This simple quantitative descriptive case controlled research compared cases (subjects at risk for acute confusion) with controls (subjects without the attribute); comparison was made on the exposure to potential contributing factors suspected of causing acute confusion, for example, heavy smoking, or the number of alcoholic drinks consumed per day. Case-control studies were also retrospective, because they focused on conditions in the past that might have caused subjects to become cases, rather than controls. The basic purpose of this research design was essentially the same as that of experimental research: to determine the relationships among variables. This report demonstrates that, with relatively good adherence by the nursing team, proactive screening using a structured risk assessment protocol can be successfully implemented for medical patients. This assessment was associated with a statistically significant 50 per cent reduction in the incidence of acute confusion in the intervention group, compared with usual care retrospectively. Reduction in acute confusion was not associated with shortened length of stay, but length of stay was often predetermined by protocol or critical pathway. Correlation analysis demonstrated that risk screening appeared most effective in preventing or reducing acute confusion in patients without preadmission dementia or ADL impairment. In patients with significant preadmission impairment, the stress of hospitalisation may be sufficient to precipitate an episode, despite otherwise optimal management. Less-impaired patients may require additional insults to precipitate acute confusion, some of which are avertable by risk screening and subsequent early intervention. Determined risk indicators were consistent throughout the four year timeframe set for this research project. This demonstrated that although there were multiple patient types presenting to this clinical area, they were consistently the same over a longitudinal timeframe. It meant they were reproducible, which gave this research additional strength. Also, based on the descriptive statistics, this research has shown that in this clinical area where intervention was introduced the combination did have a positive impact on annual numbers of acute confusion. In summary, these findings suggest that without risk screening and the direction for appropriate management the likelihood of an episode can more than double. In the three subgroups expected to pose the greatest challenges for the risk assessment (i.e. those 70 years or older, those with suspected drug dependency, and those with symptomatic infection), risk assessment retained excellent sensitivity, (a) (d) specificity, and relevant correlation with reduction of episodes. This research has demonstrated throughout that high risk screening and associated intervention based on the risk indicator can decrease the annual number of actual episodes of acute confusion. Interventions to prevent or reduce an episode of acute confusion, as outlined by Wakefield (2002) and this research, definitely increases as a result of high risk screening. Beyond doubt, from both the literature reviewed and the findings of this research, is that risk screening does need to be adapted to the individual clinical setting and cannot be generic.

Confusion and Diffusion are two properties of a secure cipher, identified by Claude Shannon. Confusion refers to making the relationship between the ciphertext and the symmetric key as complex and involved as possible. We try to achieve more confusion by creating a ciphertext of different length for a given plaintext when key is changed. As per our knowledge, all the existing symmetric encryption techniques will generate cipher text of same length for a given plaintext with different keys. The technique we are implementing here, will create ciphertext with different length for a given plaintext if we change the appropriate values in the key. This symmetric encryption technique will also possibly make the recovery of key very hard for the attacker.

La théorie de la concurrence déloyale n'a cessé d'évoluer en droit français. A l'origine, le droit français de la concurrence déloyale visait à protéger les intérêts individuels des concurrents, et ce en stigmatisant les moyens déloyaux par lesquels les agents économiques cherchaient à détourner la clientèle de leurs rivaux. Depuis quelques années, cette théorie subit des transformations très importantes. Aujourd'hui, elle a dépassé son seul et unique objectif, qui lui avait été reconnu depuis fort longtemps. En effet, elle ne vise plus uniquement la protection de la clientèle de la victime de l'acte déloyal, mais s'intéresse aussi aux atteintes à la capacité concurrentielle des autres opérateurs. Dès lors, la concurrence déloyale dans sa nouvelle conception tend à réguler le comportement objectif de tous les opérateurs sur le marché, qu'ils soient ou non concurrents aux fins de rétablir l'égalité affectée dans les moyens de concurrence. Malgré son introduction en droit jordanien par la loi de la concurrence déloyale n° 15 de l'année 2000, la théorie de la concurrence déloyale reste, selon sa compréhension stricte de la part de la doctrine jordanienne, alimentée par la présence de la formule de l'article 2 de la loi de la concurrence déloyale, enfermée dans une conception traditionnelle sans aucune évolution. Toutefois, l'unité du critère de la déloyauté du comportement fautif en droit français et en droit jordanien permet un rapprochement très utile entre les deux droits, de telle sorte que le droit jordanien pourrait, à son tour, suivre les évolutions constatées en droit français. Ainsi, la théorie de la concurrence déloyale pourrait être aménagée selon de nouveaux contours permettant d'adopter les solutions récentes acquises en droit français. / At the outset, the theory of unfair competition In French law was devoted to penalizing professionals who used means which were contrary to the honest commercial customs to lure away their competitor's customers. Over several years, this theory has undergone significant changes. Today, it no longer aims sloley at the protection of the clientele of the victim of unfair competition but also the smooth functioning of the market by regulating the behavior of all the economic operators, whether competitors or not, to ensure equality in competitive practices. Despite its introduction in Jordanian law by the law of unfair competition No. 15 of 2000, the theory of unfair competition remains, according to its strict understanding by the Jordanian doctrine fueled by the present formula of Article 2 of this law, to be confined in a conservative traditional construct. However, the uniformity of the test of unfairness regarding tortious behaviour under the French and Jordanian laws, provides a useful harmonised approach between the two laws, in a way that would allow the Jordanian law to follow the changing regulations intitiated by the French law. Thus, the theory of unfair competition could be modified in new contexts to allow the adoption of new solutions provided by the French law.

