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A good life for all : Essays on sustainability celebrating 60 years of making life better
- 2017. - 1
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For a better world now and in the futureFor a world that sustains itself for genereations to come, the University of Gävle is an ambitious and development-oriented organization with a focus on sustainability now and in the future. Under the leadership of Dr. Maj-Britt Johansson, the University is creating a sustainable community. This book commemorates her efforts in hounour of her 60th birthday.The ten essays here show the wide variety of sustainability activities under her leadership, not limited to ecological issues, includning science, social work, building design and contruction, and World Hertiage sites, along with a variety of other cutting-edge topics.
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| 3. |
- Beck, Simon, et al.
(författare)
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Implementing advance care planning in Swedish healthcare settings–a qualitative study of professionals’ experiences
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. - : Taylor and Francis Ltd.. - 0281-3432 .- 1502-7724. ; 41:1, s. 23-32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is a process involving conversations about values and preferences regarding future care at the end-of-life. ACP has led to positive outcomes, both in relation to quality of life and with increased use of palliative care, less life-sustaining treatment and fewer hospital admissions. Sweden has yet to embrace the practice systematically, but scattered initiatives exist.Aim: To study implementation of a routine for ACP in NH settings in Sweden by exploring healthcare professionals’ experiences of engaging in ACP following this implementation.Methods: The study followed a qualitative inductive design with convenience and snowball sampling. Semi-structured group and individual interviews with registered healthcare professionals were analysed using qualitative content analysis.Findings: Organisational support for sustainable ACP implementation was found to be essential. This included sufficient training, facilitation, collaboration and uniform work routines across providers and professionals. Engaging in ACP conversations following the implemented routine was found to be a process of preparing, being, talking, deciding and sharing.Conclusions: Successful implementation of ACP in NHs requires a carefully planned implementation strategy. ACP in NHs tend to be medically focused at the expense of residents’ psychosocial care-planning needs. Widespread uptake of ACP in Sweden could be useful in the national effort to adopt more person-centred care in Swedish healthcare.KEY POINTS While advance care planning has been implemented in many other countries, Sweden lacks a national strategy on advance care planning and Swedish healthcare settings have yet to systematically implement this practice. • This study is the first to report on professionals’ experiences of engaging in sustainable advance care planning, following top-down implementation of the practice in one Swedish region. • Successful implementation of advance care planning in nursing homes requires a system-level approach, and shortcomings of the implementation process are highlighted.
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- Bjurling-Sjöberg, Petronella, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Resilient performance in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic (ResCOV) : study protocol for a multilevel grounded theory study on adaptations, working conditions, ethics and patient safety.
- 2021
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 11:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- INTRODUCTION: Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged societies and revealed the built-in fragility and dependencies in complex adaptive systems, such as healthcare. The pandemic has placed healthcare providers and systems under unprecedented amounts of strain with potential consequences that have not yet been fully elucidated. This multilevel project aims to explore resilient performance with the purpose of improving the understanding of how healthcare has adapted during the pandemic's rampage, the processes involved and the consequences on working conditions, ethics and patient safety.METHODS: An emerging explorative multilevel design based on grounded theory methodology is applied. Open and theoretical sampling is performed. Empirical data are gathered over time from written narratives and qualitative interviews with staff with different positions in healthcare organisations in two Swedish regions. The participants' first-person stories are complemented with data from the healthcare organisations' internal documents and national and international official documents.ANALYSIS: Experiences and expressions of resilient performance at different system levels and times, existing influencing risk and success factors at the microlevels, mesolevels and macrolevels and inter-relationships and consequences in different healthcare contexts, are explored using constant comparative analysis. Finally, the data are complemented with the current literature to develop a substantive theory of resilient performance during the pandemic.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This project is ethically approved and recognises the ongoing strain on the healthcare system when gathering data. The ongoing pandemic provides unique possibilities to study system-wide adaptive capacity across different system levels and times, which can create an important basis for designing interventions focusing on preparedness to manage current and future challenges in healthcare. Feedback is provided to the settings to enable pressing improvements. The findings will also be disseminated through scientific journals and conferences.
