1 Abstract The main aim of this master thesis is to summarise legislation in force concerning the debt discharge of natural persons as one of the methods of resolving bankruptcy, to appraise this legislation and to discuss its possible future development. In introductory chapters of the thesis, the author defines the concept of bankruptcy, initiation of insolvency proceedings and its effects. Subsequently, thesis deals with a discharge of natural persons and concentrates on discharge proceedings as a whole - from a discharge permission and approval, decision concerning the mode of discharge, to successful termination of discharge proceedings where the debtor is discharged, free of debt. Thesis analyses the prerequisites of discharge permissibility, defines subjects actively legitimated to file a discharge application and furthermore, it lists possible forms of discharge and summarise the particularities of joint discharge of spouses. Equally, this thesis describes the specific legal issues caused by the application of provisions of the Insolvency Act which have not been sufficiently adapted yet and by the lack of their uniform judicial interpretation. This master thesis reflects the pro-debtor development of discharge in the Czech insolvency law and draws attention to the changes in insolvency legislation...

Concerns regarding the issue of climate change and, in particular, the rapid retreat of glaciers around the world, have placed great importance on glacial monitoring. Some of the methods most commonly used to observe glacial change--direct mass balance measurements and remote sensing--provide valuable information about glacier change. However, these methods do not address the englacial and subglacial environments. Surface meltwater that enters englacial and subglacial hydrological networks can contribute to acceleration of ice flow, increased calving on marine-terminating glaciers, surges or outburst floods, and greater overall ablation rates. Because subsurface drainage systems often freeze during the winter and re-form each summer, examining the seasonal evolution of these networks is crucial for assessing the impact that internal drainage may have on the behavior of a glacier each year. The goal of this study is to determine the role englacial and subglacial drainage system evolution plays in influencing summer ablation and discharge at the terminus of Exit Glacier, a small valley glacier located in South-central Alaska. During the summers of 2010 and 2011, we used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate internal drainage features on the lower 100 meters of the glacier. GPR surveys were conducted in June and August of each year in an effort to observe the evolution of the drainage systems over the course of an ablation season. Three antenna frequencies--250, 500, and 800 MHz--were used on a dual frequency GPR so that various resolutions and depths in the ice could be viewed simultaneously. Stream monitoring was conducted to document discharge in the proglacial stream throughout the 2011 season. These data were compared with weather records to differentiate noticeable meltwater releases from precipitation events. Additionally, morphological changes in the glacier were observed through photographic documentation. Throughout the observation period, significant subglacial tunnels appeared, followed by the collapse of terminal ice above the tunnels. This phenomenon was most noticeable in 2011. These observations indicate that the internal drainage systems near the terminus of Exit Glacier became very well-developed each summer, and contributed approximately 75 meters of ice loss between June, 2010 and August, 2011.

A deficiency of care coordination and delayed discharge planning has contributed to increased lengths of stay for telemetry patients and has pressed staff to discharge patients expeditiously, potentially leading to increased 30-day readmissions. Rushing the discharge process on the day of discharge has resulted in breakdowns in communication and lack of collaboration amongst the health care team of this study, contributing to extended lengths of stay, increased readmissions, and low Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAPHS) scores. This project highlighted a patient-centered care coordination team approach with 2 clinical registered nurses and a social worker who coordinated the discharge plan with the patients on admission. Discharge planning on admission and daily briefings involving care coordination and bedside staff reduced the length of stay, improved HCAPHS scores, and reduced 30-day readmissions by fostering better communication and collaboration. A 1-group pretest and posttest were utilized to compare data before care coordination and after care coordination. These findings yielded a length of stay reduction of 2.04 days, a 50% reduction in 30-day readmissions, and HCAPHS communication composite scores above the 50th percentile. The care coordination team exposed various programs and community resources that assisted with medications and durable medical equipment and suggested that companionship alleviated potential anxiety post discharge for those financially and socially burdened. The implications of a patient-centered team-based approach to discharge planning on admission eliminated barriers to discharge, improved patient knowledge of disease management, and provided a positive hospital experience.

Oblique weirs are those weirs placed at an angle with respect to the channel centerline. They can be used in canal applications where more discharge is needed, but there is limited freeboard. The discharge coefficients were determined for 54 different weirs by measuring total head for various flows over each weir. These weirs included sharp, half round and quarter-round-crested weirs. There were 18 weirs for each crest shape with three weir heights for each angle tested. The oblique angles tested were 10°, 15°, 25°, 45°, 60°, and 90° with respect to the channel centerline, with the nominal weir heights being 4, 8, and 12 inches. The half-round-crested weirs were the most efficient, followed by the quarter-round-crested weirs and the sharp-crested weirs were the least efficient. By decreasing the oblique angle, the weir length became longer and the weir would be more efficient than the normal weir.

