In 1985 Richard Preston identified three Royal Navy (RN) traditions (recruitment of officers at an early age, selection of officers from an elite social group, and insistence on sea service) which had shaped the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). These traditions, he argued, ensured a high level of professionalism amongst officers in the infant RCN, as well as complete interoperability between the two navies, but failed to recognise the distinct needs of Canadian society. Consequently, from the Second World War onwards the RCN chose to move away from the British model and to ???Canadianise??? its officer corps. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) also adopted these traditions, and they are examined here in the context of the social backgrounds, development and character of the permanent executive branch officers of the RAN between 1913 and 1950. This thesis argues that while the British model ensured a high level of professionalism within the RAN officer corps, in many other areas the system proved to be of doubtful utility for Australia. Although the Australian government tried to ensure that its naval officers maintained an Australian character and identity, the selection, training and operational policies of the RAN meant that its officers were, to all intents and purposes, virtually indistinguishable from their RN colleagues. While RAN officers were highly disciplined and professional men with excellent seamanship skills, unfortunately a wide social gulf developed between the Navy???s officers and its sailors. Further, the essentially scientific and practical education and indoctrination that naval officers received in their early years, combined with their narrow professional development, meant that they were, at best, only average higher level administrators and often performed poorly in dealings with their Australian political masters. The system produced a conservative type of officer, suspicious of political activity and intellectual effort, bound to the tradition of ???the Silent Service???, who felt that his country did not understand his work or sacrifices but who had not the capacity to change such community perceptions. Lacking highly educated and politically aware senior officers, the RAN found it difficult to cope with social changes after the Second World War. Consequently, the ???Australianisation??? of the naval officer corps was a slow and painful process and the profession of naval officer in Australia was to be even more marginal than numbers alone dictated.

This thesis studies the development of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), during the period 1911 to 1952 from the perspective of the men of the lower deck, the RAN ratings. The early RAN was modelled very closely on the Royal Navy (RN), but the expectations of its managers and administrators, imbued as they were with the culture and tradition of the RN, were not easily compatible with the character of the Australians who became the RAN???s ratings. The class distinction which functioned in the RN, when applied to the more egalitarian Australians caused ill-feeling and led to the breakdown of discipline. The Australian Commonwealth Naval Board strongly resisted attempts by the Australian Government and the Australian people to regulate its affairs, a situation which seriously disadvantaged the RAN ratings and their families. In the wider context a continuing refusal by both the British Admiralty and the senior officers of the RAN to allow the development of a truly national navy led to significant manpower problems. This both inhibited the establishment of a navy for Australia and denied that navy full use of the unique attributes of the Australian rating.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The Radio Access Network (RAN) accounts for the major proportion of the UMTS system operating cost. Transmission from radio base station sites contributes a larger part of the RAN operating costs. Selection of suitable transport technologies and proper allocation of network resources are vital from an operator cost optimisation and the Quality of Experience (QoE) points of view. This thesis extensively investigated the performance of a RAN to support multimedia traffic on a HSDPA air interface. Transport network layer of a future RAN could be based on a number of transport protocols such as ATM, IP and Ethernet. With the increasing traffic volume and diversity the efficiencies of IP and Ethernet based RAN could increases significantly due to the use of larger payloads and simpler resource allocation techniques. Also, on IP and Ethernet based links relatively fewer overhead bits are transmitted compared to an ATM based link. Both the IP and Ethernet based links appear to perform better under heavy traffic load conditions. An IP based link could perform better than an Ethernet based link when an IP header compression technique is used. An Ethernet based link is an alternative transport technique for the UTRAN transport network due to its flexibility, economy and bandwidth efficiency. The HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) is considered to be one of the initial evolutionary steps to enhance the data rate, and QoS of downlink data and multimedia services for the evolved UMTS network. It can provide high data rate up to 28.8 Mbps on the downlink shared channel using the packet access technique. A HSDPA network can dynamically adjust a connection data rate to match radio conditions to ensure the highest possible data rate for different type of traffic. Inappropriate RAN capacity allocation could lead to low radio resource or RAN resource utilizations. In this thesis, a Markov chain based analytical model has been developed to study the interaction between the air interface and the RAN for a HSDPA network. The analytical model was used to study interactions of RAN transport protocols, flow control techniques and the air interface transmission conditions. Further a simulation model was developed to investigate the relationship between the HSDPA air interface and its RAN parameters. Another important issue in the HSDPA network design is the scheduling algorithm used at the Node-B. A scheduling algorithm plays a key role in allocating a RAN’s network resources. Impacts of scheduling algorithms are studied in this work using a simulation model. Based on the study of the HSDPA air interface and its RAN parameter interactions this work has developed an adaptive resource management algorithm, which uses the measured air interface information to allocate the corresponding connection data rate on the Iub link. The developed algorithm reduces RAN resource requirements while increasing the air interface resource utilization and QoS of connections.

