6 research outputs found
A coordination model based control of functional arm manipulation by RBF neural networks
No full textA Welcome Change? A Sociological Case Study Concerning the Influence of Planned Organizational Change on Well-Educated Employees' Work Motivation
No full textThis paper is a master thesis in sociology, written by a student enrolled with Aalborg University’s Department of Sociology and Social Work. The title is “A Welcome Change? - A Sociological Case Study Concerning the Influence of Planned Organizational Change on Well-educated Employees Work Motivation”. The study takes the form of a case study in a specific department of a large public organization. The department is undergoing structural changes, which is engineered and planned by the management, and therefore includes activities which is design to implement the changes.Prior to this study, the author has conducted a structured literary review, on the same subject (Waaben 2016). This prior study concluded, that the literature on the topic of how organizational changes affect the employees’ work motivation, is very scarce. Through thorough discussion, a model of the theoretically likely effects and links between relevant variables were presented, with an appeal test it empirically. The knowledge obtained in this former study, is the basis for the master thesis.The main research question in the master thesis translates to How does the organizational changes in the case department affect the employees' work motivation and which factors has influence on this? In order to answer the research question, additionally four questions were raised, as with the intend to operationalize the main question. These four questions were 1. According to the employees them self, what motivates them in their everyday work life? 2. How does the employees experience the scope of the changes, and the changes influence on their everyday working life? 3. What characterizes the employees’ work motivation at the time of the interviews? And 4. What is the link between the employees’ work motivation and the organizational changes?In order to answer these questions, twelve semi structured personal interviews were conducted with employees from the department. Of these twelve interviews, originally eight was conducted, all within the same sub department. Unfortunately, these interviews proved insufficient in answering the research question, and additionally four interviews were conducted, this time in a different sub department. The case department consists of a total of tree sub departments, but no interviews were conducted with employees from the last.The analysis of the interviews is conducted using the concept of adaptive theory and orienting concepts, as Derek Layder them in his book from 1998. The consequence of this is, that theempirical data and the established theories is part of an interchanging process, of influencing each other.The study concludes, that the employees of the case departments work motivation, is affected less by the organizational changes, then what could be expected on the basis of prior studies. However, the employees do experience a decline in the inner energy they have available for their current work tasks. Some of the employees also experience a decline in the satisfaction connected to their work tasks, although they do not experience a declined wish to work in their field or with their current tasks. The study also shows, that the individual prior experience seems to affect how the employees understands the current changes, especially in regards to the scope of these. The employees who have not experienced large organizational changes before, seems to have a hard time to assess the scope of the changes, which leads to a decline in their work motivation. Other variables that seems to influence the relationship between organizational changes and the employees work motivation includes sense of job security, trust levels between employees and their leader, the changes influence on the employees’ autonomy and the experienced meaningfulness of the organizational change
Identification and characterisation of osteoarthritis patients with inflammation derived tissue turnover
No full textSummaryObjectivesOsteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease with a subset of patients experiencing joint inflammation, but C-reactive protein (CRP) has shown limited use in OA as a diagnostic marker. The aim was to identify subpopulations of patients with high or low levels of acute (high sensitive CRP (hsCRP)) and/or matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) derived inflammation (CRPM) and investigate the subpopulations' association with biomarkers of collagen degradation and Kellgren–Lawrence (KL) score.MethodshsCRP, CRPM and MMP-degraded type I, II and III collagen (type I collagen degraded by MMP (C1M), type II collagen degraded by MMP (C2M) and type III collagen degraded by MMP (C3M)) were quantified by enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in serum of 342 patients with symptomatic knee OA of which 60 underwent total knee replacement (TKR). KL was obtained. Patients were divided into quartiles by hsCRP and CRPM levels, where Q1 and Q4 were low or high in both. The biomarker levels of healthy adults provided in the ELISA kits were used as reference level.ResultshsCRP was elevated in TKR (5.9(3.6–8.2 95% confidence interval (CI)) μg/mL) compared to reference level (3 μg/mL), while CRPM was highly elevated with OA independent of KL (10–14 ng/mL) compared to reference level (5 ng/mL). Q4 had higher KL than Q1 (P < 0.001), Q2 (P = 0.017) and Q3 (P < 0.001). C1M, C2M and C3M were lowest in Q1. C1M was elevated in Q3 compared to Q2 (P < 0.001), whereas C3M was lower (P = 0.019).ConclusionA bigger proportion of patients were elevated in CRPM compared to hsCRP, indicating MMP-derived inflammation as a component of OA. Moreover, the levels of MMP-degraded collagens differed between the subgroups segregated by inflammation, indicating distinctively different subpopulation selected by inflammation
Современные достижения в фармакотерапии остеоартрита на основе эндо- и фенотипирования
No full textThe review of medical literature is devoted to modern data in the field of diagnosis and treatment of osteoarthritis using endo- and phenotyping. It includes the latest data on the epidemiology of osteoarthritis of different localizations, modern definitions and classifications of osteoarthritis endotypes and phenotypes, pathobiochemical patterns and pathomorphological parallels of disease phenotypes, new methodological approaches to the phenotyping of osteoarthritis (prognostic, prescriptive phenotyping, alternative methods), as well as modern advances in pharmacotherapy of the disease based on data from selected randomized controlled trials and meta-analyzes.Обзор медицинской литературы посвящен современным данным в области диагностики и терапии остеоартрита с помощью эндои фенотипирования. Рассмотрены последние данные по эпидемиологии остеоартрита разных локализаций, современные определения и классификации эндотипов и фенотипов остеоартрита, патобиохимические закономерности и патоморфологические параллели фенотипов заболевания, новые методологические подходы к фенотипированию остеоартрита (прогностическое, прескриптивное фенотипирование, альтернативные методы), а также современные достижения в области фармакотерапии заболевания, основанные на данных отдельных рандомизированных клинических исследований и метаанализов
Modelo cinético para el proceso de gasificación de briquetas de carbón con biomasa en reactor de lecho fijo
No full textSpa: El objetivo de la investigación consiste en estudiar y seleccionar de un modelo cinético del proceso de gasificación, en reactor de lecho fijo, de briquetas producidas a partir de mezclas de carbón de bajo rango con biomasa de plantas invasivas en cultivos agrícolas, y residuos vegetales postcosecha y postproceso. Para este fin se caracterizaron carbones de la provincia Centro de Boyacá, con el propósito de seleccionar el carbón que, de acuerdo con el estado del arte se ajuste
más a las propiedades de los carbones usados en procesos de gasificación y cogasificación; como resultado se escogió un carbón subituminoso tipo A. Las biomasas se seleccionaron bajo criterios de disponibilidad y procesos productivos predominantes en la región; en estos términos las muestras probadas fueron: Chenopodium album (cenizo), aserrín de eucalipto y semilla de guayaba.
