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Background: Studies show that healthcare professionals often experience ethical difficulties in their relations with patients, relatives, and other professionals and in relation to organisational issues, and these can sometimes be difficult to handle. Failing to act or to relate in accordance with one’s values for what is good and right might cause a troubled conscience that is connected to feelings of guilt and ill-being. Ethical issues related to the care of patients with end-stage renal disease have been described, but no studies in this context have been found that explore registered nurses’ (RNs’) and physicians’ experiences of being in ethically difficult situations that give rise to a troubled conscience. The importance of communicating ethical issues in order to understand and handle ethically difficult care situations has been emphasized. Various forms of clinical ethics support (CES) have been described and evaluated, but studies on the communication processes and the organisation of CES interventions are sparse and no study describing a CES intervention based on Habermas’ theory of communicative action has been found. Aim: The overall aim was to increase our understanding about being in ethically difficult care situations and about how communication concerning ethical issues in healthcare can be promoted. More specifically, the aim of studies I and II was to illuminate experiences of being in ethically difficult situations giving rise to a troubled conscience among RNs and physicians, while studies III and IV aimed to describe the communication of value conflicts (III) and the organisation and performance of a CES intervention (IV). Methods: In studies I and II narrative interviews with ten RNs (I) and five physicians (II), were performed in a dialysis care context. The interviews were analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. In studies III and IV, eight audio- and video-recorded and two audio-recorded sessions of the CES intervention, were conducted and sorted by the data tool Transana and analysed in accordance with a qualitative content analysis (III) and a qualitative concept- and data-driven content analysis (IV). Results: The RNs’ narratives (I) resulted in the theme ‘Calling for a deliberative dialogue’. Their narratives expressed feelings of uncertainty, solitude, abandonment, and guilt in complex and ambiguous ethically difficult situations. The narratives concerned the value conflict between preserving life by all means and preserving life with dignity. The physicians’ narratives (II) resulted in the themes ‘Feeling trapped in irresolution’ and ‘Being torn by conflicting demands’. Their narratives expressed feelings of uncertainty, solitude, abandonment and guilt related to the obligation to make crucial decisions and in situations when their ideals and the reality iii clashed. The analysis of the communication of value conflicts during the CES intervention inspired by Habermas’ theory of communicative action (study III) revealed a process of five phases: a value conflict expressed as feelings of frustration, sharing disempowerment and helplessness, revelation of the value conflict, enhancing realistic expectations of the patients and relatives, and seeing opportunities to change the situation instead of obstacles. The CES intervention (study IV) was organised as a framework with a given structure and an openness for variations to facilitate communicative action. Three courses of actions to reach a communicative agreement were identified and concerned the approach to achieve a permissive communication, opening up for extended views, and enhancing mutual understanding (IV). Conclusion: The results show that both RNs and physicians expressed feelings of uncertainty abandonment and loneliness in similar ethically difficult situations but from different points of view. They struggled with the same value conflicts and feelings, but they did not share their struggles with each other. The lack of communication and confirmation led to distrust and increased feelings of uncertainty. The CES intervention, inspired by Habermas’ theory of communicative action, offered the possibility of dealing with experiences of ethically difficult care situations. In the permissive atmosphere, the professionals helped each other to balance their ambiguity, frustrations, and powerlessness and came to an agreement about how to handle the value conflicts and how to act. The findings from this CES intervention constitute a step towards a CES method that is clearly described so that leaders can be educated and extended intervention studies with different kinds of data can be conducted in order to further develop knowledge about how to promote an inter-professional dialogue about ethical difficulties.

