The call to better prepare nurses in safety and quality performance resulted from the concern of the Institute of Medicine regarding egregious gaps and errors in U.S. hospitals that resulted in serious injuries and patient deaths. Quality and safety education for nursing (QSEN) competencies were set forth in 2005 to enhance nursing curricula and nursing students' preparation for practice; however, QSEN's integration and implementation have been gradual and inconsistent. This qualitative interpretive study was guided by Senge's principles of the learning organization and Benner's professional development model. Using face-to-face interviews, the perspectives of 9 full-time nursing faculty members at 2 private nursing colleges in the Northeast United States were obtained about QSEN integration into their curriculum. Data analysis employed the use of open in vivo coding, categorizing, and the formation of themes. The results indicated that QSEN integration was perceived as complex and daunting due to faculty's limited knowledge about QSEN, lack of adequate preparation to develop and employ instructional strategies, lack of adequate time to teach, and limited learning opportunities at clinical sites to develop competencies such as teamwork and collaboration and informatics. Meaningful reform in nursing education may occur as leaders engage faculty members in meaningful dialogue to better understand the complexity and challenges of QSEN integration, including faculty members' needs for successful implementation. Nursing students may then be better trained to understand the nature and consequences of human and system errors and appreciate higher standards of care that will result in a decrease in preventable injuries, medication errors, and patient deaths.

Although the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has shown a lot of promise as a theoretical perspective, researchers find it difficult to use it in particular environments because the requirements of the framework change in specific contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore and produce more flexible ways of using the TPACK for inservice mathematics secondary teachers. Three such teachers at an urban public school were observed in their classrooms and interviewed about their experiences of teaching mathematics and integrating computer technology in their day-to-day activities. Each participant had over 10 years experience in teaching mathematics in secondary schools in Ontario, and expertise in using computers in mathematics curriculum. The research questions were: 1) How do secondary school mathematics teachers describe their ways of integrating technology? 2) What difficulties do teachers have when they try to integrate technology into mathematics classrooms? The findings from the first research question show that teachers displayed a high degree of integration of technology. Their activities were very clearly designed, conferring clear roles to the use of integrating computer technology in mathematics classes. Teachers had specific approaches to integrate computer technology: a) to allow students opportunities to learn and experiment with their mathematical knowledge; b) to help them pass the content to the students in the process of teaching mathematics; and c) to assess and evaluate students’ work, and give them feedback. The findings from the second research question reveal that teachers had difficulties in purchasing and maintaining the computer equipment. They had some difficulties in trying to integrate new technologies as these required time, preparation, and dedication. In addition, teachers had some difficulties in making students use computers in a significant way. The implication for teacher education is that inservice teachers should have opportunities to update their computer and pedagogical skills, a long term perspective in integrating technology in mathematics education, and professional and technical support from teaching colleagues and administrators. Finally, the integration of computer technology in mathematics requires more intensive teamwork and collaboration between teachers, technical support staff, and administrators.

