Having a child who is suffering with chronic pain can profoundly impact a parent’s life. Reciprocally, parent cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to their child’s chronic pain can influence the child pain experience. We developed the Parent Risk and Impact Screening Measure (PRISM) to assess parent physical and emotional functioning, behavioral responses to child pain, and impact on daily life due to their child’s chronic pain. In an effort to validate this screening tool, we examined the PRISM in relation to existing measures of parent distress, parent behavior, and child functioning. The 30-item PRISM was administered via RedCAP survey to 112 parents of children with persistent pain presenting to a multidisciplinary pain clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital. Parents also completed the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS-29), Bath Adolescent Pain Questionnaire-Parental Impact Questionnaire (BAQ-PIQ), Adult Responses to Children’s Symptoms (ARCS), and Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS). Children completed the Functional Disability Inventory (FDI), Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FOPQ), and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL). Parents were predominantly mothers (84%), married (74%), and college- educated (70%). Their children (ages 8-18) were predominantly female (88%) and endorsed daily pain (84%; Mean=6/10). PRISM total scores were strongly correlated with parent general symptoms of depression, anxiety, fatigue, social restrictions, and pain interference (PROMIS-29; r=0.47, 0.54, 0.59, 0.57, 0.38). PRISM total scores were also highly associated with parent pain-specific domains including self-blame and helplessness (BAP-PIQ; r=0.62), parent behavior (BAP-PIQ; r=0.54), and protective responses (ARCS; r=0.59). For child outcomes, higher PRISM scores correlated with more disability (FDI; r=0.49), higher fear of pain (FOPQ; r=0.53), and lower functioning within emotional, social, and psychosocial domains (PedsQL; r=0.36, 0.34, 0.48). Altogether the PRISM tool appears to be a brief and clinically important means of screening parent distress and behaviors associated with child pain-related dysfunction. Future work will include item level analysis with the goal of reducing the length of this screening tool.

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Major Automação). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

Engineering activities by nature are collaborative endeavors. Single-user applications like CAD, CAE, and CAM force a strictly serial design process, which ultimately lengthens time to market. New multi-user applications such as NXConnect address the issue during the design stage of the product development process by enabling users to work in parallel. Multi-user collaborative tool path planning software addresses the same serial limitations in tool path planning, thereby decreasing cost and increasing the quality of manufacturing processes. As part complexity increases, lead times are magnified by serial workflows. Multi-user tool path planning can shorten the process planning time. But, to be effective, it must be possible to intelligently decompose the manufacturing sequence and distribute path planning assignments among several users. A new method of process decomposition is developed and described in this research. A multi-user CAM (MUCAM) prototype was developed to test the method. The decomposition process and MUCAM prototype together were used to manufacture a part to verify the method.

Background: Non-specific low back pain is a growing problem in society. No treatment have shown satisfying results to reduce pain or disability for patients with non-specific low back pain, and 1-18% of these patients develop chronic low back pain. STarT Back Screening Tool (SBST) is an instrument for sub grouping patients with non-specific low back pain into low, medium or high risk of developing chronic low back pain and then modifying the treatment after the different needs of every patient. The purpose of this study was to do a systematic review, investigating validation of the SBST to evaluate the justification of its use by clinicians. Method: Pubmed, Cinahl and Medline was searched in February 2017 for studies investigating criterion validity, construct validity and content validity of the SBST. The author (JG) assessed risk of bias and extracted relevant data following the procedures of PRISMA-statement. Result: 15 articles were identified for inclusion in the review. 8 articles investigated criterion validity, 11 articles investigated construct validity and 1 article investigated content validity. Predictive validity showed heterogeneous statistical analysis and varying results, a narrative result was presented that showed marginal benefits for the use of SBST for prediction of future outcome. Concurrent validity was measured with Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient in all investigated articles, showing results between 0.34-0.802. Discriminant validity was measured with Area under the curve analysis in all articles, scoring between 0.69-0.92. Convergent validity showed a Pearson’s correlation between 0.708-0.811 and a Spearman’s rank correlation between 0.35-0.74. Conclusion: Because of heterogeneity of the results it is not possible to draw conclusive conclusions. However, results tend to show limited evidence for the use of SBST as a predictive instrument for patients with non-specific low back pain.

