The purpose of this study is to examine the situation of the school for boys 15-21 years of age lacking compulsory school attendance and is being located at five residential care units from the pedagogues’ point of view. The study was conducted by interviewing four pedagogical leaders and two teachers. The results demonstrate that the boys can choose the subjects they study as well as the amount of time they spend on studying each week. The teachers include non-learning activities during their lessons. Some of the pedagogues’ teach at a ninth grade level regardless of the boys' actual level. The boys have access to books. The pedagogues explained that they have a good relationship with the boys and that they noticed a lack of interest from the care workers regarding the boys' education. Most of the situated boys lack complete grades from the ninth grade when they leave the residential care unit. The major findings of this study are that the residential care units don’t offer education in all subjects in ninth grade. The pedagogues’ describe that they are afraid of insulting and scare the boys away from the school which affects the education of the boys.

Background: An Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) is a technical device used in the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias. After the implantation of an ICD the entire life situation can be affected with psychological and social consequences for the patient and his/her next of kin. The healthcare professionals play a vital role in providing educational information, support, and technical follow-up of the device. During recent years more and more hospitals have introduced a more team based organisation where the physicians collaborate with specialised ICD nurses. Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to explore how patients with an ICD experienced their life situation and howhealthcare professionals described their experiences of delivering care to ICD patients. Methods: The design was descriptive, combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and the data was collected from Sweden and the USA. The Uncertainty of Illness Scale (MUIS-C) and Quality of life Index (QLI) instruments were used to determine the level of uncertainty and satisfaction with life (I), in-depth interviews with a phenomenographic approach was used to describe how Swedish and US patients living with an ICD conceived their life situation (II, III) and how healthcare professionals’ experienced delivering care to patients with an ICD, (IV). Finally, to explore clinical aspects of ICD care in Sweden, the Delivery of ICD Questionnaire (DOIQ) was used to describe the healthcare professionals’ experiences and a content analysis was used to describe the written educational information material provided to patients (V). Results: There were no differences in uncertainty between pre and post ICD implantation either in Swedish or the US patients. Satisfaction with life was significantly higher among US patients compared to Swedish patients both before and after ICD implantation within the health-functioning, socio-economic and psychological-spiritual domains. The Swedish ICD patients experienced a significantly higher satisfaction with life within the socioeconomic domain after 3 months. (I). The patients felt safe in having an ICD implanted, but the conceptions varied from seeing the device as a life saver to being worried about what could happen. Gratitude at having an ICD varied from happiness at being alive to something that was alien and disturbed the patient. Being more or less dependent included how patient experienced feelings from well-being to grief. Having a network varied from having sufficient support to loneliness. Having a belief in the future ranged from having confidence to look forward to resignation. Gaining awareness described patients’ adaptation to living with an ICD and limitations due to the ICD (II). The patients also underwent a transition from becoming aware of the restriction in the life situation through a process of adaption and having trust in the ICD. This phase was followed by a reorientation phase where they adapted to their life situation and the patient and his/her family regained of their lives (III). The healthcare professionals strove to provide competent and individualised care and infuse confirmation to the patients in form of information, education and support. They gave the patients tools to handle their life situation, through existential support and mediating security (IV). Half of the hospitals had nurse-based clinic and others planned to introduce them. Three hospitals performed follow-up in the form of remote home monitoring. The nurse had specific ICD education from ICD companies and/or various university courses. In the educational information material the biophysical dimensions dominated while the emotional dimension was scarcely described, and the spiritual-existential was not referred to at all (V). Conclusions: This thesis offers a further contribution to the scholarly discussion about the relationship between technology and human existence and how to cope with this transition. Our studies revealed that the embodiment of the ICD reflects a merger of experiences about its presence and potential from both patients’ and healthcare professionals’ perspective. This research hopefully encourages healthcare professionals to carefully reflect on what it is like to live with an ICD and to consider practice improvement for the patients’ and the next of kin.

Investigations into past accidents at nuclear power generating facilities such as that of Three Mile Island have identified human factors as one of the foremost critical aspects in plant safety. Errors resulting from limitations in human information processing are of particular concern for human-machine interfaces (HMI) in plant control rooms. This project examines the application of Ecological Interface Design (EID) in HMI information displays and the effects on operator situation awareness (SA) for turbine secondary systems based on the Swedish Forsmark 3 boiling-water reactor nuclear power plant. A work domain analysis was performed on the turbine secondary systems yielding part-whole decomposition and abstraction hierarchy models. Information display requirements were subsequently extracted from the models. The resulting EID information displays were implemented in a full-scope simulator and evaluated with six licensed operating crews from the Forsmark 3 plant. Three measures were used to examine SA: self-rated bias, Halden Open Probe Elicitation (HOPE), and Situation Awareness Control Room Inventory (SACRI). The data analysis revealed that operators achieved moderate to good SA; operators unfamiliar with EID information displays were able to develop and maintain comparable levels of SA to operators using traditional forms of single sensor-single indicator (SS-SI) information displays. With sufficient training and experience, operator SA is expected to benefit from the knowledge-based visual elements in the EID information displays. This project was researched in conjunction with the Cognitive Engineering Laboratory at the University of Toronto and the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Halden, Norway.