Basic theoretical bases As a chronic wound is called a secondarily healing wound which despite adequate therapy does not tend to heal for a period of 6-9 weeks. The cause of the chronic wound occurrence and its transformation into an acute wound can be infection, influence of associated diseases, skin top layer microtraumatization or skin necrosis cavity. Among the most frequent types of chronic wounds there are aligned venous ulcerations, arterial rodent ulcers, decubitus ulcers and neuropathic rodent ulcers as a consequence of diabetes mellitus disease. Knowledge about wound healing has been deepened considerably in the last few years. The pharmaceutical industry introduces to the market continuously new means of phase wound healing and owing to new trends the classical treatment has nearly disappeared. Essay targets 1.To monitor nurse knowledge about new trends in chronic wound healing. 2.To determine what means of draping and bandaging materials are used in chronic wound treatment in practice and what means appear to be the most effective. 3.To find out if in practical terms there are conditions for nurses to use new trends in chronic wound healing and what constraints they meet in their endeavour to apply these trends. 4.To learn if patients with a non-healing wound are informed about new trends in chronic wound healing. 5.To learn if new trends in chronic wound healing are available for affected patients and in what extent they are used by them. 6.To determine if new trends in chronic wound healing improve life quality of patients with chronic wounds. Used methods The empirical part of the diploma work was processed with a tool of qualitative research inquiry. For data acquisition I chose the technique of semi-structured interview with respondents. For research inquiry I selected two groups of respondents. The first group of respondents was comprised of 10 nurses employed in Nemocnice České Budějovice, a.s. and in the other group there were 5 patients hospitalized in this facility. The interview findings were analysed and divided into categories. For clear arrangement there were created schemes to individual categories in XMind programme. The schemes are supplied with commentary and several quotations of the respondents. Findings From interview analyses it is clear that there is a certain influence of individuality. In the first part there is monitored nurse knowledge about modern trends in chronic wound healing. The conclusion of the research is that in all sections where interviewed nurses work chronic wounds are treated by the way of wet (phase) healing. I also found out that there are several therapeutic and draping materials suitable for all phases of chronic wound healing. There are also described a few practical problems which make effective care about chronic wounds difficult. In the second part there are mentioned particular defects in patient acquaintance with modern methods in wound healing and insufficient education by medical staff. There are also described all problems which deteriorate life quality of patients with chronic wounds. Conclusion The chronic wound healing methods have changed completely in the last few years. Pharmaceutical firms introduce to the market a lot of new materials facilitating very effective and comfortable care about wounds. However, this fact requires continuous education of medical staff participating in the chronic wound treatment. This brings positive results and finally decreases economic costs of care about patients with chronic wounds.

