Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1960.

<p> This thesis investigates the impact of layoffs on the emotions, attitudes and behaviours of emergency room nurses in a large trauma hospital. This thesis is premised upon the conclusions drawn by Joel Brockner in his laboratory and survey studies of downsizing survivors. Equity theory provides a framework for Brockner's analyses. According to equity theory, participants in social exchange relationships, such as those between an employer and employee, prefer that these relationships be equitable. That is, that the input to outcome ratio of each participant in the exchange be proportionate. Brockner contends that a situation of positive inequity results when the input to outcome ratio of one participant is greater than that of the other(s). Central to Brockner's work is the hypothesis that all downsizing "survivors", those who remain employed with the organization after downsizing, experience positive inequity as a result of simply surviving the process. In addition, how survivors respond to this positive inequity, Brockner contends, depends in large part on how fairly they perceive management's handling of the layoff. </p> <p> Equity theory has also been used to analyze the responses of the nurses to the layoffs in their department. However, the application of equity theory presented in this thesis differs from that of Brockner. Unique to this study is the finding that the nurses' responses to the layoffs were dictated by the increased workload they experienced following the layoffs. The nurses experienced this workload as another type of inequity, one that has to this point been overlooked in the literature. It was also found that the nurses' experience of "workload induced negative inequity" superseded any positive responses they may have exhibited as a result of simply surviving the layoffs in their department and for having perceived these layoffs to have been fairly managed. The nurses became distressed as a result of this workload inequity. This thesis includes a discussion of how the nurses strove to alleviate this distress and restore equity to their workplace. </p> <p> This thesis demonstrates that while equity theory has proven to be an effective tool, alone it is not an adequate theoretical framework for the analysis of the experiences of all downsizing survivors. Similarly, the findings of this thesis show that the factors influencing the nurses' responses to downsizing differ greatly from those of the survivors in Brockner's studies. Thus, the recommendation is made that scholars remain open to the possibility that survivors are likely affected by a multitude of factors. Consideration of these issues will ensure that the literature in this area grows in a substantive way. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Background: With the increased emphasis on technology-based education, in-person educational escape room puzzles are gaining popularity in higher education. In response to challenges in delivering quality education within the virtual environment, the need to expand learning opportunities within the digital environment has never been greater. Methods: The purpose of this study is to investigate nursing students’ experience using gamification Virtual Interactive Puzzle Escape Room (VIPER), which incorporates tasks of medication calculations and safe blood transfusion procedures. Using a quasi-experimental explanatory post-test design, the sample consisted of (N=52) third-year nursing students enrolled in a medical-surgical nursing course from Ottawa, Ontario. The reliable and validated GAMEX tool was used to assess the gameful experience of the VIPER. A secondary question identified if age of participants influence their gameful experience scores. Results: Participants perceived VIPER improved knowledge, skills and judgement and can be an effective educational modality to apply skills of medication calculations and reinforce the nursing skills in complex clinical interventions. Conclusions: By incorporating creative and engaging game elements into nursing education, educators can enhance the learning experience of nursing students and prepare them to provide high-quality patient care.

No description available.

In the first study, a literature review and semi-structured interviews with experienced scrub nurses (n=25) and consultant surgeons (n=9), identified ‘communication’, ‘teamwork’, ‘situation awareness’ and ‘coping with stress’ skills as important skills for scrub practitioners. The second study used focus groups (n=4 groups) of experienced scrub nurses (total n=16 participants) to sort and label the extracted non-technical skill data, from study 1, into skill categories and underlying elements. The focus groups also generated ‘behavioural markers’ describing good and poor performance of those elements. This preliminary taxonomy contained eight categories with 28 underlying elements. An expert panel, comprising two psychologists and a subject matter expert used an iterative process, with reference to the system design guidelines, to refine the taxonomy. The resulting prototype was called the Scrub Practitioners’ List of Intraoperative Non-Technical Skills (SPLINTS) system which had three skill categories – ‘Situation awareness’; ‘Communication and teamwork’; ‘Task management’, each of which had three underlying elements. The third study tested the psychometric properties of the prototype SPLINTS system. Scrub practitioners (n=34) attended a single-day evaluation session where they received training (5 hours) and practice (1 hour) using the SPLINTS system before rating the scrub practitioner’s behaviour seen in standardized surgical video scenarios (n=7) (1 hour). Within-group agreement was acceptable (<i>r</i>_wg &gt;.7) for the three skill categories and for six of the nine elements. Future work will assess the usability of SPLINTS system in the operating theatre environment. This project has provided scrub practitioners with a structured method for training and assessing an important aspect of performance, which could help to reduce adverse events in the operating theatre.

