This thesis examines whether traditional air power theory complements counterinsurgency air power theory in kinetic counterinsurgency operations. The reason being that there is some discrepancy in the theories of how air power can be used in counterinsurgency. Winning a revolutionary war requires a graduated spectrum of violence; whereas, traditionally air power is characterized as only using the kinetic, hard power, end of that spectrum. The purpose is to test Robert Pape’s air power theory of military coercion by denial, motivated by the theory’s agreement with current research of air power in counterinsurgency. This thesis is a comparative case study examining two, similar and successful counterinsurgency operations, Operation Anaconda and Operation Medusa. Findings show that denial is quite prominent when direct support of ground forces occurs; whereas operational and strategic interdiction indicate low or no occurrence. This study strengthens the theory’s applicatory power in a counterinsurgency context, and suggests it can complement current research on counterinsurgency air power in kinetic usage. / <p><strong>Uppsatsen skriven VT 2017 under Termin 4 Officersprogrammet 15-18 med inriktning</strong><strong>mot flyg. Examen genomförs VT 2018.</strong></p>

As mudanças nos posicionamentos políticos e econômicos mundiais transformaram as configurações de mercado. A concorrência tornou-se mais acirrada, e aliada ao desenvolvimento tecnológico, passaram a exigir das empresas uma reestruturação organizacional e nos modos de gestão. O intuito foi torná-las mais ágeis, flexíveis e dinâmicas para compatibilizar sua organização aos padrões internacionais de produtividade, competitividade e qualidade. Neste contexto, surgiram as redes de cooperação entre firmas. Como definição elas são organizações virtuais e horizontais, com firmas dispostas em posições simétricas ou assimétricas. Normalmente, elas estão instaladas em diversas localidades e dispõem seus processos de produção interligados. O interesse comum a estas firmas é atuarem de forma cooperada, numa parceria. Ao atuarem como cooperadas, elas obtêm vantagens competitivas e partilham informações, conhecimento e tecnologia. Essa parceria pode ser, muitas vezes, composta por uma relação frágil existindo a possibilidade de se desfazer a qualquer momento. Essa instabilidade expõe as firmas a um dilema, que consiste em agirem como cooperadas ou competidoras. A instauração do paradigma cooperação/competição, numa rede de cooperação entre firmas, ocorre pela natureza da ligação que une os componentes dessa rede. Assim, ao identificar as variáveis endógenas (comportamentais) e exógenas (custos de transação e ambientes institucionais) que compõem o paradigma cooperação/competição o processo de formação de redes de cooperação entre firmas pode ser compreendido. Além de um estudo teórico sobre o assunto, haverá uma identificação empírica das variáveis, através de um estudo de caso referente aos minidistritos industriais e de serviços, da cidade de São José do Rio Preto. / The changes in the world political and economic positioning have transformed the market configurations. Competition has became tougher and, along with the technological development, started to demand organizational restructuring of the businesses and the managerial modes. The goal was to make them more agile, flexible and dynamic to make the organization compatible to the international standards of productivity, competition and quality. In this context came the intra-firm cooperation networks. As a definition, they are virtual and horizontal organizations, being displayed in symmetric or asymmetric positions. Normally they are installed in different places and have their production processes interconnected. The common interest of these firms is to work on a cooperated basis, in a partnership. By working on a cooperated basis they obtain cooperative advantages and share information, knowledge and technology. Many times this partnership can be made up of a frail relationship having the possibility of dissolving at any moment. This instability exposes the firms to a dilemma which consists in acting as either cooperated or competitors. The instauration of the paradigm cooperation/competition, inside an intrafirm cooperation network, occurs upon the nature of the connection which binds the components to this net. Thus, in identifying the endogenous (behavioral) and exogenous (transaction costs and institutional environment) which make up the paradigm cooperation/competition, the intra-firm cooperation network formation process can be understood. Aside from a theoretical study about the issue, there will be an empiric identification of the variables through a case study referent to the mini-districts industrial and of services from the city of São José do Rio Preto.

