Timber beams with end splits were investigated in this study to determine their shear strength. Two conditions were considered: a) Group 1 had supports located near the ends with the portion of the beam extending beyond the support, and b) Group 2 had supports located right at the end of the beam subjected to a horizontal split at approximately mid height. In Group 1, seventeen beams were tested under static loading and four were tested in fatigue. In Group 2, nineteen beams were tested under static loading and four under fatigue. In Group 1, eight beams under static loading failed in shear. In Group 2, all beams under static loading failed in shear. Group 1 and Group 2 beams under static load produced average shear strength values of 4.93 MPa and 4.49 MPa, respectively. During fatigue tests, Group 1 sustained more cycles than beams in Group 2.

A qualitative phenomenological study incorporating Photovoice was conducted to gain insight into the lived experience of patients with end-stage heart failure (ESHF). Seven participants were recruited and in-depth open-ended interviews were conducted with all participants. Three of the seven informants also opted to take part in the Photovoice portion of the project. “Working to preserve a sense of self” emerged as the essence of living with ESHF and was supported by three themes: i) the work of managing a failing and unreliable body, ii) the work of choreographing daily living; and iii) the work of charting the final chapter of one’s life. The findings from this study provide healthcare professionals with empirically grounded information and insights about the needs and everyday challenges individuals living with ESHF experience, and how clinicians can best support them. Such information is essential in order to plan meaningful, holistic, evidence-based care for ESHF patients.

Our objective was to examine the impact of palliative care (PC) on aggressive care near death for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Measures of aggressive care included (i) chemotherapy within 14 days of death; (ii) more than one emergency department (ED) visit; (iii) more than one hospitalization; and (iv) at least one intensive care unit (ICU) admission, all within 30 days of death. A retrospective population-based cohort study was conducted with patients diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in Ontario. Multivariable logistic analyses were performed. Our final cohort consisted of 5,381 patients (median survival of 75 days). 52% received a PC consultation. PC consultation was associated with decreased use of chemotherapy near death (OR=0.34); and lower risk of ICU admission (OR=0.12), multiple ED visits (OR=0.19), and multiple hospitalizations near death (OR=0.24). A per unit increase in the monthly rate of PC visits was associated with lower odds of aggressive care.

Our objective was to examine the impact of palliative care (PC) on aggressive care near death for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Measures of aggressive care included (i) chemotherapy within 14 days of death; (ii) more than one emergency department (ED) visit; (iii) more than one hospitalization; and (iv) at least one intensive care unit (ICU) admission, all within 30 days of death. A retrospective population-based cohort study was conducted with patients diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in Ontario. Multivariable logistic analyses were performed. Our final cohort consisted of 5,381 patients (median survival of 75 days). 52% received a PC consultation. PC consultation was associated with decreased use of chemotherapy near death (OR=0.34); and lower risk of ICU admission (OR=0.12), multiple ED visits (OR=0.19), and multiple hospitalizations near death (OR=0.24). A per unit increase in the monthly rate of PC visits was associated with lower odds of aggressive care.

This dissertation describes a study of the kinetics of formation of tethered polymer layers. Polymer chains diffuse from dilute solution to the surface a solid, to which they become attached by one end. Kinetics profiles composed of three distinct regimes are displayed by all tethering reactions studied in the absence of segmental adsorption, regardless of solvent quality, temperature, chemistry of polymer, architecture of polymer, and type of reactive site on the surface. The first regime, fast and predicted previously by theory, is controlled by diffusion of the polymer chains through solution to the bare surface. The second regime, slow and also predicted by theory, is controlled by diffusion of the polymer chains through the already tethered layer. The third regime, relatively fast and not predicted by theory, appears to be the consequence of cooperative interaction between incoming chains and tethered chains. During the tethering process, each tethered polymer chain changes from a random-coil-like configuration to a vertically stretched configuration. The end of the first regime corresponds to completion of a layer of nonoverlapping, coil-like tethered chains, called a mushroom layer. Cessation of tethering corresponds to a layer of vertically stretched chains, called a polymer brush. Transition from mushroom to brush mainly takes place in the third regime and develops in spatially nonuniform manner. The understanding gained about the kinetics of tethering was used to construct simply tethered layers, bi-component tethered layers, bidisperse (two molecular weights) tethered layers, and tethered layers of mixed architecture (linear and star-branched).