Notre approche du théâtre panique d’Arrabal a été dirigée par la perception d’une esthétique paradoxale, d’une dimension éthique et cathartique au cœur d’une théâtralité qui restitue sur scène la confusion de la vie et l’humain dans sa totalité. Cette thèse s’interroge sur les moyens par lesquels Arrabal a créé l’univers panique ainsi que sur les piliers d’une esthétique a priori fondée sur la dérision et l’altération de la réalité, dans une perpétuelle oscillation entre l’outrancier et le fascinant. Il s’agit de comprendre le fonctionnement du dispositif de la cruauté, à la fois dramaturgique et dramatique, et comment se révèle cette tension dialectique entre abject et sublime, à travers une pensée qui se prétend insaisissable. Notre travail cherche donc à situer tout d’abord la naissance de la pensée panique, à questionner la dimension contestataire et subversive de l’œuvre d’Arrabal, et à en envisager les variations et les permanences. La forme brute et primitive de ce théâtre en fait un spectacle qui nous touche et provoque un choc émotionnel qui stimule la pensée. A travers l’exploration de la cruauté enfantine, de la manifestation du cauchemar, du bouleversement des valeurs, de la violence et du blasphème, nous verrons que l’espoir et la quête de soi éloignent ce théâtre du tragique pur et du nihilisme. La merveille de l’enfance, les songes, l’humour, l’érotisme apparaissent alors comme autant de moyens d’une révolte poétique qui permet de tenir tête à une réalité oppressante et d’affronter la condition humaine sans tomber dans le désespoir. Cette polarisation entre le haut et le bas, entre l’espoir et la chute, dans une ritualisation de l’espace scénique, fait du théâtre d’Arrabal un théâtre libertaire et fondamentalement humain, qui devient un moyen d’accéder à la connaissance de soi. / Our approach of Arrabal’s panic theater was led by the perception of a paradoxical aesthetic, an ethic and cathartic dimension at the heart of a theatricality bringing to the stage the confusion of life and human condition. This Ph.D thesis questions the means by which Arrabal created the panic paradigm and the foundations of an aesthetic first of all based on mockery and distortion of reality, perpetually oscillating between outrage and fascination. Our aim is to understand how cruelty is expressed, both dramatically and theatrically, and how the dialectical tension between abject and sublime is revealed through a vision often considered evasive. We first seek to understand when the panic concept was born, to question the subversive and protesting side of Arrabal’s work and to point out what changes and what remains the same through his productions. The crude and primitive nature of this theater makes it a performance that brings out an emotional shock and stimulates the audience’s mind. By exploring the themes of children’s cruelty, nightmare, abrupt change of values, violence and blasphemy, we will see that hope and the ontological quest keep this theater from pure tragic and nihilism. Childhood, dreams, humor, and eroticism appear as forces which feed a poetic revolt, to stand up against an oppressive reality and fight against human condition without falling into despair. This polarization between the high and the low, the hope and the fall, by a ritualization of the scenic area, makes Arrabal’s theater libertarian, fundamentally human, and therefore a means to know oneself.

