| 1. |
- Wehlin, Anna, 1994-
(author)
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Structural and Functional Studies on Evolutionary Repurposing of H-box/NC-proteins : From Host Factor to Virus Protein
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The Picornaviridae are a large family of biomedically important viruses causing diseases such as the common cold, hepatitis A and polio in humans and foot-and-mouth disease in cattle. These diseases have great impact on people’s everyday life and cause economical losses all around the world. To date, no antiviral treatments are available. In attempts to identify potential drug targets for novel antiviral therapies, a human protein was identified as a common host factor for several enteroviruses, a genus within the picornavirus family. This host factor, PLAAT3, facilitates genome transfer from the virus particle into the cytoplasm early in the viral lifecycle prior to virus clearance by autophagy. PLAAT3 is part of a human phospholipid-modifying enzyme family of five members, PLAAT1-5, which all have a conserved H-box/NC-motif forming the active site of these enzymes as well as a hydrophobic C-terminal region that is critical for enzymatic function. This H-box/ NC-motif is also found in the 2A locus of some picornaviruses, suggesting that these viruses might have acquired the protein through horizontal gene transfer to become independent of the human host factor.This thesis focuses on understanding the structural mechanism allowing picornavirus infection. Therefore, two members of the PLAAT-family were studied together with viral 2A proteins sharing the H-box/NC-motif.PLAAT3 was studied with the aim to elucidate its molecular mechanism underpinning its role as a host factor enabling genome transfer. PLAAT3 is composed of a globular N-terminal domain (NTD), whose structure has previously been determined, followed by a 30 amino acid long hydrophobic region (CTR). The catalytic site is located within the NTD, but the hydrophobic CTR is essential both for the catalytic activity as well as cellular localization of PLAAT3.PLAAT4 shares 50% sequence identity with PLAAT3 and exhibits a similar structure with a globular NTD followed by a hydrophobic tail. However, PLAAT4 shows a different activity pattern and displays enzymatic activity even in the absence of the CTR. By comparing the structural properties of PLAAT3 and PLAAT4 more can be understood of the structural characteristics enabling biological functions.The viral 2A proteins studied in this thesis originate from different picornavirus genera but all share the conserved H-box/NC-motif with the PLAAT-family. By investigating the structure and function of representative 2AH/NC proteins from different branches of the phylogenetic tree we aim to identify different steps of evolutionary repurposing to help us understand their role(s) in the viral lifecycle and determine the molecular mechanism allowing them to by-pass PLAAT3 as a host factor.
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| 2. |
- Hjelmfors, Lisa, 1984-
(author)
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Communication about the Heart Failure Trajectory in Patients, their Families and Health Care Professionals
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Introduction: There is an increasing awareness in the field of cardiology regarding the need for improved delivery of palliative care in patients with heart failure (HF). Professional guidelines have drawn attention to the importance of discussing the heart failure trajectory with patients and their families. These discussions can include, for example, talking about the prognosis, expectations for the future, and care at the end-of-life. It seems difficult for health care professionals to choose the right time for initiating these discussions. They often avoid these conversations because they are afraid of taking away hope and make the patients and their families anxious.Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to improve communication about the heart failure trajectory in patients, their families, and health care professionals.Design and methods: This thesis includes five studies using different designs and data collection methods. Study I has a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire to collect data to describe heart failure nurses’ perceptions of and practice in discussing prognosis and end-of-life care with heart failure patients. Study II has a descriptive and comparative design, where a survey was performed to describe Swedish and Dutch heart failure nurses’ reasons for discussing or not discussing prognosis and end-of-life care with patients. Study III has an inductive and exploratory design, where HF patients participated in focus groups or individual interviews. Data was collected based on their perceptions of communication about the heart failure prognosis. Study IV was a small-scale ethnographic study describing and evaluating the delivery of a simulation when teaching third-year nursing students about end-of-life care at a Swedish university. Study V used co-design in which patients with HF from primary care, their family members and health care professionals (physicians and nurses) from palliative and HF care were invited to be constructive participants in the design process of a communication intervention. Health care professionals participated in a first feasibility testing of the intervention.Results: Most Swedish HF nurses had discussed prognosis (96%) and end-of-life care (84%) with a HF patient at some point in clinical practice. The nurses often reported that a physician was to have the main responsibility for such discussions (69%), but that the nurse was also believed to have a role to play (I). Prognosis and end-of-life care were, together with sexual activity, () the three least frequently discussed topics in HF clinics in both