Através da análise de estudos de otimização e simulação, considerando a operação energética das usinas existentes na cascata do rio Paranapanema, situada na região sudoeste do estado de São Paulo, mostrou-se que a operação do sistema, baseada em regras de operação obtidas através da otimização da cascata, resulta em ganhos significativos de geração e de energia armazenada, proporcionando, desse modo, uma melhor utilização de recursos hidrológicos, bem como uma condição final de armazenamento mais favorável, implicando uma operação mais eficiente e confiável de todo o sistema. / Through the analysis of optimization and simulation studies regarding the energy operation of the existing plants in the Paranapanema river, situated in the southwestern region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, it was shown that the system operation, based on operation rules achieved considering the cascate optimization, yields significant gains of generation and stored energy in the system, therefore providing a better use of the available hydrologic resources, as well as a more favorable final storage level for each plant, which implies in a more efficient and reliable operation of the whole set.

There is a debate on how air power should be employed to attain success in war and conflicts. Although scholars do not fully agree on the subject, there is a consensus that attacking the opponents military forces’, a course of action referred to as denial, can contribute to a positive outcome on the battlefield. This thesis investigates the utility of denial in air operations against regular and irregular opponents. The purpose of this study was to examine Robert Pape’s Denial Theory in a focused and structured comparative case study of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. The investigation reveals that denial contributed to the ground offensives in both cases, specifically by providing air support in the theatre, which led to the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq and drew the opponents out of several cities in Afghanistan. The use of operative interdiction made freedom of action possible and resulted in the final collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In conclusion the investigation shows that denial may be a suitable modus operandi against both regular and irregular opponents. / <p><strong>Uppsatsen skriven VT 2017 under Termin 4 Officersprogrammet 15-18 med inriktning</strong><strong>mot flyg. Examen genomförs VT 2018.</strong></p>

The thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part we describe the theoretical basis for what we explain and analyze in practice in other parts of this thesis. In this section, we can find all stages of the service life cycle according to ITIL methodology (IT Infrastructure Library), which serves to all organizations involved in managing IT services. We focus mainly on the current version of ITIL V3, which is grouped in five books and gradually through the entire service life cycle. Whereas it is not used only one standard in practice, there are also described other methodologies which are often used. In the second part there is shown the practice of service delivery in IT area for company Pražská energetika a.s. There are mapped individual processes, roles and functions of one of the stages -- Service Operations. The primary goal of this section is a detailed description of the Service Desk function, where we compare theory with practice. In the last, third part we analyze obtained data, for the purpose to evaluate function of Service Desk. One of the objective of this analysis is a data prediction, which we will achieve by using time series. The results of this analysis will be provided to the company management.

Bakgrund: Bröstcancer är en vanlig cancerform hos kvinnor och en behandlingsform är mastektomi. Både den fysiska och psykiska hälsan kan påverkas i samband med sjukdom och sjuksköterskorna har en central roll i att uppmärksamma hälsoresurser och främja hälsa. Tidigare forskning beskriver dock sjuksköterskornas bristande förutsättningar, såsom kunskap och förståelse, för att tillgodose patienternas behov efter mastektomi. Därför kan patienternas upplevelser av mastektomi bidra med kunskap och stöd för sjuksköterskorna i hur hälsa och välbefinnande kan främjas hos dessa patienter. Syfte: Att beskriva patienters upplevelser av att ha genomgått en mastektomi. Metod: En systematisk litteraturstudie med kvalitativ ansats. Resultat: Sjuksköterskorna behöver arbeta mer personcentrerat för patientens välbefinnande. Patienterna vill ha mer information från sjuksköterskan både preoperativt och postoperativt gällande mastektomi. Stöd och support ifrån sjuksköterskorna, familjemedlemmarna, personer i kyrkan och personer som genomgått en mastektomi visade sig ha en positiv inverkan på patienterna under deras läkeprocess. Slutsats: Psykisk och fysiska stödåtgärder behövs för att patienterna ska upprätthålla hälsa och minska lidande. Sjuksköterskorna behöver se hela patienten och lägga ned tid på att informera patienterna gällande dennes situation. Detta för att förbereda patienten på vad som kommer ske, detta visade sig reducera patienternas oro och minska patienternas lidande. / Background: Breast cancer is a common type of cancer and there’s one way to remove the cancer which’s mastectomy. Both psychical and psychological health is affected when the patient gets ill and nurses have a central role in notice resources of health and support health. Earlier studies describes that nurses lack of prerequisites and don’t have the amount of knowledge and understanding that’s required for caring of these patients. That’s why patients’ own experience of a mastectomy contributes in knowledge and support to nurses in health and well-being encourage in theses patients. Aim: To describe patients experience of a mastectomy. Method: A systematic literature study, with a qualitative approach. Results: Patient needs information from nurses both pre-operation and post-operation about mastectomy. Support from nurses, relatives, community in church and other people that have done a mastectomy showed great support for the women in their way to recovery. Conclusion: Psychological and physical support is needed for patients to maintain health and reduce suffering. Nurses needs to see the whole patient and spend more time to inform the patient about their situation. This in order to prepare the patient about what will happen, this showed that the patient anxiety and suffering decreased.

