Recent studies have shown an increased relevancy for special operations warfare. Special operations have been acclaimed as a cost beneficial means of achieving strategic ends. Although this is the case there is a significant lack in the realm of contemporary special operations theory. Operation Barrasin 2000 and Operation Neptune Spear in 2011 have both been renowned for being daring, well conducted but foremost successful. Nevertheless, thorough research of these operations signals their absence. This study contributes to the field by examining these two successful special operations through the lens of a theoretical framework, based on prominent special operations theorists, in order to determine what principles led to their prosperity. Although a majority of the theoretical principles could be recognised in both operations, not all of these were beneficial to the outcome. The results have shown that the principles of strategic and political comprehension, technology, practice, intelligence, personal commitment and speed mainly contributed to success. Conclusions also show that the principle of intelligence could be considered superior to the other principles. This conclusion is drawn due to the fact that accurate intelligence enabled several of the other principles, for example practice and strategic and political comprehension.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第24609号 / 工博第5115号 / 新制||工||1978(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科機械理工学専攻 / (主査)教授 小森 雅晴, 教授 松野 文俊, 教授 松原 厚 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

John A. Warden's airpower theory, The Enemy as a System, has had a major influence on the strategic discourse ever since the foundation of this normative framework was presented in The Air Campaign in 1988. Warden’s theoretical impact was reinforced by the American successes during the Gulf War, but since then, little research has tested the theory outside the context of conventional wars of aggression. This study analyzes The Enemy as System against a peace enforcing context, characterized by multilateral cooperation. It also identifies intermediate variables that help explain why the theory is strengthened or weakened in relation to this particular context. Through qualitative methods, Operation Allied Force and Operation Unified Protector are analyzed against operational indicators within the central concepts of the five-ring model and parallel attacks. The results of the study show that NATO did not use airpower in accordance with Warden's normative theory in either of the examined operations. The absence of operational indicators could hypothetically explain why NATO failed to produce strategic effects within the operational time limits, although this remains a speculative conclusion. The result instead suggests a number of intermediate variables, such as political disagreement and strategic dissonance, which combined reduced the possibility of using airpower in accordance with Warden's theory. In addition, the fear of civilian casualties and the risk of exacerbating the post-war humanitarian situation, further reduced the possibility of attacking targets within certain subsystems of the five-ring model. The conclusion is therefore that Warden’s theoretical applicability, and thus universal validity, is weakened within the examined context.

This report discusses clones with nullary operations and the corresponding relational clones, both defined on arbitrary non-empty sets. The relationship between such clones and clones in the usual sense, i.e. without nullary operations, is investigated, and in particular the latter type of clones is located in the lattice of all clones. By means of two pairs of kernel and closure operators, a framework is developed that allows to transfer statements about usual clones to statements about clones with nullary constants. In this respect, familiar operators and constructions from clone theory, like the operators Pol and Inv, the closure operators belonging to the clone lattices, and the different variants of local closure operators on sets of relations and operations, respectively, are translated from the usual setting to the more general one and vice versa. The applicability of the presented machinery is demonstrated using the example of the theorem characterising Galois closed sets w.r.t. Pol-Inv as local closures of clones and relational clones, respectively.

