Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon is important in the healthcare environment because this growing trend is totally changing the workplace landscape in healthcare organizations, such as British Columbia (BC). The organizations need to be proactive and aware of this trend to decide the best way to approach this phenomenon. Currently, there is little current research that exists in Canada in context to provide a distinct understanding of the complexities and difficulties unique to this phenomenon within the nursing practice. In order to develop an understanding of BYOD in healthcare workplace, a perspective was needed of those experiencing the phenomenon of interest. The premise of this research was to explore the BYOD phenomenon from the nursing perspective. This study focused on the experiences, views, and perceptions of nurse executives/managers about how they make decisions regarding use of personal handheld devices in the workplace. A qualitative description was undertaken and the collection of data involved telephone interviews in which participants were asked to reflect on their views and/or experiences regarding BYOD in the workplace. During the literature research process, the researcher discovered that there were similar research studies previously done in the early 2000s that found early healthcare organizational concerns with the use of personal digital assistant devices (PDA) in the clinical setting. In this study, four major themes emerged that provided an insights as to how nurse NEx/M make decisions regarding BYOD. The four major themes included: 1) management perspective, 2) opportunities, 3) disadvantages, and 4) solutions. The results of this study will aid in bringing greater awareness of BYOD to other executives and managers in nursing and should also provide information to the leaders throughout the healthcare organizations and health IT department. / Graduate

Smartphones and tablets have been growing in popularity. These ultra mobile devices bring in new challenges for efficient network operations because of their mobility, resource constraints and richness of features. There is thus an increasing need to adapt network protocols to these devices and the traffic demands on wireless service providers. This dissertation focuses on identifying design limitations in existing network protocols when operating in ultra mobile environments and developing algorithmic solutions for the same. Our work comprises of three components. The first component identifies the shortcomings of TCP flow control algorithm when operating on resource constrained smartphones and tablets. We then propose an Adaptive Flow Control (AFC) algorithm for TCP that relies not just on the available buffer space but also on the application read-rate at the receiver. The second component of this work looks at network deduplication for mobile devices. With traditional network deduplication (dedup), the dedup source uses only the portion of the cache at the dedup destination that it is aware of. We argue in this work that in a mobile environment, the dedup destination (say the mobile) could have accumulated a much larger cache than what the current dedup source is aware of. In this context, we propose Asymmetric caching, a solution which allows the dedup destination to selectively feedback appropriate portions of its cache to the dedup source with the intent of improving the redundancy elimination efficiency. The third and final component focuses on leveraging network heterogeneity for prefetching on mobile devices. Our analysis of browser history of 24 iPhone users show that URLs do not repeat exactly. Users do show a lot of repetition in the domains they visit but not the particular URL. Additionally, mobile users access web content over diverse network technologies: WiFi and cellular (3G/4G). While data is unlimited over WiFi, users typically have monthly limits on data over the cellular network. In this context, we propose Precog, an action-based prefetching solution to reduce cellular data footprint on smartphones and tablets.

Šiuo metu Lietuvoje pramoniniu būdu gaminamų farmacinių formų vaikams kiekis yra ribotas (2009/2010m. Lietuvos Respublikos Vaistinių preparatų registro duomenimis). Atlikus eilę studijų, buvo nutarta sukurti kramtomųjų paracetamolio tablečių vaikams gamybos technologiją. Surinkome ir susisteminome duomenis apie galimus technologinius tablečių gamybos variantus. Ištyrėme paracetamolio ir pasirinktų pagalbinių medžiagų technologines savybes. Išanalizavome mokslinius duomenis apie granuliacijos metodus bei technologinius tabletavimo būdus. Nustatytos reikiamos miltelių technologinės savybės, parinktos pagalbinės medžiagos ir jų kiekiai, leidžiantys pagaminti tabletes naudojant drėgnąjį miltelių granuliavimą. Tabletės presuotos ekscentrine tabletavimo mašina „Diaf“. Pagamintos 330 mg vidutinės masės tabletės; jos taisyklingos formos, lygiais kraštais, turi švelnų vienalytį paviršių, 9 mm diametro, 3 mm aukščio. Ištyrėme tablečių kokybei keliamus Europos Farmakopėjos reikalavimus: tablečių tvirtumą nusitrynimui, tvirtumą spaudimui, vidutinę tablečių masę, tablečių suirimą ir tirpimą. Įvertintas pagamintų tablečių stabilumas laikant. Atlikti tyrimai parodė, kad panaudota technologija įgalina pagaminti kramtomąsias paracetamolio tabletes vaikams, kurios atitinka Europos Farmakopėjos tabletėms keliamus reikalavimus. / On this time in Lithuania we don‘t have enough medicinal drug forms for children, which are made by industrial methods (we collated all registred drug forms for children, which are in Lithuania‘s drugs registration list). After long science studies, we decided to create the chewabe tablets for children manufacturing technology. First of all we collected information about all possible tablets manufacturing technology variants, collected information about paracetamol and supplementary materials. We have learned about granulation methods and tablet manufacturing variants. Was established powder tachnological characteristics. Selected supplementary materials and it‘s count, that would let us to create tablets by wet granuliating. Tablets was pressed by eccentric tablet machine „Diaf“. Was made 330 mg average mass, regular form, with flat edges tablets. Its have soft smooth surface, 9 mm diameter, 3 mm height. Data set about tablets quality by European Pharmacopoeia requirements: tablets strength for abrasion, strength for pressure, average tablets mass, tablets disintegration and tablets dissolution. We accomplished tablets stability tests. Accomplished studies have shown, that we could make chewable paracetamol tablets for children by selected technology. Those tablets passes through all European Pharmacopoeia requirements.

