Collecting and compiling: The activity of seeking pictures in primary school

Purpose: The aim of this study is to further understanding of the situated activity of seeking pictures. It relates to an ongoing discussion on how multimodal information literacies are enacted in different social practices. Design/methodology/approach: In order to understand the characteristics of the communication and interactions in the activity of seeking pictures, video recordings from an ethnographic study of primary school children working with problem-centred assignments have been analysed. Findings: The analysis reveals how the activity of seeking pictures is shaped by the assumption that pictures are different from facts and information; pictures are seen primarily as having decorative functions. The activity is also characterised by playful, yet efficient cooperation between the children; they make the activity meaningful by transforming it into a play and game activity where pictures become important as physical objects, but not as a semiotic means of learning. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited to the activity of seeking pictures in a specific primary school; however, it shows how modes other than textual modes can be included in the study of information activities. Practical implications: The study reveals the need for developing methods for enhancing children's possibilities to critically examine and learn from visual material, such as pictures. Originality/value: Research on information seeking and information literacies rarely focus on multimodal aspects of information activities or the seeking of pictures outside special collections, despite the increased significance of visual material in the contemporary media landscape. This paper shows how studies of multimodal information activities can be designed

The “Tango Argentino”: a metaphor for understanding effectuation processes

The authors use the analogy of the Argentine Tango to illuminate entrepreneurial effectuation as a process of becoming. Drawing on the metaphor of dance, the authors highlight seven areas for theory development that could further a performative theory of effectuation. These include the study of the micro-level movement and flow in the dance as “intimate steps,” and understanding the interplay between entrepreneur and ecosystem as “contextual rhythms.” They further propose that the study of changing leadership in the dance could illuminate how causal processes “become” effectual and suggest a concept of “attunement” to consider how inexperienced entrepreneurs learn contextual rhythms and, therefore, benefit for effectuation processes. Finally, they posit that the intimate steps leading to creativity in the dance relative to different levels of proximity and distance between the dancers should be understood alongside the movements and flows through which dancers maintain their individuality during such intimate movements and flows

Genetic variability in the absorption of dietary sterols affects the risk of coronary artery disease.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadAims: To explore whether variability in dietary cholesterol and phytosterol absorption impacts the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) using as instruments sequence variants in the ABCG5/8 genes, key regulators of intestinal absorption of dietary sterols. Methods and results: We examined the effects of ABCG5/8 variants on non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL) cholesterol (N up to 610 532) and phytosterol levels (N = 3039) and the risk of CAD in Iceland, Denmark, and the UK Biobank (105 490 cases and 844 025 controls). We used genetic scores for non-HDL cholesterol to determine whether ABCG5/8 variants confer greater risk of CAD than predicted by their effect on non-HDL cholesterol. We identified nine rare ABCG5/8 coding variants with substantial impact on non-HDL cholesterol. Carriers have elevated phytosterol levels and are at increased risk of CAD. Consistent with impact on ABCG5/8 transporter function in hepatocytes, eight rare ABCG5/8 variants associate with gallstones. A genetic score of ABCG5/8 variants predicting 1 mmol/L increase in non-HDL cholesterol associates with two-fold increase in CAD risk [odds ratio (OR) = 2.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.75-2.31, P = 9.8 × 10-23] compared with a 54% increase in CAD risk (OR = 1.54, 95% CI 1.49-1.59, P = 1.1 × 10-154) associated with a score of other non-HDL cholesterol variants predicting the same increase in non-HDL cholesterol (P for difference in effects = 2.4 × 10-4). Conclusions: Genetic variation in cholesterol absorption affects levels of circulating non-HDL cholesterol and risk of CAD. Our results indicate that both dietary cholesterol and phytosterols contribute directly to atherogenesis. Keywords: ABCG5/8; Absorption; Dietary cholesterol; Genetics; Phytosterols.Novo Nordisk Foundation University College London Hospital National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centr

Incubating Businesses

The efficiency of business incubators is disputed, but they have attracted significant attention from policy-makers and are a part of economic policies worldwide. To ensure their efficiency, it has been suggested that more involvement in the ventures by the incubator management would be beneficial. The purpose of this thesis was to inquire into the relationship between entrepreneurial processes and managerial practices in business incubation. Drawing upon research about entrepreneurial processes and the management of entrepreneurship and creativity in other organizational contexts, the thesis problematizes the suggestions of increased managerial interventions in entrepreneurial processes in business incubation. The purpose was achieved through an analysis of entrepreneurial narratives from two Swedish incubators with different levels of managerial involvement in their ventures. The theoretical frame of reference used for the narrative analysis was based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts for studying varying possibilities and groundings for becoming in narratives. Entrepreneurship is understood as a creative process characterized by dialogue, polyphony and carnival, which has implications for our understanding of business incubation as a phenomenon. The narrative analysis generated four genres of entrepreneurial narratives and two models of incubation with different conceptualizations of entrepreneurship, the role of the incubator management and the incubation process. The result from the analysis of the incubator management from a creative process view was that the managerial approaches to coaching and clustering favored by the two incubators had different implications for entrepreneurship by providing varying possibilities for creativity due to aspects such as control, standardization and specialization. This study shows that business incubation, regardless of the model, includes a larger variety of entrepreneurial processes than previously recognized. This study contributes to our understanding of how managerial involvement in business incubation is conducted in practice and how it is understood from the entrepreneur’s perspective. The theoretical contribution of this study is a Bakhtinian framework, which allows us to observe and to understand business incubation differently. The study shows how the Bakhtinian concepts can be adapted and be made useful in studying the relationship between entrepreneurship and management in business incubation by emphasizing entrepreneurship as the product of social interaction

