This study aimed to collate and analyse academic literature with regards to possible African perspectives on psychological distress. The purpose of conducting the literature review was to explore thirty years of critical arguments supporting and refuting an African perspective on psychopathology. Literature (e.g. Bhugra&Bhui, 1997) appeared to suggest that some of the relatively recent views regarding psychopathology fail to adequately address psychological distress as it presents in Africa. A systematic literature review was selected as the methodology for this study, and the specific method of the review was research synthesis (Gough, 2004; Popay, 2005). Reviewed literature was sourced between the years 1980 and 2010. The theoretical point of departure was integrative theory, thus falling within the postpostmodern framework. As such, literature regarding psychological theory formed a substantial part of the research, including literature relating to psychodynamic theory, cognitive-behavioural theory, postmodernism, phenomenology, existentialism, critical theory, and systemic patterning (Becvar&Becvar, 1996). These theories formed part of the analysis, thereby allowing contextual analysis as the interpretive method. The review’s themes highlighted the following outcomes: current psychiatric nosology employed a universalistic approach to diagnosis and intervention, thus limiting cultural conceptions of mental illness; holistic intervention requires the inclusion of traditional epistemological tenets; collaboration between modern practitioners and traditional healers would probably better meet the patient’s needs; and that culture-fit assessment and treatment often indicated improved prognosis. The outcomes evidenced the operation of an African perspective on psychopathology. In fact, much of the reviewed literature also suggested culture-contextual perspectives on psychopathology. Furthermore, the way in which lack of cultural coherence appears to exist between patients and some clinicians suggested that diagnostic flaws may be a relatively frequent occurrence. Potential benefits of the investigation include increased awareness that culture-related conceptualisation be further explored in the clinical field; that future researchers use the current review as a foundational reference for primary investigations; that contemporary clinical classificatory systems be reviewed in terms of cultural applicability; and that clinicians reconsider the diagnostic process in terms of culture-fit manifestations of psychopathology. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

Kvinnor har länge använt olika metoder för att skydda sig mot graviditet. Omkring 1,1 miljarder kvinnor världen över är i behov av preventivmedelsrådgivning och familjeplanering. Ett av de vanligaste reversibla preventivmedlen är intrauterina preventivmedel. Det är ett säkert preventivmedel och ett allt mer populärt sådant. Samtidigt florerar negativa uppfattningar och erfarenheter kring preventivmedlet vilket gör att kvinnor inte vill använda det. Trots att det finns kunskap om ämnet finns det begränsat med kunskap om vilka faktorer som påverkar kvinnans val av preventivmetod. Genom att identifiera olika faktorer kan detta bidra till en förbättrad sexuell och reproduktiv hälsa för kvinnor. Syftet är att beskriva och sammanfatta faktorer som påverkar kvinnors beslut om att använda och inte använda intrauterina preventivmedel. Systematisk litteraturöversikt valdes som metod, där tretton artiklar med kvalitativ och kvantitativ design granskades. Två huvudteman med tillhörande subteman identifierades; Faktorer som relaterar till beslut om att använda intrauterina preventivmedel och Faktorer som relaterar till beslut om att inte använda intrauterina preventivmedel. Faktorerna kategoriserades vidare in i subteman och benämns som ett säkert preventivmedel, en trygg relation till vårdpersonal, rädsla för preventivmetodens egenskaper, negativ påverkan från samhället och kunskapsbrist hos patient och professionell vårdare. Resultaten visar att flera olika faktorer spelar in i kvinnans val gällande att använda eller inte använda intrauterina preventivmedel som preventivmetod. Ojämlikhet rörande ansvarstagande inom preventivmedel kan ses. Delaktighet och informerat val behövs för att skapa en god vårdrelation. / Women have used various methods to protect themselves against pregnancy. Around 1.1 billion women worldwide are in need of contraceptive counseling and family planning. One of the most common reversible contraceptives is intrauterine contraception. This contraceptive is a safe method and an increasingly popular one. At the same time, negative perceptions and experiences about the contraceptive abound, which means that some women do not want to use it. Although there is in-depth knowledge of the subject, there is limited knowledge about the factors that influence a woman's choice of contraceptive method. By identifying various factors, it can contribute to improved sexual and reproductive health for women. The aim of this study is to describe and summarize factors that influence women's decisions to use and non-use intrauterine contraceptives. A systematic literature review was selected where thirteen articles with qualitative and quantitative design have been reviewed. Two main themes and associated sub-themes were identified; Factors related to decisions to use intrauterine contraceptives and Factors related to decisions to not use intrauterine contraceptives. The factors were further categorized into sub-themes and are referred to as a safe contraceptive, a trusting relationship with healthcare staff, fear of the qualities of the contraceptive method, negative impact from society and lack of knowledge among patients and professional careers. The results show that several different factors play a role in a woman’s choice to use or non-use intrauterine contraceptives as a method of contraception. Inequality regarding responsibility in contraception can be seen. Participation and informed choice are needed to create a good care relationship.