Bakgrund: Den kraftiga omorganiseringen som skedde inom hälso- och sjukvården på grund av covid-19 orsakade bland annat att operationspersonal förflyttades till andra avdelningar. Patienter som väntade på att genomgå elektiv operation drabbades då dessa ställdes in eller flyttades fram. Någon sammanställning av dessa patienters erfarenheter identifierades inte varpå en vetenskaplig kunskapslucka existerade. Syfte: Beskriva patienters erfarenheter av att få sin elektiva operation inställd eller framflyttad på grund av covid-19 pandemin. Metod: En integrativ litteraturöversikt med engelsk vetenskaplig litteratur som eftersöktes i databaserna PubMed, Scopus och CINAHL. Datan analyserades enligt en integrativ analysprocess som bestod av fyra steg. 13 artiklar inkluderades. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i tre huvudteman “Komplicerad tid där livet påverkas och influeras av acceptans”, “Informationen från sjukvården påverkar erfarenheten” och “Förvärrade symtom och oro för långsiktiga konsekvenser” med totalt nio underteman. Slutsats: Erfarenheterna som framkom påverkades av mängden adekvat kommunikation och information från hälso- och sjukvården samt om denna var direkt eller indirekt. Patienternas bakomliggande sjukdom eller tillstånd var även avgörande för erfarenheterna. Bibehållen kontakt med patienter under förseningen var primärt då föreliggande studie visade att detta kunde minska oro och förbättra erfarenheten. / Background: The major reorganization that took place in healthcare due to covid-19 caused, among other things, the transfer of operating personnel to other departments. Patients waiting to undergo elective operation were affected when these were canceled or postponed. No compilation of these patients’ experiences was identified, therefore a scientific knowledge gap existed. Aim: Describe patients experiences of having their elective operation canceled or postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic. Method: An integrative literature review with English science literature were searched for in PubMed, Scopus and CINAHL databases. The data was analyzed according to an integrative analysis process consisted of four steps. 13 articles were included. Result: The analysis resulted in three main themes: “Complicated time where life is affected and influenced by acceptance”, “Information from healthcare affects the experience” and “Deteriorated symptoms and concern for long-term consequences” with a total of nine sub-themes. Conclusion: The experiences that emerged were influenced by the amount of adequate communication and information from healthcare and whether this was direct or indirect. The patients’ underlying illness or condition was also decisive for the experiences. Maintaining contact with the patients during the delay was primary as the present study showed that this could reduce anxiety and improve the experience.

Bakgrund: Arbetsmiljön består av fyra delar: fysiska, psykiska, organisatoriska och psykosociala. Delarna i arbetsmiljön påverkar personalen olika mycket. Den organisatoriska delen är stor på operationsavdelningar, där fokus ligger på planering av operationsprogrammet för att inte behöva stryka patienter och att patienter med mest behov ska få vård först. Det gör att snabba förändringar behöver göras och att operationssjuksköterskan inte alltid hinner med att förbereda sig. Motiv: Föreliggande studie kommer att kunna leda till kunskap om operationssjuksköterskans hantering av förändringar i operationsprogrammet. Den informationen kan vara värdefull för mindre erfarna operationssjuksköterskor. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva erfarenheter bland operationssjuksköterskor gällande hanteringen av kortsiktiga förändringar i operationsprogrammet. Metod: Studien är kvalitativ där deltagarna var operationssjuksköterskor och arbetade vid ett länssjukhus i Norrland. Semistrukturerade intervjuer användes för att samla in data, med en respondent i taget. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes sedan för att analysera materialet. Resultat: För hantering av kortsiktiga förändringar har deltagarna olika sätt att förbereda sig, de beskrev vad som var avgörande för att räcka till och vilket sorts inflytande operationssjuksköterskorna har. Dessa tre delar har delats in i kategorier: att hinna förbereda sig, att räcka till och att ha inflytande. Konklusion: Operationssjuksköterskorna beskrev en förståelse av förändringarna som sker i operationsprogrammet. Irritation och frustration kan däremot uppkomma vid sena ändringar och vid ovana ingrepp. Erfarenhet är en tillgång när det gäller förändringar, då de kan jämföra ingrepp med tidigare operationer. Ovana ingrepp kan annars lösas genom byte med kollega eller förlita sig på övrig personal på salen. Antalet förändringar i operationsprogrammet upplevs ha minskat något över tid. / Background:The work environment consists of four parts: physical, mental, organizational and psychosocial. The parts of the work environment affect the staff differently. The organizational part is large in operating wards, where the focus is on planning the operating program so as not to have to cancel patients and that patients with the most needs should receive care first. This means that rapid changes need to be made and that the operating room nurse sometimes does not have enough time to prepare. Motive: The present study will be able to lead to knowledge about the operating room nurse's handling of changes in the operating program. That information can be valuable for less experienced operating room nurses. Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe experiences among operating room nurses regarding the management of short-term changes in the operating program. Methods: The study has a qualitative approach where the participants were operating room nurses and worked at a county hospital in northern Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, with one respondent at a time. Qualitative content analysis was then used to analyze the material. Result: To manage short-term changes, the participants have different ways of preparing, they described what was crucial to suffice and what kind of influence the operating room nurses have. These three parts have been divided into categories: to have time to prepare, to suffice and to have influence. Conclusion: The operating room nurses described an understanding of the changes that are taking place in the surgical program. Irritation and frustration can, however, occur at late changes and the unfamiliar procedures. Experience is an asset when it comes to changes, as they can compare procedures with previous operations. Unusual interventions can otherwise be solved by changing with a colleague or relying on other staff in the hall. The changes in the operating program are perceived to have decreased.

