Att som elitidrottare gå från ett liv där man i stort sett ägnat varje dag åt sin idrott och i bästa fall kunnat livnära sig på den till att det en dag tar slut innebär en stor omställning för de flesta idrottare. I tidigare studier beskrivs omställningen vid karriärövergången som något av det svåraste idrottare varit med om. Detta kan ha sin grund i att de flesta elitidrottare starkt kopplar sig till sin idrott och när det blir dags att avsluta idrottskarriären kan därför flera komplikationer uppstå. Hur karriärövergången upplevs kan bero på vilket sätt karriären avslutades, om avslutet skedde frivilligt eller ofrivilligt, om idrottaren hade så kallade dubbla karriärer och hur stark den egna idrottsidentiteten är. Syftet med studien var att undersöka före detta elithandbollsspelares upplevelser av karriärövergångar och dubbla karriärer. Kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med sex stycken före detta elithandbollsspelare som alla varit aktiva på landslagsnivå och vars karriärer på elitnivå pågått mellan 7 och 24 år. En semistrukturerad intervjuguide konstruerades och samtliga intervjuer spelades in, transkriberades och analyserades. Huvudresultaten i studien visade att de handbollsspelare vars karriärer avslutades frivilligt hanterade karriärövergången bättre än de handbollsspelare vars karriärer avslutades ofrivilligt. Utöver hur karriären avslutades sågs de mest betydelsefulla framgångsfaktorerna för en så naturlig övergång som möjligt i form av dubbla karriärer, copingresurser i form av socialt stöd och övergången från spelare till tränare. Vidare kan det diskuteras kring frånvaron av de idrottspsykologiska resurserna för handbollsspelare både under karriären och vid övergången från en elitidrottskarriär till en yrkeskarriär. Ett idrottspsykologiskt stöd i form av till exempel en mental coach hade troligtvis hjälpt många spelare att hantera motgångar under karriären, karriäravslutet samt karriärövergången bättre. Att börja med detta i ett tidigt skede skulle troligtvis bidra till att fler handbollsspelare stannar kvar inom idrotten i en längre utsträckning, vilket kan ses som en fördel för handbollens framväxt. / As an elite athlete, going from a life where one is practically devoted every day to their sport and at best, being able to feed on it until it one day ends, means a big change for most athletes. In previous studies, the conversion at the career transition is described as one of the most challenging things athletes had been through. This may be due to the fact that most elite athletes are strongly connected to their sport and when the time comes to finish the sports career, several complications can arise. How the career transition is perceived may depend on how the career ended, if the conclusion was voluntary or involuntary, if the athlete had so-called double careers and how strong their own sports identity is. The purpose of this study was to investigate former elite handball players’ experiences of career transitions and dual careers. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six former elite handball players, all of whom were active at the national team level and whose elite careers lasted between 7 and 24 years. A semi-structured interview guide was constructed and all of the interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The main findings of the study show that handball players whose career ended voluntarily handled the career transition better than the handball players whose careers ended involuntarily. In addition to how to career ended, the most important success factors for such a natural transition as possible, were seen in the form of double careers, coping resources in the form of social support and the transition from being a player to being a coach. Furthermore, the absence of the sports psychological resources for handball players can be discussed both during their career and at the transition from an elite sports career to a professional career. A sports psychological support in the form of, for example, a mental coach had probably helped many players to deal with setbacks during their career, career termination and career transition better. Beginning with this at an early stage would likely contribute to more handball players remaining in the sport for a longer time, which can be seen as an advantage for the handball’s growth.

