| 1. |
- Hagbom, Marie, 1971-
(författare)
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Rotavirus Disease Mechanisms Diarrhea, Vomiting and Inflammation : How and Why
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rotavirus infections cause diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to severe dehydration. Despite extensive tissue damage and cell death, the inflammatory response is very limited. The focus of this thesis was to study pathophysiological mechanisms behind diarrhea and vomiting during rotavirus infection and also to investigate the mechanism behind the limited inflammatory response.An important discovery in this thesis was that rotavirus infection and the rotavirus toxin NSP4 stimulate release of the neurotransmitter serotonin from intestinal sensory enterochromaffin cells, in vitro and ex vivo. Interestingly, serotonin is known to be a mediator of both diarrhea and vomiting. Moreover, mice pups infected with rotavirus responded with central nervous system (CNS) activation in brain structures associated with vomiting, thus indicating a cross-talk between the gut and brain in rotavirus disease.Our finding that rotavirus infection activates the CNS led us to address the hypothesis that rotavirus infection not only activates the vagus nerve to stimulate vomiting, but also suppresses the inflammatory response via the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, both of which are mediated by activated vagal afferent nerve signals into the brain stem. We found that mice lacking an intact vagus nerve, and mice lacking the α7 nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), being involved in cytokine suppression from macrophages, responded with a higher inflammatory response.Moreover, stimulated cytokine release from macrophages, by the rotavirus toxin NSP4, could be attenuated by nicotine, an agonist of the α7 nAChR. Thus, it seems most reasonable that the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway contributes to the limited inflammatory response during rotavirus infection. Moreover, rotavirus-infected mice displayed increased intestinal motility at the onset of diarrhea, which was not associated with increased intestinal permeability. The increased motility and diarrhea in infant mice could be attenuated by drugs acting on the enteric nervous system, indicating the importance and contribution of nerves in the rotavirus mediated disease.In conclusion, this thesis provides further insight into the pathophysiology of diarrhea and describe for the first time how rotavirus and host cross-talk to induce the vomiting reflex and limit inflammation. Results from these studies strongly support our hypothesis that serotonin and activation of the enteric nervous system and CNS contributes to diarrhea, vomiting and suppression of the inflammatory response in rotavirus disease.
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| 2. |
- Kindberg, Elin, 1981-
(författare)
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Host genetic risk factors to viral diseases - a double-edged sword : Studies of norovirus and tick-borne encephalitis virus
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It is today well known that the outcome of a certain infection depends on factors of both the host and the pathogen. Studies of host genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases aim to increase the understanding of why some individuals are more susceptible than others, to a certain infection. Knowledge of genetic susceptibility to a viral disease may be used in development of new therapeutic means, and also to recognize individuals who are at increased risk of severe symptoms if infected with a pathogen. It seems however that a risk factor for one disease may play a protective role in another situation; like a double-edged sword.In this thesis I have studied genetic factors affecting susceptibility to norovirus (NoV) and factors affecting the risk of developing tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) after infection with TBE virus (TBEV). NoV is the cause of the “winter vomiting disease”, affecting millions of people every year, and causing up to 200,000 fatalities among children in developing countries, each year. It is today recognized that the secretor status of an individual, i.e. the ability to express ABO blood groups and related antigens, in secretions and on mucosa, affect the risk of being infected by NoV. By studying authentic NoV outbreaks in Denmark, Spain and Sweden and by comparing the secretor status of affected and unaffected individuals we were able to confirm that secretor status have indeed great impact on susceptibility to some NoV strains, but also that there are strains circulating, which infect individuals regardless of secretor status.TBEV is endemic in many parts of Europe and Asia but studies have shown that 70-95% of all infections are asymptomatic or sub-clinical. Some individuals do however develop TBE, a severe disease including meningitis or encephalitis with or without myelitis. Also, many patients suffer from long-time sequelae and TBEV infections may in worst case be fatal. The reason for difference in disease outcome is not known and we have chosen to study if genetic factors affecting the immune response may play a role in disease outcome. To do this we used a prospectively collected Lithuanian material with samples from patients with TBE, AME (aseptic meningoencephalitis) and matched healthy controls. So far we have found that a deletion in chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), a gene encoding a receptor involved in cell migration, is a risk factor for developing disease. We have also data showing that toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), a receptor recognizing double stranded RNA (dsRNA), which is a product of TBEV replication, may instead of being protective increase the risk of TBE.
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| 3. |
- Avby, Gunilla
(författare)
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Evidence in practice : On knowledge use and learning in social work
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Against the backdrop of the transformations in the entire framing of professional work, social work has come under close scrutiny in many countries, including Sweden. Doubts have been raised about practitioners’ existing knowledge base, and the importance of practitioners engaging in learning and the renewal and extension of professional capacities has been emphasized.The present thesis concerns knowledge use and learning in the daily practices of child investigation work. The aim is to explore processes of knowledge use and learning in practice. The study is based on a mix of qualitative approaches, basically from ethnography, comprising methods such as participant observations, interviews, reflective dialogues and documentary analysis of case data.The main findings demonstrate that investigation work is characterized mainly by the use of practice-based knowledge. Research-based knowledge is predominantly used as a means of explaining a client’s situation or to underpin and legitimize one’s own beliefs and decisions made on other grounds. Professional learning is largely adaptive in character, as the social workers learn to handle tasks in a fairly routinized way on the basis of rules or procedures that draw on existing knowledge in the practice setting.Two conclusions are drawn: First, the use of knowledge in child investigation work bears little resemblance to principles of evidence-based practice. Second, the reproduction of professional knowledge is largely implicit and taken for granted. The study offers insight into the much-discussed topic of putting knowledge into practice, which is of importance to strategies for organizing profes sional learning and knowledgeable practice.
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| 4. |
- Larsson, Kristoffer
(författare)
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Kritiskt tänkande i samhällskunskap : En studie som ur ett fenomenografiskt perspektiv belyser manifesterat kritiskt tänkande bland elever i grundskolans år 9
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study a phenomenographic theoretical perspective is taken as departure for research on manifested critical thinking in civics among Swedish ninth-grade compulsory school students.According to the phenomenographic perspective students’ manifestations of critical thinking are linked to the way of experiencing the phenomena inducing a manifestation of critical thinking. Thus differences between students’ manifestations of critical thinking are linked to differences in the way of experiencing the phenomena inducing a manifestation of critical thinking.The empirical investigation in this study revolves around how 19 ninth-grade students experience four different tasks designed to induce manifestations of critical thinking. In broad terms the main aim of the study is to describe the students’ different ways of experiencing each specific task and furthermore, to link each specific way of experiencing a specific task to a specific type of manifested critical thinking in relation to that task. A more overarching aim is to offer and test the phenomenographic theoretical perspective as a way of conducting research on manifested critical thinking.The empirical results show how the way of experiencing a specific task plays a decisive roll for the type of manifested critical thinking, made possible in relation to the specific task. A more complex way of experiencing the task can be linked to a more complex manifestation of critical thinking in relation to the task. A less complex way of experiencing the task can be linked to a less complex manifestation of critical thinking in relation to the task. The study also suggests how these empirical results can be used in a pedagogical situation in order to enhance students manifested critical thinking in civics. Concerning the more overarching aim the study strongly points to a further use of the phenomenographic perspective when conducting research on students manifested critical thinking.
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| 5. |
- Nyström, Sofia, 1977-
(författare)
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Becoming a professional : A longitudinal study of graduates' professional trajectories from higher education to working life
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study has a longitudinal design where Political Science and Psychology graduates’ have been interviewed on three consecutive occasions; the last semester before graduation, the first year and then, in the third year of professional work. The theoretical frame of reference comprises a situated and social learning theory and a gender perspective. These theories were chosen since they elaborate on concepts such as identity, practice, participation and learning.The results indicate that becoming a professional is not an isolated phenomenon merely learned and nurtured in higher education and/or in working life. It is emphasised as a dynamic learning process between a reflective individual, the interaction with a professional practice as well as a relationship between other spheres of life, e.g. the personal and the private. The graduates’ professional trajectories can be characterised by a movement from appropriating new knowledge to a need to change direction, e.g. new work tasks or professional fields. This is also a process of professional identity formation. The graduates’ professional identity is emphasised as being both closely related to a gender identity and influenced by the individuals’ belonging to and participation in other practices. The results thus indicate that professional identity formation is an interplay between different spheres of life that changes over time. By using a longitudinal design, it can be claimed that becoming a professional requires balancing one’s whole life situation.
