Communication management under the spotlight: – A literature review

Purpose: Although communication management is a widely used term, little emphasis is given to understanding it as a concept in its own right. The paper aims to establish a foundation for acknowledging communication management as a distinct concept through charting its multiple understandings in order to identify its defining features. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of understandings of communication management in public relations, corporate communication, strategic communication, and integrated communication literature was performed. Out of a total of 113 sources 40 were reviewed through a narrative synthesis. Findings: There is widespread and ambiguous use of the term rooted in two main strands of literature and a third, less coherent, strand. In addition, the different understandings point to central features linking communication, management, and strategy. Theoretical and practical implications: To make fully use of the potential of communication management as a unifying concept within and across different communication fields, it is suggested to view it at the intersection of, and through the lenses of, the features identified as central to existing understandings of communication management, i.e. communication, management, and strategy. Such conceptualization would lay the foundation for developing communication management as a concept that is useful for empirically exploring the social phenomenon to which it refers

«Også spurte han at ‘skal vi være venner?’ også svarte jeg JA!» En kvalitativ studie om hvordan barna opplever skolestarten, og hvordan de voksne legger til rette for de beste forutsetninger for at barna skal mestre sin nye hverdag

Formålet med denne studien var å få innsyn i barnas opplevelser av skolestarten, og de voksnes erfaringer om hvordan barna forberedes for å gi de best mulig forutsetning for å mestre sin nye hverdag. Med dette ønsket jeg at barnas stemme skulle ha en sentral plass i studien, samtidig som de voksne som står barna nærmes også var viktig for å belyse studiens tematikk. Ved hjelp av informasjon hentet fra informantene i studien, og studiens teori, besvarer jeg problemstillingen: «Hvordan oppleves skolestarten av barna og de voksne og hvordan forberedes barna for å gi dem best mulig forutsetning for å mestre sin nye hverdag?» Studiens funn viser at skolen har et stort fokus på trivsel, tilpasning og mestring det første halve året etter skolestart. Elevenes egne fortellinger viser hvordan skolen tilrettelegger for utvikling av gode relasjoner, for forståelse av regler og struktur i hverdagen og det at elevene lærer seg å være skoleelev. Det kommer fram at vennskap, lekestativer og rollelek var viktig for elevene i overgangen

Forvaltning av kystnære fiskeribestander - Fiskeriene i Andfjorden, kysttorsk og sosioøkologisk perspektiv

Kystnære fiskebestander har blitt høstet av siden mennesker bosatte seg langs kysten. Effektiviseringen av fiskeflåten og økt menneskelig aktivitet i kystsonen og til havs, har ført til at tiltak for å bevare fiskebestander er blitt innført. De senere tiårene har synet på forvaltning blitt mer helhetlig, fordi forskere, fiskere, organisasjoner, med mer, begynte å se verdien av å ivareta hele økosystem og ikke bare enkeltarter. I denne prosessen har forvaltningen av kystnære fiskeribestander fått mer oppmerksomhet, og blant annet kysttorskbestanden har fått stor interesse. Med dette som grunnlag ser jeg på tre ulike temaer i oppgaven: forvaltning, involvering av fiskerinæringen og bruk av sosioøkologisk perspektiv. Temaene blir sett opp mot Andfjorden, og det planlagte verneområdet i fjorden

Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population

Background: The World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref ) is a frequently used instrument to assess the quality of life in both healthy and ill populations. Inquiries of the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-Bref report that the validity and reliability is generally satisfactory. However, some studies fail to support a four-factor dimensionality; others report poor reliability of the social and environmental domain; and there may be some challenges of supporting construct validity across age. This paper evaluates the psychometric properties of the Norwegian WHOQOL-Bref and extends previous research by testing for measurement invariance across age, gender and education level. In addition, we provide updated normative data for the Norwegian population. Methods: We selected a random sample of the Norwegian population (n=654) aged 18–75 years. Participants flled out the WHOQOL-Bref, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and various sociodemographic variables. Results: We found an acceptable convergent and discriminate validity and internal consistency of the physical, psychological and environmental domains, but a marginal reliability was found for the social domain. The factor loadings were invariant across gender, education and age. Some items had low factor loadings and explained variance, and the model ft for the age group 60–75 years were less satisfactory. Conclusions: The original four-factor dimensionality of the WHOQOL-Bref displayed a better ft to the data compared to the one-factor solution and is recommended for use in the Norwegian population. The WHOQOL-Bref is suitable to use across gender, education and age, but for assessment in the oldest age group, the WHOQOL-Old module could be a good supplementary, but further studies are needed.publishedVersio

