This study investigates the relationship between wave-induced hydrodynamics and the resulting loading on Core-Loc concrete armour units below the still water level in a breakwater structure. Physical modelling experiments were performed at the National Research Council in Ottawa in which a 3D-printed 12 cm Core-Loc armour unit was instrumented and fixed in place within a rubble mound structure. Testing featured simultaneous measurement of force on this instrumented unit, pressure head at the base of the unit, and flow velocities below the SWL. Two main scenarios were tested, the isolated unit and fully armoured scenarios, under a range of regular waves and irregular sea states. Analysis of force development on the instrumented unit indicates that maximum slope-normal forces (both into and away from the structure) are associated with extremes in pressure head above the instrumented unit, while slope-parallel force extremes (both upslope and downslope) occur at times of the fastest change in water level. These loadings are consistent with Morison’s equation and imply drag dominance in the slope-parallel direction and inertia dominance in the slope-normal direction. Significant differences in forces were observed between isolated (no neighbouring units) and embedded (with neighbouring units) armour unit test cases. The presence of the armour layer significantly increased the normal force exerted on the unit and reduced the parallel force. Irregular sea state testing shows force peaks following normal distribution. Analysis of flow above the armour layer showed that force, flow velocity and flow acceleration are symmetrical in the slope-parallel direction, but largely asymmetrical in the slope-normal direction, with the flow velocity and force on the unit in particular experiencing large asymmetries. Wave height analysis indicated that each wave height follows a similar force development pattern with a magnitude proportional to wave height. Wave period analysis showed the formation of small secondary waves as the period increases. Wave steepness affected the peak force loading of the instrumented unit in a mostly linear fashion up to the critical Iribarren number.

Vid omhändertagande av en svårt sjuk eller allvarligt skadad människa är det essentiellt att samarbetet mellan den prehospitala personalen på plats fungerar. Frågor så som vem som har högst medicinsk kompetens och vem som leder arbetet spelar också en stor roll för att ett bra teamarbete skall komma till stånd. I en sådan situation i Stockholms Läns Landsting möts två sjuksköterskekompetenser, specialistsjuksköterskan i ambulanssjukvård och specialistsjuksköterskan i anestesisjukvård. Den ena i ambulans och den andra i förstärkningsenhet så som akutbil eller helikopter. I de medicinska riktlinjerna för ambulanssjukvården i Stockholm står att högst formell medicinsk kompetens innehar det medicinska ansvaret. I de fall då två specialistsjuksköterskor med olika specialistutbildning men med samma formella medicinska kompetens samverkar kring patienten innehas det medicinska ansvaret av sjuksköterskan med mest lämpad kompetens. Detta ger utrymme för tolkningar och kan ge upphov till oklarheter om vem som har det medicinska ansvaret baserat på olika kompetensfokus. Syftet med studien var att beskriva ambulanssjuksköterskans och anestesisjuksköterskans upplevelse av samarbetet vid prio1-larm avseende vem som innehar det medicinska ansvaret och identifiera faktorer som påverkar samarbetet. Som metod användes en kvalitativ intervjustudie med innehållsanalys. Utifrån en intervjuguide baserad på Critical Incident Technique (CIT) genomfördes tre fokusgruppsintervjuer. Sex ambulanssjuksköterskor och fyra anestesisjuksköterskor deltog i studien vilket resulterade i att 31 kritiska incidenter beskrevs. Insamlat material analyserades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med en induktiv ansats. Ur resultatet framkommer två huvudområden av betydelse för specialistsjuksköterskornas upplevelse av samarbetet. Hantering genom situationsanpassning utifrån kategorierna uppfattning om kompetensnivå, uppfattning om ansvarsfördelning och uppfattning om trygghetsgenererande faktorer samt Hantering genom resursoptimering utifrån kategorierna att leda och samarbete. De slutsatser som kan dras från resultatet är att specialistsjuksköterskorna genom att visa kollegial respekt för varandras kompetens, anpassa sig utifrån förutsättningar och använda befintliga resurser på rätt sätt skapar ett fungerande samarbete kring patienten. Genom detta undviker de att hamna i en konflikt med kollegan orsakad av oenighet om vilken specialistkompetens som är mest lämpad att inneha det medicinska ansvaret under det aktuella omhändertagandet. / When assessing and caring for a critically ill or injured patient, it is essential that the cooperation and interaction within the group of pre-hospital providers functions at its best. Questions about competencies and who will be medically in charge of the case plays an important role. In Stockholm County Council (SCC) emergency medical services (EMS) two specialist nurse competencies meet, the nurse anesthetist in the rapid response unit and the ambulance nurse in the ambulance. Both specialist nurses are formally equal concerning the highest medical competence. The medical guidelines in SCC states that the highest formal medical competence is also in charge of the case. When two formally equal, but clinically different nurse competencies collaborate, the nurse most suited for the task is also considered to be in charge. There is room for interpretation, which can lead to unclarity in who should be in charge, based on different competencies. The aim of the study was to describe the experiences of the two specialist nurse competencies on cooperation and interaction when attending the same priority 1 case, concerning who is in charge and to identify factors influencing the cooperation and interaction. The method used was qualitative interview. Using an interview guide based on critical incident technique (CIT) three focus group interviews were conducted. Six ambulance nurses and four nurse anesthetists participated. The interviews resulted in 31 critical incidents. The data were analyzed with qualitative inductive content analysis. In the results two themes emerged. Situational management from the categories; perception of competence, perception of the division of responsibility and the perception of confidence generating factors. Also, management by resource optimization from the categories leadership and cooperation. The conclusions that can be drawn from the results are that the specialist nurses can create a functioning cooperation and interaction through collegial respect for each other’s competencies, situational adaption and the use of resources available at the time being. This way a conflict is avoided in the question on who should be in charge.

