The consequences of complications during calving are currently costing the UK dairy cattle industry approximately £110 for a calving of moderate difficulty and £400 for one that is severe. With incidences of difficult first calvings reaching 24% and 4% for a moderate and severe difficult calving respectively, reducing calving complications would be of great benefit to the UK dairy cattle industry. This PhD evaluates (i) the importance, (ii) the most optimal way, and (iii) the potential consequences of genetically selecting for two main traits associated with calving complications, calving ease (CE) and stillbirth (SB). For this, approximately 50.000 first parity and 300.000 later parity national calving data records were kindly provided by two major milk recording organisations in the UK. The work carried out shows that detrimental effects following a difficult first calving are long-lasting as subsequent performance of both the dam and the calf involved is worsened. Fertility of the dam is negatively affected by a difficult calving resulting in an increased calving interval and decreased ability to conceive. A reduction in milk production of a veterinary assisted dam, compared to a non-assisted dam, was detected in the first part of lactation. Veterinary assisted born calves showed a significantly lower milk yield, compared to farmer assisted calves, throughout their first lactation as adult heifers suggesting that the physiological effects, or causes underlying a difficult birth, are long lived. The study advises that genetic parameters of calving traits are to be estimated with an extended sire multi-trait model (accuracy vs. practicality). On average, direct and maternal heritabilities for calving traits are low. A highly heritable indicator trait such as gestation length (GL) can aid in the estimation of genetic parameters for CE and SB although genetic correlations of these traits with GL are moderate. A significant negative genetic direct-maternal correlation was found for CE in first parity recommending farmers to consider both direct and maternal genetic merit for CE when making a selection decision. CE and SB are highly positively correlated traits. GL is maternally correlated to SB in first parity and directly to CE in later parities, both correlations are positive. Estimated genetic correlations with other important traits in dairy cattle breeding show that CE and GL are both directly and maternally related to important selection traits which need to be taken into account if implementation into breeding indices occurs. Results advise limiting the use of GL to benefit the prediction of parameters for low heritable calving traits rather than selecting on GL itself. Genetic correlations suggest that individuals born easily are genetically prone to high milk yield and have reduced fertility in first lactation. Difficult calving heifers are likely to be associated with being wide and deep and high producing animals with a reduced ability to subsequently conceive. Individuals that are born relatively early are associated with good genetic merit for milk production. And finally, individuals carrying their young longer are genetically associated with being wide and large animals that were born relatively early themselves. Lastly, an extension of the current univariate genomic model to a bivariate model, which allows for a possible genetic direct-maternal covariance, shows that improvement in accuracy of genomic breeding values can be gained from use of a bivariate genomic model for maternal traits such as CE. Further development of the model is however recommended prior to the publication of genomic proofs for CE or any other maternal trait. Genetic selection can serve as a tool in the reduction of difficult calvings. The results of this thesis serve to let this happen in a controlled and sustainable manner.

In the apparel industry, pattern making and alterations are expensive and time consuming, because they require iterative fitting and adjustment to develop garment patterns that fit their target consumers. The goal of this paper is to accelerate the pattern making process for jeans customization, which incorporates proper ease distribution at crotch curve in a 3D jeans design and pattern alteration by developing ease distribution models. In this research, four female jeans with different crotch ease allowances were developed. The patterns were drafted using flat patterning methods. The fitting process was conducted and evaluated according to standard fitting criteria. Furthermore, the size 8 mannequin, and then the jeans with the mannequin inside were scanned by the Kinect Body Image System. The crotch curves of the mannequin and the jeans were obtained, and were then extracted to the Accumark CAD system where the radial distance eases of the crotch curves were defined and measured. Correlation analysis between the distance ease and crotch ease allowance was conducted, and regression analysis was used to develop ease distribution models. The applications of the regression models in 3D jeans design and jeans pattern alterations were discussed. This research enhances the understanding of the ease distribution at the jeans crotch area. The results of this research provide essential ease distribution information for the jeans pattern alterations and jeans construction on a 3D model. / text

