The young child’s experiences of living with cancer are crucial to providing evidence based care. The overall aim of this thesis was to explore and describe experiences of health and functioning in the everyday life of young children with cancer, over a three year period from diagnosis, to provide insights and suggestions to improve evidence based care. The first and second papers in the series of four for this thesis used a qualitative content analysis to describe the child’s experiences shortly after diagnosis and six and 12 months later. The third paper used mixed methods to identify a comprehensive set of ICF-CY codes describing everyday health and functioning in the life of the young child with cancer. The fourth paper used the identified comprehensive set of ICF-CY codes to follow changes in everyday health and functioning over the study’s entire three year period from diagnosis. Entry into the health-illness transition was characterised by trauma and isolation. Health and functioning in everyday life was utterly changed and physical difficulties were at their peak. The passage through transition was characterised by an active striving on the part of the child to make a normal everyday life of the cancer experience. Difficulties affecting health and functioning in everyday life decreased and changed during the trajectory, though feelings of loneliness prevailed. A new period of stability in the child’s post treatment life was seen from two years after diagnosis and onwards, with (re)-entry to preschool/school and other social activities. However, an increase in difficulties with personal interactions with others and access to, and support from healthcare professionals was seen. Variances were seen within individual children’s’ trajectories. In summary it can be stated that the everyday life of young children with cancer changes over time and health care services are not always in phase with these changes. Young children living with cancer want to be participatory in their care and to have access to their parents as protectors. They need access to and ongoing contact with peers and preschool. Although physical difficulties in living an everyday life with cancer reduce over time, new difficulties emerge as the child post cancer treatment re-enters society. A structured follow-up throughout the cancer trajectory and not just during active treatment is necessary. A child-centered philosophy of care would guide the child towards attainment of health and well-being. Both the child’s own perspective and a child’s perspective as described by adults caring for them should be seen on a continuum, rather than as opposites. This view could help ensure that young children become visible and are listened to as valuable contributors to care planning. Knowledge of health-illness transition can be useful in illustrating everyday health and functioning through long term illness trajectories.

This Ph.D. thesis consists of a novel, EXEUNT, and research associated with it, both being specifically concerned with literary/cultural representations of love and relationships over the age of sixty-five. In consideration of the changing dynamics of ageing, declared internationally by gerontologists during the 1990s, the research investigates the perceptions of British writers, publishers and readers regarding their acceptance of late-life sexuality in British contemporary novels. It identifies key stakeholders in specific interest groups, and operates within an interpretive perspective as a suitable analytical framework for a pragmatic mixed methods investigation. Although the initial focus of the research was on publishers and writers, the inclusion of readers resulted in wider consequences that call for more transparency and a fuller understanding of concepts linked to ageism. Having explored the dynamic between author, publisher and reader, the study concludes there is a superficial disharmony between them, whereas in fact they are mutually complementary. This dichotomy appears to be due to misunderstanding, and lack of trust. In reality, a large percentage of readers, in line with recent research on film audiences, feel it acceptable for people over the age of sixty to have such sexual needs and desires. This acceptability and the new dynamics of ageing inform the novel which places the research in a wider context and constitutes the second part of the Ph.D. The multi-layered novel EXEUNT, in part ontogenetic, works against ageism within current prejudice by depicting the lovers in their fifties, sixties and seventies, and by doing so reveals the wide gap between subjective reality and the perceived public image. Their relationship is accepted by the British woman s friends, family and contemporaries, so that the epistemology of age is acquired only through negative opinions or actions, with the narrative embodying much of current research on the subject. Contrasting attitudes to ageing are found within the ethnographic detail of Romania during the period of communism, revolution and consequential freedom: 1982-2005. The frameworks of the fiction are encapsulated in the concept of Theatre as an analogy for life and death with a unique structure that portrays an ontological viewpoint. This underpins a reality where the attention of the reader/audience is disrupted by an intermittent reminder of the analogy. The term fictodrama has been used to describe this combination of fiction and theatrical effects.

published_or_final_version / Dentistry / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

This thesis presents a reflection on directing There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by examining the relationship between the production and community engagement developed for it. It details the process of connecting theatre for young audiences (TYA) and community engagement and discusses how the project that resulted inspired a dialogue concerning bullying. This document addresses these questions: What is the relationship between TYA and community engagement and how can they be closely connected? How can community engagement inform the production of a play for young audiences? This document explores how collaborative partnerships with student audiences and teachers inspired dialogue and influenced production choices. It discusses how participation in multiple community engagement activities resulted in a rich experience for both actors and audience. It includes a discussion about how the work might be translated outside of the university and concludes with reflective practices for connecting TYA and community engagement. / text