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| 6. |
- Otterborg, Annica
(författare)
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Entreprenöriellt lärande : Gymnasieelevers skilda sätt att uppfatta entreprenöriellt lärande
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Students need to be entrepreneurial, because society has changed locally and globally and individuals must carry more responsibility for their learning and their livelihood. Information technology affects everyone and makes it possible to obtain facts far beyond the classroom. In all, the changes affect the perception of what and how pupils learn. Supranational bodies such as the OECD, the European Union and NUTEK have argued for a couple of decades that schools and businesses need to work together to educate students in an entrepreneurial direction. Today, in 2011, entrepreneurship is in fact enshrined in the new curriculum for the upper secondary school, GY 2011. The school has long sought to increase students’ responsibility for their own learning and different education practices have been tested to develop this. The purpose of this study is to form knowledge about entrepreneurial learning and make a contribution to knowledge about a form of learning, from a student perspective. The theoretical and methodological approach of the study is phenomenographic. Sixteen students at an upper secondary school with a pronounced entrepreneurial profile have been interviewed. The interview guide used was open-ended with ample opportunities for the informants to talk about their work on the basis of the project that the students perform during their last school year. Students do not use the term entrepreneurial to describe their perceptions, but from the data I understand with my teaching experience that they describe their perceptions of entrepreneurial learning. The results of the analysis of the data material show upper secondary school students' different perceptions of entrepreneurial learning and fall into five description categories. They are Understanding, identifying and defining the task, External contacts and communication, Team building, Learning in different social practices and Looking beyond the obvious. The results show that if the school is to use entrepreneurial learning as a learning approach, tasks need to be retrieved from activities outside the school to be challenging for students to manage themselves and with the help of others.
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| 7. |
- Carlsson, Beatrice
(författare)
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Human Caliciviruses: a study of viral evolution, host genetics and disease susceptibility
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The viruses described in this thesis are the norovirus and sapoviruses, which belong to the family of human caliciviruses and are known to cause gastroenteritis in humans. Gastroenteritis has emerged as a global health problem and is based on the large number of infected considered as one of the most common diseases today. According to estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), gastroenteritis causes over five times more pediatric deaths compared to pediatric deaths caused by HIV/AIDS worldwide. Norovirus, the cause of the famous “winter vomiting disease”, is alone responsible for more than 200 000 deaths each year in children less than 5 years of age.The mechanism for emergence and evolution of new human calicivirus strains, as well as protective immunity in the human population is poorly understood. The main focus for this thesis was to elucidate the possible correlation between human calicivirus evolution, host genetics and disease susceptibility. One of the main findings presented in this thesis is the documentation of in vivo capsid gene evolution and quasispecies dynamics during chronic NoV GI.3 infection (Paper 1). In paper II, we reported that the G428A nonsense mutation in the FUT2 gene provides strong but not absolute protection against symptomatic GII.4 NoV infection. In my last two papers (Paper III and IV), we were the first to investigate host genetic susceptibility factors during authentic SaV infection.To summarize, the results presented in this thesis show that the success of human calicivirus infection probably is determined by a delicate interplay between virus evolution and susceptibility of the host, both genetically and immunologically.
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| 8. |
- Elmquist, Lennart, 1967-
(författare)
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Defect Formation during Solidification in Grey Iron Castings
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The presence of defects is of major concern in the production of grey iron castings. Some defects are merely an aesthetic problem while others can be detrimental for the performance of the component. Among the several possible defects, shrinkage porosity is one of the more challenging to understand and avoid. This type of defect can penetrate through the casting as a three-dimensional network. The purpose of this work has been to develop knowledge and understanding about the foundry process in order to increase product quality by eliminating or at least minimising the presence of shrinkage porosity in the production of vital engine components. This was done by developing fundamental knowledge concerning factors known to influence the presence of shrinkage porosity. Initially, an investigation was carried out in order to characterize shrinkage porosity commonly occurring in cylinder heads. Factors found to be important and contributing to the formation of shrinkage porosity were identified. It was found that this type of defect is formed at hot spots that have migrated during solidification. Knowledge of the migrating hot spot was used as a design criterion in the development of a geometry with the purpose of deliberately generating porosity. Based on this geometry a mechanism for the formation of this type of shrinkage porosity was proposed. The formation of shrinkage porosity depends on gases dissolved in the melt. In this work, their levels and variations in the melting process were investigated. It was shown how the solubility of oxygen depends on the temperature but not on the method used to produce the iron. On the other hand, the total amount of oxygen depends on the process but not on temperature. The discussion about gases also included hydrogen and nitrogen. The solidification of grey cast iron is complex. It is during the solidification that not only the final properties of the component but also the conditions for defect formation are established. Shrinkage porosity is formed due to volumetric changes followed by an inability to supply material to the contracting areas. The solidification of grey iron starts with nucleation and growth of the primary austenite followed by nucleation of eutectic cells. It was found that the microstructural constituents are interconnected. The importance of the macrostructure was also discussed and it was shown that shrinkage porosity can be found not only between eutectic cells but also between equiaxed crystals.
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| 9. |
- Eriksson, Magnus, 1966-
(författare)
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Studenter och utbildningar vid ett nytt universitet : Växjöstudenternas bakgrund, utbildningsval och arbetsmarknad
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Uppsatsens syfte är att utifrån olika ansatser ge en bred bild av ett relativt nyetablerat universitet. Genom att fokusera på studenters utbildningsval och motiv utifrån deras bakgrunder och erfarenheter i relation till Växjö universitets olika typer av utbildningar, vill jag studera förutsättningar för formningen av lärosätets utbildningsmiljö samt konsekvenser för studenternas vidare öden. Växjö universitets studenter och utbildningar studeras i relation till andra lärosätens studenter och utbildningar i ett historiskt och nutida perspektiv. De Växjöstudenter som jag koncentrerar mig på är den stora grupp högskolenybörjare som studerar på helfart som finns vid universitetet. Dessutom beskrivs och analyseras olika utbildningsprograms studenter och deras utbildningsmotiv i den lokala utbildningsmiljön. Ett antal övergripande frågeställningar vägleder arbetet: Vilka är Växjö universitets utbildningar och dess studenter jämfört med andra lärosäten?Vilka studenter rekryterar universitetets olika utbildningar?Vilka är studenternas motiv till valet av utbildningar?Hur ser relationen ut mellan bakgrund, motiv och utbildning? [1] För mer ingående diskussion om studentgruppen, se kapitel 2, och appendix, kapitel 2.
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| 10. |
- Grinbergs, Johan, 1972-
(författare)
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Pratnerskap - Ett sätt att organisera regional tillväxt : Perspektiv på regional utveckling som fenomen och en analys av ett tillväxtprogram
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the first decade of the 21st century, there has been a shift in the view of what role regions should play in the creation of growth. From being governed from a national level more and more of the responsibility of creating growth is being transferred to a regional level. One example of this development has been the Regional Growth Program (RGP), which were implemented in all regions in Sweden during the period 2004 to 2007. This dissertation studies the RGP in the county of Västmanland, where a number of actors within the program have been interviewed as well as meetings within the program have been monitored. The interviews have been analyzed through a phenomenological oriented method which has resulted in six empirical themes. They consist of the following themes: region, growth, entrepreneurship, cooperation and competition, results, and talk and action. The last theme which concerns talk and action is being examined more thoroughly through the observations of meetings in the RGP and interviews with central actors. This theme is viewed as the most central and essential theme of the study. The dominating view of the central actors is that there is “too much talk and too little action” in the RGP In the latter part of the dissertation the theme of talk and action is examined further using a organizational perspective. The RGP is organized in so called “partnerships”, where the differences become very clear when compared to organization in a more traditional form. In traditional organizations, output can be observed as manufactured units or the value created in services performed. From such a perspective, consensus, efficiency and action – becomes the rational to strive for to maximize the effectiveness. Such a traditional view of organization is less useful for RGP – but is still in use since they are the dominant perspectives on how we value “good” organizing. In the case of the RGP the partnership have being assigned to cooperate and find new, better ways to stimulate the regional growth. The success of the partnership is still measured by quantitative indicators, which is not very logical since it is almost impossible to see if the partnership has had anything to do with affecting these indicators. With the support of theories from Brunsson (2006) I therefore propose the “talk organization” as an alternative to the “action organization” – and also see the potential of redefining the partnership as a form of such a talk organization. The advantages of such an approach could be to view the talking as an important prerequisite to potential action, and furthermore we can revalue the importance of creating talk opportunities to occur in such partnerships. This creates a view full of conflicts in relating to the traditional view of organization that advocates consensus and order – but in the supposedly creative talking partnerships the issue may be to uphold conflict, and a wide range of different views to be able to create something new. The dissertation has a theoretical focus that highlights the connection, but also contradictions, between the structural and symbolic in organizing and also how it may affect the potential for development and change.
