Symptoms of ADHD are related to education and work experience among incarcerated adults

Several reports document increased prevalence of attention deficit and hyperactivity (ADHD) and similar symptoms in incarcerated members of the community, but little is known about how the symptoms are related to education and work experience. An ongoing study among Norwegian inmates reveals that 60 % report signs of ADHD. In the present study a sample of 600 inmates incarcerated in Norway filled out a questionnaire including the WURS-k (Wender Utah Rating Scale, short form) and questions to survey completed education level and work experience. A clear relationship was found between the WURS-k score and earlier job-experience, with increased probability of ADHD with work experience from low socio-economic status jobs. The scale was also found to share variance with the inmates’ reported education history, as higher education reduces the probability of ADHD among the incarcerated adults. Thus, the WURS-k could be a useful screening instrument in education assessment among inmates. The link between the present findings and development of anti-social behaviour is discussed

Action Research: Applied Research, Intervention Research, Collaborative Research, Practitioner Research, or Praxis Research?

This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”, “interactive research”, “applied research”, and “practitioner research” to a number of different ways of knowing, extracted from the works of Aristotle. The purpose is not to disavow any of these practices but to expand the philosophical, methodological, and theoretical horizon to contain the Aristotelian concept of praxis. It is claimed that praxis knowing needs to be comprehended in order to realize the full, radical potential in action research providing real “added value” in relation to more conventional social research approaches. Praxis knowing radically challenges the divisions of labour between knower-researchers and the known-researched. Thereby it also challenges both the epistemologies and institutionalisations dominating both conventional research and conventional ways of conceptualising action research

Indigenous agency in global systems

The article addresses expanding of global economic systems by studying Sámi strategies addressing Norwegian High Northern Policies (NHNP) launched by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2005. NHNP attracted global economy, labour and knowledge to the Arctic region. The Sámi responding are analysed by using agency theories in economic geography, and contributes to expand the content of agencies e.g. by understanding its embedding in specific historical shaped structures as well as in debates on new opportunity spaces in the wake of globalism. The study demonstrates three strategies debated and launched by the Sámi Parliament: (i) In grounding its resistance the Sámi Parliament argued that the entry of international industries into areas with Sámi population threaten the fundamental conditions for Sámi livelihood. (ii) By entering global governance the parliament emphasized the importance of Sámi negotiation with multinational companies in global governance frameworks. (iii) And by changing the historical understanding of Sámi territories in order to include research and higher education milieus outside remote rural districts

Phrónêsis, Aristotle, and action research

"This article presents an interpretation of Aristotelian phrónêsis and its relevance for action research. After pointing out some insufficiencies in how phrónêsis is applied by other interpreters with relevance for action research, I present my own interpretation of Aristotle’s concept in the wider context of his thinking on intellectual and ethical virtues. The article’s conclusion is that phrónêsis is very important for both action researchers and others. But at the same time, phrónêsis is not a concept that can be adopted by itself, alone, and in isolation from other intellectual and ethical virtues or ways of knowing. Phrónêsis is necessary, but at the same time insufficient. Phrónêsis is not a concept primarily concerned with learning, inquiry, and research. Its primary focus is “application”, performance, or enactment. Action research has a lot to learn from Aristotle, and phrónêsis is definitely among the things to be learned. Aristotle’s praxis-orientation sticks even deeper, however. This more profound praxis-orientation becomes quite invisible by operating with simplified and mutually exclusive divisions between phrónêsis, tékhnê, and epistêmê, and by conflating other distinctions that were important to maintain for Aristotle. Aristotle’s profound praxis-orientation is even more central to action research. It has to do with dialogue or dialectics whose tasks really are fundamentally concerned with learning, inquiry, and research." (author's abstract

Symbiotic Learning Systems: Reorganizing and Integrating Learning Efforts and Responsibilities Between Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) and Work Places

