Sammanfattning Syfte: Att undersöka hur prestationen av deltagarnas resultat var för stroke drabbade individer,med relativt god gångförmåga, ett till tre år efter stroke, utförda med bedömningsinstrumentenBergs Balanstest (BBS) och Short Physical Performance Battery - svenska versionen (SPPB-S)som mäter bland annat balans och fysisk funktionsförmåga. Samt undersöka hur stortsamband (samtidig validitet) som förelåg mellan SPPB-S och BBS samt sambandet (samtidigvaliditet) mellan delmomentet statisk balans inom SPPB-S och BBS. Metod: Deskriptiv och korrelerande studie som analyserade redan insamlad journaldata frånbedömningsinstrumenten SPPB-S och BBS. Antal försökspersoner bestod av totalt 67personer i åldern 65-85 år med gångförmåga på minst 10 meter, ett till tre år efter stroke. Resultat: Undersökning av prestationen för SPPB-S visade medianvärde 9 av 12 poäng,interkvartilavståndet 3 och lägsta erhållna poäng var 0 och högsta poäng var 12. Prestationenför BBS visade medianvärde 50 av 56 poäng, interkvartilavståndet 7, minimun 6 ochmaximum 56 poäng. Prövningen av samtidig validitet för SPPB-S och BBS visade en starkkorrelation, med korrelationskoefficienten 0,8 (p<0,00). Prövning av samtidig validitet fördelmomentet balans i SPPB-S och BBS visade även det en stark korrelation, medkoefficienten 0,79 (p<0,00). Konklusion: Resultatet visade att det förelåg en stark korrelation mellan SPPB-S och BBSsamt mellan delmomentet balans i SPPB-S och BBS. Key Words: Bergs balance scale, short physical performance battery, concurrent validity,descriptive, stroke.

Bakgrund: Nightingales idé om vårdande som ett kall för kvinnor är en milstolpe inom sjuksköterskeprofessionen. Innan Nightingale hade män haft en betydande roll i vården men idag representerar manliga sjuksköterskor enbart cirka 10 procent av sjuksköterskorna i Sverige. Eriksson beskriver att människan i grunden är en vårdare samt vikten av den vårdande relationen. Det finns dock upplevelser hos patienter att manliga sjuksköterskor inte lämpar sig att vårda och de föredrar vård från en kvinnlig sjuksköterska. Connells teori om att maskulinitet är kopplat till den manliga kroppen genererar en bild av mannen som stark, känslokall och aggressiv. Syfte: Att beskriva manliga sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att vårda. Metod: Allmän litteraturöversikt av tio vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: Tre teman skapades; Förhållningssätt i vårdandet, beröring och intimvård samt manlighet och vårdande. Manliga sjuksköterskor behövde ofta utveckla speciella strategier för exempelvis etablerande av en vårdande relation. Den vårdande relationen och vårdandet upplevdes besvärligt för manliga sjuksköterskor och därför betonades vikten av att vara anpassningsbar. Beröring beskrevs som känsligt och många beskrev vikten av försiktighet för att undvika missförstånd. Slutsats: Manliga sjuksköterskor behöver vara försiktiga och anpassa sig både vid vårdande av manliga och kvinnliga patienter. Manliga sjuksköterskor behöver i större utsträckning än kvinnliga sjuksköterskor tänka efter före handlande. / Background: Nightingale’s idea of caring as a call for women is a milestone in the nursing profession. Men had before Nightingale had a significant role in caring but today male nurses only represent approximately 10 percent of registered nurses in Sweden. Eriksson describes in her theory that fundamentally man is a caregiver and the importance of a caring relationship. However there are experiences among patients that male nurses are not suitable for caring and that they prefer care from a female nurse. Connells theory about masculinity as connected to the male body generates an image of the man as strong, insensitive and aggressive. Aim: To describe male nurses’ experiences of caring. Method: A descriptive literature review drawn from 10 qualitative research articles. Results: Three themes emerged through the analysis; Attitude of caring, touching and intimate care and masculinity and caring. Male nurses often had to develop special strategies for example in establishing a caring relationship. The caring relationship and caring could be difficult for male nurses and the importance of being adaptable was therefore emphasized. Touching was described as delicate and many described the importance of being careful to avoid misunderstandings. Conclusion: Male nurses need to be careful and able to adapt both in caring for male and female patients. Male nurses have to think before they take action to a greater extent than female nurses.

