No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Safe nursing care of patients with cardiovascular disease requires specialized knowledge and skill. However, education for such specialty practice has little empirical basis. Research has suggested that novices perceive primarily surface aspects of a domain while experts perceive primarily its deep principles. Insight into such perceptual differences may help inform future pedagogical strategies. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not such differences are found in the domain of cardiovascular nursing.</p> <p>A forced choice triad task was developed to test the study hypothesis. Each triad trial consisted of a target item and two referent items. Referent items were designed to be similar to target items based on surface features (S) such as patient age or sex, deep features (D) such as the goal of therapy, or both surface and deep features (S/SD). Participants were asked to choose the referent item that they believed was more similar to the target item and to provide a rationale for their choice. The instrument was completed by n=17 nurses in two practice cohorts: a novice/less experienced cohort with less than three years of experience in cardiovascular nursing and an experienced/competent cohort of Nurse Practitioners with at least ten years of experience in the specialty.</p> <p>Statistically non-significant differences in scores between study cohorts occurred in the hypothesized direction. However, due to the small final sample size, no definitive conclusions could be made based on this study's findings.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

Ballet dancers are a unique population of athletes in that, unlike other sports, their success strictly depends on both physical capabilities and aesthetic factors. While the physical demands of the performing sport are strenuous, ballet dancers are often required to exhibit a thin physique, frequently resulting in weights 10-12% below the ideal. These low weights are commonly achieved by low energy intakes which increase dancers' susceptibility to the development of various health conditions. Research investigating the health of dancers, however, is limited and hampered by methodological limitations. To address these issues, we tested the hypothesis that dancers would report a low habitual energy intake and, therefore, be subject to conditions comprising the Female Athlete Triad, including low energy availability, suboptimal bone density and menstrual irregularities. In addition, we hypothesized that elite female dancers would have lower than expected resting metabolic rate (RMR) based upon their fat-free mass, and thus greater energetic efficiency as a result of chronic energy deficiency. As hypothesized, dancers reported a significantly lower energy intake and exhibited a lower RMR as compared to lean, pair-matched controls. Because treatment of these metabolic abnormalities is challenging, prevention of adverse health outcomes among adolescent pre-professional dancers is key in promoting overall health and optimal performance. Through our subsequent 'formative work', we determined that the current availability of nutrition education offered to both professional and pre-professional dancers is minimal and of questionable quality. Thus, we developed, implemented, and evaluated a DVD-based educational program, entitled "Nutrition for Optimal Performance", aimed at improving health knowledge and behaviors of pre-professional adolescent ballet dancers. Our findings indicate that participants increased their knowledge of basic nutrition principles and self-efficacy for adopting healthier dietary habits, as compared to pre-program and control group scores, and that knowledge gains were sustained at a six-week follow-up assessment. Collectively, these studies provide the field of dance medicine with novel findings related to the characteristics and health conditions of professional ballet dancers, and the effectiveness of a low-resource, disseminable nutrition education program which promotes the health and optimal performance of pre-professional adolescent ballet dancers. / Ph. D.

