A decade of metasynthesis research in health sciences : A meta-method study

The overall aim of this study was to analyze the methods applied in previous metasynthesis research and to inform future researchers of epistemological and methodological issues based on this analysis. Meta-method analysis was applied to a decade of 45 published metasynthesis studies that pertain to nursing and allied health studies. The findings show that the metasynthesis research can be classified into three areas: (1) health, illness and suffering, (2) care and support, and (3) parenting, newborn and childcare. Meta ethnography dominates the research area. Metastudy, metasummary, qualitative metasynthesis, and grounded formal theory are emerging methods. The metasynthesis studies suffer from modifications without explications, use of secondary method references, missing sample and search data and differences in the type of findings and the meta-concepts depicting the findings. The worth of metasynthesis research is questioned when the core ideas of qualitative meta studies, theoretical and/or methodological development (‘‘synthesis’’) combined with the potential of going beyond and behind the studies (‘‘meta’’), is missing. Metasynthesis research requires knowledge in both the substance and the various qualitative methods, and systematic attendance to the method accompanied by the openness and the creativity of a qualitative approach. Conclusions and recommendations are presented as epistemological reflections and a guide for future metasynthesis research in health sciences

Organizational knowledge and communities of practice

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Structural and magnetic investigations of chiral magnets

Investigations of the magnetic structures and phase diagrams of chiral magnetic materials has led to the discovery of topological magnetic phenomena such as skyrmions and the chiral soliton lattice, which are of interest for spintronics device applications. In this thesis, the structural and magnetic properties of several chiral magnetic materials are explored, focusing on the intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides and the frustrated antiferromagnetic Mn3XY (X =Rh,Ir, Y =Si,Ge) families of materials. Firstly, the magnetic structure of V1=3NbS2 is studied and found to display behaviour consistent with a canted antiferromagnet. Two propagation vectors are required to index all the magnetic Bragg peaks present in powder neutron di_raction data; the k0 = (0,0,0) propagation vector is associated with an in-plane A-type antiferromagnetic ordering, while the k1=3 = (0,0,1/3) magnetic propagation vector can be associated with an up-down-down con_guration of moments along the c axis. A ferromagnetic component too small to be resolved in these measurements is expected from magnetisation data. This thesis goes on to describe a detailed structural and magnetic investigation to compare single crystals of Mn1=3NbS2, Cr1=3NbS2, and Cr1=3TaS2. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy measurements show the presence of helimagnetic ordering in Cr1=3NbS2 below TC = 111 K, while there is no evidence that Mn1=3NbS2 exhibits helimagnetic ordering below TC = 45 K. An analogue is drawn between the magnetic phase diagrams of Cr1=3NbS2, Cr1=3TaS2, and Mn1=3NbS2, constructed from ac susceptibility measurements. Finally, this thesis describes an investigation into Mn3IrSi, Mn3RhGe, and Mn3RhSi. A single crystal of Mn3RhSi has been successfully grown and its magnetic properties investigated with dc susceptibility measurements to show a magnetic transition at 228 K. Powder neutron di_raction investigations into polycrystalline Mn3IrSi and Mn3RhGe reveal a three-dimensional frustrated antiferromagnetic ground state for both materials, while Mn3RhGe exhibits an incommensurate helical magnetic phase at 200 K

Going South: Tracing Race and Region in the Post-Emancipation Black Atlantic

The demise of American slavery in 1865 put black Americans in motion to an unprecedented degree. Freed slaves and their descendants migrated from the plantations in the rural South to destinations around the globe. Travelling in a variety of new roles – as missionaries, journalists, agronomists, scientists, athletes, performers, entrepreneurs and political activists – African Americans gained international visibility, inspiring other oppressed populations in the colonial world to struggle for their liberation