This article presents the idea of “symbiotic learning systems” as a possible strategy for dealing with institutional knowledge and learning challenges posed by an emerging transition from “socially monopolized” to “socially distributed” knowledge generation and distribution. As knowledge production and learning become increasingly relocated from segregated and specialized institutions for research and education and socially distributed to and within “ordinary” work life, corresponding changes are required in the basic institutionalized relationships between research, higher education, and practical knowledge application. The concept of “symbiotic learning” addresses these problems by deconstructing age-old divisions between vocational and liberal education. In order to build foundations for a changed and improved relationship between advanced organizations in work life and institutions of higher education and research (HEIs), the general preconditions for learning in the work places themselves need to be addressed. In modeling general preconditions for learning, and even in transcending the division of labor between manual and intellectual work, inspiration is found in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and in their search for intellectual “commons” (tà koiná) as constituting public spheres and community among individuals

Why Should Mainstream Social Researchers Be Interested in Action Research?

"The essay tries to argue why conventional researchers are obliged as researchers to be interested in certain forms of action research. The 60 years of ignorance have been illegitimate. The essay starts by listing two commonly encountered arguments paraphrasing Karl Marx and Francis Bacon via Kurt Lewin. It tries to show why a certain simplified reading of Marx cannot provide the necessary arguments. It then presents different variants of action research in order to single out approaches that according to this author require attention from mainstream social researchers. The action research approach emerging as central, by demonstrating its presence and effectiveness within mainstream research as well, is immanent critique. The method of research methodology is immanent critique. Immanent critique has to be demystified, however. When it is brought down to earth, immanent critique is really the kind of dialogical and experiential learning approach associated with apprenticeship learning and with organisational learning. This conclusion, making self-reflective practitioner-research the “hard-core” of action research, even internal to mainstream research, also requires a revision of the experimentalist-as-interventionist credo of action research." (author's abstract

