One of the most common complications for mothers after childbirth is postpartum depression (PPD). This illness can occur in women who have given birth, who have miscarried or who have had a stillbirth. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2010) indicate that PPD affects 1 in 8 women. These statistics are disturbing especially when 51 % of women may not be willing to seek treatment for PPD (Beck & Gable, 2001 ). Therefore, the number of women who are experiencing PPD is of national concern. The literature reveals that there is not a standard or protocol for the assessment of PPD symptoms, education delivery, or referral and treatment. With an absence of a standard or protocol, this devastating disorder will continue to go undiagnosed in thousands of women affecting not only their wellbeing but the wellbeing of their families. Nurses are in an optimal position to help prevent and identify women suffering from PPD. Establishing the nurse's role in assessing, educating and referring women and families suffering from PPD will assist in reducing the prevalence of this illness and identifying afflicted women for early intervention. Implementing a standard of practice in PPD assessment, education, and referral will assist healthcare providers in achieving the Healthy People 2010 objective of reducing mental illness and complications due to pregnancy.

This research presents a co-developing service innovation imagery system that considers the service innovation imagery can be designed and created with their customers and appropriate collaborators in co-creation network. Default imagery reasoned by analyzing SMEs information, interaction pattern and cultural behavior so as to represent current status quo of the service to co-develop toward service innovation. In addition, we use metaphor statement as the representation of different kinds of user value (i.e., emotional, social-cultural environmental value) so as to build a knowledge based imagery bank for the co-developing process. The mechanism of the open group support system facilitates the interactions between different interpreters that derive and imply a set of value, such as emotional, social-cultural-environmental dimensional consumption values for the SME’s customers. In this research, our main goal is to propose an IT-based systematic approach for SMEs to co-developing their service innovation imagery with other actors and interpreters. The co-developing journey would facilitate SMEs to derive the service innovation imagery for service innovation.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Behrooz Abbasi, for the Master of Science Degree in Mining and Mineral Resources Engineering, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale TITLE: A NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF MINE INTERSECTIONS AND SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR STABILITY MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Yoginder P. Chugh Back ground: Partial extraction room-and-pillar mining systems provide about 60 % of the underground coal mined in the USA. This mining system develops 3-way and 4-way intersections. Rock falls related to fatal and nonfatal injuries in the USA for the period 2002 to 2007 identified that about 70% of these falls occur at intersections even though they represent only about 20-25 % of the area mined. A recent study on 2004 to 2008 roof-falls data base (RFDB) for Illinois mines, found that over 80% of these falls occurred at intersections. Thus, there is a significant need to improve stability of coal mine intersections if fatal and nonfatal injuries are to be controlled. The overall goal of this research is to develop an improved scientific understanding of stress distribution and instability around a 4-way intersection. An additional goal is to evaluate primary and secondary support layouts for improved stability around 4-way intersections. The following specific tasks were established for this research. * Perform 3-D numerical analyses to develop a better understanding of stress, strain and displacement distributions and associated instabilities around a 4-way intersection to identify ground support requirements. * Identify primary and secondary supports systems that may be suited to meet ground support requirements in (1) above. * Perform numerical analyses with identified primary and secondary supports installed to assess improvements in stability around an intersection. Analyses results show that pillar ribs across an intersection fail first and lead to progressive failure of immediate roof layers. The failure of immediate roof layers extends about 1.8m. In detail, coal ribs around the intersection corners mostly fail due to tensile stress, while roof and floor strata fail due to shear stresses and rib center fail due to combination of shear and tension mechanism. Primary supports significantly improve stability, but they are not adequate to ensure stability of four-way intersections. Secondary supports are needed to further improve stability of intersections. Also, based on the failure analysis a new secondary support system plan was proposed and analyzed.