Current state: The treatment of chronic wounds is a complex process which is applied in the form of different interventions by nurses in the general practitioner's office for adults and nurses from the surgical outpatient clinic. The treatment is influenced by different equipment used in particular offices, by the presence or absence of the interest in implementing modern methods and, of course, by poor participation of health insurance companies as regards the problem in question. The treatment of chronic wounds should be accomplished by completing all the phases of the nursing process. It is necessary to seek for motivation towards further education in this field. Pursuing moist wound healing is mostly cheaper as it makes the treatment shorter, which leads to patient's satisfaction. Objectives: The objective of the thesis was to evaluate the nursing process applied during the treatment of chronic wounds in the general practitioner's office for adults and the surgical outpatient clinic, as well as observe the influence of education on the nurse's professional performance regarding this treatment. The research included the analysis of the competencies of nurses in the treatment of chronic wounds and the treatment methods chosen by the nurses to benefit the patient. Last but not least, we observed the circumstances of the admission of a nurse specialist as a GP's partner for chronic wounds treatment, and the obstacles to moist wound healing implementation in the GP's office for adults and the surgical outpatient clinic. Methods: To compare the treatment of chronic wounds in the general practitioner's office for adults and the surgical outpatient department we carried out qualitative research investigation. Data collection was based on in-depth interview with prepared open questions. The interviews were recorded by voice recorder, transcribed literally and subsequently analysed. When analysing the transcripts, we used the method of open coding, by the technique "pencil and paper". The text of the dialogues was reduced and segmented into individual codes. On the basis of similarity, the codes were classified in analytical units. The categories were classified into schemes by means of SmartArt programme in Microsoft Office Word. The results were interpreted with the use of the open cards technique. The first group of respondents consisted of nurses from a practitioner's office for adults and a private surgical outpatient department. The other group comprised practitioners for adults and surgeons treating outpatients. Research sample: The research sample consisted of 12 respondents from three medical facilities in České Budějovice. In the first set there were three nurses working in the practitioner's office for adults and three nurses working in the surgical outpatient department. The second set comprised three women MDs for adults, two surgeons treating outpatiens and a woman surgeon. The intentional selection was dependent on respondents' willingness to participate in the research and it ceased when the state of theoretical saturation was reached. Results: The research investigation showed that modern moist healing of chronic wounds is mostly implemented in the offices of practitioners rather than in surgical outpatient clinics. The surgical department is aseptic and they want to minimize the risk of possible infection. Apart from moist healing the surgeons use other modern healing methods such as laser biostimulation, biostimulatory polarized light and instrument-aided lymphatic drainage. The education of the nurses involved in chronic wounds treatment is not provided within academic courses. Just two nurses completed university education whereas the other nurses get acquainted with current information at commercial presentations provided by pharmaceutical representatives. These nurses lack the capability of objective assessment of basic and specific parameters of the wounds and of subsequent treatment.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the linguistic awareness of children at the first and second grade of elementary school in both reading methods, i.e. the analytic-synthetic and the genetic method of reading. In the theoretical part of the thesis, the critical analysis of the terms "linguistic awareness" and "linguistic sense" is done and further the approaches and traditions used abroad are compared to actual situation in the Czech Republic. In the analytic part of the thesis, the research project focused on the comparison of two tests of linguistic awareness is developed. The first method is the traditional Linguistic Sense Examination (Žlab, 1992), used not only for the diagnosing of the specific learning disorders, but also for diagnosing of bilingual children, children from minority groups and children with hearing or mental disabilities. The second method is the new Linguistic Awareness Test (Kucharská, Šmejkalová, under the preparation) prepared in the cooperation with Department of Czech Language and the Department of psychology PedF UK. In the research project, there were 40 schoolchild from the first and second grade of elementary school, 20 of them in the analytic-synthetic method of reading and 20 of them in the genetic method of reading. Several areas were monitored. Firstly, the...

The thesis was focused on the preparation and optimization of the preparation of wound dressing from materials with bioactive ingredients. In this work were prepared nanofiber dressings based on polyhydroxybutyrate and non-fibrous dressings from alginate and chitosan. Nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning and forcespinning methods. The bioactive components, which were used to functionalize the prepared dressings, were plant extracts, clotrimazole, ampicillin, lysozyme, and proteolytic enzymes. The theoretical part is focused on the description of the use of nanofibrous and non-fibrous materials in medicine, characterization of materials for the production of wound dressings and bioactive components. Furthermore, this section describes the methods used to prepare and characterize wound dressings. In the practical part were prepared aqueous and oil extracts from selected plants. Extracts were characterized for polyphenols content and antioxidant activity. PHB-based nanofibers were prepared using electrospinning and forcepinning methods. Nanofibers were enriched with selected plant oil extracts and clotrimazol. Modified nanofibres were detemined for antioxidant activity, short-term and long-term stability. Non-fibrous wound dressings were prepared from alginate and chitosan. These dressings were functionalized by the addition of selected aqueous extracts, ampicillin, lysozyme, papain, bromelain, and collagenase. Non-fibrous wound dressings were determined for antioxidant activity, short-term stability and proteolytic activity. The prepared wound dressings were tested for their antimicrobial effects on cultures of Micrococcus luteus, Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli. In conclusion, successfully prepared bioactive wound dressings with antioxidant and antimicrobial agents were tested for safety on human cells. The determination was performed using the MTT cytotoxicity test on human keratinocytes.