<p>Shorter hospital stays increases the need for well functioning post hospital aftercare. Persons close to the patient are often involved in the aftercare and need information about self-care. This need is frequently not satisfied. <strong>The aim</strong> of this study was to investigate if the next-of-kin of patients cared for at the thoracic clinic at Uppsala University hospital, have received information about self-care and how they perceive the information they have been given. <strong>METHOD: </strong>To investigate this, questionnaires were sent out by mail. <strong>MAIN RESULT: </strong>Most of the respondent’s<strong> </strong>states that they have not received enough information but that they consider it important to get information. Those who state that they have been given information say that they are pleased with the information received.  <strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>A tendency in<strong> </strong>the results shows that the information that is given at the clinic is satisfying, but that not everybody receive it. There is also shown that the next-of-kin’s thinks that it is important to be given information about the patients self-care.</p> / <p>Kortare vårdtider ökar behovet av en välfungerande posthospital eftervård. Närstående är ofta inblandade i patientens egenvård i hemmet och har stort behov av information inför utskrivning. Detta behov är ofta inte tillfredställt. <strong>Syftet </strong>med denna studie var att undersöka om närstående till patienter på thoraxkliniken vid Akademiska sjukhuset i Uppsala, anser sig ha fått information inför utskrivning och hur de uppfattar den. <strong>METOD:</strong> För att undersöka detta skickades studiespecifika enkäter ut per post. <strong>HUVUDRESULTAT: </strong>De flesta svarar att de inte fått tillräckligt med information men att de tycker det är viktigt med information. De som anger att de fått information är generellt nöjda med den information de fått.<strong> SLUTSATS: </strong>Resultaten tyder på att den information som ges på kliniken är bra men att inte alla får ta del av den samt att de närstående anser att det är viktigt att få information om patientens egenvård.<strong></strong></p>

Thesis (LL. M.)--Judge Advocate General's School, U.S. Army, 1961. / "April 1961." Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in microfiche.

The overall aim of this thesis is to describe how elderly women’s encounters with an institutionalised world of health care manifest itself in a discharge planning conference (DPC). The thesis is based on eight video recorded DPCs and follow-up interviews with the women who took part in the conferences. The result of study I, a case study, showed that the woman’s experience of taking part in the DPC was characterised as a feeling of powerlessness. The women’s possibility to have influence on the care planning was small (Study II). Study III revealed that the participants adopted or were assigned to different roles during the DPC. As these roles collided dilemmatic situations occurred. Simultaneously the women and family members struggled to manage the institutional frame that surrounded the meeting by trying to find room within it or by challenging it. Study IV revealed that the women found themselves to be in a vulnerable situation. Their body had failed them, their future was insecure and they felt unprepared as they took part in the DPC. They felt as if they were being affiliated with the other participants in a joint project, as if they were standing outside the event or as if they were in focus for the conversation which. The last was a double edged experience: getting confirmative attention but also being exposed as dependent. Four themes characterise the care that was jointly constructed by all participants during the DPC. These themes are “Care as spirit of community and confirmation”, ”Care as alienation”, ”The incomprehensible care” and “The inflexible and betraitful care”.The result gives rise to questions about the relevance of DPCs in their present shape. Further research and developmental projects requested to achieve dicharge planning conferences that are corresponding better to official caring ideals and the patients needs.