Sweden and the Netherlands (II). In conversations with 1,809 Swedish and Dutch HF patients, prognosis was discussed with 38% of the patients and end-of-life care was discussed with 10%. In study III, patients expressed different experiences of and preferences for communication about their HF prognosis. Many patients described that the health care professionals had not provided them with any prognosis information at all. The patients had different understandings of HF as a chronic illness, which had an impact on their preferences for communication about their prognosis (III). The simulation training described in the ethnographic study (IV) was part of an end-of-life care simulation during the last term of the 3- year bachelor degree level nursing education program, where students learn and practice basic palliative care. The students felt that the simulation training was a good opportunity to practice handling end-of- life situations as it gave them a chance to experience this situation and their own feelings and thoughts on death and dying. In study V, an intervention to improve communication about prognosis and end-of-life care in HF care was developed and some areas were feasibility tested. Heart failure patients, their families and health care professionals working in HF care or palliative care participated in the development process. Health care professionals (nurses and physicians) participated in the following feasibility testing of the intervention.Conclusions: This thesis shows that prognosis and end-of-life care are seldom discussed with HF patients in Swedish and Dutch heart failure care. and that many heart failure nurses have ambiguous attitudes towards discussing these topics with patients and their families (I+II). The patients described that they receive different messages concerning their heart failure, and that they also have different preferences for discussing the heart failure trajectory with health care professionals. The professionals need to understand the impact of heart failure on each patient and adapt the communication to each individual (III). End-of-life care simulation with skilled supervisors shows great promise for health care professionals to learn good communication skills in end-of-life care conversations (IV). A Question Prompt List and a communication course might be useful for improving communication about the heart failure trajectory in patients, their families, and health care professionals
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| 3. |
- Jiang, Nan
(author)
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Radiation-Induced Xerostomia in Chinese Patients with Head and Neck Cancer – An Explorative and Interventional study
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background: Radiation-induced xerostomia is a common oral complication of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) undergoing radiotherapy (RT). This can lead to a series of functional oral disorders, particularly dental caries, and ultimately negatively affect their oral health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).Aims: The overall aim of this thesis was to understand the living experience of radiation-induced xerostomia and to determine the effects of an integrated supportive program based on multicomponent oral care strategies in Chinese patients with HNC.Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to describe how patients (13 men and 7 women) with HNC experienced radiation-induced xerostomia (Ⅰ). A cross-sectional study of patients (n=80) with HNC was conducted to accomplish the validation of the Chinese version of the xerostomia questionnaire (XQ) (Ⅱ). A randomized controlled trial (n=79) was conducted to determine the effect of an integrated supportive program (with a combination of face-to-face health education and coaching sections) on xerostomia, saliva characteristics (Ⅲ), oral health, and HRQoL (IV).Results: Five categories emerged from the manifest content of the interviews: communication problems, physical problems, psychosocial problems, treatment problems, and relief strategies. The meaning underlying these categories formed a theme, which was the latent content of the interview: Due to lack of information regarding xerostomia, patients had to find their own ways to deal with the problem (Ⅰ). The Chinese version of XQ was a unidimensional scale (1-factor solution explained 75.6 of the total variance) and had good psychometric properties with excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α of 0.95), test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.92), and good criterion-related validity and content validity (Ⅱ). The integrated supportive program showed significant inter-group differences in xerostomia (P=0.046), unstimulated saliva flow rate (P=0.035), plaque index (P=0.038), Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (P=0.002), and Functional Assessment Cancer Therapy-Head & Neck (P=0.001) over the 12-month follow-up, with better outcomes in the intervention group (Ⅲ & Ⅳ).Conclusion: This thesis contributes knowledge regarding the experiences of living with xerostomia from a patient perspective, noting that xerostomia has a profound impact on a patient's physical, psychological, and social quality of life. There is lack of assessment tools for xerostomia in the Chinese population, and the Chinese version of XQ proved to be a valid and simple self-administered tool to measure and monitor the xerostomia level in patients with HNC. The integrated supportive program with multicomponent oral care strategies demonstrated positive effects on relieving xerostomia, increasing unstimulated saliva flow rate, and improving their oral health and HRQoL. These findings provide a basis for improvement in the management of xerostomia and oral health of Chinese patients with HNC through the integration of oral care in nursing.