Thesis (M. Com.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2015 / The South African petroleum industry is well-known to be a significant contributor to the country’s GDP. The industry is also known to employ close to 60000 employees in South Africa making it one of the most essential industries that is helping to uplift the country’s economy. However, like most industries in the country, the petroleum industry is not immune to strikes and go-slows which have increasingly become more pronounced over the years. This situation has consequently caused a number of problems for service stations as most service stations do not have complete control of the environment that they operate in, making it difficult for these fuel service stations to meet set targets and be able to ensure that greater profit margins are realised over time. This research sought to determine motorists’ perspectives on the adoption of self-service fuel stations in Johannesburg. The research focused on the adoption of these self-service fuel stations by assessing the general attitudes and perceptions of motorists on the innovation and findings have revealed that motorists generally accept the adoption of such an innovation provided that they understand and benefit from the functionality of adopting such innovations should they be introduced. The research was primarily a quantitative study and a five point likert scale questionnaire was distributed to potential respondents who were Johannesburg motorists above the age of 18 based on the motor-vehicle type they used. Results from the study revealed that motorists are more likely to consider adoption of Self-Service Fuel Stations provided they perceive such facilities to be useful and enhance their service experience at service-stations. Another interesting finding was that security and safety were a concern for most motorists who felt the variable will go a long way in influencing their decisions and attitude to consider adopting these facilities should they be introduced within the South African market. Marketers should therefore ensure that they consider the functionality and potential benefits that Self-Service Fuel Stations may have to Johannesburg motorists as this may go a long way in ensuring their wide adoption within the city should they be introduced.

Metacognition involves different evaluations of your own thinking- and learning process. Ease of learning (EOL) means judging how difficult for example a word is to learn. When researching about EOLs, different methods have been used in the past. In an experiment that tested glossaries, the methodology for measuring EOLs was investigated in this study. In the experiment, a comparison was made between making a sequential or simultaneous judgement of the difficulty of the words. A simultaneous judgement means judging one item while seeing the other items on the list, and a sequential judgement means judging while only seeing the word pair you are to judge. The result of this experiment was in line with previous research in that EOL judgments significantly, but only moderately so, predict the actual learnability of the items. However, the difference between a sequential and simultaneous judgement and their correlation with recall was not significant. There was a tendency towards better EOLs being made with simultaneous judgements, having a 30 % higher correlation with recall than sequential judgements.

Bakgrund: Inom sjukvården uppstår det ständigt situationer där patienters rädsla hamnar i fokus och vårdpersonalens förmåga att lindra rädsla behöver förbättras. Genom att ha en förståelse för fenomenet rädsla skapas goda förutsättningar för att kunna lindra rädslan. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva sjuksköterskestudenters uppfattning om hur patienters rädsla kan lindras. Metod: Studien genomfördes på sjuksköterskestudenter och data insamlades från fyra fokussamtal. Materialet analyserades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Resultatet presenteras utifrån tre teman; ”Att identifiera rädslan hos patienten”,” Att vara i mötet med den som är rädd” och ”Att överblicka det som skall hända tillsammans med patienten”. Diskussion: För att kunna lindra rädsla måste den först identifieras vilket kan göras i ett bra möte där vårdpersonalens känslighet är av stor vikt. I mötet har vårdpersonalen möjlighet att rusta patienten för att han eller hon ska kunna bemästra sin situation. Slutsats: Vårdpersonalen behöver ha känsligheten som förmåga för att kunna identifiera och lindra rädslan som patienten upplever. / Background: Within healthcare situations constantly occurs situations where patients' fear is in focus, and the ability to ease fear need to be improved. To create more favorable conditions to ease the fear it is important to understand the base of the phenomenon. Aim: The aim was to describe nursing students´ perception of how patients' fears can be eased. Method: The study was conducted on nursing students and data were collected from four focus interviews. The material was analyzed by a content analysis. Results: The results are presented on three themes: "Identifying the fear of the patient", "To face those who are afraid" and "Overview of what is happening together with the patient." Discussion: In order to ease the fear, the fear must be identified which can be done in a good meeting where health professionals´ sensitivity is of great importance. In the meeting, the nursing staff have the opportunity to prepare the patient so that he or she should be able to cope with their situation. Conclusion: Health professionals need to have the sensitivity and the ability to identify and ease the fear that the patient experience.

The ever-evolving information technology gives users more opportunities, but also put higher demands on them. The digital agenda of the state and society clarifies the objectives and effects academic libraries’ development. E-books influence the development of organizational, economic, legal and political perspectives.   At the University Library in Gävle work is ongoing. The process is controlled by the acquisition policy which makes it clear that e-books should be purchased if possible. By offering e-books including textbooks it expands the availability for student demands. It is one of University Libraries fundamental tasks.   The curiosity about how this work is received by students is the purpose of this thesis and addresses the questions concerning what affects students' acceptance, perception, attitude and usage of e-books in studies at the University of Gävle?   Through an online questionnaire based on a theoretical foundation developed to be used in tests of new information technology, Technology Acceptance Model, students' perceptions of e-books is mapped. Important variables are perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use which influence the attitude, the intention to use and actual use.   The thesis concluded that students accept e-books as a supplement to printed books. The factor students’ value as most important is availability and that it is easy to find. The main goal of students' reading is to gain access to required literature of the course and perceived usefulness of e-books is primarily to its being available which affects studying and learning.