In this work a machine vision system for inspecting pharmaceutical color tablets is presented and implemented. Nonparametric clustering based segmentation is faster and thus more appropriate for real-time applications. Two nonparametric clustering based methods, Nearest Neighbor algorithm and MaxShift algorithm are worked in RGB and HSV color spaces as the segmentation step. The implemented algorithm allows the system to detect the missing and broken tablets, tablet fragments, and the color, size, and shape of individual tablets in pharmaceutical blisters, in real-time. System has two operation modes called &amp / #8216 / &amp / #8216 / training&amp / #8217 / &amp / #8217 / and &amp / #8216 / &amp / #8216 / inspection&amp / #8217 / &amp / #8217 / mode, respectively. Operator selects one point on any tablet in a defect-free training captured image in the &amp / #8216 / &amp / #8216 / training&amp / #8217 / &amp / #8217 / mode. In the correction step an optimization algorithm is required, for which Powell and Downhill Simplex methods are used. Captured image is then corrected for spatial color nonuniformity, segmented, and the position, size, shape, and color of each tablet are extracted in the training mode. The correction and segmentation models / the extracted features generated in the training mode is saved with the user defined values to form the model. Each acquired image in the inspection mode is corrected and segmented according to the blister model and then the blisters are classified as &amp / #8216 / &amp / #8216 / good&amp / #8217 / &amp / #8217 / or &amp / #8216 / &amp / #8216 / bad&amp / #8217 / &amp / #8217 / by comparing the extracted feature values with the user defined tolerances stored in the blister model.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2002. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharmaceutical Chemistry))--Mahidol University, 2007. / LICL has E-Thesis 0029 ; please contact computer services.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the stability of the active principal ingredient of carvedilol, and the release of the drug in vitro, through studies of dissolution. In the stability study were used hydrolytic conditions of stress (in the acid, neutral and basic), oxidative (with hydrogen peroxide) and photolytic (under ultraviolet light). Later, assessed to the kinetics of degradation under different conditions by the liquid chromatography (LC) method. The liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to indicate the molecular mass of formed compounds. The sample tablets containing carvedilol were subjected to accelerated study of stability under conditions of controlled temperature and relative humidity (40 °C ± 2 °C e 75% ± 5 %, respectively) for six months and then evaluated by LC-MS/MS and ultraviolet spectrophotometry methods. In order to assess the in vitro release of the drug, the conditions to be used in the dissolution test were tested during development and then optimized during validation. Physico-chemical tests such as identification, weight variation, hardness, friability, assay, content uniformity, time of disintegration and dissolution were evaluated to check the possible replacement between samples of tablets containing carvedilol available on the market. / O presente trabalho buscou avaliar a estabilidade da matéria-prima de carvedilol, bem como a liberação do fármaco in vitro, através de estudos de dissolução. No estudo de estabilidade foram utilizadas condições de estresse hidrolítico (em meio ácido, básico e neutro), oxidativo (com peróxido de hidrogênio) e fotolítico (sob luz ultravioleta), as quais foram avaliadas por cromatografia líquida (CL). Posteriormente, avaliou-se a cinética de degradação sob condições básica e oxidativa, onde se verificou maior degradação. O método por cromatografia líquida acoplada à espectrometria de massas (CL-EM/EM) foi desenvolvido e validado. As amostras de comprimidos contendo carvedilol foram submetidas a estudo de estabilidade acelerada sob condições controladas de temperatura e umidade relativa (40 °C ± 2 °C e 75% ± 5%, respectivamente) por seis meses e posteriormente avaliadas por CL-EM/EM e por espectrofotometria no ultravioleta (UV). Na avaliação da liberação do fármaco in vitro, as condições a serem utilizadas no teste de dissolução foram testadas durante o desenvolvimento e posteriormente otimizadas durante a validação. Testes físico-químicos como identificação, peso médio, dureza, friabilidade, doseamento, uniformidade de conteúdo, tempo de desintegração e dissolução foram avaliados para verificar a intercambialidade farmacêutica entre amostras de comprimidos contendo carvedilol disponíveis no mercado.