This thesis deals with nursing care of skin defects using a wet therapy in neonatology. The first section summarizes information related to preterm infants, the development of the individual layers of the skin in the embryonic period. It lists the types of skin defects which the neonatolgy nurse may frequently encounter at the department with including a list of modern therapeutic coverage that can be used. It lists a brief history of wound healing too, focusing just on the development of the wet therapy . Furthermore is marginally discussed the evaluation and documentation of damage to the skin wound. For interest, the thesis mentions a case reportof the preterm newborn with the necrosis of the lower limb, accompanied by commentaries of the alternative treatment for this type of skin damage from my own experience. The second part is assessing the awareness of the nurses in the modern methods of the healing. The priority is the mapping of the experience in using the wet therapy through the quantitative research, which is mediated by an anonymous questionnaire. The main goal of the research is to determine the awareness of the nurses from the neonatology intensive care unit, resuscitation and intermediate care in the nursing of the skin defects using a wet therapy. For this purpose the chosen method...

Fibroblasts are stromal cells ubiquitously present in the human body. They often appear in a quiescent state and can become activated in response to tissue remodeling signals. Activated fibroblasts acquire biosynthetic, pro-inflammatory and contractile properties, key functions for wound healing. In addition, the presence of permanently activated fibroblasts is one of the hallmarks of cancer. The purpose of this work is to investigate the differences between newborn and adult fibroblasts and keratinocytes in their implication in scarless wound healing, the origin of cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF)s and the influence of fibroblasts in melanoma invasion. Evidence suggests that wounds heal almost without scar in newborns. To understand the mechanisms that contribute to scarless wound healing we focused on the differences between newborn and adult fibroblasts and keratinocytes, which are cells present in human skin and participating in wound healing process. A comparison of the expression profile between newborn and adult fibroblasts showed differentially regulated genes related to the acute phase of the inflammatory response and ECM organization, traits involved in wound healing. We also found that newborn fibroblast showed higher differentiation potential, exhibited markers of pluripotency and...

The increasing demand for mobile data has placed significant strain on radio access networks (RANs), leading to a continuous need for increased network capacity. In keeping with that, a significant advancement in modern RANs is the ability to utilize several receivers and transmitters, to allow for beamforming. One way to increase the capacity of the network is therefore to optimize the resource allocation by preprocessing the transmitted signals, which involves several costly matrix multiplications (MMs). The aim of the project was to investigate the potential of accelerating Ericsson's RAN simulations by using AI based approximate matrix multiplication (AMM) algorithms. The main focus was on the multiply additionless (MADDNESS) algorithm, a product quantization technique that has achieved speedups of up to 100 times compared to exact MM, and 10 times faster than previous AMM methods. A complex matrix handling version of MADDNESS was implemented in Java and Python respectively, and its speed and accuracy were evaluated against Ericsson's current MM implementation. The proposed implementation did not beat the benchmark with respect to speed, instead resulting in a 4-10 times slowdown in runtime. However, this may largely be due to the fact that the used languages do not allow for complete control over memory resource allocation. As such, the implementations at hand do not incorporate all the crucial features of the algorithm. Particularly, the handicapped version does not fully leverage the vectorization potential, which is one of the key contributors to the speed of the algorithm. Consequently, further improvements are necessary before employing the techniques in an end-to-end implementation. / Den växande efterfrågan på mobildata har ökat belastningen på dagens radionätverk (RAN) och har medfört ett behov av att utvidga dess kapacitet. En betydande innovation inom RAN är beamforming, vilket är förmågan att fokusera digitala signaler mot mottagaren och på så vis öka singalstyrkan. En metod för att öka kapaciteten i ett nätverk är att optimera både kvaliteten av och resursallokeringen mellan nätverkets digitala kanaler, vilket medför tidskrävande matrismultiplikationer. Syftet med denna studie var att utforska om AI-baserade approximativa matrismultiplikationsalgoritmer har potentialen att accelerera Ericssons digitala tvilling-simuleringar. Studien fokuserade i huvudsak på produktkvantiseringsalgoritmen MADDNESS som påvisat potentialen att accelerera exakta matrismultiplikationer med en faktor 100, samt en faktor 10 snabbare än jämförbara approximativa metoder. En modifierad version av MADDNESS, som behandlar komplexa matriser, implementerades i Java samt Python, varefter precisionen och hastigheten utvärderades. Den föreslagna implementationen resulterade i en försämring med avseende på hastigheten med en faktor 4-10 jämfört med Ericssons nuvarande algoritmer. Den föreslagna implementationen saknar effektiv minnesallokering och misslyckas följaktligen att till fullo ta tillvara på vektoriseringspotentialen i MADDNESS. Detta indikerar att det är nödvändigt för ytterligare förbättringar innan algoritmen är användbar i den givna simuleringsmiljön.