A Basic Theory of Everything

What are the basic building blocks of the world? This book presents a naturalistic theory saying that the universe and everything in it can be reduced to three fundamental entities: a field, a set of values that can be actualized at different places in the field, and an actualizer of the values. The theory is defended by using it to answer the main questions in metaphysics, such as: What is causality, existence, laws of nature, consciousness, thinking, free will, time, mathematical entities, ethical values, etc.? The theory is compared with the main alternatives and argued to solve problems better than the existing theories. Several new theories are suggested, such as how to understand mental causation, free will and the truth of ethics and mathematics

Practices of ambiguity: becoming “information literate” in two Norwegian schools

Dette er en pdf av forlagets publiserte versjon etter avtale. Tidsskriftets side: http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/inde

Teaching Information Literacy for Lifelong Professional Use

This paper presents a pilot study carried out in 2015-2016. The main aims of the project was to map information literacy practices among nurses in primary health care and make a summary of previous research focusing on known obstacles. A further aim of the literature review was to identify good solutions and best practice. In spring 2016 a questionnaire was sent out to nurses working in nursing homes in Bergen, Norway. This presentation will outline specificities of IL in the health care context and will then present a few results from the questionnaire connected to this specific context.

A retrospective quality assessment of pre-hospital emergency medical documentation in motor vehicle accidents in south-eastern Norway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few studies have evaluated pre-hospital documentation quality. We retrospectively assessed emergency medical service (EMS) documentation of key logistic, physiologic, and mechanistic variables in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Records from police, Emergency Medical Communication Centers (EMCC), ground and air ambulances were retrospectively collected for 189 MVAs involving 392 patients. Documentation of Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), respiratory rate (RR), and systolic blood pressure (SBP) was classified as exact values, RTS categories, clinical descriptions enabling post-hoc inference of RTS categories, or missing. The distribution of values of exact versus inferred RTS categories were compared (Chi-square test for trend).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>25% of ground and 11% of air ambulance records were unretrieveable. Patient name, birth date, and transport destination was documented in >96% of ambulance records and 81% of EMCC reports. Only 54% of patient encounter times were transmitted to the EMCC, but 77% were documented in ground and 96% in air ambulance records. Ground ambulance records documented exact values of GCS in 48% and SBP in 53% of cases, exact RR in 10%, and RR RTS categories in 54%. Clinical descriptions made post-hoc inference of RTS categories possible in another 49% of cases for GCS, 26% for RR, and 20% for SBP. Air ambulance records documented exact values of GCS in 89% and SBP in 84% of cases, exact RR in 7% and RR RTS categories in 80%. Overall, for lower RTS categories of GCS, RR and SBP the proportion of actual documented values to inferred values increased (All: p < 0.001). Also, documentation of repeated assessment was more frequent for low RTS categories of GCS, RR, and SBP (All: p < 0.001). Mechanism of injury was documented in 80% of cases by ground and 92% of cases by air ambulance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>EMS documentation of logistic and mechanistic variables was adequate. Patient physiology was frequently documented only as descriptive text. Our finding indicates a need for improved procedures, training, and tools for EMS documentation. Documentation is in itself a quality criterion for appropriate care and is crucial to trauma research.</p

Doing pastoral care among young adults and the youth a diaconal concern

This research is about pastoral care among the youth and young adults. It is the study of how best the youth and young adult in our society can find and get the help that the society can offer to them. The study is not limited to only the youth and young adults who are Christians, but includes all youth and young adults irrespective of beliefs. In the introduction of the dissertation, I explore the term pastoral care and examine how it is applied and to whom and for whom pastoral care is directed. I study the youth and young adults who fit into this description and their understanding of what pastoral care is about. The study stresses the importance of good listening skills when carrying out pastoral care. Being aware of the hurts that can results as an outcome of callouses response to what is being communicated is also important. Good techniques are the keys to good pastoral care giving. Listening with ones’ feelings as well as ones full attention are important traits in this field. Important issues that arose while carrying out this study included in general, that young people did not know that pastoral care exist for all types of grievances. The study revealed that the youth and young adults do not know about the pastoral care service and the opportunity that it provides in terms of counselling. Some participants expressed the need to have pastoral care for the youth and young adults on a neutral place rather than in the church office. The study suggests the need for a place, where the young people can come in and talk to a competent professional pastoral care giver without a referral or appointment. Personal accounts show that there are many youth and young adults who go behind the “walls” of misery because the problems they are facing do not need a medical or psychiatrists treatment. Hence the study echoes the need to have someone to talk to, someone who can listen and give advice when needed. A number of relevant literatures which are related to the research topic were reviewed. The research questions were categorized into relevant themes. The study concludes with some suggestions as to how the availability of pastoral care can be made better known to the youth and young adults

The evolutionary history of consciousness

Klein & Barron argue that insects are capable of subjective experience, i.e., sentience. Whereas we mostly agree with the conclusion of their arguments, we think there is an even more important message to be learned from their work. The line of reasoning opened by Klein & Barron proves instructive for how neuroscientists can and should explore the biological phenomenon of consciousness

The evolutionary history of consciousness

Klein & Barron argue that insects are capable of subjective experience, i.e., sentience. Whereas we mostly agree with the conclusion of their arguments, we think there is an even more important message to be learned from their work. The line of reasoning opened by Klein & Barron proves instructive for how neuroscientists can and should explore the biological phenomenon of consciousness

Problemorientert politiarbeid i teori og praksis

Rapporten retter seg mot dem som vil vite mer om filosofien bak det problemorienterte politiarbeidet. Formålet med arbeidsformen er å få et politiarbeid med en mer forebyggende innretning, og komme bort fra det vanlige hendelsesstyrte arbeidet. I rapporten redegjøres det også for andre politistrategier og deres kobling opp mot den problemorienterte arbeidsmåten. Dessuten beskrives den kriminalitetsforebyggende retning som henger sammen med filosofien, og viktige forutsetninger for å kunne arbeide problemorientert. Alle aspekter med filosofien anskueliggjøres også gjennom en praktisk tillempning. I en by hvor politiet tidligere hadde feilet med å komme til rette med piratdrosjevirksomhet med konvensjonelle metoder, lyktes man å løse problemet ved å arbeide problemorientert. Prosjektet ble bedrevet som et samarbeid mellom forfatterne, den ene med bakgrunn som forsker og akademiker og den andre som praktisk politimann. Arbeidet ble prisbelønnet i USA

Seasonality in trauma admissions - Are daylight and weather variables better predictors than general cyclic effects?

Trauma is a leading global cause of death, and predicting the burden of trauma admissions is vital for good planning of trauma care. Seasonality in trauma admissions has been found in several studies. Seasonal fluctuations in daylight hours, temperature and weather affect social and cultural practices but also individual neuroendocrine rhythms that may ultimately modify behaviour and potentially predispose to trauma. The aim of the present study was to explore to what extent the observed seasonality in daily trauma admissions could be explained by changes in daylight and weather variables throughout the year.publishedVersio