Cancer immunotherapy has recently made remarkable clinical progress. Adoptive transfer of T-cells engineered with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) against CD19 has been successful in treatment of B-cell leukemia. Patient’s T-cells are isolated, activated, transduced with a vector encoding the CAR molecule and then expanded before being transferred back to the patient. However some obstacles restrict its success in solid tumors. This thesis explores different aspects to improve CAR T-cells therapy of cancer. Ex vivo expanded T-cells are usually sensitive to the harsh tumor microenvironment after reinfusion. We developed a novel expansion method for T-cells, named AEP, by using irradiated and preactivated allo-sensitized allogeneic lymphocytes (ASALs) and allogeneic mature dendritic cells (DCs). AEP-expanded T-cells exhibited better survival and cytotoxic efficacy under oxidative and immunosuppressive stress, compared to T-cells expanded with established procedures. Integrating retro/lentivirus (RV/LV) used for CAR expressions randomly integrate in the T-cell genome and has the potential risk of causing insertional mutagenesis. We developed a non-integrating lentiviral (NILV) vector containing a scaffold matrix attachment region (S/MAR) element (NILV-S/MAR) for T-cells transduction. NILV-S/MAR-engineered CAR T-cells display similar cytotoxicity to LV-engineered CAR T-cells with undetectable level of insertional event, which makes them safer than CAR T-cells used in the clinic today. CD19-CAR T-cells have so far been successful for B-cell leukemia but less successful for B-cell lymphomas, which present semi-solid structure with an immunosuppressive microenvironment. We have developed CAR T-cells armed with H. pylorineutrophil-activating protein (HP-NAP). HP-NAP is a major virulence factor and plays important role in T-helper type 1 (Th1) polarizing. NAP-CAR T-cells showed the ability to mature DCs, attract innate immune cells and increase secretion of Th1 cytokines and chemokines, which presumably leads to better CAR T-cell therapy for B-cell lymphoma. Allogeneic-DCs (alloDCs) were used to further alter tumor microenvironment. The premise relies on initiation of an allo-reactive immune response for cytokine and chemokines secretion, as well as stimulation of T-cell response by bringing in tumor-associated antigen. We demonstrated that alloDCs promote migration and activation of immune cells and prolong the survival of tumor-bearing mice by attracting T-cells to tumors and reverse the immune suppressive tumor microenvironment.

In the context of sustainable development, evaluations have particularly high relevance as complex issues have to be dealt with generally over an extended period of time. Furthermore, there is a growing demand to evaluate against the concept of sustainable development. Especially evaluations with sustainable development are a rather new type of evaluation, as the source of its evaluation questions and the criteria applied are rooted in the concept of sustainable development. Sustainability of a specific project or process is often highly case specific as sustainable development is determined by many often unique issues. However, evaluations would be highly inefficient, if they would have to be newly designed in every case. Thus it is necessary to determine and utilize the major issues for evaluations with sustainable development. This paper is part of a series of three papers - which can be used independently - that present the major common issues for evaluations with sustainable development in a Tool Box. The results presented here are based on outcomes of a research project funded by the "Austrian Science Fund". This paper presents practical problems related to the issue of complexity in evaluations with sustainable development. Notwithstanding the multiple challenges, the strategic options available are presented in terms of strategies. Especially commissioning agents, but also other evaluation stakeholders will find an overview and an assessment of the strategies regarding resources required, state of practical experience as well as their compatibility with the concept of sustainable development. (author's abstract) / Series: Research Paper Series of the Research Focus Managing Sustainability