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- Blackman, Corey
(författare)
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Evaluation of a thermally driven heat pump for solar heating and cooling applications
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Exploiting solar energy technology for both heating and cooling purposes has the potential of meeting an appreciable portion of the energy demand in buildings throughout the year. By developing an integrated, multi-purpose solar energy system, that can operate all twelve months of the year, a high utilisation factor can be achieved which translates to more economical systems. However, there are still some techno-economic barriers to the general commercialisation and market penetration of such technologies. These are associated with high system and installation costs, significant system complexity, and lack of knowledge of system implementation and expected performance. A sorption heat pump module that can be integrated directly into a solar thermal collector has thus been developed in order to tackle the aforementioned market barriers. This has been designed for the development of cost-effective pre-engineered solar energy system kits that can provide both heating and cooling.This thesis summarises the characterisation studies of the operation of individual sorption modules, sorption module integrated solar collectors and a full solar heating and cooling system employing sorption module integrated collectors. Key performance indicators for the individual sorption modules showed cooling delivery for 6 hours at an average power of 40 W and a temperature lift of 21°C. Upon integration of the sorption modules into a solar collector, measured solar radiation energy to cooling energy conversion efficiencies (solar cooling COP) were between 0.10 and 0.25 with average cooling powers between 90 and 200 W/m2 collector aperture area. Further investigations of the sorption module integrated collectors implementation in a full solar heating and cooling system yielded electrical cooling COP ranging from 1.7 to 12.6 with an average of 10.6 for the test period.Additionally, simulations were performed to determine system energy and cost saving potential for various system sizes over a full year of operation for a 140 m2 single-family dwelling located in Madrid, Spain. Simulations yielded an annual solar fraction of 42% and potential cost savings of €386 per annum for a solar heating and cooling installation employing 20m2 of sorption integrated collectors.
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- Bohman, Tony, et al.
(författare)
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Predictive models for short-term and long-term improvement in women under physiotherapy for chronic disabling neck pain : a longitudinal cohort study.
- 2019
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 9:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To develop predictive models for short-term and long-term clinically important improvement in women with non-specific chronic disabling neck pain during the clinical course of physiotherapy.DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study based on data from a randomised controlled trial evaluating short-term and long-term effects on sensorimotor function over 11 weeks of physiotherapy.PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS: Eighty-nine women aged 31-65 years with non-specific chronic disabling neck pain from Gävle, Sweden.MEASURES: The outcome, clinically important improvement, was measured with the Patient Global Impression of Change Scale (PGICS) and the Neck Disability Index (NDI), assessed by self-administered questionnaires at 3, 9 and 15 months from the start of the interventions (baseline). Twelve baseline prognostic factors were considered in the analyses. The predictive models were built using random-effects logistic regression. The predictive ability of the models was measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Internal validity was assessed with cross-validation using the bootstrap resampling technique.RESULTS: Factors included in the final PGICS model were neck disability and age, and in the NDI model, neck disability, depression and catastrophising. In both models, the odds for short-term and long-term improvement increased with higher baseline neck disability, while the odds decreased with increasing age (PGICS model), and with increasing level of depression (NDI model). In the NDI model, higher baseline levels of catastrophising indicated increased odds for short-term improvement and decreased odds for long-term improvement. Both models showed acceptable predictive validity with an AUC of 0.64 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.73) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.59 to 0.75), respectively.CONCLUSION: Age, neck disability and psychological factors seem to be important predictors of improvement, and may inform clinical decisions about physiotherapy in women with chronic neck pain. Before using the developed predictive models in clinical practice, however, they should be validated in other populations and tested in clinical settings.
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- Bourbour Hosseinbeigi, Maryam, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Putting Scaffolding Into Action : Preschool Teachers' Actions Using Interactive Whiteboard
- 2020
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Ingår i: Early Childhood Education Journal. - : Springer. - 1082-3301 .- 1573-1707. ; 48:1, s. 79-92
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study aimed to explore preschool teachers' actions in order to support children's learning processes in a context where an interactive whiteboard (IWB) is used. Five preschool teachers and 22 children aged 4-6 were video observed in 2017 and early spring 2018 over a period of 5 months. The findings of the study revealed 21 scaffolding actions which preschool teachers used including: Concretizing, Questioning, Instructing, Providing space, Affirming, Providing feedback, Inviting, Watching, Laughing together, Approaching, Standing/sitting beside, Simplifying, Filling in the blanks, Confirming, Participating, Challenging perception, Challenging thought, Explaining facts, Displaying, Explaining solutions, and Referring back. By characterizing teachers' actions in relation to different scaffolding functions, the relationship between action and scaffolding function was particularly clarified. Six of the functions, including recruitment, direction maintenance, marking critical features, reduction in degrees of freedom, frustration control and demonstration were aligned with Wood et al.'s (Child Psychol Psychiatry 17:88-100, 1976) theoretical framework. By identifying two additional functions, i.e., mutual enjoyment and participation in the activity, more importantly the study contributed to the development of Wood et al.'s (Child Psychol Psychiatry 17:88-100, 1976) theoretical framework. It can be said that the findings of the study expanded and deepened our understanding regarding scaffolding processes and the ways they can be implemented in teaching practices.
