Landscape architecture and health

Swedes are living increasingly longer lives, but the number of years lived in good health is decreasing. The present doctoral dissertation is focused on the threat to Swedish public health that is constituted by aches and pain and various types of mental illnesses, of which fatigue reactions, often called ”burnout syndromes,” are increasing most rapidly. Besides the personal suffering involved, the costs of increased ill health constitute a threat to the welfare of Swedish society. According to the Swedish government, good health has become a resource – perhaps even the country’s most important resource for sustainable development. Today, several scientific disciplines consider health to be a positive and holistic state encompassing the individual’s entire life situation: biological, cultural, social and not least environmental aspects. With the Swedish Parliament’s adoption of the public health bill Public Health Objectives, public health work in Sweden is to be based on the idea of finding different societal factors that promote good health on equal terms for the entire population. The present doctoral dissertation focuses on a health factor represented by different types of natural environments. The dissertation is based on two studies of two different types of health-promoting natural environments: Healing gardens – Improvement of ill health Urban green spaces – Maintenance and fortification of good health Healing gardens are gardens that are purposely designed to promote health among a certain group of patients. The dissertation focuses on the type of healing garden that is specially intended for patients suffering from fatigue reactions or burnout syndromes. Interest in healing gardens is spreading rapidly throughout the world. However, both in Sweden and in other countries, ”healing gardens” are being laid out that do not actually possess health-promoting qualities. In order for health to actually be improved, purposeful design based on the patient group’s special needs is required. There is a great need for scientific knowledge concerning how these gardens should be designed. For a long time past in our history, the importance of city greenery for city dwellers’ health and wellbeing has been pointed out. In the present dissertation, urban green spaces – i.e. greenery in the city such as parks, green areas, schoolyards and gardens belonging to a house – are viewed as healthpromoting elements of city planning. Interest in how urban green spaces can maintain and fortify human health is spreading among scientists, architects, politicians and the public. Despite this interest, the problem remains of how urban green spaces should be planned and designed so as to attract the urban population. The dissertation has an applied perspective and is aimed at both scientists and practitioners. It presents findings from two different studies, one on how healing gardens may be designed for people with burnout syndromes and the other on how urban green spaces may be planned from a health-promoting perspective. The overall purpose is, thus, that the dissertation should contribute to the evidence-based design and planning of health-promoting outdoor environments

Does providing childcare to unemployed affect unemployment duration?

This paper examines if the probability of leaving unemployment changes for unemployed parents with young children when childcare is available. To investigate this, I use the heterogeneity among Swedish municipalities before the implementation of a 2001 Swedish childcare reform making it mandatory for municipalities to offer child¬care to unemployed parents for at least 15 hours per week. In the study difference-in-differences and difference-in-difference-in-differences methods are used. The results indicate a positive effect on the probability of leaving unemployment for mothers when childcare is available, but no effect is found for fathers. For mothers, some heterogeneous effects are also found, with a greater effect on the probability of leaving unemployment for work when childcare is available for mothers with only compulsory schooling or university education and mothers with two children.Unemployment duration; childcare

Glancing at the Content of Substantive Rules Under the Jurisdiction-Selecting Approach

Antalet individer med funktionsnedsättning ökar, dels beroende på att numera kan sjukdomar botas som tidigare inte kunde botas och dels beroende på att allt fler för tidigt födda barn kan räddas. Den orala hälsan är ofta negativt påverkad hos personer med funktionsnedsättning och det föreligger risk att dessa personer, trots ett större tandvårdsbehov än andra, erhåller mindre tandvård. Anledningen till detta är inte helt känd. Syftet med våra studier var därför att fördjupa kunskapen om hur personer med funktionsnedsättning och deras anhöriga prioriterar och tänker om oral hälsa. Syftet med studierna var också att fördjupa kunskapen om hur hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal samt tandvårdspersonal tänker om behov avseende bemötande och oral hälsa hos personer med funktionsnedsättning. Den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden grounded theory har valts då den är speciellt lämplig på områden där teorier är sparsamt förekommande eller saknas. Öppna kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med 65 informanter. Studierna visade att föräldrar till barn med funktionsnedsättning samt vuxna personer med kognitiva och/eller fysiska funktionsnedsättningar inte prioriterade den orala hälsan på grund av att andra mer akuta problem upplevdes som viktigare. Många personer med funktionsnedsättning vårdas kortare eller längre tid på vårdinrättningar, men kunskapen om oral hälsa var låg och inte prioriterad av personal inom hälso- och sjukvården. Personer med funktionsnedsättning återfinns inom såväl allmäntandvård som specialisttandvård och kunskapen om dessa patienters vårdbehov och bemötande av dem varierade mycket mellan olika kliniker, allmän- och specialisttandvård och mellan olika tandvårdspersonal. Sammantaget utgör dessa resultat en möjlig förklaring till varför personer med funktionsnedsättning löper ökad risk för oral ohälsa. Detta innebär också att en prioriterad, god oral hälsa och ett adekvat bemötande av personer med funktionsnedsättningar snarare kan handla om tur än om en jämlik rättighet