Units of measurement are needed in many of today’s software programs and datasets for describing physical concepts. Despite this, there are many issues regarding units of measurement in both code and data, such as inconsistent unit annotations, unit types being difficult to annotate and missing built-in unit support in tools and programming languages. Not least, is there a lack of examples of how to implement safe usage of units of measurement within an entire ecosystem consisting of code programs and data resources. Therefore, this thesis takes a design science approach to explore how a simple ecosystem of interconnected software and data components can be refactored to support safe usage of units of measurement, and whether the given solution shows it is possible to mitigate the burden of having to annotate types within the ecosystem. This has resulted in the development of an artifact that offers read/create, refactor and formatting capabilities, that can be used to implement units of measurement and unit checking into an ecosystem. The findings are that the artifact demonstrates how it is possible to implement safer usage of units, and at the same time being able to avoid the annotation burden to some extent.

Large scale outages have occurred worldwide in recent decades with some impacting 15-25% of a nation’s population. The complexity of blackouts has been extensively studied but many questions remain. As there are no perfect solutions to prevent blackouts, usually caused by a complex sequence of cascading events, a number of different measures need to be undertaken to minimize impact of future disturbances. Increase in deployment of phasor measurement units (PMUs) across the grid has given power industry an unprecedented technology to study dynamic behavior of the system in real time. Integration of large scale synchronized measurements with SCADA system requires a careful roadmap and methodology. When properly engineered, tested, and implemented, information extracted from synchrophasor data streams provides realtime observability for transmission system. Synchrophasor data can provide operators with quick insight into precursors of blackout (e.g., angular divergence) which are unavailable in traditional SCADA systems. Current visualization tools and SE functions, supported by SCADA, provide some basic monitoring. Inaccuracies in measurements and system models, absence of redundancy in the measured parameters or breaker statuses in most cases, and lack of synchronization and time resolution in SCADA data result in limited functionality and precision for a typical EMS required in today’s operating environment of tighter margins that require more frequent and more precise data. Addition of synchrophasor data, typically having several orders of magnitude higher temporal resolution, (i.e., 60 to 120 measurements per second as opposed to one measurement every 4 to 8 seconds), can help detect higher speed phenomena and system oscillations. Also, time synchronization to one micro-second allows for accurate comparison of phase angles across the grid and identification of major disturbances and islanding. This dissertation proposes a more comprehensive, holistic set of criteria for optimizing PMU placement with consideration for diverse factors that can influence PMU siting decision-making process and incorporates several practical implementation aspects. An innovative approach to interoperability testing is presented and solutions are offered to address the challenges. The proposed methodology is tested to prove the concept and address real-life implementation challenges, such as interoperability among the PMUs located across a large area.

No description available.

No description available.

