The journey to become a riding teacher with good self-esteem and self-confidence

Ridning och ridundervisning är en komplex verksamhet då det ingår tre parter som ska samspela- hästen, ryttaren och ridläraren. Tidigare forskning har visat att nyutbildade ridlärare ofta finner svårigheter i sin nya roll som ridlärare. Problemet denna studie fokuserat på var hur en svag självkänsla och självförtroende kan gå ut över den egna tron på att prestera som ridlärare och hur man värderar sig själv som människa. Med tanke på de krav som ställs på en ridlärare var det av stort intresse att ta fram kunskap om hur nyutbildade ridlärare kan göra för att växa in i, utveckla trygghet och skapa ett självförtroende i sin ridlärarroll. Studiens syfte var således att utforska vad erfarna ridlärare tänker om sin självkänsla och självförtroende samt hur de upplever sig ha utvecklats från nyutbildad- till erfaren ridlärare. Frågeställningarna var; Vilka svårigheter finner nyexaminerade ridlärare i den nya yrkesrollen? Hur vill erfarna ridlärare hantera problem som uppstår i sin ridundervisning? Vad tänker erfarna ridlärare om de känner sig otillräcklig eller osäker under en ridlektion? Vilka erfarenheter har ridlärare av mental träning och andra sätt att utveckla självkänsla och självförtroende i sin ridlärarroll? Hur upplever ridlärare att självkänslan och självförtroendet har utvecklats under åren som ridlärare? Studiens syfte och frågeställningar besvarades dels genom en enkät som skickades ut till två av de senaste årskullarna av Hippologer och tredjeårsstuderande Hippologstudenter, dels genom enskilda intervjuer med fem erfarna ridlärare. De erfarna ridlärarna var utbildade ridlärare level III inom Svenska Ridsportförbundet samt ridlärare III och IV inom Svenska Islandshästförbundet. Resultatet visade att Hippologerna och Hippologstudenterna ansåg att Hippologprogrammet har haft ett bra innehåll där det funnits en tydlig röd tråd genom alla tre åren. De var eniga om att de fått en bra grund att stå på gällande lektionsuppbyggnad, att hitta en bra röst och veta var och hur ridläraren ska placera sig i manegen. De flesta menade dock att utbildningen inte förberett dem för vanliga situationer som ridlärare bemöter ute i yrkeslivet. De uttalade situationerna var hanteringen av kritik, rädda ryttare, ryttare som ramlat av, att inte nå fram till elever, elever som beter sig illa mot hästarna, ängslan inför ridundervisningen samt hanteringen av känslan av otillräcklighet och osäkerhet. Utifrån Hippologernas svar skapades en anpassad intervjustudie till fem erfarna ridlärare. De erfarna ridlärarnas lösningar på dessa problem samt övriga reflektioner kring utvecklingen av ridlärarrollen har kategoriserats i följande kategorier; problem i ridundervisningen, stärkandet av självförtroende samt utveckling av ridlärarrollen. Studiens slutsatser visar att reflektion leder till självmedvetenhet och förståelse för egna känslor och värderingar hos ridlärarna. Ridlärarens egen nervositet inför ridlektioner hanteras bäst med noggrann planering och kunskap kring ämnet. Detta ökar tryggheten och förutsättningen att en ridlektion ska lyckas vilket också ger utveckling av självförtroendet. Reflektion tillsammans med kollegor är betydelsefullt för ridlärare som fastnar i ett självkritiskt tänkande. Mental träning visar sig ge ridläraren inblick i hur denne väljer att se på sig själv och andra människor. Resultaten visar slutligen att en ridlärares utveckling av självkänsla och självförtroende hör ihop med den personliga utvecklingen och övning i att bemöta problem.A riding teacher often has many difficult interactions to address in the equestrian profession. Studies has shown that newly educated riding teachers find difficulties in their new role as a riding teacher. These difficulties can provoke doubts about one's own ability as a teacher and cause lack of self-esteem. The aim of this study was to explore what an experienced riding teacher thinks about one´s self-esteem and self-confidence and how the riding teacher has developed from a newly educated to an experienced riding teacher. This study examined newly educated riding teachers and their perspective on difficulties in their new role. Highly educated and experienced riding teachers then gave their perspective on how to solve these difficulties, as well as their own career development as riding teachers and personal journey in developing self-esteem and self-confidence. The results show that the newly educated riding teachers found it difficult to deal with criticism, scared riders, riders that has fallen off the horse, riders that are hard to give instructions, riders that have a bad attitude against the horse, being nervous before a lesson and having a feeling of inadequacy and insecurity. The highly educated riding teachers say that they handle scared riders and riders who have fallen off the horse with respect and understanding. It is also important that the riding teacher remain calm and adapt the teaching to the rider's needs. The riding teacher's own nervousness before riding lessons was best handled with careful planning and knowledge of the subject. This increases security and the prerequisite for a riding lesson to succeed and was also important for the development of self-confidence. Reflection leads to self-awareness and is important for an individual's understanding of their own feelings and values. This leads to fewer incidents of feeling inadequacy and insecure. Reflection together with colleagues gives an outside perspective on a riding teacher's riding lessons and is meaningful for a riding teacher who gets caught up in a self-critical thinking. Mental training seems to have an impact on how a person choose to look at themselves and other people. Finally, the results showed that a riding teacher's development of self-esteem and self-confidence is related to personal development

