In today?s society more and more activities are digitalized. This means that everyone has to be able to use information and communication tools (ICT) in order to take part in the digital world, otherwise they will be left out of the digital community. There is a so called digital gap between for instance elderly and young people, where elderly do not know how to use the tools and there for cannot gain access to the digital society. What happens when people, not only grow old, but also have a communication disorder, such as aphasia? How are they included? The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not surf pads are good tools for bridging the digital gap for people with aphasia, and which activities and situations that encourages people with aphasia to work with the surf pad.

The purpose of this Master's Thesis is to explore the influence of fiction on the identity and self-esteem of young women. The purpose is also to investigate if there are any books that they consider to be of importance for their identity. Furthermore, I investigate what appeals to young women generally in fiction and if it is difficult for them to find books that appeal to them. The primary question posed in this thesis is: How does fiction influence the identity development of young women? The data collection is based on literature on the subject and on interviews with eight young women between 15 and 20 years old.

This Masters thesis work describes a comparison between two different methods for estimation of the down channel (base station to mobile subscriber) in Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The first estimation method, Optimal Feed-forward Channel Estimation (OFCE), is a conventional method that bases the estimates on data that is known to both sender and receiver, so called pilots. The second method, Decision Directed Channel Estimation (DDCE), is an elaboration of OFCE. It also uses user data for estimation. Simulations show that DDCE, in comparison to OFCE, does not attain an improvement in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) for high bit error rates (BER).

PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the market of pedagogic consulting and how the customers look upon these kinds of services and what the consultants think about the market. The following five questions were investigated:What is the situation of the market of pedagogic consulting?-          What needs and what demands are there of pedagogical consulting services? -          What are the economic possibilities for schools and municipalities to buy professional development and consulting services?What do schools and municipalities think about their needs and what do they think about buying professional development from consultants?-          How are the professional development offerings of the consultants recieved by schools and municipalities and is there a difference between the private and public sector of education? -          What impact could professional development have on schools?In what way is the marketing for pedagogic consulting done?Method In this study I have chosen to have a qualitative approach with an abductive perpective. I made these choices to get closer to what I wanted to investigate. Through the abductive methodology it was possible to go between theory and empirics.

In Sweden, selection for leanness in pigs has been going on for almost a century. This sometimes results in gilts and sows being too lean and consequently in a risk for reduced reproduction and health status. The Swedish recommendation includes that gilts should be mated after seven months of age, after one documented oestrus, at 120-140kg live weight and with a backfat thickness of 16-20mm. Five gilt producing herds were visited and records of age, heart girth (for weight estimation), body condition (visual estimation), backfat thickness and exterior were made. The same records were also taken in four gilt buying herds on newly purchased gilts.

The purpose of this study is to better understand patients suffering from psychotic illness along with their family members, and to identify treatment factors that have been helpful for these patients and their families by investigating how their relationships have been affected by treatment. In this way, treatment methods can be put in a theoretical context, treatment efforts can be clearer, and the therapist can develop professionally.The research method used is a semistruktureted interview conducted with tree patients and their families. One conclusion one can draw in the successful treatment with psychotic patients is strongly based on the therapist?s ability to build a safe and secure treatment alliance with both the patient and his family members. Meeting with patients in situations outside of the therapy room have been of great importance for the therapeutic process.Important themes for recovery that come forth during the interviews with the patients are the quality of the therapy session as healing factor.

Background: Multiple myeloma is a malignant incurable cancer disease associated with severe chronic pain. The nurse has several important roles in the management of patients with multiple myeloma. This study focuses on nurse´s roles including the caring of pain relief.Aim: The aim of this study was to elucidate the nurse?s role in giving care to patients with multiple myeloma and associated chronic pain.Method: This literature study was based on scientific articles.Results: The nurse is in a key position to facilitate ongoing adequate pain and psychosocial assessment of patients with multiple myeloma. The study presents ways of relieving pain and suffering via different ways of caring management.

Background:The definition of mental illness is characterized by a lack of management regarding mood, thoughts or behavior. It is difficult for the person to cope with everyday duties as well as relationships with other people.The study revealed that the society should take action to prevent social isolation for those with mental illness. The central concepts of care theory is love, learning and well-being, where nurses' conditions and actions create results in the patient.Aim:Describe skills and prerequisites nurses need at the meeting of patients with mental illness. A further aim was to examine the ethical considerations included studies made use of.Method:A descriptive literature studyMain result:Nurses feel they do not have skills regarding mental illness. When nurses care for patients with mental illness are often formed stigmatizations regarding these patient groups and care will suffer.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga kundernas köpbeteenden i en inredningsbutik, Divas Boning och att diskutera hur dessa kan påverkas och bidra till ökad konsumtionsnivå hos kunderna. Metod: Vi har valt att använda oss av både en kvalitativ metod i form av en intervju samt en kvantitativ metod i form av en enkät. Dessa presenteras var och en för sig i empirikapitlet. Analyser har sedan gjorts också uppdelat i kvantitativ- och kvalitativ data. Resultat & slutsats: Vår studie visar att det är av stor vikt att Divas Boning tydligt positionera sig och arbetar med sina kundrelationer. Vår studie visar även att valet av sortiment i hög grad påverkar hur butiken uppfattas och att det är viktigt att som mindre inredningsbutik inte bara se liknande butiker som konkurrenter utan även större kedjor.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Som fortsatt forskning skulle vi finna det intressant och lärorikt att studera branschen ur ett vidare perspektiv och göra en grundlig konkurrensanalys av Divas Bonings alla konkurrenter. I denna studie kan vi endast beröra köpbeteendet hos Divas Bonings kunder.