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| 8. |
- Bourbour, Maryam, 1977-
(författare)
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Digital technologies in preschool education : The interplay between interactive whiteboards and teachers' teaching practices
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is aimed at exploring the ways in which a digital technology, the interactive whiteboard (IWB), interplays with preschool teachers’ teaching practices. In the literature and ongoing debates there are different claims about if and how digital technologies can contribute to children’s development and solving preschool educational challenges. The ways children learn from and by digital technologies have been widely studied, however, there is relatively little research on how digital technologies interplay with teachers’ teaching. Correspondingly, the approach taken here to the ways in which digital technologies contribute to early childhood education is based on preschool teachers’ practices and reasonings.In particular the focus is placed on the following research questions. How do preschool teachers reason about the embedding of IWB into their teaching practices? How do preschool teachers use IWB to structure their teaching practices? How do preschool teachers scaffold children’s learning processes in a context where IWB is used? How do IWBs mediate teaching actions? and What is privileged in the IWB-mediated teaching actions?To address these research questions, three sets of empirical data have been collected. These datasets, including interviews with preschool teachers and video observations of their teaching using IWB, were collected in 2012-2013 within the frame of the licentiate thesis and in late 2017 and early 2018 within the framework of the PhD thesis. Analytically, the study is built on a sociocultural perspective that assumes that learning is a constant social process.The findings of this study provide empirical knowledge regarding how preschool teachers reason about their use of IWB in teaching. The findings of the study, further, show that preschool teachers use diverse strategies to structure their teaching practice using the opportunities that IWB offers. The teachers’ use of IWBs exemplifies the ways they take into account the available technological features to support children’s learning within their ZPD.In its identification of scaffolding actions, this study provides rich details about how preschool teachers use a particular digital technology, IWB, in their teaching to support children’s learning and development. Scaffolding is seen as a collaborative process where preschool teachers’ active participation and emotional support plays an important role in fulfilling the given practices, and leads children’s learning to a higher level. By exploring how teachers’ teaching actions are meditated by the mediational aspects of IWB and what is privileged in the IWB-mediated teaching actions, the current study, moreover, contributes to mapping the desirable or undesirable consequences of using digital technologies in early childhood education. It also exemplifies how the use of IWB interplays with preschoolt eachers’ teaching practices.The new dimensions to scaffolding theory constructed in this thesis, further, contribute to expanding of Wood et al. (1976) theory. This can have significance for other studies using digital technologies in educational settings and can contribute to early childhood education, since early interventions, such as the ways preschool teachers support children, are particularly crucial for a child’s learning and their development later on in life.
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| 9. |
- Bourbour, Maryam, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Integration of interactive whiteboard in Swedish preschool practices
- 2015
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Ingår i: Early Child Development and Care. - : Routledge. - 0300-4430 .- 1476-8275. ; 185:1, s. 100-120
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims at exploring the roles preschool teachers give technologies in mathematics education and the ways they structure their mathematics learning activities using interactive whiteboard (IWB) as a technological artefact. Data collected from observations of three preschool teachers embedding IWB in a preschool practice in Sweden provided the primary data sources. The findings suggest that the use of IWB in preschool can be viewed as 'Multisensory resources to engage young children's reasoning', 'Challenging young children to engage in problem-solving activities' and 'Taking the child's interest as a point of departure'. This study also highlights the importance of preschool teachers' pedagogical and technological knowledge that shape and mediate the ways they embed IWB in preschool pedagogical practices.
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| 10. |
- Bourbour, Maryam, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Practise what you preach : the Interactive Whiteboard in preschool mathematics education
- 2017
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Ingår i: Early Child Development and Care. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0300-4430 .- 1476-8275. ; 187:11, s. 1819-1832
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) is now a common technological artefact in Swedish preschools and schools. This study examines preschool teachers’ thinking behind the embedding of IWB in the early years’ mathematics classroom and how preschool teachers structure their mathematical activities when using IWB. Two complementary empirical studies, that is, interviews and video observations, were conducted with four preschool teachers. The findings demonstrate that (just) having a positive attitude to technological artefacts like IWB is less likely to enrich the learning environment and lead to pedagogical change. This suggests that teachers’ IWB use is mostly informed by their pedagogical knowledge.
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