This thesis is a biocultural analysis of the 1918 influenza pandemic among soldiers in the Polish army and the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) training in Canada. Using an ethnographic epidemiological method and a variety of archival sources, I explore the 1918 influenza pandemic and focus on the first two pandemic waves which occurred between 1 January and 31 December 1918. This research examines the impact of influenza at the Polish army camp at Niagara-on-the-Lake, on soldiers treated in military hospitals across Ontario, and among recruits on troopships bound for Europe. The primary questions behind this thesis are: in what ways did the war effort intersect with pandemic influenza to affect soldiers in the Polish army camp at Niagara-on-the-Lake, across Ontario, and on troopships bound for Europe? What patterns of morbidity and mortality characterize the first two waves of the pandemic in Ontario’s military hospitals? Were all soldiers equally vulnerable to infection and death from influenza? These questions are addressed in this ‘sandwich thesis’ in three papers which are either published or have been submitted for publication. Pandemic influenza and the war effort in Canada were intimately linked. At the Polish army camp, crowding was prevalent in all aspects of the soldiers’ lives and facilitated the spread of airborne infectious diseases, including influenza. Soldiers continued to be sent to Canada from infected cities in the U.S. throughout the fall wave of the pandemic. Similar events played out on troopships bound for Europe in the summer of 1918 where epidemics of influenza occurred on board, in spite of regulations established in the summer of 1918 to prevent troopships from transporting soldiers sick with influenza. These findings support Humphries’s (2005, 2012) assertion that the war effort took precedence over the health of individual soldiers and the surrounding community. On the other hand, military authorities put the Polish army camp under quarantine in the fall of 1918 and great efforts were made to ensure that sick soldiers were cared for during the epidemic. This close examination of the epidemic in a particular location suggests that military management of the influenza pandemic was complicated and was mediated by a variety of local factors. Previous experience with the influenza virus, and the overarching social perceptions of the disease, also tempered the way in which military authorities managed the pandemic. I compare the way in which military doctors treated CEF soldiers hospitalized with influenza to those hospitalized with venereal disease. I argue that whereas influenza was understood to be a ‘normal’ or ‘everyday’ infection that rarely killed young people in the prime of life (being most deadly to the very young and old), other infectious diseases, such as venereal diseases, were treated with lengthy stays in hospital in spite of the need for soldiers overseas. This highlights the way the social perception of disease affected the ways in which the military handled sick soldiers. This research also confirms the presence of the first wave of influenza among soldiers of the CEF in the spring and summer of 1918. The Admission and Discharge (A&D) records for military hospitals confirm that the first wave of pandemic influenza circulated among soldiers training in Ontario’s military camps between March and May of 1918. The second wave occurred between September and December that year. Mortality during the second wave was more severe, with a case fatality rate of 4.7% among hospitalized soldiers, more than double the rate of 2.3% from March to May. However, not all soldiers were equally vulnerable to the 1918 influenza pandemic. Morbidity and mortality were concentrated in the military district headquarters, and during the second wave, new recruits were more vulnerable to both infection and death than seasoned soldiers. I hypothesize that this is the result of cross-protection between successive waves of the pandemic, whereby seasoned soldiers were less vulnerable during the fall wave by virtue of exposure to the first wave of the pandemic in the military. Since new recruits were most likely conscripts, this is another way in which the war effort in Canada was linked to soldier morbidity and mortality. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The present thesis concerns middle-aged women’s subjective well-being (SWB). The interest is focused on the importance of childhood factors, social circumstances, and personality for middle-aged women’s general SWB. Data were taken from the longitudinal research program Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA, Magnusson & Bergman, 2000) and concerned a sample of about 300 women. The main analyses were made on data collected at age 43, but data collected at age 13 and age 49 were also used to elucidate the purposes of this thesis. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) In a Swedish sample of middle-aged women, social circumstances had only a moderate effect on general SWB variables. The strongest relationship was found between marital status and global life satisfaction. When personality factors were controlled for, they wiped out nearly all relationships between the social circumstances variables and SWB, except for those between global life satisfaction and marital status or unemployment; 2) The level of general SWB was found to be considerably higher for Swedish employed women as compared to their counterparts in Lithuania and different socio-demographic variables predicted SWB in those two countries. For the Swedish sample, family-oriented variables were the strongest predictors of SWB, while for the Lithuanian sample income and educational level were more important; 3) Results from applying longitudinal structural equation modeling suggested that optimism in adolescence influenced optimism in middle age, which in its turn had both a direct influence on global life satisfaction and an indirect influence via the negative affect dimension. In relation to a number of different adjustment factors measured in adolescence it was found that optimism was the only factor that was constantly related to SWB 30 years later; 4) Typical patterns of general SWB were identified. Cluster analyses at age 43 and age 49 separately resulted in similar well-functioning six cluster solutions at both ages, indicating structural stability across six years. In addition to the typical high/low/average SWB clusters that could be to some degree expected from variable-oriented results, a cluster with intense affect and one with very low GLS emerged. All clusters except the latter one showed individual stability across six years.</p>

The present thesis concerns middle-aged women’s subjective well-being (SWB). The interest is focused on the importance of childhood factors, social circumstances, and personality for middle-aged women’s general SWB. Data were taken from the longitudinal research program Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA, Magnusson &amp; Bergman, 2000) and concerned a sample of about 300 women. The main analyses were made on data collected at age 43, but data collected at age 13 and age 49 were also used to elucidate the purposes of this thesis. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) In a Swedish sample of middle-aged women, social circumstances had only a moderate effect on general SWB variables. The strongest relationship was found between marital status and global life satisfaction. When personality factors were controlled for, they wiped out nearly all relationships between the social circumstances variables and SWB, except for those between global life satisfaction and marital status or unemployment; 2) The level of general SWB was found to be considerably higher for Swedish employed women as compared to their counterparts in Lithuania and different socio-demographic variables predicted SWB in those two countries. For the Swedish sample, family-oriented variables were the strongest predictors of SWB, while for the Lithuanian sample income and educational level were more important; 3) Results from applying longitudinal structural equation modeling suggested that optimism in adolescence influenced optimism in middle age, which in its turn had both a direct influence on global life satisfaction and an indirect influence via the negative affect dimension. In relation to a number of different adjustment factors measured in adolescence it was found that optimism was the only factor that was constantly related to SWB 30 years later; 4) Typical patterns of general SWB were identified. Cluster analyses at age 43 and age 49 separately resulted in similar well-functioning six cluster solutions at both ages, indicating structural stability across six years. In addition to the typical high/low/average SWB clusters that could be to some degree expected from variable-oriented results, a cluster with intense affect and one with very low GLS emerged. All clusters except the latter one showed individual stability across six years.

The thesis is focused on the specifics of the social service called low-threshold facility for children and youth and how the virtual communication can be used to work with the clients of the service. In the theoretical part the low-threshold facilities for children and youth, range, principles and target audience of this social service are described. Also function and purpose of communication is described and the specifics of mobile and virtual communication are characterised. The possibilities how to use the mobile and virtual communication in basic and special social consultancy are another topic. The practical part is focused on mapping how the area of Czech Republic is covered with the facilities supplying the social service called low-threshold facility for children and youth. It also includes a survey research reflecting actual practise in using the virtual communication as a tool when working with clients in these facilities. In current facilities mainly e-mail and Facebook social network are used sometimes also Skype, ICQ application and other social networks. Current practise is very diverse because a complex professional methodical basis to supply this service model is still missing.