This is an action-oriented study aimed at designing a practical methodology for generating evidence backed solutions for practical problems by means of literature review. Three iterations of systematic review are applied which evaluates different search strategies and reporting structures to provide a framework for an ideation technique. Resulting in an adaptation of a previously used framework which can be deployed to different extents that appears to result in design propositions alongside individual interventions.

Bakgrund: Covid-19 pandemin åskådliggjorde att intensivvårdssjuksköterskor hade en avgörande roll i vårdarbetet under pandemin. Sjukdomens karaktär, det vill säga att covid-19 är en smittsam sjukdom, samt att många patienter blev kritiskt sjuka och inlagda på IVA samtidigt, överbelastade intensivvården. Dessa påverkade intensivvårdssjuksköterskors upplevelser av att vårda patienter med covid-19. Syftet: Att sammanställa intensivvårdssjuksköterskors upplevelser av att vårda patienter med covid-19. Metod: En systematisk litteraturöversikt med kvalitativ ansats. Dataanalysen inspirerades av Bettany-Saltikovs och McSherrys (2016) analysbeskrivning. Resultat: Fyra teman identifierades: Upplevelser relaterade till sjukdomens karaktär, Upplevelser relaterade till ett förändrat arbetssätt, Upplevelser relaterade till förändrad tillgång av resurser samt Upplevelser kring förändrade relationer. Slutsats: Intensivvårdssjuksköterskor upplevde att det var utmanande, utmattande och stressigt både fysiskt och psykiskt att vårda allvarligt sjuka patienter med covid-19. Eftersom väldigt många människor insjuknade av sjukdomen, blev intensivvården överbelastad. Etisk stress och känsla av vårdens avhumanisering kännetecknade intensivvårdssjuksköterskornas vårdarbete. Rädslan av att bli smittad eller exponera familjen för covid-19 påverkade deras liv både yrkesmässigt och privat. Intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna upplevde både stigmatisering och uppskattning från samhällets alla nivåer. / Bakgrund: Covid-19-pandemin tydliggjorde att intensivvårdssjuksköterskor spelat en viktig roll i vårdarbetet under pandemin. Sjukdomens natur, det vill säga att covid-19 är en smittsam sjukdom, och att många patienter blev kritiskt sjuka och samtidigt lades in på intensivvårdsavdelningar, överbelastade intensivvårdsavdelningarna. Detta påverkade intensivvårdssjuksköterskornas erfarenheter av vården av patienter med covid-19. Syfte: Att sammanfatta intensivvårdssjuksköterskornas erfarenheter av vården av patienter med covid-19. Metod: En systematisk litteraturöversikt med kvalitativ ansats. Dataanalysen inspirerades av Bettany-Saltikovs och McSherrys (2016) analysbeskrivning. Resultat: Fyra teman identifierades: Erfarenheter relaterade till sjukdomens natur, Erfarenheter relaterade till ett modifierat arbetssätt, Erfarenheter relaterade till förändrad tillgång till resurser och Erfarenheter om förändrade relationer. Slutsats: Intensivvårdssjuksköterskor upplevde att det var utmanande, ansträngande och stressande både fysiskt och psykiskt att ta hand om svårt sjuka patienter med covid-19. Eftersom ett stort antal människor insjuknade i sjukdomen blev intensivvårdsavdelningarna överbelastade. Moralisk nöd och en känsla av avhumanisering av vården präglade vårdarbetet hos intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna. Rädslan för att bli smittad eller utsätta sin familj för covid-19 påverkade deras liv både yrkesmässigt och i privatlivet. Intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna upplevde både stigma och uppskattning från alla nivåer i samhället.