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| 4. |
- Pietras, Zuzanna, 1993-
(author)
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Small angle scattering as a tool to study protein structure and interactions
- 2022
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis uses small angle X-ray and neutron scattering (SAXS/SANS) to gain structural and functional insight into the molecular regulation of critical life processes in prokaryotic and eukaryotic species. The presented studies highlight the strength of combining low-resolution structure determination with biophysical and in silico modelling methods to extensively characterize proteins and their interactions. DNA-binding: MexR protein belongs to the family of bacterial transcription regulators and control the expression of multidrug efflux pumps in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa by binding to a DNA region of the operator. SAXS/SANS data supported by MD (Molecular Dynamics) simulations demonstrated that the MexR dimer in solution undergoes a DNA-binding conformational selection mechanism. To gain a better understanding about the system, a low-resolution structural model was resolved in order to assess protein binding to the entire operator region comprising of two closely located DNA recognition sites. The study demonstrates that the use of scattering techniques to investigate similar systems is straightforward and provides knowledge of relevance for clinical understanding and future drug design. Viral host factors: Picornaviruses represent a large family of small RNA viruses that are responsible for a range of diseases in humans and animals. Recently a non-essential human phospholipase PLAAT3 was identified as a key host factor for some picornaviruses. Several picornaviruses representing different branches of the picornaviral phylogenetic tree contain a type of 2A protein in their genome that share a conserved H-box/NC motif with PLAAT3. To understand the role of these 2A proteins in the viral life cycle and to map their plasticity, high resolution techniques were complemented with SAXS to evaluate the structural rearrangements and flexibility. Ubiquitination: In eukaryotes, ubiquitination is a fundamental posttranslational modification, where a small protein ubiquitin is covalently attached to a target protein via sophisticated multienzyme process. SANS can be used to study this mechanism in solution by modular deuteration of ubiquitin complexes. To explore this possibility further, an E2 conjugating enzyme was attached to a deuterated ubiquitin via an isopeptide bond, and a neutron contrast variation experiment was performed. To investigate the flexibility of the E2~Ub conjugate, a multi-state modelling approach was employed to sample its conformational landscape. SANS methods in protein science: A final methods paper outlines and details the experimental requirements, procedures and pre-studies that need to be considered to optimise a successful experimental approach for SANS with contrast variation on biomolecular complexes and assemblies in solution.