Human papillomavirus and other biomarkers in neck masses of unknown origin and in head and neck cancer

Background. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is, in addition to smoking and alcohol, a risk factor for developing oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), and more specifically tonsillar- and base of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC & BOTSCC respectively). Interestingly, HPV-positive (HPV+) TSCC/BOTSCC has a remarkably better clinical outcome than HPV-negative (HPV-) TSCC/BOTSCC and head and neck cancer in general. However, the role of HPV and other biomarkers in cancer of unknown primary in the head and neck region (HNCUP), i.e. where only a lymph node metastasis and no primary tumour is found, is not well understood. Moreover, the genetic landscape of HPV-positive HNCUP and the prognostic implications of certain mutations in TSCC/BOTSCC has not been studied extensively. Furthermore, using fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) from neck masses for HPV-detection and potentially for predicting an HPV-positive TSCC/BOTSCC as the final diagnosis would be highly clinically useful, but has not been studied prospectively in a cohort consisting of both malignant and benign neck masses. Aims. To investigate HPV DNA and mRNA and other prognostic biomarkers (p16, p53, CD8+ tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), HLA Class I expression) in HNCUP in relation to clinical outcome. Moreover, to study mutations in HPV+ HNCUP and TSCC/BOTSCC in relation to prognosis and to analyse whether HPV-detection in FNAC from neck masses is reliable and if a finding of HPV could predict an HPV+ TSCC/BOTSCC as the final diagnosis. Results. In Paper I, we show that HPV is a favourable prognostic factor in HNCUP, and in Paper II, we validate this finding in a separate cohort (3-year overall survival 86% vs. 54% for HPV+ and HPV- HNCUP respectively, in the combined cohorts). In Paper II, we also demonstrate that HPV mRNA is expressed in the vast majority of HPV DNA+ HNCUP. Moreover, in Paper I we find that high p53-expression correlates to a poor prognosis, and in Paper II that a low number of CD8+ TILs are potentially related to a poor outcome, while HLA Class I expression does not appear to be a prognostic factor in HNCUP. In Paper III, we show that TP53, CDKN2A and PIK3CA are the most commonly mutated genes in HPV+ HNCUP, and that having a mutation in FGFR3 correlated to a poor prognosis in HPV+ TSCC/BOTSCC. In Paper IV, we demonstrate that HPV DNA detection in FNAC from neck masses of unknown origin is reliable and could be used prospectively to predict an HPV+ TSCC/BOTSCC as the final diagnosis. HPV DNA was not found in malignant conditions other than HPV+ TSCC/BOTSCC or in any benign conditions, including branchial cleft cysts. Conclusions. HPV appears to have a similar causative and prognostic role in HNCUP as in TSCC/BOTSCC. Investigation of HPV-status should therefore be part of the diagnostic work-up of an HNCUP. Examination of HPV DNA-status using FNAC is useful in the clinical investigation of patients with neck masses of unknown origins, including patients eventually diagnosed with HNCUP or TSCC/BOTSCC

Organization of Physical Interactomes as Uncovered by Network Schemas

Large-scale protein-protein interaction networks provide new opportunities for understanding cellular organization and functioning. We introduce network schemas to elucidate shared mechanisms within interactomes. Network schemas specify descriptions of proteins and the topology of interactions among them. We develop algorithms for systematically uncovering recurring, over-represented schemas in physical interaction networks. We apply our methods to the S. cerevisiae interactome, focusing on schemas consisting of proteins described via sequence motifs and molecular function annotations and interacting with one another in one of four basic network topologies. We identify hundreds of recurring and over-represented network schemas of various complexity, and demonstrate via graph-theoretic representations how more complex schemas are organized in terms of their lower-order constituents. The uncovered schemas span a wide range of cellular activities, with many signaling and transport related higher-order schemas. We establish the functional importance of the schemas by showing that they correspond to functionally cohesive sets of proteins, are enriched in the frequency with which they have instances in the H. sapiens interactome, and are useful for predicting protein function. Our findings suggest that network schemas are a powerful paradigm for organizing, interrogating, and annotating cellular networks

