| 41. |
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| 42. |
- Arvidsson, Susann, et al.
(författare)
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Experiences of health-promoting self-care in people living with rheumatic diseases
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Advanced Nursing. - Oxford : Wiley. - 0309-2402 .- 1365-2648. ; 67:6, s. 1264-1272
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim This paper is a report of a study which explores and describes the meaning of the phenomenon health-promoting self-care as experienced by people living with rheumatic diseases.Background People with rheumatic diseases estimate health status as low and health belief and health status influence the self-care behaviours. Several self-care behaviours are used in the efforts to mitigate the diseases.Method The study had a descriptive phenomenological approach based on a reflective life-world perspective. Data were gathered in 2007 by unstructured open-ended interviews with 12 individuals living with rheumatic diseases.Findings The meaning of health-promoting self-care as experienced by people living with rheumatic diseases was that self-care takes place against a background of continual hope and belief to influence health in positive ways. Self-care was a way of life and implied being ready to understand and respond to signals from the body. Three inter-related constituents elucidated the experiences: dialogue, power struggle and choice. Self-care was experienced as dialogues within the body and with the immediate environment. In order to respond to signals from the body, power struggles were required to be entered when fighting the diseases. Choices were required to be made and things that were beneficial for the body were prioritized.Conclusion In this study, the meaning of health-promoting self-care as experienced by people living with rheumatic diseases was that self-care was a way of life. This meant to be ready to understand and respond to signals from the body. Self-care required dialogues, power struggles and choices.
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| 43. |
- Arvidsson, Susann, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Factors promoting health-related quality of life in people with rheumatic diseases : a 12 month longitudinal study
- 2011
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Ingår i: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. - London : BioMed Central. - 1471-2474. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Rheumatic diseases have a significant adverse impact on the individual from physical, mental and social aspects, resulting in a low health-related quality of life (HRQL). There is a lack of longitudinal studies on HRQL in people with rheumatic diseases that focus on factors promoting HRQL instead of risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between suggested health promoting factors at baseline and outcome in HRQL at a 12 month follow-up in people with rheumatic diseases.Methods: A longitudinal cohort study was conducted in 185 individuals with rheumatic diseases with questionnaires one week and 12 months after rehabilitation in a Swedish rheumatology clinic. HRQL was assessed by SF-36 together with suggested health factors. The associations between SF-36 subscales and the health factors were analysed by multivariable logistic regressions.Results: Factors predicting better outcome in HRQL in one or several SF-36 subscales were being younger or middle-aged, feeling painless, having good sleep structure, feeling rested after sleep, performing low effort of exercise more than twice per week, having strong sense of coherence (SOC), emotional support and practical assistance, higher educational level and work capacity. The most important factors were having strong SOC, feeling rested after sleep, having work capacity, being younger or middle-aged, and having good sleep structure.Conclusions: This study identified several factors that promoted a good outcome in HRQL to people with rheumatic diseases. These health factors could be important to address in clinical work with rheumatic diseases in order to optimise treatment strategies. © 2011 Arvidsson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
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| 44. |
- Arvidsson, Susann
(författare)
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Health promoting factors in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain or with rheumatic diseases: a descriptive and interventional study
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim: The overall aim of this thesis with a salutogenic approach was to describe health promoting factors in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain and in people with rheumatic diseases, and to evaluate the effects of an intervention study with a self-care promoting PBL-program for people with rheumatic diseases having chronic musculoskeletal pain, sleep disturbances and/or fatigue. Methods: This thesis is comprised of four samples: a randomly selected sample from a Swedish general population (study I) and three different samples containing people with rheumatic diseases registered at a hospital for rheumatic diseases in the southwest of Sweden (studies II, III and IV). Study I had a longitudinal cohort design with an eight-year follow-up in a general population. There were 1109 participants without chronic pain and 700 participants with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Study II had a longitudinal cohort design with participants with rheumatic diseases (n=185) 12 months after rehabilitation at a hospital for rheumatic diseases. Study III had a descriptive qualitative design with a phenomenological approach based on a reflective life-world perspective. Twelve participants were interviewed about their experiences about health-promoting self-care. Study IV had a randomised controlled design with post-test six months after the one-year self-care promoting problem-based learning (PBL) program for people with rheumatic diseases. The participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group, 54 participants, or to the control group, 148 participants. Data in studies I, II and IV were analysed with statistics. In study III a Husserlian phenomenological approach based on a reflective life-world perspective was used in the data collection and analysis. Results: Study I: Although participants without chronic musculoskeletal pain reported better health-related quality of life (HRQL) than participants with chronic musculoskeletal pain, similar health factors were found to promote a better HRQL in the eight-year follow-up. The most important factors were feeling rested after sleep and having good sleep structure. Study II: The most important factors promoting better outcome in HRQL 12 months after rehabilitation in participants with rheumatic diseases were having a strong sense of coherence (SOC), feeling rested after sleep, having work capacity, and having good sleep structure. Study III: The meaning of health-promoting self-care as experienced by people with rheumatic diseases was that self-care takes place against a background of continual hope and belief to be able to influence health in positive ways. Self-care was a way of life and implied being ready to understand and respond to signals from the body. Three interrelated constituents elucidated the experiences: dialogue, power struggle and choice. Study IV: At the six month follow-up the participants in the experimental group had stronger empowerment after participation in the self-care promoting PBL-program compared with the control group which only got standard care for people with rheumatic diseases. There were no differences in HRQL, self-care ability, SOC, pain, quality of sleep or fatigue between the experimental group and the control group. The participants in the experimental group also stated that they had implemented lifestyle changes which they had not done without the PBL-program. Conclusion: The results of this thesis provide a valuable and useful insight in health promoting factors in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain and in people with rheumatic diseases, but also in that people with rheumatic diseases have benefit from taking part in patient education with a self-care promoting PBL-program. These results contribute to evidence supporting the introduction of a more salutogenic approach in rheumatology care and research.