The oral route of drug administration is most extensively used due to the obvious ease of administration. Verapamil hydrochloride is a WHO listed phenylalkylarnine, L-type calcium channel antagonist that is mainly indicated for cardiovascular disorders such as angina pectoris, supraventricular tachycardia and hypertension. Due to its relatively short half-life of approximately 4.0 hours, the formulation of a sustained-release dosage form is useful to improve patient compliance and to achieve predictable and optimized therapeutic plasma concentrations. Direct compression and wet granulation were initially used as methods for tablet manufacture. The direct compression method of manufacture produced tablets that exhibited formulation and manufacturing difficulties. Mini-tablets containing veraparnil hydrochloride were then prepared by wet granulation using Surelease® E-7-19010.and Eudragit® NE 30D as the granulating agents after which the granules were incorporated with an hydrophilic matrix material, Carbopol® 974P NF. Granule and powder blends were evaluated using the angle of repose, loose and tapped bulk density, Can's compressibility index, Hausner's ratio and drug content. Granules with good flow properties and satisfactory compressibility were used for further studies. Tablets were subjected to thickness, diameter and weight variation tests, crushing strength, tensile strength, friability and content uniformity studies. Tablets that showed acceptable pharmaco-technical properties were selected for further analysis. Drug content uniformity and dissolution release rates were determined using a validated isocratic HPLC method. Initially, USP apparatus 1 and 3 dissolution apparatus were used to determine in-vitro drug release rates from the formulations over a 22-hour period. USP apparatus 3 was finally selected as it offers the advantages of mimicking, in part, the changes in the physicochemical environment experienced by products in the gastro-intestinal tract. Differences in release rates between the test formulations and a commercially available product, Isoptin® SR were observed at different pH's using USP apparatus 1. The release of veraparnil hydrochloride from matrix tablets was pH dependent and was markedly reduced at higher pH values. This may be due, in part, to the poor solubility of veraparnil hydrochloride at these pH values and also the possible interaction of verapamil hydrochloride with anionic polymers used in these formulations. Swelling and erosion behaviour of the tablets were evaluated and differences in behaviour were observed which may be attributed to the physico-chemical characteristics of the polymers used in this study. In-vitro dissolution profiles were characterized by the difference (j1) and similarity factor (j2) and also by a new similarity factor, Sct. In addition, the mechanism of drug release from these dosage forms was mainly evaluated using the Korsmeyer-Peppas model and the kinetics of drug release assessed using other models, including Zero order, First order, Higuchi, HixsonCrowell, Weibull and the Baker-Lonsdale model. Dissolution kinetics were best described by application of the Weibull model, and the Korsmeyer-Peppas model. The release exponent, n, confirmed that drug release from these dosage forms was due to the mixed effects of diffusion and swelling and therefore, anomalous release kinetics are predominant. In conclusion, two test batches were found to be comparable to the reference product Isoptin® SR with respect to their in-vitro release profiles.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to apply the lessons learned from the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow studies, the SAMR model, and Diffusion of Innovations theory to explore stakeholder perceptions of iPad integration at an urban high school in Massachusetts. The implementation was viewed through the lenses of the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) studies (Baker, Gearhart, & Herman, 1990; Dwyer, Ringstaff, & Haymore Sandholtz, 1990a; Dwyer, Ringstaff, & Haymore Sandholtz, 1990b), Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Model, and Puentedura’s (2012) Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) Model. The researcher used qualitative analysis to code the data. Through data analysis, five themes emerged: communication, control, division, distraction, and workflow. The iPads changed how and when students and teachers communicated. Teachers sought more control over the iPads in the classroom. Control over learning shifted toward the students with the introduction of the iPads. Divisions became apparent with iPad use: new teachers versus veteran teachers and upperclassman versus underclassman. Distractions were rampant. The iPads influenced the workflow of how teachers taught and how students accessed the curriculum.

In 2008 a new educational initiative termed “School without segregation” was implemented in Iceland. Its goal was to ensure that all children would be provided with education suited to individual variations in social and educational needs. Coinciding with this policy initiative a new technology strategy was implemented in the municipality of Kópavogur, Iceland´s second largest city, with the aim to equip children to deal with the fundamental technological changes in modern society and integrate technology in their education. As an integral part of this strategy all students in Kópavogur, from the fifth to the tenth grade were given iPads in 2015. The affected population was approximately 4.700 students and over 450 teachers. A significant body of research has examined how students fare when technology is integrated into their education. However, this thesis aims to examine how the implementation of this tablet-centric initiative affected the working environment of the municipality´s teachers, a subject that has been researched to a much lesser extent. With the aid of personal interviews communication between stakeholders of the initiative, strategies to motivate and encourage teachers in dealing with the change in their working environment and support afforded during the process was examined. Special focus was placed on the extent of involvement and participation of teachers during the implementation and the question of whether teachers´ opinions had an impact throughout the process. The thesis analysis is based on 18 semi-formal interviews with teachers from all of the city´s nine schools. Additionally, the team in charge of leading the implementation was interviewed to further broaden the scope. In brief, the thesis highlights that contention surrounded various aspects of the implementation. Many of the teachers felt overwhelmed and hesitant and described feeling that their concerns went unnoticed. Today, however, three years down the road, the iPads seem to have become an integral part of the everyday working environment of teachers and students alike and none of the teachers want to go back to teaching without iPads.