<p>The purpose of this report is to present the findings from the thesis work performed at Qurius Sweden (former Ibitec). The goal was to evaluate how usable Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) was in general and how usable two portal solutions created for MOSS 2007 were in particular. The goal also consisted ofevaluating how SharePoint could be improved in terms of usability and accessibility. The last part of the thesis work was to create a dynamic help tool, from where application specific help could be created.The usability was evaluated with a variant of usability engineering. Not all of the original method could be used because the products analyzed were already finished. The results from the analysis show that MOSS 2007 is quite usable, especially when it comes to document handling. It is also possible to create web pages and sites with ease. MOSS 2007 lacks in usability when it comes to presenting information to the user regarding what is going on in the system and. The system can also be quite complex and much to grasp for an end user. Solutions created in MOSS 2007 follows closely the usability of MOSS 2007 but they can be made very usable if only certain aspects are considered. Example of improvements could be the placement of the help system, clearer error messages and an overlook of managing user rights.The dynamic help tool was created in the programming language C# and based on the .NET platform. The implementation is a so-called Web Part that can easily be inserted on a page in MOSS 2007. The help tool uses the built in help system in MOSS 2007 for editing present help files and for adding new files to it. The help tool has a very minimalistic design and the focus was on the tasks it should be performing rather than a nice-looking interface. To ensure usability for the help tool, future work should be done, testing the product with real users and apply other usability methods to improve the help tool. As of now, no usability methods have been used while developing the help tool, nor have any tests with real users been performed. This is to be considered as future work.As a conclusion, both MOSS 2007 and the solutions created for it can be said to have a certain degree of usability shown from the evaluations. Improvements can be done, and should be, in order to increase the users’ experience. With the help tool, it is now possible to create solution specific help for a project intended for MOSS 2007.</p>

<p>Ontologies have become an important tool for representing data in a structured manner. Merging ontologies allows for the creation of ontologies that later can be composed into larger ontologies as well as for recognizing patterns and similarities between ontologies. Ontologies are being used nowadays in many areas, including bioinformatics. In this thesis, we present a desktop version of SAMBO, a system for merging ontologies that are represented in the languages OWL and DAML+OIL. The system has been developed in the programming language JAVA with JDK (Java Development Kit) 1.4.2. The user can open a file locally or from the network and can merge ontologies using suggestions generated by the SAMBO algorithm. SAMBO provides a user-friendly graphical interface, which guides the user through the merging process.</p>

<p>Real-time networks are traditionally built on proprietary standards, resulting in a interoperability issues between different real-time netork implementations and traditional data networks mainly used in back office operations.</p><p>Continuity and supplier independence are a cause of concern with current</p><p>proprietary real-time networks.</p><p>This project evaluates the capability of providing real-time traffic over</p><p>switched Ethernet with EDF scheduling algorithm implemented at both the</p><p>switch and the node. By using OMNET simulation tool at packet level, it</p><p>is shown that the EDF implementation in switched Ethernet can guarantee</p><p>real-time traffic over the network and at the same time supporting non real-time traffic.</p>

<p>Summary</p><p>This thesis discusses the possibility for PERSONEC to use storytelling as a strategic communicative concept in its marketing to mediate the brand identity of its organisation. In the search for this, we have chosen to describe the concept of brand identity and storytelling as a draft for the construction of the brand.</p><p>We have then analysed how storytelling can be applied, and already is, at PERSONEC and also presented some recommendations about how storytelling could be developed by PERSONEC.</p><p>In this thesis we investigate how PERSONEC communicates and manages its brand identity through the implementation of storytelling. Our main problem is: How can PERSONEC use storytelling as a concept to communicate its brand identity both internally and externally? This in turn involves two sub questions, namely: What is the brand identity of PERSONEC? And: What is storytelling as a concept and how can it be employed at PERSONEC?</p><p>Data collection has been performed using a qualitative method. In order to find out about brand identity and storytelling, primary data has been gathered through interviews with key personnel at PERSONEC. Secondary data consists of results of surveys on public awareness of the PERSONEC image as well as results from customer satisfaction survey on PERSONEC. The findings have been analysed based on diverse theories on brand and storytelling. Our thesis has in the beginning an explorative approach which at the end results in a conclusive description.</p><p>Theories, mainly from Aaker (1996) and Kapferer (2003) have been used to investigate the brand identity of PERSONEC. In accordance with their theories, the identity can describe the reality of the organisation and can be a tool to create a unitary illustration of the organisation, to be communicated internally and externally. In our results we have found that PERSONEC is symbolised by knowledge in personnel-, payroll- and financial management in the Nordic region with an experienced and diversified staff.</p><p>Based on theoretical and empirical material about storytelling we have found key issues of the notion of storytelling. These involve discussions about the concept of storytelling, its area of application and how stories should be structured and also which aspects are important for this process. We consider storytelling as a concept to structure the communication of an organisation both internally and externally. The stories can act as a bridge between the organisation and the outside world and can also simplify description and communication of complex processes and concepts. In order to differentiate itself PERSONEC should continue to use storytelling to communicate its core values in a more emotional and engaging way.</p><p>Stories reveal. Stories motivate. Stories bind individuals into teams. Stories create solutions.</p>