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| 11. |
- Nord, Anette, 1972-
(författare)
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Bystander CPR : New aspects of CPR training among students and the importance of bystander education level on survival
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: It has been proved that bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) saves lives; however, which training method in CPR is most instructive and whether survival is affected by the training level of the bystander have not yet been fully described. Aim: To identify the factors that may affect 7th grade students’ acquisition of CPR skills during CPR training and their willingness to act, and to describe 30-day survival from outof- hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) after bystander CPR and the actions performed by laymen versus off-duty medically educated personnel. Methods: Studies I–III investigate a CPR training intervention given to students in 7th grade during 2013–2014. The classes were randomized to the main intervention: the mobile phone application (app) or DVD-based training. Some of the classes were randomized to one or several additional interventions: a practical test with feedback, reflection, a web course, a visit from elite athletes and automated external defibrillator (AED) training. The students’ practical skills, willingness to act and knowledge of stroke symptoms, symptoms of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and lifestyle factors were assessed directly after training and at 6 months using the Laerdal PC SkillReporting system (and entered into a modified version of the Cardiff test scoring sheet) and a questionnaire. The Cardiff test resulted in a total score of 12–48 points, and the questionnaire resulted in a total score of 0–7 points for stroke symptoms, 0–9 points for symptoms of AMI and 0– 6 points on lifestyle factors. Study IV is based on retrospective data from the national quality register, the Swedish registry of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 2010-2014. Results: A total of 1339 students were included in the CPR training intervention. The DVD-based group was superior to the app-based group in CPR skills, with a total score of 35 (SD 4.o) vs 33 (SD 4.2) points directly after training (p<0.001) and 33 (SD 4.0) vs 31 (SD 4.2) points at six months (p<0.001). Of the additional interventions, the practical test with feedback had the greatest influence regarding practical skills: at six months the intervention group scored 32 (SD 3.9) points and the control group (CPR only) scored 30 (SD 4.0) points (p<0.001). Reflection, the web course, visits from elite athletes and AED training did not further increase the students’ acquisition of practical CPR skills.The students who completed the web course Help-Brain-Heart received a higher total score for theoretical knowledge in comparison with the control group, directly after training: stroke 3.8 (SD 1.8) vs 2.7 (SD 2.0) points (p<0.001); AMI 4.0 (SD 2.0) vs 2.5 (SD 2.0) points (p<0.001); lifestyle factors 5.4 (SD 1.2) vs 4.5 (SD 2.0) points p<0.001.Most of the students (77% at 6 months), regardless of the intervention applied, expressed that they would perform both chest compressions and ventilations in a cardiac arrest (CA) situation involving a relative. If a stranger had CA, a significantly lower proportion of students (32%; p<0.001) would perform both compressions and ventilations. In this case, however, many would perform compressions only.In most cases of bystander-witnessed OHCA, CPR was performed by laymen. Off-duty health care personnel bystanders initiated CPR within 1 minute vs 2 minutes for laymen (p<0.0001). Thirty-day survival was 14.7% among patients who received CPR from laymen and 17.2% (p=0.02) among patients who received bystander CPR from off-duty health care personnel. Conclusions: The DVD-based method was superior to the app-based method in terms of teaching practical CPR skills to 7th grade students. Of the additional interventions, a practical test with feedback was the most efficient intervention to increase learning outcome. The additional interventions, reflection, web course, visit from elite athletes and AED did not increase CPR skills further. However, the web course Help-Brain-Heart improved the students’ acquisition of theoretical knowledge regarding stroke, AMI and lifestyle factors. For OHCA, off-duty health care personnel bystanders initiated CPR earlier and 30-day survival was higher compared with laymen bystanders.
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| 12. |
- Nordgren, Johan, 1980-
(författare)
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Norovirus Epidemiology : Prevalence, transmission, and determinants of disease susceptibility
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Norovirus (NoV) is today recognized as the most important agent of acute human gastroenteritis, causing a high number of diarrheal episodes in both adults and children. Outbreaks in hospitals, nursing homes, day-care centers, and from consumption of contaminated food and drinking water are common. Wastewater can be a source of NoV dissemination, e.g. when used for irrigation of crops, or due to shellfish cultivation near the outlet of wastewater treatment plants. Today, at least 25 different genotypes of NoV belonging to two major genogroups (GG) have been observed in humans. These genotypes are associated with different transmission patterns and disease severity in humans. Also host genetic factors, such as presence of ABO antigens and mutations in the FUT2 gene affect susceptibility, and can even render complete resistance to symptomatic infections, but only the most common NoV genotypes have been studied regarding this.In this thesis, we wanted to find prevention strategies for NoV disease through four studies of NoV epidemiology: Development of a sensitive real-time PCR assay for detection and quantification of human NoVs, characterization of NoV in children with diarrhea in Nicaragua, investigation of the prevalence and parameters influencing NoV concentration in a wastewater treatment plant in Gothenburg, Sweden, and studying host susceptibility factors in a foodborne NoV outbreak in Jönköping, Sweden.First we developed a real-time PCR assay which can detect and quantify NoV in various settings, both in stool samples of patients, and in wastewater samples from which virus was first concentrated using ultracentrifugation. This assay was found to be more sensitive than commercial immunological assays and conventional PCR methods. The assay is furthermore able to differentiate between the two major human genogroups of NoV using melting curve analysis, which provides valuable information about the circulating NoV strains.The survey of NoV in pediatric diarrhea in Nicaragua revealed a large impact of NoV, both in community and hospital based settings, with 15% of the severe diarrhea cases attributed to NoV. Peaks of clinically diagnosed NoV gastroenteritis were associated with emerging variants of genotype GGII.4, largely replacing the many different NoV genotypes circulating before the peak of diarrheal cases. Children infected with the GGII.4 genotype were found to shed more virus compared to children infected with other genotypes, which could partly explain the high transmission of GGII.4.At the wastewater treatment plant in Gothenburg, both NoV GGI and GGII were detected during a whole year, not only during the winter season when clinical cases are common. This indicates that NoV infections are frequently occurring at clinical and/or sub-clinical levels in the community. During winter, GGII was present in high concentrations, whereas GGI concentration increased to higher levels than GGII in summer, possibly due to the emergence of new genotypes following the winter outbreaks. The levels of NoV GGI were stable during the year, and hence incoming concentrations were affected by dilution factors such as rain. Primary treatment and treatment in a conventional, non-nitrifying activated sludge system reduced the NoV concentration by a factor of about 30. The detection of NoV in outgoing water, together with the low reduction and lack of correlation to indicator bacteria, suggest that better monitoring tools for virus in wastewater are warranted to reduce environmental contamination.A foodborne NoV outbreak in Jönköping in October 2007, by a NoV GGI.3 strain, revealed a surprising pattern of host susceptibility. In contrast to previous findings, this strain infected individuals irrespective of secretor status and Lewis (Le) phenotype, with non-secretors and Lea+bindividuals having a higher risk of disease. Individuals with blood group B had a partial protection to symptomatic infection, but none of the host factors investigated mediated complete resistance. Furthermore, we observed differences in susceptibility regarding homozygosity and heterozygosity in the FUT2 gene, with heterozygous secretor-positive individuals being more susceptible to symptomatic NoV infection than homozygous secretors.In summary, the developed LUX real-time PCR assay was successfully used in all studies in this thesis, which yielded important information about the prevalence and transmission of NoV. We observed the emergence of GGII.4 variants, causing the majority of diarrheal cases in children, largely replacing the other circulating genotypes, possibly due to better replication leading to a higher viral shedding. After the peak of NoV-induced diarrheal episodes, the incidence of GGII.4 decrease and other strains emerge which can infect people not previously exposed. This was observed in the foodborne outbreak in Jönköping, where individuals expected to be resistant to NoV were infected, and indeed had a higher risk of developing disease. A similar seasonal pattern was also indirectly observed in wastewater, with high levels of GGII in winter, which subsequently declined, followed by an increase of GGI in summer. Taken together, these results provide a better insight into the epidemiology of the virus, which hopefully can lead to better preventive measures for NoV gastroenteritis.
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| 13. |
- Olmin, Amanda, 1994-
(författare)
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On Uncertainty Quantification in Neural Networks: Ensemble Distillation and Weak Supervision
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Machine learning models are employed in several aspects of society, ranging from autonomous cars to justice systems. They affect your everyday life, for instance through recommendations on your streaming service and by informing decisions in healthcare, and are expected to have even more influence in society in the future. Among these machine learning models, we find neural networks which have had a wave of success within a wide range of fields in recent years. The success of neural networks are partly attributed to the very flexible model structure and, what it seems, endless possibilities in terms of extensions.While neural networks come with great flexibility, they are so called black-box models and therefore offer little in terms of interpretability. In other words, it is seldom possible to explain or even understand why a neural network makes a certain decision. On top of this, these models are known to be overconfident, which means that they attribute low uncertainty to their predictions, even when uncertainty is, in reality, high. Previous work has demonstrated how this issue can be alleviated with the help of ensembles, i.e. by weighing the opinion of multiple models in prediction. In Paper I, we investigate this possibility further by creating a general framework for ensemble distribution distillation, developed for the purpose of preserving the performance benefits of ensembles while reducing computational costs. Specifically, we extend ensemble distribution distillation to make it applicable to tasks beyond classification and demonstrate the usefulness of the framework in, for example, out-of-distribution detection.Another obstacle in the use of neural networks, especially deep neural networks, is that supervised training of these models can require a large amount of labelled data. The process of annotating a large amount of data is costly, time-consuming and also prone to errors. Specifically, there is a risk of incorporating label noise in the data. In Paper II, we investigate the effect of label noise on model performance. In particular, under an input-dependent noise model, we analyse the properties of the asymptotic risk minimisers of strictly proper and a set of previously proposed, robust loss functions. The results demonstrate that reliability, in terms of a model’s uncertainty estimates, is an important aspect to consider also in weak supervision and, particularly, when developing noise-robust training algorithms.Related to annotation costs in supervised learning, is the use of active learning to optimise model performance under budget constraints. The goal of active learning, in this context, is to identify and annotate the observations that are most useful for the model’s performance. In Paper III, we propose an approach for taking advantage of intentionally weak annotations in active learning. What is proposed, more specifically, is to incorporate the possibility to collect cheaper, but noisy, annotations in the active learning algorithm. Thus, the same annotation budget is enough to annotate more data points for training. In turn, the model gets to explore a larger part of the input space. We demonstrate empirically how this can lead to gains in model performance.