Dark triad är en kombination av mörka personlighetsdrag som består av subklinisk psykopati, subklinisk narcissism och machiavellism (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). Jones och Paulhus (2013), utvecklade Short Dark Triad (SD3), ett test som mäter dark triads personlighetsdrag. Den föreliggande studiens syfte var att validera en svensk version av SD3. Respondenterna svarade på nio enkäter som ingick i ett forskningsprojekt varav tre användes till denna studie. Respondenterna (N = 103) var mellan 19 och 64 år, och alla var aktiva i arbetslivet. Konvergent validering gjordes genom korrelationsanalyser som kontrollerade sambanden mellan de delar, i beprövade instrument, som mäter personlighetsdrag relaterade till begreppen subklinisk psykopati, subklinisk narcissism och machiavellism. Sambandsanalyserna gjordes mellan SD3 och IPIP-120 som mäter femfaktormodellens dimensioner, samt Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP) som grundar sig på biologiska markörer för olika psykiatriska tillstånd. Resultaten gick i huvudsak i linje med tidigare forskning (Furnham, Richards, Rangel, &amp; Jones, 2014) med avseende på sambanden mellan femfaktormodellens dimensioner och SD3. En gemensam kärna i de tre personlighetsdragen i dark triad var ovänlighet, och ett viktigt resultat var de signifikanta negativa sambanden med femfaktordimensionen vänlighet. Den Svenska versionen av SD3 anses validerad. / Dark triad is a group of three dark personality scales consisting of subclinical psychopathy, subclinical narcissism and Machiavellianism (Paulhus &amp; Williams. 2002). The Short Dark Triad (SD3), is the measuring tool and was developed by Jones and Paulhus (2013). The purpose of this thesis was to validate a Swedish translation of the SD3. This was done within an existing research project and included 103 respondents, aged 19-64 years, all being employed. They were assigned to respond to nine different surveys, three of them measuring psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism-related scales. Convergent validation was done by correlation analysis with IPIP-120, measuring the personality of five factor model and Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP), measuring personality traits based on biological markers, and how well they measure the SD3. Our results generally confirm earlier research on studies between five factor models personality scales and SD3 (Furnham, Richards, Rangel, &amp; Jones, 2014). One result of particular importance was the negative correlation with the Agreeableness Scale since it is a core for the dark triad personalities. Furthermore, our results followed the expected patterns in the correlations between dark triad personalities and the five factor model. The result of our thesis concludes that the Swedish translation of thPSKe SD3 test is to be considered valid.

Grace à leurs propriétés d’auto-réparation et d’auto-organisation, les matériaux pi-conjugués liquide-cristallins (LCs) présentent un grand intérêt pour l’élaboration de matériaux semi-conducteurs à hautes performances. Ils peuvent être utilisés pour différents types d’applications en électronique organique telles que les cellules solaires (OPV), les diodes électroluminescentes (OLED) et les transistors à effet de champs (OFET). Dans ce travail, nous avons conçu et préparé une nouvelle famille de LCs combinant des entités pi-conjuguées de type calamitique et discotique au sein d’une architecture moléculaire unique. Plus particulièrement, nous avons imaginé trois différentes architectures telles que des dyades et triades linéaires et des triades ramifiées, incluant des dérivés discotiques de pérylène ou de triphénylène et des dérivés calamitiques de terthiophène, de benzothienobenzothiophène ou encore de pyromellitique. L’objectif était d’étudier leurs comportements liquide-cristallins et leurs propriétés d’auto-organisation et de transport de charges.Les résultats obtenus ont montré que ces matériaux donnent des auto-assemblages complexes formant des arrangements multi-lamellaires de bicouches, dans lesquelles les entités calamitiques et discotiques présentent une organisation dans le plan. De plus, en choisissant judicieusement les entités pi-conjuguées calamitiques et discotiques (type-p ou type-n), nous avons démontré que ce type de matériaux auto-organisés peut présenter des propriétés de transport de charge ambipolaire en formant des chemins distincts pour chaque type de charge (trou et électron) par nano-ségrégation de ces entités de type p et de type n. / Due to their self-healing ability and their self-organization property, pi-conjugated liquid crystals (LCs) are materials of great interest to prepare high performance semiconducting materials. They can be used in different types of organic electronic applications such as solar cells (OPV), Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED) and Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFET). In this work, we were interested in designing and preparing a novel family of LCs combining π-conjugated discotic and calamitic moieties in a unique molecular architecture. More particularly, we designed three different molecular architectures based on a linear dyad, triad and a branched triad, which include discotic triphenylene or perylene and calamitic terthiophene, benzothienobenzothiophene or pyromellitic moieties. The objective was to study their liquid crystalline behaviors and their self-organization and charge transport properties.Based on our results, we demonstrated that these materials can form complex self-assemblies in the bulk such as multi-lamellar arrangements presenting bilayered lamellar phases with in-layer organization of both calamitic and discotic species. In addition, based on the appropriate choice of the disk- and rod-like π-conjugated cores (p-type or n-type), we showed that this kind of self-organized materials could exhibit ambipolar charge transport properties, presenting a spontaneous nanosegregation of p-type and n-type entities in bulk, and leading to well-defined distinct conductive channels for each type of charge carriers (hole and electron).

