Multimodal representations of gender in young children's popular culture

This article poses questions regarding learning and representation in relation to young children's popular culture. Focusing on gender, the article builds on multimodal, social semiotic analyses of two different media texts related to a specific brand and shows how gender and gender differences are represented multimodally in separate media contexts and in the interplay between different media. The results show that most of the semiotic resources employed in the different texts contribute in congruent ways to the representation of girls as either different from or inferior to boys. At the same time, however, excerpts from an encounter with a young girl who engages with characters from the brand in her role play are used as an example of how children actively make meaning and find strategies that subvert the repressive ideologies manifested in their everyday popular culture

Effect of canopy profile on solar thermal chimney performance

Solar thermal chimneys (STCs) are renewable energy power plants that require large-scale deployment to be economically competitive. This paper presents a steady-state analytical model developed to describe accurately the thermodynamics of the solar collector. The impact of different collector canopy designs on the performance is assessed. Results show that the height of the canopy has a significant effect on plant performance and that the canopy must be sufficiently high at the junction with the chimney to ensure maximum kinetic energy in the flow at the chimney inlet can be reached. A new collector profile with a partially sloped canopy is proposed. It was found to perform at similar levels of maximum power output to the best-performing existing canopy designs, and to be robust under varying environmental conditions. For ease of construction and reduction of associated costs this canopy can be built in stepped annular flat sections with only a minor loss in performance

Methodologies for tracking learning paths: designing the online research study Making a Filmmaker

The article concerns the design of a collaborative research project (2008-09) entitled Making a Filmmaker, which examines how young Scandinavian filmmakers create their own learning paths in formal and/or informal contexts. Our interest is in how learning experiences and contexts motivate the young filmmakers: what furthers their interest and/or hinders it, and what learning patterns emerge. The aim of this article is to present and discuss issues regarding the methodology and methods of the study, such as developing a relationship with interviewees when conducting interviews online (using MSN). We suggest two considerations about using online interviews: how the interviewees value the given subject of conversation and their familiarity with being online. The benefit of getting online communication with the young filmmakers is the ease it offers, because it is both practical and appropriates a meeting platform that is familiar to our participants.Artiklen handler om forskningsdesign af et kollaborativt projekt (2008-09), At skabe en filmskaber, som handler om hvordan unge, skandinaviske filmskabere skaber deres egne læringsveje i formelle, semi-formelle og/eller uformelle kontekster. Vores overordnede interesse i projektet er at se på hvordan de unges oplevelser og kontekster påvirker deres læringsprocesser. Målet med denne artikel er at præsentere og diskutere problemstillinger angående vores anvendte metodik og metoder, herunder at udvikle et forhold med informanter via skriftlige online-interviews (med MSN). Vi drøfter både den praktiske side ved det at interviewe over lange afstande og betydningen af at bruge en medieplatform som de unge filmskabere kender

Impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on pneumococcal disease, carriage and serotype distribution : comparative studies in Sweden and Uganda

