AbstractThe aim: The aim of the study was to describe what women are most satisfied with in maternity care and if women´s childbirth experiences can be described by means of the QPP-I, who contains 32 statements related to maternity care. Design: The study is part of a national cross-sectional study which lasted for two weeks in Sweden in 2007. This paper analyzes one of the two questions with open answers, which reads: "What was the best with maternity care?”. Results: The results showed that out of a total of 735 responses 717 could be placed in the existing instrument QPP-I. Responses were analyzed by deductive content analysis and the majority 98% of the women's responses was about commitment, empathy and respect from the midwives. The responses (n = 18) who did not fit in QPP-I were then analyzed inductive and focused on team work and sense of coherence. Conclusion: The instrument QPP-I can be developed with additional statement to measure what it intends to measure, women's perceptions of maternity care.

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Instrument transformers are a crucial component of power system protection. They supply the protection system with scaled-down replicas of current and voltage signals present in a power network to the levels which are safe and practical to op- erate with. The conventional instrument transformers are based on electromagnetic coupling between the power network on the primary side and protective devices on the secondary. Due to such a design, instrument transformers insert distortions in the mentioned signal replicas. Protective devices may be sensitive to these distortions. The inuence of distortions may lead to disastrous misoperations of protective devices. To overcome this problem, a new instrument transformer design has been devised: optical sensing of currents and voltages. In the theory, novel instrument transform- ers promise a distortion-free replication of the primary signals. Since the mentioned novel design has not been widely used in practice so far, its superior performance needs to be evaluated. This poses a question: how can the new technology (design) be evaluated, and compared to the existing instrument transformer technology? The importance of this question lies in its consequence: is there a necessity to upgrade the protection system, i.e. to replace the conventional instrument transformers with the novel ones, which would be quite expensive and time-consuming? The posed question can be answered by comparing inuences of both the novel and the conventional instrument transformers on the protection system. At present, there is no systematic approach to this evaluation. Since the evaluation could lead to an improvement of the overall protection system, this thesis proposes a comprehensive and systematic methodology for the evaluation. The thesis also proposes a complete solution for the evaluation, in the form of a simulation environment. Finally, the thesis presents results of evaluation, along with their interpretation.

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att utreda vilka finansiella instrument som används i affärsplaner framtagna av nya företag i uppstartsskedet.</p><p>Litteratur om affärsplaner har studerats för att utreda vilka som är de vanligaste finansiella instrumenten som förekommer. En kvantitativ prövning har utförts för att studera vilka finansiella instrument som används i praktiken, hur vanligt förekommande de är, för vilka tidsperspektiv de redovisas samt hur många finansiella instrument som tas upp i respektive affärsplaner. Prövningen har utförts genom att en befintlig volym med affärsplaner har stu-derats och samtliga finansiella instrument registrerats. Resultatet har i sin tur analyserats och presenterats textuellt och i form av grafer.</p><p>De finansiella instrument som enligt tidigare forskning bör finnas med i en affärsplan är resultaträkning, balansräkning, kassaflödesanalys och breakeven-analys. Dessa fyra instrument har klassificerats som finansiella huvudinstrument. I den empiriska undersökningen påträffades förutom ovanstående instrument försäljningsprognos, kapitalbehov, kostnadsprognos, löneprognos nyckeltal, portfolio analysis model, prissättning, uppstartskostnader och återbetalningsplan. Dessa instrument är klassificerade som övriga finansiella instrument.</p><p>I genomsnitt används 4,1 instrument i respektive affärsplan. Standardavvikelsen är 2,9, vil-ket innebär att det är en stor spridning på antalet instrument. Drygt två tredjedelar (37%) av affärsplanerna innehåller två eller färre instrument medan knappt en fjärdedel (23%) av affärsplanerna innehåller åtta eller fler instrument. Undersökningen visar att det är en stor andel som har få respektive många finansiella instrument i affärsplanen, vilket är ett tecken på en fokusdifferens. Fokusdifferensen innebär att en stor del av urvalet har en väl genom-arbetad finansiell planering i affärsplanen och en stor del inte har det.</p><p>Knappt tre fjärdedelar (72%) av affärsplanerna innehåller minst ett finansiellt huvudinstrument, vilket innebär att mer än en fjärdedel (28%) inte innehåller något finansiellt huvudinstrument överhuvudtaget. Bland de fyra vanligaste instrumenten återfinns tre huvudinstrument: resultaträkning (70%), balansräkning (52%) och kassaflödesanalys (48%). Det fjärde huvudinstrumentet, breakeven-analys, förekommer med en frekvens på 30%, vilket innebär att det är det sjunde vanligaste instrumentet. Trenden visar att huvudinstrumenten förekommer på den övre halvan i diagrammet över mest förekommande instrument och de övriga instrumenten förekommer på den nedre halvan. Endast två instrument används i fler än hälften av affärsplanerna.</p> / <p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which financial instruments are used in business plans developed by new companies in the start-up phase.</p><p>Appropriate literature has been reviewed to study which financial instruments occur most frequently. A quantitative study has been carried out to examine which financial instruments are being used in practise, how often they occur, what time perspective they present and with what frequency they occur in each business plan. The study has been performed by registering financial instruments in business plans. The chosen objects for the study have been found in an existing volume of business plans.</p><p>The financial instruments which, according to the literature, should be used in a business plan are income statement, balance sheet, cash flow analysis and breakeven analysis. These four instrument have been classified as main financial instruments. All the main financial in-struments were found in the empirical study, but the financial instruments sales forecast, funding needs, expenditure forecast, personnel plan, business ratios, portfolio analysis model, pricing strategy, start-up costs and reimbursement plan were also found. These in-strument are classified as other financial instruments.</p><p>On average 4,1 financial instruments are used in each business plan. The standard deviation is 2,9, which means the number of financial instruments is widely spread. More than two thirds (37%) of the business plans contain two or less financial instruments while less than one fourth (23%) of the business plans contain eight or more financial instruments. The study shows there is a large portion of the business plans that contain either few or many financial instruments. This is a sign of difference in focus from the business plan writers. The difference means that a large extent of the business plans has a well developed finan-cial planning and a large extent has not.</p><p>Less than three thirds (72%) of the business plans contain at least one main financial in-strument, which means that more than one fourth (28%) does not contain any of them. Among the four most common financial instruments in the practice, three are main instruments: income statement (70%), balance sheet (52%) and cash flow analysis (48%). The fourth main instrument, break even analysis, occurs with the frequency 30%, which means it is the seventh most used instrument in business plans. The trend shows that the main instruments occur in the upper half of the diagram and the other instruments occur in the lower half. Only two instruments are used in more than half of the business plans, income statement and balance sheet.</p>