A growing body of work suggests that narrative comprehension involves the simulation of the events and actions described in a narrative (e.g., Barsalou, 2008; Matlock, 2004). Preliterate children’s ability to simulate a narrative character’s movements is explored here in three studies. Children’s simulations of a character’s movements were found to be constrained by their expectation of the duration of the described activities (i.e., walking vs. driving) and by their expectations about the motivating influence of certain psychological factors (i.e., character being eager or not eager to get to a location). Using a novel methodology these findings reveal an ability among preliterate children to create impressively rich and dynamic mental representations of narrative events and address. The implications of the present investigation speak to the larger issue of how human minds comprehend narratives and represent narrative events.

No description available.

Purpose To study how improvisation allows a crisis manager to answer the crisis when it has occurred, and how the improvisational act and the environment are linked. Methodology/ApproachFirst, we led research on the concepts of crisis, crisis management and improvisation. We were able to distinguish two major characteristics of the crisis situation – uncertainty and time pressure – as well as two moments in crisis response – containment and recovery. In parallel, we studied improvisation. The improvisation act intervenes when one realizes the environment conditions, reduces the gap between thinking the action and executing the action, and increases the speed of his actual action. Also, we identified that improvisation was expressed through the use of creativity, bricolage and intuition. At last, some authors developed levels of improvisation whether based on creativity levels or on the distance between the way one acts and the procedures, the normal ways to act. From this literature review, we were able to highlight two research propositions: Proposition 1: As soon as a situation enters a crisis phase, improvisation is used. Proposition 2: The way and the extent to improvise depend on the extent of time-pressure and uncertainty.Our belief in a mainly subjective conception of reality and of our knowledge and the fact we could use enough existing knowledge to enunciate propositions led us to have a semi-inductive research approach and a qualitative strategy. Our data were collected by using recorded semi-structured interviews. Our sample was constituted of managers specialized in the management of a crisis – surgeons and high mountain rescuers. Findings Our data analysis allowed us to confirm the research propositions. Crisis managers improvise when responding to a crisis by being creative, aware and adaptable to the environment conditions, and by having quick decision-making processes. Their improvisation levels are dependent on the situation uncertainty/novelty levels. In fact, we could identify a “mirror effect”: the level of improvisation increases as uncertainty increases. Limitations Some points are factors of the limitation of this research. These limitations are essentially linked to a reduced transdisciplinary approach. The topic of this research deserves a larger sample of interviewees in order to improve the relevance of our findings and their capacity to be generalized. Originality/Value The value of this study comes from the relevance of the investigated fields – fields with recurrent crisis management – and from the experience of their interviewed members. This research was also led with philosophical considerations materialized by a transdisciplinary approach. Indeed, we interviewed persons from fields outside business management.

Bakgrund: När en akutsituation uppstår och en person blir medvetandesänkt sker mötet oftast tillsammans med närstående. Sjukhusmiljön för närstående kan upplevas skrämmande och obehaglig. Situationen för närstående kan bli energikrävande och mötet med sjuksköterskan blir centralt. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva vad närstående till en medvetandesänkt person i en akutsituation önskade i mötet med sjuksköterskan. Metod: En litteraturstudie baserad på 17 kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar genomfördes. Artiklarna lästes noggrant igenom och granskades utifrån Röda Korsets Högskola granskningsmall. Resultat: Resultatet analyserades och sammanställdes utifrån innehållet och tre kategorier bildades: Information. Närstående önskade få skriftlig, muntlig och kontinuerlig information från sjuksköterskan för att delaktighet skulle uppfyllas. Stöd. Närstående önskade stöd av sjuksköterskan för att finna styrka och mod att hantera akutsituationen. Förtroende. Närstående eftertraktade ett möte med sjuksköterskan som innebar närvaro, visat intresse samt någon som lyssnade. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskan måste utveckla sin förmåga att göra alla möten positiva för närstående. Närståendes önskemål i vården måste uppfyllas och göras till ett naturligt inslag i omvårdnaden runtomkring patienten. / Background: When an emergency arises and a person consciousness becomes reduced the initial meeting will often be with the patients relatives. The hospital environment can seem hostile and frightening and the situation can be energy-consuming for the relatives and the meeting with the nurse then becomes central. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe what the relatives of a person with a reduced consciousness wanted from the meeting with the nurse in an emergency. Method: A literature review based on 17 qualitative scientific articles was performed. The articles were studied carefully and the reviews were made in accordance with Röda-Korsets-Högskola-granskningsmall. Result: The different wants of the relatives became clear and could be categorized: Information. Relatives wanted continuous information, both written and spoken, from the nurse in order to establish involvement. Support. Relatives wanted support from the nurse in order to find strength and courage to deal with emergency-situation. Trustworthiness. Relatives wished from the meeting with the nurse that gave them presence, an interest shown and someone who listened. Conclusion: The nurse must develop their ability at making every interaction positive for relatives. The wants of relatives must be fulfilled and be made a natural element in patient care.