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading infectious cause of child deaths worldwide. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) was first introduced in the US in the year 2000, and included the major seven pneumococcal serotypes (PCV7) causing invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) there. Current PCVs include 10 or 13 of the more than 97 known pneumococcal serotypes. In Stockholm County, Sweden, PCV7 was introduced for infants born from July 2007, at 3, 5, and 12 months of age and in 2010 it was changed to PCV13. Uganda started national PCV10 implementation in 2014. Aims: To study the effects of the introduction of PCV in the childhood vaccination program in Stockholm on incidence, serotypes and antibiotic resistance patterns of IPD, hospitalization due to severe sinusitis and pneumonia in children, and pneumococcal carriage. Also, to study pneumococcal carriage and serotype distribution in healthy children <5 years prior to PCV introduction in Uganda, and estimate the potential effectiveness of PCV. Methods: All cases of IPD in Stockholm registered in the national mandatory reporting system from 2005 to 2014 were included (n=2519). The pneumococcal isolates were characterized with serotyping (n=2336), including some with molecular typing and antibiotic resistance pattern. All hospitalizations from 2003 to 2012 in Stockholm, ICD-10 coded as sinusitis or pneumonia (N=678, 5051, respectively) in children, were collected from hospital registries. Nasopharyngeal pneumococcal isolates from children <5 years in Stockholm were collected at regular visits to Child Health Centers from 4 to 8 years after PCV introduction from 2011 to 2015 (N=916). Pneumococcal carriage was compared to carriage data in children attending day-care centers in 2004 (N=246), which was before vaccine introduction. OR for invasive disease potential of the pneumococcal isolates in carriage was calculated using data on IPD in all ages from 2011 to 2015. Nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococci in children <5 in Uganda was assessed through collecting isolates at the Health and Demographic Surveillance Site in Iganga/Maygue districts (N=1761). Results: We show that PCV introduction in Stockholm has been successful in decreasing the incidence of IPD, from 28.4 to 10.3 cases /100,000 children <2 years (RR 0.36, 95% CI 0.2-0.6) when comparing the time periods 2005-2007 to 2009-2014, Serotypes included in the PCV7 decreased from 22.7 to 0 cases/ 100,000 in this age group (RR 0.0, 95% CI 0.0-0.1). The IPD incidence also decreased in older children and adults, excluding the elderly. However, PCV7 serotypes have decreased in all age groups. There was a decrease in hospitalizations due to severe sinusitis (RR 0.34, 95% CI 0.2-0.5) and pneumonia (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.7-0.9) in children <2 years. A near elimination of most vaccine serotypes with a high invasiveness potential was seen in carriage. Emerging both in carriage among children and as cause of IPD (all ages) were instead non-vaccine types of lower invasive potential. Carriage data before PCV introduction in Uganda shows that vaccine serotypes were much less prevalent in children <5 years old (PCV10 for 42% and PCV13 for 54%) than what was observed in children <5 years old in Sweden before the PCV implementation (PCV10 63%, PCV13 82%), which may reduce potential vaccine effectiveness in Uganda. Conclusions: PCV introduction in Stockholm has had a positive overall impact on pneumococcal morbidity in young children, and serotypes included in the vaccine are decreasing in IPD and carriage. PCVs have the potential to save many children’s lives in the coming years, both in Sweden and Uganda. The extent of the impact is still not known, as PCV effectiveness depends on factors such as pneumococcal serotype distribution in carriage before and after PCV implementation, the extent of serotype replacement in carriage as well as in IPD in different age groups following PCV, vaccination coverage, and the serotype content of future pneumococcal vaccines, which may cover more or all pathogenic serotypes

The natural course of spontaneous osteonecrosis of the knee (SPONK): a 1- to 27-year follow-up of 40 patients.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.Spontaneous osteonecrosis of the knee (SPONK) is a painful lesion in the elderly, frequently leading to osteoarthritis and subsequent knee surgery. We evaluated the natural course and long-term consequences of SPONK in terms of need for major knee surgery.Between 1982 and 1988, 40 consecutive patients were diagnosed with SPONK. The short-term outcome has been reported previously (1991). After 1-7 years, 10 patients had a good radiographic outcome and 30 were considered failures, developing osteoarthritis. In 2012, all 40 of the patients were matched with the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register (SKAR) and their medical records were reviewed to evaluate the long-term need for major knee surgery.At the 2012 review, 33 of the 40 patients had died. The mean follow-up time from diagnosis to surgery, death, or end of study was 9 (1-27) years. 17 of 40 patients had had major knee surgery with either arthroplasty (15) or osteotomy (2). All operated patients but 1 were in the radiographic failure group and had developed osteoarthritis in the study from 1991. 6 of 7 patients with large lesions (> 40% of the AP radiographic view of the condyle) at the time of the diagnosis were operated. None of the 10 patients with a lesion of less than 20% were ever operated.It appears that the size of the osteonecrotic lesion can be used to predict the outcome. Patients showing early signs of osteoarthritis or with a large osteonecrosis have a high risk of later major knee surgery

Methodologies for tracking learning paths: designing the online research study Making a Filmmaker