Multi-pantograph operation allows several short electric multiple unit (EMU) trainsets to be coupled or decoupled to adapt to daily or seasonal passenger-flow variation. Although this is a convenient and efficient way to operate rolling stock and use railway infrastructure, pantographs significantly influence each other and even significantly change the dynamic behaviour of the system compared to single-pantograph operation in the same condition. The multi-pantograph system is more sensitive and vulnerable than the single-pantograph system, especially at high operational speeds or with pantographs spaced at short distances. Heavy oscillation in the system can result in low quality of current collection, electromagnetic interference, severe wear on the contact surfaces or even structural damage. The mechanical interaction between the pantograph and the catenary is one of the key issues which limits the maximum operational speed and decides the maintenance cost.     Many researchers have paid a lot of attention to the single-pantograph operation and have made great progress on system modelling, optimizing, parameter studies and active control. However, how the pantographs in a train configuration affect each other in multi-pantograph operation and which factors limit the number of pantographs is not fully investigated. Nowadays, to avoid risking operational safety, there are strict regulations to limit the maximum operational speed, the maximum number of pantographs in use, and the minimum spacing distance between pantographs. With the trend of high-speed railways, there are huge demands on increasing operational speed and shortening spacing distance between pantographs. Furthermore, it is desirable to explore more practical and budget-saving methods to achieve higher speed on existing lines without significant technical modification.     In addition to a literature survey of the dynamics of pantograph-catenary systems, this thesis carries out a numerical study on multi-pantograph operation based on a three-dimensional pantograph-catenary finite element (FE) model. In this study, the relationship between dynamic performance and other parameters, i.e. the number of pantographs in use, running speed and the position of the pantographs, are investigated. The results show that the spacing distance between pantographs is the most critical factor and the trailing pantograph does not always suffer from deterioration of the dynamic performance. By discussing the two-pantograph operation at short spacing distances, it is found that a properly excited catenary caused by the leading pantograph and the wave interference between pantographs can contribute to an improvement on the trailing pantograph performance. To avoid the additional wear caused by poor dynamic performance on the leading pantograph and achieve further improvement at high speeds, it is suggested to use the leading pantograph as an auxiliary pantograph, which does not conduct any electric current and optimize the uplift force on the leading pantograph. After a brief discussion on some system parameter deviations, it is shown that a 30% of speed increase should be possible to achieve while still sustaining a good dynamic performance without large modifications on the existing catenary system. / <p>QC 20150928</p>

A conventional army is required to meet many needs and face many threats. However, when conventional warfare methods do not make the cut, Special Operations and Special Forces become a necessity. However, there exists few theories that sufficiently explain how Special Forces units around the world accomplishes these Special Operations. One of the few researches who has developed a theory regarding Special Operations is William H. McRaven with his theory of relative superiority.    McRaven´s theory proposes that there are six principles which determine the success of a Special Forces unit´s ability to plan, prepare and execute a Special Operation. The aim of the study is to understand McRaven´s theory´s explanatory power in explaining the results of Operation Neptune Spear and Operation Gothic Serpent.   This study concludes that Operation Neptune spear attained almost all of the required principles. However, Operation Gothic serpent lacked half of the required principles. In order to create a favourable relation, one must create synergy between the principles in order to achieve relative superiority. The study concludes by illustrating that McRaven´s theory´s explanatory power increased.