Controle preditivo baseado em modelo (MPC) recebeu ampla aceitação na indústria química nos últimos 30 anos. O funcionamento básico dessa técnica é a utilização de um modelo para calcular o comportamento de uma planta em função das entradas que ela receberia nos próximos instantes. Define-se um objetivo, cuja principal contribuição é dada por uma medida da distância entre a condição predita da planta e um valor desejado previamente estipulado. Esse objetivo pode incluir ainda, por exemplo, penalizações sobre o esforço de controle necessário para levar a planta a uma condição mais próxima do desejável. São incorporadas restrições como limites físicos da planta e dos atuadores e formula-se um problema de otimização, buscando o ponto ótimo dessa função objetivo e respeitando as restrições. Neste trabalho é abordado o problema de controle preditivo baseado em modelo para sistemas que apresentem integradores e/ou tempos mortos. Estes elementos tornam mais difícil o controle de processos baseado apenas em técnicas clássicas. Apresenta-se aqui um modelo em espaço de estados que permite a representação dessas dinâmicas de modo suficientemente preciso. A formulação de modelo apresentada permite ainda a incorporação de informações sobre distúrbios medidos. É feita uma demonstração da estabilidade desse controlador quando o modelo por ele utilizado é idêntico ao comportamento real da planta. Numa aplicação real do controlador proposto, seria necessário estimar os estados da planta a partir das medidas das saídas. Em geral, utiliza-se um Filtro de Kalman para realizar esta tarefa. São estudados aqui os efeitos que a presença desse filtro teria sobre o desempenho do sistema em malha fechada. É proposto um observador baseado numa mudança heurística feita sobre o Filtro de Kalman e que permite, em certos casos, uma melhoria de desempenho. São apresentados os resultados de simulações de uma planta de óxido de etileno com o intuito de ilustrar a atuação do controlador estável desenvolvido e do observador proposto. / Model Predictive Control (MPC) has gained wide acceptance in chemical industry in the last 30 years. The basic principle of this technique is to use a model to calculate plants future behavior based on the inputs it would receive in the next sampling periods. It must be set an objective, mainly composed of some measure of the distance between plants predicted state and a previously specified condition. Objective value may also include, for example, penalty on control effort necessary to drive the plant closer to the desired state. It is possible to include constraints, such as physical limits of the plant or of the actuators and therefore to pose an optimization problem, searching the best value of the objective function that satisfies all constraints. This work addresses the problem of MPC applied to integrating systems and/or processes with dead-time. These kinds of plants are often difficult to control using only classical techniques. It is presented here a state space model to represent both cases accurately. Measured disturbances may also be incorporated to the model. Finally, it is shown that the proposed controller is stable when its internal model represents exactly plants dynamics. In any real application of this controller, it would be necessary to estimate plants states from outputs measures. In general, Kalman Filter solves this problem. It is studied in this work the effects caused by filters inclusion on closed loop performance. A new observer is proposed, based on a heuristic improvement over Kalman Filter which induces, for some systems, improved performance. Numerical simulation has been performed over a model of an ethylene oxide plant, illustrating the use of this stable controller and the proposed observer.

<p>The determination of the optical properties of biological tissue is an important issue in laser medicine. The optical properties define the tissue´s absorption and scattering behaviour, and can be expressed by quantities such as the albedo, the optical thickness and the anisotropy coefficient. During this project, a measurement system for the determination of the optical properties was built up. The system consists of a double integrating sphere set-up to perform the necessary reflection and transmission measurements, and a computer algorithm to calculate the optical properties from the measured data. This algorithm is called Inverse Adding Doubling method, and is based on a one-dimensional transport model. First measurements were conducted with the system, including measurements with phantom media (Intralipid-ink solutions) and with cartilage samples taken from the human knee joint. This work also includes an investigation about the preparation of tissue samples for optical measurements.</p>

<p>Title: Creating high awareness – A study in how a company can create awareness with cost efficient marketing methods. (Skapande av hög medvetenhet – En studie i hur ett företag kan skapa medvetenhet med kostnadseffektiva marknadsförings metoder).</p><p>Authors: Alexander Edlund and Fredrik Hansson</p><p>Aim: Our aim is to reveal the pros and cons of cost efficient marketing and decide which cost efficient method works best in creating awareness. We also want to determine if the methods can be integrated in a successful way to achieve greater awareness.</p><p>Method/Material: We have made a qualitative approach by conducting three in depth interviews with the company Bluetooth SIG’s marketing director Anders Edlund. Our theoretical foundation is mainly built on theory from the databases and library supported by Uppsala University.</p><p>Main results: We discovered that co-branding and PR are the two most cost efficient methods in creating awareness for the company Bluetooth SIG. We also found the possibility of integrating the methods in a way that effectively strengthens and reinforces the awareness. We recommend future research in both areas to further examine our results.</p><p>Number of pages: 32 pages including abstract and references</p><p>Course: FEK C, Bachelors thesis</p><p>University: Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University</p><p>Period: 2007, Spring semester</p><p>Tutor: Olivia Kang</p><p>Keywords: Awareness, cost efficient marketing, integrating, Bluetooth, co-branding, PR, online-marketing, word-of-mouth/buzz marketing</p>

