| 21. |
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| 22. |
- Karilampi, Ulla
(författare)
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Cognitive and Functional Subgroups in Scizophrenia
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The general aim of this thesis was to explore global and specific aspects of neurocognition in a clinically representative group of schizopsychotic patients, i.e. patients with schizophrenia or related psychotic disorders, in comparison with a population of matched healthy volunteers. In Study I, 196 schizopsychotic outpatients were combined with 196 healthy volunteers into one single group, which was then divided into three subgroups of verbal learning performance based on their scores on a verbal learning test. MANOVA and discriminant function analysis were used to analyze and compare neurocognitive test profiles related to different levels of verbal learning performance among schizopsychotic patients and healthy volunteers, in order to identify the major predictors of category assignment. The results showed working memory to be related to verbal learning on all three levels of verbal learning performance and vocabulary to be related to verbal learning for the better performing patients. The study showed that despite similar capacity in verbal learning, working memory and vocabulary, the better performing schizopsychotic patients did not perform on an overall level equal to the healthy volunteers. This finding indicates retarded visuomotor processing speed, which has been suggested to be a generalised characteristic of the schizophrenic process. In Study II, the relationship between neurocognitive test performance and global assessment of functioning was studied in 195 schizopsychotic outpatients that were assigned to functional groups on the basis of their sex. A global cognition score was created based on previously presented area-under-the-curve values. Global cognition was best predicted by GAF Symptom levels in the female schizopsychotic patients, and by GAF function levels in the male patients. There was also a gender-specific difference in the neurocognitive components, indicating that executive functioning may have a greater impact on the symptom and function profiles of schizopsychotic males than on schizopsychotic females. The eventual contributions of different mediating variables are discussed.
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| 23. |
- Karlsson, Göran, 1954-
(författare)
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Learning science by digital technology : Students’ understanding of computer animated learning material
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Digital learning material is associated with grand expectations among educational policy makers. Several attempts to introduce this new technology with the purpose of enhancing learning have been made in recent years. The schooling system has, however, been rather hesitant and not so ready to adopt this kind of teaching aid. The aim of this thesis is to probe into students‘ practical problems of understanding computerised science learning material involving animated sequences and educational text. For the purpose of this investigation an application describing the different events in the carbon cycle was developed. Two studies present analyses of students‘ reasoning and actions when working collaboratively with the task of making a written account of what is illustrated in the learning material. Both studies present examples of identified phenomena that were observed in more extensive empirical materials. The data is represented by video recordings of students‘ interaction with each other and the interface. Results from the studies reveal students‘ propensity for concentrating their attention to prominent characteristics of the animated display and to describe the animated models in correspondence to their resemblance of objects and occurrences in everyday life. In study II it is revealed how students, when constructing a written report of the described events, derive noun phrases from attentionally detected objects in the animation and from the educational text. In their effort to express themselves in colloquial language, when preparing their report, they deliberately select verbs that differ from the educational text. These courses of action together, contribute to give the report on what happens in the process a non-scientific explanation. It is concluded that students, lacking definite access to the relevant subject matter knowledge, consequently, cannot judge whether they have given an approvable account or not. Findings from the studies show that the school context with its explicit stipulations of assignments and implicit request for expressing oneself in your own words frames the learning and creates conditions for how the technology is used and understood. The results indicate that animated models of scientific concepts risk inferring misconceptions if students are left on their own with interpreting information from the learning material. Despite the detected problems of students‘ interpretations of the described phenomena, the results indicate that animated learning material can proffer an exploitable resource in science education. Such a prospect is the ability of animation to engage students in discussions of the subject and to make them recognise otherwise unobservable phenomena.
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Li, Huaqing, 1983
(författare)
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Classical Wigner Method with an Effective Quantum Force
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this work, I will present an effective way to study the dynamics in phase space and obtain the rate constants. Our method is based on the Classical Wigner (CW) model, which is an approximate method for including quantum mechanical effects into molecular simulations. The Classical Wigner model propagates each trajectory independently under a classical force. It becomes poorer when the temperature decreases, because it can not describe the dynamical interference effects. The mechanism of the CW model needs to be improved. We manage to solve this problem by using a parameter denoted 0, which is the characteristic distance between forward and backward Feynman paths that enter the expression of the correlation function[1]. We use this parameter to construct an effective force to substitute for the classical force. This new method still keeps the simplicity of the CW model and improves the accuracy. The new method is named Classical Wigner method with an effective quantum force (CWEQF). This new force has the ability to approximately contain the quantum effects in the dynamics. Also, we have a new way to interpret the tunneling effects, especially for the quasi-bound situation. Thus, we are able to describe a consistent mechanism for the quantum leak out effect exemplified for a cubic potential. Then we implement the CWEQF on the two-dimensional H + H2 reaction to obtain the rate constant. All the applications return consistently improved results compared to the ordinary CW model. There is still room for us to improve this method. However, from the pedagogical point of view, this method is really a good candidate to understand the quantum effect in phase space.