Getting Change-Space: A Grounded Theory Study of Automated eHealth Therapy

A promising tool for bettering people’s health is eHealth (or “mHealth”) programs: fully automated, web-based health interventions. However, we know surprisingly little about eHealth’s working mechanisms. One possible working mechanism is that program users benefit from a collaborative “relationship”—a “working alliance”—with the program. Although evidence support the existence of a person-to-program alliance it is unclear if and how it influences change. Therefore, we conducted a grounded theory study of how relating to an eHealth program for quitting smoking influenced the participants’ change processes. The ensuing model focuses on how participants got change-space—feeling free from social forcing and able to work constructively on changing—and how the relational processes “making come-alive” and “keeping un-alive” were instrumental in this process. By presenting evidence that relating may influence change in automated therapy, this study supports the person-to-program alliance as a working mechanism in eHealth

Biosynthesis of peptide precursors and protease inhibitors using new constitutive and inducible eukaryotic expression vectors

AbstractA series of expression vectors has been constructed as based on the pML derivative of pBR322. The eukaryotic transcription units employ various promoters followed by polycloning sites for 3–9 commonly used restriction enzymes and are completed by the SV40 polyadenylation sequence. In 4 of the vectors, designed for co-transfection or transient expression studies, only a single transcription unit containing either a constitutive or an inducible promoter was incorporated. The human ubiquitin (UbC) promoter was used as a strong constitutive promoter, while the mouse metallothionein promoter and the promoter of the long terminal repeats of the mouse mammary tumor virus were used as inducible promoters. Another vector contained an additional transcription unit encoding a eukaryotic selection marker, the neomycin resistance encoding gene. The vectors were used in CHO cells and in neuroendocrine CA77 cells to synthesize peptide precursors, protease inhibitors and a protease. It is shown that these vectors are very efficient for the constitutive and inducible expression of nucleotide sequences in both transient and stable transfections of eukaryotic cells

Complete mitochondrial genome sequences of the Arctic Ocean codfishes Arctogadus glacialis and Boreogadus saida reveal oriL and tRNA gene duplications

Paid Open Acces

Postnatal consultations with an obstetrician after critical perinatal events:a qualitative study of what women and their partners experience

Objective The objective of this study was to explore women’s and their partners’ experiences with attending postnatal consultations with an obstetrician after critical perinatal events.Design Qualitative interview study. We did semi-structured individual narrative interviews exploring the lived experiences. Interviews were analysed using a phenomenological approach and the thematic analysis was validated by a transdisciplinary group of anthropologists, obstetricians and a midwife.Setting Department of obstetrics at a large hospital in Denmark.Participants We did a qualitative study with 17 participants (10 women and 7 partners) who had experienced critical perinatal events.Results Five major themes were identified: (1) a need to gain understanding and make sense of the critical perinatal events, (2) a need for relational continuity, (3) the importance of discussing emotional effects as well as physical aspects of occurred events, (4) preparing for future pregnancies and (5) closure of the story.Most of the participants emphasised the importance of knowing the obstetrician undertaking the postnatal consultation. The majority of the participants described a need to discuss the emotional effects of the experience as well as the physical aspects of occurred events. The postnatal consultation served as an approach to obtain a positive closure of their birth story and to feel confident about potential future pregnancies.Conclusions This interview-based study suggests that postnatal consultation with an obstetrician might be an important tool for women and their partners in understanding the course of events during the critical birth experience and in processing it and preparing for future pregnancies. It appears to be important to assign an obstetrician whom they already know and to encourage them to discuss not only physical aspects of what happened but also the emotional effects of the experience

Use of mobile phones and risk of brain tumours: update of Danish cohort study

Objective To investigate the risk of tumours in the central nervous system among Danish mobile phone subscribers