Middle managers' ethos as an inner motive in developing a caring culture

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Middle managers' ethos as an inner motive in developing a caring culture

Background - Middle managers play a key role in promoting a caring culture in nursing homes. However, there is limited knowledge about middle managers’ inner motives and their experiences of their responsibility in developing a caring culture. Research aim - The aim of the study is to get a deeper understanding of middle managers’ motives and their experiences of their responsibility to develop a caring culture in nursing homes. Research design - A qualitative design with a hermeneutic approach inspired by Gadamer was chosen which guided the interpretation of data. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted. Participants and research context - Data were collected from thirteen middle managers in nursing homes, in six municipalities in northern Norway in September and October 2021. Ethical considerations - The study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data. Oral and written informed consent was obtained from participants. Findings - The findings show that the middle managers had non- egoistic motives to promote a caring culture as expressed in their attitudes and actions. They felt responsible to promote a caring culture where both patients and staff experienced care and were respected and recognized as unique individuals. Middle managers as good role models are responsible for being present and raising awareness of the importance of care in the nursing home culture by systematically reflecting on care values. However, a strong focus on the financial and administrative demands limits the middle managers’ possibilities to promote a caring culture and prevented them from always acting as they wanted to act, which often causes moral distress. Conclusion - Being in contact with inner motives, enables the leader to promote a homelike and caring culture where both patients and staff feels respected and recognized as unique individuals. This study highlights the importance of systematic reflection on caring values in nursing homes which leads to value awareness among all actors

TobiiGlassesPySuite: An open-source suite for using the Tobii Pro Glasses 2 in eye-tracking studies

In this paper we present the TobiiGlassesPySuite, an open-source suite we implemented for using the Tobii Pro Glasses 2 wearable eye-tracker in custom eye-tracking studies. We provide a platform-independent solution for controlling the device and for managing the recordings. The software consists of Python modules, integrated into a single package, accompanied by sample scripts and recordings. The proposed solution aims at providing additional methods with respect to the manufacturer's software, for allowing the users to exploit more the device's capabilities and the existing software. Our suite is available for download from the repository indicated in the paper and usable according to the terms of the GNU GPL v3.0 license

Sensory and chemical characteristics of dry wines awarded gold medals in an international wine competition

The objective of this work was to identify the sensory attributes associated with the highest awards given to wines in large competitions. Data from the Mundus Vini annual wine competitions (editions) from 2014 to 2016 were used. The chemical analysis and sensory attributes were subjected to cluster analysis and logistic ridge regression to identify predictors of grand gold and gold medal awards. High ethanol levels and sugar concentrations, mainly in red wines, were observed. For both red and white wines, three clusters were identified which broadly separated grand gold from gold medal awarded wines. The discrimination of G wines was mainly due to higher scores of bitterness and green/vegetative characters in both red and white wines, and with barnyard attributes only in red wines. The prediction regression for white wines showed that the exotic fruit was the most valued sensory attribute along with the quality indicators of body and complexity. Red wines had a higher number of predictors, including positive attributes like dried fruits and spicy or negative attributes like green/vegetative and red berries. This study identified the most relevant sensory features most valued by competition jurors, which were broadly consistent with the so-called international commercial wine styleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measuring Performance of Web Content Delivery Over Mobile Networks

We explored the performance of the web content delivery over the Internet for two Norwegian MBB networks (Telenor and Netcom) using the NorNet Edge measurement infrastructure. The performance was evaluated by measuring the impact of several factors including the radio signal conditions, the ingresspoint placement and the networking topology in cellular networks when accessing the first byte of the web content of the top 50 Alexa websites. The time to get the first byte can be decreased by 80 percent, if the web content is placed close to the ingresspoint. The ingresspoint placement affects the network delay for domestic subscribers by only 10 milliseconds. There is no clear differences in time to get the first byte between 3G or 4G technologies. The time to connect to the web content (to query DNS and establish a TCP connection) is only 20 percent of the time spent to receive the first byte of the web content. The poor radio signal conditions can increase the time to get the first byte of the web content by 100 milliseconds

Microporous membranes for oil-water separation and desalination

Water supply sustainability is one of the biggest challenges of the century, necessitating efficient and economical technologies for water purification. One of the most critical technologies in our world is filtration because it tremendously helps to tackle water scarcity issues. Conventional filtration technologies such as distillation, condensation, coagulation, and adsorption are demanding energy and their operational conditions are complicated. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a cost-effective and energy-efficient method for the filtration process. Membrane-based water treatment technology is a promising technique because of its efficiency in terms of cost and separation performance. However, the membranes are suffering from fouling phenomena and fabricating membranes with fouling-resistance properties is important. Generally, there are two different kinds of membrane materials: Organic (polymeric), and inorganic (ceramic) materials. Although polymeric membranes are easy to prepare, inexpensive, require less energy, and are flexible, inorganic membranes showed excellent thermal and chemical stability compared to polymeric membranes as well as have higher fouling-resistant property due to the inherent hydrophilicity. In the first study, NaA zeolite was fabricated on a stainless steel mesh by secondary growth method through optimizing aluminum/silicon ratio (ASR) to effectively separate oily water. The NaA zeolite-coated mesh was tested for various oils including olive oil, mineral oil, and diesel to assess the effect of the type of oil on oil/water separation efficacy. The degree of hydrophilicity was evaluated along with for mesh stability analysis in acidic, basic, and hot solutions. In the second study, ZnO atomic layer deposition (ALD) modified membranes were developed for treating produced water. ALD is a promising tool to fabricate membranes with controllable pore size and uniform structures. ZnO ALD coating helped improve membrane hydrophilicity and antifouling property and reduced the roughness and pore size of the membranes by improving hydrophilicity and decreasing roughness. In the third study, mixed matrix membranes were developed by embedding hydrophilic nanoparticles (MIL-101(Cr)-NH2) into cellulose acetate (CA) matrix to enhance hydrophilicity to treat dye/salt solution. This helped in countering fouling problems that membranes face when used for the treatment of industrial wastewater, by enhancing hydrophilicity. The mixed matrix membrane structures showed impressive stability with a negligible change in water contact angle and separation performance even after 30 days. Adding only 1 wt. % MIL-101 (Cr)-NH2 into the CA matrix enhanced the pure water flux to 68.1 ± 0.87 L m-2 h−1, an increase of ~ 150% compared to a pristine CA membrane owing to its enhanced hydrophilicity and larger pore size while maintaining similar salt rejection. In the fourth study, super hydrophilic silica nanoparticles (Si NPs) were used to modify tubular α-alumina membranes to improve their performance in terms of flux, oil rejection, and antifouling properties. The prepared membranes were applied for oil/water emulsion treatment. The Si NPs leaching decreased from the surface of the α-alumina tubular membrane by using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a pre-treatment step. By coating Si NPs, the surface roughness decreased, leading to lower fouling since traps on the membrane surface for containment decreased with decreasing membrane roughness