In der Metakontrastmaskierung wird die Sichtbarkeit des ersten Stimulus (Target) durch das Auftreten eines zweiten Stimulus (Maske) reduziert. Zwei Maskierungsfunktionen (MF) treten hauptsächlich auf: Typ A, wenn die Sichtbarkeit mit ansteigender SOA zumimmt, und Typ-B, wenn die Sichtbarkeit in kurzer und langer SOA hoch ist und auf ein Minimum in mittlerer SOA abfällt. In fünf Studien wurde systematisch untersucht welchen Einfluss experimentelle Parameter auf das Auftreten der MF haben. Je länger die Maske im Verhältnis zum Target präsentiert wird, desto weiter verschiebt sich das Minimum der MF hin zu kürzerer SOA und desto mehr ähnelt sie einer Typ-A-MF (monoton ansteigend). Die Maskierung ist in kleinen Stimuli stärker als in großen Stimuli, sowohl im Zentrum als auch in der Peripherie. Bei beiden Stimulusgrößen findet bei der kürzesten SOA die stärkste Maskierung statt. MF unterscheiden sich nicht, wenn sich die Vorhersagbarkeit der Präsentationsorte der Stimuli unterscheidet. Scheinbewegungen werden in langen SOAs eher wahrgenommen als in kurzen SOAs. Darüber hinaus wurden inter-individuelle Unterschiede gefunden, die Einblicke in die Mechanismen erlauben, die in der Metakontrastmaskierung beteiligt sind. Einige Versuchspersonen zeigen eine Typ-A-MF und berichten Scheinbewegungen in der Abfolge der Stimuli wahrzunehmen, hauptsächlich in langen SOAs. Andere zeigen eine Typ-B-MF und berichten negative Nachbilder in Form des Tagets im Inneren der Maske wahrzunehmen, hauptsächlich in kurzen SOAs. Typ-A- und Typ-B-Versuchspersonen unterscheiden sich in ihrer Top-Down-Verarbeitung der Stimuli, nicht aber in ihrer Bottom-Up-Verarbeitung. Zwei Prozesse stellten sich heraus, die in der Verarbeitung der Metakontraststimuli beteiligt sein könnten. Nach der Integrations-Segregations-Theorie steht die getrennte (segregierte) Wahrnehmung zweier Stimuli, die Scheinbewegungen ermöglicht, mit dem Segregationsprozess in Zusammenhang. Dagegen steht die gleichzeitige (integrierte) Wahrnehmung zweier nacheinander folgender Stimuli mit dem Integrationsprozess in Zusammenhang. Da Prozess 1 stark mit einer Typ-A-MF verknüpft ist, einhergehend mit der Wahrnehmung von Scheinbewegungen, könnte dieser Prozess dem Segregationsprozess entsprechen. Da Prozess 2 stark mit einer Typ-B-MF verknüpft ist, einhergehend mit der Wahrnehmung negativer Nachbilder, könnte dieser Prozess dem Integrationsprozess entsprechen. Es wird angenommen, dass diese beiden Prozesse an der bewussten Wahrnehmung des Targets in der Metakontrastmaskierung beteiligt sind.

Ce travail porte sur la fonction des éducateurs spécialisés en institution. Malgré les différents profils des éducateurs et leurs différents cadres d’intervention (spatiaux et temporels), la fonction éducative peut être définie comme fonction « chorale », en référence au choeur de la tragédie grecque, dans sa qualité première d’institution. La métaphore tragique a permis d’envisager cette fonction selon le paradigme groupal proposé par la métapsychologie. Les théories psychanalytiques du groupe rendent possible l’examen du travail du lien intersubjectif et de la question des transferts dans l’éducation spécialisée, tant du coté de l’équipe éducative que du coté des « confiés ». La fonction éducative conçue comme fonction « chorale », fonction d’une psyché groupale, permet de penser les relations éducatives plurielles dans leur potentiel de figuration, contribuant à la tâche primaire. La problématique du lien intersubjectif s’avère pertinente pour fonder une « clinique éducative ». / This work concerns the educative function of caseworkers in institution. Despite the caseworkers‘ different profiles and their different frameworks (time and space related), the educative function could be described as a choral function in reference to the Greek tragedy’s choir, in its institution first quality. The tragic metaphor made it possible to think this function according to the group paradigm offered by metapsychology(psychoanalysis). Group psychoanalytical theories made it possible to examine the inter‐subjective link and the question of transfer in social work, so much for the caseworkers than the “users”. The educative function, as a choral function, function of group psyche, allowed us to think the plural educative relationship in their conformation potential, contributing to the primary task. The inter‐subjective link problematic turns out to be relevant to found a “clinic of education”.