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| 14. |
- Persson, Magnus, 1972-
(författare)
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Utbildningskontraktets villkor : Utbildningsförlopp på en förändrad gymnasielärarutbildning
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For the last decades the social position of the Swedish upper secondary schoolteacher programme has fallen dramatically in the field of higher education. The once social homogeneity among students has transformed into heterogeneity. This study investigates what educational action students take while studying, and making experiences from the programme and how this relates to their individual educational and social resources, and to the overall changes in the higher education sector. A centrepiece in the study is the relation between what students expect of the programme, on the one hand, and what the programme actually delivers on the other. This is understood as an educational contract. This contract is divided into a labour-market contract and a teaching-contract where the former regulates how teaching content connects with the future labour-market expectations held by the students, and the latter how demands from the programme connect to students’ expectations of what it is to be a university student. In this case it produces educational action that can’t be understood without knowledge about the social disposition of the individual student (elaborated as habitus in this study), as well as knowledge about the social position of the educational programme. The study draws on a longitudinal series of in-depth interviews, supplemented by survey data and historical material. Three courses of education were identified. First the completed course, second the drop-out course and finally the changed course where students finished their academic degree but used it to get a higher social position in the labour-market than a position as upper secondary schoolteachers would have given them. The different courses of education exhibit a social pattern that can be understood both in relation to the expanded availability of higher education and to the social dispositions of the students; a key in the understanding of how conditions of the educational contract are formed both socially and historically. Some major findings can be formulated from this. First: Choice of courses of education mainly reproduced already existing internal social differences among the students but were revealed in new arrangements related to the altered field of higher education. Second: Expectations and choice of courses of education can in different ways, be traced to the social genealogy of teacher education. Third: Social pattern contributed to strengthen the on-going falling social position of the upper secondary schoolteacher programme.
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| 15. |
- Ranagården, Lisbeth, 1947-
(författare)
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Lärares lärande om elever - en sociologisk studie om yrkespraktik
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a study of how professional teachers’ learning about students takes place in relation to changed requirements and new organisational preconditions. Based on an approach from the theory of professions with inspiration by Lipsky’s concept of street level bureaucrats, it examines which strategies or methods teachers develop in order to cope with the changes. Important points of departure for the study are theories of organisation, professions and knowledge. The three phases that are considered to distinguish professional work – diagnosis, inference, treatment – organise the disposition of the work. The study is empirically based on interviews with primary school teachers, recorded development conversations, and teachers’ written documentation for the latter. The teachers’ own accounts of their learning process, as well as how they interpret what is experienced, form an interpretive and analytical foundation together with analysis of the development conversations. Teachers’ meetings with students usually occur with the entire class as a collective, which makes the teaching profession special. Other professionals normally meet their clients individually. At the same time, teachers are expected to individualise the instruction. The study shows how the organisation creates obstacles by intensifying the teachers’ work. This diminishes the leeway for teachers to work professionally. A recurrent problem for the teachers’ teaching is therefore lack of time. They have to find standardised forms such as the categorising of students. The analyses demonstrate that there is great uncertainty about the measures’ effects, and that teachers do not have enough knowledge. One develops new knowledge by trial and error, and the study points to a need for the teachers’ teaching in and through its practice to be given room to develop. In this context the study discusses teachers’ professional language as a hindrance to professional development. As the study also shows, leeway for conversations is a prerequisite for learning about students. This in turn influences the possibilities of creating good relations. The study discusses teachers’ interest in relation-building from a power perspective and as an important tool for successful instruction. But teachers lack tools for handling certain students who challenge the teaching role, and the analysis reveals deficiencies in both the organisation in the profession. According to the study’s results, teachers do not have support for coping with the changes that were made in the schools. Especially the profession’s social dimensions prove to be a weakness for newly educated teachers, who need continued learning in professional practice, but more experienced teachers also lack tools for being able to individualise the instruction. While the causes are numerous, the bottom line is a scarcity of resources – in terms of time, institutional measures for solving problems, and knowledge about how the problems should be solved.
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| 16. |
- Rexvid, Devin, 1975-
(författare)
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Professionsutövning och kunskapsstyrning : en jämförelse av socialarbetares och allmänläkares klientarbete
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to study whether the Swedish state’s efforts to govern the professional practice of social workers (SWs) by knowledge to achieve an evidence-based practice, address the difficulties that SWs encounter in their practice. The Swedish state’s ambition is to govern the practice of social work by ideas and methods originating from medicine. The thesis therefore compares, through four different studies, the professional practice of SWs with general practitioners (GPs) as the most comparable sub-profession in medicine. The research questions that the thesis seeks to answer are:What situations are perceived as problematic and non-problematic by SWs and GPs?How does the professionals’ relationship with clients affect the performative aspects of these occupations’ enactment of their practice?How do SW and GPs experience the state’s efforts to govern their professional practice by knowledge?What problems can arise when the Swedish state builds its knowledge governance of social work practice on a comparison with medicine, even though these professional fields exhibit a number of important differences?The empirical material in the first and second studies consists of 52 narratives, written by SWs and GPs on problematic and non-problematic situations. The third study is based on vignette-based focus group interviews with 25 SWs and GPs. And the fourth study is based on a literature review, consisting of 54 articles about SWs’ and GPs’ practice.A first finding is that professionals rarely describe lack of knowledge or difficulties with knowledge use as problematic. A second finding is that non-problematic situations are connected to professionals’ control of the intervention process. SWs gained control of the relationship with the client either by use of coercive means or by the client’s active co-operation. GPs gained control of the intervention process by the use of professional knowledge. A third finding is that an understanding of professional practice as a linear process consisting of diagnosis, inference and treatment reflects GPs’ practice but not all aspects of SWs’ practice. A fourth finding is that both professions hold ambivalent positions towards evidence-based risk reductions technologies. The responses towards organisational risk reductions technologies differ in that GPs are sceptical, whilst SWs take a more pragmatic view.A main conclusion is that the Swedish state’s efforts to govern the performative aspects of SWs’ practice by knowledge, runs the risk of becoming a insufficient strategy since they tend to exhibit two main blind spots. The first is that these efforts tend to ignore that the relationship with the client has a crucial affect on and conditions SWs’ and in problematic situations also GPs’ knowledge use. The second is that the efforts also tend to ignore that control of the intervention process is not always maintained through control of knowledge use. For SWs control of the relationship with clients represents another mode of professional control of the intervention process.
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| 17. |
- Svensson, Lotta, 1959-
(författare)
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Vinna och försvinna? : Drivkrafter bakom ungdomars utflyttning från mindre orter
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Starting in the everyday life of Söderhamn’s youth, this thesis presents the driving forces that affect youth as they make decisions to stay in or to leave their home region.The research has been done with an interactive approach in close collaboration with youth and adults, and a number of different methods have been used. Based on the interviews, essays, questionnaires, conversations and meetings that underlie this work, the ambition has been to participate and contribute to the formation of knowledge in dialog with the youth and the adults who surround them.The dissertation (thesis) shows that society’s basic structures have great influence on youth’s decision whether to stay or leave. Important factors are actual circumstances, such as the access that youth have to resources – economical, social, and cultural. Society’s gender order has a big impact on the question whether to move or stay. Likewise, the tension between center and periphery plays an essential role – where the power to define what is “right” and “natural” coincides with values on how youth “are” and “should be”.The dissertation (thesis) shows that the interplay between these factors appears different for different individuals and groups, and that the interplay has significance both for the move/stay –decision and for the youth’s desire and possibility to participate in and have influence over society’s development in the region.
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| 18. |
- Syldatk, Marek, 1985-
(författare)
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On Calibration of Ground Sensor Networks
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sensor networks are everywhere around us. Developments in sensor technology and advances in hardware miniaturization open up brand-new application areas. In the future networks of cheap and small sensor nodes will be deployed for a variety of purposes. Military needs have been a major motivation for the development in the past, but today it has changed. Other applications such as traffic monitoring, security threat detection, ecology and environmental protection are the new driving forces behind further development.The thesis considers the problem of calibration of ground sensor networks. In order to perform its operational tasks – detection, classification and tracking ofobjects of interest, the network has to be correctly calibrated. Improper calibration might result in a degraded performance, problems with data association and appearance of multiple track instances representing one object.In order to find the unknown calibration parameters (biases), in most cases we need to use reference targets with known positions. If such targets are not available, one has to use opportunistic targets and simultaneously estimate both target positions and bias parameters. In this thesis, the expectation maximization algorithm is applied to that problem, where the unknown states are treated as latent (unknown) variables in the process of bias estimation.Next, the problem of estimating a large number of calibration parameters is tackled. In the case when the measurement data is not informative enough – due to a limited range of sensors or a small number of samples – standard approaches such as the least squares algorithm might provide unreliable results. One solution to the problem is to apply a regularization (or prior in a Bayesian case). In this thesis, the problem of selecting the parameters (the so called hyper-parameters) for the regularization process, based on the set of measurements, is considered. The solution is provided through the evidence approximation method, where both the bias parameters and the hyper-parameters are estimated simultaneously. As a result, one obtains a robust algorithm that, thanks to the application of Occam’s razor, allows to find the good trade-off between model complexity and its fit to the data.Finally, both methods are combined together, in order to provide a robust and accurate algorithm for the calibration of sensor networks using targets of opportunity.The applicability of algorithms was also verified during field trials with good final outcome, confirming the expected performance.