The energy use of commercial building operations is a significant contributor to the total global energy demand, and lighting is one of the largest end uses of electricity in commercial buildings. Convention Centers as commercial buildings are examples of big energy consumers, and they present a unique opportunity to showcase benefits of green building techniques due to their large size and broad range of visitors; however, the individual nature of convention centers makes it challenging to find design improvements which will be helpful in general for many convention centers. One exception to this rule of individuality is the presence of public assembly rooms, which are ubiquitous in nature and are used heavily. Traditionally, public assembly rooms are fully enclosed to allow for full control of illumination levels with artificial lighting, particularly fluorescent light. This represents a missing opportunity to utilize daylight or energy efficient artificial light to reduce energy use while enhancing human visual comfort. The objective of this research is to analyze the potential impact of the use of daylight in public assembly rooms. We present the results of a set of computer simulations performed using IES VE software. The simulations are performed as an iterative process, using as base case a north-facing public assembly room in the Tucson Convention Center, and progressively updating the lighting scheme using the software to analyze the illuminance levels for each case. The results are used to propose a lighting scheme for the north-facing public assembly room which uses 100% daylight to achieve a uniform level of illumination and meets the compliance of illumination requirements for public assembly rooms.

Chat rooms are of enormous interest to social network researchers as they are one of the most interactive internet areas. To understand the behaviour of users in a chat room, there have been studies on the analysis of the Response Waiting Time (RWT) based on traditional approaches of aggregating the network contacts. However, real social networks are dynamic and properties such as RWT change over time. Unfortunately, the traditional approach focuses only on static network and neglecting the temporal variation in RWT which may have lead to misrepresentation of the true nature of RWT. In order to determine the true nature of RWT, we analyse and compare the RWT of three online chat room logs (Walford, IRC and T-REX) putting into consideration the dynamic nature of RWT. Our research shows that the distribution of the RWT exhibits multi-scaling behaviour, which signi cantly a ects the current views on the nature of RWT. This is a shift from simple power-law distribution to a more complex pattern. The previous study on users RWT between pairs of people claims that the RWT has a power-law distribution with an exponent of 1. However, our research shows that multi-scaling behaviour and the exponent has a wider range of values which depend on the environment and time of day. The di erent exponents observed on di erent time scales suggest that the time context or environment has a signi cant in uence on users RWT. Furthermore, using the chat characterise, we predicted the factors which could minimize response waiting time and improving the friendship connection during online chat sessions. We apply our ndings to design an algorithm for chat thread detection. Here, we proposed two variations of cluster algorithm. The rst algorithm involves the traditional approach while in the second one, the temporal variations in RWT was taken into consideration to capture the dynamic nature of a text stream. An advantage of our proposed method over the previous models is that previous models have involved highly computationally intensive methods and often lead to deterioration in the accuracy of the result whereas our proposed approach uses a simple and effective sequential thread detection method, which is less computationally intensive.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-150). / The development of the integrated circuit which replaced the vacuum tube, started the size reduction process for computer components. These integrated circuits are made from silicon (chips) and are comprised of electronic switches, or gates. The gates are measured in size of microns. The diameter of a human hair is approximately 60 microns across. Facilities that develop, and manufacture these integrated circuits require the strictest guidelines for environmental controls and prevention of potential health hazards that personnel may encounter while working in these facilities. The major environmental controls are particle size and number, temperature, relative humidity, air flow velocity, and pressure. Providing this and other forms of control are used to develop what are called cleanrooms. Cleanrooms are used for the manufacture of a number of different kinds of products. The focus of this research will be on the microelectronics industry. This industry leads all other industries in developing systems, standards, and monitoring technologies, to control microcontamination which is the essence of what a cleanroom does. This thesis will be divided into two parts. The first part defines what a cleanroom is and what it is comprised of. Next, there will be methods presented to design this type of space in a more energy and cost efficient manner. The second part involves the research in the vertical laminar flow aspect of operating a cleanroom. The vertical laminar flow offers a structured method for controlling air flow and provides an effective means for discharging particulates out of the cleanroom. By comparison, the conventional air flow system throws the particulates in a random fashion. The vertical laminar flow has its limitations. By itself, the vertical flow operates well, but people, and equipment cause turbulence which disrupts its effectiveness. Working with these variables through research, an alternate method of working with this vertical laminar flow was developed. The results, recorded by photographs show an alternative for dealing with the turbulence and eddys caused by the operations in the cleanroom. There will be a discussion followed by a number of questions, and responses which will be the basis for this research on vertical laminar flow. / by Douglas H. Erickson. / M.S.

Diss.--Pontificia Università gregoriana, Rome. / "Los documentos forman parte actualmente del fondo de manuscritos de la Biblioteca Bancroft de la Universidad de California." "Documentos": p. 151-324. Bibliography: p. xv-xxiii.

This paper deals with the relations between landscape rooms and monuments in an area north of Mönsterås in Kalmar län. After archaeological excavations had been carried out in the area 1991, an article promote it to the “Bronze Age district of Mönsterås” (Källström 1993). There are two main problems that I deal with in this paper. First: The relations between the natural places and the monuments or memorials. Secondly: The patterns with respect to the spread of certain monuments in the landscapes. My studies starts from the British landscape archaeology of Christopher Tilley and Richard Bradley, but also from a Scandinavian point of view with Terje Gansum et al.