The thesis is focused on the possibilities of municipal cooperation in the Czech Republic, specifically on voluntary groups of municipalities. The aim is to analyse their activities and the advantages they bring to the involved municipalities. In the theoretical part, the various possibilities of municipal cooperation are generally outlined. Further, some important terms and aspects of regional development and municipal cooperation are explained, including the most important preconditions for such cooperation. In the practical part two examples of municipal cooperation are shown - The group of municipalities of the river Desná valley and Jesenicko Micro-region. Basic information about those subjects, their formation and activities including their most important projects can be found in here. The last two chapters deal with comparison of both micro-regions, especially in the fields of fundraising and management. They include also the results of the structured interviews with some of the representatives of involved municipalities and the data gained from a survey carried out among the citizens of some of those municipalities.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Twenty-first century organisations have become more conscious of implementing work-life balance practices due to the fusion of females into the labour market, the existence of double career couples with children and equality gender. Several studies around work-life balance has been embarked upon, however, the perception of female traffic officers within the South African environment has not yet been explored. The present study seeks to understand and provide female traffic inspectors with better insights about how they are currently experiencing work and home life through self-awareness. A phenomenological approach based on a research design of inquiry was used to engage with female traffic inspectors and to obtain their experience, as well as its impact. The sample used for this study consisted of six female traffic inspectors from the Western Cape Government, Department of Transport and Public Works: Metro Region. The current research used one research instrument namely in-depth interview to address the research question using semi-structured, audio-taped interviews. Recurring themes that emerged from the study indicate that female traffic inspectors’ experience of work-life balance challenges involved job stress, work support, organisational culture and the work environment. These challenges have impacted on their work life and family life which gave rise to inter-role conflict, work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict, which negatively impacted on their attitude in attempting to adapt to their work environment. It became evident that most of the participants were finding it difficult to balance work and family as they realise that “something had to give”.

In order to create sustainable competitive advantages, organizations are embedded in dyadic exchange relationships, which depend on the coordination of the behavior of the actors involved. Often, coordinated behavior is explained by trust. Since trust develops in a process of reciprocal responses to presumed trustworthy behavior, it is a reciprocity-based concept. While inter-organizational exchange relationships can appear in different stages (forming, establishing, broken), different reciprocity types (direct, indirect, negative) can be distinguished. The study links reciprocal behavior to different stages of inter-organizational exchange relationships in order to investigate reciprocity as a possible coordination mechanism of behavior and thus explore the basis of coordination of trust-based behavior. Qualitative Comparative Analysis as a set-theoretic approach is applied to analyze the empirical data consisting of 78 qualitative semi-structured interviews with managers of small-, medium- and large-sized companies. The results show that different reciprocity types become effective in different stages of an inter-organizational exchange relationship: For forming inter-organizational exchange relationships indirect reciprocal behavior, besides direct reciprocity, becomes effective while in establishing inter-organizational exchange relationships, direct reciprocal behavior is evident. Negative reciprocal behavior leads to a break up of relationships. Using these results, on the one hand, the concept of trust can be sharpened by deepening the understanding of the trust-building mechanisms and on the other hand, reciprocity can be seen as coordination mechanism in exchange relationships of different stages. In doing so, with this knowledge, relationships can be coordinated towards a long-term orientation in order to create sustainable advantages.

Thesis advisor: Paul Gray / This thesis is a study of inter-sectoral collaboration and the impact of crises and social learning and cooperation initiatives on corporate change. The main purpose is to demonstrate how governments, corporations, and non-governmental organizations can most effectively work together to solve some of the world's most pressing development problems. Using case studies of extractive multinational corporations operating in Colombia, Papua New Guinea, and Nigeria, this paper presents support for the fact that crises are essential catalysts for corporate change. Moreover, analysis of these cases reinforces the critical role social learning and cooperation initiatives play in driving longterm improvements in corporate practice. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program.