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| 19. |
- Tovatt, Caroline, 1968-
(författare)
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Erkännandets Janusansikte : Det sociala kapitalets betydelse i arbetslivskarriärer
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I denna studie undersöks de informella processerna i rekryteringen, speciellt innebörden av olika former av socialt kapital. I fokus står de värden som tillskrivs utbildningar, arbetslivserfarenheter och kontakter. Det uttrycks genom frågor som hur, var, vem och varför snarare än om lediga tjänster tillsätts via kontakter. Centralt är att förstå det sociala kapitalets betydelse för erkännandet och misskännande i arbetslivet. Resultatet visar att erkännandet inte kan manipuleras, styras eller tvingas fram – det tillskrivs en individ först när man av omgivningen anses värdig. Misskännandet däremot framträder i erkännandet skugga, genom frånvaron av de rätta kontakterna och informell kunskap om hur man tar sig in och fram i arbetslivet. Analysen sker med stöd av Pierre Bourdieu's analytiska verktygslåda. Studien är kvalitativ och det empiriska materialet består av arbetslivsberättelser med individer som befinner sig i olika faser i sitt arbetsliv: unga människor som arbetar inom snabbmatsindustrin, akademiskt utbildade som arbetar under sin utbildningsnivå (som taxichaufförer eller inom vård och omsorg) och slutligen akademiker som arbetar med kvalificerade arbeten (som journalister eller inom radion/TV). Studien bygger på berättelser om deras arbetsliv och utbildningar.
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| 20. |
- Vildevall, Malin, 1980-
(författare)
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The Norovirus Puzzle : Characterization of human and bovine norovirus susceptibility patterns
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Winter vomiting disease is caused by norovirus (NoV) and affects millions of people every year resulting in 200.000 deaths among children in developing countries. It was observed early that not all individuals exposed to the norovirus became ill. The reason for this is now recognized to be dependent upon the secretor status of an individual. The secretor status determines the ability of an individual to express histo-blood group antigens (HBGA) on mucosa and in saliva. A non-secretor is unable to express HBGAs due to a mutation in a gene called FUT2. In this thesis, I have investigated the antibody prevalence and titer in humans in Sweden and Nicaragua to the most common GII NoV and the correlation to secretor status, Lewis status and ABO. I found that secretors had significantly higher antibody prevalence and titer to GII NoV than non-secretors suggesting that non-secretors are less prone to be infected by the GII NoV. In Nicaragua, I also found several different NoV strains circulating at the same time. The NoVs have been circulating and evolving in the human population for some time and the same individuals seems to be infected over and over again with the same virus. This suggests that there is no long-term immunity present but possibly short-term immunity, which would make it very difficult to produce a vaccine against NoV. However, recent studies have shown the possibility of using virus like particles as a vaccine candidate and have demonstrated long-term immunity.The bovine NoV (boNoV) cause gastroenteritis in cattle and are closely related to the human NoV. The possibility of zoonotic transfer to humans is currently being investigated. I found that 26% of Swedish blood donors have antibodies to the boNoV suggesting that they have been exposed to the virus. The human NoV has been observed to be able to infect and cause disease in cattle, could the boNoV do the same in humans? To date, no boNoV strain has been found in humans. The proposed receptor structure for boNoV is the αGal epitope, which is present in many mammals like cow, pig, horse, sheep and rabbit but not in humans. This indicates that humans are not at risk for boNoV infection because we lack the proper receptor structure. However, recombinations between different NoV strains have been demonstrated and the possibility of more than one receptor being present has been suggested. I found that aa position 365-379 on the boNoV capsid seems to be important for binding to erythrocytes. In this thesis, I hope to add some new pieces to the Norovirus Puzzle.
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| 21. |
- Wistus, Sofia, 1978-
(författare)
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Det motsägelsefulla partnerskapet : En studie av utvecklingspartnerskap som organisationsform inom EQUAL-programmet
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse development partnership as an organisational form for governing and organising developmental work. The partnerships studied in this thesis are within the EU initiative EQUAL, aimed at combating discrimination and exclusion in working life and the labour market. The empirical material consists of quantitative and qualitative data such as interviews, participant observations and a questionnaire.The theoretical approach is derived from theories on political governing and organisation theory focusing developmental work. Another theoretical orientation is a neo institutional approach to organisation where partnerships are understood as results of complex economic, political and social processes which alter and edit the idea of partnerships.The results indicate that the idea of partnerships, as it is put forward in the EQUAL-programme documents, involves a number of positive values and prerequisites for successful and democratic development work. However, the findings show that partnership is not a quick fix to complex societal problems. Combining top-down and bottom-up strategies, democracy and effectiveness, development and planning and working in equal relations are all dilemmas that become visible when the idea of partnerships is put into practice. These dilemmas are discussed as contradictory elements in the idea of partnership and organising development.
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| 22. |
- Öhman Sandberg, Ann, 1960-
(författare)
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Hållbar programutveckling : en studie av betydelsen av expansivt lärande och delvis delade objekt
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to develop meanings of sustainable programme development. Policies are often introduced to solve societal problems identified by a government agency or some other organization. In order to realize the intentions behind the policy it is common that one or several policy driven projects are funded with large sums of money. By funding policy driven projects, the funding organizations expect that the projects can support a sustainable change of practice that can solve or at least decrease the societal problem. Research shows that policy driven projects and programmes often fail to realize the intentions behind poli-cies. Hence, it is uncertain to what extent policy driven projects contribute to a sustainable change of practice.
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| 23. |
- Andersson, Per, 1964-
(författare)
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Att studera och bli bedömd : Empiriska och teoretiska perspektiv på gymnasie- och vuxenstuderandes sätt att erfara studier och bedömningar
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is focussing on students’ experiences of assessments, which means that the assessments are related to studying. The assessments particularly investigated are the main types of assessments used in the application and selection for higher education in Sweden – the grading in schools on secondary level, and the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT).The literature review is an analysis of previous knowledge, resulting in a model of orientations to studying.The empirical investigation consists of interviews with 100 students in upper secondary school, municipal adult education and folk high schools. The interviews are analysed with a phenomenographic approach, and the analysis results in categories describing ways of experiencing what it means to study, ways of experiencing the grades, and the SweSAT. In addition to this, the analysis gives a description of relations between components within categories, relations between categories, and relations between phenomena.The main patterns in the students’ experiences of the assessments are the following: The different categories, describing the experiences of the assessments per se, are focussing on assessment of performance, assessment of personal qualities (including developed knowledge), or uncertainty in relation to the assessment. There are four main aspects of the students’ experiences of the value of assessments, i.e., the relation to future plans, the relation to the student’s personal context, the possibility to influence your result, and the relation to other assessments used in the selection.The final result of the empirical investigation is a reconstructed model of five orientations to studying, where the empirical results are integrated with previous knowledge. The five categories are the knowledge orientation, the duty orientation, the participation orientation, the qualification orientation, and the resistance orientation. These orientations are also described as adaptive and/or non-adaptive in relation to the demands of the education.A further analysis in relation to three social science perspectives shows how assessments can contribute to the colonization of the educational lifeworld, how assessments can be seen as instruments of discipline, and how assessments can be seen as disembedding mechanisms.