Dedication

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to examine and compare the predictive validity of 4 risk assessment scales used for the prediction of pressure ulcer (PrU) development and to identify risk factors. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study. SETTING: A general hospital in Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: Patients (all aged ≥18 years) admitted to medical, surgical, orthopedic, oncology, and rehabilitation wards. Of 412 patients available, a total of 346 patients participated in the study. METHOD: Data were collected using the Swedish version of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel minimum data set as well as the Norton, Modified Norton, Braden, and Risk Assessment Pressure Sore (Ulcer) (RAPS) scales. The predictive validity was estimated by measuring sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine risk factors associated with PrUs. RESULTS: The RAPS scale reached best balance between sensitivity and specificity at the recommended cutoff level of ≤29, followed by the Braden scale and the Norton scale at recommended cutoff levels ≤18 versus ≤16, respectively. The modified Norton scale also reached an acceptable balance between sensitivity and specificity but at the cutoff level of ≤23, which is a higher cutoff level than recommended. General physical condition, physical activity, moisture, friction, and shear emerged as significant risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: The results support that the recommended cutoff levels of the RAPS, Norton, and Braden scales are valid in a general hospital setting. However, the recommended cutoff level of the modified Norton scale (≤20) has to be increased when used in this care context

The Remote Site Doctrine in Alaska

In recent years, software development has been evolving around an Agile way of working to optimize software development processes. Simultaneously in other industries, the Leanconcept have been adopted and used to make manufacturing and production of services more efficient. Software development companies has now started to realize that in order to become competitive in software delivery they need to optimize the entire end-to-end process and not only improve the development phase. Thus, an increased interest for Lean thinking has appeared in the industry. Applying Lean successfully in a software development context is not an easy task. This since Lean is developed for and by the manufacturing industry its content is also dependent on the characteristics of this context. Thus, it is not applicable to other contexts without being adjusted. Though, literature argues that when the content of Lean is properly adjusted to nature of the relevant context it can contribute with the same benefits as in manufacturing. However, the literature lack in studies on how Lean can be successfully applied in nonmanufacturing contexts. This study aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by adjusting and applying Lean tools in software development context in order to make the end-to-end processmore time- and resource-efficient. This will be made through a case study at a software development department at a Swedish Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Company. This department develops software components that work as building blocks of the product sold to the end customer. More specifically, these components contribute with functionality that enables communications between the nodes in a network. The review of the existing body of knowledge together with an analysis of the company specific problems indicates that the most sufficient tool to apply in this case study Lean implementation is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). Hence, the study focuses on adjusting the Value Stream Mapping framework to this new context in order to visualize the entire value flow and make improvements aligned with Lean. The adjustments of VSM are underpinned by relevant findings from previous research together with an analysis of the differences between manufacturing Lean and software development Lean. The study shows that it is possible to reasonably adapt and benefit from Value Stream Mapping also in the context of an ICT Company. The outcome of the study is an overview of the current value flow at the company and suggestions on how, where and what improvements can be made. Though, all improvement suggestions evolve around the aim of improving the flow efficiency and eliminating waste by improving the communication, standardization, synchronization, resource allocation and developing proper measurements. The conclusion is that Lean is applicable in the particular software development context with some necessary adjustments made to fit the current way of working and value offering. The usage of Lean tools such as Value Stream Mapping is possible, also here adjustments are a must and the VSM shows that the current state is better in providing a base for improvements than the future state map. This since improvements in this context is not always visualized and captured in the future state map, but the future map contribute to a vision for the valuestream to aim towards. Key words: Lean, Agile, Value Stream Map, Software development, Flow, Waste, Managemen

Swedish research in organic farming and food systems

In Sweden research is mainly conducted by researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The SLU departments of Soil Science, Ecology and Crop Production Science (now Crop Production Ecology), Entomology, Animal Nutrition and Management, Animal Breeding and Genetics, Animal Environment and Health, Agricultural Biosystems and Technology, Crop Science and Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden are conducting research. This research is mainly financed by the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) through the national programme for organic agricultural research. Furthermore SLU research is funded under the programme for applied research for experimentation and development in organic farming, which is financed by the Swedish Board of Agriculture (SJV). Within the “Ekoforsk” Programme based at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) university scientists are commonly cooperating with advisors connected to private and public extension service institutions and organisations. Finally, the Swedish Farmers´Foundation for Agricultural Research (SLF), which is a levy board, funds a substantial part of research in organic farming, especially applied research in organic primary production systems

Dynamic effects of mandatory activation of welfare participants

Previous literature shows that activation requirements for welfare participants decrease welfare participation. However, the dynamics have not been examined, and often only exit effects are analyzed. In this paper, we look more closely at the transition rates into and out of welfare. Using register data on the entire population of Stockholm, we are able to capture how both entry and exit rates were affected when activation require-ments were introduced at different times in Stockholm’s city districts. The results indi-cate that the main reduction in welfare participation is due to a small increase in exit rates. The part of the population that is at risk of entering into welfare, though, expe-riences a reduction in entry rates due to the reform. There are also heterogeneous ef¬fects, namely, large effects on entry rates for young individuals. In addition, there are larger effects on exit rates for unmarried individuals without children compared to the population as a whole.Welfare reform; mandatory activation program; welfare entry; welfare exit

A damage-plasticity model for the dynamic failure of concrete

A constitutive model based on the combination of damage mechanics and plasticity is developed to analyse concrete structures subjected to dynamic loading. The aim is to obtain a model, which requires input parameters with clear physical meanings. The model should describe the important characteristics of concrete subjected to multiaxial and rate-depending loading. This is achieved by combining an effective stress based plasticity model with an isotropic damage model based on plastic and elastic strain measures. The model response in tension, uni-, bi- and tri-axial compression is compared to experimental results in the literature.Comment: Preprint. Submitted to Eurodyn 2011, 8th International Conference on Structural Dynamics, Leuven, Belgium, 201