Le transcodage des nombres chez l’enfant est un domaine peu exploré. L’objectif général de ce travail de thèse était de tester les principales prédictions permises par le modèle de transcodage ADAPT de Barrouillet et al. (2004) notamment sa version ADAPTBASIC concernant le transcodage au début de l’apprentissage. ADAPT, à la différence des autres modèles de transcodage numérique (e.g., McCloskey 1992) est un modèle développemental, asémantique et procédural. Le transcodage étudié est celui qui permet de passer de la forme verbale à la forme arabe des nombres. Les travaux menés durant cette thèse questionnent l’acquisition du transcodage et son développement avec l’apprentissage, ainsi que l’impact des différences inter-linguistiques et individuelles. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, nous avons adopté une approche développementale dans laquelle nous avons exploré les connaissances de transcodage des enfants Français en début d’apprentissage scolaire à l’aide d’une dictée de nombres. Ensuite, nous avons procédé à une approche longitudinale pour suivre l’acquisition du système de transcodage et de ses règles. Dans une approche inter-linguistique, nous avons confronté les résultats obtenus auprès d’enfants Français aux résultats obtenus auprès d’enfants Allemands et Syriens. Enfin, nous avons testé l’impact des différences individuelles des capacités mémorielles sur le transcodage. Les résultats apportent une contribution dans ce domaine et permettent de mieux comprendre que le transcodage est un processus qui se développe sous l’influence de différences individuelles et linguistiques. / Number transcoding in children is a domain rarely investigated. The PhD goal is to test the main predictions allowed by the transcoding model “ADAPT” of Barrouillet et al. (2004) in particular its ADAPTBASIC version concerning transcoding at the beginning of learning. Unlike the other transcoding models (e.g., McCloskey on 1992), ADAPT is a developmental, asemantic and procedural model. In this research the concerned transcoding allows to shift the verbal form of number to Arabic form. This thesis questions the acquisition of transcoding and its development with learning, as well as the impact of the inter-linguistic and individual differences. To reach these objectives, we adopted a developmental approach in which we explored number transcoding in French children at the beginning of school learning by means of a number dictation. Then we adopted a longitudinal approach to follow the acquisition of the transcoding system and its rules. In an inter-linguistic approach, we compared the results obtained in French children with the results obtained in German and Syrian children. Finally, we evaluated the impact of individual differences in memory capacities on number transcoding. The results constitute a contribution in this domain and allow to understand that the transcoding is a process which develops under the influence of individual and linguistic differences

Today’s embedded systems require more and more performance but they are still required to meet power constraints. Single processor systems can deliver high performance but this leads to high power consumption. One solution to this problem is to use a multiprocessor system instead which is able to provide high performance and at the same time meet the power constraints. The reason that such a system can meet the power constraints is that it can have a lower clock frequency than a similar single processor system. The focus of the project is to explore possibilities when developing new multiprocessor systems. The project makes a comparison of asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) systems and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems in terms of task management and communication between the processors. A comparison is made between the Advanced High-performance Bus (AHB) interface and the Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI). The fixed priority and round-robin arbitration algorithms is also compared. The project also contains a practical part where a demo is developed to show that an inter-processor communication using exclusive access is possible to implement. The theoretical part of the project containing the comparisons result in good comparisons that can be used to get an overview of what to use when developing new Multiprocessor System on Chip (MPSoC) designs. The demo developed in this project failed to meet the requirement of having a fully functional spinlock. This problem can be solved in the future if new hardware is developed. / Dagens inbyggda system kräver mer och mer prestanda men de måste fortfarande klara av kraven kring strömförbrukning. System med en processor kan leverera hög prestanda men detta leder till hög strömförbrukning. En lösning till detta problem är att använda ett multiprocessorsystem istället som klarar av att leverera hög prestanda och samtidigt klara av kraven kring strömförbrukning. Anledningen till att denna typ av system klarar av kraven kring strömförbrukning är att de kan använda en lägre klockfrekvens än ett system med en processor. Fokuset på detta projektet ligger på att utforska möjligheterna som finns när nya multiprocessorsystem ska utvecklas. Projektet gör en jämförelse mellan asymmetriska och symmetriska multiprocessorsystem i termer av uppgiftshantering och kommunikation mellan processorerna. En jämförelse har gjorts mellan Advanced High-Performance Bus (AHB) gränssnittet och Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) gränssnittet. Fixed priority och round-robin algoritmerna för hantering av krockar mellan processorerna har också jämförts. Det finns även en praktisk del i projektet där en demo har utvecklats för att visa en fungerande kommunikation mellan processorer som använder funktionaliteten för exklusiv åtkomst till den gemensamma bussen. Den teoretiska delen av projektet som innehåller jämförelserna resulterar i bra jämförelser som kan användas när nya multiprocessorsystem utvecklas. Demon som har utvecklats i detta projekt misslyckades med att klara av kravet kring att ha ett fullt fungerande lås. Detta problemet kan lösas i framtiden ifall ny hårdvara utvecklas.