The success of the new product development (NPD) process is vital for the survival of projects. Especially for small entrepreneurial projects that try to survive in a very competitive environment, affected by constant market and technical changes. Previous literature emphasize the importance of the generation of new ideas, to improve the product concept during the pre-development stage, but it did not pay a lot of attention to the sources of ideas. For this reason, this study aims to develop the knowledge concerning the sources of ideas of small entrepreneurial projects, during the fuzzy front-end (FFE). The literature review of this study presents the previous researches that relate to the sources of ideas, during the idea generation stage of the FFE. The structure of the existing model, integrating the sources of ideas, is based on three categories: environmental scanning, innovative organizational culture and joint research. An inductive study and a research, based on the analysis of one small high-tech entrepreneurial project, were conducted to cover the literature gap. This choice of methodology reflects the experimental purpose of this research. The empirical data are only primary data, collected by analyzing the diaries of the two entrepreneurs involved in the project. Our findings reveal that contact with lead user, entrepreneur experience, customer involvement, brainstorming sessions, competitor analysis, resource constraints and prototype conception represent the main sources of ideas of small entrepreneurial projects in the FFE. The practical purpose of this study is to offer some advices to entrepreneurs of small entrepreneurial projects for accessing to sources of ideas, during the idea generation stage of the FFE, and manage their impact on the development of the product concept. The theoretical implications contribute to the identification of new sources of ideas and a proposition of framework of their impact.

As the Internet becomes more pervasive, the content and services are increasing in quantity as well as improving in quality. This trend is fostered by the advancement of technologies, such as RESTful services, Web 2.0, and Mashups. Service composition integrates services to fulfill specific tasks using a set of tools. The existing service composition techniques and tools are mainly designed for the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) professionals. The business processes used in the service composition systems are primarily designed by business analysts who have extensive process knowledge. Due to the lack of process knowledge, novice business analysts and end users face challenge to identify and orchestrate service into a well-defined business process. Even for the experienced users, it is challenging to select appropriate services from a set of functionally similar services as the quality information of services may not be available. In this thesis, we propose a framework that allows a non-technical user to combine web services to achieve a goal. Our approach helps users to find the process knowledge from the web. We index web services based on the semantic concepts available in the service description documents and help users to formulate a web service search query. We use online reviews to choose a web service from a set of functionally similar web services. Our approach automatically finds the data flow between web services and generates a user interface to execute a composite service. The effectiveness of our proposed approaches is demonstrated through a series of case studies. The results of our case studies show that our approaches for process knowledge extraction, service discovery, and service selection make it easier for people with less technical knowledge to compose services. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-30 15:18:28.155

Timber beams with end splits were investigated in this study to determine their shear strength. Two conditions were considered: a) Group 1 had supports located near the ends with the portion of the beam extending beyond the support, and b) Group 2 had supports located right at the end of the beam subjected to a horizontal split at approximately mid height. In Group 1, seventeen beams were tested under static loading and four were tested in fatigue. In Group 2, nineteen beams were tested under static loading and four under fatigue. In Group 1, eight beams under static loading failed in shear. In Group 2, all beams under static loading failed in shear. Group 1 and Group 2 beams under static load produced average shear strength values of 4.93 MPa and 4.49 MPa, respectively. During fatigue tests, Group 1 sustained more cycles than beams in Group 2.

A qualitative phenomenological study incorporating Photovoice was conducted to gain insight into the lived experience of patients with end-stage heart failure (ESHF). Seven participants were recruited and in-depth open-ended interviews were conducted with all participants. Three of the seven informants also opted to take part in the Photovoice portion of the project. “Working to preserve a sense of self” emerged as the essence of living with ESHF and was supported by three themes: i) the work of managing a failing and unreliable body, ii) the work of choreographing daily living; and iii) the work of charting the final chapter of one’s life. The findings from this study provide healthcare professionals with empirically grounded information and insights about the needs and everyday challenges individuals living with ESHF experience, and how clinicians can best support them. Such information is essential in order to plan meaningful, holistic, evidence-based care for ESHF patients.

People with advanced cancer may have significant challenges to their physical, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being. However, some individuals are able to experience an overall sense of well-being in spite of these challenges. This study sought to understand the experience of well-being from the perspective of people with advanced cancer. Guided by interpretive descriptive methodology, eight participants were interviewed and the data were analyzed using the constant comparative approach. The participants took an active role in their well-being experience and described four main themes: view of self, the fluctuating nature of well-being, choices made to enhance well-being (including choosing supportive relationships, putting one‟s own needs first, treatments, focusing on the positive, and honoring the negative), and living in ambiguity. These findings have implications for nursing practice, nursing education, and health care organizations. / Graduate