Context and Background: Global Software Development involves teams located in different geographical locations, time zones, and cultural contexts working together to accomplish a shared goal or complete a software project. These projects, which are conducted by teams in different locations, have been found to be more risky and challenging than those with teams in the same location. Therefore, it is important to have knowledge of the potential challenges of task allocation in global software development and strategies for addressing them to manage a GSD project successfully. Objective: This thesis aims to identify and tabulate all the Task allocation challenges in Global Software Development and synthesize the mitigation strategies for the challenges identified in task allocation in GSD. To evaluate the challenges that influence the task allocation process in GSD and perform an assessment to find the mitigation strategies for these challenges. Research Method: This is a systematic literature review of studies on empirical research on GSD, covering publications from 1999 to 2022. The focus of this research is specifically on challenges associated with task allocation in GSD projects. A survey was conducted to validate the identified challenges and gather suggestive mitigation strategies. This research aimed to identify task allocation challenges in GSD and suggest mitigation strategies in GSD projects. Results: This research has identified a total of 20 challenges related to task allocation in Global software development based on a review of publications from 1999 to 2022. Additionally, the mitigation strategies for the 20 identified challenges were found in a survey conducted as part of the research. The challenges and mitigation strategies are discussed in the paper.

Background: In computer science, optimization can be defined as finding the most cost-effective or notable achievable performance under certain circumstances, maximizing desired factors, and minimizing undesirable results. Many problems in the real world are continuous, and it isn't easy to find global solutions. However, computer technological development increases the speed of computations [1]. The optimization method, an efficient numerical simulator, and a realistic depiction of physical operations that we intend to describe and optimize for any optimization issue are all interconnected components of the optimization process [2]. Objectives: A literature review on existing optimization algorithms is performed. Ten different benchmark functions are considered and are implemented on the existing chosen algorithms like GA (Genetic Algorithm), ACO (Ant ColonyOptimization) Method, and Plant Intelligence Behaviour optimization algorithm to measure the efficiency of these approaches based on the factors or metrics like CPU Time, Optimality, Accuracy, and Mean Best Standard Deviation. Methods: In this research work, a mixed-method approach is used. A literature review is performed based on the existing optimization algorithms. On the other hand, an experiment is conducted by using ten different benchmark functions with the current optimization algorithms like PSO algorithm, ACO algorithm, GA, and PIBO to measure their efficiency based on the four different factors like CPU Time, Optimality, Accuracy, Mean Best Standard Deviation. This tells us which optimization algorithms perform better. Results: The experiment findings are represented within this section. Using the standard functions on the suggested method and other methods, the various metrics like CPU Time, Optimality, Accuracy, and Mean Best Standard Deviation are considered, and the results are tabulated. Graphs are made using the data obtained. Analysis and Discussion: The research questions are addressed based on the experiment's results that have been conducted. Conclusion: We finally conclude the research by analyzing the existing optimization methods and the algorithms' performance. The PIBO performs much better and can be depicted from the results of the optimal metrics, best mean, standard deviation, and accuracy, and has a significant drawback of CPU Time where its time taken is much higher when compared to the PSO algorithm and almost close to GA and performs much better than ACO algorithm.