Dans ce travail, j'ai étudié l'analyse des régressions linéaire et logistique comme méthodes de traitement des facteurs de confusion, qui ont servi à déterminer les effets d'une erreur de mesure dans une variable de confusion.

Combining Outputs from Machine Translation Systems By Fahim A. Salim Supervised by: Ing. Zdenek Zabokrtsky, Ph.D Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, Charles University in Prague 2010. Abstract: Due to the massive ongoing research there are many paradigms of Machine Translation systems with diverse characteristics. Even systems designed on the same paradigm might perform differently in different scenarios depending upon their training data used and other design decisions made. All Machine Translation Systems have their strengths and weaknesses and often weakness of one MT system is the strength of the other. No single approach or system seems to always perform best, therefore combining different approaches or systems i.e. creating systems of Hybrid nature, to capitalize on their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses in an ongoing trend in Machine Translation research. But even Systems of Hybrid nature has limitations and they also tend to perform differently in different scenarios. Thanks to the World Wide Web and open source, nowadays one can have access to many different and diverse Machine Translation systems therefore it is practical to have techniques which could combine the translation of different MT systems and produce a translation which is better than any of the individual systems....

<p>Konfusion är mycket vanligt förekommande hos äldre och skapar stort lidande, ger höga samhällskostnader och orsakar hög mortalitet. Syftet med studien var att belysa sjuksköterskans icke farmakologiska omvårdnadsåtgärder vid konfusion hos äldre patienter. Metoden var en litteraturstudie, vilken innefattade tio artiklar där relevanta omvårdnadsåtgärder framkom, dessa presenterades i resultatet under VIPS - modellens åtgärdssökord. Resultatet av studien visade att patienter med konfusion mindes och uppmärksammade vad som skedde med och runt omkring dem. Viktigt var att få information om sitt konfusionstillstånd för att förstå vad som hände och varför. Samspelet mellan sjuksköterska och patient var av stor vikt. Återorientering av patienten var vanligt och ansågs oftast ha positiv effekt. Att bekräfta patientens upplevelse, och att visa omtanke och förståelse var väl fungerande stöd. Kontinuitet av personal, att eliminera bakomliggande orsaker och att främja god sömn var av stor betydelse. Vanligt förekommande var tvångsåtgärder för att skydda patienten från att skada sig själv och andra. Musik och ljusterapi togs upp som omvårdnadsåtgärder. Även närstående hade en stor roll vid omvårdnaden av patienten med konfusion. Relativt lite forskning finns inom området konfusion, i synnerhet gällande omvårdnadsåtgärder i samband med konfusionstillståndet. Behov av ytterligare forskning föreligger inom området. //</p><p>Confusion is quite common among elderly and creates great suffering, high cost for social services and high mortality. The purpose of this study was to highlight the non-pharmacological actions in care provided by nurses to elderly with confusion. The method was a literature study, based on ten articles containing relevant care measures where the result is presented in the VIPS-model’s keywords. The result of the study showed that patients with confusion remembered and registered what was happening around them. It was important for the patient to obtain proper information regarding the state of confusion to understand what is happening. The teamwork between nurse and patient is of great importance. Re-orientation of patient was common and mostly considered to have a positive effect. Important support by the nurse is to confirm the patient’s perception by showing concern and understanding. Other key concepts where continuity of staff, eliminate underlying causes, facilitate good sleep. It was common with supervision and constrainer to protect the patients from harming themselves and others. Music and light therapy were mentioned as care measures. Relatives also played an important part in treating a patient with confusion. There is relatively little research regarding confusion especially with focus on suitable care actions. There is a need of further studies in this matter.</p>

