This study is about state officials who handle applications for sickness benefits and about municipal officials who handle applications for financial assistance. The purpose of this study is to explore the differences between the two professional roles regarding their conception about their exercise of authority, in terms of flexibility, individual adjustment, empathy and legal security.The study has a qualitative approach and is based on structured interviews with two state officials and two municipal officials. The questions that this study aims to answer are:- Is there a difference between state officials and municipal officials regarding their experience and use of flexibility? - Is there a difference between state officials and municipal officials regarding their perceptions of legal security, individual adjustment and empathy in their exercise of authority? - What kind of bureaucracy can you find in the two organizations?The results show that the state officials in this study have very limited flexibility due to legislation which makes their exercise of authority neither empathic nor individual. The municipal officials in this study state in their turn that the law entails broad flexibility and the opportunity for them to be empathic and to make individual decisions.

In recent years cognitive training in order to improve cognitive abilities have becomeincreasingly popular and a lot of research has been conducted within this field. The natural agingprocess has a negative effect on many of our cognitive abilities and this relationship also has a strongconnection with hearing loss. Elderly with hearing loss is therefore a group that could benefit fromcognitive training. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate different types of cognitivetraining directed towards working memory in older adults and to examine the results observedregarding efficacy of this type of training and its transfer effect. Method: A literature reviewconsisting of 17 scientific articles published between 2005-2014.

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between perceived popularity, social information processing and working memory. With the intentions of examining popularity 209 (98 female, 111 male) children in second and fourth grade were presented with a roster of their classmates and were to nominate whom they liked and whom they disliked. To study working memory capacity a working memory test, that places demands on the participant to work both with and store the given information, was used. To examine children's cognitive processing of empathy-provoking information a cognitive appraisal interview was conducted. The results imply (a) that working memory increases with age, (b) that there is a weak relation between working memory capacity and popularity, and between popularity and cognitive processing styles and (c) that there are some strong correlations between working memory and cognitive processing styles..

The purpose of this thesis is to get an improved understanding of what the bases for relevance are, when people in real information need situations make relevance judgements. In order to meet this purpose, an investigation based on research literature is performed. Four types of relevance are investigated: topical or subject relevance, cognitive relevance or pertinence, situational relevance or utility, and socio-cognitive relevance. The investigation also deals with users relevance criteria identified in fourteen empirical studies, in which the users are adults and engaged in oral, textual, and multimedia information retrieval. Finally, the connections between the user criteria found and the types of relevance are discussed.

Due to better nutrition, veterinary and overall care, pet dogs? lifespan has increased. With more old dogs we see more health problems associated with age, among those cognitive decline, leading to deficits in learning and memory, disorientation, anxiety and other altered behaviors. Cognitive decline can have severe negative impacts on the life of both dog and owner, when the dog for example forgets being housetrained or starts being awake at night. Two pet food manufacturers have developed food with specific ingredients in order to improve cognitive functions or delay the onset of cognitive impairment. Hill?s Pet Nutrition has developed a dog food with supplements of a broad spectrum of antioxidants and mitochondrial nutrients, aiming to diminish oxidative damage in the brain, thereby maintaining brain function and improving learning ability.

This master thesis deals with events, dynamics and problems of mediated information seeking within the context of a new information service called "Book a librarian". The study, based on a survey and interviews both in academic and public libraries and participant observations in academic libraries, has its theoretical base in the cognitive theory of information retrieval interaction. The cognitive view is used to throw light upon the need of an ongoing dialogue during the session in order to detect the information needs of the user and to conduct a successful retrieval of information. The communicative interaction is seen as threepart interaction between the intermediary, the user and the information system, where the current cognitive states of all three participants are involved. The study shows that the cognitive obstacles for a successful mediation and information retrieval are mostly connected to participants current knowledge of the subject and of the retrieval techniques.

There is strong evidence that cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is effective. The aim of this study was to compare 7 group-sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for insomnia (MBCT-I) with 3 group-sessions of CBT-I, on sleep measures and sleep related psychological processes, such as pre-sleep arousal, thought control strategies and mindfulness. Participants (N = 44; age 18-66) with long term insomnia were stratified and randomized into waiting list, MBCT-I and CBT-I. Significant improvements were seen in both groups, compared to waiting list, for instance on insomnia severity, sleep latency and restorative sleep. Small improvements on psychological processes were also found in both groups.

The purpose of the study was to investigate, through an experiment, if positive mood promotes creativity and flexible thinking. Participants were a total of 93 college students. The main hypothesis was that subjects induced with positive mood would perform better than subjects induced with negative mood, at a test reflecting creativity. To further explore the implications of priming (subliminal manipulated moods), a neutral control group was included. The cognitive test used in the study was Duncker´s The Candle Problem, a test which aims to get the subjects to apply flexible and creative thinking.