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| 5. |
- Tingsvik, Catarina
(author)
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Weaning from mechanical ventilation – from the patient, next-of-kin and healthcare professionals’ perspective
- 2022
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Critically ill patients with failing respiratory and vital body functions might need invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). When the patient’s condition improves, the need for respiratory support decreases and weaning from IMV begins. Even though weaning is a central part of intensive care, a stringent and well-accepted definition of this concept is lacking, implying that meanings, descriptions, strategies, and routines vary. The weaning process involves the expertise of diverse healthcare professionals (HCP), whose roles differ between different contexts. Today, person-centred care (PCC) is common and widely spread in healthcare. Still, it is unclear how PCC is recognised, used,and implemented in intensive care and during weaning. The overall aim of the thesis was to explore and describe the process when weaning patients from invasive mechanical ventilation in the ICU from thepatient, next-of-kin, and health care professionals’ perspective. To achieve the thesis's overall and specific aims, four studies (study I-IV) using a qualitative, explorative and descriptive design were conducted. In study I, the patients’ perspectives on weaning were explored, i.e., their lived experience of being on IMV during weaning. Data were collected through 20 interviews and analysed by using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Study II explored the meaning of being a next-of-kin when the patient was weaning. The study included eight next-of-kin who were asked to write diary notes based on their experience while the patient was weaning, followed by interviews after the patient’s time in the intensive care unit (ICU). Data were analysed using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Study III and IV described and explored the HCP’ perspectives on weaning and the factors that influenced their decision-making. Twenty ICU nurses (study III) and 16 physicians (study IV) were interviewed to describe and explore the factors that influenced decision-making when weaning patients from IMV. Data were inductively analysed using qualitative content analysis.It was found that weaning was not a separate phenomenon for the patient and next-of-kin. It was challenging to distinguish and was intertwined with experiences of intensive care. Patients and next-of-kin had both favourable and depressing experiences, but the favourable ones were more clearly described than in previous research. Moreover, it was essential for the patients to be treated with humanity. This helped them endure the physical and cognitive strains of IMV and intensive care, gain confidence in their body’sability, be given hope, and experience a safe environment. This was strengthened by several circumstances where the relationship with others was central. For next-of-kin, it was essential to be close to the patient as this gave them strength to get through the ICU-time and with their support, patients’less favourable experiences were alleviated. Furthermore, their resources, capabilities, and suffering varied between persons and over time.Weaning was a delimited process with a clear goal for HCP, which was strongly influenced and linked to other care processes. ICU nurses and physicians conducted the weaning and decision-making aligned with the patient’s medical condition, strengths, and wishes. Weaning rarely followed any protocol and planning was not done consistently. Understanding the importance of a caring relationship for decision-making and how this could affect patients and the experiences of next-of-kin was lacking. Moreover, there seem to be ambiguities and unspoken expectations within and between the professions in the allocation of responsibilities regarding weaning.Furthermore, the teamwork dynamic influenced the weaning process, decision-making, and the prerequisites for person-centred weaning.These findings contribute to new, current, and in-depth knowledge of the weaning process. Based on this thesis's four perspectives, the concept of person-centred weaning appeared, which means to strive to retain and consider the patient as a capable person despite failing vital functions, voicelessness, vulnerability, and extended need for support and assistance. Furthermore, HCP need to be aware of the dynamic within the weaning process and the impact of the care culture on the quality and experience of the weaning. There is a need to optimise the team's prerequisites, collaboration, and resources at an organisational level to perform person-centred weaning and maybe optimise the weaning process.
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| 6. |
- Axelsson, Karin, 1969-
(author)
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Entrepreneurship in a School Setting : Introducing a Business Concept in a Public Context
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Entrepreneurship has during the last decades gained an immense interest in academia, politics and practice. It is argued from politics that more entrepreneurs are necessary for the economic development. In addition, nowadays entrepreneurship is also perceived as a solution to social and societal challenges. This drives a need for entrepreneurial people everywhere in society who can cope with the inconstant and uncertain world of today. As a consequence, there are around the world numerous educational initiatives trying to inspire and fuel an entrepreneurial mind-set. Here, educations of all kind become relevant contexts since they provide an opportunity to affect children, youth’s and adult’s interest and attitudes towards entrepreneurship, and as such give a possibility to reach a vast number of people.Sweden is no exception, and in 2009 the Swedish Government launched a ‘Strategy for entrepreneurship in the field of education’ in which entrepreneurship is said to run like a common thread throughout education. The main focus is that self-employment is to become as natural as being an employee. As such the Government took an active stand for implementing entrepreneurship in the school setting on a broad front, from preschool to adult education.This development can be seen as part of New Public Management; a development where concepts from the private sector are lent and transferred to the public sector. Thus, when introducing entrepreneurship in the Swedish educational system, this at the same time means introducing a traditional business concept in a public setting. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge of and insights on how a business concept – entrepreneurship – is operationalised and constructed in a public setting.When placing entrepreneurship in new societal contexts other questions arise and complexity intensifies. In this qualitative research, the empirical context in focus are schools. It investigates how entrepreneurship is constructed among teachers in their work. But also how this business concept is included in a non-business setting by studying how the entrepreneurship strategy is operationalised in educational practice.As such the thesis and its findings contribute to the scientific discussions on societal entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education, as well as on strategy and strategising in a public context. The research also aspire to serve inspiration, insights and food for thoughts on discussions and reflections on entrepreneurship within the school practice. This compilation thesis include five papers. To be able to fulfil the aim this research use a broad theoretical base and multiple qualitative research methods. The combination of methods include semi-structured interviews, in-depth interview using the stimulated recall method, focus group interviews, participative meetings, observations, document studies, digital questionnaires, written inquiries, analysing texts and critical incidents questionnaires.