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| 24. |
- Bennich, Maria, 1959-
(författare)
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Kompetens och kompetensutveckling i omsorgsarbete : Synen på kompetens och lärande – i spänningsfältet mellan samhälleliga förutsättningar och organisatoriska villkor
- 2012
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingen är en sammanläggningsavhandling med syfte att studera om synen på kompetens är relaterad till lärmiljön och strategier för kompetensutveckling. Parallellt med syftet har jag analyserat och diskuterat kompetensutveckling ur ett samhälleligt och interorganisatoriskt perspektiv. Fokus ligger här på styrprinciper, brukarinflytande och nationella utvecklingsprogram. Avhandlingen utgörs av en lokal studie som bygger på 22 intervjuer och 74 enkäter, en forskningsöversikt samt en studie som bygger på utvärderingar av det nationella utvecklingsprogrammet Kompetensstegen.Resultatet från den lokala studien – två vårdboenden och två hemtjänstverksamheter – visar att förutsättningarna för lärmiljön skiljer sig åt beroende på verksamhetstypen. Inom hemtjänstverksamheterna var stöd och engagemang från ledningen mer central för kompetensutveckling än inom vårdboendena. Samtidigt visar resultatet att i de verksamheter där det fanns en mer utvecklad lärmiljö och en integrerad strategi – dvs. en kombination av icke‐formella och formella läraktiviteter – för kompetensutveckling, var uppfattningarna om omsorgspersonalens kompetens mer utvecklade. Fokus låg här på att utveckla både kompetens och verksamhet. Det som förenade samtliga verksamheter var uppfattningen att personalen behöver en förmåga att utveckla relationer till brukaren.Analysen av Kompetensstegen – en stor nationell satsning – visar på en brist i samspel och jämlika relationer mellan arbetsplatserna och utbildningsanordnare. Denna brist hade implikationer för hur väl satsningen på kompetensutveckling lyckades. Inom de verksamheter där arbetsplats‐ och utbildningssystem samverkat, ledde detta samspel till att arbetsplatslärandet blev mer flexibelt, effektivt och användbart för deltagarna. Exemplet visar att kompetensfrågor behöver analyseras ur ett samhälleligt perspektiv.Den samhälleliga analysen visar att kompetensfrågor lätt kommer bort eftersom dessa inte är integrerade i styrprinciper som konkurrensutsättning, upphandlingsförfaranden och kundval. Kompetensutveckling inom äldreomsorgen är en komplex, svårbestämbar och krävande process som behöver synkroniseras på olika nivåer. De nationella satsningar, där formell utbildning dominerar, har sällan fått något genomslag i verksamheten. Perspektivet har oftast varit kortsiktigt och individinriktat. Tillfälliga resursförstärkningar och projektsatsningar leder inte heller till att frågan om kompetensutveckling prioriteras och att nödvändiga resurser avsätts lokalt. Nyckelord: omsorgspersonal, kompetens, kompetensutveckling, äldreomsorgen, interaktiv forskning, interorganisatorisk samverkan
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| 25. |
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| 26. |
- Hanson, Marika, 1968-
(författare)
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Det flexibla arbetets villkor - om självförvaltandets kompetens
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- New conditions for work, involving demands for quick adjustment and increased flexibility, have underpinned a discourse of work-based and lifelong learning in which continuous competence development is often viewed as beneficial for both the organisation and the employees. These flexible work arrangements rely heavily on the individual’s capacity of organising and structuring her own work and performance, and the thesis addresses the question of the individual’s ability to adapt to and handle these flexible work conditions. The aim is to contribute to an understanding of the competencies required in flexible work settings, and the thesis asks two questions: (1) What characterises the work conditions in flexible forms of work? (2) How does the individual handle these flexible work settings in terms of competence? The theoretical frame of reference is constructivist and is contextually oriented. Empirical data emanates from two case studies. The first encompassing teleworking civil servants in a government authority and the other freelance reporters. Data collection included questionnaires, interviews and e-mail questions.Results show that the flexible work settings in the case studies were relatively disintegrated and deregulated in the sense that the conditions were no longer lucid and well defined. It also appeared to open up a space for regulation of a more implicit kind. These conditions require a metacognitive competence characterised as a self-governing competence. This refers to the guiding, supervising function needed for the individual to be able to define, structure and discipline her own performance and, ultimately, her ability to manage and govern herself in a wider, functional sense. Thus, what seems to be characteristic for the flexible and delimited work conditions is that the preconditions of work do not appear in forms of an independent environment. Instead of formal directives and limitations, the regulation of work takes place to a large extent through implicit regulation processes, continuously negotiated in interaction between individuals and the environment. In conclusion it is argued that the flexible work conditions are characterised by intersubjective regulation processes, discursively and interactively constructed without perceptible coercion. The self-governing competence required involves transformation in terms of continuous learning as well as a development in terms of higher levels of cognitive complexity, integration and differentiation.
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| 27. |
- Jakobsson, Erik, 1960-
(författare)
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Mot en ny vuxenutbildningspolitik? : Regional utveckling som policy och praktik
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingen beskriver och analyserar ett regionalt utvecklingsinitiativ i nätverksform, genom vilket de kommunala lärcentrumen i Örebro län samverkar för att utveckla en gemensam infrastruktur för vuxnas lärande. Detta innebär, exempelvis, att utveckla former för samverkan mellan olika regionala aktörer inom området, öka samordningen och samverkan inom den kommunala vuxenutbildningen och utveckla metoder för lärande med fokus på arbetet och arbetsplatsen.Den övergripande forskningsfrågan kan formuleras på följande sätt: Vilka är förutsättningarna för att genom regional samverkan, med en horisontell organisering i nätverksform, utveckla politiken, planeringen och organiseringen för vuxnas lärande, och med vilka teoretiska och metodologiska perspektiv kan vi förstå såväl problem som möjligheter?Två övergripande teoretiska perspektiv presenteras i avhandlingen, som relateras till det studerade fallet. Det gäller å ena sidan ett traditionellt planeringsperspektiv och å andra sidan ett evolutionärt lärandeperspektiv. Dessa perspektiv utgör både kontraster och komplement till varandra. Planeringsperspektivet har ’policysändaren’ som utgångspunkt, medan lärandeperspektivet har ’policymottagaren’ som utgångspunkt. Diskussionen i avhandlingen behandlar också de möjligheter som finns att kombinera de båda övergripande perspektiven, både som analytiska och strategiska perspektiv.Sammantaget kan studien av nätverket beskrivas som en kvalitativt inriktad fallstudie, där mitt kontinuerliga deltagande över tid i nätverkets sammankomster är ett centralt inslag. Intervjuer, en enkätundersökning, diskussioner och dokumentstudier utgör också material till studien. En interaktiv forskningsansats har tillämpats, som syftar till en gemensam kunskapsbildning och lärprocess mellan deltagarna och forskaren. Metodologiskt hämtar studien inspiration från den vetenskapsfilosofiska inriktning som kallas kritisk realism.En hastig överblick över studiens resultat ger vid handen att mycket av det som diskuterats i nätverket har stannat vid intentioner och har inte blivit omsatt i en praktik. Nätverket har också förblivit ganska internt, med en krets av lärcentrum- och vuxenutbildningschefer. Lite tillspetsat kan man säga att nätverket varken arbetat sig ’nedåt’ i respektive lokal organisation eller ’uppåt’ mot den politiska sfären, eller ’utåt’ mot det omgivande samhället och arbetslivet.Nätverket har onekligen ändå skapat nya och bättre förutsättningar för samarbete mellan lärcentrumen. Det finns nu betydligt mer av en gemensam förståelse och någonting att bygga vidare på, regionalt och lokalt. Det är också hoppfullt att se att nätverket fortsätter sitt arbete trots att det inte längre har externt stöd. Nätverket har, förefaller det, etablerat sig som en gemensam utvecklingsorganisation för deltagarna, och har nått ett stadium där mer konkreta och påtagliga former av samverkan börjar äga rum.
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| 28. |
- Johansson, Kristina, 1971-
(författare)
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Broad Entrance - Vague Exit : The trajectory of Political Science students through higher education into working life
- 2007
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to describe Political Science students’ experiences of studies and work life. Students’ reflections on their study situation as well as their envisaged and later experienced work life have been analysed through cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data. Central research questions are how students at the beginning and the end of their studies perceive their study program, how the communication patterns between teacher and students are negotiated, and what discourses of knowledge and competence operate in the program and in work life as well as how students of Political Science experience the transition from higher education to working life at two European universities, and how Political science students and students in two professional programmes experience the transition from higher education to work life. The empiri-cal studies are presented in four articles. Ethnography, phenomenography and discourse analysis have been applied. The results show that students embark on the program with dreams of being in the halls of power in Brussels or becoming famous by appearing in the media. They are, however, also driven by a Bildung incentive. Towards the end of their studies, more down-to-earth visions of the future as investigators have replaced their previous dreams. Another result is the ongoing negotiations about their role and the purpose of e.g. seminars, which convey double messages about what to say and when to contribute. They also report a rational and generic relationship between their studies and the work tasks, indicating that they have acquired a set of general skills that are helpful for them in their work. When moving from studies into work life, they report having a feeling of being squeezed between the politicians and the general public. Surprisingly, few of them regard themselves as having power in the decision-making arena.
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| 29. |
- Larsson, Ann-Christine, 1961-
(författare)
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Empowermentprocesser – ett sätt att öka långtidssjukskrivna kvinnors resurser? : En studie om att återta balansen i arbetslivet att återta balansen i arbetslivet
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is to understand and explain how a group of women have ended up on the long-term sick-list and how a return to working life can be brought about. Support for their return is organized within the framework of a R&D project within the EU-program EQUAL, where empowerment is one of the key principles.The research has been carried out using an interactive approach in close collaboration with the women in the project who have been signed-off long-term on medical grounds. Group discussions, questionnaires and individual interviews have provided the basis for collective analyses. This learning process, which is the central core in the interactive research, has, resulted in a deeper and more valid understanding of the reasons leading to ill-health and of the return to working life.The empirical part of the study and the analyses are divided into three parts. The first part I call the powerlessness process, namely tha which the women describe as a contributory factor to ill-health, caused by diminishing resources and increasing demands both in working life and in private life, and which eventually initiates a long-term signing-off on medical grounds. The second part is concerned with regaining and/or changing the resources that have been lost during the powerlessness process. The third part illustrates the return to working life, which is described in different steps.The thesis shows the worth of looking at the interplay between individual, organizational and community levels when trying to understand the reasons underlying ill-health and how changes at these different levels can affect the individual.The thesis shows also the importance of looking at ”life as a whole” and not just working life, where a return to work is concerned. In order to achieve a sustainable working life, attention must also be paid to gender structures and work-life balance.
