Hot och våld har blivit allt mer vanligt i ambulanssjuksköterskans vardag. Det är därför viktigt att lyfta fram ambulanssjuksköterskornas upplevelser av detta. Syftet var att beskriva ambulanssjuksköterskans upplevelse i en hotfull eller våldsam vårdsituation. Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ intervjustudie där nio ambulanssjuksköterskor intervjuades om deras upplevelse i samband med en hotfull eller våldsam vårdsituation. Resultatet visar att ambulanssjuksköterskorna värnar om sin egen säkerhet genom att ha en säker vårdplats, hålla ryggen fri och ha en flyktväg redo. Ambulanssjuksköterskorna känner också att de tar kontroll över situationen genom att ligga steget före, göra upp en strategi, ha handlingsberedskap och tänker förutseende. I mötet med den hotfulle eller våldsamme patienten väcks en rad känslor och reaktioner hos ambulanssjuksköterskan som rädsla, obehag och oro, känslan av maktlöshet, frustration och irritation samt ilska. Ambulanssjuksköterskorna försöker skapa ett bra möte med patienten genom att hålla en låg profil och inte provocera. Ambulanssjuksköterskorna försöker nå patienten genom att skapa en relation och vara lyhörd och följsam. Ambulanssjuksköterskan har alltid en vilja att vårda men ibland är möjligheterna begränsade och då kan de endast göra de allra nödvändigaste kontrollerna på patienten. Ibland kan polisen ha en negativ inverkan på vårdandet. Ambulanssjuksköterskorna känner att de behöver mer eller kontinuerlig utbildning i hur man hanterar en hotfull eller våldsam vårdsituation. Stödjande samtal efter en jobbig händelse är något ambulanssjuksköterskorna känner är bra och att de behöver. I diskussionen diskuteras hur studien genomfördes. Vidare diskuteras ambulanssjuksköterskors upplevelser av en hotfull eller våldsam vårdsituation och hur detta påverkar ambulanssjuksköterskan själv, möjligheten att vårda samt polisens inverkan på situationen.

Crop emergence is a major factor limiting crop yield, especially in hot climates where soil dries quickly after rainfall or irrigation. Problems with the emergence of cotton in Pakistan are of particular importance because of the high value of the crop and its contribution to national economy. A complex interaction of factors involving climate, seed properties, soil physical properties and soil management determine crop emergence and hence establishment. This means modelling of emergence is an important way of determining the combination of conditions at which emergence becomes limited. The studies reported here show the effect of temperature, matric potential and mechanical impedance on pre-emergent root and shoot growth of cotton variety MNH-147. The effect of osmotic potential and temperature on time to germination and cumulative germination of cotton is also described with some preliminary work on wheat. Finally a small field experiment was performed in Pakistan to identify major factors limiting emergence and provide data for future validation of a computer model of emergence. Time to germination was found to be a function of temperature and metric potential. It reduced with increase in temperature and osmotic potential. A linear relationship between temperature and germination rate (1/time to germination) indicated a base temperature of 9.8 °C. Germination rate also decreased linearly with decreasing osmotic potential between zero and -500 kPa. Thus the concept of hydrothermal time can be used to model germination and parameters to fit this model were determined. Root and shoot lengths of pre-emergent cotton seedling increased with increase in temperature from 22 to 32 °C but were reduced with a further increase to 38 °C. At any temperature, lengths increased linearly with time at a rate controlled by temperature. During the first 192 h after germination, growth was divided into two distinct phases: a linear increase with time followed by no further growth.

The development, implementation, and performance evaluation of new techniques for the location of hot spots in proteins and exons in DNA using digital filters are presented. The application of bandpass notch (BPN) digital filters for locating hot spots in proteins is first investigated. A technique is proposed for designing the appropriate BPN filter for a specific protein sequence in which the area under the amplitude response is minimized to achieve maximum selectivity for a chosen stability margin. The minimization is performed using the golden-section search. A tuning technique is also proposed for improving the accuracy of the BPN filter. The tuning is carried out using a least-squares polynomial model. Several example protein sequences are used to illustrate these techniques. BPN filters are then employed for locating exons in DNA. An additional step of lowpass filtering is introduced in order to detect the strength of the bandpass filtered signal as a function of nucleotide location. For the character-to-numerical mapping, the application of the electron-ion interaction potentials (EIIPs) of the nucleotides as well as their binary sequences is investigated. The performance of the techniques is then evaluated using metrics such as sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, precision, and computational efficiency. These metrics are used in conjunction with the so-called receiver operating characteristic (ROC) technique to establish a reliable framework for the comparisons. For exon location, a technique based on the short-time discrete Fourier transform (STDFT) reported in the literature is also included in the comparison. The effect of using different window functions on the prediction accuracy of the technique is explored. Using a set of examples, it is shown that BPN filters predict short exons with better accuracy than the STDFT. The test dataset comprised 66 protein sequences and 160 DNA sequences obtained from the protein data bank and the HMR195 database, respectively. Results show that among the techniques considered, BPN filters perform best for the location of both protein hot spots and DNA exons in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. User-friendly MATLAB implementations of the techniques incorporating graphical interfaces are also described. Optimized numerical mapping schemes are proposed for exon location using both EIIP as well as binary sequences. Characteristic numerical values are obtained for the four nucleotides using a training procedure in which the prediction accuracy is maximized using a quasi-Newton algorithm based on the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno updating formula. A training set of 80 DNA sequences is chosen from the HMR195 database and the objective function is formulated using the ROC technique. The procedure is initialized using EIIP values. Unbiased testing of the optimized values is carried out using a test set that has no overlap with the training set. Simulation results show that the optimized values yield more accurate exon locations than those obtained using the actual EIIP values. In addition, they perform significantly better than a set of existing optimized complex values. By employing a similar strategy to optimize the weights of the binary sequences, it is shown that, in practice, only three out of four binary sequences are necessary to obtain accurate estimates of exon locations. Consequently, a computational saving of 25% can be achieved, which is substantial considering that DNA sequences encountered in practice are very long in nature. / Graduate