<p>This study is about to see whether the two models representing the strategies of lean production is to use and apply in different companies. The models are structured in two different ways in which one of them is checking the softer elements of lean production in the form of leadership and strategies. This model is called Lesat and is based on interviewquestions. The second model, called "learning to see" is about identifying flows. This, together shall then give an idea of how mature companies are when it comes to a whole in the concept of lean production, and susceptibility to use these models to their respective companies.</p><p> </p><p>The study is conducted in two companies, SKF couplings systems and AQ parkoprint. SKF is a company that makes connections through a special method called the oil injection method. Parkoprint produces mainly parking meters of all kinds, this is done in close cooperation with customers and their preferences.</p><p> </p><p>The study has been carried out by means of interviews of individuals in leadership positions in each business. We also interviewed operations personnel and has developed facts through observation and computer systems to make the flow surveys.</p><p> </p><p>The results show that the models themselves are useful and functional. However, it became more difficult to use the Lesat showing soft data, rather than "learn to see" that focuses mostly on flows. This is for several reasons. One of the reasons was that the companies examined were not quite at the level existing strategies and leadership that Lesat calls, this makes it difficult to estimate where in the assessment firms ports when the people interviewed do not really are in line or understand how the model or concept works in some areas. In addition to this we experienced it difficult to make a fair assessment when the model in any way based on subjective assessments from companies and then marked in a way that also tends to be of subjective nature. From this perspective, we believe that Lesat model fit better in a study of the companies that has made more of work on lean production and has achieved a higher degree of maturity, and thus become a little easier to rate and provide a more realistic sense.</p><p> </p><p>It appears that the models worked with different conditions and also with different results. However, the two worked so well that it clearly has been able to see the potential strengths, weaknesses and possible improvements in the respective organization. This means that the combination of the two satisfactory to achieve a whole, and that any use, ie organization, can help to improve and lead organizations to more effectively work with and against the lean production.</p>

<p>CSR is a well-researched topic that can be used as a strategy tool, communication tool and leadership tool. In addition, CSR can be used with the Stakeholder theory. In fact, all of these theories can implicitly describe how employees are affected by CSR. However, this description can be more explicit if CSR is linked with HR. Thus, the purpose of this research is to explore how CSR can be used as an HR-tool.</p><p>This research was a case study that investigated the situation in one company. In it, employees and managers were interviewed. The interviews had questions that would reveal the employees‘ opinions of CSR. In addition, the managers were given different questions in order to discover any differences between their and employees‘ views.</p><p>The findings suggest that the case company‘s employees defined CSR as the responsibility for employees, societies, environments and customers. In addition, the employees expected the company to work with CSR. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that employees‘ commitment-levels will increase if companies work with CSR. Lastly, this research includes the Fridlund & Olofsson Model (FOM) that shows the causal relations between CSR and HR.</p><p>This research was limited to one office of one company in one country. Therefore, future research may discover whether the findings can be applied to other companies.</p><p>This research contributes to the relative lack of research that links CSR with HR. Thus, this research may be of use to all people interested in the subject. In addition, the research includes practical implications; there, managers may learn how a successful CSR-wok can be implemented.</p>