Title: Creating high awareness – A study in how a company can create awareness with cost efficient marketing methods. (Skapande av hög medvetenhet – En studie i hur ett företag kan skapa medvetenhet med kostnadseffektiva marknadsförings metoder). Authors: Alexander Edlund and Fredrik Hansson Aim: Our aim is to reveal the pros and cons of cost efficient marketing and decide which cost efficient method works best in creating awareness. We also want to determine if the methods can be integrated in a successful way to achieve greater awareness. Method/Material: We have made a qualitative approach by conducting three in depth interviews with the company Bluetooth SIG’s marketing director Anders Edlund. Our theoretical foundation is mainly built on theory from the databases and library supported by Uppsala University. Main results: We discovered that co-branding and PR are the two most cost efficient methods in creating awareness for the company Bluetooth SIG. We also found the possibility of integrating the methods in a way that effectively strengthens and reinforces the awareness. We recommend future research in both areas to further examine our results. Number of pages: 32 pages including abstract and references Course: FEK C, Bachelors thesis University: Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University Period: 2007, Spring semester Tutor: Olivia Kang Keywords: Awareness, cost efficient marketing, integrating, Bluetooth, co-branding, PR, online-marketing, word-of-mouth/buzz marketing

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most common DNA sequence variations where only a single nucleotide (A, T, C, G) in the human genome differs between individuals. Besides being the main genetic reason behind individual phenotypic differences, SNP variations have the potential to exploit the molecular basis of many complex diseases. Association of SNPs subset with diseases and analysis of the genotyping data with clinical findings will provide practical and affordable methodologies for the prediction of diseases in clinical settings. So, there is a need to determine the SNP subsets and patients&rsquo / clinical data which is informative for the prediction or the diagnosis of the particular diseases. So far, there is no established approach for selecting the representative SNP subset and patients&rsquo / clinical data, and data mining methodology that is based on finding hidden and key patterns over huge databases. This approach have the highest potential for extracting the knowledge from genomic datasets and to select the number of SNPs and most effective clinical features for diseases that are informative and relevant for clinical diagnosis. In this study we have applied one of the widely used data mining classification methodology: &ldquo / decision tree&rdquo / for associating the SNP Biomarkers and clinical data with the Alzheimer&rsquo / s disease (AD), which is the most common form of &ldquo / dementia&rdquo / . Different tree construction parameters have been compared for the optimization, and the most efficient and accurate tree for predicting the AD is presented.

In the fight to reduce carbon emissions, it is easy to see the necessity of reducing energy consumption. Buildings consume a large amount of energy, and have significant potential for energy savings. One tool for realising these potential savings is building simulation. To be able to use building simulation, accurate models for windows are needed. The models include individual layer models, to determine the solar and longwave radiative behaviours, as well as whole-system models to determine heat flows through the various layers of fenestration systems. This thesis looks at both kinds of models for incorporating windows into building simulations. A new network whole-system model is implemented, and integrated into the California Simulation Engine building simulation software. This model is also used as the calculation engine for a stand-alone rating tool. Additionally, a measurement technique used to measure off-normal solar properties of drapery materials, as part of developing shading layer models, is investigated using a Monte Carlo simulation. The network model uses a very general resistance network, allowing heat transfer between any two layers in a complex fenestration system (CFS), whether they are adjacent or not, between any layer and the indoor or outdoor side, or between the indoor and outdoor sides, although this last case is unlikely. Convective and radiative heat transfer are treated using the same format, resulting in increased stability. This general resistance network is used to calculate indices of merit for the CFS using numerical experiments. This approach requires fewer iterations to solve than previous solution methods, and is more flexible. The off-normal measurement technique which was investigated used a sample holder inserted into an integrating sphere. This is a non-standard way of using an integrating sphere, and early analyses did not provide conclusive information as to the effect of the sample holder. A Monte Carlo analysis confirmed the amount of beam attenuation as being 20% for the sample holder used in the experiments. Also con firmed was the effectiveness of dual-beam integrating spheres in correcting for the presence of a sample holder. The stand-alone rating tool which uses the general network framework, incorporates an easy-to-use visual interface. This tool models multiple types of shading layers with no restrictions on how they are combined. Users can easily change any one layer to see the effects of different arrangements. Users may specify any combination of indoor and outdoor ambient and mean radiant temperatures, insolation, and beam/diffuse split.