Food and parasites - life-history decisions in copepods

In the freshwater copepod, Macrocyclops albidus, food availability, rearing conditions and tapeworm infection clearly affected various life-history traits and their trade-offs. I found that low food availability clearly constrained resource allocations to several life-history (often phenotypically plastic) traits, whereas high food availability either allowed for adjustments in resource allocation patterns or allowed to be allocated to several traits withou apparent trade-offs. Both maile and female copepods allocated resources according to food availability; developing more slowly and achieving smaller adult body size when food was scarce. When food availability was low females were constrained and produced fewer eggs (in total and per clutch), and started reproduction later than females with more food available. Males under low food availability allocated reletively more spermatophore size (current reproduction) with decreasing body size. In contrast, when food availability was high males allocated resources to body size as well as spermatophore size. Overall, at maturity, copepods of both sexes were more similar in size than in age, suggesting that large body size was more important for fitness than fast development. In nature the prevalence of copepods infected with cestode tapeworms was found to be low (0-3%). Female copepods, experimentally infected with the cestode Schistocephalus solidus, showed lower overall fecundity, especially when food availability was low. However, infected females produced a larger proportion of their life-time egg production early in life than non-infected females. This might be an adaptation to reduce future fitness costs of infection. Females grown under bad rearing conditions, but with high food availability, produced their first clutch earlier than females grown under good rearing conditions, indicating an adjustment in timing reproduction. These findings contribute to our fundamental evolutionary understanding of how environmental conditions interact with life-history traits.Introduction................................................7 Body size.................................................8 Current vs. future reproduction...........................9 Aim........................................................11 Study species..............................................12 The parasite.............................................13 General methods..........................................15 Results and Discussion.....................................17 Age and size at maturity - paper I.......................17 Resource allocation in males - paper II..................19 Female life-histories and food availability - paper III..21 A field study - paper IV.................................23 Resource allocation and cost of infection in females - paper V................................................. 25 Conclusion.................................................28 Acknowledgments............................................30 Sammanfattning.............................................32 References.................................................3

Selective extraction systems for detection and purification of membrane proteins

Increased understanding of membrane proteins is important for characterization of biochemical processes. Improved membrane protein isolation methods is a key issue for effective functional and structural determination of the large amount of unknown membrane proteins. In this thesis, a novel approach towards selective membrane protein purification is introduced. Polymer induced micelle extraction (PIME) systems are formed in mixtures between nonionic detergents and water-soluble polymers. Over a critical concentration the detergent/polymer/water mixture separates into two phases and forms a detergent-rich and a polymer-rich phase. Separation of membrane proteins from cytosolic proteins and insoluble materials is achieved by the large difference in distribution between the phases. In general, membrane proteins are extracted into the micelle-enriched phase, while water-soluble proteins partitions in the polymer-rich phase. Membranes can be solubilized directly into the PIME system at low temperature with many commonly used nonionic detergents. The developed micelle-based extraction system is suggested to replace the traditional solubilization step in membrane protein purification. A combined solubilization and primary purification of the target proteins can be obtained. Such smart solubilization in PIME systems was utilized to pre-fractionate membrane proteins prior to detection of a putative membrane bound receptor. The partitioning and phase separation mechanism in the PIME systems was examined in detail and explained in a thermodynamic context. An understanding how to optimize the system for membrane protein extraction was gained. Several approaches to further increase the separation between hydrophobic and hydrophilic proteins was studied such as addition of affinity ligands, salts and ionic detergents. A novel high-resolution method was developed, called affinity PIME systems. A selective membrane protein extraction system was obtained by affinity partitioning of the target membrane protein into the polymer-rich phase, while contaminating membrane proteins remained in the opposite micelle-rich phase. The concept was successfully demonstrated by metal affinity purification of the His-tagged integral membrane protein, cytochrome bo3 ubiquinol oxidase from Escherichia coli membranes. Affinity PIME systems should be of great importance for a fast purification of structural intact membrane proteins due the mild and selective properties of the system. PIME systems can be applied for purification of amphiphilic fusion proteins. An effective purification of the amphiphilic fusion protein endoglucanase I-hydrophobin I was obtained from a Trichoderma reesei fermentation filtrate. A method was developed for removal of detergent from the purified fusion protein

Mechanisms of phase behaviour and protein partitioning in detergent/polymer aqueous two-phase systems for purification of integral membrane proteins1

Detergent/polymer aqueous two-phase systems are studied as a fast, mild and efficient general separation method for isolation of labile integral membrane proteins. Mechanisms for phase behaviour and protein partitioning of both membrane-bound and hydrophilic proteins have been examined in a large number of detergent/polymer aqueous two-phase systems. Non-ionic detergents such as the Triton series (polyoxyethylene alkyl phenols), alkyl polyoxyethylene ethers (CmEOn), Tween series (polyoxyethylene sorbitol esters) and alkylglucosides form aqueous two-phase systems in mixtures with hydrophilic polymers, such as PEG or dextran, at low and moderate temperatures. Phase diagrams for these mixtures are shown and phase behaviour is discussed from a thermodynamic model. Membrane proteins, such as bacteriorhodopsin and cholesterol oxidase, were partitioned strongly to the micelle phase, while hydrophilic proteins, BSA and lysozyme, were partitioned to the polymer phase. The partitioning of membrane protein is mainly determined by non-specific hydrophobic interactions between detergent and membrane protein. An increased partitioning of membrane proteins to the micelle phase was found with an increased detergent concentration difference between the phases, lower polymer molecular weight and increased micelle size. Partitioning of hydrophilic proteins is mainly related to excluded volume effects, i.e. increased phase component size made the hydrophilic proteins partition more to the opposite phase. Addition of ionic detergent to the system changed the partitioning of membrane proteins slightly, but had a strong effect on hydrophilic proteins, and can be used for enhanced separation between hydrophilic proteins and membrane protein