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- Ge, Li, 1974-
(författare)
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Women's call for caring care : perspectives of Chinese women with gestational diabetes mellitus about beliefs, self-care behavior, quality of care and lived experience
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of the thesis was to explore the perspectives of Chinese women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) focused on their beliefs about health and illness and self-care behavior, the quality of care in China, and their lived experience. All the studies were conducted with qualitative methodology using individual interviews. Data were collected in obstetric clinics or wards at three different hospitals or the participants’ workplaces in the south east of China. Content analysis, according to Mayring, was used for data analysis in Study І (15 interviews) and Study II (17 interviews). Content analysis, according to Graneheim & Lundman, was used for data analysis in Study III (44 interviews). In Study IV (18 interviews), data were analyzed by using phenomenological hermeneutics, according to Lindseth & Norberg. Three styles of beliefs about GDM among the Chinese women were explored in the thesis: GDM should be considered seriously; GDM was not a severe illness; and GDM was nothing to worry about. Correspondingly, three self-care behavior models were revealed: women strove to control GDM, and maintained their blood glucose values at a normal level; or women tried to control GDM based on the knowledge they received, but some of them felt helpless because the blood glucose level could not be maintained within the normal range; or women almost ignored GDM. They mainly sought help from professional sector and popular sector, and regarded health professionals and husbands as important people. They showed, however, that they sought a balance between following professionals’ advice and avoiding practical difficulties, which demonstrated the influence of health professionals, people around, and Chinese culture. The thesis highlighted a lack of knowledge, a lower level of risk awareness and poor self-care behavior among the women with GDM, as well as a lack of professional care resources for GDM and the lack of high-quality personalized care for the women. The core problem could be an resource imbalance between over-stretched hospitals and low-efficiency under-utilized primary healthcare centers. Their lived experience showed an eagerness to be cared for. The thesis highlighted women’s call for caring care in China. The care of GDM for these women can most likely be improved by reform of clinical practice, particularly in primary healthcare services. It is necessary to increase the number of health professionals and material resources to a reasonable level, and to strengthen caring care in China.
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| 2. |
- Li, Ge
(författare)
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Computational Studies on Homogeneous Water Oxidation Catalysts
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- To combat the increasing energy demand and climate change, artificial photosynthesis is a promising approach to producing renewables by storing energy into chemicals and fuels. Water oxidation, responsible for offering electrons and protons to the reduction reactions, suffers from slow kinetics. Consequently, developing highly efficient water oxidation catalysts (WOCs) reacting via desirable mechanisms plays an essential role in reaching the goal of artificial photosynthesis. Molecular WOCs in homogeneous catalysis could serve as models to understand the structure-property relationship and the reaction mechanisms owing to their well-defined structures and easily characterized properties. In Chapter 1, a variety of Ru- and Fe-based molecular WOCs are introduced. The two catalytic mechanisms for the O-O bond formation, water nucleophilic attack (WNA) and interaction of two metal-oxos (I2M), are described in Chapter 1.To understand the catalytic mechanisms for designing better WOCs, various theoretical techniques have been applied. Density functional theory (DFT) method was used to study the molecular properties of catalysts and the reaction energetics. Molecular dynamics (MD) and potential of mean force (PMF) were employed to investigate the behavior of catalysts and to calculate the free energy change along a specific coordinate in the explicit solvent. The theory for computing redox potentials, acid dissociation constants, reaction rate constants, and the descriptions of different solvation models are presented in Chapter 2.The family of Ru(bda)(py)2 (bda2- denotes 2,2'-bipyridine-6,6'-dicarboxylate, py denotes pyridine) complexes exhibits extremely high catalytic activity via the I2M mechanism under acidic conditions. Extensive studies have previously been conducted on the primary and secondary coordination environments. In Chapter 3, the first section focuses on three different modifications on the para-sites of the two pyridines. It is found that the complex with the longer hydrophobic group substituting the para-sites of two pyridines demonstrates the highest activity, which is attributed to the stronger binding energy between two RuV monomers. We conclude that the hydrophobic effect is dominating in enhancing the catalytic performance via the I2M mechanism. The second section of Chapter 3 studies the isolated crystal structure of the pseudo seven-coordinate RuIII-aqua intermediate obtained by connecting two meta-sites of pyridines with an ethylene glycol ether linker. DFT was used to study the formed H-bond network between the distal ligand and Ru(bda)(py)2. The influence of micro-solvation on the incoming aqua ligand was analyzed in the form of bonds and interactions. Incorporating a distal ligand could be an effective strategy to investigate the outer coordination environment effects. In the third section of Chapter 3, the linkers connecting two meta-sites of pyridines were changed and three more Ru(bda)(py)2-based catalysts with hydrophobic (aliphatic) and hydrophilic (ethylene glycol ether) linkers of different lengths were synthesized to study the outer coordination environment effects. The hydrophobic ligands lower the potentials slightly by stabilizing the key intermediates. The complex with the longer hydrophobic distal ligand demonstrates the highest TOF with the first-order kinetics. The I2M mechanism is suppressed owing to the limited flexibility of distal ligands validated by the nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and the DFT-calculated energy differences between the conformations of distal ligands in the front and in the back of the bda ligand. The strategy of introducing hydrophobic outer coordination environment could be beneficial to design catalysts involving PCET reactions.Inspired by the Ru(bda)(py)2 catalyst and aiming to reduce the usage of Ru, a computational comparative study on Ru(bda)(py)2 and Fe(bda)(py)2 is presented in Chapter 4. Fe(bda)(py)2 was built by directly replacing Ru catalytic center of Ru(bda)(py)2 with Fe and maintaining the rest of the ligand system. The Fe-based complexes at different valence states prefer higher spin states while the Ru-based complexes are more stable at the lowest spin states. Unlike the Ru, the Fe center disfavors the 7-coordinate structure. Concerning the catalytic performance, the Fe(bda)(py)2 requires much higher potentials to reach the reactive FeV species than the Ru(bda)(py)2. The 6-coordinate [FeV(bda)(py)2=O]+ also has a higher energy barrier of the O-O bond formation via the I2M mechanism than the [RuV(bda)(py)2=O]+. We propose that directly substituting the Ru catalytic center with Fe fails to generate a viable catalyst and a significant ligand system modification is required.An alternative feasible catalytic mechanism is suggested for a highly active dinuclear Fe-based WOC in Chapter 5. The mechanism is proposed where two oxidation reactions are first required to reach the reactive state with calculated potentials matching the onset potential in the experiment. The reactive species is then decomposed by the nucleophilic chloride counter ion attack to produce two Fe-based monomers, which finally form the O-O bond by the radical coupling pathway. The calculated energy barriers and first-order kinetics match well with the experimental observations.
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