The Remote Site Doctrine in Alaska

In recent years, software development has been evolving around an Agile way of working to optimize software development processes. Simultaneously in other industries, the Leanconcept have been adopted and used to make manufacturing and production of services more efficient. Software development companies has now started to realize that in order to become competitive in software delivery they need to optimize the entire end-to-end process and not only improve the development phase. Thus, an increased interest for Lean thinking has appeared in the industry. Applying Lean successfully in a software development context is not an easy task. This since Lean is developed for and by the manufacturing industry its content is also dependent on the characteristics of this context. Thus, it is not applicable to other contexts without being adjusted. Though, literature argues that when the content of Lean is properly adjusted to nature of the relevant context it can contribute with the same benefits as in manufacturing. However, the literature lack in studies on how Lean can be successfully applied in nonmanufacturing contexts. This study aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by adjusting and applying Lean tools in software development context in order to make the end-to-end processmore time- and resource-efficient. This will be made through a case study at a software development department at a Swedish Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Company. This department develops software components that work as building blocks of the product sold to the end customer. More specifically, these components contribute with functionality that enables communications between the nodes in a network. The review of the existing body of knowledge together with an analysis of the company specific problems indicates that the most sufficient tool to apply in this case study Lean implementation is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). Hence, the study focuses on adjusting the Value Stream Mapping framework to this new context in order to visualize the entire value flow and make improvements aligned with Lean. The adjustments of VSM are underpinned by relevant findings from previous research together with an analysis of the differences between manufacturing Lean and software development Lean. The study shows that it is possible to reasonably adapt and benefit from Value Stream Mapping also in the context of an ICT Company. The outcome of the study is an overview of the current value flow at the company and suggestions on how, where and what improvements can be made. Though, all improvement suggestions evolve around the aim of improving the flow efficiency and eliminating waste by improving the communication, standardization, synchronization, resource allocation and developing proper measurements. The conclusion is that Lean is applicable in the particular software development context with some necessary adjustments made to fit the current way of working and value offering. The usage of Lean tools such as Value Stream Mapping is possible, also here adjustments are a must and the VSM shows that the current state is better in providing a base for improvements than the future state map. This since improvements in this context is not always visualized and captured in the future state map, but the future map contribute to a vision for the valuestream to aim towards. Key words: Lean, Agile, Value Stream Map, Software development, Flow, Waste, Managemen

Patients’ Perspectives on Engaging in Their Healthcare while Hospitalized

Aims and objectives To examine patients’ experiences and preferences for engaging in their healthcare while hospitalised. Background Promoting patient engagement or involvement in healthcare has become an important component of contemporary, consumer‐oriented approaches to quality care. Previous research on patient engagement highlights that preferences for engagement are not assessed while hospitalised, leading to patient role confusion and frustration. Methods Semistructured interviews were conducted with patients from January–March 2017 to examine their experiences and preferences for engaging in their care while hospitalised on medical‐surgical units in the United States. Inductive thematic analysis was used to uncover the themes from the interview transcriptions. The reporting of research findings followed the COREQ checklist. Results Seventeen patients, eight male and nine female, aged between 19–83 years old were interviewed. Patients had a difficult time articulating how they participated in their care while hospitalised, with the majority stating there were few decisions to be made. Many patients felt that decisions were made prior to or during hospitalisation for them. Patients described their engagement through the following themes: sharing the subjective, involvement of family, information‐gathering, constraints, “I let them take care of me,” and variability. Conclusions Engagement is a dual responsibility of both nurses and patients. Patients’ experiences highlight that engagement preferences and experiences are not universal between patients, speaking to the importance of assessing patient preferences for engagement in health care upon hospital admission. Relevance to clinical practice The articulation of what patients actually experience in the hospital setting contributes to improve nursing practice by offering insight into what is important to the patient and how best to engage with them in their care. The constraints that patients reported facing related to their healthcare engagement should be used to inform the delivery of future engagement interventions in the acute care setting

Knowledge and development : a cross-section approach

This paper assesses the effects of knowledge on economic growth. By using an array of indicators, each of which represents an aspect of knowledge, as independent variables in cross-section regressions that span 92 countries for the period 1960 to 2000, they show that knowledge is a significant determinant of long-term economic growth. In particular, the authors find that the stock of human capital, the level of domestic innovation and technological adaptation, and the level of information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure all exert statistically significant positive effects on long-term economic growth. More specifically with regard to the growth effects of the human capital stock, they find that an increase of 20 percent in the average years of schooling of a population tends to increase the average annual economic growth by 0.15 percentage point. In terms of innovation, the authors find that a 20 percent increase in the annual number of USPTO patents granted is associated with an increase of 3.8 percentage points in annual economic growth. Lastly, when the ICT infrastructure, measured by the number of telephones per 1,000 persons, is increased by 20 percent, they find that annual economic growth tends to increase by 0.11 percentage point.Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Public Health Promotion,Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Growth,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Achieving Shared Growth,Economic Theory&Research