No description available.

In 1994, military historian Martin Van Creveld presented his hypothesis about the future of modern military conflicts. He argued that these conflicts primarily would involve non-state actors or state actors employing unconventional means and methods. Thirty years later, his hypothesis appears more relevant than ever. He claims that his theory of maneuver warfare should be able to explain success against this type of adversary.  This thesis aims to test whether Van Creveld's theory of maneuver warfare can lead to success when a conventional actor faces an unconventional opponent. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the current research regarding maneuver warfare and increase understanding of whether his theory can be applied against an unconventional adversary.  The theory has been applied on the U.S. lead coalition during Operation Anaconda and Operation Phantom Fury, from early 2000s. The result of the thesis implies that Van Creveld's theory of maneuver warfare can explain the outcome of both operations and should therefore be considered as valid. However, several circumstances are identified that should be considered in modern military conflicts in the future.

This thesis deals with the life and career and intimate life of Francis Carroll Grevemberg, an antiaircraft World War II officer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Grevemberg joined the Louisiana National Guard in 1932 and began his military career in the midst of the Great Depression. In the reorganization of the U.S. Army before World War II, the War Department transformed Grevemberg's cavalry regiment into a coastal artillery battalion with antiaircraft capability. During World War II, Grevemberg saw continuous action in the North Africa, Italy and Southern France. He regularly wrote letters from battlefields to his wife Dorothy. These letters provide a important window into a young officer's feelings, thoughts and affection in the unfolding of World War II. They are documents of a soldier's emotional release during times of crises. Lt. Col. Grevemberg is a rare, World War II antiaircraft artillery officer who took part and survived five amphibious landings in the Mediterranean.