Mellanchefens organisatoriska roll har transformerats sedan Burns först utforskade mellanchefsrollen och sedan slutet av 1900-talet har rollen förändrats och tilldelats fleråtaganden än tidigare. En studie från Previa belyser mellanchefsrollens ökade sjukskrivningar och vittnar om att positionen i mitten av organisationer har blivit en utsatt arbetsbefattning att disponera över i dagens moderna samhälle. Följande kvalitativa studie syftar till att utforska hur mellanchefsrollen upplevs av olika chefspositioner inom organisationer och belysa problematiken kring rollkonflikterna som uppstår på mellanchefspositioner ur ett nytt perspektiv. Studiens empiriska material utgår frånelva chefsintervjuer från tre matrisorganisationer. För att bearbeta studiens material har vi använt oss av en abduktiv metod där vi under studiens gång har arbetat genom hermeneutiken och pendlat mellan empiri och teori för att skapa förståelse. I studien försöker vi inte definiera mellanchefsrollen ur några exakta riktlinjer utan studien utforskar rollen i en föränderlig praktik. Vi har inte som avsikt med studien att presentera någon form av absolut sanning gällande mellanchefsrollen utan vi vill snarare förmedla olika poänger om mellanchefsrollens arbetssituation som förhoppningsvis leder till en djupare reflektion tills studiens läsare. I studien bearbetar vi fram mellanchefsrollens komplexitetgenom differentierade chefers kunskaper, perspektiv och berättelser om det vardagligaarbetet. Studiens resultat framhäver att mellanchefsrollen upplevs olika beroende på vilken chefsposition rollen upplevs av. Framförallt skiljer sig övre chefers perspektiv gentemot linjechefernas perspektiv på vad rollen finns till för i organisationer och vilka interna intressenter som mellanchefsrollen ska tillfredsställa. / The organizational role of the middle manager has been transformed since Burns first explored the role of middle manager, since the end of the 20th century the role continues to change and increasingly more tasks than before have been added to its role. A study from Previa highlights the middle managers role's increased sick leave and indicates that the organization's mid-level position has become a vulnerable job role to command of, in today's modern society. The following qualitative study aims to explore how the role of middle manager is experienced by different managerial positions within organizations hierarchy and from a new perspective shed light on the problems surrounding the role conflicts that arise in middle manager positions. The empirical data is based on eleven conducted managerial semistructured interviews from three organizations. To process the study's material, we’ve applied an abductive method where we throughout the course of the study worked through hermeneutics and thus altered between empiricism and theory to produce an understanding. In this study we don’t aim to define the middle manager role from any exact guidelines, but the study explores the role in a changing practice. Furthermore, this study doesn’t intend to present any form of absolute truth regarding the middle manager role, but rather we want to convey different perspectives about the middle manager role's work situation. Hopefully this will subsequently lead to a deeper reflection for the readers. Through the differentiated managers' knowledge, perspectives and stories about everyday work we managed to understand and process the complexity of the middle manager role. In conclusion, the results concludes that the perception of the middle manager's role varies, depending on which managerial position is being addressed. Above all, there is a conspicuous difference between the senior executives’ perspectives and the line managers' perspectives on the middle managers function within the organization and which internal stakeholders the middle manager role ought to satisfy.

Societies progress: currently, a globalized and computer world, is a postmodern society. In it, the ways of transmitting and socializing culture have changed; new human beings have been developed postmodern individuals with very particular characteristics: they are our students. How to optimize the learning triad (student-teacher-knowledge)? It is not enough to know the contents and be a specialist in the field, it is essential to be aware of the current environment to analyze and understand the characteristics of our students, also called "sons of globalization" or "digital natives". Only then shall we know, also, our own reality as individuals and teachers. This paper seeks to analyze the characteristics of our students and reflect on our role as teachers in a complex and changing environment. / Las sociedades progresan: la actual, en un mundo que comandan la globalización y la informática, es una sociedad postmoderna. En ella, se han modificado las formas de transmitir y relacionar socialmente la cultura; se han desarrollado nuevos seres humanos, individuos postmodernos con características muy particulares: ellos son nuestros alumnos. ¿Cómo optimizamos la tríada del aprendizaje (alumno-docente-conocimientos)? No basta saber los contenidos y ser un especialista en la materia; es indispensable ser conscientes del entorno actual para analizar y comprender las características de nuestros alumnos, también denominados “hijos de la globalización” o “nativos digitales”. Solo así conoceremos, asimismo, nuestra propia realidad como individuos y docentes. El presente ensayo procura analizar las características de nuestros alumnos y reflexionar sobre nuestro papel como docentes en un entorno complejo y cambiante.

