranes, these bacteria can sense the local environment and respond accordingly. The cells inside microbial swarmbots will survive due to their high densities. Those escaping from a capsule, however, will be killed due to a decrease in their densities. In this work, using antibiotics to control growth dynamics of the engineered populations was critical, and optimization of the growth dynamics depended on their environmental conditions that modulated their growth rates.</p><p>Together, my investigation on quantifying and analyzing bacterial growth dynamics demonstrated that understanding of bacterial population dynamics is crucial in addressing antibiotic tolerance in bacteria as well as in using them for engineered functions. By further examining the dependence of lysis rate on growth rate, we extended our understanding of the phenomenon associated with β-lactam antibiotic treatment, and of possible consequences arising from variable lysis rate. This information is important in designing a modular and readily generalizable platform technology as well. Therefore, my work demonstrates quantitative approach towards understanding of bacterial populations, and lays the foundation for engineering integrated and programmable control of hybrid biological-material systems for diverse applications.</p> / Dissertation

Popular music life is permeated by both male dominance and gender segregation – the latter most notably concerns musical instrument choice. The pervasiveness of these phenomena is suggested by both music research on gender and statistics. In this study, the overarching ambition is to explain boys' reproductive approaches to popular music/making. In order to successfully carry out a study with such an explanatory ambition, a theory of causality in social life is necessary. In this thesis the notion of causality is taken from a critical realist tradition. However, explanation and causal analysis is most often rejected among music researchers who deal with questions of gender. Nonetheless, I would argue that explanatory ambitions are tacit starting points in this kind of research, and the field would stand to gain from making them explicit. Therefore I have formulated two aims, which my study addresses. The first one is to explain boys' reproductive approaches to popular music/making, in regard to male dominance and gender segregation. The second one is more theoretically oriented: to apply critical realism within music research on gender. The aims has been fulfilled by, first, identifying the boys' adoption of and distancing from different approaches to popular music/musicians and musical instruments. Second, the boys' approaches are explained by reconstructing the social, cultural and psychological conditions that has enabled them. Altogether, this demonstrates why and how the boys' reproductive approaches arise, which (potentially) lead to a reproduction of the male dominance and gender segregation within the popular music field.

DNA translocases are molecular motors that use energy from nucleotide triphosphate (NTP) hydrolysis to move along, pump, remodel or clear DNA. Unlike helicases, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) translocases do not unwind DNA; their action has no net product apart from inducing supercoils as a result of groove-tracking, which has hampered their characterisation. Many dsDNA translocases appear to have biased directionality. However, the inherent symmetry of dsDNA requires that translocase activity is regulated by specific sequences or through modulation by interaction partners. FtsK is a highly conserved bacterial cell-division protein, localised to the dividing septum, that coordinates chromosome segregation with cytokinesis. It is responsible for the resolution of chromosome dimers by activating the tyrosine recombinases XerCD bound to the 28bp chromosomal site dif. The C-terminal domain of FtsK (FtsKC) is a dsDNA translocase (speed ~5 kb/s, stall force ~60 pN) most closely related to superfamily 4 helicases and is active as a hexameric ring. A winged-helix subdomain at the C-terminus of FtsKC, FtsKgamma, binds to specific 8 bp sequences, KOPS, that are polarised in the bacterial chromosome from the origin to towards dif. FtsKgamma also interacts with XerD, activating it for catalysis. Studies of FtsK translocation have differed over whether KOPS act as a loading or a reversal sequence for FtsK. In Chapter 2, I use a continuous ensemble assay for dsDNA translocation to show that FtsK initiates rapidly at KOPS, with loading dependent on FtsKgamma. Translocation requires moderately cooperative ATP binding, while ATP hydrolysis has a more relaxed cooperativity. I have determined the ATP coupling efficiency of translocation to be ~1.6 bp/ATP, in line with theoretical estimates. Though FtsK probably strips most proteins from DNA, I show in Chapter 3 that FtsK stops translocating when it encounters XerCD bound to dif. The interaction is most likely a specific down-regulation, but surprisingly does not depend on FtsKgamma or on the catalytic or synaptic activity of XerCD. In Chapter 4, I show some preliminary structural data of FtsKC bound to dsDNA, with the aim of determining the first high resolution structure of a ring dsDNA translocase bound to nucleic acid.

This thesis consists of three chapters that analyze theoretically the role of income inequality in consumer markets. Each chapter introduces distributional considerations into an economic model where previously inequality did not play a major role. Chapter one uses a consumer search model to show under what conditions the distribution of income within a community is related to the type of firms that exist within that community, impacting the level of prices. We show that if time and money costs of search are high enough, only the middle class have incentive to search and therefore are the most aggressive shoppers. Using a supply side model, we argue that firms located in more informed communities are more likely to enter the market as large low-priced retailers. Connecting these two results, the model shows under what conditions the size of the middle class can have a negative relationship with the level of prices. Chapter two demonstrates how firm pricing strategy and determinants of household location can interact to determine city structure. In this city, consumers and firms live on a continuous line interval. The model consists of two types of firms; many high-cost perfectly competitive firms located in the Central Business District, and one large low-cost "Superstore", choosing its price strategically. We show how the shopping habits of the consumer population, as determined by the relative price of the Superstore and the Corner Stores, can contribute to the various income segregation outcomes described in previous literature. In addition we consider the impact of city population structure on the pricing decision of a monopolist facing a competitive fringe. Chapter three uses a simple model of banking services to consider how deposit-taking banks price for their services and choose the type of deposit customers that they target. This chapter goes beyond previous theoretical work on consumer banking, identifying the role of household income in the access to deposit services. We show that a higher rate of return on investments available to banks lowers financial exclusion, increasing the profitability of low-income consumers for deposit-taking institutions. This suggests that the possibility of financial exclusion increases in periods of recession. The chapter demonstrates how an increase in income dispersion can lead to a greater proportion of consumers excluded from mainstream banking.

No description available.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Background: The current adherence to colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) guidelines is suboptimal. How neighborhood characteristics, e.g., racial residential segregation (RRS), area-level socioeconomic status (SES) and physician composition, affect CRCS adherence are not fully understood. We assessed associations between facility proximity to RRS areas, area-level SES, physician composition, and CRCS adherence. Methods: Data sources included 2013 Minnesota Community Measurement, 2009-2013 American Community Survey, 2012 U.S. and 2012-2013 Washington State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, and 2013-2014 Area Health Resource File. Logistic regressions and weighted multilevel logistic regressions were used to assess the association between facility proximity to RRS areas and CRCS adherence, and association between area-level SES, physician composition and CRCS adherence, respectively. Results: Facility proximity to RRS areas was positively associated with low CRCS performance, e.g., facilities located < 2 miles away from Hispanic-segregated areas were 3 times more likely to have low CRCS performance than those at ≥5 miles away (odds ratio (OR): 2.83, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.29, 6.24). Most area-level SES measures showed negative bivariate associations between deprivation and colonoscopy/overall adherence, and measures such as education had relatively strong associations, although few of fully-adjusted associations remained statistically significant. Further, a one-unit increase in the percentage of gastroenterologists among physicians was associated with 3% increase in the odds of colonoscopy (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.04) and overall adherence (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.04) in the rural-metropolitan areas. Conclusions: Developing culturally tailored CRCS programs, increasing percentage of gastroenterologists, and targeting deprived communities may improve CRCS adherence.