Att använda lekförmågan i lekvärlden – en kvalitativ studie om att inta barns perspektiv och synliggöra några förskolebarns utrymme och möjligheter i förskolans fria lek

Sammanfattning: Föreliggande studie har fokuserat på verksamhetens fria lek, såväl inomhus som utomhus. Genom observationer och intervjuer på en förskoleavdelning har barns utrymme och möjlighet att använda lekförmågan som redskap för meningsskapande lärande undersökts. Interaktionen i leken har observerats för att synliggöra barns förmåga att överskrida och transformera positioner samt synliggöra hur barns språk kommer till uttryck i deras lekvärld. Genom intervjuer skapas fördjupad förståelse och kunskap kring barnens lekvärld, sett ur barns perspektiv. Studien visar hur barnen på den här förskolan får utrymme och möjlighet att uttrycka sin lekförmåga för att använda språk, inta och leva ut positioner samt tillämpa sin föreställningsförmåga. Men också hur eventuella hinder påverkar eller hindrar denna användning av lekförmågan. Det framkommer vidare att utrymmet är en avgörande faktor för att barnen ska kunna använda sin lekförmåga och träda in i flödeslek. Dock visade resultatet att flödeslek inte flödar så rikt som önskat på denna specifika plats. Materialet har analyserats utifrån Vygotskijs kulturhistoriska teori samt en rosa pedagogik

Livet utan livmoder : En litteraturstudie om kvinnors erfarenheter av en hysterektomi

Bakgrund: Hysterektomi innebär att livmodern avlägsnas. Livmodern kan förknippas med kvinnlighet vilket medför att en hysterektomi kommer att påverka kvinnornas livsvärld. Den kvinnliga identiteten speglas av hur kvinnor upplever sig själva och det är sammanlänkat till de fysiska könstillhörigheter som är bundna till könet. Hälsa är ett tillstånd som ständigt förändras och redogör för kvinnors aktuella livssituation. Hälsa upplevs subjektivt, därför ingår det i sjuksköterskors roll att se till att det vårdande mötet är följsamt och tillmötesgående.  Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka kvinnors erfarenheter av en hysterektomi.  Metod: Litteraturstudie där åtta artiklar med både kvalitativ och kvantitativ ansats inkluderats. Artiklarna togs fram ur databaserna CINAHL och psycINFO. Artiklarna genomgick kvalitetsgranskning och analyserades genom integrerad analys.  Resultat: Hysterektomerade kvinnor erfar både positiva och negativa aspekter när det kommer till deras kvinnlighet och sexuella hälsa, deras syn på den levda kroppen samt på sjukvårdens agerande. Slutsats: Sjukvården behöver belysa att kvinnors värde inte placeras i ett organ och med hjälp av adekvat information och utbildning skapas en trygghet i samband med operationen. De omvårdnadsåtgärder som sjuksköterskor utövar i yrket ska utgå från kvinnors specifika erfarenheter.

”Motivationenes påverkan på läsinlärningen” : En studie om lärares arbete med motivation i läsinlärningen i grundskolans årskurs 1.

Sammanfattning: Denna studie är fokuserad på hur lärare tänker kring sina elevers och sin egen motivation i samband med läsinlärningen i årskurs 1. I studiens bakgrund definieras motivation samt läsinlärning som är viktiga för studien. Vidare presenteras tidigare forskning om motivation samt motivation kopplat till läsning. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med verksamma lärare i årskurs 1 ska en tydligare bild ges av hur motivation används i läsinlärningen. Insamlat material analyseras tematiskt och diskuteras utifrån tidigare forskning och motivationsteorierna “Teorin om förväntningar och värden” och “Tron på sig själv och sin egen kapacitet”. Studiens resultat visar att lärare anser att exempelvis trygghet, nyfikenhet och intressant material är viktiga aspekter för att deras elever ska känna sig motiverade. Vidare visar studien att lärarnas egen motivation kan ha både negativ och positiv påverkan på elevernas motivation