Located just east of Missoula, Montana, Milltown Dam stood from 1908 to 2008 immediately downstream of the Clark Fork River’s confluence with the Blackfoot River. After the discovery of arsenic-contaminated groundwater in the nearby community of Milltown, as well as extensive deposits of contaminated sediment in the dam’s upstream reservoir, in 1981, the area was designated a Superfund site – along with much of the Upper Clark Fork Watershed. This motivated the eventual decision to remove the dam, perform environmental remediation, and reconstruct approximately five kilometers of the Clark Fork River and its floodplain. This study is part conceptual and part empirical. It describes a state-and-transition framework equipped to investigate channel evolution as well as the adjustment trajectories of other socio-biophysical landscapes. This framework is then applied to understand the post-restoration channel evolution of the Clark Fork River’s mainstem, secondary channels, and floodplain. Adopting a state-and-transition framework to conceptualize landscape evolution lets environmental managers more effectively anticipate river response under multiple disturbence scenarios and therefore use more improvisational and adaptive management techniques that do not attempt to guide the landscape toward a single and permanent end state. State-and-transition models can also be used to highlight the spatially explicit patterns of complex biophysical response. The state-and-transition models developed for the Clark Fork River demonstrate the possibility of multiple evolutionary trajectories. Neither the secondary channels nor the main channel have responded in a linear, monotonic fashion, and future responses will be contingent upon hydrogeomorphic and climatic variability and chance disturbances. The biogeomorphic adjustments observed so far suggest divergent evolutionary trajectories and that in some instances the long-term fates of the mainstem, floodplain, and secondary channels are inescapably enmeshed with one another.

The research on multi-state Markov transition model is motivated by the nature of the longitudinal data from the Nun Study (Snowdon, 1997), and similar information on the BRAiNS cohort (Salazar, 2004). Our goal is to develop a flexible methodology for handling the categorical longitudinal responses and competing risks time-to-event that characterizes the features of the data for research on dementia. To do so, we treat the survival from death as a continuous variable rather than defining death as a competing absorbing state to dementia. We assume that within each subject the survival component and the Markov process are linked by a shared latent random effect, and moreover, these two pieces are conditionally independent given the random effect and their corresponding predictor variables. The problem of the dependence among observations made on the same subject (repeated measurements) is addressed by assuming a first order Markovian dependence structure. A closed-form expression for the individual and thus overall conditional marginal likelihood function is derived, which we can evaluate numerically to produce the maximum likelihood estimates for the unknown parameters. This method can be implemented using standard statistical software such as SAS Proc Nlmixed©. We present the results of simulation studies designed to show how the model’s ability to accurately estimate the parameters can be affected by the distributional form of the survival term. Then we focus on addressing the problem by accommodating the residual life time of the subject’s confounding in the nonhomogeneous chain. The convergence status of the chain is examined and the formulation of the absorption statistics is derived. We propose using the Delta method to estimate the variance terms for construction of confidence intervals. The results are illustrated with applications to the Nun Study data in details.

Continuous casting is an important process to transform molten metal into solid. Arrays of spray nozzles are used along the process to remove heat from the slab letting it solidify. Efficient and uniform heat removal without slab cracking is desired during steel continuous casting, and air-mist sprays could help to achieve this goal.Air-mist nozzles are one of the important keys for determining the quality of steel as well as energy consumption for pumping the water. Based on industrial data, it is estimated that a 1% reduction in scrapped production due to casting related defects can result in annual savings of 40.53 million dollars in the U.S. Computational simulations studies can minimize defects in steel such as cracks, inclusions, macro-segregations, porosity, and others, which are closely related to the heat transfer between water droplets and hot slab surface.<div><br></div><div>Conducting multiple spray experiments in order to find optimum operating conditions might be impractical and expensive in some cases. Thus, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is aimed to be used for simulating the air-mist spray process. Because it is a challenging process due to strong air and water interaction, then numerical models have been developed to simulate water droplets. The first model involves air and water phases which then are transformed in single-phase water droplets. To do so, a Volume of Fraction (VOF) to the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) is used.<br></div><div><br></div><div>VOF-TO-DPM transition model involves the primary and secondary breakup which occurs in the water atomization process, starting with a single water core, followed by a smaller compact mass of water known as lumps or ligaments due to the interaction of air, and finally converted into water droplets.The second model is using the Nukiyama-Tanasawa function size distribution which injects water droplets based on defined size range and velocity profile. A validation of droplet size and velocity against experimental data has been accomplished. The models can avoid acquiring expensive equipment in order to understand nozzle spray performance, and droplets generated. Quality, water droplet velocity, size, energy, and water consumption are the core of the current study. Last but not least, the methodology for this model can be used in any other air-mist nozzle design.<br></div>

