Friends, corporate parents and pentecostal churches: Unaccompanied asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo in London

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The thesis provides an ethnographic study of the experiences of lone asylum seekers who are provided local authority care in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The research builds on sixteen months’ ethnographic fieldwork between April 2006 and September 2007, examining how the young people adapted to their changing and adverse circumstances and how welfare institutions in the United Kingdom responded to their situations. The young refugees in this research created personal relations of patronage in bureaucratic organisations, quickly formed networks and obtained goods by non-formal routes. They created space for play and spiritual growth, and maintained a position of obliviousness towards much of the events and logistics involved in leaving the DRC and seeking asylum in Europe. It was through these activities that personal agency of the young people emerged. However, the young people were not occupying positions of power. Their ‘agency’ was restricted and confined within social and political structures imposed on them. I argue that the separation of welfare services to religious life was for research subjects an arbitrary distinction. They had come from a Christian fundamentalist (Pentecostal) interpretation of the world in Kinshasa. God and evil were seen as omnipresent and omnipotent, and a true Christian (mukristu ya solo, a Christian of the soul), must be vigilant and pray all the time to be at one with the divine power. The young Congolese viewed their lives within such a theological ‘model’ and fitted all other seemingly ‘competing’ discourses and practices within it. As the young people negotiated their new lives in a new country, they adopted their coping strategies in ways that helped them benefit from the English welfare system and the Pentecostal faith respectively

Flerbostadshus i trä

In 1874 the first Swedish construction norm was written. This stated that no houses were to be built with timbered frames over two floors. It took almost a century before the norm was changed again in 1994 and allowed Swedes to build high buildings with wooden frames again. Although the constructions with timber did not increase, the Swedish government started in 2002 a national timber plan "Mer trä i byggandet" to educate and restore knowledge that had been lost with former generations. 15 years has past since the change of the construction norm. Numerous of buildings with wooden frames have been built throughout the country. One of these is the Limnologen quarter in Växjö. Limnologen is the highest building in Sweden with a wooden frame, eight stories high! The purpose of this thesis is to discuss those vitally factors of building economy for wooden framework in buildings over two stories and compare these to concrete. Also other factors as knowledge and marketing are taken in aspect. This paper is based on a case study of Limnologen in Växjö, litterateur studies, interviews and a study visit on sight. The results of this study, money can be saved in areas with poor soil conditions when laying the foundation of a building. Also the aspect of marketing and climate is positive when choosing wood

A Possible Mechanism behind Autoimmune Disorders Discovered By Genome-Wide Linkage and Association Analysis in Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is a common autoimmune disorder characterized by an intestinal inflammation triggered by gluten, a storage protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Similar to other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease is the result of an immune response to self-antigens leading to tissue destruction and production of autoantibodies. Common diseases like celiac disease have a complex pattern of inheritance with inputs from both environmental as well as additive and non-additive genetic factors. In the past few years, Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have been successful in finding genetic risk variants behind many common diseases and traits. To complement and add to the previous findings, we performed a GWAS including 206 trios from 97 nuclear Swedish and Norwegian families affected with celiac disease. By stratifying for HLA-DQ, we identified a new genome-wide significant risk locus covering the DUSP10 gene. To further investigate the associations from the GWAS we performed pathway analyses and two-locus interaction analyses. These analyses showed an over-representation of genes involved in type 2 diabetes and identified a set of candidate mechanisms and genes of which some were selected for mRNA expression analysis using small intestinal biopsies from 98 patients. Several genes were expressed differently in the small intestinal mucosa from patients with celiac autoimmunity compared to intestinal mucosa from control patients. From top-scoring regions we identified susceptibility genes in several categories: 1) polarity and epithelial cell functionality; 2) intestinal smooth muscle; 3) growth and energy homeostasis, including proline and glutamine metabolism; and finally 4) innate and adaptive immune system. These genes and pathways, including specific functions of DUSP10, together reveal a new potential biological mechanism that could influence the genesis of celiac disease, and possibly also other chronic disorders with an inflammatory component

Quality of interaction between primary health-care providers and patients with type 2 diabetes in Muscat, Oman: an observational study

BACKGROUND: A good patient-physician interaction is particularly important in chronic diseases like diabetes. There are so far no published data regarding the interaction between the primary health-care providers and patients with type 2 diabetes in Oman, where diabetes is a major and growing health problem. This study aimed at exploring how health-care providers interact with patients with type 2 diabetes at primary health-care level in Muscat, Oman, focusing on the consultation environment, and some aspects of care and information. METHODS: Direct observations of 90 consultations between 23 doctors and 13 diabetes nurses concerned with diabetes management during their consultations with type 2 diabetes patients in six primary health-care centres in the Muscat region, using checklists developed from the National Diabetes Guidelines. Consultations were assessed as optimal if more than 75% of observed aspects were fulfilled and sub-optimal if less than 50% were fulfilled. RESULTS: Overall 52% of the doctors' consultations were not optimal. Some important aspects for a positive consultation environment were fulfilled in only about half of the doctors' consultations: ensuring privacy of consultation (49%), eye contact (49%), good attention (52%), encouraging asking questions (47%), and emphasizing on the patients' understanding of the provided information (52%). The doctors enquired about adverse effects of anti-diabetes drugs in less than 10% of consultations. The quality of the nurses' consultations was sub-optimal in about 75% of 85 consultations regarding aspects of consultation environment, care and information. CONCLUSION: The performance of the primary health-care doctors and diabetes nurses needs to be improved. The role of the diabetes nurses and the teamwork should be enhanced. We suggest a multidisciplinary team approach, training and education to the providers to upgrade their skills regarding communication and care. Barriers to compliance with the guidelines need to be further explored. Improving the work situation mainly for the diabetes nurses and further improvement in the organizational efficiency of diabetes services such as lowering the number of patients in diabetes clinic, are suggested

P-märkt innemiljö och energianvändningHandbok inför certifiering av energianvändning

SP Swedish Testing and Research Institute's P-marking quality assurance scheme forbuildings, products, services etc., now includes P-marking of indoor environment andenergy use performance in buildings. The rules for the system, which cover newbuildings, renovation and existing buildings, are set out in SP’s certification rules no.SPCR 114E, specifying requirements in respect of both energy use and indoorenvironment management.Over the last ten years, SP has carried out considerable work in the field of the indoorenvironment, resulting in the development of a quality assurance system concentrating onachieving a high quality indoor environment. This quality assurance system has beensuccessfully applied to schools, offices and dwellings. However, the performance of abuilding is determined not only by a good indoor environment, but also by low impact onthe external environment as a result of energy use in the building. In some cases,concentrating on either good indoor environment or energy efficiency may result in anadverse effect on the other aspect, and so the quality assurance system for indoorenvironments been extended with a section dealing with energy use.This document is a handbook for inspection of documentation concerning qualityassurance of energy use (primary energy analysis, determination of energy targets, energymanagement systems etc.). It can also be helpful when drawing up checklists for theorganisation that is applying for P-marking.The book concentrates on requirements for approved certification of energy use inconnection with P-marking of indoor environments and energy use in existing buildings:it does not cover requirements for certification of indoor environments. It starts bydescribing targeting, aims and requirements for P-marking of energy use, followed bypresentation of some examples of inspections of collected documentation