O cadeirante enfrenta diversos obstáculos ao longo do seu trajeto e diversas restrições de mobilidade. Assim, uma cadeira de rodas que permita ao usuário acessar objetos que estejam fora de seu limite de alcance especificamente o vertical com maior facilidade, proporcionar também maior conforto durante um diálogo com outras pessoas, entre outras situações. Esse trabalho tem como objetivo adaptar uma cadeira de rodas comum, com um sistema de automático elevação vertical em seu assento, que permite ao usuário ficar com uma altura equivalente à altura média humana, estando a pessoa em posição vertical ou seja em pé. O sistema de elevação automatizado do assento foi feito através de um mecanismo simples com comando elétrico, que possui facilidade na manutenção, e de baixo custo, tornando-a acessível a todas as classes sociais. / People with disabilities using wheelchairs face several obstacles along their path and various mobility restrictions. A wheelchair that allows the user to access objects that are out the range of his vertical limits provides quality of life, improves self-esteem and comfort for many situations, such as a dialogue with others. This project aims to adapt a common wheelchair with an automatic vertical elevation system attached to seat that allows the user to stay with a height equal to the human average height, being the person in an upright position standing. The automated elevation system was done through a simple mechanism with electric drive, which features easy maintenance, low cost, making it accessible to all social classes.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第24696号 / 人博第1069号 / 新制||人||250(附属図書館) / 2022||人博||1069(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)教授 内田 由紀子, 教授 齋木 潤, 教授 小村 豊, 准教授 Rappleye Jeremy / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

<p> </p><p>This study firstly examines the current literature concerning the electronic banking problems during implementation of electronic problems in Pakistan and causes that hinders this process. To investigate in the real-time scenario we have taken the case study of Muslim Commercial Bank Limited in Pakistan in order to understand “why” and “how” the electronic banking could not be implemented successfully.</p><p>The data was collected via interviews, surveys and bank website. Both qualitative and quantitative research approach has been used to investigate and have proper understanding of current e-banking issues. We have sent questionnaire to bank employees and interviews were conducted by the bank mangers. The response of interviews and surveys shows that there are certain issues that hinder the use of e-banking in Pakistan. In-spite of the fact that internet banking has been started in Pakistan, people are still using the old manual system to do the banking transaction, popularity of cash system, waiting in long queues for hours and lacking of proper computer education and trust etc are the major problems that are hurdles in electronic banking. On the other side there are a lot of reasons that the banks did not concentrate on internet banking and cash flow is still popular in banks and internet banking was used by the banks for the limited services.</p><p>Last years a lot of changes has been done and a greater understanding have been developed and now banks are offering various online banking services but banks are facing the problem of customer awareness regarding security and privacy of using Internet banking services as still customers are reluctant to use the online banking services so they prefer to come to banks and deposit the money by hand. So we have investigated these hindrance in our research and also we put some light on what are the advantages in using electronic banking and the how the customers are getting benefit by using e-banking in Pakistan.</p><p>We have developed our own model based upon the prior research. The results were presented in detail based upon the interview and questionnaire and later on we have given recommendations so that e-banking concept can be implemented in Pakistan and suggestions which can be very helpful for the future research</p>

Even though the development of business intelligence is moving forward rapidly, a substantial number of organizations are yet to implement business intelligence. Therefore, this thesis aims at investigating what internal organizational obstacles that could be hindering the implementation of business intelligence and how these obstacles could be overcome. In order to answer this, the Technological Acceptance Model combined with the notion IT identity, is used as the theoretical framework. This thesis is of an interpretivist nature and data was collected through qualitative, semi-structured interviews with six experts within the field of business intelligence, consisting of consultants and business intelligence managers. The identified obstacles could be connected to employees’ perceived usefulness being too low in relation to the perceived non-pecuniary cost. The proposed solutions aims at raising the perceived usefulness and lower the non-pecuniary cost through different methods presented in this thesis.