Zugl.: Berlin, Techn. Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2007

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988.

Induction and mentoring programs are often portrayed as commonsense policy solutions to lower teacher attrition, build beginning teacher capability and ultimately, raise student achievement. Mentoring standards however, have rarely been examined to see how their interpretation and implementation influence the relationship of mentor-mentee pairs in local contexts under a state voluntary induction and mentoring program. In this multi-cased qualitative study, I interviewed nine mentor-mentee pairs and conducted separate mentor and mentee focus groups as well as observing the mentor and mentee interact during an observational cycle in seven high poverty middle schools under Texas' Beginning Teacher Induction and Mentoring (BTIM) program. I also performed a content analysis of mentor training and support materials. Using Cohen and Moffitt's policy implementation framework I found that due to the lack of specificity and formalness of mentoring standards in BTIM-specific and non-specific documents, and the spottiness of mentor initial training, most mentors and mentees needed to rely on their capabilities and dispositions to define their roles. Consequently, it seemed that in the eyes of the mentors and mentees their relationship was informal; this was reflected in the roles that they assumed. Based on the study results, I recommend that mentoring standards for the mentor and mentee be more specific and formally defined. Indeed, there appears to be a need to formally conceptualize mentoring from its policy aims to its policy instruments within mentoring policy. / text

A multiple-pass cell is developed and applied to enhance the Raman signal from methane-air flames for temperature measurements. Stable operation of the cell was demonstrated and studied in two alignment modes. In the ring mode, the beams are focused into a ring of ~ 3 mm diameter at the center of the cell, and spectra were recorded at low dispersion (0.26 nm/pixel). Temperature is calculated from the ratio of the intensity of Stokes to anti-Stokes signal from nitrogen. Temperature is also inferred from the shapes of the Stokes and anti-Stokes peaks in the spectrum. The uncertainty in the value of flame temperature in these measurements was ±50 K. The signal gain from 100 passes is a factor of 83. Signal to noise ratio (SNR) improved by a factor of 9.3 in room temperature air with an even higher factor in flames. The improvement in SNR depends on the acquisition time and is best for short acquisition times. In the two point mode, multi passing is achieved simultaneously with high spatial resolution as the laser is focused at two small regions separated by ~ 2 mm at the center of the cell. The probe regions are 300 [mu]m × 200 [mu]m. The vast improvement in the spatial resolution is achieved at the cost of a reduced number of passes and signal gain. The two point mode is operated with 25 passes at each point with a signal gain factor of ~20; the SNR gain depends on the data acquisition time. Spectra were recorded at high dispersion (~0.03 nm/pixel). Temperature is inferred from curve fitting to the high resolution Stokes spectrum of nitrogen in methane-air flames. The curve fit is based on very detailed simulation of Raman spectrum of nitrogen. The final model includes the angular dependence of Raman scattering, electrical and mechanical anharmonicity in the polarizability matrix elements, and the presence of a rare isotope of nitrogen in air. The uncertainty in the value of temperature in the least noisy data is ±9 K. The sources of uncertainty in temperature and their contribution to the total uncertainty are also identified. / text

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Syftet med den här studien är att skapa kunskap om hur och när förskollärarna använder musik i förskolan. Frågeställningarna är: Hur används sång och musik i förskolan? När används sång och musik i förskolan? I denna studie har jag valt att utgå från Lev S. Vygotskijs tankar om lärande och utveckling i ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. I det perspektivet talar Vygotskij om en tvåstegsmodell. Samspelet är den ena processen och i den andra processen bearbetar barnet det upplevda enskilt. Vygotskijs tvåstegsmodell används för att studera sång och musik i förskolan, då barnen först får uppleva och utöva sången och musiken tillsammans med andra och sedan gå över till att bearbeta och utöva enskilt. Vygoskij talar också om att kreativitet bör ses som en grundläggande mänsklig funktion.   Kvalitativ metod användes i studien. Två förskollärare, som arbetar på två olika förskolor, intervjuades och observationer av verksamheterna vid de båda förskolorna genomfördes. Resultatet från intervjuerna visade att det förekommer mycket musicerande på båda förskolorna och att det mesta sker spontant men också att det finns utrymme för att öka musicerandet. Att det mesta är spontant visade sig också under observationerna då det sjöngs sånger och sångpratades vid blöjbyte, tvättning, tandborstning, på- och avklädning, när någon var ledsen, när barnen ville sjunga eller spela, i leken och när de ritar/målar. Studien visar att förskollärarna sångpratar för att öka närhet och kommunikation med barnen. Under intervjuns gång framkom det att förskollärarna blev mer uppmärksamma om musikens betydelse och vad de själva kände att de behövde bli bättre på.