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| 7. |
- Höglund, Linda, 1972-
(author)
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Discursive practices in strategic entrepeneurship : discourses and the use of repertoires in two firms
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This is a thesis in marketing concerned with entrepreneurship in established firms and the discursive practices that take place within a perspective of strategic entrepreneurship. The study of discursive practices in this context assumes a concern with how different aspects of entrepreneurship are produced and consumed by people in text and talk. Strategic entrepreneurship can be seen as an organisational form of entrepreneurship. The latest contribution within strategic entrepreneurship tends to focus on opportunities and advantages in organisations as two processes that need to be considered and managed jointly.In this thesis, I have studied the discursive practices of how scholars position strategic entrepreneurship through an enhanced literature review and by means of a close analysis of assumptions made within strategic entrepreneurship, but also by studying two firms and their discursive practices of constructing opportunity and advantage positions. The results have then been analysed with reference to discourse theory and previous research within entrepreneurship based on European traditions that builds on the linguistic turn.By conducting an empirical study of two firms, I have studied discourses in use, and how they are produced by people. In so doing, two main findings emerge in the discussion of the empirical results: 1) Opportunity and advantage positions emerge in social interaction and are co-constructed. 2) Opportunity and advantage positions are constructed by the use of multiple discourses, on different levels of discourse and for different functions. The main purpose of the thesis is to enhance the understanding of entrepreneurship in established firms and the activities labelled as strategic entrepreneurship. In addressing the purpose, seven theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to research emerge in areas of strategic entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and the enterprising self.
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| 8. |
- Mårtensson, Maria, 1970-
(author)
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Drömmar om något bättre : Om managementmodeller, mätningar och människor
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- For several years I have, from a management control perspective, followed the development and application of several popular management models, for example, the knowledge management, balanced scorecard, and intellectual capital models. This thesis, comprising four papers and an extended covering paper, contributes to the management control field by discussing and problematizing management models and how they describe humans by means of measurement.This thesis thus does not emphasize the various possibilities for measurement, but rather how measurement is becoming important and what measurement processes might accomplish. Confidence in measurements is great, and the literature often argues for their importance. Furthermore, there is extensive discussion of what factors should be measured and how they should be measured. However, adages such as ‘What gets measured gets managed’ are rarely discussed or problematized.The dream of better visualizing humans in organizational management models is sometimes expressed in powerful terms, both poetic and dreamlike. If only humans were better visualized, the value-creation process would become more understandable, benefiting everyone and burnishing the image of the good organization. However, it sometimes seems as though this initial dream has become blurred, and measurement per se has tended to overshadow the initial vision. In that case, management models become not just tools, means to attaining the dream, but gradually become ends in themselves.There seems to be a contradiction between the idea of visualizing humans in organizational management models and the results of these models. Paradoxically, these management models are not necessarily making people visible – as was intended; rather, the risk is that they may actually make people less visible, or even invisible. Humans have become bare numbers, and where there is no feedback to ‘flesh and blood’ (i.e., humans), measurements risk losing their purpose. The question remains whether humans are actually made more visible by the measurements used in ‘new’ management models, or whether organizations risk rendering humans invisible and reducing them to objects.