ESD, the discharge of electrostatically generated charges into an IC, is one of the most important reliability problems for ultra-scaled devices. This electrostatic charge can generate voltages of up to tens of kilovolts. These very high voltages can generate very high electric fields and currents across semiconductor devices, which may result in dielectric damage or melting of semiconductors and contacts. It has been reported that up to 70% of IC failures are caused by ESD. Therefore, it’s necessary to design a protection circuit for each pin that discharges the ESD energy to the ground. As the devices are continuously scaling down, while ESD energy remains the same, they become more vulnerable to ESD stress. This higher susceptibility to ESD damage is due to thinner gate oxides and shallower junctions. Furthermore, higher operating frequency of the scaled technologies enforces lower parasitic capacitance of the ESD protection circuits. As a result, increasing the robustness of the ESD protection circuits with minimum additional parasitic capacitance is the main challenge in state of the art CMOS processes. Providing a complete ESD immunity for any circuit involves the design of proper protection circuits for I/O pins in addition to an ESD clamp between power supply pins. In this research both of these aspects are investigated and optimized solutions for them are reported. As Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) has the highest ESD protection level per unit area, ESD protection for I/O pins is provided by optimizing the first breakdown voltage and latch-up immunity of SCR family devices. The triggering voltage of SCR is reduced by a new implementation of gate-substrate triggering technique. Furthermore, a new device based on SCR with internal darlington pair is introduced that can provide ESD protection with very small parasitic capacitance. Besides reducing triggering voltage, latch-up immunity of SCR devices is improved using two novel techniques to increase the holding voltage and the holding current. ESD protection between power rails is provided with transient clamps in which the triggering circuit keeps the clamp “on” during the ESD event. In this research, two new clamps are reported that enhance the triggering circuit of the clamp. The first method uses a CMOS thyristor element to provide enough delay time while the second method uses a flip flop to latch the clamp into “on” state at the ESD event. Moreover, the stability of transient clamps is analyzed and it’s been shown that the two proposed clamps have the highest stability compared to other state of the art ESD clamps. Finally, in order to investigate the impact of ESD protection circuits on high speed applications a current mode logic (CML) driver is designed in 0.13μm CMOS technology. The protection for this driver is provided using both MOS-based and SCR-based protection methods. Measurement results show that, compared to MOS-based protection, SCR-based protection has less impact on the driver performance due to its lower parasitic capacitance.

ESD, the discharge of electrostatically generated charges into an IC, is one of the most important reliability problems for ultra-scaled devices. This electrostatic charge can generate voltages of up to tens of kilovolts. These very high voltages can generate very high electric fields and currents across semiconductor devices, which may result in dielectric damage or melting of semiconductors and contacts. It has been reported that up to 70% of IC failures are caused by ESD. Therefore, it’s necessary to design a protection circuit for each pin that discharges the ESD energy to the ground. As the devices are continuously scaling down, while ESD energy remains the same, they become more vulnerable to ESD stress. This higher susceptibility to ESD damage is due to thinner gate oxides and shallower junctions. Furthermore, higher operating frequency of the scaled technologies enforces lower parasitic capacitance of the ESD protection circuits. As a result, increasing the robustness of the ESD protection circuits with minimum additional parasitic capacitance is the main challenge in state of the art CMOS processes. Providing a complete ESD immunity for any circuit involves the design of proper protection circuits for I/O pins in addition to an ESD clamp between power supply pins. In this research both of these aspects are investigated and optimized solutions for them are reported. As Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) has the highest ESD protection level per unit area, ESD protection for I/O pins is provided by optimizing the first breakdown voltage and latch-up immunity of SCR family devices. The triggering voltage of SCR is reduced by a new implementation of gate-substrate triggering technique. Furthermore, a new device based on SCR with internal darlington pair is introduced that can provide ESD protection with very small parasitic capacitance. Besides reducing triggering voltage, latch-up immunity of SCR devices is improved using two novel techniques to increase the holding voltage and the holding current. ESD protection between power rails is provided with transient clamps in which the triggering circuit keeps the clamp “on” during the ESD event. In this research, two new clamps are reported that enhance the triggering circuit of the clamp. The first method uses a CMOS thyristor element to provide enough delay time while the second method uses a flip flop to latch the clamp into “on” state at the ESD event. Moreover, the stability of transient clamps is analyzed and it’s been shown that the two proposed clamps have the highest stability compared to other state of the art ESD clamps. Finally, in order to investigate the impact of ESD protection circuits on high speed applications a current mode logic (CML) driver is designed in 0.13μm CMOS technology. The protection for this driver is provided using both MOS-based and SCR-based protection methods. Measurement results show that, compared to MOS-based protection, SCR-based protection has less impact on the driver performance due to its lower parasitic capacitance.

Endohedral metallofullerenes have special structures, therefore we are interested in. High-temperature laser vaporization method and direct current arc discharge method, which are the two methods for preparing endohedral metallofullerenes. Here we study the preparation of endohedral metallofullerenes by direct current arc discharge method, which uses two graphite rods as electrode and vaporizes the one which infill metal complex in high temperature and low helium gas pressure environment. We study in some metal complexes such as Mo(C5Ph5)2, Fe(CO)9, Ag and Au. After reaction, we collect the soot produced in reaction and choose different solvents to separate the products from it with Soxhlet extraction.