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| 26. |
- Lindberg, Lisbeth, 1946
(författare)
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Matematiken i yrkesutbildningen : möjligheter och begränsningar
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Syftet med denna avhandling är att bidra med kunskap om matematikens möjligheter och begränsningar i yrkesutbildningar. Vid analysen har flera olika teorier använts s.k. theory-guided bricolage. I de olika artiklarna har grounded theory, hermeneutik respektive teorin om affordances och constraints använts. Data har hämtats från dokument och rapporter. Den första artikeln analyserar vilka metoder och teorier som använts av forskare för att få syn på matematiken i yrkesutbildningar. Utvecklingen har gått mot att använda flera metoder samtidigt och den tekniska utvecklingen har gjort detta möjligt. Resultat från tidigare forskning visar att matematiken är osynlig, gömd i svarta lådor eller något som bara finns som tyst kunskap. För att kunna "se" matematiken måste forskaren vara ämneskunnig. Den andra artikeln ger en historisk genomgång av matematikens roll i yrkesutbildningar fram till i dag, från skråväsendets dagar då mäster hade hand om hela utbildningen inklusive matematiken till dagens gymnasieskola där alla elever undervisas i Matematik, kurs A av matematiklärare. Den tredje artikeln är en analys av ett utvecklingsprojekt på ett yrkesprogram som handlade om att utveckla samarbete mellan lärare i karaktärsämnet och matematikämnet. Resultatet pekade på att den historiska genomgången från skråväsende fram till våra dagar kan förklara att det fortfarande är svårt att få till stånd samarbete eftersom lärarkategorierna har olika förutsättningar och utbildningsbakgrund. Analysen av utvecklingsprojektet som genomfördes efter gymnasiereformen 1994 pekade på möjligheter, men att det tar tid och att det kräver stöd av skolans ledning. Eleverna hade bristande förkunskaper i matematik men blev mer motiverade och presterade något bättre när de undervisades av lärare som hade samverkat före och i genomförande av undervisning. Resultaten indikerar att det är relevant att genomföra fortbildning för lärare av olika kategorier för att dessa skall beredas möjlighet att få tid att mötas och diskutera innehåll och undervisning i matematik och karaktärsämnena. Det är viktigt att dokumentera resultat från forbildning och att knyta forskare som stöd vid fortbildning samt att kunna sprida resultaten utanför den egna skolan både nationellt och internationellt genom publikationer och konferenser.
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| 27. |
- Lärkäng, Richard, 1985
(författare)
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Residue currents on analytic spaces
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis concerns residue currents on analytic spaces. In the first paper, we construct Coleff-Herrera products and Bochner-Martinelli type currents associated with a weakly holomorphic mapping, and show that these currents satisfy well-known properties from the strongly holomorphic case. This includes the transformation law, the Poincaré-Lelong formula and the equivalence of the Coleff-Herrera product and the Bochner-Martinelli current associated with a complete intersection of weakly holomorphic functions. In the second paper, we discuss the duality theorem on singular varieties. In the case of a complex manifold, the duality theorem, proven by Dickenstein-Sessa and Passare, says that the annihilator of the Coleff-Herrera product associated with a complete intersection $f$ equals the ideal generated by $f$. We give sufficient and in many cases necessary conditions in terms of certain singularity subvarieties of the sheaf $\mathcal{O}_Z$ for when the duality theorem holds on a singular variety $Z$.