Bakgrund: Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) ?r en behandlingsmetod d?r arbetsterapeuten guidar patienten att hitta egna strategier f?r att n? sina m?l. Syfte: Syftet med den h?r intervjustudien ?r att unders?ka arbetsterapeuters erfarenheter av att anv?nda Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) som behandlingsmetod f?r vuxna. Metod: Inklusionskriterier f?r urval av deltagare var leg. arbetsterapeuter med erfarenhet av att anv?nda behandlingsmetoden CO-OP med vuxna patienter. Datainsamlingen gjordes genom kvalitativa intervjuer, datan bearbetades genom kvalitativ inneh?llsanalys. Resultat: Utifr?n analys av den insamlade informationen fr?n intervjuer framkom fyra kategorier och nio underkategorier.

Parenting and parental leave in a career context is a highly topical subject in which discussions about gender equality and corporate discrimination against parents occur daily. Media has recently raised the theory of parenting and parental leave as having positive impacts on personal development, such as creativity enhancement, which may promote the individual's work performance. Despite the subject's significant value for society and organizations, no scientific research is to be found. This paper examines how an individual's creativity at work is affected when becoming a parent and if parental leave has any contributory effect. Furthermore, the paper identifies and scrutinizes four creativity theories that may help explain these changes in creativity.

The flexibility of the labour market is considered as an instrument for increasing economic growth.Therefore has the use of flexible employment, also called atypical employment, increased. The atypical employment is characterized by insecurity in comparison with a traditional permanent full- time employment. One of the most common atypical employments is the manning employment, which is insecure whether it is permanent or not. The insecurity in the industry is based on insecure income, unpredictable working hours and poor psychosocial work environment.In order to encourage a continued increase of flexibility in the labour market while the need for security for staffing employees would be satisfied was Directive 2008:104 adopted. A certain amount of security has been achieved.

This master thesis concerns the relation between law and the theory of the conceptual metaphor which has developed within cognitive linguistics. Although its main focus is abstract thinking, it also covers a wide range of aspects within cognitive linguistics, such as the prototype theory and radial categories. In order to address this relation, three questions will be dealt with. Firstly, does the theory of the conceptual metaphor have relevance to interpretation of legal rules and contracts? Secondly, can the same theory explain why a legal rule or a contractual term has been interpreted outside of its most given area of application? Thirdly, when an interpretation is not predictable from a legal viewpoint, can such an explanation answer to that fact? Answering the first question will require a descriptive analysis of the conceptual metaphor and cognitive linguistics.

Background: In recent research literature, some researchers mean that companies in fast changing markets have to act proactively while others find that companies have to adapt to conditions and to react. This makes it interesting to study how software companies act strategically and also to study to what extent a flexible organisation is required by companies who proact and by those who react. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is the study how different types of software companies act strategically and what this requires of the company in terms of flexibility. Delimitation: The study treats only Swedish software companies with more than ten employees. Proceed of the Study: Representatives from four case companies as well as a consultant have been interviewed.

AbstractAim of the study: Aim of the study was to investigate whether there were any connections in time between different parts of care in patients with cardiac arrest and hypothermia treatment and cognitive and physical function six months after cardiac arrest and to investigate neurological outcome related to primary registered cardiac arrest rhythm after six months and if there were any changes in cognitive and physical functions as well as self-related health between discharge from hospital and six months after cardiac arrest.Method: The study included 39 patients admitted to three Swedish hospitals between 2008-2011. Cognitive and physical function was evaluated with Cerebral Performance Cathegory, CPC completed with Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE for cognitive function and Bartels Index, BI for physical function and Euroqol-VAS for evaluating the self-related health.Result:  A significant connection was shown between time to start hypothermia treatment and BI, patients with longer time showed improved physical function after six months.Majority of the participants (66,7 %) had Ventricular fibrillation/Ventricular tachycardia, VF /VT, as primary registered cardiac arrest rhythm and in this group CPC and BI was significant better compared with the asystole /Pulsless Electrical Aktivity, PEA group.CPC, MMSE, BI and Euroqol-VAS were all improved over time.Conclusion: Participants with VF /VT as primary registered cardias arrest rhythm had significant better cognitive and physical function 6 months after hypothermia-treated cardiac arrest compared with participants with asystole/PEA as primary registered rhythm. This shows the importance of access to defibrillators in public places in the society and in hospitals and optimal education of lay people and medical staff. Cognitive and physical function and self-rated health improves over time, which might be a very important reason to convey patients, relatives and medical staff to continue cognitive and physical rehabilitation. Keywords: Cardiac arrest, hypothermia, cognitive and physical function, wellbeeing.

This study aims to investigate possible correlations between cognitive functions and self perceived psychological wellbeing, possible correlations between cognitive functions and degree of mindfulness and possible correlations between degree of mindfulness and self perceived psychological wellbeing. 18 patients diagnosed with ICD-10 taking part in a transdiagnostical cognitive behavioural group therapy participated in the study. The study measures relevant variables before and after a group therapy. Of the 18 patients participating, only 11 were able to be tested on both occasions due to time limit. The following tests are used: Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Wechsler Adult Inventory Scale-III, Trail Making Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Colour Word Test, Beck's Anxiety Inventory, Beck's Depression Inventory, Quality of Life Inventory and Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills.