Background: Telephone counseling is a multifaceted profession, which makes it possible to perform nursing care without meeting the care seeker physically. Nurses supports, assesses, guides and provides care seekers with self-care advice, which is of great importance to avoid health problems and complications for the care seekers. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurses' experiences of telephone counseling within health centers and 1177 Vårdguiden. Method: A method aimed to contribute to evidence-based care based on the analysis of qualitative research described by Friberg (2012), was used. Eleven articles were analysed and resulted in four categories, with fourteen sub-categories. Results: The four categories that emerged were; the importance of own knowledge and security, to face ethical dilemmas, stress and job demands and the use of decision support. The lack of visual contact requires specific knowledge by the nurses and communication with healthcare seekers from other cultures and with third parties to some extent created uncertainty. The nurses must be quick and do right in limited time. Decision support was perceived as both an obstacle and complement. Conclusion: Nurses´ experiences of working with telephone counseling was described as stressful, demanding but also positive and challenging. In order to best perform telephone counseling it required experience, vast competence and ability to apply knowledge. It was considered important to use oneself as a main asset and to be aware of strengths, weaknesses and reactions in different situations.

Using data to improve educational practice in schools has become a popular reform strategy that has grown as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Districts and schools across the United States are under a great deal of pressure to collect and analyze data in hopes of identifying student weaknesses to implement corrective action plans that will lead to overall student achievement in the classroom. Technology tools such as computer-based assessment and reporting systems have provided schools with immediate access to student-level data. The problem is the lack of direction in how to use the information to make instructional changes in the classroom. A review of literature provided an overview of research-based strategies that support data-driven decision making (DDDM) in the classroom. Three case studies in Louisiana were examined to build a conceptual understanding about how districts and schools use data to make informed decisions. Three research questions guided the investigation and focused on the tools used to assess, store, and retrieve student data, evidence that connects the data and improvements in teaching, and recommendations for other districts and schools. Educational practices were documented through a collection of documents, interview/questionnaire data, and physical artifacts. Results were reported in a question and answer format for three case studies. School administrators reported using data to plan, evaluate, and provide feedback to teachers. In contrast, teachers and instructional specialists revealed that data were used to assess and measure student's weekly performance. All schools utilized at least two computer-based assessment and/or reporting systems to manage student-level data within the district and/or school. Instructional coaches provided direct support to teachers. Data analysis revealed that teachers collaborated and supported each other through data team meetings and working sessions. Principals and teachers monitored student behavior through use of data management and reporting tools. Schools showed promising and positive attitudes about making changes and building a data-driven culture. Findings were supported through current research on DDDM.

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The amount of electronics in vehicles is growing quickly, thus systems are becoming increasingly complex making the engineering of these software intensive systems more and more difficult. In particular, an architecture supporting the business goals is a prerequisite for successful design. In this thesis two case studies have been made including three automotive companies with purpose to investigate the key issues related to real-world decisions when developing Electrical and Electronic (E/E) system architectures in the automotive industry. The results show that many of the identified issues relate to non technical areas such as organization, process, methods and tools, and management. Examples of identified issues are the deficient understanding of the electrical system and software at management level, and the lack of a specific process for architecture development. To cope with these issues we suggest the following actions: Educate management, increase the use of structured decision making, improve the architecture development process, clarify responsibilities in the organization and clarify development strategies. As a possible solution to one of the suggested actions we have developed a method to evaluate how new functionality is successfully integrated into an existing architecture. Themethod is a combination of the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method, ATAM, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process, AHP. The method firstly supports a structured way of listing system goals, and secondly, it also supports the making of design decisions. / Business Oriented Concept Development of Electronic System Architecture and Platforms in Vehicles

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering Johannesburg 2015 / The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a Multi Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool, which has gained wide acceptance in all disciplines in science and engineering. Although it has been used in mining engineering applications, it is only recently gaining significant momentum in the mining industry. Given its simplicity, it may seem surprising that it has not received wide acceptance, but this is probably due to a lack of both publicity and a user-friendly methodology. This report introduces a simple methodology that can be employed by anyone who possesses basic knowledge of arithmetic and spreadsheets, without having to know or understand fully the mathematics that the process is based on. / MT2017