Syftet med studien var att undersöka studentidrottares upplevelse av att kombinera studier påakademisk nivå med elitidrott på ett Riksidrottsuniversitet. Specifikt undersöktesstudentidrottare som inte hade någon koppling till en elitmiljö, det vill säga studentidrottaresom elitsatsade men vars idrottsförbund inte hade ett samverkansavtal med lärosätet. I studiendeltog 12 intervjupersoner, fördelat på sex kvinnor och sex män i åldrarna 19–30 (M=22.83,S=2.88). Studien använde en semistrukturerad intervjuguide baserad på den Holistiskakarriärutvecklingsmodellen (Wylleman, 2019) och Karriärövergångsmodellen (Stambulova,2003). Resultatet klassificerades in i fyra kategorier; studentidrottares upplevda krav,barriärer, resurser och copingstrategier. Resultatet påvisade att det största kravet somdeltagarna upplevde var att de måste försörja sig ekonomiskt i form av studielån eller attarbeta parallellt med kombinationen, detta kunde medföra en stor stress för deltagarna. Denfrämsta barriären deltagarna upplevde var bristande stöd från lärosätet samt att de upplevdeatt studierna och idrotten blev lidande då de inte kunde prestera lika framgångsrikt i båda,vilket kunde medföra en känsla av otillräcklighet. Vidare upplevde deltagarna att socialstöttning från tränare, familj och vänner var den främsta resursen för att underlätta ikombinationen. Planering var studentidrottarnas mest använda copingstrategi för att hanterakraven i en dubbel karriär. / The purpose of the study was to investigate student athlete's experiences of studying at aNational Sport University in Sweden. Specifically, student athletes who had no connection toan elite environment were investigated, that is, student athletes who are elite athletes butwhose sports associations did not have a collaboration agreement with the university. Thestudy included 12 interviewees, divided into six women and six men aged 19–30 (M = 22.83,S = 2.88). The study used a semi-structured interview guide based on The Holistic AthleticCareer Model (Wylleman, 2019) and The Athletic Career Transition Model (Stambulova,2003). The result was classified into four main categories; student athlete's perceiveddemands, barriers, resources and coping strategies. The result showed that the biggestdemand that the participants experienced was that they had to support themselves financiallyin terms of student loans or working in parallel with the combination, this could cause a greatdeal of stress for the participants. The main barrier the participants experienced was a lack ofsupport from the university and that they felt that the studies and the sport were suffering asthey could not perform equally successfully in both, which could cause a feeling ofinadequacy. Furthermore, the participants felt that social support from coaches, family andfriends was the primary resource for facilitating the combination. Planning was the studentathletes' most used coping strategy to handle the demands of a dual career.

Monitoring and identifying the state of rangelands on a landscape scale can be a time consuming process. In this thesis, remote sensing imagery has been used to show how the process of classifying different ecological sites and states can be done on a per pixel basis for a large landscape. Twenty-seven years' worth of remotely sensed imagery was collected, atmospherically corrected, and radiometrically normalized. Several vegetation indices were extracted from the imagery along with derivatives from a digital elevation model. Dominant vegetation components from five major ecological sites in Rich County, Utah, were chosen for study. The vegetation components were Aspen, Douglas-fir, Utah juniper, mountain big sagebrush, and Wyoming big sagebrush. Training sites were extracted from within map units with a majority of one of the five ecological sites. A Random Forests decision tree model was developed using an attribute table populated with spectral biophysical variables derived from the training sites. The overall out-of-bag accuracy for the Random Forests model was 97.2%. The model was then applied to the predictor spectral and biophysical variables to spatially map the five major vegetation components for all of Rich County. Each vegetation class had greater than 90% accuracies except for Utah juniper at 81%. This process is further explained in chapter 2. As a follow-on effort, we attempted to classify vegetation ecological states within a single ecological site (Wyoming big sagebrush). This was done using field data collected by previous studies as training data for all five ecological states documented for our chosen ecological site. A Maximum Likelihood classifier was applied to four years of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery to map each ecological state to pixels coincident to the map units correlated to the Wyoming big sagebrush ecological site. We used the Mahalanobis distance metric as an indicator of pixel membership to the Wyoming big sagebrush ecological site. Overall classification accuracy for the different ecological states was 64.7% for pixels with low Mahalanobis distance and less than 25% for higher distances.