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| 9. |
- Mårtensson, Sophie
(author)
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Bridging the gap between caring theory and nursing practice : Learning experiences of undergraduate nursing students in a caring behavior course
- 2022
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background: Healthcare providers are obligated to practice with scientific knowledge in order to deliver high quality and safe care based on patients’ needs. Despite this obligation, complaints from care recipients and their significant others regarding healthcare providers’ lack of compassion and competent care in their professional encounters have increased. In the discipline of nursing, theoretical structures of caring, conceptualized as behaviors, have been established as the heart and core value of guidance in all nursing practice. In nursing education, however, caring has tended to be taught as an intangible aspect of nursing practice, described as hidden curricula, thus, focus more on developing knowledge and psychomotor skills instead of learning caring behaviors. Studies that examine how undergraduate nursing students can learn caring behaviors explicitly are rare. Thus, a stronger emphasis on the learning of caring in the context of a caring behavior course that uses a variety of learning didactics is needed. Without adequate theoretical structures for caring-based observational behavioral instruments assessing verbal and non-verbal caring and non-caring behaviors, there is little evidence to help develop the learning of caring behaviors.Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to study how a caring behavior course in undergraduate nursing education influenced students’ learning of caring behaviors.Method: This thesis was conducted among undergraduate nursing students at a university in Sweden. The participants attended a 7.5-credit (five-week) Caring Behavior Course (the CBC) in semester four during spring and fall 2018 and spring 2019. The CBC was facilitated through a student-centered learning approach intertwined into reflective practice with the learning didactics of narrative pedagogy and simulation; it comprised six voluntary lectures, five mandatory seminars, and two mandatory caring behavior simulation days and examinations. All data were collected from the students participating in the CBC. Two of the four scientific papers constituting this thesis had a qualitative design based on focus group interviews (paper I) and individual written reflections (paper II). Analyses was conducted using qualitative content analysis. One paper had an instrument development design to develop and test an observational behavioral instrument based on Swanson’s Theory of Caring (paper III). Lastly, one paper had a quantitative observational design using the CBCS on video-recorded observational behavioral data collected in the CBC (paper IV). Analyses was conducted using descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed rank test (paper IV).Results: The undergraduate nursing students’ participation in the CBC influenced their learning of caring behaviors. It deepened their understanding and knowledge of caring. The students became aware that learning caring is a task that requires effort because the meaning of caring encompasses nurses’ active engagement in practicing caring behaviors. These findings are also supported through the observational behavioral instrument, through the developed Caring Behavior Coding Scheme based on Swanson’s Theory of Caring; it was found that participation in the CBC influenced the undergraduate nursing students verbal and non-verbal caring and non-caring behaviors.Conclusions: This thesis demonstrated that bridging the gap between caring theory and nursing practice in the CBC using a variety of learning didactics influenced undergraduate nursing students’ learning of caring behaviors. The results contributed to strengthening the knowledge that caring and learning are parallel processes in the undergraduate nursing students’ development into becoming compassionate and competent caring nurses, with the intended outcome of patient healing and well-being.
