Postoperative urinary retention (PUR) is a common problem seen after surgery, particularly after orthopedic surgery. There has been a great deal of research done surrounding the causes of PUR and the optimal treatment for PUR, all with conflicting results. Little research has been done with orthopedic nurses to find out how they actually treat PUR, and on what information they base those treatment decisions. Evidence-based practice has been gaining popularity recently and highlights the need for nurses to make treatment decisions based on sound research, patient preferences, clinical expertise, and taking into consideration health care resources and the clinical setting (DiCenso, Ciliska, & Guyatt, 2005). This study investigated nurses' views on the definition of PUR, how they assessed for PUR, how they treated PUR and what they based their treatment decisions on. Ten nurses who worked on orthopedic units were interviewed using a semi-structured format consisting of four questions. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed verbatim by the student researcher. Qualitative description, as described by Sandelowski (2000), was used to analyze data. All nurses defined PUR fairly similarly. Various contributing factors for PUR were mentioned, some that were studied in the literature, and some that were not. Each nurse had a slightly different way of treating PUR, and 'ward routine' was also described differently. Study results point to a need for more research and education in the area of PUR so that all nurses are treating PUR in the same manner based on the same sound knowledge base.

Why do some first year students continue and others leave before their second year? This has been a pressing question for a number of years. Consequently, there has been a growing interest in examining the experiences of first-year post-secondary students and identifying the factors that are associated with their attrition and persistence. In Canada, there is a specific need to understand the experiences of the Aboriginal people. This group of individuals has shown significantly lower post-secondary completion rates than the non-Aboriginal population, and many view their participation in higher education as being the key to a better future. The purpose of this research was to explore factors associated with the adjustment and anticipated persistence of first year Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. To this end, the connections between adjustment, person-environment fit, anticipated persistence and a number of psychosocial and background variables were investigated using a quantitative-descriptive mixed method design. In the first part of the study, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal participants within a university context and Aboriginal participants alone within a college environment were followed from the fall of their first year (N=316) to the spring of their first year (N=159) in order to examine the first year transition experience. In the second portion of the study, a subset of Aboriginal students (N=11) was interviewed about their post-secondary experiences in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the transition experience. Full or partial support was found for the majority of the hypotheses related to adjustment, fit, and anticipated persistence. In the present study, academic, social and personal-emotional adjustment were each associated with subjective fit, beliefs about the transition experience, social support, and academic self-efficacy. Furthermore, each type of adjustment was also associated with additional unique correlates. This research also highlights that anticipated persistence is complex, with a number of background factors (e.g., high school preparation), psychosocial factors (e.g., beliefs about the transition experience, social support, academic self-efficacy) as well as adjustment and person-environment fit being relevant to this decision. In addition, this research highlights that Aboriginal students do not have poorer adjustment or fit compared to their non-Aboriginal peers but that they do have lower levels of anticipated persistence. A discussion of these and other findings as well as the implications and limitations of the present study is provided.

Although the percentage of Aboriginal youth who leave school prior to completion is declining, it remains higher than that of non-Aboriginal students. The following research questions frame this narrative inquiry:<p> 1. What are the stories of six Aboriginal students who graduated from an urban provincial high school?<p> 2. What factors do they perceive as contributing to their success in completing an academic grade twelve?<p> 3. What recommendations do they have for educators and schools, which would benefit current Aboriginal students?<p> The six participants are introduced with a narrative account of the interviews between the researcher and each participant. The researcher looked for commonalities that emerged from the participants' stories and grouped them into three broad themes: Our Environment, Our Relationships, and Ourselves. Within the themes the researcher commented on specific experiences and opinions expressed by the participants. A number of the participants' original stories are combined and included to allow their voice to authenticate the findings.<p> Participants revealed how interconnected relationships contributed to their academic success. Positive relationships with family, friends, and teachers were factors participants expressed most frequently as contributing to their success. Some of the participants, however, identified negative peer pressure, lack of family and school support, and discrimination, but all participants showed ability to cope with adversity. The values and inner strength participants maintained emerged in their stories demonstrating the strong relationship they had with their inner selves.<p> A list of recommendations for high schools, generated by participants, accompanies each theme. Recommendations included recognizing and taking action toward issues such as discrimination, gangs, and lack of student involvement in school activities. Participants recommended alternative counselling and academic support programs. Recommendations aiding in the development of positive student-teacher relationships were generated from the descriptions of effective and ineffective teaching practices. The most significant recommendations rising from the stories of the six participants focused on building community in the school and bridging families and local resources with the school. Most importantly, participants acknowledged the need for schools to be conscious of the diversity in traditional practices, home life, and culture among urban Aboriginal students.

The study contributes to the growing literature on the role of social economy enterprises on rural vitality, by examining the relationship between credit union activity and community population growth in rural Canada. A preliminary qualitative inquiry indicated that while most of the business policies and practices of a chartered bank and a credit union are similar, a credit union, in addition, extended non-traditional lending to their clients in the form of micro-lending and also participated actively in community development lending. Following the preliminary qualitative investigation, the impact of credit unions was examined using spatial regressions models in seven provinces in Canada using data at Consolidated Census Subdivisions (CCSs) level data to represent communities. Motivated by the potential role of credit unions as community based financial institutions, the quantitative analysis modeled credit unions as potentially reducing transactions costs for local businesses.<p> Regression results indicated that the presence of credit unions was statistically significant and positive in our most parsimonious models including only natural amenity factors, agglomeration measures and other social measures as explanatory variables. However, in the full model with economic variables added the credit union dummy lost its statistical significance. A possible interpretation is that the credit union dummy is an inadequate representation of credit union activity. More complete, high quality, quantitative data to reflect their activities in the community may have produced different results.<p> Recent credit union mergers are designed to increase their capacity and efficiency in providing services to their members. However, these new trends could aggravate the principal-agent problems. As credit unions become more bank-like though mergers, individual branches may lose their links with their local communities and their ability to perform their traditional functions.