During 2012, the employer of this essay carried out a telephone survey with 18000 participants and a web panel survey with 708 participants. Those who partook in the telephone survey were given a choice to join the web panel. The purpose of this work is to study the participants of the telephone survey and see if they reflect the Swedish population with regards to several socio-demographic factors. Also, we intend to investigate if the propensity to join the web panel differs for participants of the telephone survey with regards to various socio-demographic affiliations. It is also of interest to study if the response pattern is different for participants of the telephone survey that would like to join the web panel and those who reject. A comparison of response pattern between the telephone survey and web panel survey has also been done, to see if there exist any differences for these two groups of surveys. The statistical methods used in this essay are descriptive statistics, multiple logistic regression and decision trees. Conclusions to be drawn with result from these methods are that the participants from the telephone survey do reflect the Swedish population regarding certain socio-demographic factors and that there is a slight difference in propensity to join the web panel for people which have dissimilar socio-demographic affiliation. It has also been found that there is a slight difference in response pattern for participants who would or would not like to join the web panel, as well as differences in response pattern also exist between the telephone survey and the web panel survey.

This dissertation investigates the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic job factors on overall employee job satisfaction for two generation cohort groups, Baby Boomers and Generation X, in a small rural healthcare organization. Eight job factors were selected for the study, reflecting popular characteristics associated with the two groups. The job factors were classified as intrinsic or extrinsic using Hertzberg’s two-factor theory. Intrinsic factors studied were: work itself, promotion, and recognition. Extrinsic factors studied were: pay, supervision, people, technology, and work-family balance. The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) scale was used to assess employee satisfaction with certain job factors; work itself, promotion, pay, supervision, and people. Scales similar to the JDI were created and used to measure satisfaction with technology, work-family balance, and recognition. The Job In General (JIG) scale was used to assess overall job satisfaction for each generation group. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine which of the job factors predicted of overall job satisfaction for each group. Results of the study indicate that overall satisfaction is influenced a discreet combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors for each group. Generation X’s overall job satisfaction is predicted by extrinsic job factors, (work-family balance, and supervision) as well as intrinsic job factors, (work itself). Baby Boomers’ overall job satisfaction is predicted by an intrinsic job factor, (recognition) as well as an extrinsic job factor (supervision). Smaller than optimal sample size reduces applicability of the results and implies the need for extended research in this area to confirm findings of this study.

We explore the possibility of automating <i>NP</i>-hardness reductions. We motivate the problem from an artificial intelligence perspective, then propose the use of second-order existential (<i>SO</i>&#8707;) logic as representation language for decision problems. Building upon the theoretical framework of J. Antonio Medina, we explore the possibility of implementing seven syntactic operators. Each operator transforms <i>SO</i>&#8707; sentences in a way that preserves <i>NP</i>-completeness. We subsequently propose a program which implements these operators. We discuss a number of theoretical and practical barriers to this task. We prove that determining whether two <i>SO</i>&#8707; sentences are equivalent is as hard as GRAPH ISOMORPHISM, and prove that determining whether an arbitrary <i>SO</i>&#8707; sentence represents an <i>NP</i>-complete problem is undecidable.

In an effort to increase beef demand, the beef industry has expanded beyond commodity beef merchandizing into value-added cuts. As these beef cuts are developed it is critical that the industry be able to characterize the flavor attributes of these products. A trained sensory panel is typically utilized to determine flavor characteristics of food products including beef. Prior to product evaluation, a product lexicon or dictionary of terms is developed in order to anchor and orient panelists to the various samples. Once the lexicon is developed, it can be used by a descriptive panel to evaluate samples. Currently, the beef industry does not have a full beef flavor lexicon with defined references; therefore a comprehensive sensory lexicon for describing the aroma and flavor of beef was developed by a 6-member panel at Kansas State University with extensive experience in lexicon development and descriptive analysis. Three descriptive panels utilized the beef flavor lexicon developed in Phase I by Kansas State University to evaluate the effect of USDA Quality Grade and cut on beef flavor and to validate the beef flavor lexicon to determine if it is ready for use by scientists. iv Results indicated that Choice steaks and roasts were higher in fat-like, and overall sweet flavor. Eye of round roasts were lowest in aroma and flavor attributes and bottom round roasts were highest in liver-like flavor. Flat iron steaks were highest in fat-like flavor compared to other cuts and top loin steaks tended to have the lowest intensity in flavor attributes compared to the steak cuts. The three sensory panels rated steaks and roasts similarly for aroma and flavor attributes and were generally less than 2- to 1-point different in rating intensities. The beef flavor lexicon was easily applied across the three institutions and should be ready to be used as a viable research and product development tool.