The published literature on the strength and structural changes occurring during and after hot working of AI5I316 and 304 austenitic stainless steels are reviewed. Isothermal plane strain compression tests have been carried out with the purpose of determining relationships to describe the kinetics of static recrystallization, the recrystallized grain size, the isothermal grain growth rate and the strength during hot rolling of AISI316 steel. The kinetics of static recrystallization were also studied in samples tested in axisymmetric compression, or hot rolled. The effect on the kinetics of static recrystallization of the strain distribution in samples tested in plane strain compression was analysed. The set of equations determined for 316 steel wasused in a computer model modified from the one developed by Leduc (1980) for simulation of hot rolling loads and microstructural evolution. Partially recrystallized microstructure was generated in a laboratory hot rolling mill and was reasonably simulated by the use of the computer programme. Non-isothermal plane strain compression tests were carried out for direct simulation of laboratory hot rolling results. Comparison between experimental hot rolling and plane strain compression data has shown reasonable levels of agreement in the microstructural simulations undertaken in the present work. The mean plane strain strengths from non-isothermal plane strain compression tests were higher than the ones from hot rolling. This may have been caused by thermal gradients inside the sample being tested.

The objective of the research presented in this thesis was to investigate the effects of wearout processes on the performance and reliability of CMOS bistable circuits. The main wearout process affecting reliability of submicron MOS devices was identified as hot-carrier stress (and the resulting degradation in circuit performance). The effect of hot-carrier degradation on the resolving time leading to metastability of the bistable circuits also have been investigated. Hot-carrier degradation was identified as a major reliability concern for CMOS bistable circuits designed using submicron technologies. The major hot-carrier effects are the impact ionisation of hot- carriers in the channel of a MOS device and the resulting substrate current and gate current generation. The substrate current has been used as the monitor for the hot-carrier stress and have developed a substrate current model based on existing models that have been extended to incorporate additional effects for submicron devices. The optimisation of the substrate current model led to the development of degradation and life-time models. These are presented in the thesis. A number of bistable circuits designed using 0.7 micron CMOS technology design rules were selected for the substrate current model analysis. The circuits were simulated using a set of optimised SPICE model parameters and the stress factors on each device was evaluated using the substrate current model implemented as a post processor to the SPICE simulation. Model parameters for each device in the bistable were degraded according to the stress experienced and simulated again to determine the degradation in characteristic timing parameters for a predetermined stress period. A comparative study of the effect of degradation on characteristic timing parameters for a number of latch circuits was carried out. The life-times of the bistables were determined using the life-time model. The bistable circuits were found to enter a metastable state under critical timing conditions. The effect of hot-carrier stress induced degradation on the metastable state operation of the bistables were analysed. Based on the analysis of the hot-carrier degradation effects on the latch circuits, techniques are suggested to reduce hot-carrier stress and to improve circuit life-time. Modifications for improving hot- carrier reliability were incorporated into all the bistable circuits which were re-simulated to determine the improvement in life-time and reliability of the circuits under hot-carrier stress. The improved circuits were degraded based on the new stress factors and the degradation effects on the critical timing parameters evaluated and these were compared with those before the modifications. The improvements in the life-time and the reliability of the selected bistable circuits were quantified. It has been demonstrated that the hot-carrier reliability for all the selected bistable circuits can be improved by design techniques to reduce the stress on identified critically stressed devices.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 128-132)

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1981. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-57).

Thesis (D.Phil.(Horticultural Science)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references. Available in print and online.

Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 2001. / Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.

Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 2001. / Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.