This paper presents the spatial implementation of the karst feature database (KFD) of Minnesota in a GIS environment. ESRI's ArcInfo and ArcView GIS packages were used to analyze and manipulate the spatial operations of the KFD of Minnesota. Spatial operations were classified into three data manipulation categories: single layer operation, multiple layer operation, and other spatial transformation in the KFD. Most of the spatial operations discussed in this paper can be conducted using ArcInfo, ArcView, and ArcGIS. A set of strategies and rules were proposed and used to build the spatial operational module in the KFD to make the spatial operations more efficient and topographically correct.

Introduktion: Det har blivit vanligare att opereras med regional anestesi under de senaste åren. Detta medför att sjuksköterskor bör ha en ökad kunskap för att mentalt kunna stötta och informera patienten pre- och postoperativt på vårdavdelning. En ökad förståelse om patientens upplevelse kan leda till en mer personcentrerad vård och ett ökat välbefinnande. Syfte: Patienters upplevelser av vården i samband med att genomgå en vaken operation med regional anestesi. Metod: En allmän litteraturstudie genomfördes där data samlades in via databaserna Pubmed, Cinahl och Web of science. Dataanalysen utgick från Fribergs femstegsmodell och innefattade 12 artiklar med kvalitativ design. Samtliga artiklar som användes var av hög kvalité och uppfyllde kriterierna för att inkluderas i studien.  Resultat: Fyra huvudkategorier har lyfts fram i studien, kommunikationens betydelse, informationens betydelse, påverkan på patientens välbefinnande och betydelsen av god omvårdnad. Patienterna kunde i vissa fall känna en positiv upplevelse att vara vaken under en operation medan andra uttryckte oro, ångest samt kände sig otrygga. Patienterna upplevde bristande kommunikation och information pre-samt postoperativt. De uttryckte betydelsen av god kommunikation, tydlig information och stöd från sjuksköterskan för ett ökat välbefinnande. Patienterna uttryckte att känslan av tillit minskade när de inte kände sig delaktiga i sin egen vård. Detta medförde att känslan av kontroll förlorades och patienterna förmedlade då ett starkt beroende till vårdpersonalen. Personcentrerad vård och sjuksköterskans goda omvårdnad ökade patientens känsla av tillit, trygghet och lugn. Slutsats: Patienter som var vakna under operation upplevde oro, ångest, rädsla och stresskänslor pre- och postoperativt. För en god relation till patienten behövs därför tydlig kommunikation och information med respekt och tillit. Patienten ska ses som en unik individ för ett ökat välbefinnande samt en god omvårdnad. / Introduction: It has become more common for patients to undergo surgery with regional anesthesia in recent years. This means that nurses should have knowledge to be able to mentally support and inform the patient both before and after surgery in the ward. An increased understanding of the patient's experience can lead to a more person-centered care and increased well-being. Aim: Patients' experiences of care in connection with undergoing an awake operation with regional anesthesia. Method: A general literature study was carried out and data were collected via the databases Pubmed, Cinahl and Web of science. The data analysis were based on Friberg's five-step model and included 12 articles with qualitative design. All articles used were of high methodological ​​quality and met the criteria to be included in the study. Results: Four main categories have been highlighted in the analysis, the importance of communication, the importance of information, the impact on the patient's well-being and the importance of good care. In some cases, patients could feel a positive experience of being awake during an operation, while others expressed worry, anxiety and felt insecure. Patients experienced a lack of communication and information pre- as well as postoperatively. They expressed the importance of good communication, clear information and support from the nurse for increased well-being. Patients expressed that the feeling of trust diminished when they did not feel involved in their own care. This meant that the feeling of control was lost and the patients conveyed a strong dependence on the care staff. Person-centered care and the nurse's good care increased the patient's feeling of trust, security and peace.Conclusion: Patients who were awake during surgery experienced worry, anxiety, fear and stress feelings pre- and postoperatively. For a good relationship with the patient, clear communication and information with respect and trust is therefore needed. The patient should be seen as a unique individual for increased well-being and good care.