WordPress -sivuston toteutus ja mukauttaminen

Tämän opinnäytetyön aiheena oli toteuttaa sovellus WordPress-julkaisujärjestelmällä sisältäen sen asennuksen sekä palvelinohjelmisto Wamp-Serverin asennuksen Windows-työasemalle ja selvittää, kuinka WordPress-teemaa ja WordPressin lisäosia muokataan avoimen lähdekoodin avulla. Opinnäytetyössä selvitetään myös lyhyesti WordPressin kahden täysin erilaisten versioiden erot. Sivusto toteutettiin kokonaan maksuttomana toteutuksena. Kyseisen sisällönjul-kaisualustan versiona käytettiin WordPress.org:ia ja teema sekä käytetyt lisäosat olivat maksuttomia. Niihin tarvittavat muutokset tehtiin itse lisäämällä omia tyy-limäärittelyjä koodiin ja muokkaamalla PHP-tiedostoja. Opinnäytetyön tuloksena syntyi viiden sivun sivusto, joka sisältää yhteydenotto-lomakkeen, kuvagallerian ja aikalaskurin. Opinnäytetyön tavoite täyttyi onnistu-neesti.This thesis studies implementing a web site using the WordPress Content Man-agement System and examines how to edit the stylesheets more thoroughly than the user interface allows the user to do by default. The differences between the two versions of WordPress are also explained briefly. The web site was implemented completely with only free resources of Word-Press.org. The theme along with the plugins was all free versions, and the required edits were made by altering the style sheets and PHP-files. As a result a five-page web site was created featuring a contact form, an image gallery and a countdown timer. The goals of the thesis were reached

Kunskap genom bilder

The origin of this dissertation is an investigation of an academic course, Graphic Arts and Design for students of natural and social sciences. The benefits of attending the class were an increased ability to solve problems, new and different ways to observe the environment, better self confidence, and a higher esteem of the working process. The participants considered that the artistic activities affected their academic courses since the exercises were seen as creative and meaningful, which led to a changed attitude towards their studies. The exercises developed a comprehensive view and an ability to concentrate, which were conducive to problem solving. Research about transfer effects indicate a connection between artistic skills and academic results, but has found it impossible to state scientifically. In this dissertation these observations are the point of departure, with focus on a discussion of the act of drawing in connection with the cognitive approach of pragmatism, Michael Polanyi¹s concept of tacit knowing, and some theories on the function of metaphors. The result is an attempt at a theory of knowledge that includes artistic experiences. Creating a picture means turning imagination into a concrete object. This does not indicate a depiction of an idea, but a direction of imagination into an articulation other than verbal thoughts or ideas. The picture shows a moment in the ongoing process of imagination. The act of drawing transforms hitherto unarticulated forms of experience into artefacts possible to reflect upon. This act of drawing often requires that seemingly incompatible categories of experience are being connected, and the world thus being articulated in new shapes. This is done by overcoming the resistance to leave old and familiar categories. The range of imagination increases and, with more alternatives at hand and an enhanced ability to formulate and solve problems, the world appears more complex. Such a process entails that when the world is accepted in a new articulation, knowledge has grown and the relation to the world has changed

State Action in an Enlarged Europe: Poland and the Structural Funds 2007-2013

This study sets to investigate the reasons behind state action in an enlarged Europe through its regional policy and the structural funds for the budget period 2007-2013 by the example of Poland. The question posed is: why is there a centralization trend on a national level in Poland when EU decentralizes its regional policy? The analysis suggests that the answer can be found by adopting a state-centered realist approach complemented with a constructivist perspective. The Polish state is an autonomous actor in need of resources to survive and maintain political power. Resources could either be obtained from its own country by, for example, taxes or from outside means by, for example, EU funding. Therefore, when the EU gives the member state more control over the structural funds it results in a centralization process on a national level. This behavior is accentuated by the Polish inherent value system that favors centralization as explained by a constructivist approach

Second Language Preservice Teachers’ Accessing of Background Knowledge and the Role of Context

This qualitative study examined six second language preservice teachers’ active learning processes through exploring their information processing when accessing background knowledge. The study utilized a constructivist view of teacher learning which acknowledges the complexity of real-life learning as part of which teachers make a variety of decisions regarding the information to be learned and the processing and use of that information based on their previous knowledge, experiences, and the context at hand. It is the interplay between cognitive and constructive learning processes, that is, what the learner and context bring into the picture of learning that this study set out to investigate in regard to teacher learning. The findings point to the complex nature of this cognitive process of accessing background knowledge where teachers first engage in locating a piece of knowledge and then making decisions about how to use that knowledge. The context seemed to play an important role in this process, in that teachers would make a decision, often unconscious, about using a piece of knowledge they had located, based on their affective reactions to the context, for example, their students, curriculum, and other teachers. Often teachers would act against what they knew to be the best way to react because of their strong emotional response to the situation