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| 30. |
- Larsson, Kjerstin, 1955-
(författare)
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Mellanchefer som utvecklar : om förutsättningar för hållbart utvecklingsarbete inom vård och omsorg
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Syftet med avhandlingen är att beskriva, analysera och diskutera vilka organisatoriska och interorganisatoriska förhållanden som har betydelse för mellanchefers möjlighet att driva hållbar verksamhetsutveckling. Avsikten är att studera samspelet mellan organisatoriska och interorganisatoriska förhållanden kopplat till mellanchefers förändringskompetens. Forskningen har skett inom ramen för ett omfattande nationellt FoU-projekt inom vård och omsorg. Projektets syfte var att arbeta med ett hållbart utvecklingsarbete som byggde på en bred delaktighet bland anställda och chefer.Studien är en kvalitativ studie med ett interaktivt förhållningssätt, vilket innebär en ambition att forska med de berörda inom ramen för en gemensam kunskapsbildning. Den interaktiva forskningen strävar efter att vara till praktisk nytta, men framförallt är syftet att bidra tillteoriutvecklingen. De datainsamlingsmetoder som använts är arbetsplatsbesök, intervjuer, ”critical incident”-metoden, reflektions-PM (inom ramen för två utbildningar), analysdialog- och reflektionsseminarier, informella samtal samt återföringsträffar. Ett antal gemensamma aktiviteter har anordnats inom ramen för det nationella projektet, vilka även har fungerat som datainsamling och gemensam analys, såsom nationella konferenser, styrgruppsmöten m.m.Avhandlingens resultat visar att mellancheferna inom vård och omsorgssektorn kan ha en strategisk roll i verksamhetsutvecklingen. Avsikten med min forskning har inte varit att generalisera resultaten i traditionell mening, men att visa på mekanismer och förutsättningar för mellancheferna vid organisering av utvecklingsarbetet. De organisatoriska villkoren – i form av ekonomi, ansvar, befogenheter, professionalisering och företagskultur – påverkar starkt mellanchefernas förutsättningar att driva ett utvecklingsarbete. Min forskning visar på intressanta möjligheter för mellancheferna när det gäller att åstadkomma en vertikal och horisontell integrering av utvecklingsarbetet. Det finns exempel på hur mellanchefer kunnat påverka och utnyttja dessa förutsättningar för att skapa ett handlingsutrymme i organisationen för att driva ett utvecklingsarbete. De har använt sig av målstyrning, skapat utrymme för lärande och reflektion samt skapat en organisationskultur som stöder utveckling. De interorganisatoriska förutsättningarna – i form av externt nätverk, forskarstöd och partsamverkan – har varit viktiga för mellancheferna i deras utvecklingsarbete.
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| 31. |
- Reyes, Yaoska
(författare)
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Norovirus and rotavirus susceptibility : studies from a Nicaraguan birth cohort
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Norovirus and rotavirus are major causes of pediatric acute gastroenteritis (AGE). It is estimated that norovirus is responsible for ~20% of all diarrheal diseases in children worldwide and causes approximately 200,000 deaths each year, mostly in young children and the elderly. Despite this vast disease burden, there is no licensed vaccine available. The introduction of universal infant rotavirus vaccination has led to marked reductions in diarrhea incidence and diarrhea-associated mortality in children. However, rotavirus continues to cause a high disease burden, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), associated with an estimated 128,500 deaths in young children. Susceptibility to both norovirus and rotavirus AGE is strongly associated with the secretor phenotype (expression of specific glycans in mucosa and secretions). This, along with the Lewis phenotype and ABO group form the differential expression of histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) in the mucosa. These HBGAs can act as putative receptors or attachment factors facilitating infection of these viruses. The overall aim of this thesis was to address outstanding questions regarding susceptibility and immunity to norovirus and rotavirus infections in children. These questions are of relevance for understanding the effects of a future norovirus vaccine and factors influencing vaccine protection. Our questions were addressed by investigating norovirus and rotavirus disease burden, molecular epidemiology, and the role of HBGAs in susceptibility in children enrolled in a rotavirus-vaccinated birth cohort in Nicaragua. We further estimated the breadth and duration of immune response and protection after the first norovirus AGE episode. Our results showed that the incidence of rotavirus and norovirus was 9.3 and 21.9 per 100 child-years, respectively. Several different norovirus genotypes were observed (n=13), the most common being GII.4 (42%), GI.3 (18%), GII.12 (9%) and GII.17 (9%). Genotype GII.4 was not only the most common genotype but also infected children earlier in life and caused more severe AGE episodes compared to other genotypes. In contrast, the distribution of rotavirus genotypes was limited and dominated by animal-derived strains and the absence of the wild-type G1P[8] genotype, which is the component of the Rotarix vaccine used in Nicaragua. Secretor children had the highest risk of norovirus AGE, with the predominant and clinically more severe GII.4 genotype only observed in secretors. Secretor children also had the highest risk for rotavirus AGE after vaccination. This is of particular interest since previous studies have observed that non-secretors have a less immune response after vaccination of the live oral rotavirus vaccines. Hence, the mediation of protection against rotavirus AGE for these children is likely due to genetic resistance to wild-type infections and not by vaccine-induced immune protection. Using surrogate neutralization assays, we observed that the antibody-mediated immune response after the first AGE episode of norovirus GII.4 persisted for about 19 months, thus suggesting a relatively long-term protection. We further found that the immune response against GII.4 was genotype-specific in a significant proportion (60%) of children. The multitypic response exhibited in some children could be due to asymptomatic infections with two or more genotypes over the studied period. Using statistical models, we found that one episode of norovirus GI and norovirus GII conferred approximately 33% and 80% reduced hazard against future genogroup-specific episodes in the first 3 years of life, respectively. In summary, the results presented in this thesis suggest that a pediatric norovirus vaccine including norovirus GII.4, and given early in life, would significantly reduce the high burden of diarrheal disease in young children, particularly for secretors.
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| 32. |
- Scott Flobecker, Susan
(författare)
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Generative lessons of exclusion : re-considering everyday-living experience and approaching its meaningful description
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Generally addressed in this dissertation writing are the problematic of everyday experience as an empirical social science concern, the problematic of social science as an everyday pedagogical experience, the topic of sense formation as a generative psycho-social event, and the topic of intersubjectivity as meaningful social unity. Generally offered is an alternative understanding, approach and method for a particular kind of qualitative social science inquiry treating everyday experience and shared experience, the kind enlisting experiencer accounts and aiming to describe associated experiencer meanings. The problematics, topics and methodology considerations are presented by way of an account of the dissertation situation, process and result occurrences. The account is provided in the form of critical and suggestive discussions around an attempted empirical phenomenology study of foreigner exclusion experiences in Sweden and the explications of various other orientations and approaches regarding the matter of everyday experience. The account delivery involves a regressive effort consisting of a questioning back, and the account formulation involves an experimental writing consisting of a "conversational re-presentation." The point of departure for the questioning back is the emergence of the alternative understanding comprising the main project result, an understanding which came to be generated by way of some re-considerational work associated with the attempted study. This work took place in a way characterized as relatively "consequential" and "conversational," and not only the included content but the particular way by which the work proceeded and the result emerged are emphasized as having significantly influenced the character of the understanding gained. The re-considerational effort is considered to exemplify its result. The main source of influence for the experimental writing is also the emergent alternative understanding, where the characteristics of generativity, consequentiality and conversationality are stressed.The alternative understanding offered may be expressed, in short, as "syncretic generativity." This expression addresses both the matter of everyday-living experience and the matter of approaching its meaningful description. It expresses, more specifically, a suggested attitude and mode of everyday-living experience and a suggested approach and method for experiential meaning description. "Syncretic generativity" may be characterized, in short, as a situational nexus of interactive co-contributing influences generating a trans-formational re-presentational result.
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| 33. |
- Svensson, Ingrid, 1961-
(författare)
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Estimation of wood fibre length distributions from censored mixture data
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The motivating forestry background for this thesis is the need for fast, non-destructive, and cost-efficient methods to estimate fibre length distributions in standing trees in order to evaluate the effect of silvicultural methods and breeding programs on fibre length. The usage of increment cores is a commonly used non-destructive sampling method in forestry. An increment core is a cylindrical wood sample taken with a special borer, and the methods proposed in this thesis are especially developed for data from increment cores. Nevertheless the methods can be used for data from other sampling frames as well, for example for sticks with the shape of an elongated rectangular box.This thesis proposes methods to estimate fibre length distributions based on censored mixture data from wood samples. Due to sampling procedures, wood samples contain cut (censored) and uncut observations. Moreover the samples consist not only of the fibres of interest but of other cells (fines) as well. When the cell lengths are determined by an automatic optical fibre-analyser, there is no practical possibility to distinguish between cut and uncut cells or between fines and fibres. Thus the resulting data come from a censored version of a mixture of the fine and fibre length distributions in the tree. The methods proposed in this thesis can handle this lack of information.Two parametric methods are proposed to estimate the fine and fibre length distributions in a tree. The first method is based on grouped data. The probabilities that the length of a cell from the sample falls into different length classes are derived, the censoring caused by the sampling frame taken into account. These probabilities are functions of the unknown parameters, and ML estimates are found from the corresponding multinomial model.The second method is a stochastic version of the EM algorithm based on the individual length measurements. The method is developed for the case where the distributions of the true lengths of the cells at least partially appearing in the sample belong to exponential families. The cell length distribution in the sample and the conditional distribution of the true length of a cell at least partially appearing in the sample given the length in the sample are derived. Both these distributions are necessary in order to use the stochastic EM algorithm. Consistency and asymptotic normality of the stochastic EM estimates is proved.The methods are applied to real data from increment cores taken from Scots pine trees (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Northern Sweden and further evaluated through simulation studies. Both methods work well for sample sizes commonly obtained in practice.