Introduktion: Behovet av och följsamheten till kunskapsstöd i vården är en aktuell fråga. Läkare som arbetar diagnostiskt och behandlande har tillgång till utförliga nätbaserade kunskapsstöd som läkemedelsboken, internetmedicin och FASS.  Det produceras mer och mer forskning inom ämnet fysioterapi. Fysioterapeuter väntas arbeta utefter aktuell evidens, trots att de sällan har särskilt avsedd arbetstid för fortbildning. Skulle ett nätbaserat kunskapsstöd kunna hjälpa fysioterapeuter både att arbeta mer evidensbaserat samt att lättare hitta information som är relevant för deras arbete? Syfte: syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka kunskapsstöd fysioterapeuter använder idag och hur dessa upplevs fungera samt undersöka hur fysioterapeuter ställer sig till ett framtida samlat nätbaserat kunskapsstöd. Metod: en enkät (bilaga 2) utformades. Inklusionskriterier: kliniskt arbetande fysioterapeut på vårdcentral i Sverige. Exklusionkriterier: ej läs och skrivkunnig i svenska. 32 fysioterapeuter deltog i studien och 27 fullföljde enkäten.  Resultat: Fysioterapeuter använder sig till övervägande del av stöd från kollegor, internet, dokument från utbildning / kurser och böcker för både diagnosticering och behandling. Evidensnivån upplevs inte som hög. Tillgängligheten för diagnostiska stöd upplevs något lägre än för behandlingsstöd. Fysioterapeuter anser att ett utförligt nätbaserat kunskapsstöd skulle vara till hjälp i deras kliniska arbete, och de mest eftertraktade sökfunktionerna är en anatomisk atlas och en avancerad sökfunktion.  Konklusion: Fysioterapeuter är positiva till att ett nätbaserat kunskapsstöd skulle vara dem till hjälp i deras kliniska arbete. Mer forskning skulle behövas om hur ett nätbaserat kunskapsstöd bäst bör utformas för god implementation i fysioterapeuters kliniska arbete. Nyckelord: beslutsstöd, evidensbaserad kunskap, fysioterapi, kunskapshantering / Introduction: The need of and compliance to knowledge support systems in healthcare is a current matter. Doctors who provide both diagnostics and treatment have access to extensive net-based knowledge support systems such as läkemedelsboken, internetmedicin and FASS. More and more research is produced in the field of physiotherapy. Physiotherapists are expected to practice evidence based medicine, although they rarely have time at work set aside for further training. Would a net-based knowledge support system help physiotherapists to practice evidence based medicine as well as facilitate the search of information relevant to their work? Objectives: the purpose of this study was to investigate which knowledge support systems physiotherapists use today as well as how accessible they are perceived to be. And to analyze physiotherapists attitudes to a future cohesive net-based knowledge support system. Methods: a survey (attachment 2) was designed. Inclusion criteria: clinically working physiotherapists at care centres in Sweden. Exklusion criteria: lacking reading and writing skills in swedish. 32 physioherapists participated in the study and 27 completed the survey. Results: Physiotherapists rely mainly on knowledge support from colleagues, the internet, documents from their education / additional courses as well as books for both diagnostics and for treatment. The level of evidence is not perceived as high. The accessibility to knowledge support systems for diagnostics is rated somewhat worse than the accessibility to knowledge support systems for treatment. Physiotherapists believe that a wide-ranging net-based knowledge support system would be of benefit to their clinical work, and the most desirable search functions are an anatomical atlas as well as an advanced search function. Conklusion: Physiotherapists believe that a net-based knowledge support system would be helpful to their clinical practice. More research would be needed to determine how a net-based knowledge support system should be designed for good implementation in physiotherapists clinical practice.

Informed decision making is part of any successful organization. Decision support systems help organizations to make more educated decisions by assisting decision makers in consolidating and analyzing information. Successfully introducing decision support systems is very challenging and risky because many factors need to be taken into account. In this thesis, structured and semi-structured interviews are carried out with employees at a Nordic construction company to discuss critical success factors in connection to introduction of decision support systems. The identified critical success factors are grouped into the following categories: organizational, project, technical, information quality, system quality, service quality and net benefits.

Infrastructure privatization decisions have an enormous financial and social impact on all stakeholders, including the public sector, the private sector, and the general public. Appropriate privatization decisions, however, are difficult to make due to the conflicting nature of the objectives of the various stakeholders. This research introduces a multi-criteria decision-making framework for evaluating and comparing a wide range of privatization schemes for infrastructure facilities. The framework is designed to resolve conflicts that arise because of the varying points of view of the stakeholders, and accordingly, determine the most appropriate decision that satisfies all stakeholders’ preferences. The developed framework is expected to help in re-engineering the traditional conflict resolution process, particularly for construction conflict resolution and infrastructure privatization decisions. The framework provides decision support at the management level through three successive decision support processes related to 1. Screening of feasible solutions using the Elimination Method of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA); 2. Analyzing the actions and counteractions of decision makers using conflict resolution and decision stability concepts to determine the most stable resolution; and 3. Considering the uncertainty in decision maker’s preferences using Info-gap Theory to evaluate the robustness of varying uncertainty levels of the decisions. Based on the research, a procedure and a decision support system (DSS) have been developed and tested on real-life case studies of a wastewater treatment plant and a construction conflict. The results of the two case studies show that the proposed DSS can be used to support decisions effectively with respect to both construction conflicts and infrastructure privatization. The developed system is simple to apply and can therefore save time and avoid the costs associated with unsatisfactory decisions. This research is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding and selecting of proper Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) programs for infrastructure assets.