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| 10. |
- Ohlander, Ulrika, 1965-
(author)
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Towards Enhanced Tactical Support Systems
- 2016
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Fighter pilots operate high-performing powerful aircraft, equipped with complex sensor systems, in a dynamic and hostile environment. The pilots need to have control over their own aircraft as well as the developing situation surrounding them. Moreover, the fighter pilot rarely is on a mission by himself, but collaborates with teammates to achieve the goals jointly. This collaboration between fighter aircraft cannot take place without technology in the form of a tactical support system (TSS) that aids the pilots with information retrieval and decision-making. A TSS in a fighter aircraft fuses data from different sources and organizes the information in order to assist the pilot in building situation awareness and support in the decision-making during missions. The capabilities of the aircraft and its sensors, as well as the design of the TSS will directly affect how the pilots can perform the missions. The technology and the design at the same time enable and constrain the possible acting space, such that the tactics and plans for the missions will be a consequence of these factors. Hence, the design and development of such a complex system requires deep knowledge about the users and understanding of how they will operate the system. High usability is among the requirements for such a specialized and advanced system as the TSS, and in order to achieve this there is a need to understand the circumstances the system will be used in. Due to the complex nature of the military operations and the difficulties to access the domain for others than pilots, it is challenging for designers of the TSSs to obtain this needed knowledge. Therefore, this thesis aims at investigating the nature of the operations, as well as the practice of user participation in the domain, in order to increase the designers’ knowledge and give guidance to how users should participate in the development of the systems. Several methods that aim to design efficient and usable systems are available. User-centered design is a holistic philosophy that prescribes that the interests and needs of the users should be in focus through the whole development process in order to achieve better systems. At the core of user-centered design is to increase the knowledge about the users and their needs. This thesis applies two perspectives, which both contributes to fulfill the goal of user-centered design of the TSSs by obtaining more knowledge about the users. The two perspectives are: a better understanding of how the users/pilots utilize the TSS to perform teamwork during missions, and an insight into how the users/pilots participate during the development process of the TSSs. The teamwork perspective is motivated by the fact that fighter pilots perform a majority of their missions collaborating in teams. Their teamwork is depending on technology since the pilots are separated from each other in their fighter airplanes. Understanding this teamwork is hence a key to understanding the users in this domain. This thesis investigates the nature of teamwork between fighter pilots based on a theoretical teamwork model, the “Big Five” of effective teamwork proposed by Salas, Sims, and Burke (2005). The “Big Five” model contains eight elements that Salas et al. identified as necessary for effective teamwork: adaptability, backup behavior, closed-loop communication, shared mental models, mutual performance monitoring, team orientation, mutual trust, and team leadership. The user-participation perspective is based on the notion that involving the users in different stages through the development process will benefit the results. However, user participation can take many different forms. The users can have different roles during the process, and the impact their opinions will have on the product can vary. This thesis investigates user participation and the roles the users, i.e. pilots, have in the development process of fighter aircraft of TSSs and cockpit interfaces. These two perspectives are each assigned an aim in the investigation. For the first aim, Increase the knowledge about how fighter pilots collaborate in teams during missions with the current systems, ten fighter pilots were interviewed about their views on teamwork. The teamwork elements of the “Big Five” model are explored and described for the military fighter context. With this knowledge, a task performance cycle is proposed which shows were in the cycle of a mission each teamwork element is most important. Finally, a modified teamwork model adapted for mission performance for fighter pilots is suggested.For the second aim, Increase the knowledge about how pilots can and should participate in the design process of fighter aircraft interfaces, a study on how pilots participate in the design work of cockpit interfaces is conducted. The inquiry is based on a questionnaire, which was distributed to designers of fighter cockpit interfaces. The results indicate that the designers think the pilots have and should have many different roles in the design process. The designers wish to be able to observe pilots at work to a greater extent and to obtain more information and ideas from them. They also think that pilots should be more involved as examiners and testers. However, pilots should not be designers or decision-makers regarding design, according to the majority of respondents. The presented contributions of the team-related research in this thesis are a deeper understanding and rich descriptions of how fighter pilots perform missions from a teamwork perspective. The teamwork elements are examined, and their relations and their importance during mission performance are described. For example, it was found that the abilities to monitor each other, to adapt, and to communicate were the most important factors for effective teamwork during a mission. For the investigation of how designers of pilot interfaces work with user representatives in the design process, the contribution is a description of the different roles the users can have during the development process in this domain. The results are primarily intended to inform designers of tactical support systems and cockpit interfaces. However, other domains where team members are distributed, and are highly dependent on technology for their teamwork, should benefit from the findings.
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