Non-signalling energy use in the developing rat brain

Energy use in the brain constrains its information processing power, but only about half the brain's energy consumption is directly related to information processing. Evidence for which non-signalling processes consume the rest of the brain's energy has been scarce. For the first time, we investigated the energy use of the brain's main non-signalling tasks with a single method. After blocking each non-signalling process, we measured oxygen level changes in juvenile rat brain slices with an oxygen-sensing microelectrode and calculated changes in oxygen consumption throughout the slice using a modified diffusion equation. We found that the turnover of the actin and microtubule cytoskeleton, followed by lipid synthesis, are significant energy drains, contributing 25%, 22% and 18%, respectively, to the rate of oxygen consumption. In contrast, protein synthesis is energetically inexpensive. We assess how these estimates of energy expenditure relate to brain energy use in vivo, and how they might differ in the mature brain

Berufliche Weiterbildung Erwerbstätiger: zur Erklärungskraft tätigkeitsbezogener Merkmale für das Weiterbildungsverhalten

Zur Erklärung des Weiterbildungsverhaltens Einzelner werden häufig soziodemografische, betriebs- und beschäftigungsbezogene Daten herangezogen. Obwohl Weiterbildungsbedarfe häufig unmittelbar im Arbeitskontext entstehen, konnten -nicht zuletzt aufgrund der vorhandenen Datenlage- tätigkeits- und arbeitsplatzbezogene Merkmale seltener berücksichtigt werden. Auf der Grundlage einer repräsentativen Befragung von rund 20.000 Erwerbstätigen im Jahr 2006 ist dies jedoch möglich. Die nachfolgenden multivariaten Analysen zeigen, dass diese Merkmale einen hohen Einfluss auf die Weiterbildungsteilnahme Erwerbstätiger haben. Insbesondere hohe Qualifikationsanforderungen am Arbeitsplatz, aber auch wissensintensive berufliche Tätigkeiten sowie Lern- oder Kreativitätsanforderungen des Arbeitsplatzumfeldes erhöhen die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Teilnahme an formalisierter Weiterbildung in Kursen bzw. Lehrgängen, aber auch an informeller Weiterbildung wie z. B. dem Lernen auf Fachtagungen, Fachmessen oder über Fachliteratur. Geringe Bedeutung haben die Merkmale dagegen in Bezug auf arbeitsplatznahe Lernformen, wie Einarbeitung/Anlernen am Arbeitsplatz, Supervision oder Coaching

Use of whole-genus genome sequence data to develop a multilocus sequence typing tool that accurately identifies Yersinia isolates to the species and subspecies levels

The genus Yersinia is a large and diverse bacterial genus consisting of human-pathogenic species, a fish-pathogenic species, and a large number of environmental species. Recently, the phylogenetic and population structure of the entire genus was elucidated through the genome sequence data of 241 strains encompassing every known species in the genus. Here we report the mining of this enormous data set to create a multilocus sequence typing-based scheme that can identify Yersinia strains to the species level to a level of resolution equal to that for whole-genome sequencing. Our assay is designed to be able to accurately subtype the important human-pathogenic species Yersinia enterocolitica to whole-genome resolution levels. We also report the validation of the scheme on 386 strains from reference laboratory collections across Europe. We propose that the scheme is an important molecular typing system to allow accurate and reproducible identification of Yersinia isolates to the species level, a process often inconsistent in nonspecialist laboratories. Additionally, our assay is the most phylogenetically informative typing scheme available for Y. enterocolitica

Nurses’ and Doctors’ Experiences of Transferring Adolescents or Young Adults With Long-Term Health Conditions From Pediatric to Adult Care: A Metasynthesis

The transfer of adolescents and young adults (AYA) with long-term health conditions from pediatric to adult care is a multidisciplinary enterprise where nurses and doctors play an important role. This review aimed to identify and synthesize evidence from qualitative primary reports on how nurses and doctors experience the transfer of AYA aged 13 to 24 years with long-term health conditions to an adult hospital setting. We systematically searched seven electronic databases for reports published between January 2005 and November 2021 and reporting nurses’ and doctors’ experiences. We meta-summarized data from 13 reports derived from 11 studies published worldwide. Using qualitative content analysis, we metasynthesized nurses’ and doctors’ experiences into the theme “being boosters.” Boosting AYA’s transfer was characterized by supporting AYA’s and their parents’ changing roles, smoothening AYA’s transition from pediatric to adult care, and handling AYA’s encounters with a different care culture.publishedVersio