The article concerns the design of a collaborative research project (2008-09) entitled Making a Filmmaker, which examines how young Scandinavian filmmakers create their own learning paths in formal and/or informal contexts. Our interest is in how learning experiences and contexts motivate the young filmmakers: what furthers their interest and/or hinders it, and what learning patterns emerge. The aim of this article is to present and discuss issues regarding the methodology and methods of the study, such as developing a relationship with interviewees when conducting interviews online (using MSN). We suggest two considerations about using online interviews: how the interviewees value the given subject of conversation and their familiarity with being online. The benefit of getting online communication with the young filmmakers is the ease it offers, because it is both practical and appropriates a meeting platform that is familiar to our participants.Artiklen handler om forskningsdesign af et kollaborativt projekt (2008-09), At skabe en filmskaber, som handler om hvordan unge, skandinaviske filmskabere skaber deres egne læringsveje i formelle, semi-formelle og/eller uformelle kontekster. Vores overordnede interesse i projektet er at se på hvordan de unges oplevelser og kontekster påvirker deres læringsprocesser. Målet med denne artikel er at præsentere og diskutere problemstillinger angående vores anvendte metodik og metoder, herunder at udvikle et forhold med informanter via skriftlige online-interviews (med MSN). Vi drøfter både den praktiske side ved det at interviewe over lange afstande og betydningen af at bruge en medieplatform som de unge filmskabere kender

Leadership in ridingschool

REFERAT Ledarskap är viktigt ur trivselsynpunkt för personal, därför är det viktigt att ta reda på vilken ledarskapsstil som används. Personalen har en stor betydelse för hur en ridskola fungerar och påverkar ridskolan ekonomiskt, genom att ha kontakt med elever och på så sätt generera kunder. Problemet är att man inte vet vilken typ av ledarskap som utövas på Sveriges ridskolor. Syftet var att ta reda på i vilken utsträckning som svenska ridskolechefer använder sig av de olika ledarstilarna demokratiskt-, auktoritärt- och laissez-faire ledarskap. Frågeställningen är då, till hur stor del som ridskolechefer använder sig av de olika ledarstilarna demokratiskt, auktoritärt eller laissez-faire (även kallad låt – gå – metoden) ledarskap på ridskolor i Sverige? Femtio ridskolor valdes slumpvis ut från Svenska ridsportförbundets lista över ridklubbar i landet. Enkäten som sändes till ridskolorna utformades på så sätt att fem påståenden formulerades till varje ledarstil, det vill säga totalt femton påståenden. Dessa påståenden lades in i en enkät med en kryssruta efter varje påstående. Ridskolecheferna ombads att fylla i enkäten genom att sätta ett kryss vid de påståenden som stämde överens med deras ledarstil. Därefter skickades enkäten som en bifogad fil via mail till ridskolorna, där ridskolechefen ombads besvara enkäten och återsända denna via mail. Enkätsvaren sammanställdes i en tabell och i figurer. Den genomsnittliga fördelningen av de olika ledarstilarna sammanställdes och visade att den auktoritära ledarstilen används till 23 %, den demokratiska till 53 % och laissez-faire till 24 %. Dessutom kunde två grupper ses, som inkluderade ungefär hälften av ridskolecheferna. Dessa två grupper hade samma användningsfrekvens av de olika ledarstilarna. Bland de resterande ridskolecheferna varierade användandet av de olika ledarskapsstilarna mer, vilket gjorde att det inte gick att se något mönster. Slutsatsen är att det demokratiska ledarskapet är det som är använt till störst del, men att en kombination av de olika stilarna är vanligast

Experimental investigation of adaptive impedance matching for a MIMO terminal with CMOS SOI tuners

It is well known that user proximity introduces absorption and impedance mismatch losses that severely degrade multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) performance of handset antennas. In this work, we experimentally verified the potential of adaptive impedance matching (AIM) to mitigate user interaction effects and identified the main AIM gain mechanism in realistic systems. A practical setup including custom-designed CMOS silicon-on-insulator (SOI) impedance tuners implemented on a MIMO handset was measured in three propagation environments and 10 real user scenarios. The results indicate that AIM can improve MIMO capacity by up to 42% equivalent to 3.5 dB of multiplexing efficiency (ME) gain. Taking into account the measured losses of 1 dB in the integrated tuners, the maximum net ME gain is 2.5 dB suggesting applicability in practical systems. Variations in ME gains of up to 1.5 dB for different hand-grip styles were mainly due to differences in impedance mismatch and tuner loss distribution. The study also confirmed earlier results on the significant differences in mismatch and absorption between phantoms and real users, in which the phantoms underestimated user effects and therefore AIM gains. Finally, propagation environments of different angular spreads were found to give only minor ME gain variations