Although studies are conducted on economical gains due to BI system adoption, limited knowledge is available on factors which influence BI system usage. Identifying these factors is necessary for organisations because this may enable the design of effective BI systems, thus increasing the chance of firms adopting them to realise the actual value inherent in the exploitation of BI systems. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to investigate factors which influence BI system usage. The investigation employed constructs derived from three theoretical frameworks, namely technology acceptance model (TAM), task-technology fit (TTF) and social cognitive theory (SCT) as follows: intention to use, perceived usefulness, perceived ease use, task characteristics, technology characteristics, task-technology fit and computer self-efficacy. To test the hypotheses, data was collected by administering the study to 682 BI system users in a South African financial institution, SA-Bank, wherein 193 usable responses were received. The findings of the study with partial least squares (PLS) analysis indicated support for the joint use of constructs from the three theoretical frameworks, explaining 65% of BI system usage variance. Furthermore, the perceived usefulness of a BI system reflected a stronger influence as a factor of BI system usage over the beliefs that the system was easy to use, and the belief that it was aligned to the performance of business tasks. An unusual outcome in this study was the lack of influence of computer self-efficacy on BI system usage. Nonetheless, the study extended validation of the use of constructs derived from the three theoretical frameworks for a BI technology in the context of SA-Bank, thereby contributing to theory. Finally, the results of hypothesis testing suggested a starting point for practitioners towards designing BI systems, and recommendations and suggestions are included in this report.

Decision-making, accepted to be an important part of executive function, is inherent in all complex human experiences requiring intact brain functioning. Three different types of decision making have been identified: actor-centred, emotion-based and veridical decisionmaking. All require goal-setting, planning and execution, which are often impaired after sustaining an acquired brain injury (ABI). The Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis (CRH) holds that a larger brain belonging to an individual with a higher IQ and better education will be more resilient to injury. The principal aim of this study was to investigate performance differences in neuropsychological tests of decision-making between individuals with ABI from different socioeconomic status (SES). It was hypothesised that ABI would exacerbate differences in decisionmaking performance between individuals from a higher SES and those from low SES in terms of the CRH. Participants (n=25) had all sustained an ABI. Actor-centred, emotion-based and veridical decision-making were investigated using the Tinker Toy Test (TTT), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Berg Card Sorting Task (BCST) respectively. Participants were asked to complete an SES Questionnaire. The independent variables were markers of SES: Race, Level of Education, Quality of Education, and Quality of Medical Care at time of injury. Differences in quality of education were significant for the BCST, suggesting that a poor quality of education has a negative impact on veridical decision-making after ABI. Poor education (a marker of low SES) does not provide the same buffering effect for insults to the brain in the event of an ABI as does superior education (a marker of high SES).

The study of decision making during adolescence has received considerable attention throughout the history of developmental psychology, justifiably, given the marked increases in morbidity and mortality that belie otherwise robust health. Although the dominant theories invoked to help explain decision-making during adolescence acknowledge the existence of motivations that are thought to be central to this developmental period, there is little work that investigates the effects of these motives, per se. In particular, motivations toward developing sexual and romantic relationships, as well as toward navigating peer status hierarchies have both been acknowledged as especially relevant for this period of development. Almost all research in this area focuses on self-report, and is heavily weighted toward the domain of status and popularity. A major gap in this literature is an understanding of how adolescent-relevant motivations affect basic behavioral processes, and of the consequences of individual differences in motivations. The current investigation uses reinforcement learning to examine the effects of social motives on stimulus salience. This may allow both indirect, behavioral measurement of motivations, and is itself a potential mechanism by which motivations affect behavior via experience of the environment, and learning. Adolescent (N = 104) and college student (N = 230) participants learned four social-motive-relevant, and two baseline face-word associations. Learning was characterized using both proportion of optimal responses in the last half of the learning task, and a Rescorla-Wagner-like computational model. Results showed greater learning, and higher learning rates, in the social-motive conditions. In order to explore the validity of behavior on the task as a measure of particular motivations, individual learning differences between social and baseline conditions were compared with developmental indices, self-report traits, and self-report health-relevant behaviors. Older participants were better at the learning task, but social-motive learning enhancement was constant across development. Measures of social-motive effects on learning did not correlate with self-reported traits or health-related behaviors. The effects of motive-relevant words on learning may be due to factors unrelated to motivation, but research design may also be problematic. Self-report trait instruments performed well, but a more comprehensive taxonomy of motivational constructs and measures would be beneficial.

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Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / The purpose of this study was to inform future policy regarding school leadership practices through examining the relationship between reported decision making at the school level and student achievement. The study utilized a mixed methods design, and examined three main components. The first component involved a qualitative analysis of 14 countries' school leadership polices, as described in country background reports submitted to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The second component used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine the relationship between principal reported school decision making and student achievement in mathematics and reading on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in the same 14 countries. The final component of this study connected the results from the policy analysis to the results of the HLM analysis to determine if there were patterns between a country's policies and the relationship between school-level decision making and student achievement. The study found that out of 14 countries included in the analysis, six countries were identified as having polices that were highly decentralized, three countries had policies that were highly centralized and five countries had policies that were somewhere in between the two extremes. The quantitative results showed that school-level decision making variables were limited in their utility as predictors of student achievement. Finally, an examination of the combined qualitative and quantitative results did not reveal any obvious patterns. However, the findings did highlight the importance of context in examining countries' policies and the relationship between leadership practices in the form of school decision making and student achievement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.