No description available.

The purpose of the study was to examine former men's elite hockey players' experiences of the transition from sports to careers afterwards. All participants have played in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) which is the highest hockey league in Sweden. Eleven interviewees participated in the survey, only men aged 35-53 (M = 43, SD = 5.29). The study used a semi-structured interview guide to conduct the interviews and it was produced using the holistic career development model (Wylleman, 2019) and the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2009). The results showed that all participants experienced challenges in making the career transition from elite hockey players to civilian life. The biggest challenges were an uncertainty about the future in the form of not knowing what to do after their elite career. The participants felt that the support from family, friends and the club were important resources during the transition. Barriers that emerged were unpredictable transitions in the form of injuries, many participants focused only on sports, did not see that there is a life after the career and that one day there will be an end to the sports career. The coping strategies that the participants highlighted were to use a double career by studying sports or working when given the opportunity, to be aware of the career after elite hockey in the form of preparations for working life. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka före detta herr elithockeyspelares upplevelser av övergången från idrott till karriären efteråt. Samtliga deltagare har spelat i den Svenska Hockeyligan (SHL) vilket är den högsta hockeyligan i Sverige. I undersökningen deltog elva intervjupersoner, enbart män i åldrarna 35–53 (M=43, SD=5.29). I studien användes en semistrukturerad intervjuguide för att genomföra intervjuerna och den togs fram med hjälp av holistiska karriärutvecklingsmodellen (Wylleman, 2019) och karriärutvecklingsmodellen (Stambulova, 2009). Resultatet presenteras utefter studiens frågeställningar som består av utmaningar, resurser, barriärer och copingstrategier vid karriärövergången. Resultatet påvisade att samtliga deltagare upplevde utmaningar med att göra karriärövergången från elithockeyspelare till civila livet. De största utmaningarna var en osäkerhet på framtiden i form av att de inte vet vad de ska göra efter elitkarriären. Deltagarna upplevde att stödet från familj, vänner och förening var viktiga resurser under övergången. Barriärer som framkom var oförutsägbar övergång i form av skador, många deltagare fokuserade endast på idrotten, såg inte att det finns ett liv efter karriären och att det en dag kommer ett avslut på idrottskarriären. De copingstrategier som deltagarna lyfte fram var att använda sig av en dubbel karriär genom att studera upptill idrotten eller att arbeta när tillfälle gavs, att vara medveten om karriären efter elithockeyn i form av förberedelser inför arbetslivet.

