Hearing is considered to be the most important sense for the communication between people. Several studies have shown that hearing loss can lead to deterioration in quality of life, reduced social activities, feelings of alienation and hence the increasing incidence of depression symptoms.An early audiological rehabilitation is a prerequisite for proper communication among people with hearing loss. Knowledge has been shown to be of great importance and structured learning and individually targeted approach can be expected to facilitate the audiological rehabilitation.The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an educational effort for people with hearing loss where the effort was made in the distance within the audiological rehabilitation and was followed-up by professional phone support, through a randomized controlled study.The study group consisted of 69 hearing aid users who were randomized by an independent person into two groups, an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group (n = 33) had access to the book "When the sounds are weaker - on hearing and hearing aids". The group received weekly topic-based information related to the different chapters of the book, in five rounds.

The aim of this thesis is to discuss and analyse the American cotton subsidies? effect on the world market in general and developing countries in particular. The amount of U.S. subsidies is substantial compared to most other countries, but a great deal of the effect is due to the USA?s significant share of the market.

This study examines how Qatar and Russia utilize football as an instrument of foreign-policy. While previous reasearch has primarily focused on mega-events, such as the Olympic games and the FIFA World Cup, this thesis expands the scope by analyzing how footbal functions as a strategic tool for nation branding in both countries. The study employs a comparative qualitative case study appraoch, based on Simon Anholt?s nation branding framework, modified to include four dimensions instead of six. The analysis demonstrates that both Qatar and Russia leverage football to advance their foreign policy objectives, but in markedly different ways.

Public opinion can be shaped as well as transformed in a number of ways. Government authorities occasionally make use of public information campaigns to educate and steer the public. In this thesis the balance between public and private, the individual and the society is analysed in terms of dimensions of individualism and communitarianism. These dissimilar theories on how the society ought to be constructed can be used when analysing many different policy areas, however, they also pinpoint the controversies seen in the public debate regarding Swedish information policy. Based on this analysis an empirical study identifies what kind of knowledge the state wants the citizens to possess and public information campaigns can be problematic.

The aim of this study was to examine musculoskeletal disorders among dental hygienists inrelation to work postures (sitting, standing, and altering) and to study differences in thegroups regarding numbers of disorders, locations and degrees. A mail questionnaire wasdistributed among 200 dental hygienists in the region of Skåne. The response rate was 79 %.The majority of the dental hygienists were working in a sitting position. Only43 dental hygienists were altering their working position and two were working in a standingposition. The results showed that 85 % of the dental hygienists have experiencedmusculoskeletal disorders in the last 12 months.

The essay deals with questions concerning the reasons, difficulties and subjects for rejoicing which various people experience when visiting "voluntarily" old, lonely people in the congregation of Trollhättan. What knowledge is developed and which values are formed? How is aging and solitude experienced? The visits are co-ordinated by two lay workers employed by the Swedish Church. The study is built on oral interviews in April and May 2003 from a questionaire using open questions. The research group consists of six women between 65-80 of age with 1-30 years´ experience.Inner reasons, contact with other people in similar situations, positive responses to visits, and meetings in the visiting service group seem to be the principal driving forces.

The theoretical background in this essay made clear that the students? knowledge about physics improve, and they express a more positive attitude towards physics as a subject, when they have access to a more laboratory-based learning style. The aim of this study is to research how the placement of the lab relative to the lecture affects the students? experiences and level of knowledge. The study involved students in year eight and was carried out during four weeks.

AbstractThe Swedish public school system claims to be a school for all. This means in particular that school is, not only open to all children between 7 and 16 years, but also that compulsory schooling prevailing. Our society's development is making increasing demands on the theoretical capacity, and school's goals aligned in the same direction. The proportion of pupils failing to achieve the goals are increasing in number, a failure which has major implications not only for the individual student but also for society at large. This study's focus is directed against a group of students where the reason for this is a lack of ability to abstract thinking.

The purpose of this thesis is to increase the knowledge about the comprehensibility of the easy-to-read civic information. In the study I present my analysis of the content of four easy-to-read texts from four government authorities. The analysis constitutes the starting point for interviews with the target group ? people with a minor mental retardation ?, but it also reveals some possible difficulties for the intended readers. In the empirical study ten persons from the target group were asked to read a text and the comprehension was tested by oral questions about facts in the text.

The aim of this paper is to investigate to what degree the groups in our inquiry work independently. It is a qualitative research, which points to a well?functioning unit, that by definition is not self-governing, but has many traits of self- government. We have reached to the conclusion, that complete self?government does not have to be the best solution, if you want both quality and efficiency.

Our thesis focus on how retirees perceive Tv4s news casts of economy news where we focused on five different aspects: What is the relationship between the news cast and the viewer and how does the viewer express their understanding of the news cast and the way it is constructed? What are the viewers attitude towards the news content and how do they find the news cast useful for them personally?We choosed retirees as our target group due to their vulnerable economic position in today?s society and TV as an important medium for them due to the digital divide. The study was performed with twelve qualitative interviews and one group interview where six retirees took part.We discovered a big interest for economic news in the target group. The majority had a sympathetic view of the news cast they saw but they also expressed skepticism toward the economy segment and/or news castings. The majority expressed a lack of trust for the journalists and the experts brought in to share observations and make announcements, and the financial business overall.

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained?The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party.

Children that are taken care of for institutional care by the social services are unprivileged as a group. When society takes over the parenting role, it forces local governments and other accountable authorities to guarantee these children satisfactory support and good care according to each child's needs. The aim of this thesis is to analyze and discuss problems with implementation in policy processes when authorities incorporate. From the normative standpoint of legal security and the United Nations Children's Convention, this thesis investigates the consequences of interaction between two Swedish supervisory authorities for the social services: Socialstyrelsen and länsstyrelserna. To fulfill the aim I will investigate the approach taken by the authorities and the work division between Socialstyrelsen and länsstyrelserna.

This thesis aims to study brand change, which can be of interest since a brand during its lifetime can be expected to meet a lifecycle consisting of five phases; innovation, introduction, growth, maturity and recession. In order to avoid the recession phase and the sales decline that follows there is a need for a change of the brand.In order to study brand change, theoretical framework is compared to two real world cases that have gone through an active change.The conceptions of positioning, repositioning and revitalization are clarified. Positioning deals with how brands are located in customer?s minds as well as on the real market. Repositioning implies a change of the current position and is also often a move towards a new market segment.

The aim of this thesis is to study different aspects of the public libraries' investment in public access computers connected to the Internet. What level of accessibility can be found at the surveyed libraries concerning the number of computers open to the public, as well as chat and email services? What activities have been taking place with the computers in focus, and what have the goals of these activities been? Is there any control of content, and what aspects of the Internet are, if that is the case, subject to censorship. And how do the governmental policies relate to the surveyed libraries' intentions and activities regarding the Internet? In order to answer these questions, each main library in the 42 largest towns of Sweden was surveyed response rate: 100 %.