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| 28. |
- Nilsson, Johanna, 1981
(författare)
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In Search of Scientific Methods for Conservation of Historic Silk Costumes
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The general aim of this dissertation is to lay ground for the evaluation of conservation methods for historic costumes. The Royal Armoury, Stockholm has a large number of 17th century men’s garments, many of them made of silk and in need of conservation. Knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of methods used in textile conservation is of vital importance for the preservation of historic textiles. The work has been presented in three papers. Paper I presents the documentation and preservation of 55 very degraded silk fragments from Queen Kristina’s burial costume. Analyses were performed with FT-IR diffuse reflection measurements (DRIFTS). A nitrogen filled case was used to preserve the fragments. Two of the aims of Paper II were to find mechanical test methods that can simulate “museum handling” and to determine the most common conservation methods. Samples of standard fabric of both silk and wool were aged and treated with the most common conservation method. The samples were then exposed to mechanical tests simulating museum handling. Abrasion and rupture strength tests turned out to be promising methods to simulate handling. Paper III aimed at finding an optimal accelerated ageing procedure, simulating as far as possible the nature of degradation found in naturally aged silk from the seventeenth century. After exposure to different environmental conditions standard silk samples were compared to samples of seventeenth century silk material using analytical markers assessed by ATR-FTIR, SEC and tensile tests. Thermo-oxidation in dry air at 125°C for 28-56 days results in a silk most similar to the samples of the historic costumes.
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| 29. |
- Nordmarker, Anki, 1964
(författare)
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Frustration as motivation. Vandalism:constructive or destructive behavior
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- DEGREE OF LICENTIATE IN PSYCHOLOGY Correspondence: Anki Nordmarker, Faculty of Social and Life Sciences, Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, Sweden. Phone: +46(0)54 – 700 1000 E-mail: Anki.Nordmarker@kau.se ISSN 1101-718X ISRN GU/PSYK/AVH-234--SE Abstract Nordmarker, A. (2010). Frustration as motivation. Vandalism: Constructive or destructive behavior. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. These present investigations are a first step in achieving a deeper understanding of the psychology of vandalism, focusing on the individual’s motivations, feelings, triggering and releasing factors, and presumed and realistic outcome of the process. The aim of these two experimental studies is to find out in which way alcohol and frustration influence ordinary young adults to act destructively and/or in a vandalistic manner within a laboratory setting and whether or not gender differences are notable. In other words: are alcohol and/or frustration triggering factors in vandalistic behavior? For this thesis an ancillary question was established: is it possible to explain the results of these studies by using The Equity Control Model? The theoretical overview showed that vandalism in general is motivated by negative feelings such as frustration, anger, boredom and revenge, but also that it is motivated by curiosity, playfulness and pleasure. Factors such as peer-group pressure, creativity and communication are also to be taken into account. About 85-95 % of all vandalistic acts are perpetrated by males; vandalism reaches its peak in middle adolescence and alcohol is a frequent variable in vandalistic behavior. One of the most common forms of vandalism today is TTP-graffiti (tags, throw-ups and pieces) but there are discrepant viewpoints about whether graffiti is vandalism or art. Studies show that people involved in graffiti have interests in art, demonstrate a desire for attention, respect and status and that graffiti is about talent, skills, competition, pride and pleasure. About 90-95 % of all graffitists are male, mostly between the ages of 12 and 20, with peak frequency years between the ages of 14 and 16. According to The Equity Control Model of Vandalism, the underlying motive in most vandalistic acts is perceived inequity, and variables involved are: control, environment, group variables, societal reactions and terms of equity restoration. The main findings of the two experimental studies showed that. (a) alcohol and frustration in combination are triggering factors and increase the opportunity for vandalism to occur, (b) only alcohol or only frustration do not give an increased effect, (c) scrawlinggraffiti correlates with destruction, aggression and sexuality, (d) scrawling-graffiti does not correlate with creativity measured as elaboration, (e)women expressed higher degrees of scrawling-graffiti, destruction and elaboration when compared with men in the laboratory setting . These findings represent a small step toward reaching a deeper understanding of the psychology of vandalism. The Equity Control Model helps understanding the complexity of variables involved in a vandalistic act such as motivational factors (perceived inequity), moderating factors (degree of control), secondary moderating factors (group presence, architectural features), equity restoration by action (actual equity or psychological equity), societal reactions (favorable or unfavorable), and terms of perceived equity (higher or lower potential) that might lead to further vandalistic or other antisocial behavior. Keywords: vandalism, graffiti, juvenile delinquency, alcohol, frustration, creativity, destructiveness, the equity control model of vandalism
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| 30. |
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