A greater consumption of pharmaceutical drugs entails an increased concentration of active benzodiazepines in aquatic ecosystems. Consequently, aquatic organisms are experiencing altered behavior that may affect dominance hierarchies since social status (among other variables) is associated with behavioral traits. The aim of this study was to determine whether dominance hierarchies of brown trout (Salmo trutta) were affected by exposure to a benzodiazepine (oxazepam). Hypothetically, aggression (in dominants) and anxiety (in subordinates) will reduce following exposure. The fish should consequently display a significant disparity between treatment groups regarding the frequency of dominance change (i.e., who is dominant versus subordinate). This research included behavioral coding of 150 juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta) divided into 50 size-matched social groups of 3 individuals. Each group was exposed to one of three oxazepam concentrations (30 µg/L, 1.5 µg/L and 0 µg/L). The results indicate no relationship between an altered aggression and oxazepam exposure. In addition, the level of aggression reduced over time (regardless of social status and concentration) and the initial subordinates remained significantly less aggressive than the initial dominants. The frequency of dominance change did not differ significantly between different treatment groups. Body size did not affect social status. The results in low treatment groups may be due to a low bioconcentration since previous research exhibited similar results. However, the lack of results in high treatment groups could be due to something else. In conclusion, the dominance hierarchy was not disrupted by oxazepam exposure because aggression was unaffected.

Background: Stress is a person's biological response to pressure; it may be positive or negative depending on the amount of stress. Too much stress may result in physical or psychological sickness. Nurses in Sweden have laws and constitutions to follow as well as a description of competence. Despite this approximately 1200 patients die due to healthcare related injuries each year, and an additional 100 000 patients experience an adverse event when receiving hospitalized care. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurses´ experiences of stress at work. Method: The method literature review was chosen, and eleven scientific articles were analyzed. Result: The analysis resulted in two themes: Challenging relationships and lack of knowledge and Shortcomings and strains in the workplace. Conclusions: This study contributed to increased understanding of nurses' experience of stress and its effect on patient safety. Stress also effects quality of care and is related to the work environment, co-workers as well as managers. To secure nurses' ability to care for patients the head of a department and hospital management must provide them with proper support and resources. They must also work for an environment that allows the nurses to share knowledge and help each other continue their professional development. / En människa upplever negativ stress när den hamnar i en situation som den inte klarar av att hantera. Negativ stress kan orsaka huvudvärk, extrem utmattning och magproblem. Detta skiljer sig från positiv stress som istället kan ge energi och motivation. Tidigare studier har funnit att stress kan leda till försämrad livskvalité och vårdkvalité. Studiens resultat bygger på studier där såväl kvalitativ som kvantitativ metod använts, så kallad litteraturöversikt. Syftet var att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av stress i arbetet. Elva vetenskapliga artiklar har analyserats, tolkats och sammanställts till ett nytt resultat. I resultatet framkommer att sjuksköterskor upplever att dåliga relationer till chefer, kollegor, patienter och närstående kan orsaka stress. Sjuksköterskor som anser sig ha brist på erfarenhet eller kunskap kan uppleva stress, även kollegor som anses ha brist på erfarenhet och kunskap orsakar stress. Den dåliga relationen till chefer grundar sig ofta på bristande stöd och gehör från chefen. I resultatet framkommer att miljörisker i arbetet såsom infektionsrisker, arbetsskador och dödsfall av patienter orsakar stress. Hierarki upplevs som en stor orsak till stress enligt sjuksköterskor. Hierarkin kan visa sig som att läkaren på arbetsplatsen anses ha mer makt än sjuksköterskan, vilket kan leda till att sjuksköterskan upplever ett tvång till att äventyra patientsäkerheten för att undvika konflikter med läkare och kollegor. Det framkommer även att sjuksköterskor inte vågar belysa problem då de är rädda för att bli mobbade eller utfrysta av kollegor. Resultatet är betydelsefullt att uppmärksamma, för att minska de negativa konsekvenser som drabbar sjuksköterskor och förbättra patientsäkerheten. Resultatet ökar medvetenheten kring problemet, vilket kan skapa mer engagemang till att förbättra villkoren för sjuksköterskor.