The aim of this study is to describe the experience of social support among female elite athletes who combine handball with higher education, with the underlying purpose to describe these persons’ experience of the functions of the support. These functions are materialistic, informative and emotional. There are ten women in the ages 22 to 24 (M=23.1, S=0,83) participating in the study. The study uses a semi-structured interview, based on two articles that studied social support (Knight et al., 2018; Schaefer et al., 1981). The result was sorted in three categories: emotional support, materialistic support and informative support. The result showed that women experienced emotional support, especially affinity, in the dual career (DC). Materialistic support was experienced in terms of support thru adjustment from coach and university. However, materialistic support was also identified lacking. Lastly, informative support, in shape of information and guidance in dual career, was experienced missing. / Syftet med studien är att beskriva upplevelsen av socialt stöd hos kvinnliga elithandbollsspelare som kombinerar elitidrott med högre utbildning, med det underliggande syftet att beskriva dessa personers upplevelser av stödets funktioner, så som materiellt, informativt och känslomässigt. I studien deltog tio kvinnor i åldrarna 22-24 år (M=23,1, S=0,83). Studien använde en semistrukturerad intervju, som var baserad på två artiklar där socialt stöd studerats (Knight et al., 2018; Schaefer et al., 1981). Resultatet sorterades i tre kategorier; känslomässigt stöd, materiellt stöd och informativt stöd. Resultatet påvisar att kvinnorna upplevde känslomässigt stöd i dubbla karriären (DK), där framför allt samhörighet med andra upplevde stötta kvinnorna. Kvinnorna upplevde också materiellt stöd, i form av anpassningar från både tränare och universitet/högskolepersonal. Resultatet visar även att flera kvinnor upplevde att de saknade denna typ av materiellt stöd i deras DK. Till sist identifierades kvinnorna uppleva att de saknade även informativt stöd i form av vägledning och information i DK.

Syftet i föreliggande studie var att undersöka studentidrottares upplevelser av att ha en dubbel karriär och vilka krav, barriärer och resurser de upplever samt hur de hanterar kraven. Urvalet var åtta studentidrottare fördelat på sju kvinnor och en man, i åldrarna 20-35. Föreliggande studie hade en kvalitativ design med semistrukturerade intervjuer, där intervjuguiden och den efterkommande tematiska analysen av resultatet grundades i Karriärövergångsmodellen (Stambulova, 2003) och ett holistiskt perspektiv utifrån Holistiska idrottsliga karrirärutvecklingsmodellen (Wylleman, 2019). Analysen resulterade i fyra huvudteman med tillhörande underteman och subteman. Det var studentidrottarnas upplevda krav, barriärer, resurser samt studentidrottarnas effektiva hantering. Resultatet redogör för att studentidrottarna upplever både interna och externa krav där ett konstant fokus ligger på höga prestationer vilket uppfattas som påfrestande. Interna barriärer samt de externa barriärerna, vilken delats upp i begränsad tid och Covid-19 pandemins negativa konsekvenser, samspelar i förhållande till de upplevda resurserna. De interna tillgångarna utgörs av målmedvetenhet, erfarenhet av kombinationen studier och idrott samt två identiteter istället för en. De externa tillgångarna utgörs av ekonomiskt stöd, ökad flexibilitet med distansstudier och att dra nytta av andra studenter. Den upplevda hanteringen innehåller i sin tur tre olika strategier som på olika sätt används av studentidrottarna för att mäkta med deras dubbla karriärer. Den problemfokuserade hanteringen innebar noggrann planering för att få ihop livspusslet där den emotionsfokuserade hanteringen handlade om psykisk och fysisk återhämtning, men även undvikande hantering var en del av upplevelsen. / The purpose of the study was to investigate student-athletes' experiences of having a dual career and what demands, barriers and resources they experience and how they manage the demands. The selection was eight student athletes divided into seven women and one man, aged 20-35. The present study had a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews, where the interview guide and the subsequent thematic analysis of the results were based on the Career Transition Model (Stambulova, 2003) and a holistic perspective based on the Holistic athletic career model (Wylleman, 2019). The analysis resulted in four main themes with associated sub-themes and sub-themes. It was the student-athletes' perceived demands, barriers, resources and the student-athletes' effective coping. The results show that the student-athletes experience both internal and external demands where there is a constant focus on high performance, which is perceived as stressful. Internal barriers as well as the external barriers, which are divided into limited time and negative consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, interact in relation to the perceived resources. The internal assets consist of purposefulness, experience of the combination of studies and sports, and two identities instead of one. The external assets consists of financial support, increased flexibility with distance studies and benefiting from other students. The perceived coping, in turn, contains three different strategies that are used in different ways by the student-athletes to cope with their dual careers. The problem-focused coping involved careful planning to piece together the life puzzle, where the emotion-focused coping dealt with mental and physical recovery, where also avoidant coping was part of the experience.