Infrastructure privatization decisions have an enormous financial and social impact on all stakeholders, including the public sector, the private sector, and the general public. Appropriate privatization decisions, however, are difficult to make due to the conflicting nature of the objectives of the various stakeholders. This research introduces a multi-criteria decision-making framework for evaluating and comparing a wide range of privatization schemes for infrastructure facilities. The framework is designed to resolve conflicts that arise because of the varying points of view of the stakeholders, and accordingly, determine the most appropriate decision that satisfies all stakeholders’ preferences. The developed framework is expected to help in re-engineering the traditional conflict resolution process, particularly for construction conflict resolution and infrastructure privatization decisions. The framework provides decision support at the management level through three successive decision support processes related to 1. Screening of feasible solutions using the Elimination Method of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA); 2. Analyzing the actions and counteractions of decision makers using conflict resolution and decision stability concepts to determine the most stable resolution; and 3. Considering the uncertainty in decision maker’s preferences using Info-gap Theory to evaluate the robustness of varying uncertainty levels of the decisions. Based on the research, a procedure and a decision support system (DSS) have been developed and tested on real-life case studies of a wastewater treatment plant and a construction conflict. The results of the two case studies show that the proposed DSS can be used to support decisions effectively with respect to both construction conflicts and infrastructure privatization. The developed system is simple to apply and can therefore save time and avoid the costs associated with unsatisfactory decisions. This research is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding and selecting of proper Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) programs for infrastructure assets.

Internal audit departments strive to control risk within an organization. To do this they choose specific audit areas to include in an audit plan. In order to select areas, they usually focus on those areas with the highest risk. Even though high risk areas are considered, there are various other restrictions such as resource constraints (in terms of funds, manpower and hours) that must also be considered. In some cases, management might also have special requirements. Traditionally this area selection process is conducted using manual processes and requires significant decision maker experience. This makes it difficult to take all possibilities into consideration while also catering for all resource constraints and special management requirements. In this study, mathematical techniques used in capital budgeting problems are explored to solve the IT audit area selection problem. A DSS is developed which implements some of these mathematical techniques such as a linear programming model, greedy heuristic, improved greedy heuristic and evolutionary heuristic. The DSS also implements extensions to the standard capital budgeting model to make provision for special management requirements. The performance of the mathematical techniques in the DSS is tested by applying different decision rules to each of the techniques and comparing those results. The DSS, empirical experiments and results are also presented in this research study. Results have shown that in most cases a binary 0-1 model outperformed the other techniques. Internal audit management should therefore consider this model to assist with the construction of an IT internal audit plan. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Internal audit departments strive to control risk within an organization. To do this they choose specific audit areas to include in an audit plan. In order to select areas, they usually focus on those areas with the highest risk. Even though high risk areas are considered, there are various other restrictions such as resource constraints (in terms of funds, manpower and hours) that must also be considered. In some cases, management might also have special requirements. Traditionally this area selection process is conducted using manual processes and requires significant decision maker experience. This makes it difficult to take all possibilities into consideration while also catering for all resource constraints and special management requirements. In this study, mathematical techniques used in capital budgeting problems are explored to solve the IT audit area selection problem. A DSS is developed which implements some of these mathematical techniques such as a linear programming model, greedy heuristic, improved greedy heuristic and evolutionary heuristic. The DSS also implements extensions to the standard capital budgeting model to make provision for special management requirements. The performance of the mathematical techniques in the DSS is tested by applying different decision rules to each of the techniques and comparing those results. The DSS, empirical experiments and results are also presented in this research study. Results have shown that in most cases a binary 0-1 model outperformed the other techniques. Internal audit management should therefore consider this model to assist with the construction of an IT internal audit plan. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The numbers of students with disabilities enrolling in postsecondary institutions has increased since the passage of key disability rights legislation. As a result, the need for information about accommodating postsecondary students with disabilities has increased in the last two decades, especially since the passage of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998. This study used Dick and Carey's (1996) model of instructional design to conduct a formative evaluation of a Web-based performance support system (WPSS) designed for academic administrators, instructional employees, and auxiliary service administrators to enhance accommodations for postsecondary students with disabilities. Formative evaluation consisted of expert review, one-to-one, consumer analysis, and field trial phases. During the expert review phase, subject matter experts, instructional design and usability experts, and individuals with disabilities completed surveys to assess the degree to which the WPSS contained current content, included elements of effective design, and was accessible to individuals with disabilities. During the one-to-one, consumer analysis, and field trial phases, academic administrators, instructional personnel, and auxiliary service administrators on the University of Kentucky campus completed a questionnaire using the WPSS to assess the degree to which the WPSS was effective in providing information. In addition, users completed a survey to assess their perceptions of the WPSS. Finally, data were collected to assess difficulties encountered by users. Results from the expert review phase of the evaluation suggest that the WPSS contained current content, included elements of effective design, and was accessible to individuals with disabilities. Analysis of the questionnaire scores from all phases revealed that users obtained a mean accuracy rate of 74% or higher on the in-session questionnaire. In addition, all users required a mean of 3.9 minutes or less per question to locate responses for items on the questionnaire. The perceptions of all users about the WPSS were positive. Results also indicated that users reported a variety of technical difficulties; however, the majority were related to server errors. Revisions made to the WPSS after each phase of evaluation are described. Implications of the investigation for researchers and Web developers, limitations of the investigation, and areas for future research also are discussed.