Konfusion är mycket vanligt förekommande hos äldre och skapar stort lidande, ger höga samhällskostnader och orsakar hög mortalitet. Syftet med studien var att belysa sjuksköterskans icke farmakologiska omvårdnadsåtgärder vid konfusion hos äldre patienter. Metoden var en litteraturstudie, vilken innefattade tio artiklar där relevanta omvårdnadsåtgärder framkom, dessa presenterades i resultatet under VIPS - modellens åtgärdssökord. Resultatet av studien visade att patienter med konfusion mindes och uppmärksammade vad som skedde med och runt omkring dem. Viktigt var att få information om sitt konfusionstillstånd för att förstå vad som hände och varför. Samspelet mellan sjuksköterska och patient var av stor vikt. Återorientering av patienten var vanligt och ansågs oftast ha positiv effekt. Att bekräfta patientens upplevelse, och att visa omtanke och förståelse var väl fungerande stöd. Kontinuitet av personal, att eliminera bakomliggande orsaker och att främja god sömn var av stor betydelse. Vanligt förekommande var tvångsåtgärder för att skydda patienten från att skada sig själv och andra. Musik och ljusterapi togs upp som omvårdnadsåtgärder. Även närstående hade en stor roll vid omvårdnaden av patienten med konfusion. Relativt lite forskning finns inom området konfusion, i synnerhet gällande omvårdnadsåtgärder i samband med konfusionstillståndet. Behov av ytterligare forskning föreligger inom området. // Confusion is quite common among elderly and creates great suffering, high cost for social services and high mortality. The purpose of this study was to highlight the non-pharmacological actions in care provided by nurses to elderly with confusion. The method was a literature study, based on ten articles containing relevant care measures where the result is presented in the VIPS-model’s keywords. The result of the study showed that patients with confusion remembered and registered what was happening around them. It was important for the patient to obtain proper information regarding the state of confusion to understand what is happening. The teamwork between nurse and patient is of great importance. Re-orientation of patient was common and mostly considered to have a positive effect. Important support by the nurse is to confirm the patient’s perception by showing concern and understanding. Other key concepts where continuity of staff, eliminate underlying causes, facilitate good sleep. It was common with supervision and constrainer to protect the patients from harming themselves and others. Music and light therapy were mentioned as care measures. Relatives also played an important part in treating a patient with confusion. There is relatively little research regarding confusion especially with focus on suitable care actions. There is a need of further studies in this matter.

Consumer confusion, caused by product similarity, choice and/or information overload, and the presence of ambiguous information, can negatively affect consumersʼ decision making, and thereby also companiesʼ profitability. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate how the three variables (i.e. similarity, overload, ambiguity) of Walsh et al.ʼs (2007) consumer confusion proneness model affect consumersʼ decision postponement and brand loyalty, concerning low involvement products. A conceptual framework based on consumer behavior- and consumer confusion literature, was utilized to form six hypotheses predicting the causality between the different variables. After validating and adapting the scale to data gathered through a survey, regarding Swedish studentsʼ purchasing habits of laundry detergent, two standard multiple regressions revealed that one hypothesis was supported; overload confusion proneness decreases brand loyalty in a low involvement product category. All implications were then discussed from practitionersʼ and researchersʼ points of view, concluding with possible limitations and further research.

Assessment is the primary means of feedback between students and instructors. However, to effectively use assessment, the ability to interpret collected information is essential. We present insights into three unique, important avenues of assessment in the physics classroom and laboratory. First, we examine students’ performance on conceptual surveys. The goal of this research project is to better utilize the information collected by instructors when they administer the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) to students as a pre-test and post-test of their conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. We find that ambiguities in the use of the normalized gain, g, may influence comparisons among individual classes. Therefore, we propose using stratagrams, graphical summaries of the fraction of students who exhibit “Newtonian thinking,” as a clearer, more informative method of both assessing a single class and comparing performance among classes. Next, we examine students’ expressions of confusion when they initially encounter new material. The goal of this research project is to better understand what such confusion actually conveys to instructors about students’ performance and engagement. We investigate the relationship between students’ self-assessment of their confusion over material and their performance, confidence in reasoning, pre-course self-efficacy and several other measurable characteristics of engagement. We find that students’ expressions of confusion are negatively related to initial performance, confidence and self-efficacy, but positively related to final performance when all factors are considered together. Finally, we examine students’ exhibition of scientific reasoning abilities in the instructional laboratory. The goal of this research project is to explore two inquiry-based curricula, each of which proposes a different degree of scaffolding. Students engage in sequences of these laboratory activities during one semester of an introductory physics course. We find that students who participate in the less scaffolded activities exhibit marginally stronger scientific reasoning abilities in distinct exercises throughout the semester, but exhibit no differences in the final, common exercises. Overall, we find that, although students demonstrate some enhanced scientific reasoning skills, they fail to exhibit or retain even some of the most strongly emphasized skills. / Physics