<p>    </p> <p>Healthcare is one of the most critical and valuable industries. This report is a systematic literature review of the usability and safety of medical devices used extensively for patient care. Safety has been broadly considered to mean in-patient safety and improving patient care. As part of the literature review and bibliometric analysis, a search of all the articles containing the keywords “medical device” AND “usability” AND “safety” was conducted on both Web of Science and Google Scholar (through Harzing’s Publish or Perish). The results that also contained the metadata were exported to VOS Viewer for cluster generation and co-citation analyses. As part of data mining, statistical tests such as regression analysis were conducted to find the causal relationship and significance between the variables. Following this, a core set of articles, some of which demonstrated strong ties to the topic at hand, were chosen from various databases and co-citation analyses. The core set also included a relevant chapter from the <em>Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, Fourth Edition </em>by Salvendy. The articles were added to Mendeley and then exported to MAXQDA for the word-cloud generation. As part of the lexical search, Springer’s AuthorMapper and Digital Science’s Dimensions were used to extract trending keywords, author information, and metadata of relevant contributions made to the topic by institutions worldwide. The regression analysis revealed a significant tie between the database and the number of articles. Additionally, the regression showed that cites per year in Google Scholar had a significant effect on g-index. Finally, the discussion section included a case study of three different drug delivery systems. This aimed to perform a risk assessment of pre-existing “smart” medical devices. The analysis revealed that there is a high risk of malfunction in all the devices due to pre-programmed dose error. None of the devices were capable of “learning’ from patient behavior and adapting accordingly. Finally, the paper discusses Human-Computer Interaction and Human Factors Problems that exist in software medical devices that utilize AI/ML methodologies. Overall, the main keywords of human cognition, health informatics, precision medicine, applied ergonomics, and design safety showed high relevance within all the chosen articles. These keywords are highly reflective of the fields that are currently disrupting the conventional governance of healthcare. </p>

The field of Enterprise Architecture (EA) emerged as an answer to the increasing complexity in managing and aligning the business-IT relationship within enterprises. Both practitioners and academics have expressed interest in the field, with a growing number of publicized works related to EA. In an attempt to provide an outlook of the current research landscape of EA, a systematic literature review was conducted. Citation data from the Scopus (Elsevier) API were automatically extracted and analyzed. By applying the Louvain method on the collected data, 8 research communities and their topic were identified: (1) Enterprise Engineering (I &amp; II), (2) Enterprise Architecture Management, (3) Enterprise Modelling, (4) IT Architecture, (5) Enterprise Integration, (6) Digital Transformation, and (7) Smart Cities. For each community, a summarized description with sub-community graphs as well as tables (describing the top authors, articles, and affiliation countries) are presented. Lastly, a comparison of the results and the EA trends identified by Gampfer et al. are presented. / Fältet Enterprise Architecture (EA) framkom som ett svar på den ökande komplexiteten i att hantera och anpassa affärs-IT-relationen inom företag. Både utövare och akademiker har uttryckt intresse för området, då antal publicerade verk relaterade till EA fortsätter att växa. I ett försök att ge en syn på det aktuella forskningslandskapet inom EA genomfördes ett systematisk litteraturöversikt. Citeringsdata från Scopus (Elsevier) API extraherades och analyserades automatiskt. Genom att tillämpa Louvain-metoden på insamlade datan identifierades 8 forskarsamhällen och deras ämnen: (1) Enterprise Engineering (I &amp; II), (2) Enterprise Architecture Management, (3) Enterprise Modelling, (4) IT Architecture, (5) Enterprise Integration, (6) Digital Transformation och (7) Smart Cities. För varje gemenskap gavs en sammanfattad beskrivning med undergruppsdiagram samt tabeller (över t.ex. de främsta författarna, artiklarna, och anslutningsländerna). Slutligen så gjordes en jämförelse av resultaten och de EA trender som identifierats av Gampfer et al.