Eight agricultural catchments in south Sweden were investigated for factors that may affect phosphorus (P) load and retention in the downstream situated wetlands (WL). P load is known to affect retention, and is determined by hydrological and geographical catchment characteristics. The wetlands were small (0.02-0.88%) in relation to their catchments (CA) and varied in design. Net sedimentation and P retention was determined with sedimentation plates during one year. The variables that best explained differences in particles and TP retention were the hydraulic load (q), TP load and the wetland length to width ratio. Contrary to expectations there was no correlation between factors that could be associated with erosion (i.e. slope and soil clay content) and retention of neither particles nor TP. Generally, the highest amounts of settled particles and P were found close to the wetland inlets, but soil disturbance (i.e. tillage) and high q increased the settling distance. It was likely that the smallest clay particles were too unaggregated to settle within these wetlands. Factors not included, such as wetland vegetation and bioturbation may have a large impact on P retention and this should be further investigated. The study also points to the difficulties in scaling down geological and P loss data from a regional to a local scale, as there can be large local deviations from the regional standard values. An easy method for identification of local “hotspots” for P losses should be of value for planning the location of future wetlands.

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In this thesis, we propose a new thin-film transistor with trenched body and airgap-insulated structure (AITFT) for one-transistor dynamic random access memory (1T-DRAM) applications and investigate the influence of different materials on the sensing current window and retention time. Its basic operation mechanisms are based on the impact ionization and floating body effects. Due to the generated holes storing in the pseudo neutral region, the threshold voltage (Vth) is lower, resulting in a high drain current for state ¡§1¡¨. So we can recognize the data by sensing the difference of the drain current. According to the ISE TCAD 10.0 simulations, owing to the design of trench and airgap-isolation structure, the AITFT can enhance about 212% sensing current window and 42% retention time compared with the conventional TFT at the channel length of 150 nm and temperature of 300K conditions. Also, owing to the source/drain-tie, the generated heat can be dissipated quickly from the source/drain to the substrate thus the thermal instability is improved. In other words, the AITFT can improve the thermal reliability but without losing control of the short-channel effects.

Abstract Nowadays¡Mclinics are facing much heavier pressure than ever before¡O While under the National Health Insurance Program¡Mclinics are also faced with a dramatic increase in rivalry and a steep decline in outpatient population¡F how to obtain a competitive advantage has become the priority of each clinic¡O This study adopted literature reviews which focus on Relationship Quality¡]Trust¡BCommitment¡BSatisfaction¡^¡BPerceived Value and Customer Retention¡Mwhich employed to evaluate the empirical data collected from the 199 valid questionnaire samples¡O¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨¡B ¡§Patient satisfaction¡¨¡B ¡§Service quality¡¨¡B ¡§Cost effectiveness¡¨¡B¡§Medical service¡¨and ¡§Basic living¡¨are motives elicited from the data¡Mand analyzed by using principal component analysis¡Mvalidity analysis and reliability analysis¡O The results are as follows¡O ¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨ motivation has an obvious positive effect on the females¡O The education levels of outpatients has a correlation with ¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨ and ¡§Patient satisfaction¡¨ where the motivation constructs become stronger¡O In addition¡M¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨ and ¡§Medical service¡¨ motivations are correlated with the young adults¡O With the multivariate demographic data for reference¡Msustainable actions can be incorporated into the strategy management process for community clinics¡O The clinics can then possess key success factors from mastering outpatient preferences and clinic traits. Keywords¡G Perceived Value¡MRelationship Quality¡]Trust¡BCommitment¡BSatisfaction¡^¡M Customer Retention

Although many efforts have been exerted to increase safety on construction sites, it has never been easy to run a construction project with zero accidents. Previous research indicated that lessons learned from previous projects could help construction professionals prevent repetitive mistakes, but those lessons are based on individual experience, and therefore it is difficult to document and reuse them. Various web-based database systems were suggested to better manage this tacit knowledge in construction, but transforming someone's tacit knowledge into value for the next project using these systems is still challenging. Well-designed computer games often offer a number of constructive instructional features especially for young generations who have grown up in an era of computer games. Research in education reports that visual presentation facilitates the human's cognitive process. Would visual representation of tacit knowledge in a computer game help construction professionals acquire tacit knowledge and use it to reduce repetitive accidents on construction sites? In order to figure out whether visual presentation of accident cases in a computer game could improve tacit knowledge acquisition and retention, a prototype Xbox 360 computer game presenting accident scenes using 3D computer models was developed and tested with college students working in the field of construction management. The game had 3D construction site accident scenes with treasure boxes hidden and the players had to find the treasure boxes and read the information obtained from it. The treasure boxes were placed relative to the information they carried. The text part had the same accident scenes explained in text with details of what should have been followed to avoid the accident. Students from the field of construction management and civil engineering were requested to participate in the test. Each participant went through two accidents in text and two accidents in the game environment and answered a set of 16 questions based on the knowledge they gained. There was no time limit for the test. They also had to answer an exit question as to which training method they preferred. The participants were asked to come again on the seventh day to answer a set of 16 questions without going through any training to check the retention of knowledge. Statistically we can say that on an overall basis visual training had more correct answers than text for knowledge dissemination as well as retention. But there was no statistical difference seen in the number of correct answers obtained from dissemination and retention tests for text as well as visual training.