European neuroborreliosis: Long term follow-up

Lyme disease is the most common human tick borne disease in the northern hemisphere, and the southern coastline of Norway is a high endemic region regarding Lyme disease. European Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) often presents with a sub acute painful lymphocytic meningoradiculitis (Bannwarth syndrome) with or without paresis in the abdominal wall, the limbs or muscles innervated by cranial nerves. Central nervous system involvement as encephalitis, myelitis and vasculitis is rare. Most LNB patients experience marked improvement in neurological symptoms within weeks to a few months after antibiotic treatment, but years after treatment 10 – 50% report persisting or new symptoms including fatigue, concentration difficulties and musculoskeletal problems. Remaining complaints after adequately treated Bb infections are often named Post Lyme Disease Syndrome (PLDS). The prevalence and impact of PLDS is debated since similar symptoms are common in the general population, and there are few European controlled studies on the issue. Most studies on outcome after LNB are conducted in the US, and as Borrelia genotype and the clinical picture of Lyme disease in the US differ somewhat from what we find in Europe, the study results are not necessarily transferable to European patients. Aims Our aim was to assess the long-term impact of LNB on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in a controlled study of well-characterized adult European LNB patients. We also wanted to compare the neuropsychological (NP) functioning by assessing executive/attention functions, processing speed and memory in a group of adult LNB patients 30 months after treatment to a matched control group. Finally, we wanted to identify clinical, demographical or laboratory factors associated with a reduced HRQoL and fatigue after treatment of LNB. Patients and methods A cohort of 50 patients was followed for 30 months after treatment for LNB. The patients were recruited from a treatment study conducted in southern Norway comparing per oral doxycycline to intravenous ceftriaxone. All patients were living in the geographical region of Agder Counties, and received treatment between May 2004 and December 2007. The LNB patients brought a control person from the same geographical area, matched for age, gender and education level. Exclusion criterion for the controls was a history of acknowledged LNB. At basis pre-treatment and at 4, 12 and 30 months we did a semi structured interview, a clinical score, and spinal and blood tap. At 30 months NP functioning was assessed, and all participants completed the following questionnaires: the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), the Montgomery-Åsberg-Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and the Short Form-36 (SF-36: A HRQoL questionnaire including the sum scores Mental Component Summary (MCS) and Physical Component Summary (PCS)). They were asked about previous and current coexisting diseases, psychological distress and subjective complaints. A composite clinical score made for the treatment study, summarizing subjective complaints and objective findings, was used to assess clinical status. Non-complete recovery was defined as more than 1 point score on the composite clinical score. The four NP tests in our test panel consisted of 23 subtasks, and we calculated a sumscore expressing the number of NP subtasks with the scores ≤-1 SD from the mean in the control group (range 0-23). The sumscores were then categorized into three groups: Normal: 1-5(≤-1 SD from the mean sumscore in the control group), deficit: 6-8 (>-1≤2 SD from the mean sumscore in the control group) and impairment: 9-23 (>-2 SD from the mean sumscore in the control group). In the study regarding risk factors we did a univariate analysis comparing independent demographical, clinical and laboratory data to the PCS, MCS and FSS scores to look for associations. The variables which were associated with the outcome in the univariate analyses were analyzed further in a multiple regression model. Before treatment 80 % of the patients had a complete or partial Bannwart syndrome, and 8 % had symptoms suggesting involvement of the central nervous system (myelitis, ataxia and confusion). Fifty percent were treated with oral doxycycline and 50 % with IV ceftriaxone. Sixty-eight percent were classified as definite LNB according to the criteria of the European Foundation of Neurological Society, and 32 % as possible LNB. Mean age at follow up was 55, and 58 % were male. Results Paper I: LNB treated patients had reduced HRQoL compared to controls as assessed with the SF-36 summary components PCS (P<0.001) and MCS ( p=0.010) 30 months after treatment. The patients scored lower on all the eight subscales of the SF-36, except for bodily pain. The LNB patients who reported complete recovery (56%) had similar HRQoL scores as the controls. Paper II: LNB treated patients scored lower on four NP subtasks assessing executive/attention functions, processing speed, visual and verbal memory, as compared to matched controls: Stroop test 4 (P=0.015), TMT 5 (P=0.004) Digit Symbol recall (P=0.038) and CVLT list B (P=0.003). The distribution of global NP function indicates that most of the LNB treated patients perform comparable to controls, while a small subgroup have a debilitating long-term course with cognitive impairment. Fatigue, depression, neurological deficits or HRQoL at 30 months after treatment were not associated with the global NP sum score. Eighteen out of 50 patients (36%) had objective findings in terms of neurological deficits and/or cognitive impairment. Paper III: Delayed start of treatment and remaining complaints 4 and 12 months after treatment seem to predict a worse outcome with respect to HRQoL. Delayed start f treatment, a more severe disease pre-treatment and remaining complains at 4 and 12 months after treatment seem to predict more fatigue at 30 months. Age, gender, educational level, diagnostic accuracy, treatment option, signs of infection in the central nervous pre-treatment or coexisting somatic diseases or psychological distress were not associated with HRQoL outcome 30 months after treatment in our cohort, neither were any of the assessed CSF findings before treatment or during follow-up . Conclusions 1. HRQoL was reduced in well-characterized European patients treated for LNB with a current recommended antibiotic regimen 30 months earlier, as compared to matched controls. The LNB treated patients were not more depressed and did not report more pain than the controls. Fatigue was the most disturbing persisting complaint, and was negatively associated with HRQoL. Mild neurological deficits were found in 28 % of the patients, and seemed to influence negative on the physical HRQoL and fatigue scores. The patients who reported subjective recovery had the same HRQoL as the controls. 2. Most of the patients who were treated for European LNB 30 months earlier had comparable NP functioning to matched controls, but a small subgroup had cognitive impairments regarding attention/ excecutive function, processing speed and memory that could affect their daily life. The LNB treated patients with complete recovery had similar NP functioning as the controls. We did not find any association between NP test results and HRQoL or fatigue. 3. It seems as a more serious LNB disease and a longer duration of symptoms before treatment can reduce HRQoL, and as symptom duration more than 6 weeks before treatment, a more severe disease and non-complete recovery at four and 12 months predict a higher burden of fatigue 30 months after treatment. We did not find that any laboratory data predicted outcome after treated LNB, or that any CSF finding indicated an active Bb infection 30 months after treatment. Gender, age, comorbidity, signs of pre-treatment infection of the central nervous system or CSF findings before and during follow-up were not associated with HRQoL or fatigue at 30 months. 4. Thirty months after treatment of LNB 18 out of 50 patients (36%) had objective findings in terms of neurological deficits and/or cognitive impairment