Advanced Vehicle Systems promise improved safety and comfort for drivers. Steady advancements in technology are resulting in increasing levels of vehicle automation capabilities, furthering safety benefits. In fact, some of these vehicle automation systems are already deployed and available, but with promised benefits, such systems can potentially change driving behaviors. There is evidence that drivers have increased secondary task engagements while driving with automated vehicle systems, but there is a need for a clearer scientific understanding of any potential correlations between the use of automated vehicle systems and potentially negative driver behaviors. Therefore, this thesis aims to understand the state of knowledge on automated vehicle systems and their possible impact on drivers’ distraction behaviors. I have conducted two systematic literature reviews to examine this question. This thesis reports these reviews and examines the effects of secondary task engagement on driving behaviors such as take-over times, visual attention, trust, and workload, and discusses the implications on driver safety.

Denna studie undersöker internationaliseringsprocessen av e-handelsbolag med fokus på hur psychic distance, ett koncept som hanterar upplevda skillnader i bland annat språk, kultur och politik mellan olika marknader, spelar in i internationaliseringen. Syftet med studien är alltså att undersöka vad den befintliga litteraturen inom fältet för International Business studier säger om sambandet och vilken roll psychic distance spelar i internationaliseringen av e-handelsbolag. Detta kommer göras genom att besvara följande två forskningsfrågor: Vilken roll spelar psychic distance i e-handelsbolags internationaliseringsprocess? samt På vilket sätt har betydelsen av psychic distance förändrats i och med e-handeln? Studien baseras på teorierna kring psychic distance och nätverk från Uppsalamodellens internationaliseringsteorier, CAGE-ramverket samt e-handel och ”the virtuality trap” för att undersöka sambandet mellan dessa traditionella teorier och nya tekniska utvecklingar i form av e-handel. För att undersöka detta har en systematisk litteraturstudie baserad på 29 artiklar från fem olika journaler på fältet genomförts. Resultatet från denna analyserades sedan med hjälp av en tematisk analys för att identifiera mönster i materialet. Detta ledde fram till ett antal slutsatser och det konstaterades att psychic distance spelar en roll även i internationaliseringen av e-handelsbolag men inte riktigt samma roll som för traditionella bolag. Det konstaterades även att betydelsen av psychic distance har ändrats mycket i och med e-handeln och att även om teknik sägs minska avstånd så kan avstånden ändå inte helt elimineras. Slutligen konstateras att det finns mer att lära om psychic distance i e-handelssammanhang och att mer forskning på området är önskvärt. / This study examines the internationalization process of e-commerce companies with a focus on psychic distance, a concept that deals with perceived differences in, among other things, language, culture and politics in different markets and how this plays a role in internationalization. The purpose of the studies is to examine what the existing literature within the field of International Business studies says about the role psychic distance plays in the internationalization of e-commerce companies. This was done by answering the following two research questions: What role does psychic distance play in the internationalization process of e-commerce companies? as well as In what way has the meaning of psychic distance changed with e-commerce? The study is based on the theories around psychic distance and networks from the Uppsala model's internationalization theories, the CAGE-distance framework as well as e-commerce and the virtuality trap to examine the connection between these traditional theories and new technological developments in the form of e-commerce. To investigate this, a systematic literature review, based on 29 articles from five different scientific journals within the field of interest was conducted. The results from these were then analyzed using a thematic analysis to identify patterns in the material. This led to several conclusions, and it was established that psychic distance does plays a role in the internationalization of e-commerce companies, but not quite the same role as for traditional companies. It is also established that the meaning of psychic distance has changed a lot with e-commerce and that even though technology is said to reduces distance, the distance cannot be eliminated. Finally, it is established that there is more to learn about psychological distance in an e-commerce context and that more research in the area is desirable. This thesis is written in Swedish.