Optimal operation of reservoir systems is necessary for better utilizing the limited water resources and to justify the high capital investments associated with reservoir projects. However, finding optimal policies for real-life problems of reservoir systems operation (RSO) is a challenging task as the available analytical methods can not handle the arbitrary functions of the problem and almost all methods employed are numerical or iterative type that are computer dependent. Since the computer resources in terms of memory and CPU time are limited, a limit exists for the size of the problem, in terms of arithmetic and memory involved, that can be handled. This limit is approached quickly as the dimension and the nonlinearity of the problem increases. In encountering the complex aspects of the problem all the traditionally employed methods have their own drawbacks. Linear programming (LP), though very efficient in dealing with linear functions, can not handle nonlinear functions which is the case mostly in real-life problems. Attempting to approximate nonlinear functions to linear ones results in the problem size growing enormously. Dynamic programming (DP), though suitable for most of the RSO problems, requires exponentially increasing computer resources as the dimension of the problem increases and at present many high dimensional real-life problems can not be solved using DP. Nonlinear programming (NLP) methods are not known to be efficient in RSO problems due to slow rate of convergence and inability to handle stochastic problems. Simulation methods can, practically, explore only a small portion of the search region. Many simplifications in formulations and adoption of approximate methods in literature still fall short in addressing the most critical aspects, namely multidimensionality, stochasticity, and additional complexity in conjunctive operation, of the problem. As the problem complexity increases and the possibility of arriving at the solution recedes, a near optimal solution with the best use of computational resources can be very valuable. In this context, genetic algorithms (GA) can be a promising technique which is believed to have an advantage in terms of efficient use of computer resources. GA is a random search method which find, in general, near optimal solutions using evolutionary mechanism of natural selection and natural genetics. When a pool of feasible solutions, represented in a coded form, are given fitness according to a objective function and explored by genetic operators for obtaining new pools of solutions, then the ensuing trajectories of solutions come closer and closer to the optimal solution which has the greatest fitness associated with it. GA can be applied to arbitrary functions and is not excessively sensitive to the dimension of the problem. Though in general GA finds only the near optimal solutions trapping in local optima is not a serious problem due to global look and random search. Since GA is not fully explored for RSO problems two such problems are selected here to study the usefulness and efficiency of GA in obtaining near optimal solutions. One problem is conjunctive operation of a system consisting of a surface reservoir and an aquifer, taken from the literature for which deterministic and stochastic models are solved. Another problem is real-time operation of a multipurpose reservoir, operated for irrigation (primary purpose) and hydropower production, which is in the form of a case study. The conjunctive operation problem consists of determining optimal policy for a combined system of a surface reservoir and an aquifer. The surface reservoir releases water to an exclusive area for irrigation and to a recharge facility from which it reaches the aquifer in the following period. Another exclusive area is irrigated by water pumped from the aquifer. The objective is to maximize the total benefit from the two irrigated areas. The inflow to the surface reservoir is treated as constant in deterministic model and taken at 6 different classes in stochastic model. The hydrological interactions between aquifer and reservoir are described using a lumped parameter model in which the average aquifer water table is arrived at based on the quantity of water in the aquifer, and local drawdown in pumping well is neglected. In order to evaluate the GA solution both deterministic and stochastic models are solved using DP and stochastic DP (SDP) techniques respectively. In the deterministic model, steady state (SS) cyclic (repetitive) solution is identified in DP as well as in GA. It is shown that the benefit from GA solution converges to as near as 95% of the benefit from exact DP solution at a highly discounted CPU time. In the stochastic model, the steady state solution obtained with SDP consists of converged first stage decisions, which took a 8-stage horizon, for any combination of components of the system state. The GA solution is obtained after simplifying the model to reduce the number of decision variables. Unlike SDP policy which gives decisions considering the state of the system in terms of storages, at reservoir, aquifer, and recharge facility, and previous inflow at the beginning of that period, GA gives decisions for each period of the horizon considering only the past inflow state of the period. In arriving at these decisions the effect of neglected state information is approximately reflected in the decisions by the process of refinement of the decisions, to conform to feasibility of storages in reservoir and aquifer, carried out in a simplified simulation process. Moreover, the validity of the solution is confirmed by simulating the operation with all possible inflow sequences for which the 8-stages benefit converged up to 90 % of the optimum. However, since 8 stages are required for convergence to SS, a 16-stage process is required for GA method in which the first 8 stages policy is valid. Results show that GA convergence to the optimum is satisfactory, justifying the approximations, with significant savings in CPU time. For real-time operation of a multipurpose reservoir, a rule curve (RC) based monthly operation is formulated and applied on a real-life problem involving releases for irrigation as well as power production. The RC operation is based on the target storages that have to be maintained, at each season of the year, in the reservoir during normal hydrological conditions. Exceptions to target storages are allowed when the demands have to be met or for conserving water during the periods of high inflows. The reservoir in the case study supplies water to irrigation fields through two canals where a set of turbines each at the canal heads generate hydropower. A third set of turbines operate on the river bed with the water let out downstream from the dam. The problem consists of determining the the RC target storages that facilitate maximum power production while meeting the irrigation demands up to a given reliability level. The RC target storages are considered at three different levels, corresponding to dry, normal, and wet conditions, according to the system state in terms of actual (beginning of period) storage of the reservoir. That is, if the actual beginning storage of the reservoir is less than some coefficient, dry-coe, times the normal target storage the target for the end of the period storage is taken at the dry storage target (of the three sets of storages). Similarly the wet level is taken for the end of the period target if the actual beginning storage is greater than some coefficient, wet-coe, times the normal storage. For other conditions the target is the normal storage level. The dry-coe and wet-coe parameters are obtained by trial and error analysis working on a small sequence of inflows. The three sets of targets are obtained from optimization over a 1000 year generated inflow sequence. With deterministic DP solutions, for small sequences of inflows, the optimization capability of GA-RC approach, in terms of objective function convergence, and generalization or robustness capability of GA-RC approach, for which the GA-RC benefit is obtained by simulating the reservoir operation using the previously obtained GA-RC solution, are evaluated. In both the cases GA-RC approach proves to be promising. Finally a 15 year real-time simulation of the reservoir is carried out using historical inflows and demands and the comparison with the historical operation shows significant improvement in benefit, i.e. power produced, without compromising irrigation demands throughout the simulation period.