Increasing complexity in critical coronary care nursing and advancements in medical technology have resulted in the need for clearly articulated competencies consistent with current practice. This need has been identified both in the literature and in practice. The problem addressed in this study was to determine what competencies, beyond basic nursing preparation, are essential for the beginning level coronary care nurse in order to provide safe nursing practice. A three-round modified Delphi Technique was used to elicit the authority opinions of 14 experienced clinical nurse specialists currently practicing in the coronary care unit. The nurse experts identified and verified the essential cognitive and technical skills required for nurses at the beginning level of practice in coronary care units. Nine domains and 63 competency statements were generated and refined. All were designed to be learner oriented, behaviorally described, and measurable. Implications are discussed for the design of an orientation program for beginning level coronary care nurses as well as implications for further research. / Ed. D.

This thesis discusses a novel method for modelling facial action units. It presents facial action units model based on boundary value problems for accurate representation of human facial expression in three-dimensions. In particular, a solution to a fourth order elliptic Partial Differential Equation (PDE) subject to suitable boundary conditions is utilized, where the chosen boundary curves are based on muscles movement defined by Facial Action Coding System (FACS). This study involved three stages: modelling faces, manipulating faces and application to simple facial animation. In the first stage, PDE method is used in modelling and generating a smooth 3D face. The PDE formulation using small sets of parameters contributes to the efficiency of human face representation. In the manipulation stage, a generic PDE face of neutral expression is manipulated to a face with expression using PDE descriptors that uniquely represents an action unit. A combination of the PDE descriptor results in a generic PDE face having an expression, which successfully modelled four basic expressions: happy, sad, fear and disgust. An example of application is given using simple animation technique called blendshapes. This technique uses generic PDE face in animating basic expressions. / Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu

Thesis (M.Pharm.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Pharmacy Dispensing Units (PDUs) are automated medicine dispensing systems, which are the first of its kind in South Africa and are operational in the public healthcare sector. At present, the application of automated dispensing technology is still evolving, and it is uncertain how it will impact on pharmacy services and be integrated into different healthcare systems. Aim To determine the attitude and experiences of patients collecting their chronic care medications at various Pharmacy Dispensing Units. Methods A cross-sectional quantitative design using a structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants at three PDU sites; Alexandra Plaza, Ndofaya Mall and Bara Mall. The study encompassed chronic stable patients. Participants were selected based on a simple random sampling method and included 624 participants. The study period was over two months. The researcher recorded the information that was present in the study population, and no variables were manipulated. Data was analysed using the SPSS version 27.0.0. Chi Square Tests, One-way Anova Tests and Microsoft Excel were used to analyze the data. Results Since p<0.05, the results showed that there was an association between responses and demographic information. The difference in distribution of responses seen across the participants at the different PDUs was significant. Most participants (85,4%) found the ATM easy to use as it was a simple system. Majority of the participants (99,6%) were content with the overall service received at the PDU, and 99,3% were pleased with the experience they had speaking through the PDU telephonic system. In comparison to the clinic, 99% of the participants felt they preferred to use the PDU and 99,7% found the PDU system easier to collect their medication from and follow their treatment plan. A few participants (2,7%) did have some negative experiences such as the system being down, network issues, technical challenges, delivery problems and the PDU being too busy. However, all of the respondents stated that they would recommend the PDU to other patients, as well as continue to collect their medicines at the PDU. Conclusion Overall patients had a positive attitude and experience towards the PDU. This research will assist in ensuring pharmacies continue to shift their focus to providing a more holistic approach to healthcare. It will allow for engagement with National and Provincial Departments of Health and NGOs to expand the number of PDUs. Furthermore, it might also help to develop new services and allow for changes to be made within the current models. This study will contribute to the overall improvement in the health sector and prepare for implementation of NHI. / VLIR Foundation

Planning, scheduling and real time optimization (RTO) are currently implemented by using different types of models, which causes discrepancies between their results. This work presents a single model of a crude distillation unit (preflash, atmospheric, and vacuum towers) suitable for all of these applications, thereby eliminating discrepancies between models used in these decision processes. Hybrid model consists of volumetric and energy balances and partial least squares model for predicting product properties. Product TBP curves are predicted from feed TBP curve, operating conditions (flows, pumparound heat duties, furnace coil outlet temperatures). Simulated plant data and model testing have been based on a rigorous distillation model, with 0.5% RMSE over a wide range of conditions. Unlike previous works, we do not assume that (i) midpoint of a product TBP curve lies on the crude distillation curve, and (ii) midpoint between the back-end and front-end of the adjacent products lies on the crude distillation curves, since these assumptions do not hold in practice. Associated properties (e.g. gravity, sulfur) are computed for each product based on its distillation curve. Model structure makes it particularly amenable for development from plant data. High model accuracy and its linearity make it suitable for optimization of production plans or schedules. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)