Introdução: A polipose nasal (PN) é considerada uma condição inflamatória crônica da mucosa da cavidade nasal e seios paranasais de etiologia não muito clara. Há poucos dados sobre alterações epiteliais em PN e sua relação com a ação dos radicais livres. Muitas doenças estão ligadas a danos causados por espécies reativas de oxigênio (ROS) e de nitrogênio (RNSS) e ocorrem de um desequilíbrio entre eles e antioxidantes, o que for maior atividade de espécies reativas, o que chamamos de estresse oxidativo. Objetivo: O objetivo principal deste estudo é avaliar o estresse oxidativo em pólipos removidos cirurgicamente em 3 grupos de pacientes com polipose nasal (com PN unicamente, PN associado à asma e PN associado à asma e intolerância ao ácido acetilsalicílico) a fim de elucidar possíveis diferenças no perfil redox nestes grupos. Material e Métodos: Cinquenta e nove pacientes com diagnóstico de polipose nasal foram divididos em três grupos clínicos: um grupo controle PN unicamente, um grupo asma (PN associado à asma) e um grupo Widal (PN associado à asma e intolerância ao ácido acetilsalicílico). Medição e Resultados Principais: Neste trabalho defesas enzimáticas (superóxido dismutase, consumo de peróxido de hidrogênio, glutationa peroxidase e glutationa S-transferase) e defesas não enzimáticas (glutationa total, nitritos e nitratos, vitamina C e E) foram analisados. Também foi realizada a medição de danos em lipídios (malondialdeído) e proteínas (carbonila). No grupo asma, o consumo de peróxido de hidrogênio, atividade da glutationa peroxidase, níveis de malondialdeído e vitamina E foram significativamente menores do que no grupo de controle. Também foi realizada a medição de danos em lipídios (malondialdeído) e proteínas (carbonila). No grupo Widal foram encontrados níveis significativamente maiores de glutationa e nitritos e nitratos em relação ao grupo controle. Não foram encontradas diferenças entre os grupos em relação ao nível de carbonila e glutationa, tamanho dos pólipos, atividades da superóxido dismutase e S-transferase. Conclusões: A classificação redox dos grupos de PN foi parcialmente alcançada. Os pólipos do grupo asma possuem alterações nas defesas enzimáticas relacionadas com o peróxido de hidrogênio e a peroxidação lipídica, enquanto pólipos do grupo Widal apresentaram alterações nos níveis de óxido nítrico e glutationa. / Introduction: Nasal polyposis (NP) is considered a chronic inflammatory condition of the mucosa of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses of etiology is not very clear. There are few data on epithelial changes in nasal polyposis and its relation to the action of free radicals. Many diseases are linked to damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitrogen (RNSs) and occur from an imbalance between them and antioxidants, whichever is greater activity of reactive species, what we call oxidative stress. Objective: The primary objective of this study is to evaluate oxidative stress in polyps surgically removed in 3 groups of patients with nasal polyposis, in order to elucidate possible differences in redox profile in these groups. Methods: Fifty nine patients diagnosed with nasal polyposis were divided into three groups: a control group, an asthma group (NP with asthma) and a Widal group (NP with asthma and aspirin intolerance) in which patients had an association of NP, asthma and aspirin intolerance. Measurement and main results: In this work enzymatic defenses (superoxide dismutase, hydrogen peroxide consumption, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase) and non-enzymatic defenses (total glutathione, measurement of nitrites and nitrates, vitamin C and E) were analyzed. Also the measurement of damage in lipids (malondialdehyde) and proteins (carbonyl) was conducted. In the asthma group, hydrogen peroxide consumption, glutathione peroxidase activity, malondialdehyde, and vitamin E levels were significantly lower than in the control group. The Widal group showed significant higher glutathione levels, nitrite and nitrate levels than found in the control group. No differences were found among the groups regarding carbonyl level, polyp size, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione S-transferase activities. Conclusions: The redox classification of the groups of NP was partly achieved. Polyps of patients with asthma have changes in enzymatic defense pathways related to hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation while polyps of patients with Widal triad present changes in nitric oxide and glutathione.