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| 45. |
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| 46. |
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| 47. |
- Assabie, Yaregal, 1975-, et al.
(författare)
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Offline handwritten Amharic word recognition
- 2011
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Ingår i: Pattern Recognition Letters. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. - 0167-8655 .- 1872-7344. ; 32:8, s. 1089-1099
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper describes two approaches for Amharic word recognition in unconstrained handwritten text using HMMs. The first approach builds word models from concatenated features of constituent characters and in the second method HMMs of constituent characters are concatenated to form word model. In both cases, the features used for training and recognition are a set of primitive strokes and their spatial relationships. The recognition system does not require segmentation of characters but requires text line detection and extraction of structural features, which is done by making use of direction field tensor. The performance of the recognition system is tested by a dataset of unconstrained handwritten documents collected from various sources, and promising results are obtained. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 48. |
- Avendal, Christel
(författare)
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Social Work in Ghana: Engaging Traditional Actors in Professional Practices
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - Stavanger : Stavanger University Library. - 0809-9936. ; 6:2, s. 106-124
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In contemporary Ghana, the traditional system and professional social work operate as two parallel systems within the field of social work. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how the teaching of contemporary professional social work in Ghana takes into account traditional actors and practices. The traditional system includes extended family members and traditional authorities such as chiefs or family heads. It formed the social institution that protected and cared for the vulnerable before (Western) social work was introduced as a formal profession in Ghana. A 10-week ethnographic field study was conducted at the Department of Social Work at the University of Ghana. The study employed a qualitative, social constructionist approach, interpreting the results within a theoretical framework of social world theory. The empirical material consisted of interviews with students and teachers, participant observation at lectures, and various documents. The main findings of the study were that professional social workers and traditional actors can be seen as members of two subworlds – the subworld of professional social workers and the subworld of traditional actors. Students and teachers discuss interventions from the perspective of social workers and traditional actors. Their ability to take different perspectives seems to be crucial for localisation – the process by which social work is made relevant to local culture and traditions. The interviewees’ accounts reveal how localisation is not only about culture, but also about social structures and practical considerations. The poor state of the social work profession in Ghana affects interventions in a profound way.
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| 49. |
- Awuah, Gabriel Baffour, et al.
(författare)
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Interactive (networked) internationalization : the case of Swedish firms
- 2011
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Ingår i: European Journal of Marketing. - UK : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0309-0566 .- 1758-7123. ; 45:7-8, s. 1112-1129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - The purpose of this study is to provide deeper insights into the extent to which an independent actor(s) actively collaborates with the internationalizing firm so as to jointly determine the choice of market, the mode of entry and the level of investment committed in the market to be entered and even after the entry (i.e. the ongoing activities). Design/methodology/approach - Against the previous purpose section, a qualitative research approach is selected to guide the exploratory nature of this study. Thus qualitative data are used to build the two case studies because case studies are generally a more appropriate approach when "how" and "why" questions are being posed and when the investigator has little control over events. Findings - Based on two multiple case studies, one major finding of the study shows that independent actors, with their interconnected networks, have played and are still playing a major role in influencing the internationalization processes of each of the two firms in this study. Originality/value - This is an original paper developed based on two case studies which have not been published in any journal before. The paper highlights the role of external independent actors in internationalization, which is not mentioned at all or stressed in the extant literature.
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| 50. |
- Awuah, Gabriel Baffour, et al.
(författare)
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Potential tourists’ image of a tourist destination : The case of Brazil
- 2011
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Ingår i: Research on Technology, Innovation and Marketing Management 2009‐2011. - Halmstad : Högskolan i Halmstad. ; , s. 135-148
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This research deals with the image, which potential tourists may have about a tourist destination.Using a quantitative approach and a marketing and communication perspective, we tried to investigate how Brazil is seen by potential tourists who happened to be European students studying at the Halmstad University, Sweden. The research highlighted six categories, upon which the tourists’ image of Brazil is based, namely hospitality of the population, sexuality, tourism infrastructure, environment, economy, protection and safety. The results show that the image held by the studied target group about Brazil as a tourist destination, is an exotic country with a friendly population with an exuberant nature; the main identity icons are football and carnival events. Entertainment and fun are some other positive attributes mentioned by the respondents. However, violence and fragile security are the main concerns for the respondents.
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