Alcohol use in young adults requires continued attention due to the significant number of problems related to alcohol consumption. The alcohol use literature has explored a variety of constructs related to alcohol use in young adults including religiousness. The aims of the current study were to demonstrate the relationships between religiousness and alcohol use, explore the associations between religiousness and descriptive drinking norms, replicate the relationships between drinking norms and alcohol outcomes, and explore the mediating role of descriptive drinking norms on the relationships between religiousness and alcohol outcomes. Three hundred and thirtythree undergraduate students (M=19.72 years old; SD=1.1) completed questionnaires assessing religiousness, descriptive drinking norms, alcohol consumption, and alcoholrelated consequences. Religious commitment and comfort were inversely associated with alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences; religious strain was positively associated with alcohol-related consequences but not significantly related to alcohol consumption. Religious commitment and comfort were inversely associated with drinking norms for ones close friends; religious commitment was also inversely related to drinking norms for the average person his/her age. The significance of the relationships between drinking norms and alcohol outcomes depended on the specific drinking norm target; however the majority of drinking norms were positively associated with personal drinking behavior. Finally, perceptions of close friends drinking behavior at least partially mediated the relationships between religious commitment and comfort and alcohol outcomes. This study contributed to the current literature by examining multiple aspects of religiousness and alcohol use, exploring the role of descriptive drinking norms, and empirically testing a theoretical model explaining the role of religiousness in alcohol use.

<p><p><p><p>The purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge of which discourses dominate the courts’ decisions concerning sentences for young sexual offenders. The issues touched upon were which circumstances the courts find important and which discourses reflect those circumstances when deciding on sentences for young sexual offenders as well as how children that commit crimes are constructed by the court. The study looked at cases of sexual offence where the offender was between 15 and 17 years old, and was based on judgements established at the Stockholm district courts in 2007 and 2008. The method used was content analysis, both manifesto and latent. By using content analysis the information was structured into a manageable basis for the following discourse analysis, which was implemented according to the theory for this study described in King and Piper’s (1995) book How the Law Thinks About Children. Discourse analysis gave an insight into which discourses are most prominent in verdicts against young sexual offenders. The results show that the social services’ recommendations are not given much importance in the courts’ decisions of suitable sentences for young sexual offenders. A majority of the youths were sentenced to criminal punishment such as a youth community order service and a youth detention order. Factors of particular importance in the verdicts are the specifics of the crime, whether or not the offenders understood or should have understood that they were committing a crime, responsibility, age, consent, suitable sentences as well as the credibility and reliability of given statements. The young defendants were constructed by the courts as criminals with regard to the criminal act and the youths’ responsibility for the action. The offenders’ personal and social situation was not given particular importance.</p></p></p></p>

<p>This study elucidates the feelings and the experiences by working with the complex of problems of self-injurious behaviour, of six professionals. The purpose with this study has been to examine the feelings and the experiences of the professionals, coming up when they meet and treat young girls with self-injurious behaviour. The empirical basis of this study is built on interviews of six female professionals, working in the County of Kalmar. The statements of the informants were analyzed out of Goffman’s Role Theory and the norm perspective on social behaviour. Through the interviews we saw that the professionals act out of the rolls that they are expected to. There are expectations from the colleagues, from the clients and from the community that every professional handles in an individual manner. The way they handle the problematic situations varies between persons and depends on the character of the circumstances. The result shows that the work of the professionals arouses many feelings. It varies what kind of feelings they experiences but they do feel fear, powerlessness, sadness, happiness and most of all frustration. They handle their feelings through tutorial, support from the co-workers and through reflection.</p>

