Bakgrund: Äldre personer i särskilt boende anses vara de mest sårbara i samhället och livskvalitet har i tidigare studier visats skilja åt, gällande ålder och kön. Med en ökande befolkning i relation till de minskade platserna i särskilt boende är det viktigt att kontinuerligt studera äldres livskvalitet och om det råder skillnad gällande ålder och kön. Mer kunskap om detta ämne kan hjälpa sjuksköterskan att utforma en mer personcentrerad omvårdnad som främjar livskvalitet i särskilt boende. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka livskvalitet avseende yngre-äldre och äldre-äldre samt kön bland personer i särskilt boende. Metod: En kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie med deskriptiv och analytisk statistik för att beskriva samband och förekomst. Studien var baserad på redan inhämtat material från den longitudinella studien Swedish National Study on Aging and Care i Blekinge. 537 personer i åldrarna 62–104 år inkluderandes. Mätinstrumentet Quality of Life in Late-Stage Dementia användes för skattning av livskvalitet. Resultat: Studiens resultat visade på signifikant skillnad i livskvalitet mellan grupperna yngre-äldre och äldre-äldre. Det fanns däremot ingen signifikant skillnad mellan män och kvinnors livskvalité. Vissa enstaka frågor visade signifikant skillnad mellan män och kvinnor även om det totala resultatet inte gjorde det, exempelvis frågor gällande fysisk beröring/kroppskontakt och om personen tycker om att umgås med andra. Slutsats: Resultatet visade att det fanns viss signifikant skillnad gällande livskvalitet i särskilt boende, men det behövs vidare forskning då livskvalitet är ett svårstuderat och föränderligt fenomen. Genom att anpassa omvårdnaden utifrån varje enskild persons behov, som i vissa fall skiljer sig åt, blir omvårdnaden i särskilt boende mer personcentrerad. Detta möjliggör att de äldre personerna i särskilt boende kan erhålla hög livskvalitet, oavsett ålder eller kön.

<div>Cyclic peptides are important sources of medicines. </div><div>They are advantageous compared to linear peptides because they possess lower flexibility, which allows for high-affinity target binding and enhanced proteolytic stability. Unfortunately, achieving head-to-tail cyclization of peptides is quite challenging, as it is hard to control efficiency and regiospecificity of peptide macrocyclization. Many have attempted to improve peptide cyclization, including the use of different synthetic reagents as well as synthetic techniques to allow amide-bond formation and promote cyclization. While these strategies have offered great potential solutions, the aim of this study is to explore an alternative strategy that utilizes biocatalysis as a method of achieving successful peptide cyclization. Biocatalysis is the use of enzymes as natural process catalysts under artificial in vitro conditions. Biocatalysis is often more environmentally friendly and safer compared to traditional organic synthesis methods. Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are one of the major sources of cyclic peptides in nature. These are systems of large multifunctional proteins are organized into functional domains that act as an assembly line to generate peptide natural products. Normally, the thioesterase domain is responsible for hydrolysis and cyclization of the peptide. Recently, a novel cyclase (SurE) that is physically discrete from the NRPS was discovered. Based on this unique quality, we hypothesized that SurE would be easier to express compared to thioesterase domains and, for this reason, SurE could be a fantastic biocatalyst for the cyclization of peptides. To test this, we designed and generated an expression vector for SurE. We then expressed and purified the SurE protein. We also synthesized three linear peptides of varying lengths. To test for SurE activity, we attempted to add N-acetylcysteamine (SNAC) to mimic its native substrate. Unfortunately, we were unable to successfully attach the SNAC to our linear peptide. To combat this issue, a new synthesis strategy is currently being developed. This work is currently ongoing in the Parkinson lab, with the aim being to test the SurE protein, as well as other PBP-like cyclases, on other modified linear peptides and demonstrate whether the protein has the ability to cyclase a wide scope of peptides.</div><div><br></div>

Electrical Power System is one of the most complex real time operating systems. It is probably one of the best examples of a large interconnected nonlinear system of varying nature. The system needs to be operated and controlled with component or system problems, often with combinatorial complexity. In addition, time scales of operation and control can vary from milliseconds to minutes to hours. It is difficult to maintain such a system at constant operating condition due to both small and large disturbances such as sudden change in loads, change in network configuration, fluctuations in turbine output, and various types of faults etc. The system is therefore affected by a variety of instability problems. Among all these instability problems one of the important modes of instability is related to dynamic instability or more precisely the small perturbation oscillatory instability. Oscillations of small magnitude and low frequency (in the range of 0.1Hz to 2.5Hz) could persist for long periods, limiting the power transfer capability of the transmission lines. Power System Stabilizers (PSS) were developed as auxiliary controllers on the excitation system to improve the system damping performance by modulating the generator excitation voltage. However, the synthesis of an effective PSS for all operating conditions still remains a difficult and challenging task. The design and tuning of PSS for robust operation is a laborious process. The existing PSS design techniques require considerable expertise, the complete system information and extensive eigenvalue calculations which increases the computational burden as the system size increases. Conventional automatic voltage regulator (AVR) and PSS designs are based on linearized models of power systems which fail to stabilize the system over a wide range of operating conditions. In the last decade or so, a variety of nonlinear control techniques have become available. In this thesis, an attempt is made to explore the suitability of some of these design techniques for designing excitation controllers to enhance small perturbation stability of power systems over a wide range of operating and system conditions. This thesis first proposes a method of designing power system stabilizers based on local measurements alone, in multi-machine systems. Next, a method has been developed to analyze and quantify the small signal performance benefits of replacing the existing AVR+PSS structure with nonlinear voltage regulators. A number of new nonlinear controller designs have been proposed subsequently. These include, (a) a new decentralized nonlinear voltage regulator for multi machine power systems with a single tunable parameter that can achieve effective trade of between both the voltage regulation and small signal objectives, (b) a decentralized Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity Based Controller in addition to a proportional controller that can achieve all the requirements of an excitation system and (c) a Nonlinear Quadratic Regulator PSS using Single Network Adaptive Critic architecture in the frame work of approximate dynamic programming. Performance of all the proposed controllers has been analyzed using a number of multi machine test systems over a range of operating conditions.