In this thesis, vibration analyses of electronic assemblies that consist of an electronic box, printed circuit board and electronic components are presented. A detailed vibration analysis of a real electronic assembly is performed by finite element methods and vibration tests. Effects of component addition and component modeling are investigated by finite element analysis in detail. Results are compared in order to identify the most efficient, reliable and suitable method depending on the type of problem. Experimental results for the vibration of an electronic box, PCB and components are presented and discussed. Furthermore, an analytical model that represents a printed circuit board and electronic component is suggested for fixed and simply supported boundary conditions of the PCB. Different types of electronic components are modeled analytically to observe different dynamic characteristics. The validity of the analytical model is computationally checked by comparing results with those of finite element solution.

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<p>Using mathematical models with the purpose to understand and store knowlegde about a system is not a new field in science with early contributions dated back to, e.g., Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.</p><p>The aim is to obtain such a comprehensive predictive and quantitative knowledge about a phenomenon so that mathematical expressions or models can be used to forecast every relevant detail about that phenomenon. Such models can be used for reducing pollutions from car engines; prevent aviation incidents; or developing new therapeutic drugs. Models used to forecast, or predict, the behavior of a system are refered to predictive models. For such, the estimation problem aims to find one model and is well known and can be handeled by using standard methods for global nonlinear optimization.</p><p>Descriptive models are used to obtain and store quantitative knowledge of system. Estimation of descriptive models has not been much described by the literature so far; instead the methods used for predictive models have beed applied. Rather than finding one particular model, the parameter estimation for descriptive models aims to find every model that contains descriptive information about the system. Thus, the parameter estimation problem for descriptive models can not be stated as a standard optimization problem.</p><p>The main objective for this thesis is to propose methods for estimation of descriptive models. This is made by using methods for nonlinear optimization including both new and existing theory.</p>

Although Asian Americans have the highest growth rate, their electoral participation does not commensurate with their numerical strength. This research explores the causes of Asian Americans' low level of electoral participation. I argue that acculturation presents barriers for Asian Americans to exert their political power. This project combined a survey-based experiment on and in-depth interviews with Asian Americans in Austin, in addition to existing data (CPS and the PNAAPS). I first estimate the effects of socioeconomic status on turnout across racial and ethnic groups. The results demonstrate that while education and income have limited effects on Asian American turnout at the aggregate level, their positive influence on turnout still holds for Asian Americans at the individual level, though the effect varies by nativity. Furthermore, education and income effects on turnout are greatest among Whites. The differences of these effects between Whites and Asians are especially prominent among the higher socioeconomic stratum. I next find that acculturation experiences, group connectedness, and hybrid identity elevate levels of turnout among Asian Americans. Those who are more residentially stable and sense shared Asian culture are more likely to vote, while the Asian-born are less likely to vote. In addition, experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination are likely to turn Asians away from their American-ness, while shared cultural commonality helps to foster the "Asian American" identity. Last, the experiment results suggest that a lack of ethnic cues for Asian Americans may have contributed to their low turnout rates: Asian American voters value descriptive representation, and ethnic cues effectively operate among them, especially the less politically engaged. While voters' support for a coethnic candidate is evident in the study, the evidence of their cross- or pan-ethnic support is limited. The project provides a window into the political incorporation of immigrant populations. The study speaks to the literature on political participation, racial/ethnic politics and identity politics. In addition, the findings broaden our understanding of minority political behavior, and the process by which immigrant populations incorporate into American political system, a promise of democratic representation. / text