Se fabricaron briquetas con tres tipos de mezcla carbón-biomasa vegetal: de plantas invasivas en cultivos agrícolas, de residuos postcosecha y de residuos postproceso, en proporción másica de 3:1, aglomeradas con parafina; se caracterizaron mediante análisis próximos, elementales y tecnológicos, para determinar las propiedades fisicoquímicas, necesarias para determinar los rendimientos del proceso de gasificación.
Las pruebas de gasificación se realizaron en dos fases; en la primera, con briquetas en un microgasificador de lecho fijo a nivel de laboratorio, inyectando aire al 50% como agente gasificador, para analizar la factibilidad del proceso e identificar variables y parámetros de referencia; se observaron características particulares del proceso de pirólisis a 523 °C, de combustión incompleta y de la posible producción de gases combustibles en el reactor. En la segunda fase, pruebas se realizaron con muestras de briquetas y diferentes agentes gasificadores (aire, CO2 y vapor de agua),
bajo condiciones de lecho fijo en un analizador termogravimétrico, con el fin de obtener información diferencial de tiempo, temperatura y gasto de masa registrada en el TGA, para hacer el análisis termodinámico y cinético del proceso. El balance de masa y energía se efectuó a partir de las eficiencias de: conversión de carbono (Ecc), producción de gas (Yg), y Valor Calorífico Alto del gas (VCAg) y eficiencia térmica (Eth). La composición del syngas obtenido experimentalmente, se analizó
con respecto a las composiciones de equilibrio del sistema, obtenidas por simulación del proceso en HSC. se concluye también que, técnicamente es factible la obtención de gas de síntesis, a mayores escalas de producción, utilizando briquetas en gasificadores de lecho fijo para lograr alta homogeneidad en el flujo y la composición de la carga.
Finalmente, se determinaron los valores de los parámetros cinéticos de la ecuación de Arrhenius: Energía de activación (Ea), Factor pre-exponencial de Arrhenius (A) y la relación de conversión de masa (), para calcular la constante cinética (k) y la velocidad de reacción del proceso de gasificación. Se establece que, solamente los modelos de difusión unidimensional y tridimensional de simetría esférica, cumplen con las condiciones necesarias para calcular la velocidad de reacción del proceso; esto se asume teniendo en cuenta que la reacción gas-sólido tiene lugar en un lecho
fijo, donde las partículas estáticas de un combustible sólido están expuestas al flujo unidireccional de un agente gasificador (gas), donde la difusión a través de la masa depende a la presión y concentración del gas, las cuales son variables no controladas para las condiciones de operación.DoctoradoDoctorado en Ingeniería y Ciencia de los Materiale
Epileptic high-frequency network activity in a model of non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy
No full textHigh-frequency cortical activity, particularly in the 250–600 Hz (fast ripple) band, has been implicated in playing a crucial role in epileptogenesis and seizure generation. Fast ripples are highly specific for the seizure initiation zone. However, evidence for the association of fast ripples with epileptic foci depends on animal models and human cases with substantial lesions in the form of hippocampal sclerosis, which suggests that neuronal loss may be required for fast ripples. In the present work, we tested whether cell loss is a necessary prerequisite for the generation of fast ripples, using a non-lesional model of temporal lobe epilepsy that lacks hippocampal sclerosis. The model is induced by unilateral intrahippocampal injection of tetanus toxin. Recordings from the hippocampi of freely-moving epileptic rats revealed high-frequency activity (4100 Hz), including fast ripples. High-frequency activity was present both during interictal discharges and seizure onset. Interictal fast ripples proved a significantly more reliable marker of the primary epileptogenic zone than the presence of either interictal discharges or ripples (100–250 Hz). These results suggest that fast ripple activity should be considered for its potential value in the pre-surgical workup of non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy