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| 34. |
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| 35. |
- Svensson, Tommy, 1950-
(författare)
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On the notion of mental illness : Problematizing the medical-model conception of certain abnormal behaviour and mental afflictions
- 1990
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study inquires into some polemics concerning the notion of mentalillness or disease. Some central arguments in the debate on psychiatry, of the 1960's and early 70's, are focused on.The analysis is performed in two steps. Important theoretical dimensionsof the early debate are analyzed in the context of a discussion of thepolemics surrounding Thomas Szasz's criticism of psychiatry. Then anattempt is made to take the analysis further by taking into account recentdevelopments in the philosophy of medicine. The theoretical line of criticism of the mental-illness notion is tested against two elaborate andarticulate medical models, with regard to their application to abnormal behaviour and mental afflictions.The conclusion is that the medical-model conception of so-called mental-illness phenomena appears problematic from theoretical points of view.In a final chapter some ideological dimensions of the debate on the notion of mental illness are touched upon.
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| 36. |
- Sørensen, Charlotte, 1970-
(författare)
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Annektering og identitetsforsterkning : En casestudie om internasjonalisering av høyere utdanning
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what happens when the management idea of internationalisation becomes a management strategy for organisational change. Academic operations are a key driving force and concern colleges imitating universities and wanting to become universities. This is the case because a university provides more benefits and is perceived as more attractive in society. Internationalisation is thus being used as a tool to change the status of the institution from college to university. The starting point of applying the management idea of internationalisation as a management strategy for organisational change is that academia has inherent international features. To develop on those, the academics in this study propose that internationalisation must fit with current practice and that international activities must be enjoyable to engage in. Instead, if the management rolls out a strategy aimed at altering the international practice of the academics, a strategy infused with specific content aimed at changing the academics’ identity, then the academics perceive this as the annexation of their work. There are two reactions, loyalty and resistance, both driven by identity reinforcement, which involves emphasising that one’s identity is rational, appropriate and correct within the context in which the work is performed. As a result of identity reinforcement, identity as part of the work is given more emphasis than before. The initial reaction of loyalty from academics involves staying employed at the organisation, despite dissatisfaction. Loyalty thus fosters various forms of resistance, that is, actively antagonising the management, with a focus on its strategy of identity work. Academics may employ five forms of resistance: distancing and dissent, discursive resistance, pseudo-loyalty, humour, and professional reinforcement. These resistance forms are aimed at safeguarding the academics’ integrity and autonomy.
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| 37. |
- Waldenström, Cecilia, 1950-
(författare)
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Constructing the world in dialogue : a study of advisory situations in Swedish agriculture
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis is about joint learning and dialogue in advisory situations. It has an explorative and reflective objective and the overarching aim is to explore communication in advisory situations as mediated by communicatively constructed and shared contexts. The empirical study concerns advisory services in agriculture and farmer-adviser communication in a subscription advisory program in crop production.The research design is qualitative. The research questions emerged in a previous study which was based on interviews and a grounded theory design. The thesis draws on data from that study, but also on later data from interviews and participant observation. Theoretically, the study is grounded in contextual didactics, a constructionist perspective on learning in which task-directedness and the concept of affordances are central. It also draws on dialogical conceptions of communication, and discusses asymmetries in communication in relation to the validity claims suggested by Habermas.The results show how a multitude of contextual resources are included in conversation. Joint strategies of contextualising were facilitated by narrative constructions, joint experiences in a concrete surrounding environment, the use of tools for planning, as well as by conversations on topics related to the farmer’s lifeworld or confirming a joint lifeworld. Communication is interpreted as producing and drawing on shared contexts, and the analysis points out how shared contexts may expand and be reinterpreted as contextual resources are drawn on and negotiated over time. The results suggest a dynamic in conversation of going between shared and separate perspectives and understandings; balancing adaptation and intervention, autonomy and joint decisions. Control, continuity and change of the topical activities are focal. The analysis suggests that advisory conversations may be conceived of as taking place in a dialogical space, and that upholding such a space is a central task for advisers. The study raises theoretical questions on language, experience and experiential learning and points to the empirical grounding of task-and action-related experiential learning.
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| 38. |
- Åberg, Annika
(författare)
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Tjänstemötet : Interaktionens kommersiella, byråkratiska och social logik
- 2007
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The subject of this thesis is interaction in the service encounter. The aim is to describe and explain the service encounter interaction with a special focus on the social and organisational context. The contextual focus is related to two overriding questions: What significance does the human interaction have for the service encounter? What significance does the organisational context have for the service encounter?The result show that even though the communication consists of four discerned phases – salutation, the subject of the call, concluding the subject, and rounding off the call, each phase also displays contradictions. Consequently, there are both relational and instrumental utterances, as well as symmetrical and asymmetrical aspects of the conversations.These contradictory results of the relational-instrumental and symmetrical-asymmetrical features are explained when interaction is viewed in terms of three different sets of logic – the commercial, the bureaucratic, and the social. Every logic is constituted by a number of characteristics, each contributing to the shape of the interaction and to the relationship between the customer and the employee.Analytically speaking, the three forms of logic can be described in terms of their respective field of action and rationality, that is, what the actors talk about and what the purpose of the talk is. It is shown that the actors must prioritise between economic, administrative and personal areas within a limited time of action. It is also clear that the disparate rationalities, that is, economic, executive and recognition, all exercise influence over the service encounter, which means that acts aiming at a specific goal are restricted by the objectives of the other logics. Therefore there is a certain self-regulating function in the antagonism between the logics. The positions of the employee in relation to the customer, the organisation and the so-called collective customer mean that there are demands made from three qualitatively different directions. There is, in other words, a three-bosses dilemma for employees. The different positions of the employee also entail three different asymmetrical relationships in which either the customer or the employee has the advantage. This position constructs the hierarchy of dominance between employee and customer.To conclude, the interaction constitutes a complex relationship between the characteristics of the logics and when these combine the interaction of the service encounter is shaped. The fact that the service encounter involves human interaction means that there is a counter balance against the organisational ascendancy.
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| 39. |
- Åhlfeldt, Emanuel
(författare)
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Hållbart utvecklingsarbete i vård och omsorg : Ett institutionellt perspektiv på projekt i en professionell och byråkratisk kontext
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Det drivs många utvecklingsprojekt inom offentlig sektor, men det saknas kunskap om hur dessa projekt kan bidra till ett hållbart utvecklingsarbete. Syftet med avhandlingen är att förstå och förklara hur resultat och kunskap från utvecklingsprojekt kan integreras i den ordinarie verksamheten i offentliga organisationer och bidra till långsiktiga effekter, som har ett värde för brukarna, organisationen och de anställda.I forskningen saknas en etablerad begreppsapparat för att studera hållbar utveckling i organisationer. En utmaning har därför varit att identifiera och analysera tidigare forskning, för att därigenom definiera begreppet hållbart utvecklingsarbete och viktiga förutsättningar för ett sådant arbete. Den teoretiska referensramen baseras på ett institutionellt perspektiv: nyinstitutionell organisationsteori kombineras med Giddens struktureringsteori och sociologisk professionsteori, som synliggör spänningar mellan konkurrerande styrformer som byråkrati, marknad och professionalism.Avhandlingen utgår från en interaktiv forskningsansats och består av två empiriska delar: en kvantitativ enkätstudie som inkluderar 348 utvecklingsprojekt inom vård och omsorg samt en kvalitativ flerfallstudie av fyra utvecklingsprojekt.Studierna visar att olika faktorer främjade projekten på kort och lång sikt. Tydliga projektmål, styrning och kompetent projektledning hade betydelse för de kortsiktiga projektresultaten, men mycket begränsat påverkan på den långsiktiga hållbarheten. Istället var det ett aktivt ägarskap, och andra faktorer kopplade till ledningen i mottagarorganisationerna, som tydligast främjade ett hållbart utvecklingsarbete. Studierna visar även hur konflikter och motstånd i projekten påverkade förutsättningarna för långsiktig hållbarhet. Det gällde konflikter mellan olika yrkesgrupper, mellan ledning och professionella samt mellan byråkratiska och professionella styrformer. En slutsats är att en analysmodell för hållbart utvecklingsarbete behöver komplettera ett organisatoriskt och institutionellt perspektiv med ett professionsperspektiv.
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