The dependency of continuous electricity supply is high in the Swedish society today, at the same time no one is willing to pay for a too costly or over dimensioned power distribution system. The owners of the distribution systems are the ones responsible for this balance act of maintaining a high quality of electricity delivery to customers at a reasonable cost.In this master thesis a limited part of the primary distribution system (10 kV), owned by Mälarenergi Elnät AB and located in the city centre of Västerås, was chosen for a deeper analysis of its reliability. Its ability to handle outages of system components (N-1 and N-2 contingency analysis) was investigated to find out potential weak spots and parts of the grid that showed signs of being overdimensioned.The results of the performed simulations showed that in 74 % of the studied N-1 contingencies cases, consisting of outages of a bus bar in a distribution substation, the system could handle this without causing outages in other parts of the grid. For the N-2 contingencies 61 % passed the test. It was also found that one of the two included high voltage substations could alone supply the investigated part of the grid.

Background: Associated with the change in the regulations in 2009 concerning how goodwill should be handled in the acquisitions, brand valuation is increasingly recognized. Goodwill will now be identified and the brand will therefore be separated to be individually evaluated. The valuation has a problem with a number of factors that will influence the choice of method, to obtain a reliable value Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the method used for brand valuation associated with the acquisition situations. In addition, it aims to gain a better understanding of brand valuation and its problems.Method: The study has a qualitative basis, where three key people of brand valuation have been interviewed. These work as valuation specialists at various accounting firms, this to get answers that could be compared.

The aim of the study was to investigate peer interaction among toddlers 12 to 30 months of age and the teachers? ways to direct the children?s play in outdoor free play situations in a Swedish preschool. Data was gathered through direct observation, and the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty in combination with the assumption of children as social actors built the theoretical framework of the study. The results showed that the toddlers used different strategies to invite peers to interaction and made use of strategies in entering ongoing play that previously have been observed among older preschoolers. These strategies, bodily and therefore in accordance with the phenomenological approach, support the assumption of toddlers as social actors that actively engage in and make sense of their life worlds in the preschool.

Background   The patient's rights to self-determine their own health care is described in Swedish legislation and guidelines. However, due to infancy, unconsciousness, severe brain damage or certain diseases, some patients might be unable to make such decisions. Ethically difficult situations do occur, not infrequently associated with culture. Since the patient is vulnerable, there is a risk that the patient in the treatment and care can not be bothered to maintain right to autonomy and that the nurse violates patient integrity.Aim                 The aim of this study was to illustrate the nurse's dilemma when the patient refuses vital caring efforts.Method           A literature review of eight scientific articles with a qualitative approach was performed.Results           The results revealed the following domains to describe the nurse's dilemma when the patient refuses vital care interventions: patients? reasons for treatment refusal, the nurse's understanding of the patient's refusal of care and contradictory legislationConclusion     More knowledge and discussion of the patient's decision-making competence is needed for both the nursing profession and those who make decisions on legislation..

The purpose of this study has been to get a deeper insight into how students reason about the textbook and teaching that goes beyond its content. This in order for the teacher to be able to consider and respond to these important attitudes already at the planning stages of such teaching situations. This approach will aid to help students overcome the distrust of things that are not in the textbook.The study shows that students have an attitude of overconfidence to the textbook's reliability. It is considered to be controlled in its content as well as being a reference on the extent of the knowledge content.The general approach to teaching that deviates from textbook structure is that it is welcomed as an interesting feature. However, a questioning attitude soon appears about whether the element will be included in any requirements for knowledge or tests.The following important conclusions can be drawn after this study was carried out:Very clearly communicate the purpose of all education that deviate from the textbook.Inform students about the textbook's deficiencies and the need for supplementing.Accept and respond to students' focus in that grades are the main driving force for the acquisition of knowledge in high school..

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the worldThese words sum up my account of social worker expertise. How does one become skillful?a master?in the profession? I answer this question by exploring how social worker proficiency can be developed and grow with the help and support of supervisors, clients and colleagues. Development through professional supervision and in the encounter with clients is an essential part of the work. I also discuss what it means to be new in the field (a novice) in relation to being experienced (a master).