In two studies we tested the effect of vitamin B-6 (B-6) intake on in vitro lymphocyte, proliferation and IL-2 production in healthy young women. In Study I, 6 women were fed a constant diet containing 0.84 mg (4.96 μmols) of B-6 for 12 d, and 1.24 mg (7.33 μmols) and 2.44 mg (14.42 μmols) of B-6 during two subsequent 10-d periods. Lymphocyte proliferation in response to the mitogens concanavalin A (Con A) and pokeweed mitogen (PWM) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) at 2.44 mg than at 0.84 mg intake and the pre-study value. In Study II, 10 women who consumed their self-selected diets were randomly divided into a PN and a placebo group of five each. Following a 5-d baseline period, the PN group received a daily supplement of 1.5 mg (7.29 μmols) and 50 mg (243 μmols) pyridoxine.HC1 (PN.HC1) for 7 and 6 d, respectively. This was followed by a 28-d washout period during which no supplement or placebo was administered. After daily 1.5 mg supplementary PN.HC1 for seven days, lymphocyte proliferation in response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA), Con A and PWM, and IL-2 production were significantly higher than the baseline (p < 0.05) and that of the placebo group (p < 0.05). The 50 mg PN.HC1 supplement increased IL-2 production, but not lymphocyte proliferation as compared with the 1.5 mg PN.HC1 supplement period. Lymphocyte proliferation and IL-2 production were significantly correlated with lymphocyte pyridoxal 5'- phosphate concentrations (p < 0.01). We conclude that a B-6 intake of 1.5 to 2 times the RDA improves lymphocyte proliferation and IL-2 production in healthy young women and this effect of B-6 on immunocompetence is transitory. To explore the basis for the effect of B-6 on immune function, putrescine was added to the culture medium (2 - 200 μmol/L). In vitro lymphocyte proliferation and IL-2 production were not changed by the addition of putrescine under our experimental conditions. / Graduation date: 1995

The aim of this research is (1) to test the hypothesis that participating in collective action varies by social class position, (2) to examine the mechanisms behind class effects in collective action in a general model of individual participation in collective action, and (3) to discuss the societal implications of these effects. Class position modifies the social process which determines who will participate in protest demonstrations or community problem solving. Class influences political socialization, an individual's network of interpersonal ties to others, and opportunity constraints which guide individual choices to participate in collective action. A model of these relations is tested empirically using secondary analysis of a nationwide, longitudinal survey of young adults and their parents (Jennings and Niemi's Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study, 1965-1973). The findings show that working class young adults participate in collective action at a lower rate than the young adults in other class positions. The direct relationship between class and collective action participation is virtually nonexistant. It is the indirect effect of class through the development of a sense of efficacy (socialization) and membership in organizations (networks) that is significant in the prediction of who participates. The primary contribution of this work involves the formulation of a general model explaining individual participation in collective action. Further, by linking socialization and networks, this research attempts to bridge the micro-macro distinctions found in other explanations of collective action. Other contributions of this research lie in its implementation of a neo-Marxist definition of class and the utilization of alternative measures of collective action (protest participation and activity in community problem solving). In conclusion, finding that some individuals are hindered in their ability to participate in collective action has implications for the direction of social change efforts. It appears that inequality exists in the promotion of social issues even in the area of non-institutionalized politics. The findings suggest that the relationship between stratification and collective action should be explored further in future research.

Using multi-wavelength and multi-epoch observations we examine the evolution of circumstellar disks around pre-main sequence stars from massive, optically thick flared disks to wispy debris disks. We examine a young cluster of nearby stars, identifying likely members and studying dust properties using 3-24μm photometry and accretion rates using optical spectroscopy. We find that 79% of the stars have disks and that almost all of the stars with disks are actively accreting. The stars that show evidence for evolution in their dust properties also exhibit a decrease in the accretion activity suggesting that the evolution of the dust and gas is closely connected. Focusing on a sub-sample of transition disks we study the source of recently discovered infrared variability and whether it can be used to further our understanding of disk structure. We are particularly interested in sources that show a ’seesaw’ behavior in their SED in which the short wavelength infrared flux increases while the long wavelength flux decreases causing the SED to pivot about one wavelength. We develop simple geometric models of disks with nonaxisymmetric structure and find that the precession of this structure is not able to reproduce the strength or the wavelength dependence of observed infrared variability while a model with an inner warp whose scale height rapidly varies is much more successful. We follow this up with detailed observations covering a wide range of wavelengths from optical to mid-infrared of six transition disks in order to better understand the physical source of the variability. We find that the variability is consistent with a variable scale height of the inner disk, finding direct evidence for this effect in two transition disks. Contemporaneous measures of the infrared flux and the accretion rate find in some cases a correlation between these two properties, although in none of our stars is it likely that the accretion rate variability is the source of the infrared variability. The most likely cause is either a companion embedded in the disk or a dynamic interface between the stellar magnetic field and the disk.