Orientador: Mateus José Rodrigues Paranhos da Costa / Resumo: Agressão pós-mistura de lotes e na disputa por recursos entre marrãs e matrizes alojadas em grupos são importantes problemas associados a este sistema. Apesar da ordem de alimentação ser amplamente utilizada como parâmetro para caracterizar a hierarquia social nestes animais, esta medida ainda carece maior fundamentação científica. O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de entender as conexões sociais e a organização social de matrizes e marrãs criadas em sistema de gestação coletiva, de maneira a validar a ordem de alimentação como medida para determinação da hierarquia social. Um total de 113 matrizes e marrãs foram estudadas por quatro ciclos observacionais em um sistema de gestação coletiva equipado com alimentador automatizado. A cada 30 dias um grupo de 12 animais era substituído por novas marrãs. Um ranking de ordem de alimentação (FO) foi construído para cada ciclo observacional de acordo com o horário em que cada indivíduo se alimentou. Então, as primeiras quatro marrãs do ranking (FG1), quatro intermediárias (FG 2) e as quatro últimas (FG 3), foram selecionadas para testes diádicos, totalizando 12 marrãs selecionadas por ciclo. Nos últimos três dias de cada ciclo, comportamentos agonísticos e outros comportamentos foram observados. A frequência média de cada comportamento à entrada do comedouro foi calculada, separando-se em "Entrou" e "Não Entrou" e dividindo-se os comportamentos em três categorias: "Contato Unilateral", "Sem Contato" e "Contato Bilateral". Foi utilizado ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Post-mixing aggression and aggression over resources between group housed sows and gilts are major issues associated with such systems. Although feeding order is a widely used parameter to characterize social hierarchy of these animals, it still lacks scientific background. Thus, the objective of this research was to understand the social connections and the dynamics involving the social organization of sows and gilts in a group housing gestation system in order to validate feeding order as a reliable and sufficient parameter for determining social hierarchy. A total of 113 sows and gilts (Yorkshire x Landrace) were studied over four observational cycles under a dynamic group housing gestation system equipped with an electronic sow feeder. Every 30 days a group of approximately 12 sows or gilts was replaced. Feeding time of each sow/gilt was collected and a feeding order ranking was built for each cycle. Then, the first four of them in the ranking (feeding group 1), four from the middle (feeding group 2), and the last four (feeding group 3), were selected for dyadic tests, totalizing 12 selected gilts per cycle. Agonistic and other behaviors at the feeder entrance in the last three days of each cycle were analyzed. The average frequency of each behavior at the entrance of the feeder was calculated, separating into successful and unsuccessful entrances and dividing behaviors into three categories: “Unilateral Contact”, “No Contact” and “Bilateral Interaction”. PROC GLIMMIX in ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

A charismatically created organization works to tear down the routine and the norm of everyday society, replacing them with new institutions. Max Weber has stated that a charismatic organization can only exist in the creation stage, after which it will either collapse under the weight of the changes it has made, or begin a move towards the routine, making it as well-established and routinized as the society it sought to replace. The changes to the seniority of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints demonstrate the movement of the church from charismatic to routinized leadership. They also show how the charismatic attributes of the first leader of the church were institutionalized in the office of President of the Church. The first change occurred in 1861, reversing the seniority of John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff. The second change occurred in 1875, making Taylor and Woodruff senior to two original members of the Quorum of the Twelve, Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt. The final change occurred in 1900, making Joseph F. Smith senior to Brigham Young, Jr. The few scholars who have addressed these changes tend to focus on either the official explanations or personal relationships and motives of those involved. This thesis moves beyond these to explore the broader institutional motives. It also discusses the effects of changing the rules determining who would succeed to the presidency of the church. The 1861 and 1900 changes have not been examined in any substantial way before. All three changes affected who became president of the church, thus changing the direction of the church. More than satisfying personal vendettas or righting obvious problems in the rules of seniority, the three changes highlight difficult choices church leaders made that moved The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a charismatically led organization to a highly routinized bureaucracy.

Agonistic behavior and dominance are described for captive Townsend's chipmunks (Eutamias townsendii). A total of 10,739 encounters was recorded; 644l (59.9%) were agonistic. Chases (58.5%) and displacements (30.8%) were the predominant agonistic behaviors; threats (6.8%) and fights (4.l%) were relatively rare. Stable, non-triangular hierarchies were rapidly established in 11 of the 12 groups of chipmunks observed; the presence of individuals of equal rank in some groups precluded strict linearity. Dominance positions did not change within a group, but reversals in rank and changes from equal to dominant-subordinate reltionships occurred when the mebership of groups was changed. One hierarchy existed for both sexes; neither sex was consistently dominant. Experience and individual differences in activity and aggresiveness were more important determinants of an animal's position than were sex or size. No correlation was found between rank and encounter frequency, nor was closeness of rank strongly correlated with high numbers of agonistic encounters between any two chipmunks. The frequencies of recognitory and sexual behavior were inversely related to the frequency of agonistic behavior between the pairs of animals. Ritualized throats and appeasement behaviors did not replace overt aggression in established hierarchies. Members of hierarchies showed neither a reduction in numbers of asonistic encounters, nor temporal changes in froquency of the different types of agonistic behavior. Agonistic encounters increased in frequency from August to December, but seasonal variations wore much smaller than variations among the groups. Although dominance reduced neither the frequency of agonistic behavior nor the time and energy spent in chasing, it nay be advantageous in curtailing harmful confrontations and enhancing the establishment of tolerance among some individuals.