The current study attempted to examine the roles of product functions and form in consumers¡¦ mind when they encounter a new product with state-of-the-art technology. Also, the study tried to explore and understand the moderating effects of consumption schema and using situations on technology acceptance. The research picked e-book reader as the experimental product, while used qualitative research method with phenomenological approach. There were 12 key informants participating separately in the in-depth interviews. Eleven of them are foreign graduate students in the NSYSU. The phenomenological one-to-one interviews were conducted in three phases in different days and with particular aspects of technology acceptance, that is, reading schema, technology beliefs, responses to e-book reader, and the using situations. Findings of the study revealed that positive beliefs and affective connection with the product emerge once consumers find the conformity between product functions, form and their reading schema expectations. Regarding specific situations, consumers have certain goals to be fulfilled. Questions in the survey scale of acceptance confirmed people¡¦s adoption when they see the products meet their goals.

During recent years (2010), magnitude and quality of household living space of Taiwanese families have both significantly increased. As living aesthetics is pursued as well, furniture and the furnishings have played important roles in their daily lives at the same time. In addition, international titanic chain stores of furniture entered into Taiwan market rapidly, advocating multi-faceted values of living and purveying fashions of furniture. Consequently, many new concepts about furniture and house furnishing have been conceived in the minds of consumers in the Formosa island. The current study has two empirical research: (1) for the market as a whole, observing the relationships among on stores evaluation, attitude towards furniture involvement, purchase risk, and readiness to buy; (2) regarding individual consumers, exploring the alteration of consideration and brand type choices in terms of different situations which are designed by store type, demand situation, and furniture categories, two alternatives for each dimension. In methodology, the first research was conducted by questionnaire survey, with 112 valid samples. For the second, a factorial design of experiment was undertaken with 224 participation, students and rank-and-file populace distributed evenly. The major findings include: (a) the effect of furniture involvement on local store evaluation is moderated by purchase risk; (b) purchase readiness influences the relationship between furniture involvement and store evaluation; (c) furniture stores affect consumers¡¦ brand-category choice; (d) for experienced populace, local traditional store is preferred in purchase for first time; (e) brand and fashion is emphasized more in living room furniture than bed room; (f) when in first purchase for bedroom furniture, the particpants preferred the designer brand, while in replacement purchase, the preference is rendered for living room furniture.

Although the organizational life cycle is inevitable, each stage could be extended by some means or other. Besides, continuous innovation and revival could enable the organization not to move toward the decline stage easily or even to die. The Taiwanese industries are facing common new challenges--the internal market is not large enough and the global competition is becoming more rigid. While local industries, under a ceaseless change environment of innovation, are unable to compete with those from other major nations in terms of capital, cost, marketing channels and other resources, the specialized talents are becoming un-replaceable great assets to the local industries and the application of human resource management practices appears more and more vital. Therefore, this study attempts to explore the characteristics of organizational life cycle as well as the impact to and the human resources management practices by the linkage of the organizational life cycle and the human resources management practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the inter-relationship between organizational life cycle and human resource management practices. In this study, organizational life cycle is defined as independent variable, and the organization life cycle various stages are defined by the eight constructs of the organization situation and the organization structure. On the other hand the human resource management practices are defined as dependent variable, including HRM planning, employment management, performance appraisal, training and development, and compensation. This study adopts a questionnaire survey and targets on various industries. As far as the data analysis is concerned this study adopts factor analysis, cluster analysis, and one-way ANOVA to define the various of organizational life cycle. Furthermore, using factor analysis and one-way ANOVA to examine the effect of organizational life cycle on human resources management practices. The findings of the study indicate as follows. (1) The organizational life cycle may be differentiated into five stages: start-up, growth, maturity, decline, and diversification. (2) The different stages of organizational life cycle show different characteristic, and the differences are very significant. (3) The organizational life cycle reveals the differences to a certain extent to the human resources management practices in terms of four factors, i.e. highly human resources planning, and emphasized talents selection, performance appraisal management, as well as training.