Purpose: To evaluate how a treatment period on four weeks in a warm climate influences physical function, condition and the patient's experience of the climate effect of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Method: 10 persons with a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis went through four weeks of treatment on Centro Forestal Sueco, Marbella. The treatment consisted of both physical and theoretic lessons given of a rehabilitation team. All patients were examinated measured for physical function and condition before treatment, after two weeks and at the end of the treatment. To measure physical function, Timed-Stands Test, Timed Get Up and Go, The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index, Index of muscle function and functionestimitation of shoulder/arm were used.

Headwater streams are affected by anthropogenic impacts at multiple scales. One aspect of human impact is sediment transport associated to the abundance of stream structures as large woody debris and the composition of the riparian zone from forest to agricultural landscapes. Riparian buffer zones and stream structures like dead wood are considered as generally important structures for protection against an increasing amount of sediment particles in the water. Hence, in this study these structures were quantified in thirty different stream segments on land and in the water. To measure the transport of sediment Whitlock-Vibert boxes were used in three different types of landscapes; forest, transition and fields. The boxes were left in the stream segments for three months, the taken up and dried and weighed. The results showed that the transition-land in Frösvidalsån had the highest sediment transport. The second highest transport of sediment was in Blackstaån at the fields.

Altmetrics, a subfield of informetrics, is still in development. The aim of this thesis is to explore; the significance altmetrics may have in the LIS field, and to define the new perspectives altmetrics offer in comparison to traditional metrics. The research questions are:- How can altmetrics affect research assessment?- How does altmetrics position itself towards traditional metrics?- How could altmetrics influence the LIS field?A qualitative content analysis was used as a method. The analysis of a sample of ten peer reviewed articles was based on a coding scheme with eleven codes.

AbstractThe main aim of this study was to investigate if four humour styles, affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating humour can be related to all five dimensions of the Big Five Factor Model of personality and study if gender has any influence on those relation-ships. A survey questionnaire was distributed among 72 individuals from Kalmar County, in the South-east of Sweden. There were 42 women and 30 men. A humour test questionnaire, Humour Scale Questionnaire (HSQ), with 32 items was used and the Big Five Factor test with 40 items was used for personality test. The results showed that men have a more aggressive humour than women and that the older we get the less affiliative and self-enhancing humour we have.

During the past years fire has been identified as an important factor for nature conservation in the forest landscape. To accurately quantify the size of a burnt area is obviously important, but also to quantify the degree of fire damage to the tree canopy. Such data are important for assessing the conservation value, and to support planning and management of the burned area in the future. I have examined how to estimate the status of tree crowns after fire from interpretation of aerial photographs. This is possible because fire changes the structure of tree crowns and this influences the colours in aerial photographs by spectral reflection. Included in the study are four areas, three of which burned in 2005 and one in 2006.

ABSTRACTBackground Calprotectin is a protein found in the cytoplasm of neutrophile granulocytes. In the course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), calprotectin is released during chronic inflammation in the gut. Activation of neutrophils during the inflammation is followed by activation and secretion of pro-inflammatory molecules such as calprotectin. Calprotectin is stable in stool up to 7 days and can therefore be used as a non-invasive marker for diagnosis, treatment and measurement of the disease activity in patients with IBD. The most common method for analysis of calprotectin concentration is ELISA.

Nowadays, the world around us is changing faster and faster, the globalization is increasing and harder competition puts extra pressure on companies to be more innovative than ever before. One of the fastest changing industries is the IT industry where the actors always have to be up to date to keep their competitive advantage. The authors want to find out what makes some companies in this industry more innovative than others by examining what internal elements that are necessary for innovation. Much research has already been carried out within the field of innovation and especially about innovation management, although less research exists about smaller, non high tech service companies. Therefore the authors also tries to find out how applicable today?s theories are on this special field and thereby fill a smaller gap in today?s research.