Characterization of the ALPIDE Detector with Proton Beams for the Development of a Prototype Computed Tomography Machine at the University of Bergen

In conventional radio therapy, photons is used in the treatment. Treatment with protons, however, greatly reduce the energy which is deposited in healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. The aim for the pCT group at the University in Bergen is to develop an imaging modality using protons. The motivation for this is to accurately locate the Bragg-peak, which is the region where the protons deposit the maximum of their energy. At the moment conventional CT scans are used to map the inner structures of a patient. The relation between photon attenuation and stopping power is not one-to-one. Thus this leads to uncertainties in the location of the Bragg-peak for protons. The design proposed by the pCT group at UIB is one that aims to have one detector to both track the particles and measure the energy deposition of the traversing protons. The detector which was chosen for this purpose, was the ALPIDE detector developed for the ITS upgrade at CERN. It has a high granularity and is thus able to track the protons efficiently. This thesis will look into how the ALPIDE detector efficiently measures the energy deposition of non MIP. It focuses on how the signal from the traversing particles behaves under variation of different parameters, before looking into the behavior of the ALPIDE when exposed to a high LET proton beam. Previous characterizations of the ALPIDE have focused on MIP, while this is some of the earlier work with heavier particles. The ALPIDE was able to distinguish the energy deposited with varying LET, especially in the region where the LET is constant among the particles traversing the ALPIDE, the cluster size of individual particles can be a good indication on energy deposited. It has thus shown promising signs that it will be able to perform well in the proposed setup of the prototype pCT designed by the pCT group at the University of Bergen.Masteroppgave i fysikkMAMN-PHYSPHYS39

The Dark Side of the Welfare State - Is the carceral state slowly replacing the welfare state?

Postponed access: the file will be accessible after 2018-06-01The overarching aim of this thesis is to explore whether traditional welfare politics and the politics of crime and punishment ought to be considered part of the same policy domain — the governance of social marginality. Previous research suggest that the states discussed in this thesis, through public policy and without much public debate, has created a ‘dark side of the welfare state’. The criminal justice system, or ‘the dark side of the welfare state' consistently and predictably leaves large parts of those less well-off outside of society. The research question for this thesis is: “Is there evidence in support of the criminal justice system replacing traditional welfare state politics of governing social marginality? The purpose of this thesis is theory building. The analyses use an innovative cross-sectional time-series dataset compiled for this thesis to map out the effects of different Welfare State Regime Types, crime, the number of police officers, economic variables, and variables on social spending on the dependent variable; the prison population rate per 100 000. What this thesis has found is that politicians and scholars alike ought to pay attention to the issue of unemployment and unemployment benefits. The results suggest that the rather specific measure of how much of previous income is retained in the 60th week after becoming unemployed is particularly indicative of how large a prison population a state has. The findings here also show that crime rates are falling and/or has levelled out, and none of the controls have an effect on the Prison Population Rate. Depending on how it is measured, the much-discussed rise in the Prison Population Rate is more nuanced and not as uniform as often portrayed. What is significant is the decrease in social spending and income inequality – even as the economy of the different states are growing. This thesis suggests that the correlation between which states have the less generous unemployment benefits and the highest incarceration rates follows a regional pattern where Scandinavia and Central Europe perform better than the Eastern Europe and the Anglosphere. Although not definitive proof, it is enough to warrant further research into whether there has occurred a shift where governments increasingly favour the politics of the criminal justice system over welfare state politics when governing social marginality.SAMPOL350MASV-SAP