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Inom hälso- och sjukvården råder en välkänd hierarki. Ju högre utbildningsnivå, desto högre upp befinner sig individen i hierarkin. På så vis bildar yrkeskategorierna grupper med över- och underordnade. Maktdelningen inom hälso- och sjukvården har även visat sig påverka relationer och kommunikationen mellan de medicinvetenskapliga yrkesgrupperna. Det har dock bedrivits lite forskning om den medicinska sekreterarens upplevelse av hierarkin. Syftet med studien är således att undersöka hur den medicinska sekreteraren generellt upplever hierarkin. Fokus kommer även riktas på hierarkins påverkan på relationer, samt kommunikationen med andra yrkeskategorier. Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av en webbenkät innehållande 11 frågor. Webbenkäten lades ut i den privata Facebookgruppen ”Medicinska sekreterare” och besvarades av 215 personer totalt. Enkätfrågorna är baserade på den tidigare forskning och de teorier som ligger till grund för uppsatsen. Vidare består enkäten till majoritet av slutna flervalsfrågor, enkätundersökningen avslutas dock med en öppen fråga. Resultatet påvisar hur majoriteten av respondenterna upplever en tydlig hierarki på arbetsplatsen, varav läkaren står högst i rang och därmed besitter störst auktoritet. Sammantaget påvisar resultatet hur hierarkin upplevs påverka relationer till andra yrkeskategorier negativt, framför allt relationen till läkare. Den relationen respondenterna anser sig ha bäst relation till är den egna yrkeskategorin. Vidare upplevs det sammantaget hur kommunikationen mellan yrkeskategorier upplevs relativt god.

Factors associated with rank position are poorly understood whereas even fewer studies assessed if benefits were associated with increased rank position when resources were unlimited. I assessed whether age, body mass, size, and testosterone levels were important in rank establishment among 132 captive female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). I also assessed if the benefit metrics of improved body condition, decreased stress level, and earlier parturition date were related to rank position. Deer in each of 9 study pens had a linear hierarchy with a mean h Πof 0.39 (SD = 0.09). Rank position was moderately related to age (P < 0.1) and was strongly related to body mass and size (P < 0.01). There was no relationship between benefit metrics and rank position (P < 0.1). Although increased body mass, size, and age improved rank position there were no benefits associated with increased rank when resources were unlimited.

The proposed aim of this thesis, inspired by the human brain, is to improve on the performance of a perceptual processing algorithm, referred to as a “perceptor”. This is done by trying to bridge the gap between neuroscience and engineering. To this end, we build on localized perception-action cycle in cognitive neuroscience by categorizing it under the umbrella of perceptual attention, which lends itself to increase gradually the contrast between relevant information and irrelevant information. Stated in another way, irrelevant information is filtered away while relevant information about the environment is enhanced from one cycle to the next. Accordingly, we propose to improve on the performance of a perceptor by modifying it to operate under the influence of perceptual attention. For this purpose, we first start with a single-layered perceptor and investigate the impact of perceptual attention on its performance through two computer experiments: The first experiment uses simulated (real-valued) data that are generated to purposely make the problem challenging. The second experiment uses real-life radar data that are complex-valued, hence the proposal to introduce Wirtinger calculus into derivation of our proposed method. We then take one step further and extend our proposed method to the case where a perceptor is hierarchical. In this context, every constitutive component of a hierarchical perceptor is modified to operate under the influence of perceptual attention. Then, another experiment is carried out to demonstrate the positive impact of perceptual attention on the performance of that hierarchical perceptor, just described. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

When investigating the perceived similarity of two musical stimuli, systematic asymmetries emerge which depend on the nature of the two elements being compared, relative to the musical context in which they appear. At the level of individual tones, Krumhansl (1979) found that if the order of presentation was diatonic/nondiatonic (relative to a tonal context), similarity ratings were lower than if that order was reversed. She concluded that when a change results in an element becoming less stable in terms of it's position on the tonal hierarchy, similarity perception will be lower than if a change increases it's stability. At the level of melodies, Bartlett and Dowling ( 1988) obtained a similar result, but claimed the asymmetry was due to violations of scalar structure, having little or nothing to do with the tonal hierarchy. To test between these different accounts, a series of experiments was conducted in which pairs of diatonic melodies were presented for similarity ratings. Each melody consisted of a context sequence and a target sequence. The context sequences were designed to promote either a C-major or a D-minor tonal hierarchy. These respective keys share similar notes in their scales, but the tonal hierarchies are inverted with respect to one another. According to Krumhansl's account of the asymmetry, noticeable changes in one key context should not be noticeable in the other, due to the reversal in stability of the component tones of the alteration. According to Bartlett and Dowling, no differential sensitivity should be observed, since all changes were within the scale structure of both contexts. In the first experiment, repetition of the tonic was employed as the key-instantiating stimulus, the result being that strong asymmetrical perception arose, both on the measures of similarity ratings, as well as alteration detection ability. Subsequent experiments employed triadic contexts (suggested by Krumhansl and others to be strongly key-instantiating), and note-frequency controlling contexts (to rule out the possibility of note repetition playing a role in the similarity ratings). The results supported the hypothesis that asymmetric perception is a result of the dynamic tone quality differences between scale degrees in a tonal melody. Two subsequent control studies ruled out the possibility oftarget sequences themselves being responsible for the asymmetries, and confirmed that listeners perceived the melodies in the keys specified in the experiment. A model based loosely on Tversky's explanation of asymmetric perception was put forth to explain these data, as well as those of Bartlett and Dowling. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)