Mapping a process enables a greater understanding of the work, and is standard to evaluate and improve a process. This thesis is conducted at Test Bed Mechanical Design at Scania in Södertälje. Test Bed Construction is a complex process, characterized by a large amount of creative work, technical challenges and coordination between different people and different organizational functions.The aim of the thesis was to identify the Test Bed Construction Process and to develop a visual model of the workflow that also served as support for the engineers in their daily work. During the mapping process, comparisons were made with previous research in lean product development to identify process improvement.A literature review on process mapping and process visualisation resulted in a method for process mapping. The study showed that research on process visualisation is neither structured nor well defined.

In our bachelor thesis we have strived to examine the representation of journalism students in Nicaragua. The freedom of press is much lower compared to Sweden and the journalist profession is protected by a certificate. It is also a high level of corruption within the country. Our investigation concerns who has access to the journalist education and the goal is to compare that with the public in Nicaragua. To be able to examine the representation among the journalism students we have chosen seven different aspects to examine, the sex of the student, witch social class they belong to, their academic background, religion, ethnicity, geographical belonging and political view.

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to compare existing theories and policies on CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) with the actual situation among practising teachers of ESL (English as a Second Language) of secondary schools in Sweden. The evaluation focuses on the differences between theories and reality, and discusses why, if any, the differences exist. Some background information on second language acquisition is provided, and recent theories and standpoints within the field of CALL are mentioned to highlight the differences between theory and reality. The evaluation was made by handing out a survey to 33 teachers of ESL, asking questions about their use of computers in their everyday teaching. The survey shows that the gap between the theories and standpoints within the field of CALL, and the reality of teachers in schools often is huge.

Sports facilities are a highly unexplored field, and as of the autumn 2008 no research is being conducted about sports fields at Swedish architecture universities. Very few people recognize the sports field as an area for the architecture profession, and to gain more information about sports fields I have discussed the subject with people with connections to architecture and/or sport. The sports field represents a type of sports facility, a permanent football and/or bandy field surrounded by running tracks with appropriate measurements. Like the city?s physical environment, the sports field is a public place, where outdoor activities take place.

Ericsson AB in Katrineholm is a part of the Section Business Unit Network in the Ericsson Group. The plant's main task is to produce printed circuit boards in small volumes with a high product mix and focus on delivery and cost effectiveness. At the factory they produce printed circuit boards in the Module department.The Module department has for a long time had a high output of non-approved circuit boards in their production. This has led to a growing stock of non-approved circuit boards on the company?s repair department.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Ericsson in Katrineholm can increase the outflow of approved articles in their test process in the Module department.

Bergvik Skog is one of the leading forest companies in Sweden who use airborne laser scanning for forestry information. They utilize laser data retrieved by the Swedish National Land Survey to describe the forest holdings and facilitate planning for thinning and final felling operations. However, the possibility to identify stands with clearing needs by using laser scanning data has not been tested in a large scale. The data used in the current study are field data from The Swedish National Forest Inventory in combination with laser data from the Swedish National Land Survey acquired in 2009. The collected data is used to find one or several laser variables that best describe the relationship of the field measured samples with clearing needs.

In offshore oil production FMC Subsea systems use a product called cap. The cap´s mainly task is to protect hubface and seal areas on inboard hub against dirt, corrosion and mechanical damage under installation of a subsea system. A new model of a cap has been designed and analysed using finite element method. The model is called KC3-12 and has a new function, emergency release, which is a backup method for the ROV (remote operated vehicle) to release the cap from the hubface when it is placed under water. The cap KC3-12 was found to fulfil the criteria under the test load pressure, according to ASME VIII, div2.

AbstractThe intension with this paper was to describe the understanding students in third grade had about mathematics and how these students, based on their previous mathematics experiences, apprehend the coming national tests in mathematics. After the test period the student was interviewed on how they experienced their participation in the test. The choice of method was the qualitative case study where the data was collected from interviews and observations. In the result that was found, the interviewed students described mathematics as counting. Students preferred easy math work and to solve routine tasks in math books instead of more demanding work.