Å drive IKT-basert skoleutviklingsarbeid i mininettverk: erfaringer fra Haldennettverket

Lærende nettverk var et femårig prosjekt som ble avsluttet i 2009. Dette er det største pedagogiske prosjektet innenfor den nasjonale satsningen ”Program for digital kompetanse 2004-2008”. Med dette programmet skulle Norge bli ledende i verden i forhold til bruk av IKT i skolen. Denne rapporten beskriver et lite utsnitt av den nettverksaktivitet som har foregått. Fortellingen om Haldennettverket (samarbeid mellom tre skoler) dokumenterer at prosjektdeltakerne har styrket sin egen digitale kompetanse i prosjektperioden. Nettverket har samarbeidet tett og klarte også i siste prosjektperiode å spre sine erfaringer til andre lærere i Haldenskolene. I et IKT-perspektiv vil man derfor kunne hevde at man har nådd hovedmålsetningen med lærende nettverk: ”Gjennom kunnskapsdeling og kunnskapsutvikling i lærende nettverk skal skoler, skoleeiere og lærerutdanning bevisstgjøres og kvalifiseres slik at IKT i større grad tas i bruk i læringsarbeidet der det gir faglig og pedagogisk merverdi.” Allikevel er det kanskje enda viktigere at prosjektdeltakerne i større grad innser verdien av å jobbe i nettverk. Vi har gjennom prosjektet også sett fremveksten av flere nye delingsarenaer som mininettverk (samarbeid mellom prosjektdeltakere fra et lite antall skoler) og regionale konferanser der det er lærerne selv som holder innlegg for hverandr

Axis I and II disorders as long-term predictors of mental distress: a six-year prospective follow-up of substance-dependent patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A high prevalence of lifetime psychiatric disorders among help-seeking substance abusers has been clearly established. However, the long-term course of psychiatric disorders and mental distress among help-seeking substance abusers is still unclear. The aim of this research was to examine the course of mental distress using a six-year follow-up study of treatment-seeking substance-dependent patients, and to explore whether lifetime Axis I and II disorders measured at admission predict the level of mental distress at follow-up, when age, sex, and substance-use variables measured both at baseline and at follow-up are controlled for. </p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A consecutive sample of substance dependent in- and outpatients (n = 287) from two counties of Norway were assessed at baseline (T1) with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (Axis I), Millon's Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (Axis II), and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25 (mental distress)). At follow-up (T2), 48% (137/287 subjects, 29% women) were assessed with the HSCL-25, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, and the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test. </p> <p>Results</p> <p>The stability of mental distress is a main finding and the level of mental distress remained high after six years, but was significantly lower among abstainers at T2, especially among female abstainers. Both the number of and specific lifetime Axis I disorders (social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and somatization disorder), the number of and specific Axis II disorders (anxious and impulsive personality disorders), and the severity of substance-use disorder at the index admission were all independent predictors of a high level of mental distress at follow-up, even when we controlled for age, sex, and substance use at follow-up.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results underscore the importance of diagnosing and treating both substance-use disorder and non-substance-use disorder Axis I and Axis II disorders in the same programme.</p

DESIGN OF NOVEL INSULINS WITH CHANGED SELF-ASSOCIATION AND LIGAND BINDING PROPERTIES

Different wild type insulins have been used for treatment of diabetes mellitus since Banting and Best (1) isolated insulin for the first time in 1921. This injection therapy has saved many lives but has not been able to reproduce the serum insulin profile obtained by physiological endogenous insulin secretion. The requirements of biosynthesis, processing and storage in the pancreas have put severe constraints on the insulin molecule giving it properties which are not necessary for the biological action of the hormone and which limit the possibilities of obtaining adequate metabolic control in diabetics.The self-association to a hexamer, for example, facilitates proinsulin conversion and its subsequent precipitation as crystals in the storage vesicle (2) but is evidently not related to the interaction of insulin as a monomer to its receptor, and this property delays the transport of insulin from the subcutaneous depot to the circulation (3). Thus pancreatie insulin did not evolve for exogenous administration, and with the aim of producing insulin with improved therapeutical characteristics a whole series of human insulin analogues with changed self-association and ligand binding properties has been developed through molecular modelling and recombinant DNA-technology. Most analogues were designed to have less tendency to associate (4) but a few were also created to possess stronger association or metal-binding properties